What have I been doing since my last post? Oh my word. It has been crazy. One of the biggest changes has been a complete redo to my website. Quick history...when I used to sell on my website I used...well, let's call it Option A, as my website host and shopping cart. Back then it was totally adequate for my needs. A couple of years ago I decided to consolidate all my selling to just my Etsy shop. That worked well for years, but, with all the updates and changes Etsy has been making, I have been itching to get my website rolling again. So I finally logged back into my Option A account to update my website from my old green dominated logo to my new stark white minimalist logo. Uhm. I ran into problems immediately. One, I really have no clue what I'm doing with HTML, etc., which is why my blog looks the way it does. LOL Very simple, not much to it. *grin* I totally know where my skills are deficient. HA! So I started looking into hiring someone to update my website. All the while my friend, fellow jewelry designer, and business owner extraordinaire Rhonda of Prolifique Jewelry and I have been debating reopening our websites and discussing all the details (actually, we've been talking about this for over a year). We started looking into other webhosts/shopping cart packages and within hours of starting our search it became overwhelmingly apparent that I would be changing web hosts/shopping cart. While Option A was completely adequate, it was not going to work for what we wanted. I wanted MUCH more for my website than what Option A was offering. After weeks/months of research in our spare time (*pause for hysterical laughter* what spare time??!!!) we decided on Big Commerce. I love it. I really do. So I have been spending any spare second building my website using one of their templates which I have since figured out how to modify slightly. The website look is not perfect, but, compared with what I had....I'm very happy. Over time I will figure out how to continue modifying things behind the scenes to conform with the image I have in my head...but until then, I'm so happy with the update. And I'm happy that I was able to do it myself and not have to hire a MUCH more experienced person/company to do it for me. *grin* All that money I saved went into buying new gemstones of course!! hahahaha....
While I haven't made the "official, official" announcement to my newsletter subscribers yet, my website is live and yes I'm taking orders. Uhm, I wasn't QUITE ready to take orders yet, but ah, if you build it, obviously they will come as I've already had an order unexpectedly after I went live. HA So I guess things work! *grin* I'm finishing up some of the last little details (changing merchant accounts, etc.) this week and then I'll be sending out my newsletter, etc., to "officially" open. *grin*
So that is one of the biggest things that has been going on...there is sooo much going on right now. I am not a person who does busy well, HA...I actually dislike being insanely busy. I really like quite time and chaos-free time, but, that is far and few between lately. I'm thinking it will be another 16 or so years until things really settle down into some semblance of relaxing peace. *grin*
My favorite thing to do when it gets this busy, especially the weekends hubby is not working, is to sit and make gemstone clusters. And I have been the gemstone cluster queen lately. HA! I have been listing quite a few new Gemstone Cluster Earrings over the past week, and several have already sold. My favorites:
The only pair from the above which has not sold (yet! LOL) is the bottom, Crystal Quartz and Black Tourmalinated Quartz. They are located on my website. The rest have been sold.
Ok, I keep getting distracted by little monkeys....LOL More soon!
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