Rakku Designs

While reading one of my favorite blogs Yvestown I spied with my eye this awesome shoe caddy by Rakku Designs. It is so cute and compact and I think it adds a bit of interest and fun when storing your shoes.

Le donne al volante + imbranate di youtube - woman drive!

Jewish editor was fired because of this

Quest for Justice by Judith Stone

I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return 
to Palestine. It was the right thing to do. I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking.

Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of
 humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity. "Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to
us alone."

Complete article is found here.

Michelle Obama at the 2008 DNC

Obama's Inauguration Day Experience

Why are people like this

Racism In My Back Yard On Obama's Inauguration Day

On Inauguration Day at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Glen Ellyn Mrs Harte-Naus told her class to stand up and clap for their new Black President, Mrs. Harte-Naus further elated that you should be very happy that you have a black President. I wonder if teachers all over the United States and its Territories rallied their class to Cheer for their Black President.

You may find that this is an innocent request. However add the fact that this was told to only the three black students and that they were the only ones told to stand up and clap while the other students were not instructed to stand or clap and they just stared at the one student who actually did stand up. I find the behavior of this teacher to be unprofessional as well as inappropriate. Also before I decided to share this event I thought about it very carefully. I am a reasonable person and pondered over whether or not she planned to ask only the 3 black students to stand up before her class. Or was this a spur of the moment idea? It was my conclusion that it really did not matter at all it was distasteful and it caused me to wonder if she lived in a bubble where this sort of thing was a good idea. It saddens me that this is an event that happened around our children who are African American, Caucasian, Asian, Native American, Asian, etc. I sent an email to the principal of this Mrs. Cross and I was told that the Teacher was not in school the following day. Personally it is important to me that our President be someone who is about change for the good of everyone and it never mattered to me what the color of his skin is. We need to move away from what we see on the outside and look at a persons qualifications and experience.

(more)

Ride on the Whistle Stop Train Tour

Barack means..............

Did you know that Barack means blessings in the Arabic language? Well it does and I just wanted to share my favorite photos from all of the inaugural hoopla today.

Barack Obama's daughters, Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7,who arrived at the swearing in ceremony wearing these beautiful bright and colorful coats that are tied with silk ribbons from J.Crew's children's line Crewcuts.

Sasha's coat is in a pretty peachlike pink color finished off with orange accessories. Malia's has on a bright cobalt blue with a black scarf.

Aquamarine

A Thing for Aquamarine by mslovesrain

Rose-leopard beads

Rose-leopard beads, originally uploaded by Ronit golan.

While searching the internet for leopard print beads I came across this photo from a Flickr member Ronit golan! They are so pretty and different, if anyone knows where they can be purchased let me know. I would love to make a few bracelet and earrings using these beautiful beads.

Cool Material

I love finding new products online and sharing them with the readers of this blog, but there is a website called Cool Material that does just that. It showcase new products and you can signup to have daily emails filled with new items that are on the market. The picture above is the Ecsotype Presse Utility Bag I think it is just wonderful and I can see myself carrying my laptop in that bag. It look sleek and durable.

FYI: The title of the site is Cool Material - What men Really Want; I just noticed that today. I guess my taste might be somewhat masculine and edgy or not because I consider myself very feminine and girly.

Who loves thrift store shopping?

I do! And I must say you can do it online. I know you may say it is more fun to do it in person but think about it thrift store shopping online can be fun. Today i want to share my most favorite place to do a little online shopping which is shopgoodwill.com. Goodwill has always been my most favorite place to shop here in Chicago next to Unique thrift store anyway to be honest. At their website you are able to browse thru over twenty categories such as antiques, collectibles, art, home decor, etc, etc to name just a few. I have bought china, cake plates, huge mirrors, an original Robert Cox painting and a box load of Duplo legos. They package their items for shipment very well and I have only had one teacup arrive broken out of all the items I have purchased. I believe they are the best when it comes to online thrift store shopping.

My second place to shop online is housingworksauction.com. I really love shopping at this site because it raises money for the homeless people of New York. So when you buy that little trinket you feel a lot less bad because at least your purchase is going to benefit someone who really needs a roof over their head. This organization has raised over 2 millions dollars. I have not purchased anything on this site in a while but I did see a cute Orla Kiely top which you can buy it now for 30 dollars. shopgoodwill.com offers buy it now too I just wish that they had a category to click on so that I can look at all the buy it now items that they are offering.

What are your favorite stores to do a little thrift store shopping? Please share with me your favorites. I promise to share future hidden gems online because this is just a couple of my fave places to thrift shop online.

Princess

fairytale princess :] by A M Y ☮

When I saw these shoes I was like wow! I remember seeing some boots on another bloggers website and she was dying to get a pair of these. I believe it was the MadeByGirl blog. I must admit that these are a bit more decorative and it was actually a boot and not a shoe but I just had to share this fabulous find. This particular shoe is called the Cutout Pump and it is on the Ashro website.I do not wear heels anymore but if I did I would go up one whole size. For those of you who wear heels it is a good idea to go up a size when you purchase high heels because your feet will thank you for it. I would always buy these little cushioned instep inserts to cushion my feet. One day I wore 3 inch heel and my feet did not hurt all day. Ohh how I loved wearing high heels. I just might start wearing heels in the house because I love this shoe. There is limited availability so hurry.

I want this ring

I just love this ring. I have a thing for pearls I love them and I am longing to treat myself to a small bauble. This is a cultured mabe pearl with small blue topaz embedded around the bezel. It can be found here and it is under 200 dollars which I think is a great price. What do you think?

Doughnuts Anyone?

Want a scrumptious recipe for donuts? Well look no further than erincooks.com she has an awesome recipe for raised donuts. I made it and all I can say is yum, yum, yum. Here is the link to that lovely recipe.

So you want to recover your couch

I have thought of recovering my couch. I do not mean hiring someone else to do it but doing it myself. I know it seems like a daunting task but I finally found someone who did it! Her name is Vyra and she has a sick looking couch that is the daintiest thing I have see in a while. She looks very young in the photo on her website but I believe she said she was 29 years old. Take a look at the finished result as well as her layout and directions on her website here.

And the couch in the picture is from designblog.org.

Flower Maker

You can make your own flowers right here.

I just made one called the Scattering Mona. Take a look at the community garden. If you love flowers this is the site to have fun creating some new ones. And you can also create gardens from flowers that other users have created. This is such an awesome design tool.

2 Trillion Ways

Did you know that there are over 2 trillion ways to string your shoes laces? Well I stumbled upon this site and I had to share this tidbit of information. The site can be found here.

However this site shows us 36 ways to do it!

Built camera cases

I found a new blog called sliceoflemon.com and she feature this wonderful case you can find it here, I think it is wonderful and it is from NYC!

What to do first when preparing to move!?!???

What do you do first when you are preparing to move? I am no expert but I wwould say that you definitely need to purge. When I say purge I mean go through your belongings and have 3 piles which are throw away, keep, sale or give away. Sale and giveaway is one pile because if you are not able to sell it you give it away. Once you have gone through all your belongings I would say the next step is to pack away things that you dont have use for on a daily basis such as your books, decor and toys if you have kids. Personally I have to have some of my books out so I would leave out a box of books and a box of toys. My next step is to repair any damages that have been made to the apartment such as screens that need to be repaired, and I would do a thorough cleaning of the apartment. I would replace mattresses and bedding to be used in the new place as well. It is great to move in a new place with new bedding and a new mattress if your bed has had it. Just imagine the task of moving only to have your bed put up and bed made so that you can get a good night of sleep after your big move. Another thing I like to do is to pack 3 changes of clothes for each family member in garment bags so I wont have to worry about ironing or going through boxes. I also buy at least 2 wardrobe boxes to hold clothing so that I can just take clothes out of the box and put right in the closet. I make a list of cleaning supplies and I put it in a labeled box with my mop heads sponges and rags so that I quickly have a list read for my husband to get the items we need. Moving for me is fun, you are going to a new place and that is exciting. All you have to do is eliminate the stress of moving by planning 2 to 3 months ahead making the needed reservations for trucks, movers, cleaning services and food delivery services so that you wont have to cook on your first day at the new place! Make things easy for yourself!

M.I.A.

Missing in action is what I have been, because I have been very busy. Not preparing for the holidays because I do not engage in that sort of behavior. But changing the way I eat and eat more raw foods, not meat but fruit, vegetables, grains etc, I hope you get the picture. I have been also researching re mineralization of teeth because I noticed some white spots on my child's teeth. I even found another blog post on the subject of re mineralization of teeth at the Tooth Soap Blog. I went over to Uncle Harry's website and I bought a bunch of product to help with the re mineralization process such as tooth powder for children to brush their teeth , mouth wash, re mineralization powder and some natural deodorant. I have to be careful with the type of deodorant I use because I have gotten huge cysts under my arms from using the deodorants that you find at the drug store. However that is with the exception of Kiss My Face natural deodorant and Toms of Maine brands. The Kiss my Face Deodorant is great I love it, it really works for me I use the unscented kind. My complaint with Tom's of Maine deodorant in calendula is that it did not combat my body odor that well and that's not good! The Kiss My Face liquid rock deodorant has no parabens and it states on the bottle that it 'neutralizes natural body acids in perspiration and it works wonderfully for me. I was browsing on drugstore.com and I found this product and I tried it for 1.49. I really like shopping on drugstore.com they have such a huge variety of products and they have some awesome sales. Shopping online is so enjoyable for me. I can find my products fast and I don't have my kids begging for candy like when I go to Walgreens or CVS and that is a definite plus. The best part is that it is delivered for free with a 25 dollar or more purchase, so it does not cost me a dime to have it come to my door.

Believe me that I did not plan to write a whole post about deodorant and re mineralization of teeth but I did. Bear with me a moment because I did not yet tell you of my favorite purchase which is my Waterpik. I bought the Ultra model and I use the pulsating water jet to do the job of flossing for me. I have a real problem when brushing my 23 months old teeth. He is still nursing and he was in danger of getting bottle cavities so was looking for ways to give him better dental care. You would not believe what I go through to brush his teeth. I use a soft toothbrush, Toms of Maine silly strawberry toothpaste. However he screams bloody murder when I try to brush his teeth, forget about flossing his little teeth he is just not going to have it. Now I got the Waterpik dental irrigator so that I could clean below his gum line because I was not able to clean with the tooth floss, but if you do not know this dental irrigator comes with a load of attachments which include a very small orthodontic brush and also a round toothbrush. Anyway I was using the small irrigator tip to clean under his gum line and I find that my son loves this water shooting in his mouth, he starts to get excited every time I say its time to clean your teeth.

You see what I have been doing is: I put a small amount of toothpaste on his little tooth brush and I get my toothbrush and I start demonstrating to him how to brush his teeth. I have his older brother involved too. We are just brushing away for awhile and then after we are done I get the Waterpik out. My little one is not brushing that well but, because he likes the Waterpik so much my husband suggests that I use the toothbrush attachment to brush his teeth. My 23 month old loves it. He can not get enough of it and I am able to brush his teeth well! His teeth look great Meshallah, I am so excited that I am able to get his teeth clean. My only concern is what will my dentist think about it?

A few things I love

A few things I love by mslovesrain

Man Finds Racial Slur Printed On Receipt

I found the most humorous display of soap humor on Dilbert's Blog. I love a good laugh just as much as I love a good lather of soap. I'm going to dabble in the art of soap making and I came across this post. Have a soapsicle as well from etsy seller Soapylove!

Laga Handbags Hand-Guided Free Motion on Treadle Machines

My new obsession is older Singer sewing machines. I plan to buy a 201-2

Easy Crock Pot Cooking Recipes : How to Cook Candied Nuts In A Crock Pot

Here is another more simpler recipe that I think would be safer for my 4 year old to do with supervision.

Make Roast and Candy Nuts - Cat Cora for Cooking.com

Michelle Obama: Be not afraid

I like Michele Obama so I am going to continue to share my favorite videos of her.

Michelle Obama let's not talk about her dress

I read every article I could get my hands on in various local papers and newsletters. I did not like her dress but, I guess she did that is why she chose it. I am aware that many are looking for the new President and his family to make mistakes and they are looking at them under a microscope. I live here in the USA I want them to be the best that they can be...for us all. I am happy that this country has grown enough that a man of color is able to be elected on his merit, his ability and I know the world is watching. I pray that Almighty God guides him to do what is best and that he will make very few, very minute errors.

mslovesrain does jewelry

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade mslovesrain.etsy.com

Circle Blue Planet

I have been very busy updating my etsy shop and making all sorts of jewelry. I have found it very soothing to sit on the cough with my little baskets of beads and findings and wire and just be creative. You might be wondering about why I chose that red ear display. Actually it is an Earring key chain that I bought on Ebay. The set up is an earring display that I stuck some double sided tape to it so that I could mount the ear on it. I was looking for a cheap earring display online and I found some silicone ones that looked very much like the one I have my earring displayed on except it isn't red. My display cost under 5 bucks as opposed to the one here that cost way more than that. I am very happy to say this. A display of color is a good thing, isn't it? It may distract you from my earring design but I really like the way it looks. I bought a load of mother of pearl jewelry supplies and I have made 3 different pair of earrings. And I used my photo studio from Square Perfect. The light are pretty good I think. My FujiFilms camera is only 3 megapixels so I am in need of an upgrade really soon. I am thinking of purchasing a Canon A590 which is 8 megapixels. The camera I have now is great I just don't feel it picks up the fine detail of my jewelry.

Price Your Jewelry Designs - wikiHow

Figuring out how to price your designs is one of the least glamorous parts of running a successful jewelry design business. Pricing your designs can be tricky, especially if you design one of a kind pieces, but it is an essential step you must take to turn your hobby into a profitable business. Once you understand the costs of your business, and what you expect to profit from your work, creating a formula to price your designs is a simple process.

Steps

1. Keep a "recipe book" to record exactly what was spent to create each design. You will basically need to price each item used in your designs. For example, if you pay $1.50 for a dozen sterling crimp beads, and you used 2 crimps beads in your design, you would divide $1.50 by 12 (12.5¢ per crimp bead), and multiply by 2, totalling 25¢ for the crimp beads in this design. This makes it much easier to calculate the exact cost of each design. The more meticulous you are about calculating expenses, the better your pricing will be. Even the packing materials you use for the design and the shipping costs of the supplies should be accounted for. Keep receipts -- this will also come in handy during tax time, if you want to deduct business expenses. Remember that materials cost is only one aspect of the costs involved in your designs.
   
2. Record your time spent on each design. How quickly can you design and complete your jewelry? Second to quality, speed is a key factor in profitability. If it takes you 30 minutes to recreate a design, you would charge differently than a design that takes 4-5 hours to create. Write your time spent in your recipe book. Decide how much you would need to pay a worker to do your job, and pay yourself at that rate. This is a vital aspect of the costs involved in your designs; don't ignore it! Sooner than you think, you may decide to hire a friend to help you prepare for a show or party. The hourly wage paid to a worker, whether that person is you, or someone you hire, must be built into your price scheme, or you will not be able to remain in business. If you begin by charging $10/hr for your work, and a necklace takes you 2 hours to make, you will add $20 to the materials cost of your necklace for your time. As you become more experienced, you will charge more for your skill and expertise.
   
3. Add Overhead and Profit. *Everyone has a different method of calculating their overhead costs, but there is ALWAYS some overhead. What is overhead? Overhead covers a myriad of "hidden costs" and ignoring it is a fast way to underprice yourself out of business. When you first begin, overhead includes the shipping costs you pay to have your beads shipped to you, the investment you make every time you purchase a new pair of pliers, a work table, storage boxes, or price tags. Overhead includes every bead that rolled under the couch or down the street, and every item dropped in the grass during packing, or (sad, but it happens occassionally) stolen from your booth or table. It covers the cost of gas and insurance when you pick up tools and materials, and it covers all of the materials that get "used up" in the creation of your product, such as glue, solder, string, wire, coatings/finishes, etc. It covers the time and cost of advertising, whether you spend time emailing your customers, or printing and mailing glossy postcards. It covers office expenses like business cards, computer paper and ink, packing slips, receipts, brochures, inventories, and more. Later on, overhead covers more expensive outlay of capital, such as rent, phone, computers, electric, heat, torches, gas, solder, flux, chemicals, and more expensive equipment to build your studio and your business. Profit is what you add to your price to help your business grow. Profit is NOT the same as what you pay for labor. You may own your business and pay someone else to make all of the jewelry. They are paid for their labor, but the business still needs to make a profit, or it can't grow. Profit allows you to lay out the money for 3 strands of beads this week, when you could only afford two last week. Some calculations for profit and overhead can be complicated, but a quick and simple starting point is given below.
   
4. Calculate the price. Using a formula will give you a starting point, and you can tweak the price with the steps that follow. Which formula you use, however, will depend on whether you're selling retail (directly to customers) or wholesale (to stores, for example).
   
   • Wholesale - Take the total cost of your supplies plus your time, multiply by 1.5 (some people multiply by 2). Multiplying by 1.5 - 2 covers your overhead and profit to start with. You may adjust down if you are just starting, and expenses are minimal, or up if you are actively building a larger business. For example, if I am just starting and have low overhead, I may charge $8/hr and take 1 hour to make a bracelet using $5 in materials; my price will be $5(mater.) + $8(time) = $13(cost) x 1.5 (overhd/profit) = $19.50 wholesale price. With more expensive equipment, more experience, and a product that requires a higher level of skill, I may charge $5 + 15/hr, x 2 = $40 wholesale. You can charge less for your jewelry if you're selling wholesale because you spend less time marketing to individual customers (advertising, processing orders, maintaining a shopping cart website, maintaining a store, etc.) and more time actually making jewelry. You should verify that your market can afford a mark-up, using the next few steps. A wholesale operation will be selling your piece for around twice as much as you sell it to them. Many jewelry designers find that selling wholesale allows them to achieve business growth and profitability. When you use the 1.5 factor, you are allowing room for shop owners to sell your designs and even offer sales and discounts on your designs, if a certain design doesn’t sell quickly enough. This may sound like a lot, but make sure that you consider the amount of time and labor you put into developing and creating your pieces as well as the boutique owner's expenses.
     
   • Retail - Take the total cost of your supplies plus your time, multiply it times 3 (or 4), and there’s your retail price. This is the same as wholesale x 2. A spreadsheet is perfect for this step. Simply set up a table of products used, your time, and then a formula to calculate the pricing using the 3 or other multiple. Ex: for the first example given above, I would simply multiply $19.50 (wholesale price) x 2, for a $39 retail price. In the second case, retail might be $40 x 2 + $80. There is a lot of room for adjustment here. If your business has a physical storefront, you have to take into consideration that there are additional costs. Rent, employee pay, utilities, displays and fixtures, and property taxes all need to be considered in your pricing strategy. Even if you sell at a booth at a crafts market, you need to consider your transportation to and from the market, your time spent at the market, and all the supplies involved (tent, tables, food, signs, displays, bags, receipts, etc.). You may find that in your market, you need to price at 3 to 5 times your cost of materials plus time. This price allows you to cover the cost of buying your materials, paying (yourself or someone else) to make the pieces, selling them at wholesale with minimal overhead and profit covered (x 1.5 - 2), and then selling at retail yourself (2x wholesale), where a weekend booth at a moderately high end show may cost $500-$700.
     
   
   
5. Adjust for the cost of your labor. *The difference between a hobby and a business is whether you get a paycheck, so decide how much you want to make per hour, and make sure that your labor is accounted for in the price. Treat yourself as an employee who doesn't work for free. If you have employees, consider the cost of paying them in addition to your own salary. Let's say, for example, the cost of supplies for your design is $10. If you want to pay yourself $10 per hour and you spent 2 hours on this design, then you really need to be charging at least $60 for the piece ($10 supplies, $20 labor, $30 approximate overhead and profit, depending on wholesale or retail). There may be additional costs to consider, such as your storefront, or time spent marketing (e.g. creating a brochure).
   
   • When deciding how much to pay yourself hourly, consider your experience. How long have you been designing jewelry? If you have a long track record, vast expertise, and a portfolio of unique designs, you may find that you can charge more. You may have particular advantages, including contacts, unique designs, high level skills, or ability to work with uncommon materials that allow you to charge more.
     
   • To repeat--just because you enjoy doing the work doesn't mean you shouldn't get paid for it! Make sure you're getting at least minimum wage. If not, you may quickly decide that your time "just isn't worth it".
     
   
   
6. Perform market research. Now that you have an idea of what you want to charge for a design, it's time to dip your toes in the market and see if the piece can be profitable. Generally, it's a good idea to start off with the highest price you think the market will bear, because you can always bring it down. Have you visited craft shows, jewelry parties, and researched the web to see what work similar to yours is selling for?
   
   • Have people offered to buy any of your jewelry designs? This is a good indication of the marketability of your designs. If your coworkers fight over a necklace you made, that may be a good sign that there is a market for your design. Friends and coworkers are also good sounding boards for prices. Ask them how much they think your design is worth, and what they would pay for it.
     
   • Examine past success. Have you already sold any of your jewelry? This is important too in that it gives you concrete information on how much you can sell a design for. You may hear from friends of coworkers that they would pay $XX for a design, but an actual sale is real, concrete evidence.
     
   • Has an experienced designer evaluated your work? Having the opinion of another designer can be valuable in determining the level of quality of your work, and what you can expect to get for it.
     
   
   
7. Re-evaluate the design. If you encountered feedback in the previous step which indicates that the price you arrived at isn't going to fly, you have some thinking to do about this design.
   
   • If you do not find interest for a particular design, you may want to think of changing the design.
     
   • Assess your materials. Do you design using sterling findings and semi-precious beads, or less expensive beads? Higher quality materials will always command a higher price in the market. You may want to consider making designs with both high quality materials, and less expensive materials. This will allow you to attract business from both the high end buyer, and the more budget minded buyer.
     
   • Don't cut yourself short just to "break in" to the market (e.g. selling to customers at wholesale prices). This will only get people used to cheap prices, and it'll be difficult to raise them later on, jeopardizing your chances of ever making your business profitable. It's better to redesign or reject pieces that don't cover their costs as described above. People are often suspicious of products sold at unusually low prices; most of us have internalized the idea that 'you get what you pay for'. Cheap prices are often interpreted as cheap materials and workmanship. If your pieces aren't selling well, try raising your prices. It goes against our intuition, but you may be surprised at the results!
     
   
   

Tips

• As you become more experienced, you'll find which prices cover your unique costs while still generating sales. For example, if you're doing a lot of beadwork and wirework where the supply cost is low but the time spent is high, and you're selling retail only through a website, the following could be a better formula:[1]
  
  • (cost of materials x 2) + (time spent on piece x hourly rate)
    
  • calculate 30% of the previous figure and add it to the previous figure to account for overhead
    
  • multiply the figure by 2 to get the retail price
    
  
  
• Some people use the tactic of setting a retail price just under a whole number ($49.95 rather than $50) to make the price look less intimidating. This may be more suitable for relatively inexpensive pieces[2] but you should experiment to see how your customer base responds.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Price Your Product
  
• How to Earn Money by Making and Selling Crafts
  
• How to Start a Crafts Business
  
• How to Set Up Credit Card Processing for Your Business
  
• How to Choose Jewelry
  
• How to Make Jewelry
  
• How to Accessorize With Jewelry
  
• How to Clean Birthstone and Mother's Ring Jewelry
  

Sources and Citations

• HHHenterprises.com - Source of information.
  
• Erayo.com - Source of information.
  

1. ↑ http://jewelrymaking.allinfoabout.com/features/pricing.html


2. ↑ http://jewelrymaking.allinfoabout.com/features/pricing.html

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Price Your Jewelry Designs. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.