A Certain Shade of Green

I didn't show you an Etsy treasury for a long time now. This one I have to share. It's one of the most beautiful collections I've seen over there. It has it all, fantastic colours and gorgeous items. Very well done, Gayle from WingsofTime!

Clicking on the image will lead you to the original treasury. Enjoy!

PS: Ha ha..., I'm just realizing that my favourite treasuries mostly are green! :-)

Two More Roses

... left from the bouquet.

Guess, I'll put them for sale in my Etsy shop :-)

Peaches & More

Oh, I was featured! Kathi Roussel has created a wonderful collection of peach coloured finds and she included my photo 'Des Pêches'. Check out the blog 'Think Different' for more!

The other featured beauties are from (clockwise starting with the bunnies): ohoriginals, DebraGlanz, LaTouchables, LushCluster, 88editions, michabella, CreoleSha and, right in the middle, Peylu.

Thank you, Kathi!

Aquamarine

This week's imteam challenge is for March's gemstone, aquamarine. I don't know much about gemstones but I love this colour! It's my all time favourite LightGreySeaGreenBlue ;-)

And here's my treasury. Clicking on it will lead you to the original from which you can get to the individual items.

Find some more, completely different takes on that theme here. Enjoy!

Aquarius!

I told you that I'm a member of Etsy team 'In the Making'. This week's team challenge was about the Chinese New Year: 'what's your sign? - make a treasury out of it'. Pey, the team's captain provided a link to a website showing the different signs and the years they applied to.

I was always told to be born in the year of the monkey, but I was not told that the Chinese year changes around my birthday at the beginning of February, one year just before my birthday, in another one a few days later. In the year I was born, the sign changed to monkey just a few days after my birthday (now you can try to figure out, in which year I was born, he he ...). So, in fact I was born in the year of the sheep. But neither monkey nor sheep really fit me - in my opinion at least ;-) However, I made a treasury for both the signs, but wasn't too fond of it whereas other team members created gorgeous collections of their signs. You can watch them all here.

Yesterday I remembered my western zodiac, Aquarius and I created another collection. For this. I loved to do that because it's all about water and the sea. Clicking on the image will lead you to the original from where you can click through to all these beautiful finds.

If I could choose, I'd live directly in front of the sea. With the woods at the back ;-)

Stuffing the Titles

Since a few days now it has been cold, rainy, windy – short term: ugly November weather. In January. Neither winter nor spring. It starts making me depressed. I'm not in the mood for going out of the door, a good opportunity to revamp my shops.

A New Etsy Team & Some More Green

Since a week or so I'm a proud member of Etsy team 'In the Making', thanks to an invitation from Pey!

Pey is the owner of Etsy-shop Peylu and co-owner of folkartvision. Her shop Peylu is one of my favourite shops since round about two years now. I love her paintings of birds and 'egg-watching' and those of - yes, furniture pieces, which is quite unusual. You have to check out Pey's shop! Her second shop, folkartvision, was new to me but is equally gorgeous. Here she and her partner Anatol sell beautiful and unique mixed media wood collages. Well worth a visit, too!

The members of Etsy team 'In the Making' are some of the most excellent artists on Etsy - no girlie-girlie-plastic-stuff! Check out their shops, you will be surprised! The full membership roster you'll find here.

The team's motto is 'Think different' and 'Thinking outside the box', something I always would support! The team is creating stunning treasuries which you can find here. Or search Etsy's treasuries for 'imteam' or 'in the making'.

We have a flickr group and a blog, too. A lot of stuff to read and to look through! A great THANK YOU to our team leaders who have set up all this and who have done a great job! Thank you, Pey! Thank you, Betsy! (BetsyBensen - check out her incredible jewelry!) Thank you, Anette! (Dragonhouse of Yuen - the most beautiful hares you've ever seen!)

As a small contribution I have created a treasury this morning, mainly featuring some team members (but some other great sellers, too!). And because I'm still in spring mood (hey spring, where are you today??!!), it is about a little bit of green. Click on it to see the original with clickable items.

Shipping Costs Significantly Decreased!

Thanks to Deutsche Post, sending letters to international destinations has become much cheaper as of today.

Deutsche Post has restructured its prices for letters completely. Instead of three destinations (Germany, Europe and World) there are left only two now, national and international.

Whereas previously I had to pay €6,00 for my prints to be send to the US, today postage for this same letter (international Großbrief up to 500g) is €3,45. That really is a huge difference, isn't it? Standard letters international are €0,75 now (were € 1,70 [World] previously).

Postage within Germany is pretty much the same. Postage to European countries has slightly increased due to combining this group with the world group. But the savings for the ex-world-destinations by far outweigh this small increase. At least for me. Thank you, Deutsche Post!

I've amended all my shipping costs in both my shops, Etsy and ArtFire accordingly. See you there?

2010 – Etsy & ArtFire

In 2010 there was a lot of Etsy-stress. You may or may not have heard about Etsy moving away from a 'normal' marketplace into the direction of a social networking site. This wasn't stated clearly but there were so many changes that after a while it became clear to those who wanted to know, that Etsy somehow is connected to Facebook. 

I didn't do very well on Etsy but after having analysed my shop and my competitor's shops I finally got an idea of the changes I should undertake. But before I even could start with these improvements Etsy had changed the search function. More precisely, they have limited the search results of any given search in a way that now sellers are forced to renew there items even more often to get seen at all. This is a slab in a seller's face. Small sellers are unable to cope with this procedure. Keeping in mind that renewing is Etsy's most profitable earning and being concerned about the increasing fraternisation with Facebook, I finally decided to open another shop. On ArtFire ;-)

After having done that I worked on my photo formats. I only had larger photos in my shop previously. The idea behind these larger photos was to give a customer as much photo as possible for the given shipping costs. Shipping internationally, it is these costs that dictate what I can offer. I have added to both my shops smaller formats now (5“x5“ and 5“x7“), which I sell as sets. Instead of getting one larger photo at least a customer can choose to get several smaller photos now. We'll see how this works out.

Something else quite important: Etsy has implemented a feature that allows sellers to add and show prices in their countries' currency. I've changed my prices on Etsy to EURO. For those, whose curreny is EURO, this is the cheapest way to buy from me.

On ArtFire, my prices are in US-Dollar. If you want to pay me in $ US, my ArtFire shop would be the best option for you.

Hearts For Haiti - Hurry Up!

I just had a quick look into the Etsy forum. Cindylouwho2 posted that as of yesterday the Hearts for Haiti shop has raised $ 33,311.60 for Doctors without Borders!!!! Isn't that amazing??

Cindylouwho2 has also announced that those donated items not being sold will be removed from the shop as soon as they expire. The first items are going to expire today :-(

There are still more than 1,000 items in the shop for sale. Please do me a favour and check it out now, get some nice things for you or your family or friends and support the people of Haiti who still need every help we can give.

In February I presented you some of my favourite items for the home and some of my favourite jewellery.

Most of these items are still available. The coasters have gone (:-):-) - guess what?)  and so has the Sterling Silver heart necklace (the one with the small key - the embossed one is still for sale!!). All the other gorgeous pieces are still waiting for you! Remember - shipping is free!

Ranunculus on Show

I'm still using the surf stick to connect to the internet. It's not fun. During the day the connection is extremely slowly and it is interrupted again and again. So I'm currently trying to work on the most important things very early in the morning.

What a nice surprise this morning! Naomi from Moonangelnay.etsy.com created a Mother's Day treasury on her own blog featuring some gorgeous Etsy sellers - including me :-) It's a lovely treasury with pinks and greys. Check it out!

Thank you Naomi! Your blog is lovely. You've got a new follower ♥

Hearts for Haiti - Something for Your Home

Today I'll show you some of my favourites from the HeartsforHaiti shop's section 'For Your Home'. Clicking on the picture will lead you to the article directly.

Let's start with these fresh cotton canvas coasters. Four of them come with their own pouch. Donated by CinnamonBreeze:

 

This is one of the most impressive ideas I've ever come across: a chandelier made of - guess what? - paperclips!!!  These ordinary small thingies lying around everywhere in every office. I couldn't believe it and got the tutorial from super kind donator ReDesignTechnologies through the HeartsforHaiti shop. I haven't yet started with my chandelier but I will. It's not as difficult as it may seem. You can do this, too!

A metal salvaged light switch plate brought to new life with a vintage black and white image, donated by littlegreenthings:

The last item for today is a cute vintage linen pillow cover with a new layered burlap flower, donated by myadobecottage:

 

All items ship worldwide for free, if you buy them through HeartsforHaiti. Remember, all proceeds (minus fees) of this shop go to Doctors without Borders to help Haiti.

All pictures in this post are the property of (from top) Cinnamonbreeze, ReDesignTechnologies, littlegreenthings and myadobecottage.

Hearts for Haiti - Some of my Favourite Items

Yesterday I told you about the gorgeous HeartsforHaiti shop on Etsy. There are more than 1000 items for sale currently and every time you go there you will discover something new. At least I do.

I will show you randomly some of my favourite items. Today it is some amazing jewellery. Clicking on the pictures will lead you to the listings in the HeartsforHaiti shop directly.

An embossed Sterling Silver broken heart necklace, donated by archaic design:

A Sterling Silver knit ring with a freshwater pearl, donated by palleiko designs:

A Sterling Silver rosemary leaf necklace molded off of a real rosemary leaf, donated by Hightower Botanicals:

And finally for today another Sterling Silver hand cut heart necklace, donated by Ggestalt:

You may have realised that all these wonderful pieces are made from Sterling Silver. Yes, I love Sterling Silver! Such pieces made from it immediately get my full attention ♥

All these beauties are completely handmade. They all ship for free but, you may well contact the donators directly for insured shipping.

All HeartsforHaiti proceeds (minus fees) go to Doctors without Borders to help Haiti.

Images in this post are the property of (from top) archaicdesign, palleikodesigns, HightowerBotanicals and Ggestalt.

Hearts for Haiti - Fundraising on Etsy

I'm owing you this since some time already. Although it may be a good idea to bring it now with the disaster in Haiti having disappeared from the front pages already.

There are lots of sellers on Etsy donating percentages of their proceeds to help Haiti. You will find them easily, if you search for 'Haiti'.

I want to recommend warmly especially this shop to you: HeartsforHaiti.

Victoria aka exlibrishandmade had the idea and started organising this shop entirely dedicated to raise money for helping Haiti. 100% of the shop proceeds (minus Etsy and PayPal fees) go to Doctors Without Borders.

The shop is run by volunteers and all items for sale are donated by Etsy sellers from all over the world. These gorgeous sellers not only give away their items for free they also take the shipping costs. All items have free shipping and most sellers even ship worldwide.

As of 10:26pm EST 2/5/10 HeartsforHaiti has raised $27,894.81 (after fees) for Doctors Without Borders!!!

There are currently 1125 items for sale in this shop! If you are looking for something nice and want to help Haiti, you definitely should browse this shop.

There is also a very interesting blog giving some background information about the shop, its volunteers and the money transfer to Doctors Without Borders. Go and check it out!

***The heart is property of HeartsforHaiti***

Yet Another Treasury

Something to laugh! I couldn't resist and had to visualise my New Year's resolutions. And again I've found some gorgeous Etsy sellers. Jump in as long as this treasury is alive!

New Treasury!

Have been dealing with these colours so much during the last few days - I had to make an Etsy treasury out of them. I love the items I've found. There are so many gorgeous sellers on Etsy!

Check out this treasury as long as it is alive. Enjoy!!

Etsy-Treasury

This is the latest treasury I created. Lots of gorgeous Etsy sellers and their lovely items. Although the treasury is almost feline I started with that woodpecker fledgling right in the middle. What a great and funny photo! It's from MNHPhotography. I guess, I've to get it.

Check out the complete treasury as long as it's alive!

BTW, the idea to mention this in my blog I've nicked from Erin Garrison whose lovely yawning white cat is featured in this treasury, too. She has mentioned it in her blog earlier. Thank you!

New Rocking Horse Prints!

If you like rocking horses you may like my two new prints, too. I took my photos of the Dappled Grey and the small mahogany rocking horse and gave them a vintage feel with some discolouration, blur and scratches.

You'll find them in my Etsy shop www.SimplyPictures.etsy.com. The price for one print is $ 23.00 plus shipping or $ 41.00 plus shipping for both prints.

That's how they would look being framed with a bit of outer trimming but without matting in standard frames size 23 x 23 cm = 9” x 9” from IKEA. The frames are not included! The size is scaled properly - look at the wine bottles!

ETSY Shop Opened!

Done. The first 40 items are in my shop now. I had prepared all descriptions and images for the upload already when Etsy provided a completely new guide for SEO for Google. So I read through this guide and then I had to re-work all my descriptions!

And not only the item descriptions. Relevant for Google as well are the shop title and the first part of the shop description. You have around 60 characters for the shop title (depending on the length of your shop name) and 160 characters for the shop description. And with these few characters you have to express what your shop is about. It should be catchy and it should contain words that people searching with Google are looking for! I did some keyword research but I think, I didn't really get that. So I mixed and matched the words around and hopefully it's ok like this.

However, finally I listed my first item on September 28, this lovely VW beetle.