Bodacious Babes Bodyfest

I will be selling my jewelry this Saturday at the Bodacious Babes Bodyfest, from 6-9pm, at the Southwest Community Center, 6820 SW 45th Ave.

This (ladies only) event will have many indulgences, including:
- Pampering Spa Treatments
- Mini-massages
- Class demonstrations
- Music
- Drop in Fitness Classes
- Wine tasting
- Tasty bites
- Local vendors selling their wares

As an extra incentive, my good friend Tara will also be there with her YUMMY cheesecake kabobs!

It would be wonderful to see you there to join in the fun. Come out and spoil yourself – you know you deserve it – this is the perfect time before the Holidays get nutty!!

Donation to Café au Play

One of the greatest joys for me is giving away jewelry. Of course I realize that making money will only keep my business afloat in the long run – so I also enjoy sales. But my true passion is … giving.

I love the look on a lady’s face when she receives a piece of TK Jewelry that’s EXACTLY what she wanted – either as a gift or as a purchase.

So when I learned through the local PDX Etsy group of an opportunity to donate some jewelry for a raffle at Café au Play, I jumped at the chance. My new friend Gretchen – Salmon Street Studios was the coordinator of the Halloween event on October 19 and I really enjoyed chatting with her during the process.

I ended up donating the divine long necklace and matching earrings set (pictured here) – which Gretchen told me were well received at the event.

Though I wasn’t able to make the event – it looks like it was a ton of fun!

BOO!!

My new Etsy Shop

I have had my tkoriginals etsy shop for about a year now. My friend Suzanne recommended I “get on there cuz they have some great stuff!!” So I did.

Mostly I posted one of kind pieces cuz I still had the TK Originals/Jewelry site at that point.

BUT with the shopping cart down … looks like Etsy is gonna be my TK Jewelry shop for a little while at least. Hubby is focused on getting my TK Bridal Jewelry portfolio online … which is really a priority.

Etsy totally works. It’s got all the functionality and networking capabilities I need for now. So I decided to get a TK Jewelry etsy URL … check it out www.tkjewelrydesigns.etsy.com.

Most of the stuff there now is what was on the TK Jewelry site … but I will also be adding one of a kind stuff and when I get my butt in gear with photography things will really get flowing!

Etsy workshop

Tonight I attended a workshop at Trillium Artisans in SE Portland. It was led by Ryan from Littleput Books, a very successful seller on Etsy.com. Since we’re on hold with the site til hubby figures out a viable shopping cart option, Etsy is looking like a great option for TK Jewelry right now.

At the workshop Ryan focused a lot on how to be a successful seller on Etsy. She talked about everything from taking dynamic photos to tools for successful marketing (both on etsy and off). There are definitely some amazing photographers and sellers out there, like TQB Designs and Gemmfactix. Ryan herself is a self-proclaimed etsy-a-holic. She spends a lot of time on the site, renewing listings, adding new listings and networking on the forums and through treasury’s and other tools. She has also building a very successful international wholesale business. Her stuff rocks … I’ve purchased a few of her pieces for myself and friends (these two pieces).

The workshop was amazing and it was fun putting faces with names of some of the sellers I see regularly on the PDX Etsy forum and website.

Shopping cart woes

My hubby is great. He is not only an amazing graphic designer (designed my TK Jewelry logo and “the girl”) he also strives to make the TK Jewelry web site as modern and functional as possible. He’s always looking for new cool ways to make the site more dynamic. Yes – I am totally stealing his lingo – but I sound like I know what I’m talking about right?

Anywho – we had some trouble with VirtueMart (our online shopping cart through Joomla). It seems that VM has been having some trouble for many folks. Which sucks cuz all the inventory and descriptions are in there … hours of work … gotta be tossed.

He looked into a couple other options (Zen Cart is at the top of the list), however given the time constraints of several upcoming shows, I’ve opted to use Etsy.com instead. There’s a lot of built in functionality to Etsy, including options to add up to 4 photos, lots of networking and cross-marketing potential. In addition, their prices are very reasonable.

I have a lot of work ahead of me – taking newer, better, more dynamic photos and writing descriptions. There’s always something!!