Wanted to say a quick thank you to the folks at Robert Kaufman fabrics, makers of Kona Cotton, best quilting solids ever. I won this great color card from them in a twitter giveaway. Who says twitter is a waste of time?

I am LOVING working with these fabrics from Ruby Mountain Dyeworks. Here's a sneak peak of the flap on her Verano Verde (green summer) mini messenger bag. This laid back ceramic frog charm from Beadfreaky went perfectly with the batik she sent. Should have it done for pics and mailing tomorrow.




Yesterday, I reduced the prices on a few bags to give myself an excuse to get creating again and broadcast it on twitter. Looks like it paid off. I came back from driving Dana's tank to my first etsy sale in months. I was so happy! I've been very active on twitter and it's paying off for me and my team. We also sold two freedom bags and can now afford to send off our August Herobox.

I'm still looking at wooden jewelry boxes. Her's some more contenders I'm considering.

Red Mahogany colored Knotty Pine Jewelry Box with Tray Style Cover by Young Wood Creations

Birds Eye Maple Trinket Box by Barry's Boxes

Reclaimed Wooden Box No.120 by R Wooden Products

Reclaimed Wooden Box No. 183b by RWooden Products

So I am hunting for a new jewelry box for my ever growing collection of handmade jewelry. Of course, ONLY handmade will do. Let's just see what the choices are...

Tides Jewelry Box by Nature's Cosmik Debris

The Musician's Box - Driftwood Stain by Sixth and Elm

The Spring Tree Woodburned Box - Red Mahogany Stain by Sixth and Elm

Cherry Flat Box by Wood Mosaic

More than 230 pieces in this lovely box!

Minyare- Fairy Keeper of Star Wishes by OM3Studio

Original illustration woodburned on purchased box.

Gadget Jewelry Box by Jim Jenkins

Storage and sculpture!

The Deco Box by The Natural Hand

The inlay work on this is just stunning!

Large handcrafted cedar box with beautiful scroll work by Handmade8Heartfelt

Patience, anyone?

Decorative Cedar and Black Walnut Jewelry Box with Quilted Snowflake / Star Inlay Lid by ExcaliburWoodWorks

Lovely inlay in quilted design. What could be nicer for my sewing soul?

Do you have a suggestion for a handmade jewelry box that I missed? Please comment below.

I'm giving out some love this week to all my teammates who've made a freedom bag for our Carried Away team shop. All the proceeds from the donated bags are being used to fill a Herobox for our adopted marine and her unit.

The Freedom roll call!

Several ladies made more than one bag, including me. I am having a hard time believing that we haven't sold one bag yet! You could be the first one to support this great cause and cross a gift off your holiday shopping list.

Becky (@tribecca) is the lucky winner of my Hot Rod Polish and pouch giveaway! Congrats! Becky entered several times and was a huge supporter. I appreciate everyone who entered efforts to promote the giveaway and really appreciate all the new followers of this blog. THANK YOU!

But don't despair if you didn't win ... Carried Away, my bag making team is also giving away some BB Couture nail polish and your choice of 5 different pouches by April's Orignals and one from me as well. In fact, I just added this smashing buttercup bag, entited Long May She Wave, to the top prize. Just head over to the team blog to win!

I've done a lot of trading on etsy and artfire and been very happy with my trades. This last one though with Karen from Ruby Mountain Dye Works is the best one yet! I asked for a set of reds to make a special Canadian flag handbag I have in mind for my sister's birthday, but oh no ... she didn't stop there! She included 4 of her lovely bookmarks that I highlighted last week in my Elegant Marks post and you can see the top of the stack of reds she did for my flag bag.


She also included fabric to make her a bag similar to my Verano bag that is now being enjoyed by Yvonne (the product of another successful trade). as a hand dyed artist, I felt it was only fitting that she have a beautiful handbag to show off her fabrics where ever she goes.


and then I think she went off the deep dye end.. look at what else was in this lovely box she sent!!!! She heard I like orange, so a lovely collection of fall oranges and browns, plus I told her I really like to make stuff like my Taisie bag from Mollie's swab clothes and did she have any? And was there a possibility of a lime green and a shock orange? As you can see, there certainly!



Plus she put in two full range colorwheels! Such wonderful colors and generosity leaves me feeling so wonderful about the opportunity you have online to get to know other artists.

I think I will have to tuck in some more extra goodies in her package when I send her bag back. Thank you KAREN!!!!!

Carried Away (my bagmaking team) is also hosting a nail polish and pouch giveaway. You could win three bottles of BB Couture nail polish in Pearl Delight, Hot Salsa and Prince Charming, your choice of five pouches from TM April's Originals or my Nichelle Zipper wristlet featuring original cat art and hand marbled fabric.


Give us a little boost to spread the word about our team's efforts to support our adopted marine during her deployment through non-profit Herobox. All of the proceeds from our Freedom Bags listed in our team shop will go to fill and send a monthly herobox to her with items she has requested and other goodies for her to share with her unit of 32 troopers.

No matter what you think of the current conflicts, we can all agree that these men and women need to know that the folks here at home care about them and appreciate their choice to serve. This is our way of giving that support and we hope you'll join us.

Wander on over to the team blog for details on how to win.

Orange isn't for everyone.... but I LOOOOOOOOOVE it! This is Hotspot from the Hot Rod Limited Edition Collection by BB Couture. Hands down, my favorite from the set!

Have you entered to win a set of your own Hot Rod Colors and my cool flame makeup pouch? Giveaway ends 7/24!

hey, have you been over to Artfire's new blog for handmade sellers? Handmadenews.org has articles on every facet of selling & making handmade in areas such as: business tips, craft techniques, green wise, guilds and teams, and craft trends to name a few. As I noted in my most recent article for Handmademarketing.org, Artfire actively LISTENS to sellers and this is just another example of all they do to support the handmade community.

NOTE: This post isn't intended to poke fun at or "bad talk" the artist who wrote this note. They make lovely work and I wish them a successful recovery from their current troubles. I am sure they were very upset at the time it was written. It is shared purely in the spirit of everyone learning from this.

In my in box was this newsletter from another handmade artisan. (I've removed the identifying information.) I share it with you to illustrate a very important point in handmade marketing - DAMAGE CONTROL and how to handle a disaster.
_____

(name removed) & I are closing our online doors!

We have gotten behind and had too many negative feedbacks, subsequently Ebay has suspended our account and we can no longer get our order information.

If you have placed an order with us within 45 days, PLEASE got to paypal and open a dispute, it will be decided in your favor and you will get your money back.

If you paid by check please contact us through our web site within the next 48 hours so we can get your information and get your (item we make) to you.

If you placed an order and it has been OVER 45 days, you will not be able to get your money back so PLEASE contact us through our web site - we have orders written down just not the shipping addresses, so we can still get your (items we make)to you, but will need you to give us your shipping info.


We are so sorry! We may open our web site up again someday for custom work once we have made all of our (item we make) in waiting and paid off paypal (you will get your refunds regardless, just wait the obligatory 7 days I believe).


Best to all and thanks for your support through the years- (names removed, business name removed)
_____

Now, compare it to the following rewrite which says the same thing, but phrases it very differently:

_______

Dear Customers,

(Name and I) have decided we need to take a breather from our online store. It has become clear that we need to focus on filling our current backlog of orders, so we are regretfully closing our store for the time being. Thank you for all your business and faith in us.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have placed an order with us that has not been delivered, we cannot access your customer information and may not have a shipping address for you. We intend to either issue a prompt refund or fill your order as requested, but in order to do that, we need to hear from you right away. Please contact us at (email address) so we can make individual arrangements.

If you wish to be contacted when our store reopens, please drop us a line at ( email address).

Best Wishes,
Names
__________

The first is a stunning example of how NOT to talk to your customers. Let's face it, life happens and we all screw up in business at some point or another. The order gets misplaced and we forget about it or we get unmotivated and we miss the deadline on a custom order. How you recover from these kinds of mistakes is a measure of not only your integrity, but also your commitment to customer service.

Remember, if you do a good job, people might tell their friends. If you do a BAD JOB, people will tell EVERYONE!

While the content of this email is glaringly honest, the phrasing leaves a TERRIBLE taste in my mouth as a potential customer of this business. When I got this, I was forcefully reminded of my mother's propensity when I was growing up to blissfully ignore the pointed nasty looks from us kids and go on happily telling to the grocery checker or waitress every embarrassing personal detail of our lives. (Thankfully, she has gotten much better about this as we have gotten older!) It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion and having NO POWER to stop it. From a customer standpoint, I'd never trust these people with my money ever again. They just admitted they are incompetent slackers who can't manage to fill orders or ship goods in a timely fashion. Not only that, they just told us they couldn't be proactive and tell their customers what was going on. I don't know about you, but I can forgive a screw up if someone apologizes and makes it right. But if I got stone silence followed by this? HELLO, keep your items and give me a REFUND!!

The lesson here is: there is such a thing as too much honesty! There are many ways to say the same thing, and while you should always be honest in any communication to your customers, you don't have to make yourself look irresponsible and untrustworthy by baring your mistakes like this. It is not necessary (not to mention, deeply harmful) to share with them with information they SHOULD NOT know about your internal operations.

Now, if I had gotten the message the rewritten message instead, I would feel a lot differently about this business. I would be much more understanding and probably be willing to take the personal gesture of apology and contact them to work out my order (had I placed one). Even if I didn't have an order pending, I'd be much more likely not to write them off completely, as the first email has caused me to do.

If the worst happens, you don't need to go into your whole tragic story and frankly, do you really want your customers to know that you have screwed up on such a massive scale that Ebay suspended your account? People don't want to hear excuses, they want to know what's going to happen now. Just address their concerns and remain professional and polite.

What do you think? How would you have written this kind of message? How have you handled a similar faux-paus in your business? Please comment below so we can all learn from each others mistakes.

________

Portions of this article have been republished at Handmademarketing.org. Thanks guys!

I got my personal set of Hot Rod colors last night. (I make zero claim to any ability as a manicure expert.) Here's what the hot rod collection looks like on my nails.


from Thumb: Crusin', Nitro Injected, Hot Spot, Lowrider, Little Déuce Coupé


From Thumb: Lowrider, Little Déuce Coupé, Nitro Injected, Cherry, Baby and Crusin'

Lowrider, Cherry, Baby, Hot Spot and Nitro Injected go on really smooth and dense. You could get away with one coat. Crusin' and Little Déuce Coupé, being matte colors, are a bit trickier and you may need up to three coats for full color density.

Cherry, Baby has a very subtle glitter sparkle in it. Nitro Lowrider and Hot Spot all have a nice metallic sheen.

I hear the next set from BB Couture, tentatively titled Heros and Villians, will have Torch in it.

Summer days are so great for a good read! Here's a selection of handmade bookmarks to enhance that juicy read with an elegant touch.


Two beaded book thongs from my good friend Debbie over at Santiam Designs. The copper colored book thong she sent me last year is currently marking my place in Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind.




Exotic Burl Wood Bookmarks by Boxnmor


Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Book Beads by Boofolo Beads. I'm taking the family to see it after work. Kidlet is massively excited.



Brisinger Book Beads by Boofolo Beads





These hand dyed fabric bookmarks by Ruby Mountain Dyeworks really caught my eye this morning. Love the combo of handdyed fabrics with such elegant design!






Copper and Leather bookmark from wiretree



Beautifully illustrated Shakespeare bookmarks on leather by Immortal Longings

Copper Fern Leaf metal bookmark by Star Flower Silver


What do you use to mark your place? Please share a link for your favorite bookmark.