Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Posting a Blog at Midnight

I've learned a valuable lesson. I cannot write a blog past midnight. I did review my post and it looked fine. However, I must have done something to change my text from readable to symbols. Good thing I checked this morning. I was able to change it back to text that can be read.



Just finished making a double strand bracelet. Soon to be posted on Etsy

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mind Working Overtime!


It is almost midnight and my mind is working overtime. Paypal has been extremely frustrating. Four phone calls later and there hasn't been a resolution that has made me very happy. I will not give up.

I've opened my shop on Etsy and am very pleased with its appearance. I currently have 19 items listed and hope to continue to add more pieces each week. One of my birthday gifts from a friend was a book on marketing and selling handmade jewelry. It's been one great resource. The book is so right when it says 80% of your time will involve the business aspects. Right now it's feeling like 99%, rightly so as I'm in learning mode.

I've also learned so much from the other creative artists on Etsy. They've given me support without knowing it. Many of the female artists are women with young children. I'm in awe that they can juggle all of this. My youngest just left home so once I come home from work I have time to myself to devote to my passion. Although I would love to have more time.

This is a piece I made that is one of my favorites.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Getting Close

Jewelry pieces ready, descriptions ready, materials ready, tags ready, shipping ready unfortunately one last snag. As I began loading my first picture on the website it kicked it back to me saying it was too large. I researched everything, I thought, but found that I really didn't spend any time educating myself on what photo size the website would accept. I was so disappointed. I was so close and realized I'd have to take 50 plus photos over again.

Well, not true. Fortunately, I have a son who is adept at photography and all the possibilities of I-Photo - yeah Nick!! He can help me now, however, I'm not sure how this will work when he moves a couple states away from me (Chicago IL) in a week. Can he perform a Vulcan mind meld and transfer all his knowledge to my brain? One can only hope.

My new goal is to have my shop opened by the end of this weekend. Am I excited - of course!!!

Sorry PayPal

I was able to resolve the PayPal issue. I called customer service during the day. Don't call at night because a live person never answers and it doesn't matter how long you hold. I was able to talk to a friendly customer service person unfortunately she seemed to think she was giving me new suggestions on how to use PayPal so my credit card would be used rather than my bank account. I repeated back to her that I had tried all those things she suggested. She left the line came back on and proceeded to instruct me further. I let her know I also did those things. This happened one more time and when she came back on the line and I expressed that yes, I did that too; she finally said I'll get a supervisor. To her credit her demeanor never waned She remained friendly and polite. I tried to do the same but after the 3rd or 4th time I'm sure my tone changed a bit.

The supervisor greeted me and without my having to say a word she told me exactly what the problem was. She obviously had better access to my PayPal account then the first person. Basically, my bank was not allowing PayPal to gain access to my credit card.

I'm sorry PayPal you like me - my bank, however, doesn't! :-)