Monday 30 March 2015

Socializing the Modern Way



This year my aim is to move my shop forward, to actually start making money not pocket money.

Last year I started by cleaning up my work space, which went relatively well, the biggest problem I have encountered with that is, I don't always work at my work station, I work in the dinning room, I work in my bedroom, I work in the kitchen, but I don't seem to do much work in my beading area.

In this coming quarter I would like to try focusing on using Social Media to boost my business. The first step to this has been coming back to writing my blog.
Once again Etsy had some great ideas for me to use to boost interest and that was not only using my blog but also my Facebook page and Twitter account.
1. Post to my Adiesdesigns Facebook page at least once a week, not necessarily about the shop or my products, but occasionally something personal, like the fact that my two eldest girls went to the One Direction concert. I did this a while back and it did garner some attention.
2. Schedule your posts, so I found a site called 'around.io' and took up their 7 day trial. They schedule regular posts to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr throughout the day and you can schedule for the future. There cost after that are not bad if you are working in dollars which I am obviously not, but even then it is not terribly expensive. $10 per month or $100 per year and they post about 4-6 times per day. It is something to consider.

Something worked so far because I made more sales this month than I usually do at this time of year and with no new stock, in fact the items I sold have all been in the shop for sometime now. I also received more queries for custom items.



Even if the queries don't turn into sales immediately, the increased interest will help future sales.

I have also had positive feedback from joining nursing groups on Facebook and one such group "Scrubs Magazine" actually published a list of all nurse owned shops on Etsy and shops that feature Nursing orientated products.

The one thing that is certain is that word of mouth will always be the number one marketing tool for any business. If you want to move your business to the next level advertising is a must and social media is the cheapest way to do this.

This next week is definitely going to be a busy one, Passover (Pesach) starts on Friday so I would like to wish my Jewish readers "Chag Kosher L' Pesach" , happy passover every one

 and Happy Easter to those who celebrate.


Wednesday 25 March 2015

Red Hot


  1. Red - The color that is best associated with blood, fire, war, danger, strength, passion, desire and love.
  2. This is an emotionally tense color, thought to enhance metabolism (restaurants are often decorated with red accents), to increase breathing rates and raise blood pressure.
  3. Due to it's high visibility red is used in traffic signs and stoplights and on fire equipment. Red is often found in heraldry (coat of arms) as it is used to indicate courage. Approximately 77% of all countries have red in their flags.
  4. Red is a good colour to use when you want to draw attention to something like Sale Now On! It can be used to great effect when promoting things like energy drinks, cars, sport and physical activity.
  5. It is used when an advertiser want to evoke erotic feelings, red lipstick, red nail polish, red lingerie, valentines day) .
  6. Light Red represents joy, sexuality, sensitivity and love
  7. Pink is feminine qualities and passiveness also love, romance and friendship
  8. Dark Red this is rage, anger, leadership, courage, malice, vigor
  9. Reddish Brown is fall (Autumn) and the harvest.
  1. Thanks to - www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
  2. Here are some red things you can find in Adiesdesigns.





and this is just something nice in red!




Tuesday 24 March 2015

It's looming over me



A long time ago, (the beginning of the year) I wrote about the beading loom I ordered right before the postal strike (September 2014) here in South Africa, wondering if I would ever get it.
Well the parcel finally arrived in February 2015 minus the loom, the postal worker who took the loom, however kindly left the instruction booklet behind! They even took the invoice.
The response from the postal worker person behind the counter was, "If it is not insured there is nothing I can do about it".

While waiting for the loom to arrive I in the meantime made myself a small loom, which I promised to write about in my next blog. This is the next blog,


To make the loom I took an old box that had previously held bath salts and lotions and things, to either end I glued 2 cheap hair combs. The first attempt I stuck the combs with the teeth facing up.  This didn't work out too well as the thread kept slipping off.
The second time I turned the combs teeth down, which made a big difference.  I began to bead. I encountered some technical difficulty here as the beads I have are not all the same size and don't all go over the needle. I eventually changed to bigger beads and the loom worked well, then I had to get my work off the loom.  Another technical problem I forgot to watch the you tube video on tying off your work.





The work is better than expected but would definitely be better if I actually had a loom!

Hopefully I will be blogging more often as I have changed jobs and have a more normal life style these days.