Help me name these litte guys :D

I just finished these little guys and I don't know what to call them. Have any ideas? I would really appreciate it :D

My first newsletter..............

I'm almost finished with my first newsletter:D

It's called "Come Wish With Me". It tells you about what's new in my wishwithme etsy shop, what's coming up and I have special discounts just for my newsletter subscribers.

If you would like to sign up the place to go is the top left corner of this blog :D I should be getting the actual newsletter out by the end of this week. :)

The picture shown above is my Hawaiian tiny tikis... I just love how the picture came out. lol

Whats it take?

I'm actually asking the question, not offering secret information.

The longer I'm a part of the Etsy world, the more I keep having these "Ahhhh, that's what I should try" moments.

I seem to be on the endless search for what the customer is looking for, and even more than that, how do I get myself seen. I've been a part of Etsy for a little over a year now and I have my Etsy site a fan page, twitter and blog.

I run threads in the forums, answer endless threads in the forums and now the adventure of a mailing list and the "Come Wish With Me" newsletter. No, I actually never thought of having a newsletter but I read a comment from one of my fellow Etsy sellers that read, " When you have a blog, fan page or twitter your asking people to come to your site or your shop. When you have a mailing list you already have the people who want to see your shop".

This really made sense to me. Of course your not allowed to ask old customers if there interested in your newsletter because that would be spammy. Tempting yes but I'll follow the rules :) I think this will help bring more traffic to my site. Why have I never thought of this before?

Wow! So I spent the last couple of days working on my upcoming newsletter. Again studying all the ins and outs of newsletters. Not so easy. Just trying to navigate through the mail chimp website was challenging enough. Luckily I have some awesome help with that. But yes I did come up with pretty great first newsletter content. It's still in the tweaking stage but I'm hoping to get it out there this week.

Of course I need to start a sign up campaign first. Hopefully I'll have my little sign up widgets on everything by tomorrow. I need my computer genius helper. lol

So maybe you would like to start a newsletter too! Basically you just write about and add pictures of What's new, what's coming and special discounts for your newsletter customers. The best place for information is cruising the business threads and ask lots of questions. If I can do it you can do it. When I'm finished I'll let you know how I survived the process :) Talk to you soon, Kathie:)

Wylie the hound dog :D

I just posted Wylie in my shop, and I just had to share him with you. I found the pattern in a book from the library. The book was published back in the early 70s. I love to go to the library to get new ideas for my shop. There are things to see and things to learn that you just can't find online. "Wylie" is proof of that. So explore your local library. You just might get hooked :)

My Cowboy dog :)

Months ago I was contacted by one of my customers, asking her if I could make her a cowboy dog for her son's first birthday. I came up with this dog, only I didn't use buttons to make it more child friendly.

I called him, "COWBOY JIM"! Why? Because I named him after my husband. (My husband is not a cowboy, but he is a Jim) lol You can find my cowboy dog in my shop.

wishwithme.etsy.com :)

Don't give up on your Esty shop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sure there are lots of you sellers out there who at one time or another were thinking of giving up your shop or know someone who is threatening to throw in the towel.

Well my sister is one of those people. She's a self taught pencil sketch artist. Her Etsy shop is Lindasgift.etsy.com I remember ever since she was little, she would ask, "Do you want me to draw you"? And sometimes she would ask you that just so she could draw a funny picture of you. I learned to be cautious of her sisterly intentions. lol

Anyway she does have a gift of drawing what she sees especially in a picture. You can give her a picture of someone and she effortlessly sketches them out, and it's not like a 20 minute sketch artist in a mall.

It takes her a few days to get the effect that she wants. And with her being a Virgo, she's an absolute perfectionist so she keeps going back until she's happy with the outcome.

Well she opened her shop last August. She wanted to have customers send or email her a portrait type picture for her to sketch. She has 2 samples of what she can do in her shop. I know in this economy it just seems impossible for her to make any sales. So she's ready to close up shop. I keep trying to tell her to keep on going but she's close to giving up.

This picture of Pirates of the Caribbean's Jack Sparrow, aka. Johnny Dep is one of her favorites and up for sale in her shop. (She loves Johnny. Especially as a pirate) Me toooo! :D lol There's also her pregnant fairy sketch. :)

JUST REMEMBER OUT THERE IN ETSY LAND. IT'S NOT YOU, MOST LIKELY IT'S THE ECONOMY!! DON'T GIVE UP. KEEP ON TRYING. RUN THREADS IN THE FORUMS. WORK ON A FAN PAGE AND BLOG. KEEP TWITTERING. MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN :D :D *** I wish you all the gift of hope and good luck**** :) ****Stop by Linda's shop at Lindasgift.etsy.com :)

It all started with a WISH

Christmas of 2008. I gave my hair dresser a gift I had made in honor of her finally joining a salon she had always wished for. The name of the salon was "Wish Upon a Spa" so I made one of my quirky little dogs with the word WISH embroidered on his belly just over his tiny button belly button.

Above the word WISH just over his heart I embroidered a star and in the middle I attached a little Swarovski crystal. (Her own little wishing star).

I added a little hand crocheted scarf because she said she really felt like she was at home there. It was warm and inviting.

She was so happy when I gave her the dog. She keeps it up on a shelf where she can be reminded of the Wish that came true for her.

It seems funny because the Wish dog I created also tied into my wish. I always wanted to sell my creations ever since I was a young teenager.

It was just around that Christmas when I found Etsy and I made my WISH dog my very first item for sale. My shop was my Wish. So my little Wish dog is my absolute favorite.

I was so glad that I could use the name I picked for my shop (Wishwithme) because I wanted it to be my customers wish too. I invite all of my customers to Wish with me and find a little something to make them smile.

I have made lots of custom and personalized orders and they get so excited when they see how their wishes turned out. I love my shop and I love to be able to give the power of a WISH and a smile:) www.wishwithme.etsy.com :)