Woo-hoo! Mama's Magic featured me in her blog! Check it out!
Mama's Magic: Friday Feature -- MadeByMelissa
Posts
July Design Challenge Winner
8 years ago
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Vote for Mae!
I was home with Dean and Mae yesterday since Dean has pink eye and couldn't go to day care until he was on the medication for 24 hours. He was giving me such a hard time about taking a nap. I finally laid him down on the couch and wrapped him in a cozy fleece blanket. He still put up a fight... until... Mae jumped up on the couch and curled up at his feet. Then he finally settled down and they both took a nice long nap.
It was just too cute for words, so I snapped a picture to send to my hubby to brighten up his work day. Then it dawned on me! Dogster.com's contest! Its perfect!!
The 3rd Annual World’s Coolest Dog & Cat Show
Where the people — not the pedigree — decide!
Here's the picture:
To vote click here: http://www.dogster.com/show07/vote_pet.php?i=631905 And if that doesn't work, go here http://www.dogster.com/show07/ and enter Mae's ID number in the box - 631905
Thanks!!
It was just too cute for words, so I snapped a picture to send to my hubby to brighten up his work day. Then it dawned on me! Dogster.com's contest! Its perfect!!
The 3rd Annual World’s Coolest Dog & Cat Show
Where the people — not the pedigree — decide!
Here's the picture:
To vote click here: http://www.dogster.com/show07/vote_pet.php?i=631905 And if that doesn't work, go here http://www.dogster.com/show07/ and enter Mae's ID number in the box - 631905
Thanks!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Self-Representing Artist Jewelry Designer
I have been accepted to Self-Representing Artist Jewelry Designer! I'm honored and really excited about it. It took them a few weeks to get back to me, so I was starting to get a little bummed, but alas, there was no reason!
Check out the graphic they made me:
For more information about SRAJD, visit their website here
Check out the graphic they made me:
For more information about SRAJD, visit their website here
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Feeling Blue???
So, I was sitting at home going through my bead stash - I wanted to make something I just had no inspiration. That all changed as I was going through my mass of blue glass beads and found these lovely clear ones with blue and silver foil linings. They now have a new life in this 58 inch necklace and matching 7 inch bracelet (sold separately!)
Once I finished those two pieces, I looked at the seed beads in the container with the ones I was using and this necklace was born!
It was a very productive day after all!
My good friend Ali has some super cute new items in her shop too, I am in love with this one:
I also stumbled on a shop called You Stink Soap and I bought this fabulous coconut lemongrass lipgloss:
While I'm sharing the love, please mosey on over to the EtsyNJ blog I just updated it with a new featured artist!!
Happy Shopping!
Melissa
Once I finished those two pieces, I looked at the seed beads in the container with the ones I was using and this necklace was born!
It was a very productive day after all!
My good friend Ali has some super cute new items in her shop too, I am in love with this one:
I also stumbled on a shop called You Stink Soap and I bought this fabulous coconut lemongrass lipgloss:
While I'm sharing the love, please mosey on over to the EtsyNJ blog I just updated it with a new featured artist!!
Happy Shopping!
Melissa
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Article About Etsy on MSN.com!
This is featured on MSN.com:
A Marketplace with a Mission
Etsy.com founder Rob Kalin hasn't just created an online marketplace for crafts; he's built a site that creates entrepreneurs and strives for a sustainable future.
By Laura Tiffany
Updated: 11:00 a.m. ET Oct 8, 2007
After speaking with Rob Kalin, the founder of handmade products marketplace Etsy.com, it's apparent that like any true entrepreneur, his company isn't just a means to a paycheck. It's a mission: A mission to change the way commerce works; a mission to promote sustainable products; a mission that, much like eBay, is creating an exponential number of entrepreneurs in its wake.
EBay is an apt, but ironic, comparison. It was frustration with the online auction giant that first inspired Kalin to create Etsy in 2005. As a woodworker, he was looking for a place to sell his wares. "I [felt] like eBay [had] grown to the point where it's this faceless corporation, and I wanted to create a company that would have a handmade feel to it," says Kalin, 27. He and a group of college friends holed up in his Brooklyn apartment for six weeks before launching the initial beta version of Etsy.com, with Kalin on design lead and his co-founders, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, handling programming.
A little more than two years later, Etsy has 100,000 active sellers and 500,000 members. More than 1 million items have been sold through the site, which has become synonymous with handmade goods. Part of the site's attraction is its simplicity. With just a few steps, a crafter can set up his or her store with a subdomain and list items at a set price. Users pay 20 cents to post an item for four months plus 3.5 percent of the selling price.
And the site already has gained cachet in the crafting world. It's not considered unprofessional to forego building your own website in favor of having an Etsy store; in fact, some crafters who already have established websites build a presence on Etsy, too.
This rapid growth has proven to be a challenge. Etsy now has 47 employees; building the engineering team was so difficult that Kalin opened a new office in San Francisco to attract talent. While rejecting the idea of bringing in an outside CEO to manage Etsy, he has hired a financial person. "We have a really good advisory team, but I also want to keep that experimentation and I don't want to feel like I have a formula for how things work," he says.
For the Long Haul
Kalin applies his deep interest in sustainability to his company, not just the products that are sold through it. He views Etsy as a long-term commitment, not as a ticket to dotcom 2.0 wealth, and treats his employees like a community. He pays them a fair wage and provides good benefits and profit-sharing, as well as a casual work environment. "I wanted the company itself to be a community, based on how much we see each other but also because we do have this common purpose," Kalin says.
This sense of community also pervades Etsy on the user end. The forums hum with Etsy members answering other users' questions. The latest feature on Etsy, The Storque, is an online magazine written by members. And Kalin hired five of the top Etsy sellers to run Etsy Labs, a community crafts center that shares space with Etsy's 7,000-square-foot Brooklyn, New York, headquarters. "It's been incredible," he says. "Two nights ago at 11 p.m., there were 10 people sitting around cutting patterns, learning how to make their own skirts and shirts."
For Kalin, it all ties back into his bigger mission: helping to build a sustainable future. "[An item] has this whole other layer of meaning to it if you know who gave it to you, who made it, or if you made it," he explains. "When it breaks or needs alteration, you can fix it or you know somebody who can fix it. Instead of living in this utterly throwaway culture where if something doesn't work or doesn't fit, you just get rid of it."
Kalin and the 100,000 Etsy sellers aren't alone in this mission to create. The Craft & Hobby Association charted a 3.3-percent annual increase in the crafts market from 2002 to 2005. The association also says 4 million people each year discover crafts. This all bodes well for Etsy, which should bring in more than $2 million in sales this year.
Right now, Etsy's engineering team is catching up with the site's growth, but Kalin's mind is always racing ahead, thinking of new features. He sees a huge opportunity in internationalization, where Etsy will be served up in local languages, showing items in a user's native currency first.
"I think there's still 99 percent of the world who doesn't know who the hell we are," says Kalin, in a very glass-half-full manner. That just means Etsy is still on its way to becoming the sustainable world marketplace that Kalin has always envisioned.
Copyright © 2007 Entrepreneur.com, Inc.
Original Story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21192830/
A Marketplace with a Mission
Etsy.com founder Rob Kalin hasn't just created an online marketplace for crafts; he's built a site that creates entrepreneurs and strives for a sustainable future.
By Laura Tiffany
Updated: 11:00 a.m. ET Oct 8, 2007
After speaking with Rob Kalin, the founder of handmade products marketplace Etsy.com, it's apparent that like any true entrepreneur, his company isn't just a means to a paycheck. It's a mission: A mission to change the way commerce works; a mission to promote sustainable products; a mission that, much like eBay, is creating an exponential number of entrepreneurs in its wake.
EBay is an apt, but ironic, comparison. It was frustration with the online auction giant that first inspired Kalin to create Etsy in 2005. As a woodworker, he was looking for a place to sell his wares. "I [felt] like eBay [had] grown to the point where it's this faceless corporation, and I wanted to create a company that would have a handmade feel to it," says Kalin, 27. He and a group of college friends holed up in his Brooklyn apartment for six weeks before launching the initial beta version of Etsy.com, with Kalin on design lead and his co-founders, Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, handling programming.
A little more than two years later, Etsy has 100,000 active sellers and 500,000 members. More than 1 million items have been sold through the site, which has become synonymous with handmade goods. Part of the site's attraction is its simplicity. With just a few steps, a crafter can set up his or her store with a subdomain and list items at a set price. Users pay 20 cents to post an item for four months plus 3.5 percent of the selling price.
And the site already has gained cachet in the crafting world. It's not considered unprofessional to forego building your own website in favor of having an Etsy store; in fact, some crafters who already have established websites build a presence on Etsy, too.
This rapid growth has proven to be a challenge. Etsy now has 47 employees; building the engineering team was so difficult that Kalin opened a new office in San Francisco to attract talent. While rejecting the idea of bringing in an outside CEO to manage Etsy, he has hired a financial person. "We have a really good advisory team, but I also want to keep that experimentation and I don't want to feel like I have a formula for how things work," he says.
For the Long Haul
Kalin applies his deep interest in sustainability to his company, not just the products that are sold through it. He views Etsy as a long-term commitment, not as a ticket to dotcom 2.0 wealth, and treats his employees like a community. He pays them a fair wage and provides good benefits and profit-sharing, as well as a casual work environment. "I wanted the company itself to be a community, based on how much we see each other but also because we do have this common purpose," Kalin says.
This sense of community also pervades Etsy on the user end. The forums hum with Etsy members answering other users' questions. The latest feature on Etsy, The Storque, is an online magazine written by members. And Kalin hired five of the top Etsy sellers to run Etsy Labs, a community crafts center that shares space with Etsy's 7,000-square-foot Brooklyn, New York, headquarters. "It's been incredible," he says. "Two nights ago at 11 p.m., there were 10 people sitting around cutting patterns, learning how to make their own skirts and shirts."
For Kalin, it all ties back into his bigger mission: helping to build a sustainable future. "[An item] has this whole other layer of meaning to it if you know who gave it to you, who made it, or if you made it," he explains. "When it breaks or needs alteration, you can fix it or you know somebody who can fix it. Instead of living in this utterly throwaway culture where if something doesn't work or doesn't fit, you just get rid of it."
Kalin and the 100,000 Etsy sellers aren't alone in this mission to create. The Craft & Hobby Association charted a 3.3-percent annual increase in the crafts market from 2002 to 2005. The association also says 4 million people each year discover crafts. This all bodes well for Etsy, which should bring in more than $2 million in sales this year.
Right now, Etsy's engineering team is catching up with the site's growth, but Kalin's mind is always racing ahead, thinking of new features. He sees a huge opportunity in internationalization, where Etsy will be served up in local languages, showing items in a user's native currency first.
"I think there's still 99 percent of the world who doesn't know who the hell we are," says Kalin, in a very glass-half-full manner. That just means Etsy is still on its way to becoming the sustainable world marketplace that Kalin has always envisioned.
Copyright © 2007 Entrepreneur.com, Inc.
Original Story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21192830/
Friday, October 5, 2007
The Littlest Yankee Fan
Just thought I'd share another picture of Dean - aka the littlest Yankee fan (too bad he sleeps through the games!!)
Go Yanks!!
Go Yanks!!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Last Chance for Halloween Earrings!
Wow! Who would have guessed that my Halloween earrings would be so popular?? Not I! The entire first set that I listed sold very quickly! I made a second set and this will be the last of them! So, quick! Grab them!
My bottle cap magnets are also flying off the proverbial shelves, surprisingly, there aren't many like mine on Etsy! I have three more sets drying at home and will list them over the weekend. In the meantime, take a looksie at the ones that are available: Bottle Cap Magnets.
Thanks to all my great customers!!
Happy Shopping!!
Made by Melissa
My bottle cap magnets are also flying off the proverbial shelves, surprisingly, there aren't many like mine on Etsy! I have three more sets drying at home and will list them over the weekend. In the meantime, take a looksie at the ones that are available: Bottle Cap Magnets.
Thanks to all my great customers!!
Happy Shopping!!
Made by Melissa
Monday, October 1, 2007
New at Made by Melissa - Bottle Cap Magnets!
What happens when a crafty girl has a beer loving family??? You get bottle cap magnets!! That's right, I nagged my entire family (even the in-laws) to save their bottle caps for yours truly and created some ultra nifty bottle cap magnets for you to decorate your frig with! What a fun way to up-cycle!
For those who prefer Guiness, I have these:
Perhaps you like Michelob:
Rolling Rock is a favorite in my hubby's family:
Then there is this set of Coors and Sierra Nevada:
And finally, here is a set for the designated driver in your group:
Keep checking here for more magnets!!
Happy Shopping!!
Melissa
PS - Check out the EtsyNJ Blog!!
For those who prefer Guiness, I have these:
Perhaps you like Michelob:
Rolling Rock is a favorite in my hubby's family:
Then there is this set of Coors and Sierra Nevada:
And finally, here is a set for the designated driver in your group:
Keep checking here for more magnets!!
Happy Shopping!!
Melissa
PS - Check out the EtsyNJ Blog!!
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