Another contest!!

Since I said I'd do another contest this month, I'd better get on it! Sooooo... leave me a comment about what your favorite summer activities are (sans children), and I'll choose TWO (yes, 2!!) people at random to receive a $5 credit for Patty's Pretty Things. (previous winners are not eligible for this one - sorry, Shannon!)

I'll choose the winners on Friday afternoon, so get your entries in!!

My Twitter Experiment

Browsing the Etsy forums, I frequently see other sellers mentioning how Twitter has helped them to get views and sales. I've resisted Twitter for quite a while, as I generally think it's a time-sucker, but I've decided to give it a try. For the next 2 months, I'm going to promote items through Twitter (and also tweet other things, because JUST promoting my Etsy stuff could get tedious and annoying, I'm sure!), and see what happens. If my sales increase as a result, I'll keep it up. If not, I won't. Soooooo... if you happen to be a Twit (or a tweeter), you can follow me - twitter.com/pattyspretties.

I'll keep you all posted as to how it goes!

We have a WINNER!!!

Congratulations to Shannon, who was randomly selected to win a $5 credit or 20% discount! I hope you find something you like!

Giveaway!

Since I made it past 60 fans, as promised, I'll do a giveaway! Here's what you need to do:

First, register for a google account (easy, and it doesn't hurt, I promise) so that you can comment on this blog.

Next, head on over to my shop and do some browsing.

Leave a comment back here on THIS POST about what your favorite thing is in the shop.

In ONE WEEK (so next Saturday), I'll choose a comment at RANDOM to receive a credit to my shop. The credit will be for $5, UNLESS the winner wants to purchase something over $25, and then it will become a 20% discount.

Have fun, and good luck!!!

Information about Crystal beads...

If you happen to have visited my shop sometime this evening (and really, if you haven't, you should, LOL!), you may have noticed a few small tweaks that I made to the wording in many of my listings. It was brought to my attention recently that using the term "Swarovski Crystal" is a trademark infringement. The Swarovski Corporation does produce crystal elements for jewelry designers such as myself to use in their work, however the term "Swarovski Crystal" is reserved for finished products purchased in their retail stores. But never fear - if you see the following term: "Made with CRYSTALLIZED - Swarovski Elements" in my shop or someone else's, these ARE crystal beads produced by Swarovski. It's just a different term.

And for anyone wondering, no, I didn't get flagged on this by Etsy - this information is in the Etsy Forums. And while I could have been very happy just leaving my listings as they were, I decided that I didn't want to be the one to get nailed on it. Better safe than sorry!

Bad Blogger!

I've been very busy these past few weeks! This is my first attempt at making stripes:

And this is a necklace that will be coming out in the shop next week. I have to finish up another prototype (the REAL hands will not be colored in, unless you like, and will feature your child's initial in fancy-schmancy font) and then get it listed. This will be a custom necklace - each customer can email me a scan of their child(ren)'s hand tracing, and I will shrink it down on plastic, and make a necklace. This will be a GREAT gift for Mother's Day!!!

This week, I've had the amazing honor of being the victim of the latest "Mom Attack" for the Cafemom Street Team on Etsy. It's a lot of fun to have someone else promoting my shop, and to be able to sell my jewelry to the people who have been such a support to me over the last year just feels good. I am so proud to be a member of the Cafemom Street Team, and I hope that I can be as helpful to other members as the veterans were to me when I was a newbie.

New beads!

Here are some pictures of all of the beautiful stuff my wonderful mom picked up for me at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (otherwise known as jeweler's Mecca). Enjoy!