Slow Start to Holiday Buying Season

It's been a slow start to the buying season.  We've kept track of each week's sales for the past few years, and this year is by far the slowest start.  However, it has picked up the last few days.  We've had more views of our Scrabble jewelry and vintage art dog frames.  Even views had been slow up until then.  It's been an odd season on Etsy.  We were cruising along, but when we were used to sales picking up, they didn't. Scary...to say the least.

At any rate, these things do happen when you have your own business, but it's always disconcerting because we count on holiday traffic to make it through the year and to catch-up on things.  We are confident that sales will continue as they did this past week, but there is always that little worry-bug.

Thought we'd share some of the favorite Scrabble bracelets that people seem to be liking this year:

Anne of Green Gables Quote Bracelet

Thanksgiving Jewelry - Scrabble Bracelet

Greyhound Dog Scrabble Bracelet

Cook's Gift!  Foodie Scrabble Bracelet

Our quote pendants always seem to be popular.  They are so fun to make!  The beads add a little pizazz to them.  We have plain bail pendants as well, but we enjoy embellishing them with the beads.

Jane Austen Quote Pendant - "You Pierce My Soul."

Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote Pendant - "Scatter Joy!"

Our dog items generally do well. 

Dachshund Pendant

Well, that's it for now.  Maybe we'll get so busy that there will be no time to write until after Christmas! 

Anne of Green Gables

Because I love Anne of Green Gables and all her wonderful words (written of course by Lucy Maud Montgomery), we have created several Anne of Green Gables Scrabble items.

I was fortunate to be able to visit Lucy Maud Montgomery's home site and the Anne of Green Gables Museum on Prince Edward Island a few years back.  My mother was out visiting me when I lived in Ohio, and we took a magical trip up through Concord, Massachusetts visiting Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House and Ralph Waldo Emerson's House, as well as others.  Then, we headed north into Canada and up to P.E.I. - a dream come true for me.

Following are links to the Anne of Green Gables Museum on Prince Edward Island, as well as the home site where Lucy Maud Montgomery lived with her grandparents from 1876 - 1911.  There isn't much left at the home site, but it is still worth the visit!  There are placards that describe places around the property and a little gift shop.  Anyone familiar with Anne of Green Gables, will be able to walk around the property getting goosebumps seeing what she saw.

Museum link: http://www.annemuseum.com/index.php

This is a photo I took on our visit to Green Gable Museum on Prince Edward Island

Lucy Maud Montgomery Home Site Cavendish: http://www.peisland.com/lmm/index.shtml

Lucy Maud Montgomery Home Site

Here are some of the Anne of Green Gables Jewelry items we have created:

Anne of Green Gables "Kindred" Scrabble Bracelet

Anne of Green Gables - Prince Edward Island Scrabble Bracelet

Anne of Green Gables Scrabble Bracelet

Anne of Green Gables Scrabble Pendant

Anne of Green Gables Scrabble Pendant

For those who haven't had the opportunity to read the Anne of Green Gables books or watch the movies, here are a couple of links to them if you'd like to check them out.

Next time...some of our new bracelets!

 

Let the Frantic Holiday Season Begin

I can tell the holidays are nearing.  The feel of emails from customers is changing.  The majority of the time, people are so kind and free with their good words.  I would say 99% of the time, but once in a while we have people who make it difficult.  I guess that is the nature of working with the public.

We have been so blessed that we have had such wonderful customers, and we have a huge customer return rate - like 65% to 70% have returned to buy again, so that pleases us.  Our feedback has always been fabulous like the following:

"SO AWESOME!! I know I will get tons of compliments on this bracelet....super fast shipping too"
"I love this bracelet so much. I love when people look at it, assuming it must be pictures of my family and then say, "Is that...the redrum kid?" And I say, "Yes, yes it is." And then suddenly it's like I have a secret side they know nothing about. Mwahahaha. Seriously, though. It's a fun bracelet I love to wear with otherwise standard outfits just to give them some punch. I get compliments on it a lot."
" Great Quality shipped very fast"
" THANK YOU for using so much imagination and creativity! This bracelet is much nicer than the photo shows. Jimmie Ellis"

However, as the holiday season approaches for some reason some people start to get prickly.  We had one customer recently who we tried to do everything right for, but in the end, she was not happy.  This is only the 2nd customer in FIVE years that has ever been grumpy and rude, and we just didn't know what to do to satisfy her.  Bummer.

Yoda, Please give us the wisdom and calm to get through this season. 

You can just sense the change in the emails.  It's really rather interesting.  If I can remain unemotional about it, I would realize that I haven't changed and our products haven't changed.  It must therefore be the people who are coming to us, which traffic certainly increases during the holidays.

This is what the customer today reminded me of...just kidding, I'm sure she was just having an "off" day.  - From The Shining

That's okay.  I'm not going to let her ruin my evening.  We are actually taking the evening off and watching the Snow Queen (kind of an early Christmas movie).  Huge artichokes were on sale today, so we're going to have them with our barbeque chicken for dinner.  We'll have popcorn during our movie.  A nice evening.

                                                                    

Well, take care until next time.  I'll breathe deep and be happy, as I hope you all are as well.

Yes, to this quote...What do you bring to the world? From Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables / Poetry / Book Lovers / Quotes Bracelets

We have been so busy!  We got through the taxes and they will be filed shortly.   We continue to try to catch-up from the holiday season.  We have almost all of our upcycled Scrabble bracelets made.  We still have to work on our vintage frames.

We have created a couple of new Scrabble bracelets for book lovers!  That's always so fun.  Two are Anne of Green Gables quote bracelets!  I just love that character by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Anne of Green Gables Quotes Bracelet

Anne of Green Gables Quotes Bracelet

  I also love poetry, so we have created a poetry Scrabble bracelet with images of famous poets:

Emily Dickinson

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Bronte Sisters - Emily, Anne, Charlotte

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

John Keats

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Famous Poets Bracelet

And for people who love Jane Austen...a quotes Scrabble bracelet just focused on her, as well as several pendants. 

Jane Austen Quotes

And there are always our popular Banned Books Scrabble bracelets based on our freedom to read.  It is so much fun to come up with this Scrabble jewelry that will hopefully please the book lovers out there!

Banned Books Bracelet

 Well, spring is on the way!  Flowers are starting to bloom, birds are singing and we're creating.  What could be better.