Simply Shiny Life

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Every Tuesday, the blog post will be Totally Giveaway Tuesday. I love giveaways, and I thought it might be nice to share some real estate for some blog-o-sphere giveaways with my readers. I’d like to profile Artfire and other artisan giveaways, but feel free to list any great giveaways you have to share. Each link will contain the name of the giveaway linked to the entry instruction page. Enter as many giveaways as you would like

Got a blog giveaway you’d like to advertise? Hosting an artisan jewelry giveaway? Have a handmade soap giveaway? Announcing a felted animal giveaway? Have a guild giveaway you’d like to list? Want to announce your team’s giveaway to the world? Please use the widget below to list your announcement.

In the Your Name Field: enter the item you are giving away, and the date the giveaway expires

In the Your URL Field: enter the web site address of the page to find instructions about how to enter.

Giveaways for the week of 1/3

Note: I can’t be responsible for outcomes of giveaways hosted by anyone but me. Outcomes of giveaways hosted elsewhere are the responsibility of the giveaway owner. Please read each giveaway’s entry instructions carefully and only enter if it isn’t going to get you into any trouble in your location. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

Visit again next Tuesday for a whole new list!

and don’t forget to tweet and share with your friends using the widgets below

(For those of you receiving this via RSS, you have to visit my real live blog to see the list of shops with sales. Not sure why, but looks like the Readers eat the linky code. sorry. )

Starting today, each Tuesday’s blog post will be Totally Giveaway Tuesday. I love giveaways, and I thought it might be nice to share some real estate for some blog-o-sphere giveaways with my readers. I’d like to profile Artfire and other artisan giveaways, but feel free to list any great giveaways you have to share. Each link will contain the name of the giveaway linked to the entry instruction page. Enter as many giveaways as you would like

Got a blog giveaway you’d like to advertise? Hosting an artisan jewelry giveaway? Have a handmade soap giveaway? Announcing a felted animal giveaway? Have a guild giveaway you’d like to list? Want to announce your team’s giveaway to the world? Please use the widget below to list your announcement.

In the Your Name Field: enter the item you are giving away, and the date the giveaway expires

In the Your URL Field: enter the web site address of the page to find instructions about how to enter.

Giveaways for the week of 12/21

Note: I can’t be responsible for outcomes of giveaways hosted by anyone but me. Outcomes of giveaways hosted elsewhere are the responsibility of the giveaway owner. Please read each giveaway’s entry instructions carefully and only enter if it isn’t going to get you into any trouble in your location. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

Visit again next Tuesday for a whole new list!

and don’t forget to tweet and share with your friends using the widgets below

(For those of you receiving this via RSS, you have to visit my real live blog to see the list of shops with sales. Not sure why, but looks like the Readers eat the linky code. sorry. )

My friend Vicki from Orion Designs wrote a thoughtful post about selling online and whether or not it was truly efficient.

http://vickiorion.blogspot.com/2010/12/rethinking-selling-online.html

Good stuff!

I’m a fall. Oranges, reds, greens. Fall colors appeal to me.  Many of the colors that are highlighted in picasso jaspers fit my personal palette nicely, so I’ve acquired quite a few of these stones.  Probably far, far more than I will use in a lifetime. LOL

Those of you that can commiserate with my hoarding know what I mean. There is just something quite wonderful about sitting at one’s bench and fondling the current stash of cabs, or other stones. Happy sigh.

This pair is made from fine and sterling silver and two rusty red and green agate cabochons.  I’ve embellished each earring with wire wrapped sterling silver floral bead caps and round beads. All of the silver has been oxidized and burnished for a rich, dark rustic look. I’ve also deliberately textured each bezel to contribute to the rustic, earthy feel.

You can find them in the ShinyAdornments Artfire Studio.

Tuesday’s blog post will be devoted to Totally Giveaway Tuesday.  I love giveaways, and I thought it might be nice to share some real estate for some blog-o-sphere giveaways with my readers. I’d like to profile Artfire and other artisan giveaways, but feel free to list any great giveaways you have to share. Each link will contain the name of the giveaway linked to the entry instruction page. Enter as many giveaways as you would like

Got a blog giveaway you’d like to advertise? Hosting an artisan jewelry giveaway? Have a handmade soap giveaway? Announcing a felted animal giveaway? Have a guild giveaway you’d like to list? Want to announce your team’s giveaway to the world? Please use the widget below to list your announcement.

In the Your Name Field: enter the item you are giving away, and the date the giveaway expires

In the Your URL Field: enter the web site address of the page to find instructions about how to enter.

Giveaways for the week of 12/14

Visit again next Tuesday for a whole new list!

and don’t forget to tweet and share with your friends using the widgets below

(For those of you receiving this via RSS, you have to visit my real live blog to see the list of shops with sales. Not sure why, but looks like the Readers eat the linky code. sorry. )

One of my latest Collections on Artfire made it to the front page! Awesome! This one is called Warm Cocoa Blues and features gorgeous blue and warm brown colored items.  It was inspired by the adorable snuggie stuffed critter from Flying Hooks and Needles.  And, it looks like at least 2 items from this Collection were sold. YAY!

You can find artisan jewelry, unique gifts, vintage, fine art, accessories and supplies within Artfire member studios. Please click anywhere in the image below to visit Artfire and comment.

I received $50 credit towards Facebook advertising and figured I might as well experiment and see what kind of results are possible. This was my first time using Facebook’s advertising functionality, and I found it pretty easy to use.

I created a pretty simple ad and added appropriate verbiage. Then I determined who I would target this particular campaign, and decided to whittle my audience down to Facebook users that:

• live in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Oklahoma or Texas
• are over 30 and female
• are college grads
• and aren’t already connected to me in some way, like members of my teams, or current fans, etc.

This group of users was still over 2 million people. Wow.

My $50 lasted about a month, with nearly 103,000 views. Of those views, my ad received 114 click throughs and 22 of those click throughs actually became fans of my ShinyAdornments Fan page, which was the intent of the campaign. Those 22 click throughs cost slightly more than $2.25 each. Was it worth the expense? Well, sure, because this time around the funding was free to me. Would I do it again? I don’t know. I honestly have no idea if that click through is good or bad without a bit more research.

Have you experimented with Facebook ads? What kind of results did you see? Would you try it again?

Starting today, each Tuesday’s blog post will be Totally Giveaway Tuesday. I love giveaways, and I thought it might be nice to share some real estate for some blog-o-sphere giveaways with my readers. I’d like to profile Artfire and other artisan giveaways, but feel free to list any great giveaways you have to share. Each link will contain the name of the giveaway linked to the entry instruction page. Enter as many giveaways as you would like

Got a blog giveaway you’d like to advertise? Hosting an artisan jewelry giveaway? Have a handmade soap giveaway? Announcing a felted animal giveaway? Have a guild giveaway you’d like to list? Want to announce your team’s giveaway to the world? Please use the widget below to list your announcement.

In the Your Name Field: enter the item you are giving away, and the date the giveaway expires

In the Your URL Field: enter the web site address of the page to find instructions about how to enter.

Giveaways for the week of 12/7

Note: I can’t be responsible for outcomes of giveaways hosted by anyone but me. Outcomes of giveaways hosted elsewhere are the responsibility of the giveaway owner. Please read each giveaway’s entry instructions carefully and only enter if it isn’t going to get you into any trouble in your location. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!

Visit again next Tuesday for a whole new list!

and don’t forget to tweet and share with your friends using the widgets below

(For those of you receiving this via RSS, you have to visit my real live blog to see the list of shops with sales. Not sure why, but looks like the Readers eat the linky code. sorry. )

I haven’t shared a post about some of my favorite blogs in a while, so thought it was about time again. Today’s post will feature links to artist blogs that I love and follow. Enjoy!

A Girl and Her Brush

Alice Istanbul Designs

Beads in the Belfry

Katinka Pinka

Crafting in Chaos

Jealousy is a purse

Sunny Risings Leather

Care to share any of your favorites in the comments below?

One of my latest Collections on Artfire made it to the front page!  Awesome!  This one is called Pale Sunny and features gorgeous pastel yellow colored items. The temperature was 19 F here today… a nice cheery yellow Collection suited me. Even nicer is that at least one item has sold so far.

You can find artisan jewelry, unique gifts, vintage, fine art, accessories and supplies within Artfire member studios. Please click anywhere in the image below to visit Artfire and comment.