Celebrate the New Year with Etsy

Everyone has their own way of celebrating the New Year - with friends at a party, a low key evening with someone special, watching the ball drop on TV or in person, or maybe just making a New Year's Resolution or two. Most people could agree that no matter how it's celebrated, there is usually a feeling of renewal and a hope for a year that is better than the previous one. However you plan on spending the holiday this year, the members of the EtsyBloggers Team have many ways to make your New Year's holiday special.

Are you attending a New Year's Party this year? If so, you'll want to look your best, so check out the Abalone Paua Shell Necklace by Lizswares. This necklace combines glass pearls with shell beads and a toggle clasp. She also has a matching bracelet and pair of earrings to offer!

Abalone Paua Shell Necklace


New Year's Day can feel like a chance for a new beginning and a fresh start, so just let go of last year's problems and look forward to new opportunities. Just crack open a jar of SpottedCowSoaps' Champagne Whipped Sugar Scrub, toast to a new year, and scrub 2010 away!

Champagne Whipped Sugar Scrub

If your New Year's Eve festivities include a fireworks display, keep warm with this New Year's Firecracker Handmade Knit Scarf, made by SusanNeedleHands. It features a mix of festive colors, including furry tinsel trim.

Handmade Knit Scarf - New Year's Firecracker


Share a smooch with your sweetie at midnight, or give them this Kisses and Hugs Pink Plush Heart by MadeByMelissa. If you are spending the evening alone this plushy will let you squeeze it tight.

Kisses and Hugs Pink Plush Heart


Remember your resolutions beyond January 1st with PruittDesigns' Reminder Necklace - Hope and Love. This cute necklace will help keep you in touch with what really matters. I've shown the necklace that is made with pink cube beads, but there is also a green one in stock too.

Reminder Necklace - Hope and Love


Support peace on earth and goodwill to all with JoeyandAleethea's Peace Ring of Cuteness. This sturdy ring is appropriate for any occasion but why not ring in the New Year with the cutest fingers in town?

Ring of Cuteness - Peace

Stay in contact with your friends and family, and wish them a happy and healthy New Year with these New Years Cheers Note Cards by Creative Lily. A simple way to send Cheers to your loved ones even if you can't spend the holiday with them.

New Years Cheers Note Card Set

How will you celebrate the New Year?

Learning from 2008, Growing in 2009

I'm trying to come up with new goals for 2009. But first, here's a look at my eight for 2008:

1. Make more than I spend. Not even close. Fortunately for me, I'm not a big spender! No worries, I did not put myself in the hole. At this point my jewelry making is still a hobby, not a career.
2. Create my own website. Oh yeah, forgot I wanted to do that! I'm glad I'm reviewing. I vow to have a domain name by 2010.
3. Master the Loom. I've made a few nice things on the loom. But master it? I cannot figure out how to cleanly finish the ends. Please, please, please, if you have any tips - do share! I also had trouble finding uniformly sized seed beads. And is there a brand of thread that does not break when you are half way through a project? (Don't worry Sister, I love the loom - I'm just loom challenged).
4. Wireworks. Yay, I did this this goal. I make my own clasps sometimes. I've done some more wire wrapping, I've done wire crochet, and had a brief moment of fame for a bird nest pendant!
5. Polymer Beads and Pendants. I'll give myself a 4 out of 10 on this one. I made a really cool pear shaped ceiling fan pull, and a couple rounds of beads and incorporated them into jewelry. The fan pull sold quickly but my jewelry hasn't.
   
   


6. Educate Myself. So far so good. I've earned a lot of HTML code, modified my blog into three colomns, made a favicon, and I can name more gemstones. I plan on getting another bag of them in a shop that I like in Key West this month!
   
7. Project a month. Did pretty well with that, until it became get ready for Halloween, Christmas, and my jewelry party time.
8. Don't let my work consume my life. I definitely went through a phase for about a month or two where I did not do anything around the house except make jewelry, chat in the Etsy forums, and edit pictures! Now I'm just too busy with other life stuff anyway that I can barely squeak in a blog post a week!
   

Ok, so my goals for 2009:

• Make more than I spend. For real. Perhaps I can make better use of leftover beads by selling them on Etsy as "destash." Maybe trying to come up with more ideas before shopping, that way I'm not stuck with orphan beads. And stop compulsively buying beads unless I have an imediate vision for them.
• Create a website. I mean it. Maybe get one of those PayPal shops on it as well as a link to my blog and Etsy shop.
• Wire crochet. It was a bigger hit than I thought it would be, so I will invest more time and supplies into that. Maybe I can incorporate it into things other than jewelry.
  
  

Crochet Pearl Necklace

• Selling in real life. I had my first jewelry party in 2008 and it was a success. I'd like to have some more and do some shows. I just need to rebuild up my inventory first!
• Decoupage pendants. They have been more of a hit off line than online but they are inexpensive to make and allow for some creativity. Not only do I want to make more this year, but instead of having 50 percent of them turn out well, I'd like them all to come out nice!
• Expert quality photos. I'm setting the bar high for this one, but I've been trying to get nice pictures for a year, and with a brand new camera and tripod there are no excuses!

Bricks and Mortar Bracelet

New Year's Etsyloutions

Eight Resolutions for 2008

1. Make more than I spend. Now that I have most of the supplies and tools that I need, hopefully 2008 will bring more profits.

2. Create my own website. I basically have my Etsy Shop to my liking within the boundaries that Etsy sets, however, I'd like to get my own domain name and host and create a website that I have the ability to set up more creatively. I would like to link it to my Etsy shop at first, and eventually sell off my own website as well. Of course this will mean getting a Computer Lingo/English Dictionary.

3. Master the bead loom. My sister gave me a beautiful wood bead loom. By master the bead loom I mean have the ability to thread it up in less than an hour and I would like to eventually like to work up to pattens of people and objects. For now I am working on some basic patterns. Very, very basic patterns.

4. Wireworks. Santa brought me a wire jig for Christmas, and I've since been playing around with some patterns,and trying to come up with patterns of my own. It would be great if I could make my own hook clasps. I also have a Wire Gizmo for creating wire spiral designs which i have yet to open. Of course there are my crocheted wire pieces I'd like to improve. I still have no idea how much wire I need to pre-cut for them and I typically come up too short. Instead of simple chain stitch pieces, I'd love to make more involved chokers and bracelets. Wire wrapped stones create a beautiful look, so I'd like to get more involved in that as well.

5. Make more polymer clay beads and pendants. The great thing about making polymer clay is that while it is time consuming, you can make so many beads in your own style cheaper than what you can buy them for. I see polymer clay beads in bead stores and craft shops and I figure a bead that sells for 60 cents probably used only 5-10 cents worth of raw materials. Of course time and effort are accounted for in the price, as well as the cost of the tools to make them. I could help accomplish Etsyloution #1 by making my own supplies and pendants.

6. Educate myself. This is a broad goal. I would love to pick up a random gemstone and know what it is. There is a rock and mineral store in Maine near where my family lives, and next time I'm in the area I really want to check it out. The problem with gemstones for me is that when I list them in my store, I don't always know what they are. By giving them their correct name would generate more traffic to my items in customer searches. I never guess at a name, so if I don't know I just describe it by the color of the stone, and sometimes post the picture and ask for help naming it. I also need to educate myself on using certain websites for marketing and promotion, such as Flickr, my blog, and of course my future website. It would be a shame to pay for a domain name and leave it as a blank page.

7. Project a month. My sister got me an awesome project a month beading calendar for Christmas. Even if I can't find the same exact beads, I want to do something as similar as I can every month. She also got me some subscriptions for some beading magazines for my birthday, and my mother-in-law, Diane, got me a few magazines for Christmas too!!!


8. Not letting my work consume my life. While running my jewelry shop requires dedication, time, and work to get business coming, I don't want it to take up all my free time when I could be enjoying other hobbies and my family.

Happy New Year!!!