I have managed to enter my design into the CoolMomPicks Color-Your-Own Valentine’s Day Card Design Contest.   Waiting until the last minute is not something I usually do, but at least I got my entry in!  I saw it when it first came out but finally had time to create my drawing and put it up.  I decided to stick to the hot air balloon design similar to the quilt I made for the Team EtsyBABY Valentine’s Challenge. 

The BEST part of this challenge is that 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Children's Heart Foundation, which helps children impacted by congenital heart defects, the number one birth defect in the USA.

It’s not too late to enter your design!  You have until 12 PST to submit your drawing.  Click HERE to find out more info or to see the other challengers!

A question that I’ve had going through my mind for the last few days is, “How does one get their jewelry ‘found’ when the jewelry market is just so oversaturated as it is?” I have heard from others that they renew many, many, many times throughout the day…but what if you don’t want to do that? Are there other options? What are YOU searching for when you look for jewelry?

Here are a few pieces that caught my eye today…

I started my search as ‘sterling silver rings’ – it gave me 1206 pages to look through. As I browsed I realized that I’m really like the stacked ring look…now I’ll search ‘sterling silver stacked rings’ which brings me down to 80 pages…a bit more workable…

I found a lot of rings that caught my eye but I really love the mixture of blue’s and greens in this stacking set:

Ocean blue - sterling silver stacking rings - set of 4 - made to order from preciousjd.

I also like to check out jewelry that is something I don’t know how to make like these Transparent Scribble Pearl Earrings from . AroshaTwists.

The picture of the jewelry is also extremely important when shopping for a new piece in my mind. Which is also probably the second hardest part about selling jewelry online (the first hardest is getting yourself found). This is a pink bouquet wrap around ring from my etsy store, theApple. My photography is not perfect but I do feel that I’m getting better…

Being high up on the search is definitely really important. When I first started looking at bracelets this NEW Serendipity boro lampwork bracelet OOAK - 15 PERCENT OFF SALE from SweetGems was the first item I saw. So, being high up on the search combined with a great picture is a plus…

I guess my final thought on how to get noticed is to have something different from everyone else. Sure, styles are going to be similar in some cases but we, as artists, will add our own style, color combinations, and flair to each piece. This quirky shabby but chic vintage crystals and coins assemblage steampunk necklace with repurposed earring from lilyofthevalley is the last piece I will feature today…I love quirky!

How do you get your items noticed? Do you have any advice for me and my jewelry store, www.theapple.etsy.com?

KEYWORDS/Search Term:

• recycled x 2
• steampunk
• whimsical
• lovebirds
• romantic
• frost
• butterscotch
• fiber

INSPIRED BY:

• woodland creatures
• gardening
• a refreshing color palette
• the shades of yellow and blue
• red and blue
• rustic log cabin
• a whimsical fairytale
• Getting Organized
• emerging fashion
• ForestFinds
• mod

MISCELLANEOUS:

• Community Picks from Etsy’s Treasury
• Unique Gift Ideas
• Wishing the Etsy Community a Happy New Year
• Unique Gift Ideas x Quite a few
• An etsy Valentine Preview x 2
• January Finds
• Summer Holidays in the Southern Hemisphere x 2
• Found Searching through Pounce
• Found Browsing Etsy’s Treasury

Etsian Treasury Creators:

• thevintagecloset
• 3dots
• ThatSomething
• socksandmittens
• moonovermaize
• nanouke x 2
• CurlyGirlCrochet
• lilyja
• LostandFawned x 3

Les Amoureux Vintage Pendant - Silhouettes in a Baroque Frame from LostandFawned

• alexkeller
• AddieDesigns
• Glorioushats
• erinsjoy
• TheJoyofColor
• mitchellanddent
• colouryourhome
• CocoaBeans
• JKphotography
• lapalomarosa
• MyissaG
• abitabite
• yarnplusyarn
• LoveFirstSite
• Xenotees
• VintageScraps
• oliveleafandapricot
• reflectionsbyds
• AMIdesigns
• stellabystar
• ovgilliesdesigns
• BoutiqueKokosh
• baahar
• IlluminatedPerfume
• songsparrow
• eclu
• coolranchstudio
• yesyoumaigh
• morganjoyminear
• colouryourhome
• vloutextiles
• bebdesigns
• ThatOldBlueHouse2
• licklekisses
• knitoramaa
• lapommevintage
• hueconcept
• ikabags
• retroattack
• TheFancyLamb
• betsybensen
• RustBeltThreads
• TheVintagePatisserie
• NiuTaller
• MarKhed
• jeniferglagowski
• jennyndesign
• PoleStar
• Montagyoo
• Wandering
• slubird
• shellieartist
• laslopezlas
• MariaLuna
• EdensWake
• decoratethediva
• ThePeachTree
• epicCpoke
• shazzabeth

Once again, it looks to me like etsy featured treasuries made by the community more than their picks – I’m liking this new trend!

The idea to create this Hot Air Balloon Quilt has been in my mind since I was looking through blogs and saw one with a gorgeous nursery decorated using hot air balloons (of course I can’t find the link right now…I will post it if I do…).  My initial roadblock to creating this quilt was all the other projects I had to complete first – it was Christmas time!

With this idea for a hot air balloon quilt in my mind, I read about the new challenge for team EtsyBaby:

Our Theme For January: "Be My Valentine"
Team EtsyBABY©  

Here are the following details to participate in the Challenge:
A.   A (new to your shop)  baby/toddler item that is Valentines Day inspired ( keep in mind that it should be an item that COULD be used all year long, so it can be re-listed after Valentine's Day)
B.  All Items should be listed by January. 12th
C.  Include in the title listing : Team EtsyBABY Valentine Challenge.
D.  Add the following tags to the listing: "EBValentine" and of course Team EtsyBABY
E.  A PUBLIC poll to vote for your favorite "Team EtsyBABY©  Valentine  Challenge" item will be available via our website ( http://shopetsybaby.com ) starting Jan. 14th   and the poll will close on the 30th .

It was the perfect solution!  I could incorporate a Valentine’s theme into my quilt, taking care of two things at once!

Just before the end of 2009 I was finally able to put together a background for the hot air balloon quilt.  And then, a few nights to go I put together the fabrics I wanted to use for each of the balloons and started the quilt project!

Children will love to play on and cuddle under this beautiful quilt.  I used a soft, texture fiber as the strings to connect the baskets to the hot air balloons.  The variety of color will be sure to stimulate their dreams of someday flying in one of these beautiful contraptions.  The backing of this quilt is a beautiful pink striped flannel fabric to make it even more  cozy.

I titled this quilt ‘Love is in the Air’ to fit with the Valentine’s Day theme and the fact that I used a Heart/Love patterned fabric for one of the balloons.  Also, if you look closely I free motioned the word ‘Love’ into the windy, swirly sky. 

The seven hot air balloons are all raw edge appliquéd onto this quilt.  I free motioned quilted the entire quilt on my sewing machine and the border is done with a fun decorative stitch which is my trademark for these beautiful, whimsical, and fun children quilts.

Voting is going on now until January 31st so if you could please head over to www.shopetsybaby.com and show your support I would really appreciate it!

I know!  Can you believe it!  I am actually done reorganizing my craft area…I never thought it would happen.  I usually get about 1/2 done and then get too distracted by other projects.  This time I really stuck to it and my quarter of the basement looks great (I haven’t created anything in yet though…) This picture show’s half of the shelving filled with my standard cotton and flannel fabric for quilting and bag making.    The other half of the shelving holds the fleece, random clothing for applique, towels, miscellaneous fabric for added texture or crazy quilting. These  shelves are home to boxes full with many miscellaneous supplies from beading supplies to quilting fabric scraps, to scraps of felted wool, to yarns, to completed projects, to you name it – I probably have it somewhere! The metal shelve is home to my beads (lower half), books, and random glass vases for various projects that are still in my mind. Here is my ribbon organizer and some more beads.  I also hung a spool hanger…maybe I should put my thread there…  The cupboards hanging are from our old house that we had to tear down.  We pulled everything remotely salvageable out and reused in in our new house or one of the sheds.  I covered a counter/cabinet section with material you can iron on to make it rather large ironing board. You can actually see the table! 

An overview of my ‘clean’ workspace.  Not the pretties area but it works just like I need it too!