Happ Happ Happy Boxing Day!!!

Happy Boxing Day!!

Will you be braving the crowds for deals!? Click "LIKE" if you will be staying home and shopping online!?

Then come on over for a 50% off Boxing day sale http://www.ElizabethMDJewelry.com/ with code "BOXINGDAY50S" on orders $20 or more.

*NEW* 6mm Rose Stud Earring Colour Choices

 These are the wonderful new colour options for my 6mm rose stud earrings.

Stop by HERE to check them out. At only $5 a pair you really can't go wrong.

What I Have Learned Since Starting ElizabethMD Jewelry

I would like to start off with a fact. I am a very indecisive person. I think up phenomenal (in my own humble opinion) ideas, and then......well.....sometimes, I change my mind, forget the idea all together,or it gets put on the back burner. I know this happens to a fair amount of you ....am I right!? Ohh please humble me and say yes, so I don't feel so bad. There is just so much STUFF to do every day, that it's hard to choose what to do when, where and how.

ElizabethMD Jewelry has been open for 3 years, But if you consider marketing effort via social media, advertising etc. I'm still a pretty "fresh" shop. Typical reasons of course. You can say life got in the way, responsibilities got in the way. What an awful thought, thinking you can't do what you love because of "obligation".  I made that mistake once. Now as I am starting to recover from a very long bout of health issues, I'm finding ways to incorporate my studio time into my everyday life, and I'm LOVING it. Even doing my very FIRST Craft show on the 17th of this month. Check here for event details.

So I decided to show you what I have learned over the course of ElizabethMD Jewelry's  complete existence. By no means am I an expert at all, and I am sure I will be adding to this list over time. So please check back, as I update it.



-The quote "The harder you work the more it pays off", sometimes takes longer then expected.
-Never give up
-PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.....This means EVERYTHING...photo's, descriptions, advertising, and of course the craft you have chosen!
-You don't need big expensive equipment. 9 times out of 10, you can find second hand tools and equipment to use.
-Keep an open dialog with customers. Once they have purchased let them know personally you have received there order, when it will be shipped (approx. is ok for the first email), and to thank them for choosing one of your pieces. If you gave an estimate send them another brief email to let them know that there package has been shipped (and include a tracking # if applicable), then as an added bonus, a couple of weeks after they have received it, send one last thank you, to see how they are enjoying your design.
-As items expire in my shop, I like to take that opportunity to decide whether there is a reason it has not sold. I update photo's, check to see if the description could be better, and of course check my SEO/keywords. I have been known to completely remove a piece of jewelry, dismantle it and use the pieces in other designs.
- Keep a schedule-If I don't keep a general non changing schedule. Nothing gets done.
-READ READ READ. Never stop reading about how to better your shop/business. Things change ALL the time. Learning is SOOO important to staying afloat.


I would love to hear from you too. Tell me what you have learned since starting your shop or business.

2012 Shipping Schedule For The Holiday's

 (Please click on image for clearer view)

For cost of each please contact prior to ordering, and I will send you an all in one invoice. Including correct shipping costs, dependent on what shipping you request.

Orders over $60 receive free standard shipping. This includes traceability code as well.  

For a 15% discount when ordering type in "MerryBlogness12" when checking out at ElizabethMD Jewelery

My DIY Wedding Day

I thought I would show you some of the DIY my parents and I did, to make mine and Matthew's wedding day as beautiful as it was.

The beautiful dress me and my mother designed. Which my Mom then made.

                                                                            

The little pocket my  mother sewed into my dress to contain both of my Grandfathers things. A handkerchief, and a couple tiny little tools (Grandpa S. was a woodworker)

                                                                             

The bouquet's, boutonniere's, and corsages (as well as there bands) were all made by me, out of silk roses. I didn't want any real flowers at our wedding. This also allowed me to use some white roses from my Grandmothers funeral as well.

                                                                       

 

These are the stunning centerpieces my father spent months making. Can you believe they are all hand cut, hand painted, and put together from COFFEE FILTERS. They also were used in place of pew bows (gosh I despise those pew bows everyone uses BLAHHH)

                                                                         

Our wonderful wedding party.

                                                                            

A beautiful symbol of the generations. Matt is wearing his Papa's ring and the broach I am wearign is actually two made into one. One is my Nana's and the middle is my Grandma S's.

Our beautiful memorial table for our Grandparents.

A close up of the center of the memorial table.

 

I will be doing a tutorial really soon for my YOUTUBE Channel. On the weave I used for the corsage bands. So keep an eye out for that.

Second Hand Shop HAUL Video

Studio Update/Ramble

Birthday Bash SALE

TOMORROW TOMORROW...My Birthday sale end at 10PM EST Tomorrow (May 24th)


ElizabethMD Jewelry
Receive 25% off with coupon code MAY24
FREE SHIPPING for orders over 40$ with coupon code FREEOVER40

The Etsy Circling Craze

Circling on Etsy is a pretty big thing right now. First introduced back in 2010, Circling helps you connect with other sellers and buyers and discover what people are wanting at the moment. Think Facebook, only all people see in their circle "feed" is what other people are favouriting. Then if they like it too, they favourite it and or buy it! VOILA advertising at its most simplistic :D.....SOO if this is the case, what is the point of having an option to privatize your favourites? It defeats the point of circling right!? When you favourite something, others are supposed to see it. I am only recently figuring this out as I used to privatize my favourites as well. But as I have gotten more and more into the circling underbelly I`m starting to think one thing about the privatizing of favourites.

"WHAT ARE YOU HIDING??"

Are you hiding a possible gift for someone that could see it!? Seems pointless considering how easily lost things can get in our dozens to hundreds of pages of favouriting.

OR

Are you doing the "inspiration" search!? (These I'm not  big fan of)

Anyways, my point is. I love circling people and finding out what others are interested in and liking right now. I think circling and circling groups are a great addition to the advertising process that we all don't like, but this is actually FUN.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of circling and people privatizing there favourites.

It's Good To Be Back

I'm so excited right now!! I haven't been this excited about creating jewelry in a really long time. See I started making jewelry loving to craft one of a kind designs that you couldn't find anywhere else! I made it once and usually didn't have the components to make it again. I was doing pretty decently and then I started looking around and seeing things easy and mass produced like style. HOPING it would be popular and get noticed. I stopped designing what I loved, and started making these simple things like rings and stud earrings. While I do love some of them. Some I am definitely not happy with :(....... You would think that when sales slowed to a crawl I would have realized "HEY, this isn't working!!.....Lets get back to what I love doing!" But I didn't, and I kept plugging away trying to fix something  "I" broke. So I spent some time away at the end of February and in March started realizing I didn't want to (not love anymore, didn't want to) make jewelry anymore. I wanted to find something new to work on and occupy my days. Two weeks later, I found myself in the studio printing the marriage license forms for the wedding and decided to wait while sitting at my design table...I started to kind of pack everything up and clean it up thinking I would do something else there. Then as I was touching the stones and crystals in my hands, it started to all come back to me (like a Celine Dion song....inclusive with the flashing lights). So for the first time ever in the history of this studio. I would like to show you something I designed exclusively for myself (doesn't help that I only had one stone to begin with). This one bracelet spawned more bracelets and one necklace so far. I am loving the boho style I have started to create.

I am absolutely LOVING this bracelet and just like the other bracelets and necklace that I now have in the shop I can stack as many of them on my arm as I want :D

I am honestly so glad to be back and have placed some things in the sales category in the shop (just click here)

Michaels Haul

Hey guys,


I wanted to show everyone a recent haul I did at Michaels craft store!

As I am sure everyone knows by now that Michaels is a touch expensive, but they do have there shining moments. Like a week or so ago I went there on my monthly grocery shop and picked up these great buys.

I know it's a little fuzzy!

So basically I picked up this cute little turnstyle caddy, it's black on the outside with damask on the inside. It has 4 main solid compartments inside that will be holding my tools, then it has 6 soft pockets on the outside, which I think I'm going to keep my dyes and mini stamps in :D This regularly was something like 17$ or 19$ and I got it on clearance for 9.99, Then I picked up these really beautiful swarovski crystal rhinestones in ruby red, a bronze and a lighter bronze (now they were regular price :( , I just had to get them for a necklace though!) Then I got 4 chalk ink stamps in a deep red, bright spring green and bubble gum pink as well as a beautiful sky blue! These were 1.50$ each. Lastly I also got this mini studio g stamp set of three and it comes with another ink pad, I got this for 1.50 as well :D

This little haul was a total of a little over 20$ then I had a coupon for 25% off as well as an old giftcard from a few Christmases ago (there gift cards don't expire or diminish in value with time. Penny for penny is what is on there until it's all spent.). Out of pocket I spent 2$ and some change!

I loved this shop so much, and I can't wait to be able to do it again. So let me know if you want to see more of these!? I love doing hauls when I can :D

A New Day

This week has started off rather swimmingly well. I seem to have lost my insomnia (which was killing me, and not letting me work in the studio) I have since been back in the studio as of Monday and will have new jewelry in the shop daily.

It's Feb 1 a new day, a new me, a new YOU. I'm becoming a firm believer that every day is a new start. Starting over and trying something new, maybe even something that failed in the past.....who says the second, third, fourth time around it wont work or be a success!? Every time you fail your mistakes teach you something. When you learn from your mistakes you tweek things and do it differently the next time.

Today's goal is to get ALL of the new jewelry off my camera and sorted and start editing it! A HUGE task LOL. Let me know what you are doing today :D

Beautiful huh!!???
LOL
I finally crashed one night, and H2B thought he was being funny/cute (whatever) and took this LOL

What I Feed My H2B Monday -Red Lobster Style Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

 As I promised I am starting my New Year off with sticking to my word! I am starting this week off with my H2B's FAV new tasty treat. I came across these biscuits at the beginning of December when we were invited to a early Christmas potlock dinner at a dear friend of H2B's. I decided on these biscuits not really knowing what people liked. I guess I just kind of figured, who doesn't like cheese?? Right!?

So I picked up this recipe (the only one I found that didn't use the dreaded bisquick mix) from Purple Foodies. I made them we tested them they tasted great. We just didn't realize HOW GREAT!

I swear no word of a lie they 2 dozen biscuits we made for I believe 10 people possibly, was gone within 5 minutes. They were that good!

After making them a second time the other night (needed to use up some block cheese before going bad, and also wanted a reward for doing so many dishes that have piled up over the last week or so while I have kind of been out of the loop). I realized the amount of cheese is optional, let me explain...not really optional in the sense of omitting it, just in the idea of how much. I ended up using probably about 2-3 cups of shredded cheese in the second try of the biscuits. I have also changed the "top coat" as I like to call it. Doubling the butter amount and applying two coatings. As soon as one drys I spooned some more on. It makes them so devilishly delicious :D, and makes us very happy to have them.

This recipe is for 12 large biscuits or 24 small biscuits. I made small ones for the dinner party and big ones like these for us a few days ago. I really hope you take a break from whatever creativity your doing and try these! I have a gut feeling these little indulgences will make you happy too :D

Cheddar Cheese Biscuits Recipe

Adapted from: Food and Whine  & The purple Foodie
Yield: 12 large biscuits or 24 small ones

2 cups/250g all-purpose flour (unbleached or regular)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/3 cup/75g butter, cold, cut into chunks
2 Tbsp. canola or any flavourless, odourless vegetable oil
1 heaping cup/ 6-7 oz. /150-170g grated cheddar cheese (sharp flavoured is best, I used extra sharp) (I ended up tripling this, as we like them SUPER cheesy :D)
1/2 – 2/3 cup or 120-160ml milk (I didn’t need more than 1/2 a cup)

For brushing on top: I personally doubled this part the second time. As I said before, I liked it better that way, but you have your options.
3 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes or 1 Tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and garlic powder.
2. Add the cubed butter. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut butter into flour until it is coarse, pea-sized (doesn’t need to be fine).
3. Add oil, grated cheddar cheese and the milk. Stir till well combined and holds together.
4. Make sure to keep adding milk a bit at a time, just until the dough is moistened and you can no longer see any raw flour.
5. Drop approximately 1/4 cup portions of the dough onto an un-greased cookie sheet or a Silpat using an ice cream scoop or large spoon.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes in a preheated oven at 400F/.
7. While biscuits are baking, melt 3 tablespoons butter is a small bowl with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and the parsley.
8. When biscuits come out of the oven, use a brush to spread this garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits. Do this a few times – it’s fun to watch all the butter getting absorbed into the biscuit! Use up all of the butter. Serve warm.

I didn't use a brush to brush the garlic butter mixture on ours (we don't have one yet) Instead I just used my measuring spoon (really any spoon will work) and carefully poured it over.

I really hope you try this. I loved it! My H2B loved them, our friends loved them, and I think you will too.

When you do get around to it, leave a comment down below, and let me know what you think!



Sincerely,

Liz

No 2012 Resolutions, Just Solutions

I've been thinking long and hard over the last month of holidays, of what exactly I want to do with this blog!? Educate!? show you my life? etc. So here is what I have planned. This is going to be my daily schedule until further notice (yes I know when it comes to writing ...which is not my strong suit, I'm a bit flakish) I want to educate you, show you my world...my studio, I even want to start doing more tutorials and reviews. I will bring you tidbits from the DIY planning of my wedding coming up in the late fall and lots and LOTS of inspirational photos.


SUNDAY--------OFF/optional
MONDAY-------New recipes (who doesn't want to try a new tasty treat or meal?)
TUESDAY-------Tips and Tricks
WEDNESDAY---Reviews or interviews
THURSDAY-----My Week so far
FRIDAY---------Tutorials (because thats the best thing to end the week with, is trying something new!)
SATURDAY-----off/Picture show of my inspiration board

I'm really hoping to keep up with this and some encouragement from everyone would be truly appreciated :D

Sincerely,

Liz