carriage ride and family

This weekend was a family weekend. It wasn't as good as I hoped, but I got through it. I haven't seen this pat of my family for about 3 or 4 years. But it wasn't like that. We had lunch together and nobody talked to me seriously. It was like a show and I was watching.

The beste thing was the carriage ride between lunch and afternoon coffee party:

(see full image)

(see full image)

(see full image)

Unfortunatelly the weather wasn't nice and so we had to take an extra jacket with us. 

(see full image)

The conversation was slow, but the coffee and cakes were delicious!!

Wish you all a more than beautiful week!!

cake eating and horse whispering greetings

mElinus

morning

I like mornings. You can greet the day, enjoy yourself and relax until the day really starts. I don't like routine, but the first 30 minutes of a day are most of the time the same. A good self-made caffè latte (with an original Italian Espresso maker) with a double espresso and half milk half soy-milk, a book to read or my laptop.

That's how my day starts and I am happy every single second I can sit in the kitchen and enjoy my morning. 

We should enjoy ourself every day even if it's just for half an hour. And it doesn't matter if you take a bath or relax on the porch, sit in your garden or listen to music. Every day has 24 hours and I think we can take a little for ourselves. 

Let's appreciate and savor life's little pleasures. 

coffee-slurping greetings

mElinus

bad mood in summer time and sandwiches

Its been a long time since my last post. It's also been a long time since I saw the sun, even in summer. 

During the last weeks my life was an up and down, it was like living in two different worlds. Summer time means parties, weddings and BBQs, it means happy people, buying presents and preparing and organizing party games. But for me it also meant bad news, sleepless nights and sick bed visits.

It's never good to be in a bad mood, but in summer time it's even harder. I tried to switch between both like you do it with your TV-channels. And it worked for a couple of weeks, but I reached a point where I didn't knew what to do first, what is more important. 

My friend told me it's like juggling, and yes it feels like juggling with to many balls. But you can handle it and at least try to juggle with the balls you can keep up. But I couldn't hold the balls in the air any longer and so I tried to find a better metaphor. And I came up with the following:

MAKE A SANDWICH WITHOUT BREAD.

(it's from allposters.de)

You can try it again and again, you can put on cheese and bacon and sliced tomatoes and lettuce, but without bread or a roll it won't be a sandwich. Everything will fall of and even if you get it in your hand you won't eat much because it's to fat, to rich. (metaphorically speaking)

So my power (the bread) got lost during this time but I tried hard to keep all things in order and be what everybody ask me to be and to do (the bacon and cheese and tomato and lettuce and mayo and so on). Till one day there was a big BANG and everything fell off. And thats the point when I realized all this brought me to this bad mood feeling. All power was gone and I had to think about me and my life.

So I hope everybody feels way better, I try hard, every single day, to get back to normal. And I will tell you in the next post, what helped me to feel better, not exactly good, but way better. So if you are in a bad mood or you are feeling alone and hopeless be sure there will be more out there with this feelings, even in summer time.

big hugs and sunny-sanwich-making-greetings

mElinus

book recommendation: Divergent

This is my first book recommendation and I hope you like it. I bought the book second week of May and it took me only three days (Friday till Sunday) to finish it. It's the first novel from Veronica Roth and the name is 

DIVERGENT

It's in US stores since 5/3/2011 and costs 12 USD. I am reading it the second time right now and I like to tell you a little about the story:

The story takes place in the future Chicago, where many buildings are abandoned and moldered and the lake Michigan is just a marshland. The city is fenced since the last huge war and people do not live any longer like we know. They are separated in 5 different factions: the selfless people called ABNEGATION, the brave people called DAUNTLESS, the intelligent people called ERUDITE, the peaceful people called AMITY and the honest people called CANDOR. 

The main character is 16 year old Beatrice Prior and her way from her faction ABNEGATION to the faction she surprisingly chose at the choosing ceremony. This choosing ceremony takes place once a year with the young citizen of the city at the age of 16. Before the ceremony, all the teenagers have to go through a test which will show them to which faction they will belong for the rest of their life's. But the results are a secret to every single person and so they have the chance to decide on their own which faction they will belong. Beatrice has to make a tough decision between a life with her family or to follow her real feelings. She will rename herself Tris and experience a new life. Tris will go through a hard and strenuous initiation and has to learn who are her friends and to figure out what these confusing feelings for a fascinating but also exasperating boy have to do with her and her new life. While Tris has to go through all this, she has to keep a very dangerous secret, which she does not understand and while the conditions around change, she has to figure out how her secret may can help her and all she loves or if it may destroy her.

The book has 480 pages and is more a teen book, but it's worth to read! So if you need a good and easy-to-read book for this summer, I can highly recommend this novel. For more informations just go to the following fb pages:

DivergentSeries

DivergentExaminer

TheDivergentTrilogy

Please let me know in the comments below which book you read right know or which you can recommend. If you have already red Divergent, let me also know!! I am always highly interested in new and good books.

Wish you all a great day!!

reading and book-browsing greetings

mELinus

By the way, I also would recommend you to not just be / become a follower, but also become a email subscriber, so you will get an email with the latest post and than you can decide if you like to stop by and read the post here or just delete the message and check back later. 

Etsy Shop Feature: PookahDesigns

I am sorry for being offline during the last week. I had so much to do and so many things to organize. I was on a business trip again and a family member was in hospital. But this week we will have a new Etsy shop featured:

PookahDesign

This shop is all about art and color.

Pam has been a passionate artist since she was old enough to pick up a crayon! She has almost 30 years of experience as a fine artist in a variety of mediums including oils, gouache, charcoal, ink, and cut paper. Pam attended art schools in both New York and San Francisco, and her love for everything "art" contintues to grow every day. 

She is a lover of nature and of abstract design, and Pam can say that both have helped to foster her creativity through subject and expression. Her goal is to create something that expresses herself as an artist and makes a connection to the viewer. 

But you need more to be such a great artist and creative person. Pam has a wonderfully supportive husband and two boys, 8 and 5 years old. She is also very lucky to be from a family which helped and encouraged her every step of the way and she is eternally grateful to them!

Pastry Heaven

Of course I ask Pam the questions about 3 favorites:

Q)In which country/city would you live if you could choose? 

A) If I could choose anywhere in the world, I would live in Ireland. Not only because I am part Irish, but because it has everything that I want: breathtaking physical beauty, wonderful people and culture, beautiful music, rich and interesting history.

Q)What do you like more: apple or orange juice? 

A) I LOVE orange juice, especially when it's fresh squeezed. I don't even like apple juice!

Q)What is your favorite color?

A) My favorite color is green

So what do you think, are you not also of the opinion that these pictures are very special, unique and precious. I love the bold colors and the concept. A mix from paint and cut paper.

Which picture do you like the most?

I wish you all a wonderful week and I am sorry for not writing a last weeks feature!!

bold color greetings

mElinus

first skilled seller interview with bindingbee

This will be a very long post, but it's all for you!!!

My first sale and your messages brought me to the idea of doing an interview with a skilled seller. You wrote me messages and posted comments with all your questions. Last weekend I put all together and send the huge amount of questions to Megan.

Megan has her Etsy shop since July 2008 and made more than 300 sales. I chose her as my first interview partner for all your questions because I bought my first item through Etsy from her. She makes old and used books into journals. But please go to her shop and see for yourself: 

my first purchase from bindingbee

http://www.etsy.com/shop/bindingbee?ref=seller_info

Now lets go to the answers from Megan as promised:

(I haven't edited the answers from Megan!!)

................................................

I have been successful because I have worked hard to develop and diversify my business. I sell on etsy, maintain wholesale accounts to local and national boutiques and attend fine art and craft shows in my region. Some sellers are able to make their full pay check and "quit their day job" solely on etsy, but I think that might only be 1-2% of sellers. You can check the stats on that one, but I know that it is pretty low. 

If I were to start as a newbie today, the advice I would give myself straight away would be two fold. #1: Keep excellent records from the very first bit of materials purchased and mileage used. #2: find a good business mentor to ask questions of, share concerns and get feedback from. 

It has taken me about two years to really see my sales consistently strong on Etsy. I got my first sale shortly after opening my shop but the growth has been a bit spotty. Some months were great while others were really slow. Just this year have I started to see consistent, dependable sales every month on my etsy site. Getting good press has helped, as well providing more custom work that really sets me apart from my etsy competitors. 

Packaging is hugely important. I learned this lesson before I started selling when I was just purchasing handmade goodies from other etsy shops. The orders that came wrapped neatly in tissue with string and a hand-written note really impressed me. That little bit of extra care made me much more likely to be a return customer. Those little things really do matter! 

I use etsy's postage calculator. It's pretty accurate. I also have a scale and can always double check postage prices on the USPS website. I do all of my shipping through my local post-office. I've also taken advantage of printable stamps from paypal. 

I advertise on facebook, use twitter, and hand out cards at all of the art shows I go to. Doing a good job tagging items also helps to get customers to the shop. 

REALLY good photos is probably the best marketing tool for Etsy. It really, really matters! I hired a professional photographer to shoot some of my work and the pieces that she took photos of sell much quicker than the photos I had taken. If you are good at photographing your items, keep it up! If not, it's a worthy investment. 

The $7.00 promo spots are not worth it. I have never done it but have quite a few friends who are sellers who have tried it. None of them have seen increased sales as a result. 

Tagging is important! Do a search for items similar to yours and see which ones come up most easily. Research how they tag. Read the forums too! There is great information about how to tag items to get search results. 

I use social media to keep my brand name in people's minds. When they need a wedding guest book, a new journal, or something hand-bound they think of my brand because they see a little post by me in their news feed every day or two. Plus, I just really enjoy twitter. 

I have not gotten into circles at all. I don't have anyone in my circle because I found it annoying to see everyone else's activity when I logged into etsy I'm the wrong person to ask about that! 

My single best selling item is by far my custom wedding guest books. It is a unique and beautiful product, a good price-point and I work very hard to make each of my customers happy. 

Crafting an MBA has great information about how to properly price items. Check out her site for some great articles regarding that. 

15% for a Christmas sale.

I do sells through the Etsy app, "etsy on sale"

That is all that I can do! Thanks again for getting in touch.

*from Megan*

................................................

I would like to take the chance to thank Megan for her very detailed and helpful answers and of course to take the time.

PLEASE take the time to write a comment to let her know what do you think and if it was helpful. Also browse her shop and see the beautiful books she makes.

I wish you all an amazing weekend and enjoy it!!!

learning and packing* greetings

mElinus

*go on a short trip to visit friends

a cup in an awesome treasury, again!!!

These days are so busy, but I do my best to keep up!! Today it's just a short post, but I am so excited, because one of my cups was picked out for a treasury, again, that I have to tell you!!!

It is my golden beauty this time and I hope you will have a look at this very nice aranged treasury named:

 Ode to Joy

made by InvitingMoments

Please switch over and have a look at this beautiful treasury filled with nice little items!!!

NEWS---NEWS---NEWS

Facebook page is online:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Melinus-Treasures/130408857033607

 Please stop by and LIKE!! Thank you!!

Wish you all a day full of treasures!!

golden greetings

mELinus