Talk to Me Tuesdays! - LuLu Lux Designs

Today we are interviewing LuLu Lux Designs.  She makes some beautiful jewelry with some very unique ideas.  I can't wait to see what she has to say, so let's get started shall we?

Stitch Silly: How did you get started with Etsy?

Lulu Lux Designs: I was making jewelry for family and friends for years prior to opening a shop on Etsy, and one day, one of my Mother's coworkers told her how beautiful she thought my line was and that it would fit in well with Etsy. That night, I checked it out and fell in love instantly!

SS:What is your favorite part of being your own boss?

LLD:My favorite part of being my own boss is setting my own hours, so I can spend quality time with my son! I love what I do as a Jewelry Designer, but my time with my son is my number one priority and I am happy and grateful that I have the ability to be my own boss.  

SS:What are your 2 favorite products in yous shop?

LLD: My silk wrap bracelets are my number one favorite! I love, love the look and uniqueness of them and the fact that you are not going to see these everywhere because they are truly unique pieces. My close second favorite would be one of my pearl and chain mix necklaces! I love the look of them and they can be worn with any outfit!  

SS: What is your greatest success since joining Etsy?  

LLD: For me, it would be all the love and "favorites" that I have received. I can not begin to tell you how great of a feeling it is to have not only fellow jewelry designers and crafters love your work, but also customers and everyday people. Seeing how much others love your work, really puts a pep in your step! Having others enjoy and love my work is a greater success to me than millions of sales.  

SS: What do you most want to improve?  

LLD: Photos! Pictures are such a big thing when it comes to purchasing online, and I feel as though some pictures do not do the item justice. 

SS:What is your ultimate goal for your Etsy shop?

LLD: My ultimate goal for my Etsy Shop would be to be gain exposure, and hopefully one day expand and see my items hanging in Brick and Mortar stores. It has always been a dream of mine to see items I have hand made, in retail stores or even better, worn on happy customers. 

SS: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

LLD: If I'm eating it, 3. I always want to get to the good stuff right away, but I know good and yummy things take time.


Want to see more products by Lulu Lux Designs?  You can find her at:  www.etsy.com/shop/lululuxdesigns

Would you like to be featured on Stitch Silly?  Contact us for an interview. 

New Product Alert

Well soon anyways.  Yesterday I finished my most recent crib sheet.  Today when I get home from my regular job, I will photograph it and list it this evening.  Wahoo for new products.  In the mean time, my mom finished her plarn tote and finally sent me pictures of her finished product.  I think it turned out super cute.  

The one on the right is our inspiration and the one on the left is my mom's creation.

A close up of her handles

Let's see what's inside

Pretty good looking tote!

Mine is going to be even bigger, perfect for a beach bag tote.  I'm also thinking of doing a little something different for the handles, but haven't completely decided what yet.  We'll see what I decide on when I get to that point.  The current height of my tote is about 8 or 9 inches high and I think mine will be about 14 or 15 inches high.  At this point is my focus on this has lessened on this as I've decided to put a large focus on really increasing my inventory and therefore increasing my visibility on Etsy and through other avenues.

Ask the Readers

For some reason my Facebook followers are not very active in active participation so I'm trying to turn that around.  So as a first attempt I asked for their ideas on some new product offerings by Stitch Silly.  Surprisingly I got a response for some fall gloves.  That's something that is definitely doable. 

I'm spending the next couple days figuring out options then it will be off to the store to get my materials.  While I'm there I'd like to pick up a few other things for other products.  I have lots of ideas in the works to increase my product inventory, but I really would like to hear from you my readers.  What are you interested in seeing as a product on Stitch Silly?

More boppy covers? Crib sheets? Blankets? Something completely new like the gloves?  Here's your chance people, make your voice heard!

Just Another Joy

in owning my own business.  This is my passion.  I love to create products and I honestly want to grow this business into something real, so I'm trying to do my best to follow the rules.  Well just when I thought I was all set and following the rules I found out that I missed a few steps.  Ack!  I'm now a nervous wreck and frantically trying to understand this new wrinkle. 

I thought that by applying for my Virginia Sales and Use Tax I was also obtaining a business license.  Not so much!  How did I figure this out?  I was looking for fun activities to do with my son over the weekend on our city's website and saw some information about starting your small business.  I clicked the link and come to find out I only did part of the step in my registration.  I read over the documentation and was still confused if I really needed a license.  I got the impression that I didn't need one since currently my gross sales are under $10,000.  After a call to the county clerks office, nope I still need to apply for a license.  There's a fee associated with filing the paperwork, which I'm not excited about paying, but if I'm to do this right, I might as well go all in. 

I now have the paperwork required and will print it all out today and mail it in with my check this week.  I'm just a little bummed out right now, I don't like missing things.  It's little things like that can be a de-motivator at times.  What's my lesson from this?  Make sure you check with your state and your county/city for business requirements. 

What did you forget or think you understood and didn't as you were starting out?

Talk to me Tuesdays! - Ilzes Creations

Today we are featuring Ilze's Creations.  I just love her felt flowers, especially the spikey ones.  I'm really enjoying these interviews, I'm learning so much about my fellow Etsians and getting some great ideas for future blog posts.  Let's see what Ilze's Creations has to say today.


Stitch Silly: Tell me a little about yourself.

Ilzes Creations: My name is Ilze. I live in Latvia. With years I learned and improved different crafting techniques. For now as last I learned felting and I really like it because felting is very multi functional. I'm offering felt flower brooches, felt hair accessories, iphone cases, felt bead necklaces, crochet hats and other felt, crochet and knitted accessories.

SS: How did you get started with Etsy?

IC:  I was inspired to join Etsy after I created shop banners for people that I know in real life.

SS:  What is your favorite part of being your own boss?

IC:  I am handmade artist myself and I tray to support other people who are making crafts with they own hands, because it is important for people to support each other even in small things. Handmade items have so much more value than manufactured items. With "value" I mean soul. Behind each handmade item is real person with his/her story, hopes and dreams. I personally don't feel need for expensive, brand items, or something that is in style now. I search for something that I would personally like to wear, to think and to do!

Felted iPhone Case

SS:  What are your 2 favorite products in yous shop?

IC: I love this black felt iphone case with white daisy. It is quite usefull item, because it keeps phone safe from scratches and also looks good!  http://www.etsy.com/listing/76419406/felt-case-in-black-color-with-white


Also I love felt flower brooch accessories, because they can change and make more expressive any clothing, but because of color and many different usability I especially like this bright pink felt rose. It is great not only because it is pink, but also it can be worn as different accessory - necklace, hair accessory or even just tied to bag.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/75440288/felt-flower-felted-pink-rose-hair

SS:  What is your greatest success since joining Etsy?

IC:  My greatest success is that I have become more free in communication with other people over internet. Foreign language barrier always scared me, I want to pass my thoughts and ideas to others in most understandable way.

SS:  What do you most want to improve?

IC:  I want to improve my artist skills. I want to paint again. Painting is quite long process, there for I hesitate to start it again, but it is great way how to learn to feel the colors and they combinations, also it teaches composition and how to pass mood and atmosphere.


SS: What is your ultimate goal for your Etsy shop?

Felt Flower Accessory

IC:  My goal is to make more beautiful felt and crochet items for my Etsy shop!

SS:  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

IC:  Some will get tired and drop it even they didn't reach the middle! Others will do it very long, with small portions! Some may stick it in mouth and wont let go no matter what! Maybe someone will get huge rock, drop it on totsie pop just breaking it and in that way will get till middle sooner than others! Doesn't matter how how you do it, but do it in your own original way and even it is an art to drop that totsie pop with your own style!

So you want to see more great things from Ilzes Creations?  Stop by their shop sites.
Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ilzescreations/
Blog:  http://ilzescreations.blogspot.com/

Pinterest

I signed up for Pinterest last week and have been slowly figuring it out.  At first it was a little confusing to get into, but the more I play with it the more I like it.  How an I using it, you ask?

Well great question.  I didn't set up a specific Stitch Silly account, instead I just have a Stitch Silly/Craft board on my personal account.  What I'm figuring out is Pinterest is really filling a void for me that I've been missing.  That is it holds links to all sorts of things I find interesting, but they don't stay organized very well in just my "Bookmarks" on my web browser or maintain the cloud like efforts I try to keep.

As you may recall I took a training course a few months ago to understand the Getting Things Done (GTD), a theory developed by David Allen.  After playing with Pinterest quite a bit, I feel as though this site is made by people who are adopters of GTD.


For those of you not familiar with Pinterest, the site allows your to create many boards for you to pin images, and therefore links, of a specific purpose to.  For instance, some of my boards include, books to read, recipes, and health and fitness.  As I find things that interest me in a particular subject area, I pin them to that board for either later reading, action, or just to share with others.  Mostly I have populated my recipes board for new idea for a quick and easy dinner. 

This relates to GTD as the philosophy that David Allen teaches is to categorize your actions based on where you are the time you have to dedicate to that particular task.  I view the boards as just another way to maintain that next action list, ideas for rainy days, or just as reference material.  I think I'll be increasing my use in Pinterest.

I definitely recommend checking it out.  For those of you on Pinterest, what's your favorite part of it?  Share your ideas below!

World Economy

It's been a rough road for most of us in the stock markets for the past week or two.  I have heard talk about the potential for a double dip recession to just plain uncertainty in the economies of the world, in particular the U.S. economy.  It's a tough pill to swallow. 

How is all this turmoil going to effect us as small business owners? Reading over multiple economic articles from publications such as Reuters, Financial Times, and the like the general consensus is that the U.S. economy is not growing at the rate people would like it to.  On top of that the European Union has it's own share of difficulties with France as the latest to top peoples radar.  As a result, I believe people are going to be wary about spending copious amounts of money for some time. 

For those of us on Etsy, in particular the Etsy Success team, there are threads all over the place asking if it is just them or if others are having a lull in sales.  Stitch Silly itself is still under a year old so we have not seen the full season cycle yet for me to expertly say that this time of year is always slow, though that is what seasoned Etsians are saying. 

So what's my plan?  Stitch Silly plans to stick it through and to continue to provide quality products to its customers.  We're growing, we're improving our brand, and most importantly, we're having fun.  We're working expand our target markets and will continue to grow. 

What are you plans right now?