Facebook and Business…Pinterest and Business

Facebook….do you use it??  I used to belong to forums and hang out in them…but so many people itch each other the wrong way and poke sticks…and that just wasn’t me.  So I took up facebook years ago.  I love facebook, you can favorite your small town business, find out specials and great deals.  You can keep up with family, school friends and friends around the world…check in and let everyone know what is new and cool.   One thing I have taken up doing is showing our new items or things I am working on in the glass and jewelry world on a seperate fan page.  Here is my facebook business fan page for koregonbeads.  I would love it if you would check it out and “like” us.  I put all new listings for Etsy on there, along with all new things I am working on.  It is a separate page than my personal facebook. 

For years I had My Space…but that never took off for me because facebook came about.  One other site I do adore and just love is Pinterest….I LOVE LOVE Pinterest, you find the coolest things, you can keep track of list, idea’s…well just about anything!  Have you Pinterested lately? Check it out if you haven’t.    I keep track of things we put up on Etsy on Pinterest also….here is the link to my Pinterest boards…I have my beads blended in with jewelry ideas, home ideas, food, drink, travel…decorating.  What a great way to make a Christmas list of things you like huh?

Anyway, back in the old days when I first started making beads and selling them on eBay, I just did that…put them up for a week on eBay and hoped for the best.  It did well for years and years until eBay was bombarded with cheap knock off’s and the economy shifted to bad.  We tried a www. website…and that really never took off.  So I went to Etsy and Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.  Yep, I twitter our new items to.  I am not sure how much traffic I get from these places…but I figure it can’t hurt.  Etsy puts buttons to make it easy.    Etsy is a great site for selling your handcrafted items….they host your photo’s…and it only cost 20 cents for months of having your item up and available for sale, after the sale you do pay a percentage…ever so much easier than eBay. 

 

 

I haven’t blogged forever!

Well I know I have been missing in action for quite a while.  I guess I took a vacation of sorts from the bead business.  Even though I did continue to sell on Etsy.  I haven’t put much effort in because of the economy.  Well that is about to change.  I am torching more, making more jewelry…and best of all putting new items up almost every day on Etsy.  I would love to hear if you have wondered where we have been.  If you have missed our beads…and if so, what would you like to see from us.

So what was I doing all this time? Well I learned to golf, and learned well LOL….I guess when I take something up I just try my best to be really good at it.  I have ended the season with a 15.2 index.   Now to keep up with my game and try to improve even more   I do realize I need to dedicate time to business as well as golf, a happy combination.

Also big news for us is that Dan and I have also found where we would like to retire.  Yes, it is near a golf course LOL.  It is also away from the coast.  We are buying property (with a site built garage and apartment) right now it will be a vacation weekend getaway…but someday, the four acres will have a new home built on it   The apartment will become a studio for jewelry and beads.   We really love the feeling of Central Oregon.  Not nearly the rain we get on the coast, nor the fog…average is only about 9 inches a year…where is this wonderful new exciting place? Crooked River Ranch  it is 2,500 ft instead of sea level, sunnier and a lot more dry.  We will get a scattering of snow at times in the winter…but for the most part it is gone mid day if it does snow, and the sun comes out a heck of a lot more than the coast.  They actually golfed all but two days last year at Crooked River Ranch Golf.  Not to mention the cost of being a member is so much less…and best of all…their ladies and men clubs are large and active   The perfect place to retire, still make beads and jewelry, golf and enjoy the sun hitting the canyon and a sky so full of stars it takes your breath away   But yes, I do realize we can’t get Dan retired quite yet.  He does need to work probably 9 more years.  Maybe less if the 401k does well…just depends on when we really want to give it a try.  In the meantime we plan to use this new inspiring place as a getaway, vacation weekend place.

October…Hunting Widow Time

Mid October…hunting widow time…the time I let my husband free and he roam’s the Idaho mountains for two and half weeks.   He has the most wonderful time in “God’s Country” he calls it…almost 10,000 feet up in the Sawtooth Mountains.   So for me….I get to play Cruise Director for his two dogs, that get really depressed…poor things…things to pep them up….well I won’t stoop to drive through at McDonalds…that’s what Dan does when I leave for my girlfriend time trips to TN.   I might just cook them a home cooked meal instead LOL.

The good news is, October is gorgeous…we have had rain…but many days of gorgeous, sunny warm weather.  Oregon is green…with the tree’s almost done loosing their golden leaves.  Normally the valley is dry and the grass not so green, our fields are the same way.  Not this year…they are plush green like spring….yet it’s fall and the tree’s are loosing all their golden goodness.  It’s gorgeous!  I might get to get plenty of golf in before ‘winter’ really comes…the time changes and all that.

So….back to beads…I have been torching a lot more lately…auctions up on eBay…it took two years of golf and pulling away to get the want to make and create back and the want to try eBay again.  Oh we have dabbled and kept a presence on Artfire and Etsy, and our koregonbeads.com  site….but now…I am going forth with eBay once again.  I adored eBay for years…back in 2002 when I started making beads, it was ever so good to me…really good for six plus years.  Then the economy tanked and things quit selling well and I was tired…I needed a break from torching seven days a week and posting auctions every day.  Now I think I can do some of both…relax, golf and enjoy life…and have the bead biz flowing but not quite so full steam…after all, I am almost 50 (next month) I need to enjoy…life is just to short. 

So if your interested to see what we have on eBay….here is a sample of some gorgeous floral beads I made.

a great item we have up on Etsy …

and on Artfire…

and let’s not forget our website…

Summer is over…Fall is here….time to make beads again

Well summer flew by…I golfed a lot…well probably more than a lot…like a lot LOL. My handicap index went from 25.4 to a 18.9 over the summer…not to darn shabby huh? It is still actually dropping as it hasn’t caught up to my golf game yet. But…it’s time to start making beads again. I went to TN visiting my good friends Angie and Verna and came home “wanting” to make beads again…I have been creating and posting new items on Etsy, Artfire and even have a couple of auctions up on eBay, which I haven’t done in a very long two years. I used to do eBay all the time and loved loved it…believed in it, and it was good to me. The economy changed that though…and I am not sure if I can get a following back on eBay or not. It might fall to my website and Etsy. Artfire is even slow, yet in a way I really hope it can eventually take off and work for artist who create, it’s a wonderful site.

Well anyway…I hadn’t blogged in like…forever! So today I blog…and what about?? Golf I hate to give up…but won’t all the way, I will be a weekend warrior…since the time will change and it will start to rain…weekends is about all I will get. Yet the change in weather, brings be back to the flame and creating again.   A bit of what I have made since I have been back from TN…

 

Summer?? where are you?

Living on the Oregon Coast…summer is taking it’s sweet lovin time getting here. We get teased with a pretty good day…and then cloud cover…or drizzle…it’s our wettest June on record…how bout that. It’s not to bad really…except I really love the big yellow ball in the sky. The last week hasn’t been to bad, the golf course is actually dried out and I don’t have to wear my golf mudders to golf. I guess that is something right?

I know many parts of the country are having to hot, floods and just icky stuff happening so I really shouldn’t complain. I just hate to blink and have summer over…I live for summer’s arrival. Being a transplant in my teen years from Arizona and also Maine where I lived. I really don’t like the Oregon winter’s like my husband does. I guess if your born in Oregon, they don’t bother you much…me? Oh heck yeah…I wish I could transport myself to a tropical beach in winter.

So summer…won’t you please come out and play…and stay? Just for a few months?

Beading my way into 2010

What have I been working on?? Well it’s been an adventure lately…actually torching and making lampwrk beads second in line to metal work and beading.  Honestly…a LOT of beading this month.  I have been working a right angle type weave, not really sure what it is called as I was shown in person how to work it up and create it.  all I know is that I am totally addicted to making them as I can do it while watching tv.

I have a couple pieces to show off…a pair of bracelets and then a necklace to match with a dichroic lampwork pendant I created to hang from it…I am really pleased with both and hope to create some similar to sell in the future. 

 below are the slip on style beaded jasper bracelets, created with 4mm jasper beads and size 15 and 11 seed beads.

The matching necklace with lampwork pendant, sporting a very cool decorated sterling silver bail along with a toggle that lets you wear the necklace at different lengths…a very bold and earthy piece with the fiery flare of dichroic glass and earthy quality of raku frit.

What’s Up?

Well hey, it has been a long while since I have updated.  Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years have come and gone…Valentines is tomorrow.   Life move’s so darn fast anymore.   What have I been up to?? Metal…cutting, pounding…creating…beadcaps for large hole Pandora style beads…it’s just a work in progress though.  I hope to have new things posted on our website and Etsy soon.  Something to show for all the money I have spent on supplies and tools. 

On the other hand, Dan is working on a catalog or “made to order” items of his.  This is something I have tried to get him to do for a long time.  Write down his twisty cane recipe so that they can be remade easy.  Well…he is doing just that….so soon I hope to start putting up some of those items.

Happy Valentines to all! I hope life is treating you well…I will try to get on here and update more often…next one I promise more photo’s…but for now…here are a few beads I have made and cored.  What do you think?