i reached 100 sales so i'm having a giveaway!

A few months ago, when I hit aruond 60 sales, I vowed to myself that if I ever was fortunate to hit 100 sales in my Etsy shop, I would throw a giveaway to celebrate. Well, a little while ago I hit the mark! (Ok, I'm now at 130 sales, which is even more exciting!)

So it took me a little bit to pull together my giveaway, but better late then never, right?

ONE lucky winner will get to choose their fabric button goodies:
- 2 pairs of fabric button bobby pins of your choice
- 2 pairs of ponytail elastics of your choice
- 1 fabric button ring of your choice
- 2 fabric button pinbacks of your choice

Value (including the free shipping): $31 USD


Here's how to enter:

Visit my shop, pandacub, then come back here and tell me what your favorite thing in the shop is! Just leave it in a comment on this post.

Want extra entries? (you must complete the first entry above before doing these)

- 1 extra entry: Follow this blog. Leave a comment telling me that you've become a Follower or that you were already a Follower
- 1 extra entry: Follow me on Twitter (pandacubcafe). Leave a comment telling me that you've become a Follower or that you were already a Follower
- 3 extra entries: Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Leave a comment here and include the URL where I can see your post
- 5 extra entries: Buy anything from my pandacub shop. Come back and leave a comment letting me know

Remember to leave your email address IN EVERY COMMENT so I can contact you if you win!


Notes:
- This contest will end at midnight (EST) on Friday, April 17, 2009.
- Winner is chosen randomly using a Random Number Generator.
- Winner will be announced on this blog on April 18.
- This giveaway is open worldwide.

GOOD LUCK, EVERYONE!

brewing this weekend...

Whoa, I can't believe it's been over a week since I last blogged!

But I have hit some significant Etsy milestones in the past few weeks:

- I re-launched by jewellery shop, blue pebble
- I hit 100 sales in my pandacub shop
- one of my items, the cuff techs cufflinks, was picked for the Geek Chic Gift Guide by Etsy

So, to celebrate, this weekend I'm going to put together a cool little giveaway that will be posted here on this little blog either Sunday or Monday, depending on how quickly I can decide on what to give away.

Look for it soon and I hope you all enter!

blue pebble re-launch and opening weekend sale!

After many sleepless nights and hours wasted daydreaming, I've decided to re-launch my jewellery shop, blue pebble. I love creating romantic, vintage-inspired jewellery and started blue pebble early last year, but it started to get neglected when my pandacub button accessories took off much faster than I had ever dreamed of. Needless to say, blue pebble suffered and I reluctantly closed the shop while I concentrated on building pandacub.


Now that I have streamlined some of the day-to-day processes of pandacub and have a few extra hours every week, I can't stop thinking about my jewellery. I started listing a few necklaces and earrings here and there on pandacub, but it kind of bugged me to see my adored buttons sharing their happy space with more elegant, non-button jewellery and the jewellery getting lost in the cuteness of my buttons. So, after a couple weeks of agonized deliberation, I decided to separate the two and give them each their own space and personality.


Now I know many Etsians warn about the pitfalls of having 2 (or more) shops, but I refuse to let 2 shops equal 2 times the work. I plan on talking about both shops in 1 blog (this 1), 1 twitter account and 1 flickr account. That should cut down on my work so I can concentrate on creating more accessories!


So, that means that pandacub will soon be back to selling button accessories exclusively, while all the pretty non-button goodies will be sold in blue pebble. I'll be starting to list items tonight, so please come by for a peek!

To celebrate the re-launch of blue pebble, this weekend (March 21-22), all purchases in blue pebble ship FREE, to anywhere in the world! Please come and visit my new shop and help me spread the word!

happy st. patrick's day!

Well, I'm not wearing anything green (I think I own ONE article of green clothing - a T-shirt my sister gave me, and I don't think it's appropriate for the office...or the still-chilly slightly-winter weather we have right now), but my husband's half-Irish - so that counts, right?

Besides, I'm still on the prowl for a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's!

items in bloom

I recently bought some stunning crysanthemum blossom cabochons and I couldn't wait to create with them. They were a little smaller than I expected, but the colours are gorgeous!

So far I have 9 different colours (more to come!) and you can order this stunning "nessa . ring ." in any colour you wish.


I also made the sweetest bobby pins with the blossoms. Aren't they pretty? Perfect for the coming spring!


Check out my shop for more blossom sweetness!

my artistic neighbourhood sushi restaurant

On many Fridays, I like to treat myself and have lunch at a Sushi restaurant near my work - Nijo Sushi. They have some of the best sushi for a great price in the area.

I usually stick to my favourites, like salmon sashimi, Alaska rolls, Dragon rolls or their awesome Udon noodle bowls, but yesterday I was feeling adventurous and decided to browse the menu for something new to try.

Imagine my delight when I read the description for the "Fire Mountain roll" - salmon, crab and eel covered in roe. Are you kidding me? Those are my 3 favourite things to eat at Sushi restaurants, covered in my 4th favourite thing! I had to get it.

The cutest thing though is the take-out containers. I didn't pull them out until I got back to the office, but how adorable is this?



Now, THAT'S customer service! :D

And then I opened the Fire Mountain roll box and my eyes were almost blinded by how intensely red the roe was...and how MUCH there was! The photo doesn't do it justice.


Oh, and please forgive the crappy photo quality! I didn't have my camera with me and had to take these photos with my BlackBerry camera.

Mmmmm....sushi.

making the etsy front page...

Yesterday, I snuck in a break at work and logged onto Etsy only to almost have a heart attack. There...on the front page of the main Etsy site...my button pin!!!

I almost yelled out, but then remember I was at work. I quickly dialed up my hubby, who was very happy for me (but kind of didn't understand the excitement) and then emailed my sister with the news.

For those of you who are regular visitors to Etsy, you'll know the big deal. For the rest, believe me, it's a nice little pick-me-up. Although it's not a guaranteed sale (my item didn't sell), it's great exposure to all the visitors to Etsy who may have never seen my shop before. You can make the Front Page (aka "FP") by either being in a treasury put together by another seller that Etsy admin like, or Etsy admin randomly search for items using a fun search term (in this case, the word "smile" and put some of their favourite items up.

Although many people complain that the same sellers appear on the FP over and over and over again, this was my first time, and I was shocked that I actually witnessed it since the FP changes over quite quickly (about every 30 minutes or so during peak shopping times).

Here's what the FP (with my item, "smiling . brooch / pin ." in the first row) looked like (click on the image for a larger version):



Just to let you know how the approximately 30 minutes on the main page affected my shop's exposure:

Prior to the main page hoopla:
- my shop had 417 "hearts" (people marking me as a favourite shop)
- "smiling . brooch / pin ." had 3 views
- "smiling . brooch / pin ." had 0 "hearts" (people marking the item as a favourite)

Five minutes after my item left the front page, I checked my stats again:
- my shop had 425 hearts
- "smiling . brooch / pin ." had 152 views
- "smiling . brooch / pin ." had 9 hearts

Not bad, huh? Lesson learned - take great photos, and use solid tag words!

Want to be the one who scoops up this cute little pin for yourself - it's only $2.75 USD! Check out my shop to see if one's available!

want some free fabric? who doesn't???

The Fabric Shopper blog is giving away some totally sweet bundles of Kokka Apples and Cosmo My Journey fabric from the Matatabi Japanese Fabric Shop.

Two winners will receive 1/2 yard of each fabric and 4 winners will receive a fat quarter of each fabric.

I sooooo want to win this giveaway - can you imagine the darling accessories I could whip up with this adorable fabric?

If you want to enter for a chance to scoop this up for yourself, head on over to The Fabric Shopper blog post and enter! Quick! The deadline to enter is Saturday, March 7!

exclusive wristlets at pandacub

My sister, Suziesaurus, who I've already said is WAY craftier than me has sewn up a batch of her adorably cute and useful wristlets and has decided to part with some of them by letting me sell them exclusively in my pandacub shop!

These sweet wristlets are perfect for carrying around some spare cash or your camera, or some makeup whenever you need to run some errands (I use mine for toting my BlackBerry, my passcards and some spare change around at work).

Here's one she did in the ever popular robot fabric:


And here's one of my favourites because it's really pretty and feminine and would be perfect for the springtime!


As a special introductory offer, the wristlets are being sold for $15 USD until April 30, 2009 (regular price is $20 USD).

and now something for the guys...

As I'm constantly thinking of new accessories to add to my shop, I wanted to include something for the men.

So, here we go - the most adorable cufflinks, made out of the super popular robot fabric:


Want a pair for your own special guy? Check out my shop!

50 books in 2009 - update 3

Here's update 3 for my "50 books in 2009" goal. Ugh, seems like I'm slowing down - better pick up the pace!

If you have any favourite books that you think I might enjoy, please leave me a comment or send me an email! I'd love to hear some of your book suggestions as I'm always look for something good to read!

1. I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, finished Jan. 18
2. Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir, finished Jan. 27
3. Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie, finished Jan. 30
4. Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, finished Feb. 8

5. The Last Wife of Henry VIII by Carolly Erickson, finished Feb. 18