Its raining again .....

These little beauties are my best sellers by far, and very apt for all the stormy weather just now!

Snap a pair for yourself here in my Etsy shop.

x0x

Competition time!

name that chain

this months competition was to help me decide on a name for this new silver charm necklace.

Entrants had to share this Facebook post on their page, then leave me a comment with their suggestions.

Thank you soooo much to everyone who joined in and gave me their fantastic names. All 50 of you!!!!

To keep it all above board I wrote out all suggestions, folded them up, and put them in my favourite bowl.

Drum roll please.......

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

1st prize goes to Caroline McLaren

for "Come fly with me"

Congratulations Caroline, you'll get your very own 

"come fly with me" charm necklace in the post!

But with so many wonderful suggestions I just couldn't leave it there.......

 I love this suggestion by Melanie Smith. 

I think this is the perfect name for this necklace, don't you?

 This little bird charm necklace is now called "On the wings of love". Thank you Melanie! You win 50% off any item in my shop! I will send you a message on Facebook with your winning code.

But please do not be disheartened all of the rest of you who didn't win. I would like to offer you all  a 25% discount code, as a huge thank you for taking part in my competition. I will send you all messages via FB with your codes.

Thank you again to everyone who joined in, keep those creative juices flowing for next months competition! 

Treasury love

My It's raining again earrings have been sneeking into lots of treasuries on Etsy lately. 

I always feel so warm and fuzzy when people chose something of mine, of all the products on Etsy, to feature my creations. 

This selection "Rainy Day" was curated by Simooone, who makes amazingly funky felt creations. 

I wish she had these in my size!

colour crush

shades of grey...

 1

 2

 3

 4

 5

6

1. grey via pinterest 2.party dress 3. miss print 

4. 1bp 5. Alexandra Grablewski 6. Be Side Store

something for the weekend

b e s i d e 

the beautiful work of christina romeo  :: her etsy shop

:: new designs ::

3 wishes charm bracelet

If you had 3 wishes what would they be?

mine are:

to be 85lbs lighter

to be able to drive

to be better at adding up numbers in my head

My latest creation is the 3 wishes charm bracelet, available from my Etsy shop for $14.95

I have used my favorite gemstone Jade with a fresh water pearl and a beautiful golden filigree bead.

:: fashion mix :: nautical ::

Sail away my little sail ! by Trissh featuring Marni shoes

Gold Nautical necklace by me! $18/ £12.15

Linen-blend striped tank, $90
Cotton-twill blazer, $209
Emma twill pleated shorts, $158
Fashion Shoes - Designer shoe store, $248
Christian Louboutin Mini Loubi python clutch NET-A-PORTER.COM, 695 EUR
Stephen Webster Scale Bracelet With Mother Of Pearl Inlay, $2,418
Alexander McQueen - 215556AB80Y (Grey) - Accessories, $194
Vogue UK January Catherine McNeil by Patrick Demarchelier Fashion...
Rectangle Frame Made My Zerin Sara <3
Bone Background Paper - $24, $39.14, $72 Photography Seamless...

:: work in progress ::

I would like to say a huge thank you to one of my customers who insired this necklace.
(You know who you are!).
Over the last couple of weeks I have been toying with the idea of having a couple of charms on a chain. I tried different ways of combining them but each time I felt they just all clumped together. I don't know why but I just didn't think to layer the chains as well!

So here is one of my latest designs, available in my Etsy shop, "Lucky Charm Necklace".

I love the idea and symbolism of lucky charms. When I was small I would carry a little pebble or stone in my pocket for luck. There is something very comforting about the physical reminder that luck or love is on my side.

For this necklace I have chosen a star, a key and a closed circle. The star charm has great meaning to me because of the words sung by Jimminy Cricket "when you wish upon a star..." and also one of my favourite childern's books "Laura's Star".

The key is a symbol of everlasting love, and for me that powerful feeling gives me the strength to give things a try.

The closed circle is a symbol of karma and love. Remebering how my actions affect others on the solid, closed circle of love remind me of my family. I feel their support when I hold this charm.

Do you have a lucky charm? Do you have little trinkets that hold meaning to you? I would love to hear about the little symbols you have, if only to not feel like a looney for carrying stones in my pocket!

:: inspiration ::

This is a sneaky peak at what I'm working on at the moment. It's a little project involving all of my loves, jewellery, embroidery, collage and now movie making. Things are still in the early stages but I'll keep you posted on how things come along.

I have had a lovey week, spending time with family and friends, planting and nurturing little seedlings in my garden and eating wonderful fresh food in the garden. I have been working on some new jewellery for my Etsy shop as well.

Maybe it is the sunshine or the smell of summer in the air, but I am being drawn to simple designs, shapes and colour combinations. I think of Indian summers looking at this necklace, the rich heat of the red semi precious Carnelian.

I have hit a wall with my bed time reading lately, do you have any recomendations? I like a bit of everything, so let me know what is gripping you at the moment. Have a lovely week x

:: work in progress ::

Simple Elegance :1:

I have been working away on a new range Simple Elegance over the last few days. With boxes of beautiful gemstones on my desk I often feel that it is each stones characteristics that should be focused on and not lost amongst other details. So I decided to keep these necklaces simple and let the rich or light colours and textures of each stone speak for itself.

The necklace above has a string of Carnelian gemstones atached to a gold chain. The stones are 6mm, so small and sweet.

Carnelian is said to bring peace & harmony, give strength to your voice and give courage.What a lovely idea, to have little gemstones of strength laying on your neck.

I'll be listing this necklace and more gold and silver Simply Elegant pieces this evening in

my Etsy shop.

:: work in progress ::

sew lovely - silver charm necklace

now available in my Etsy shop

I want to say a cheesey hello to all my new blog followers and visitors. It is always so exciting to see new people finding my blog, I often wonder who people find me.

Things have taken a giant leap forward on my re visit to my etsy experiment . I have drawn up a mind map doodle (on the back of some wall paper!), and pinned it above my desk. The centre of my map is my goal for this year. And all the legs coming off are ways I'm going to acheive my aim.

Having read this post by Dave Navarrow on how to get More Time Now ebook, I decided to narrow my goals list down. The huge list was beginning to get me down and kind of pulling me off track. Choosing 1 goal for the year, 5 for the month and 3 each week I am able to stay focused. And all of theses are tasks to get me to my years aim.

Making jewellery is part of my aim, to have 5 new items to list a week. But this is such a small part of the bigger picture. I have to get my necklaces ect out the world and that is where I'm concentrating my efforts at the moment. I have sent out a new press release to 5 magazines from my collected list. And it has begun to pay off already! One of my necklaces has been featured on Bliss.co.uk

Let me know if you would like to read more about writing a press release and I can maybe do a DIY post.

:: weekend love::

This weekend I'm showing my etsy shop Laura Baillie Designs some love. I have loved photographing on the lovely piece of grey slate I was gifted by a friend, but now with spring in the air I felt that a change was needed. I have decided to go with the vintage, French, ephemera feel and I am so happy with how they have turned out.

I have used some decorated chopped tomatoe cans as props. Have a look tomorrow and see if you can spot them. And I'll give you a little :: day of diy :: on how to make your own later in the week.

I'm also thinking about what creations would be perfect for my Mum for Mother's Day this year. She shares my love of birds, so I'm thinking something sewn and bird like.

:: my life ::

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftcreativity/2366201981/">Spring inspired shelfs

I think I need some shelves like these for my kitchen. I have a small galley kitchen and every inch of work space is essential, but I long to have some of my little trinkets around me as I cook. Something like this would be perfect.

MrLB has returned from his travels and had a lovely time. I had a wonderful adventure but most of all found a great calmness and new confidence in myself, which has been a long time coming. I am now lookng forward to doing it again, rather than dreading the time and going to great lengths to plan over nighters with friends.

I am working on a shop re-vamp at the moment. I have some exciting new bracelet designs that just don't photograph well on the grey slate. Plus I feel it is time for a change. I have taken some snaps today, but the light has been quite grey so I'll take the rest tomorrow.

Have a lovely weekend, do you have plans? x

Monthly Goal Meetup - November

I have decided to join in with Jenna over at Modish for their monthly goals meetup. I have been busy over the last couple of weeks planning, making and planning some more so now it's time to share some of what I've been doing.

:: Octobers goals & what I accomplished::

1. Work on new website. Y

2. Work out new marketing and PR strategy. Y

3. Have 100+ items listed in my jewellery Etsy shop. Y

5. Make up & list 20 new collage pieces for my paper Etsy shop. N

6. Plan this years Christmas card designs, maybe make some up. N

7. Get to 1000 followers on Twitter. N

8. Work out Facebook fan pages. N

9. Start working on a "Stitch a Day" project. Y

I have realised this month that I'll have to keep Papier Delights as a hobby, I can't invest as much time into it as I would like and I simply don't have enough hours in the day. Facebook fan pages are still a mystery to me! I'm going to need to set aside some serious time working out properly how they work. I think I did not too badly last month and am just about where I wanted to be by this time.

:: Novembers goals::

1. Launch new website by 10th Nov.

2. Contact local and national press about it.

3. Share some festive DIY tutorials.

4. Get sales on new website.

5. Make up 50 Christmas cards.

6. Host a jewellery party or 2.

Wish me luck!

New Jewellery

Cream, Gold and Topaz Brooch

Copper and Topaz Wire Wrapped Ring

Some new designs inspired by my "Golden" post the other day.

The sun is shining today so everything on my desk looks sooo shiney and bright. I'm going to spend the rest of today working on some more brooch designs and some new bracelets with new supplies which arrived this morning. Oh, I love it when the postie rings the bell, I know then that he is holding a package from foreign lands with shiney things inside!

Etsy Experiment - part 2

This weeks instalment of my Etsy experiment has a few interesting findings. I launched my new collection last week and learned so much in the process. I carried on with my tweeting, posting in the forums, listing and renewing. But I'm missing something.

My stats on GA are showing a steady decline in visits to my shop even although I'm not doing much different to my first 2 weeks of the experiment. My % has dropped down to 45% visitor rate!!! So I'm taking a step back to look at the whole picture. Who, what, where, when?

Who - who is my target market?

What- what are my potential customers look for from me?

Where- where are they, where do they shop, where can I reach them?

When - when are my potential customers looking for a purchase from me?

This has given me so much to think about just with these 4 questions. I have decided to carry on with the experiment, baring in mind it is summer holiday time and with the realisation that I am going to work 100 times harder at bring new customers to my Etsy, from outside other sources.

I currently have my work in 4 shops/ boutiques, but I think now is the time to boost that up a little maybe to 6 before Christmas. I am going to start planning now for some "Girls Night" parties for the festive shopping season. I am going to research contacting blogs to see if they will feature me, (I read a Storque article about this but can't seem to find it, will keep looking!) I am going to commit to 3 blog posts a week, me, work, life and just as importantly I'm going to stop by and visit all my followers and friends.

So my round up this week is yet again more reaserching, I found Seth Godin's blog again and am going to re read his words of wisdom.

My question of the day is : How can I bring potential customers to my shop?

(When I have some clear answers on this I'll let you know!)

UPDATE: One way to do this is to have kind fellow bloggers and Etsy sellers like Katydiddys, who so kindly used my "Etsy Experiment" in her July Ezine! Head over to her blog and say hi, she is a lady full of creativity and great business advice. Thank you KD!

Update

I am listing more new pieces for "Let Me Tell You A Story". Yesterday did not go as planned. My model couldn't make it, she has a sicky bug so I have another beautiful girlie who can help me tonight. But I decided to put the images I have up anyway. Then, all day and until about 1am I struggled to get anything listed on Etsy, and at that point gave up.

But today is a new day and I'm getting things up no problem now. Thank you to everyone who stopped by for a look at the new jewellery. If you haven't had a chance yet they are here.

I am going to start working on a painting commission this evening, a beautiful house built in 1850 I think. I am quite excited about it, from the photos it looks like soft blonde sandstone and it is being hugged by lushious trees. I let you have a look once I'm started.

Before

On the home front everything is good. Pablo is stripped and still thinks he's the man. He has been very wingey over the last couple of days and I can't work out why. We have played so many games, hidden treats and his normal big walks. We had my friends' dog to stay last weekend and Stu thinks he may be looking for company. He meets and plays with so many other other dogs everyday, but I suppose it's not the same as snuggling up at home.

After

I have been bitten by a nasty mosquito, I know, who'd have thought it in Paisley! But there seems to be a family of them living in our back garden. It is right on my ankle bone and is soooo itchy and swollen, yuk!

So my things to do today are:

List some more jewellery on Etsy

Tidy my desk

Take a note of my stats for the day

Make up some new earrings

Do a spot of online shopping (I have my eye on this top)

Show my little garden a bit of love. I have lettice to plant and some beans!

Do some sketches for the commission

What are your plans for today?

xoxox

Let me tell you a story.....

Only 1 day to go untill my new range "Let me tell you a story" is available from the shop! I have been combining gold and aged brass frames with crystal, jet and mother of pearl stones. And I am so excitied about sharing them with you. It feels like this range has been such a long time coming together.

I have had so much fun working on these new designs and it has inspired me to add some new creations to Papier Delights too. (I'll be listing these over the next few days.) I'll away for just now and get everything ready. But I'll hopefully see you tomorrow.

Five on a Friday

The weekend is here! I class Friday as the first day of my weekend so we have arrived.

In celebration of my giddiness I am going to join in with "Five on a Friday", which I found on http://www.starrybluesky.wordpress.com/.

"Anemones - Signed Fine Art Photograph"

This is a beautiful print from Rhiannon's shop .

Well these finds made this morning take care of no.1

I have been looking for some culenary inspiration this week and found this tasey recipe for a tomato and basil tart here. I think I'll give it a try on Sunday for a lovely summery lunch.

Another artist for you now, Michelemaule, an artist from Portland, Oregon. Her work ranges from soft coloured prints to quircky collages. I think I found her blog last year and had my eye on some of her prints for some time. Last night I was Twittering away and MrLB asked to see who I was chatting to and I showed him Michele's work. He agreed that her art is fresh and funky and bought me a few of her prints for my birthday next week! I am soooo excited, I have already decided where they are going to hang and plan to buy some frames this weekend.

This song is one of my all time favs, featured in Dirty Dancing (please don't let that put you off!). At least once a week I'll pass MrLB in the hall and he'll be humming it and then it gets back into my head. Solomon Burke aka "The king of rock and soul" is well worth a listen to.

What do you get?

What do you get when you mix your two loves?

"Something old, something new 020" available here www.laurabailliedesigns.co.uk

and

"Delicate Musings" available here www.laurabailliedesigns2.etsy.com

Well I am working on something new, a little something special and I'll keep you posted with sneaky updates.

I have a busy day planned, I aim to:

make up and list 2 new designs in the shop,

visit all your blogs - neglect again,

try to work my head round html code for a newsletter and new blog layout,

give LBD2 some love.

On the experiment front, things are still going well. Using Google Analytics I have worked out the times when my shop gets most of it visits, so I am trying to list then. I am also finding more people heading back to the shop regularly and I think this is because I am listing new items everyday. I am still getting a sale a day and want to keep the momentum going. I read an old Storque article yeasterday "make everyday a holiday" and I am going to try and impliment this this week.

I have found that now in week 2 my shops hearts are increasing by 1 or 2 everyday as well. Again I think this is because I am listing more often and reaching more potential customers. It is all a learning curve, but I'm having so much fun doing it, and I have realised the most important change I have made is taking my Etsy shop more seriously and believing that I too can be a successful seller. Believeing in my self!

xoxox

P.S. head over and visit a new friend I have made from Twitter no less! www.daisylovesblog.blogspot.com is the home of beautiful photographs, interesting finds and great interviews.