November 24, 2009

Sale! Sale! Sale!

I will be offering 15% of your entire purchase in both my shops from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. The sale will start at 12:01 AM EST on 11/27 and end at 11:59 PM EST on 11/30.
I will refund the 15% through PayPal.

Here is just some of what you will find at Morning Sky Jewelry.





Morning Sky Creations offers crocheted items for the home such as washcloths, scrubbies and makeup removal pads.




Mention that you found out about this sale on my blog in the notes to seller upon checkout and I will also ship your order for free!

November 20, 2009

Featured Etsy Blogger for November

This months featured Etsy Blogger is Becky of Becky Kazana.

In Becky's shop you will find a mix of adorable creations.

This Pachyderm Birthday Card is made from a reproduction of Becky's original artwork.



There are paper garlands like this Here's To Us Celebration Banner.


The highlight of Becky's shop has to be her pipe cleaner ornaments. They have hand painted faces and handmade clothing. Lena the Burlesque Pipette is my favorite.


Be sure to check out Becky's vintage shop,The Fab Miss B.

November 10, 2009

Check Your Pockets

This is a public service announcement to check your pockets before you throw your clothes in the washer and dryer.

This is what a penny looks like when it gets caught in a dryer motor.


The motor looks the same, but no longer works. Fortunately my husband is very handy and was able to remove the motor. The appliance store wanted $200 for a new motor. YIKES! Not in our budget right now. After a little searching he found a used one on Ebay for $10. Yes, that's right $10. We figured that we really had nothing to lose and bought the motor. My husband put it in and it has been working perfectly for over a week now. I figure that even if it only works for a couple of months we still got our money's worth.

All in all, it still would have been easier if the penny had not been in somebody's pocket to begin with.

October 14, 2009

Crunched for Time

I used to make it a point to fit in a workout at least 5 days a week. Now that I've gone back to work full time, have 2 kids with busy schedules and 2 Etsy shops it is just so hard to find the time.

Well, at least someone is getting use out of the aerobic step!



September 22, 2009

Happy Autumn

In the United States today is the first day of Fall. Here in New Jersey that means that the leaves will soon be turning beautiful shades of orange, yellow and red. I thought I would take a look around Etsy and see what kind of Fall leaves I could find.



Thank you Glittered Bird in a Tree Card
Maple Leaf ACEO
Quilted Cocktail Napkins-Autumn Leaves

September 21, 2009

My Workspace...

...or lack thereof.

I know that a lot of artists and craftspeople out there have beautiful studios and work spaces. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. Our house just doesn't have the room for me to take over some space for my crafts. So for now, I just have to make do with what I have.

When I am working on my Morning Sky Creations shop this is where I work - the sofa in the family room.




When I am working on jewelry for
Morning Sky Jewelry I either work at the dining room table or on the same sofa with a lap desk.

My husband called from work a few weeks ago and said that there was a cabinet with lots of drawers outside the dumpster at his office and asked if I was interested. I was interested, but skeptical. Boy, was I thrilled when he got home.



A little scrubbing and I now have great storage for all my jewelry making supplies plus enough room for my general crafting supplies. I guess the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure" is very true in this case.

My dream space is my son's bedroom. It has windows on 3 sides and gets the sunlight from first thing in the morning until the late afternoon. It also has built in shelves on both sides of the closet. Well, a girl can dream, can't she.

September 20, 2009

September Featured Etsy Blogger

The featured Etsy Blogger for the month of September is Designs By Vanessa. Vanessa has a great shop with a wide array of beautiful items.

Her main focus is birds such as these Song Sparrow Earrings




and Bird Iron On Applique.




Bu,t you will also find other themes such as these adorable Cupcake Cards.



Why not pay Vanessa a visit. She may have just what you are looking for.

August 27, 2009

August Featured Etsy Blogger

This month's featured Etsy blogger is Edi from memoriesforlifesb.
Edi has been papercrafting for over 12 years and has some truly awesome things in her shop.

This wedding guest book made from real flip flops is one of my favorite things for her shop.



Equally beautiful is this hand cut Baby album which can be customized with any name.



This is a very fun and extremely creative shop. Why not go and have a look?

July 29, 2009

Great Summer shop


As part of an Etys Bloggers team assignment I went off in search of a shop with hot summer items. I came across Ezylife and her shop is what summer is all about. It is light, bright and airy. Her dresses are beautiful and come in a wide array of styles and colors. There is something there for every woman. An added bonus is that her prices are very reasonable.





Ezylife is a new seller, but she as perfect feedback and glowing reviews.


July 20, 2009

Featured Etsy Blogger for July

The Etsy Bloggers team has chosen miesmama as the featured blogger for the month of July. Take a look at this colorful shop for a variety of handmade felted finds. You will come across such things as:

Headbands



Keychains



Garlands

and much, much more.


July 7, 2009

Christmas In July Sale


Morning Sky Jewelry will be participating in the Christmas In July sale on Etsy from July 8th through July 23rd. I will be offering free shipping on any purchase. I will also offer an additional 10% off any purchase if you read about my sale on this blog. Simply enter BLOG10 in the message to seller and the 10% will be refunded through PayPal or, if you prefer, send me a convo before you pay and I will send you a revised invoice through PayPal.

June 19, 2009

A New Selling Venue

I just started listing my items on a new handmade website that I found called Zibbet. I know that there are a lot of them out there, but I really liked the look of this one and the ease of listing. It is new so it doesn't have a lot of features yet, but they are sure to follow. You are allowed to sell handmade, vintage and supplies.

Click here to check out what my Zibbet shop looks like.

If you decide that you would like to become a seller on Zibbet I would really appreciate if you would click on the banner below and sign up from there. Zibbet offers a great referral program for its users.

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One of my favorite features in the shop performance stats. They show you how many visits you had to your shop during the month, how many times your item was shown on Zibbet, either on the home page, search page, someone's favorites or somewhere else around Zibbet. Some of my items have been displayed around Zibbet over 200 times.

While I don't have any sales yet I am being patient since this is a very new site and I have just started listing.

June 11, 2009

Yart Sale with a Bonus

My shop is participating in the Yart Sale on Etsy. From today until midnight Eastern time on Sunday I am offering 15% off any of the items in my Yart Sale section.

As a bonus for blog readers I am offering FREE SHIPPING on ANY ITEM in my entire shop for the duration of the Yart Sale. Just mention "Blog" in the message to seller and I will refund the shipping through PayPal.

June 6, 2009

June Featured Etsy Blogger


This month's featured Etsy Blogger is Tricia from Lazy T Crochet. If you frequent the forums on Etsy then I am sure that you recognize the name. Not only does Tricia do lovely crochet work, but she also give excellent advice and also seems willing to help someone out.

While all her work is beautiful, the bright green on the Cloche Hat and Net Scarf grabbed my attention right away.


May 14, 2009

My Favorite Birthday Present

This month's Etsy Bloggers assignment is to write about a favorite birthday memory or gift. This one is very easy for me, but it needs to be preceded by a short story.

When I was very young I was scared by a dog. Although I don't remember the incident, I do remember being terrified of dogs. All dogs - any shape and size. Another fact from when I was young is that I adored my grandfather and when I was about 4 he got a dog. A black dachshund named Fred. He gently assured me that Fred wouldn't hurt me and he was right. I fell in love with Fred. I soon found myself feeling more and more confident around dogs and decided that I wanted one of my own, but it had to be a dachshund like Fred, only a different color.

About a week before my fifth birthday my father came home and when I ran to greet him what did I find down by his feet, but the cutest little dachshund which I promptly named Peanut. I had Peanut for 16 wonderful years and can remember the day that I got him (40 years later) like it was yesterday.




I would love to hear some of your favorite birthday memories. Please leave a comment.

May 6, 2009

Wonderful Wednesday

These eggs, made by Ukrainian Eggs, are truly remarkable. Some of you may be familiar with Pysanky, but these eggs are made with a twist. The colors are from hundreds of tiny seed beads.





Here is the arttist's explanation of Pysanky and Her Pysanky:

"Pysanky are made to be given to family members and friends. To give a pysanka is to give a symbolic gift of life. Each of the designs and colors on the pysanka has symbolic meaning--the colors and designs are typically chosen to match the character of the person to whom the pysanka is to be given.

About My Pysanky:

I use beads instead of the typical beeswax designs because I prefer the focus to be primarily on the egg's colors. The beads are very small and each egg can take anywhere from one week to several months. I started making these eggs as gifts for family members and began my "store" as requests came in for specific colors for specific people.”



This one is made from an Ostrich egg. I can't even begin to imagine the time and the amount of beads that went into this work of art.



May 4, 2009

Lucite or Plastic?

I bought some necklaces at a flea market a few years ago. They came with a tag on them that said "Original Lucite by Dupont". I recently took them apart and started to make some jewelry pieces with them. Shown below is a bracelet I made using some dark teal marbled beads and copper oxidized wire.



I decided that before I listed them for sale I wanted to do a little research to make sure what I had was genuine Lucitie even though the tag said it was. Almost everything I found indicated that Lucite is heavier then plastic and doesn't have seams. Well, the beads I have are light and do have seams. I did find one source that said that newer Lucite beads were lighter and could have seams. Since I only found that piece of information in one place I don't feel comfortable listing these for sale as Lucite.So, I guess I will be wearing the pieces I made myself. If I can find a definitive answer in the future I have plenty more beads to make many more pieces.


If anyone has any information about Lucite beads that they can share, I would love to hear your comments.

April 20, 2009

A Blue Fringe Treasury

Thank you so much to randomcreative for including me in her treasury of blue fringe bracelets.




It was an honor to be showcased along with all these other amazing jewelry artists.

April 15, 2009

Wonderful Wednesday

I haven't done a Wonderful Wednesday post in a while, so I thought I would do one today in honor of Tax Day in the US.

I found this adorable Tax Deduction bib and onesie in Fun2Wear's shop.





Fun2Wear's designs are custom made and can be personalized. They carry bibs, onesies, toddler, youth, and adult t-shirts.

April 7, 2009

More Black and White

I liked the black and white bangle that I posted last week that I had to make another. Instead of a bangle this one has a sterling silver clasp. It is available for purchase in my Artistry Arts store.

April 4, 2009

Featured Etsy Blogger for April

This month's featured Etsy Blogger is Two Zany Zebras. She makes fun and unique creations for babies and toddlers such as this Alien Invasion set. This is a great deal at $27.00 for a cuddle blanket and either a onesie or a toddler t-shirt.



You will find great characters at Two Zany Zebras such as
Sydney Monster, found on this onesie, which is available in a full range of sizes as well as toddler t-shirt sizes


as well as
Ingrid Zarkle , a softie made of minkey stuffed with hypo-allergenic polyfil. To top it off it is 100% machine washable.

Two Zany Zebras welcomes custom orders so if you don't see what you are looking for, just ask.


You can read more about Two Zany Zebras by visiting her
blog.

April 3, 2009

SoopSee.com


Have you visited SoopSee yet? It is a site that is set up to let you show your Etsy listings, blog posts and other places you sell, all in one place. I really like the nice, crisp look of the site and the ability to choose the template you use to showcase your items.

Have a look at my page and see what you think. SoopSee is in the beta stage, but they have more plans in the works. Future plans include allowing for import of items from other sites such as Artfire and 1000 Markets, adding Google Analytics and more.

I had a few questions and contacted them via email and I must say the their customer service was excellent.

March 27, 2009

Signs of Spring in Northwest NJ - Good and Bad

Crocuses Blooming



Daffodils Sprouting



Buds on the Magnolia Tree



Muddy Cleats



Allergy Medicine



Shedding Cat