Merry Christmas and a Happy Peaceful New Year!!

I will be putting my Etsy shop in vacation mode soon, I am so looking forward to being in vacation mode myself.
I have had a wonderful year running my new shop, very rewarding and fulfilling to say the least.  I have transformed my lifelong dream into a reality.  I have put in many many hours running my Etsy shop and keeping my rented space stocked with all my various hand painted creations. I am so happy to say, I now have 190 shop hearts,  67 online sales, 209 fans on my facebook business page and so many other accomplishments to be thankful for.  I now have my entry room completely designated to my business and my old craft room is now an inventory/shipping room.  I am so looking forward to 2010 and all that it holds in store for Debbie's Dreamworks.  My friends and family and all their support has been awesome and I couldn't have done it without you!  THANK YOU!  I will be focusing on custom wine glasses, signs, gourds,and garden decor in 2010.  My painted glassware has been my number one seller and I truly love to paint glass.  I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a beautiful New Year!

Sale Black Friday Through Cyber Monday

I am now offering free shipping on all my hand painted ornaments!  Personalization is always free! Great deal on all my hand painted wine and beverage glasses too!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34562388

Blog Feature

I am so excited to be a featured artist on the Handmade Highway blog! Thanks to You and Kym from http://www.hypnotransformations.etsy.com  This is my first time ever being featured, oh so appreciated!

I love Halloween

I absolutely love this time of year.  The crisp air, the glow of fire in my pot belly stove,  warm snuggly sweaters and slippers, the smell of baked goodies and the comfort of hot soup.  This is definetely a time to reflect and be grateful.  I feel so blessed!  My lifelong dream, working at home and creating unlimited creations, is happening!
I feel successful, happy, and content.  I love what I'm doing and loving every moment of it! It's been 8 months since I opened up my Etsy shop, I have 48 online sales, 159 shop hearts, 91 fans on my business page, many offline sales, a rented space at a antique store and several happy customers.  Life is good and I am thankful!
 

Really feeling like a business now

Things have really been going well!  I am now all set up at the antique store up in Wynola and have sold enough so far to pay for my rent. I am thoroughly enjoying setting up and playing with my display up there.  When I went up there last Friday, I was in line to make a purchase and the lady in front of me was buying one of my items.  I was so excited!  I have been focusing on Christmas this week, I love painting Christmas items!  I did an order for a friend this week, Christmas wine glasses.  I listed them as samples for custom orders and  received a great response, another friend wants to order a set of 10 for herself!  I also listed some Santa and snowman ornaments and received orders for them as well.  My friends are so awesome and supportive!      

Rented A Space

     This weekend I decided to go up to Wynola and gather all my items from the garden shop, my items just hadn't been selling  up there.  To my surprise, she had a pretty big check for me, all my  Halloween stuff sold and my Lady Bug Chair!  I was so excited!  She then offered me a small shelf space inside the antique store to set up a display of my items and whatever antiques I might want to sell.  It was so affordable, I could not resist! I stayed up late Sat. night scrounging for antiques, pricing items, and making a few new items.  I headed up there Sun. morning with two large bins full of my little treasures.  It was so much fun setting up and creating a pretty Autumn display.  I'm really hoping I do well and can make back my space rental and lots more :)  I am very happy to have my items displayed in a store, this opens up a whole  new door for me!  I am feeling so thankful and still loving every moment of this journey!

Painting Furniture

   I have decided to include some more hand painted furniture in my Etsy shop.  I was straying away from larger items due to shipping costs but I truly do love painting furniture.  So, for this reason,  I will just go for it! This past week I finished a desk for a friend which I was real happy with so I decided to paint a small accent table to match.  I also am working on a large wood framed mirror with the blue flower vines as well.

My Recent Accomplishments

It has been a little while since I posted on my blog.  I've been really busy in a really good way!  I have had consistent orders lately which is wonderful and I am so thankful.  I have accomplished quite a bit, I just went thru all 107 items in my shop and retagged them to help enhance the search engines.  I now have my facebook page linked to my blog and I have a facebook badge.  I have the google base working, still need to figure out the item attributes but all items are now searchable!  My views into my shop have increased 34% in the last three months and I am receiving inquiries thru conversations on a daily basis now.  I have reached 45 online sales and 145 shop hearts. I now have the etsyhacks working in my shop which really speed up all the listing efforts.  My son is working on a youtube video showing some of my items from my shop. I have also had 3 of my items featured in the gift guides on the Handmadehighway.blogspot.com.  It has now been almost 8 months since I opened up my shop on Etsy and I am still so thrilled with each and every sale.  This has been the most rewarding adventure of my life, I truly am doing what I love and loving every moment of it.  I am totally thankful to all of my family and friends for all their support! 

Lady Bug Pots

I.ve been real busy painting 40 lady bug pots for a custom order.  I seriously am seeing lady bugs in my sleep.  I thought this order was such a wonderful idea, they are going to be given out at a baby shower as thank you gifts, I included matching hang tags too.  I am also doing a larger pot for the mother to be with the baby's name on it. 

Theraputic crocheting

This past weekend, my family and I went camping and had a great time! My best friend and I (we've been the best of friends for 35 years) decided to stay an extra day by ourselves, we had the best time together! We sat in our trailer with the beautiful views, peaceful surroundings, lots of coffee, wonderful conversation and crocheted for many hours. This truly was one of the most theraputic relaxing days I have ever spent. It is so wonderful to be at a point in life where the simple pleasures mean the most! Quality time together is definetely at the top of our bucket list!!!!!

Busy Creating

I have been really busy getting my kids back in school, end of summer trips and appointments. I finally had time today to ship 3 orders and list 7 new items. It feels like such an accomplishment when I list something new! I received a big order this week for 30 flower pens. I will be shopping for pretty flowers tomorrow, oh so fun!!! Now that my kids are back in school, I am looking forward to creating for the holidays. I had a wonderful craft show up in L.A. last year, I sold over 100 personalized ornaments. I am hoping that these go well on Etsy especially with free personalization. I just listed my first Thanksgiving item and a snowman pot holder. My business page on facebook now has 37 fans and it is now linked to twitter. I joined the handmadehighway this past week and also did some research on tagging my items.

helpful sites

I have a few very helpful sites I'd like to share with Etsy sellers:

Great for tagging tips
http://www.craftweasel.com

http://www.socialmention.com

http://www.craftgawker.com

http://www.handmadehighway.com

I've been working on my Facebook business page

I seem to be hooked on facebook lately. I love being able to keep in touch with everyone. I am so excited to now have my own Debbie's Dreamworks business page, . I started it awhile ago but really haven't done much with it, I have a total of 4 fans :) My goal this week is to try and work on my page and earn some new fans. I am still trying to figure out just how to do this, I just sent fan suggestions to all my friends on facebook. I am looking forward to being able to integrate my etsy shop into facebook without bombarding my friends.

custom orders

I just got an order for forty 4" clay pots to be painted with lady bugs. They will be thank you gifts at a friends baby shower, such a great idea. I also have two more orders for my hen pot holders, a bird house, a family sign, a picture frame, a desk to refinish and another bird house. Oh so busy and loving it!

Thankful

I am so very thankful for the opportunity that Etsy has given me and millions of others to show our creations to the world. I have had a passion for creating ever since I was a little girl. I learned to crochet at about 11 years old and I also learned to rug hook, Tye dye, tat, embroider and macramae at a young age too. My love for painting began in kindergarten and has been a big part of my life ever since. When I sign into my Etsy shop each morning, I am filled with delight to see all my creations and to know that I am finally pursuing a lifelong dream. Words can not express the excitement and joy I feel with each new milestone. I have had a tremendous amount of support from all my friends and family and for this I am so grateful.
I now have over 10,000 views into my site, 36 online sales, at least 30 off-line sales, 127 shop hearts, 3 pay checks from the garden shop up in Wynola and about 9 orders in process. I also have been in a few treasuries and have had two items featured in the Etsy Gift Guide. Wow, I am so thankful!!!
I truly am running my own business now , I may not be making millions but the rewards are priceless!

Things are really going well, not a lot of sales but lots of support thru friends and family. Since I opened up my etsy shop on Feb. 24th, I have had 20 sales on Etsy and about 20 custom orders thru friends. I now realize it takes literally hours of promoting just to bring in a little traffic. Face book has helped tremendously and I have recently been spending time in the etsy forums. I have joined a great Bns (wasn't really sure what a Bns was but again, i'm learning :)) I have been in several treasuries and I have had two items in the Etsy garden gift guide. I am so excited to have found a wonderful Country Garden Shop to sell my garden items too. I just shipped out my first alchemy bid order, 8 bridesmaides flower pots. I decided to enter the Martha Stewart wedding contest and submitted my picture today. All in all I am doing what I love to do and need to focus on the joy I get from my painting. I feel blessed to be able to pursue my dream. I had no idea how much work this would be, especially the computer stuff but it has forced me to learn and I have come a long way.

Two months into this whole new world of Etsy. I have really put in the hours but completely enjoyed my expierence. Things are really good, I now have a tiny glimpse of what running a small business is like. Yesterday was amazing to me!. I had a sale, my internet was down and a big custom order (needed asap) all in the same day. I saw my kids helping me and even sharing in my excitement. My daughter picked up the kids, went to the post office and base coated for me! My son sanded and my husband brought home boxes.

Sometimes I feel starved for even a "heart" on Etsy and when I actually get a sale, I'm shocked, excited, happy and yes, a little stressed. The whole shipping has been such a pain. I've been truly living and learning thru this process to say the least!

My i'm happy

Well, I have been thru and discovered so much since I began this whole adventure on etsy. I have been so dedicated to learning all about etsy and the "how to" stuff. I have been working at this for 6 weeks now and I can honestly say I am proud of all my achievements, especisally this computer stuff. I was very computer illiterate and never would have believed I could do all this stuff!! It really wasn't that hard just many many hours of work and dedication, trial and error and a positive attitude. I now have 60 items listed on etsy, 6 online sales to family and friends, 10 off line sales and my first real custom order that I won by bidding! I wanted to jump thru the roof, my kids thought I was crazy but I was so thrilled to finally make a sale to the public. This is my first blog ever and I am as green as can be but it feels right to be hitting these keys