Made Me Cry

The feedback I just received honestly made me cry!! A happy cry!  I'm not posting this to brag.  Great customer service is important to me, as a shop owner, and as a buyer!  When I receive wonderful customer service, I let the company know.  I also let them know if it's not so good, so hopefully they can improve from my "constructive criticism"!

 

"So elegant , such a lovely dish. Jen, many thanks for the quick shipping and for packaging it so well. This is a gift for a friend who collects rose things . However, I am so tempted to keep this dish for myself. I love all your wonderful things that you sell in your store. It's so hard to look without buying at least one thing. That is why I highly recommend anybody who is after a lovely gift for a special person or just something for yourself to take a peek at this stunning shop. Jen is such a dream to deal with. Gift wrapping your purchase is just another thing I love about buying from Jen, she is proud of what she sells and it shows. Jen is an Asset to Etsy!"

EtsyPreneurship

I'm practically famous!  I was interviewed for the Etsypreneurship book and am featured on page 168 and 169!

Etsypreneurship 

This book is a must have for all Etsy shop owners!  It was written by Jason Malinak.  After helping his wife with the business side of her shop, he thought others might like the same help!

I thought I would talk a bit about one chapter every so often. 

Chapter 3 talks about bookkeeping.  I have to admit, I wasn't the best at keeping books when I first started my Etsy shops!

Jason talks about the important bookkeeping words. 

 One is revenue; this is all the money you receive from customers.  It includes any money that you pay for your product, including sales tax and shipping fees.

Another important bookkeeping word is expenses.  Expenses are anything you spend money on to run your business.

Cost of goods sold; the cost of the materials used to make one product is the cost of the goods.  When the item sells, it becomes a cost of goods sold.

That is just the "tip of the iceberg" on Chapter 3!  This book is available for purchase on Amazon.com.  Etsypreneurship by Jason Malinak.  I highly recommend it!

Happy sales!

Jen  

Happy New Year

Cheers to a wonderful 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year!  Smile often!  Be grateful!

Cheers!

Jen

I Work Hard For My Money

Meow

I work hard for my money 
So hard for it honey
I work hard for my money
So you better treat me right!

I loved Donna Summer's!

I realized today, around 4:30, that I had been working pretty much non-stop since 6:00 a.m.  That does including twitter, pinterest, facebook, etc., but I need a good mix of fun social stuff mixed in with shop stuff!

Pretty Fenton milk glass plates

 Am I complaining?  Nope! Am I grateful?  Yes!

It is a lot of work to run 3 Etsy shops, but it's fun work!  Okay, sometimes packing fragile items for 4 hours stops being fun, but I am still grateful I have so many orders, so I keep pluggin' along!

That's what you do!  You find something you love to do, that you're truly passionate about, and you'll never work another day in your life!

Make the resolution to jump into what you've been thinking about doing.  Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that could happen?  Maybe you fail?  But even if you fail, you learn from it, and try it again!

Happy New Year!  Cheers to a wonderful 2013!

Jen    

Give the Gift of Giving

Holiday Donation

Are you having trouble finding the perfect gift for the person who has everything?  Why not make a donation to a local charity in their name!  Doesn't it make sense to give to those in need instead of buying something just for the sake of buying something!?

A place like the Cleveland Food Bank could sure use your help! Did you know that you can feed four people with just $1.00!?

I think the Christmas gift giving has gotten way out of control.  People running around like crazy spending way too much money!

Give the gift of giving this year.

Merry Christmas!

Jen   

A Day

A day starts like any other day
And then something changes
It changes you
It changes your life
Be grateful for everyday
It changes
Not always for the better
But it will get better
There is hope

My heart breaks for the family's of all of the victims in the latest tradegy.

       

Happy Christmas Season!

Fenton

I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!  If anyone would like to do my Christmas shopping for me, just let me know!

And more Fenton!

 My estate sale friends were getting ready for one of their estate sales (because that is what estate sale people do), and they called me right away when the realized they had tons of Fenton milk glass!

I love this crescent shaped Fenton planter!

 Thank goodness my husband Bob came along!  We filled boxes and boxes with pretty Fenton (and some gorgeous green depression glass)!  I bought so much, that Bob had to make a 2nd trip to get everything!

Fenton Squat Jug

 Boy did I have fun digging everything out of the boxes, and then trying to figure out where I was going to put everything (okay, maybe that part wasn't so much fun!).

Fenton juice tumblers

 So between Christmas shopping (not much), and packing orders, I'm trying my best to get all of my pretty Fenton milk glass listed!

Here's to a magical holiday season!  Cheers!

Jen 

Busy Christmas Time

I love Vintage Shiny Brite's!

It's been a busy Christmas season in all three of my Etsy shops!  I'm thankful for that, but I haven't had a chance to blog!

HoHoHo!

 One of these days I'll actually get some Christmas shopping done, hopefully before Christmas!

Be sure to buy at least a few vintage items for Christmas gifts this year!  They're unique, and just may bring back some great memories for the recipient!

I recently was reminded of one of the reasons I love vintage/antiques so much! One of my milk glass customers purchased some pretty lacy plates for her daughter-in-law because she remembered her own mother using the same plates!

Another customer (in Jenscloset) bought some 70's Anchor Hocking glasses that were the same ones he drank from when he was in the Army.  He said it reminded him of his army friends. He is now a disabled American Veteran.  Don't forget to thank our war heroes!

 
 I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!  

Jen

On Call Estate Sale

Pretty Kitty

I thought I should blog about my access to an estate sale that seems to go on forever!  I know I've tweeted about it, but I thought it would be fun to tell you more about it!

Anchor Hocking Forest Green Charm

 I guess it was several months ago that I was at antique show, and found this awesome booth full of kitschy cute cat and frog figurines!  The booth was being run by a woman and twins in their 20's.

I realized after talking to them for just a second, that I knew them!  Marilyn was the aunt of one of my daughter's best friends Lauren!  Marilyn's Mom had passed away and she used to collect and sell vintage and antiques.

She had a house full of things, and they were trying to sell them at antique shows (and the boys were selling some on Ebay).

Twist your head to see these...Shiny Brites!

   So I told them that I sell these kinds of things on Etsy, and gave them my card.  They contacted me, and I went over to the Grandma's house, and oh my gosh!  Rooms filled with the cutest things! Everywhere!

Shelves of cute kitschy cats, frogs, and more!  Two room upstairs are filled with vintage Christmas ornaments.  There is costume jewelry, vintage toys, etc.  Oh, and the cutest vintage handbags!

So I just contact them about every 2 weeks, and go over there, and shop!  I just went back today, but we've already planned that I'll go back next week to get some more Christmas items and maybe pick up some costume jewelry.

I also am friends with a group of great guys that run estate sales, and I was just at one of their sales today, and the owner, said he'll have an estate sale coming up in January, but he's going to have me check it out in a few weeks, because it's full of milk glass and he knows I love milk glass!

How lucky am I!!?  

Happy Thursday!

Jen

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope you were able to enjoy with people you love!

I'm thankful to have shared Thanksgiving with my daughter Katherine, my sister Susan, and her adorable son, Bobby, my wonderful husband Bob, and a brief appearance by my son Mark!  Too bad Lindsey (and her husband Thomas!) couldn't be here!

Katherine and I ran in the Turkey Trot in Avon this morning.  She was so nice to run alongside me the entire time, as she could have easily ran ahead of me!  I did get 2nd place in my age category!  This is my 4th Turkey Trot, so it's definitely a tradition I would like to keep going!

Cheers to the holidays!

Jen