Sunday, May 30, 2010

New Stuffs in the Shop...

Just a quick post for our followers...

There's new items in our sweet little Etsy shop! Please feel free to check them out!

~Robin

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

So... about that organization....

I seem to have an organizational system in place. We'll see how it works.

Here's my plan.

1. Print out the invoice as soon as I know an item has sold.
2. Track item on spreadsheet.
3. Pull the item from the stock and place it in a plastic baggie with the invoice.
4. Place plastic baggie in the "To Ship" box.
5. Print Label and place on envelope
6. Pack item
7. Ship and check off on Spreadsheet

What do you think? It's better than what I had, which was almost nothing.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Learning the Hard Way....

Note to Self... Be more organized. Organization is key.

Dear Self,

Please take note of the Note to Self posted above. You'll have considerably less problems, headaches and meltdowns.

Much love,
Robin

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

First Sale! Already?

As Robin mentioned earlier, the grand opening of our shop Letters Mingle Souls was today! How exciting that before the day is even over, we already have our first sale! It's even better than we could expect!

Our first sale came from the lovely shop of Prdgy on Etsy! If you have not checked out her shop, it is a MUST! She has some of the beautiful handmade jewelry that you will come across on Etsy! Rings? Check! Necklaces? Of course! Earrings? You know it! She has it all! Please go shower her with hearts and sales!

We look forward to everyone's continued support, you guys are wonderful!

- Blair

Cookin' with Gas....

When I was a little girl, my dad used to say, "Now we're cookin'" when a project he was working on around the house was going well. He would say, "We're cookin' with gas!" when things were going exceptionally well! So, to borrow one of my dad's dad-isms, "We're cookin' with gas!"

I say this because Blair and I have officially opened our Etsy store and we have several items listed with more soon to come! We hope you'll take a little time to check us out and leave comments here on the Letters Mingle Souls Blog. There's a link to our little store on the side bar of the blog for easy navigation!

Please consider supporting our friend April by purchasing one of the Lymphoma Awareness Ribbons. All proceeds from the sale of the ribbons (minus shipping) will go to help April offset her medical costs. More Awareness Ribbons will be posted in the next couple of weeks.

Have a great day!

~Robin

Monday, May 17, 2010

Finally....

Robin here....

I just wanted to let everyone know that we will be placing the first listings in the Letters Mingle Souls Etsy shop this week. We have several items to list, so please check us out on Etsy.

I also wanted to mention that the Lymphoma Awareness / Support Ribbons are *finally* finished. I had a couple of setbacks in their creation, but I finally got my stuff together and have twenty-three ribbons ready to list in our store. All proceeds are going to April, who is fighting lymphoma as I type. We wanted to support her as much as possible. Cancer sucks and what better way to support our friend than by wearing a lime green ribbon made just for our friend, April!

Here's a couple of pictures. I made two different designs just because.... They are the limiest green I could make. Is limiest even a word? :)




Comments are most welcomed! Thanks for following us and for stopping by to read our blog!


All the best,
~Robin

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Art of Photography

I'm finding that the hardest thing I am dealing with to get items posting on Etsy is photography! Years ago, I had my own Etsy shop, and I always envied beautiful photgraphs of items! I appreciate good lighting and a catchy photo. Now that I have items ready to physically sell, I'm trying to find the best way to showcase my creations. I look around my office and my house for *that perfect* area to take pictures. Everything I am looking at is through camera eyes. I'm hoping I will find the perfect area, but until then, I am just snapping different areas.




The first batch of items I will be listing is envelopes, I've been experimenting with many different sizes and styles. I've found the way that I want to package them for shipping, but just can't find the look I want for pictures. Below is a picture I took with the envelopes 'bound' for shipping. It doesn't show off all the envelopes in the collection, that's what I'm struggling with. /sigh


On a happier note, things are coming together very smoothly. I'm enjoying the fun of having a blog again, I find myself looking for excuses to post new things! Thanks to everyone that has checked out our blog. We are planning some giveaways in the near future to kick off our shop, so please remember to bookmark us or "follow" us so that you won't miss them!

-Blair

Monday, May 10, 2010

It's Almost That Time!

With the grand opening of our Etsy shop Letters Mingle Souls right around the corner, Robin and I have been super busy working on items to list. The bulk of Robin's time has been spent on the support ribbons we are doing for April, a fellow Swap-Botter. April was recently diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We met April through the wonderful swapping site Swap-Bot. Robin had the wonderful idea of making lime green (the Lymphoma color) ribbons, all proceeds to go to April to help support her through this difficult time. The ribbons have been put on stand-still until the charms that were ordered make their way to Robin's home, there was a slight...or rather long delay in the shipping. She finally received word that the ribbons have been shipped, so as soon as they come in, the ribbons will be in the final step to completion.

I am working with members of Swap-Bot to coordinate an Official Cookbook, all recipes donated by members of the site. The money raised from them will also be given to her to help with all the financial strains that come along with chemotherapy, doctor visits, missing work...etc. The easiest way to track the sales of these items will be through Etsy. Robin and I decided over a month ago to open our own Etsy store, we are both moderately crafty. Thus began the process of picking names, thinking of ways to make the shop look pretty, and hopefully ways to make it a success!

Through the miles and over the phone and Yahoo Messenger, Robin and I have been working together, but separately, to create other things in our Etsy shop to showcase our talents. We are having way too much fun with our Cricut machines, downloading files and brainstorming ideas of things to create!

Please come back very soon to check out some pretty awesome envelopes, paper crafts, and crocheted beauties!

- Blair