I need an ArtFire buddy

So Etsy and I obviously get along pretty well.

I love the set-up of 1KM and since having a store and listing items is free I plan to stay there. Business isn't swift, but I can afford to be patient for free and I have had a few sales there.

ArtFire. I've struggled with it. I tried DaWanda and iCraft and ShopHandmade and got no response. I didn't shut my stores down on those venues, but I'm taking things down as they sell and not adding new things.

With ArtFire I'm paying $7 a month. Business has been slow, but when I've made sales they're nice solid ones. Which makes me want to hang on.

(Meaning I'm selling only necklaces and bracelets on ArtFire. Etsy and 1KM sell mostly the lower priced noserings and earrings. Go figure!)

Now they've reinitiated their Free Ride program, with a twist. If you can refer 12 people and they join as a Verified member (paying $12 a month to open a store there) you, PLUS a friend of your choice receive a Free Ride. Meaning you quit paying the monthly store fee. Which would be great.

So I was thinking what folks need to do-- instead of everyone trying to refer 12, two-people teams need to try to refer 6 a piece. So the team picks one person and both use her referral code to try to build 12 referrals. When she gets her free ride, the other goes to her freind who helped pass on her code. Make sense?

Who wants to team with me?

On a totally different note I listed my entry for the Etsy Beadweavers Team June Humor Challenge. I think it would be a great graduation gift!

I wove a ribbon of peyote on the diagonal in two subtle and shimmery shades of white glass Delicas and detailed it with clear rainbow-finished beads. The piece snaps closed, invisibly.

When you get it you get it and when you don't, you don't-- as any lover of Gary Larson's The Far Side knows! This clever little tongue-in-cheek bracelet proclaims the wearer's geekery, but only fellow geeks will notice! I called it Inside Jokes!

And while you're here check Tuesdays post to enter to win a $25 thebeadedlily gift certificate or two!

how we celebrate 500

Well-- celebrating 500 sales on Etsy! And a month off from blogging. I've been horrible, I know. Thank you for not unfollowing, unsubscribing and unfriending me. You're patience itself!

So how do I say thank you?

I've decided to take a page from Pamela over at TotusMel. I'll edit the page, of course!

To celebrate the 500 sales I'm going to have a little mini celebration!

First, till June 1st I'm going to have a little sale! 20% off anything and everything in either my Etsy or Artfire shops-- *BUT* you have to add a note with the word *blog* in it. On every purchase from here to midnight on the 31st I'll refund 20% of the item cost as long as the note is there. This is just for my blog buddies. No note, no refund!

Second, a gift! Because taste varies so widely, I like to offer thebeadedlily Gift Certificates instead of picking out prizes myself. Last time I offered a $25 Certificate. This time I'm going to offer two of them!

The drawing is open to everyone!

For your first entry, please visit my Etsy or ArtFire shop, pick out two things and leave me a comment here. Tell me--
what you love the most
what you'd wear the most
how I can get a hold of you in the event that you win

For another entry, leave a comment saying that you've tweeted the giveaway and leave a link to the tweet in the comment.

For another entry, link the giveaway on your Facebook or MySpace accounts. Again, leave a separate comment mentioning either Facebook or MySpace.

For another entry, mention the sale and the giveaway on your blog, complete with a picture and a link. Again come back, leave a separate comment with a link to your post!

For two more entries, take advantage of the sale, return here and mention your purchase!

So if you run through everything you'll have left 5 comments with 6 chances to win each $25 Certificate. You don't have to run through them all of course, take your pick!

The giveaway will end with the sale, midnight on the 31st. I'll randomly draw the winners and announce them Monday, June 1st.

Pamela kept adding more prizes for more entries and I plan to follow suit. If we get 50 people to enter-- that's not 50 entries, but 50 individuals-- I'll add a third $25 Gift Certificate to the pot. So we'll have a chance at three winners instead of two. I say a chance because winning one certificate won't diqualify you from the second or third drawing.

If we get 100 people I'll add a fourth $25 Gift Certificate. Four chances to win. $100 worth of prizes on the table.

If we get 150 individuals I'll up the value of the first drawing to a $50 Gift Certificate. And so on.

Shall we see how this goes?

monday's picture post

This week, twelve of our BAO artists have selected wonderful items for special deals. Please read the details for each HERE.

thebeadedlily had work featured in three treasuries! Here are some pieces from the curators shops.

nemeton's 

Chinese Silk Necklace

Olive Copper - Cuff Bracelet by Balanced

VickiDianeDesigns' 

WORTH A MILLION BUCKLES

Also thebeadedlily on Etsy hit 500 sales this week! Yeah! I'm just toying with celebration ideas. Not sure what I want to do . . .

And I was mentioned over at The Crafty Retailer and I was the interviewed Featured Crafter over at Indie-Made which is kind of cool.

monday's picture post

Come take a look at the BAO Items of the Week on the the BAO Blog.

And some interesting picks from this week's Treasury Curators.

MONKEY BUSINESS by mysticwynd

ENTANGLED by mistflowerstudio

Island Peacock Necklace by DestinyPhoebe

what's up, pussy cat?

I've made some progress on my skull:

Fish Stories left for it's new home today:

I started my humor project for the next EBW challenge today and I discovered ebooks. It started with Twilight-- I saw the movie and then I ordered the set, but I was so impatient that I bought the ebook version and finished all four novels before I got the hardcovers-- then I promptly reread it-- twice.

And since then I've read at least 10 other novels. Talk about a time drain . . . It's just, I love to read, but I hate shopping and even the library . . . well there are people there . . . even if they're nicely silent librarians. And sometimes the ebooks are really cheap. You don't have a deadline. They don't have to be returned.

I really need to get into audio books instead, but ebooks are *quiet*.

I did watch American Idol last night. Danny Gokey sang You are so Beautiful. Did anyone else flashback to Sean William Scott in Evolution. Sistermine and I smothered laughter through the entire song while everyone else shushed us cruelly. It was memorable though-- even if for all the wrong reasons!

monday's picture post

Take a look at the lovely offerings of the Bead Art Originals group for the week. Wonderful pieces with nice little deals attached for the week. Check it out!

And some treasures from this weeks Treasury curators!

Trail of Blue Opals necklace by JAVA723

Window Into Time by njema

ebwc red carpet challenge-- voting up

It's time to vote for your favorite beadweaving over at the Etsy BeadWeavers Blog!

what kind of plant are you?

No, this isn't really one of those quiz things.

It is kind of funny how we identify with certain things though.

I remember the first time I read Jane Austen's Emma. Emma was Austen's favorite novel. Her favorite heroine. And yet she was convinced that no one else would like such a spoiled, meddlesome creature. I like Emma. Some of her less desirable traits remind me of me.

I had a doctor once who teased me about being part lizard. Though all sorts of parts and organs have been checked and cleared I'm cold all the time. Unless I'm sweating, I'm cold. Consequently I love to sit in light and heat. Add to that a propensity for turning colors with my feelings-- red, white, green, blue, yellow-- and you may see where he was coming from. I actually used to eat like a lizard to entertain my friends.

I used to think of myself as one of those plants, that like lilies and daffofils, die back in the winter and then sprout again in the spring. This past month or so I've been thinking that I'm more like an anemone. One tightly closed up because of some disturbance in the water. One that knows if she doesn't open up a bit she'll eventually starve to death. But every single disturbance- every trace of turbulence- just seems to tighten me up more.

monday's picture post

This week BAO artists are offering special deals on these 15 items like free earrings, pendants, shipping and percents off-- up to $50 off in one case!  Check the Bead Art Originals blog for details.

Check out this fabulous green shot by CatLudwigStudio.

mistflowerstudio has added another piece to her mask series too! 

Chief Build a Dam...His Friends Call Him Beaver

And something I've been waiting to see for awhile! SandFibers' 

African Mudcloth Inspired Peyote Cuff II

a couple things

I think I'm feeling marginally more human today.

A few bits of news for you!

Get out your pencils and mark your calendars, the next Wearable Art Market Sunday gathering will be May 3rd-- that's tomorrow!; 7pm EST, 6pm central, 5pm mountain and 4pm pacific time, till whenever!

The thread will be in the Wearable Art Market public forum--http://www.1000markets.com/forums/23

We'd love to have you join us!

Art will be the subject of course-- inspiration, latest ambitions, recent successes-- or works in progress-- and "What's the silliest thing you've done for art?"

--

Also the new EBW theme has been announced. "Humor" of all things.

I've got a quirky sense of humor. Sometimes an entire room full of people will be laughing out loud at things I find totally unfunny or slightly smile worthy.

At other times I'm the one laughing sharply out loud and no one else sees the humor. So. What to do. One little inside joke occurs, but it's a pretty plain piece the way I see it and the market for it would be even narrower than my usual . . . So what to do? I'm still undecided.

--

And lastly, I finished my la isla de montecristo collar. I'm pretty smitten with it-- which is great. I've not been ashamed of any of my beadweaving but some of it tugs at my heart with greater force and this is one of those pieces.