Candy Apple Boutique

As you all know I love to share incredible artists from Etsy. This next shop I want to share with you is an old time favorite for me and my daughter! I have been getting items from this talented creator for some time now. She custom makes my daughter so many amazing hats and wacky ideas I come up with! She is simply amazing with her talents.

How about you see for yourself:
Candy Apple Boutique
My name is Roxanne and I am the owner of Candy Apple Boutique, a shop on etsy! This shop contains items created out of a hobby and passion of mine, which is not so much crochet like you may assume at this point, but rather, the desire to create items that are cute and adorable and loved by those who receive them. Whether it be a hat, fingerless gloves, Mouse ears, scarf, hair clips or something else, it is my hope that you will love the items that I make. That is why I do what I do! Knowing that the pieces I create bring a component of joy to another brings me happiness. Some people head off to work each day, I head "in". As for the crochet part, yes, I do crochet. I do not knit. How many times have people asked me what I "knit" I knit nothing. Let me be perfectly honest: I can't knit to save my life:-) Really, it is a pretty funny sight to see me even attempt it!

I love to be inspired in this life. I find inspiration from anywhere I please...why limit myself to one defined answer such as "my kids" or "nature." While those things might inspire some of what I create, the spectrum is certainly broader than that. A movie, a character, an animal, a color, a book, a place, a food...you name it, I can likely inspire a creation after it. Would you like to test that theory? Contact me at candyapplebyrl@gmail.com or on etsy at www.candyappleboutique.etsy.com
Here are some of her adorable items!!





Here are some her adorable hats for boys. And as always, Roxanne welcomes custom requests and orders! I've had her do everything from a horse hat, chesire the cat, and even a squirrel!

Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

Fall is my Favorite time of year! I love not only the leaves changing colors, but the smells of all the spices! Two of my favorite things are chocolate of course! Hey, I'm a woman! And secondly, Pumpkin :) mmmmmmmm Nothing like the taste of pumpkin and all the smells of the spices that goes with it! Well if you like both as well, you are going to love these!!

Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
Makes: 36 brownies
Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 1 hour

ingredients

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup canned pumpkin (I like to use organic, pure)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup butter, cut up
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)

directions

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over the edges of the pan. Grease the foil; set pan aside.

In a medium mixing bowl beat cream cheese and the 1 tablespoon butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1/2 cup sugar. Beat until well combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in 1 egg, the pumpkin, 1 teaspoon vanilla, the cinnamon, and ginger until combined. Stir in the 1 tablespoon flour. Set aside.

In a small bowl stir together the 1 1/4 cups flour, the baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a large saucepan combine the chocolate and 3/4 cup butter. Cook and stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually add the 2 1/4 cups sugar, beating with an electric mixer on low speed just until combined. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in milk and the 2 teaspoons vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture just until combined.

Spread chocolate mixture evenly in the prepared pan. Spoon cream cheese mixture in several mounds on top of the chocolate batter. Using a narrow metal spatula, gently swirl the cream cheese mixture into the chocolate batter. If desired, sprinkle with walnuts.

Bake about 60 minutes or until center is just set when pan is gently shaken. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use foil to lift uncut brownies out of pan. Cut into brownies.

To Store: Layer brownies between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Children's Bath Set GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

Well, the holidays are among us! Actually approaching way to quickly, lol So I wanted to do my first of the season; Holiday Giveaway.

What am I giving away? Well, this adorable Dinosaur Bath and Body Gift Set! It can be made for a girl or boy, and the winner can choose! In this adorable gift set, you will receive your choice of Pink Dino or Green Dino bath soap scented in Fruity Loops, Dino Body Spray scented in a Fruity Loops, A Dino Shaped Bottle of sugar cookie scented lotion, and a Dino Shaped Bottle of Fresh Pear Scented Bubble Bath! This amazing set retails for $18.95 and you could be the lucky winner!

So here are the rules:
1) The winner will be choosen by random. Each person will be assigned a number and then inputed into a program that will choose a number at random from the numbers submitted.

2)You will receive one (1) entry for commenting on this posting, please include how I may contact you if you are chosen as the winner. I do not spam, so you will not be sent a million and one emails.

3)You will receive one (1) entry for each item you purchase from my shop from October 10th - October 31st 2011

4)You will receive two (2) entry's for following the blog. If you are a current follower of the blog, you will have your two entry's entered for you automatically.

4)I will pick the winner on November 1st!!!

So what are you waiting for? Get to posting!

Customer Appreciation!!!

Over the years I have met some amazing people, and wonderful customers! Everyone of them brings a smile to my face; and for that I truely Thank You all! It's always such an honor to see how much my creations bring smiles and enjoyment to others; it lets me know that what I do is worth all the hard work that is put in to every item!

I wanted to share with everyone some of the adorable and wonderful pictures I've received of my products being used as photo props and more! Thank you all for sharing, and please continue, I love to hear how you have enjoyed your creations!

www.letmebe.etsy.com



Hi! My name is Inbar and I am an addict of all things CUTE (and preferably pink!).
I am a collector of 1980's Strawberry Shortcake dolls and of anything else that's well - Cute!!.
When "cute" began to take over all my storage space and was overwhelming my family (1 husband, 2 sons and too much pink...) I opened my little store on Etsy - LetMeBe Designs.
Etsy is a truly wonderful place - my Disneyland if you will, and I am having a great time being a part of its huge and incredibly creative family.
Please stop by for a visit!
Happily sharing the cute,
Inbar

The following is from a customer in California. She recently did a car show where her theme was "COOKIE MONSTER"! Such a wonderful theme! I was so excited when she asked me to create dozens upon dozens of different faux cookies for her as magnets, and others to be created into a chandelier! Yes, a chandelier!! Her car was all decked out with her spoiler having different variety of cookie names, she put the cookie magnets all over her car, and she made this amazing chandelier out of my faux cookies! How cute is this?!?



The following pictures are from an amazing display set up in one of my wholesale customers shops in California. How gorgeous is this display?!? Her shop is called The Shabby Confections Shoppe and sells all things Shabby Chic, amazing confection goodies of the edible type, and of course my creations! Check out her shop, it's truely adorable; http://shabbyconfectionsshoppe.vpweb.com/




This next shop you will absolutely fall in love with! If you love handcrafted, handcarved wood items, you have to check out Wood Expressions, there stuff is absolutely amazing! I was so honored when they approached me to use my cupcake candles as photo props for there cupcake stands. These are the most beautiful creations I have seen, and the prices are amazing!!





http://www.etsy.com/shop/WoodExpressionsThank you for visiting my Shop. My wife takes care of the web site, shipping and paper work, I get the fun part of making a whole lot of sawdust.
I started working with wood making furniture and toys when the grandkids come along. About ten years ago I got started in woodturning after going to a woodturning show in North Carolina. Been hooked every since. Most of the woods I turn are from local trees that died, damaged by a storm or firewood piles. Woodturning is a creative outlet for me after working all week in Bridge Construction. I can't wait to pick up a piece of wood and see what the end results will be. The grain,knots,cracks,spalting of the wood all determines what will emerge.

Thank you all for sharing your amazing photos and your passion for my creations!

Kindergarten Basics......

It was a late night of making orders and I couldn't sleep. What else is new? haha So of course I jumped on the laptop and began surfing the web; mainly blogs. While searching randomly, I came across this great blog posting that I wanted to share. Lately it seems with all the changes etsy has been making that Etsy is the topic of choice. I often hear shop owners ask each other for advice on how to make their shop/business successful. Well, I'll let you read for yourself, but I thought this couldn't have been put any better!

Article by: Crimson Hill Soap

Would you believe me if I told you that everything you needed to know to run your business you learned in kindergarten? To a large degree, I find this to be very true. We learn educational, social and behavioral basics at the ripe age of 5 and carry these core values with us the rest of our lives.

Reading
Reading in the form of research is vital for the formation, implementation and successfulness of every business. I had to spend countless hours researching how to make soap, what natural ingredients I should use, FDA labeling guidelines, etc. By the end of my initial research, I felt like a chemist!

Writing
To have a thriving online business, you MUST become a good writer. Since customers can’t see, feel, smell or try-on your product, they have to rely on concise, smart and informative text to guide their purchase decision. When your customers are greeted to your website by incorrect grammar or typos, there is certainly no greater turn-off. Ya gotta kno what to say n’ how ta say it, ya no whut I mean?!

Color
Everybody remember the color wheel? Using color to grab a customer’s attention and direct their eye through your website is the key to pulling customers in to want to see more of your products. Vibrant, complementary and flowing colors will always win over a busy and disorganized color flow.

Play
Nicely With Others You will never hear me say a negative word about my competition. I find it to be tacky, unprofessional and shows that you lack confidence. Rather, if I am asked about a competitor’s product, I tell customers that I am confident in the quality and uniqueness of my products and that I won’t speak on another’s behalf. At craft shows, I chuckle when I see my competitors trying to “sneak” past my booth to view all my new products. Imitation is the best form of flattery.

Homework
You must strive for continuous education and improvement in your industry. If you think you already know it all, you are dead wrong. Markets, niches, trends and economic factors are constantly changing and staying in tune with these changes is the key to long-term success.

Recess
This is important and often overlooked by adults. Take time to HAVE FUN. There is a reason that 5-year-olds need to go run and play for a bit after a few hours of work! Schedule breaks, time off, trips, etc….whatever you need to do to re-charge, unload, rest and clear your mind. Trust me, you will be energized and better equipped to handle your business affairs after “recess”.


I don't think that I could have stated any of the above in a more simple and understanding manner :)

More Views; by cleaning up your etsy tags

I do not claim to know all the answers, but I can only share what has worked for the success of my shop. Have you ever looked at your shop stats? Did you know you could? Check them out sometime, you will be able to learn a lot from this, including the top keywords that potential buyers use to find your items and shop.

There are many was to get more buyers into your Etsy shop. A few good examples are running sales, properly placing keywords, getting featured in more treasuries, and changing up your tags. Here some great tips for cleaning up and changing your Etsy item tags.

My views when I first started were very low, so I knew that it was a good time to stir the pot so to speak. Change is good. I now do this at least twice a year Spring and Fall or whenever I take things from my expired items. I do a much different group of tags if it hasn’t sold. I take matters into my own hands so at least if it doesn’t help I know I did all I could tag wise.

Does this work? By all means I am not bragging but rather showing you that this can work for you! In the past 7 days, my shop has had 2188 visits (and I do not participate in the ads). Out of these shop visits, 1788 of them are item specific! I've had 189 favorites as a shop, and 223 individual item favorites! Trust me if you put in the time and invest the time to keep on it, you can find yourself turning those views into sales like I have.

Here are several examples; make combinations of words and phrases by understanding what your potential buyer searches for. Take the time to search similar items, and see how they come up. Keep in mind that cutesy words and trade industry words don't always work best as others may not know the same "lingo".

Example when I search for jewelry, I search bracelet, ring, childs ring, necklace, diamond, cubic zirconia..... But I notice that a lot of shop owners use specific bead types, names, etc that I have no idea what they are even speaking of. These are okay to use as a couple key words, but do not use for all.

Example for soap:
cold process soap, homemade soap, scented soap, natural soap, childrens soap, shea butter, goats milk soap, ..... hopefully you get the idea.

With etsy's new relevency search, you can get penalized and thrown to the back by using non relevent search terms. So be careful not to do this; example for soap:
wedding showers, baby showers, birthday.... in the past many shops will use keywords for occasions or colors of an item. Using colors are fine, but add to the color such as lavender soap, lavender scented, orange soap, orange scented........

Ask yourself these questions about your item. These can make great search terms!

1. What is it?

Eg. necklace, jewelry, bowl, print

2. What is it specifically? What type?

Eg. Hoop (for earrings), v-neck (for sweaters), long sleeve (shirt)


3. Who is it for?

Eg. women, men, baby, children, boy, girl, adult, pets, dog, teachers


4. What is the main material?

Add the major material to your tags, if it is something you think a buyer might search for to find your item. Add minor materials or component materials to the “materials” box on page 1. Eg. leather, cotton, canvas, felt, metal, 14K gold, sterling silver, glass

5. What is the main color?
Buyers are not likely to look for minor colors in your piece, so stick to the main color(s) or important color combos! Eg. white, black, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple

6. What method or technique did you use to make it?


Eg. hammered (for metal jewelry), burned (for woodworking), appliqued, embroidered

7. Where will the item be used?


Eg. kitchen, hair, office, beach, garden, car, nursery

8. What size is it?

Eg. small, extra large, 7mm, 18in, 8 x 10

9. What style is it?

Eg. goth, victorian, hippie, punk, impressionist, post-modern, feminine, sophisticated, southwestern

10. What Imagery or motifs that are on the item?

Eg. owl, landscape, nature, plaid, geometric


11. Are there synonyms?

Use these if the word means exactly the same thing as the tag you already used, it is accurate for your item, and you think it will be an important search term that buyers will look for. Eg. Infant for young babies, handbag for purses and clutches, toddler for children 18 months – 3 years, kids for children, drink for coffee, trousers for pants.

12. What is the scent or flavor?

Eg. sweet, spicy, salty (for bath and beauty and food items).

Etsy’s search and sort algorithm currently considers three main factors:
■Tags
■Titles
■Descriptions
Tags are the 14 keywords Etsy allows sellers to categorize and describe the item they are listing. This is the most heavily weighted part of the algorithm.

Finally, a keyword filled and lengthy description is the third key to ranking well in Etsy’s relevance search and sort. Don’t skimp on the description, because the algorithm is looking at the words and phrases you include here. What words you take out of the title should be included in the description.

Relevency Search - How to Succeed

Etsy caused quite a stir this August by switching the default sorting in search results to Relevancy instead of Most Recent. Etsy has attempted to help forlorn sellers with advice, videos and rule updates related to the change. The advice from Etsy is scattered over a dozen articles and hard to find, so I’ve attempted to gather it all in one place.

Relevancy is one of the major goals of search. Think about the last time you did a Google search and got a bunch of nonsense that wasn’t what you wanted – it’s frustrating. I’m surprised that Etsy wasn’t using this as the default until now. Etsy’s own test lab shows that users prefer relevancy search 15 times more than recency – that’s a lot!

Love it or hate it, relevancy search isn’t going away. If your shop stats are dipping since the change, it’s time to get serious and learn to work with it. You might just find that you like it – shops now have more power to affect their search position than just relisting.

Word pairs
Etsy has introduced a search feature for relevancy that gives word pairs a tremendous amount of weight. Word pairs are phrases of more than one word that people use to search – think “silver necklace” or “beaded napkin rings”. Items that match the searched phrase exactly are given priority and displayed above other search results. Exact matches in both the title and tags boosts an item even higher.

The word pairs are scored much better if the match is exact, but it doesn’t have to be. A search for “red desk” will favor a title of “Classic Red Desk”, but might also show “Red Sox Desk Set” or “Red Tulip Desk Lamp” further down in the search results.

Titles are King
There’s one message that Etsy has pushed about relevancy search – titles are the most important factor in your listing. Titles are more important than tags, descriptions, recency, attributes and views. Real estate’s mantra is “location, location, location” – Etsy’s is now “titles, titles, titles!”

Titles are king with good reason – besides the picture, they’re the best source of information customers have about your item in search results. Customers searching for “red desk” expect to see the words “red” and “desk” in the search results – otherwise the search seems broken. Tags and descriptions don’t appear in search results – and the listing date only shows if you purposefully choose the list view.

Etsy weighs the position of word pairs in your title. In our “red desk” example, an item with the title “Classic Red Desk” will be favored more than “Shabby Chic Primitive Antique Red Desk”, since the word pair appeared earlier in the title for the first item. Hindsight is 20/20 – if the customer had searched for “shabby chic desk” the latter item would have been positioned more prominently.

Most important is to use the best phrases for your item in the beginning of your title. How do you determine the best phrases? Etsy Shop Stats to the rescue! Log in to Etsy and go to Your Account > Shop Stats. This page will show you all sorts of interesting things about the people who found your shop – most importantly, the Top Keywords section will give you the best phrases for your titles and tags.

Another great source for keywords is the Etsy search box itself. Start typing a phrase into the Etsy search and you’ll see suggested search terms pop down. These suggestions are popular search terms from real users. Try a few combinations that relate to your item and see what pops up!



Lastly, Etsy recommends title variation - don’t use the same title format for similar items. Changing up the title will help diversify where your item appears in searches.

Tags are a sometimes food
In the last few months, Etsy has taken a stance against tag “stuffing” – putting multiple words into tags like “blue coral turquoise”. With the relevancy search change, Etsy has updated the DOs and DON’Ts to refine the rules about tags. The pertinent rules for tags now read:

You may use a short descriptive phrase as a tag if it accurately describes your item (for example: “sterling silver,” “messenger bag,” “steampunk cufflinks”).
You may not stuff multiple words into a single tag that do not comprise a descriptive phrase (for example: “beach water sunset,” “handbag purse clutch,” “green red blue black.”)
We’ve already covered “descriptive phrases” – also known as word pairs – that you’ll absolutely want to put in your tags. If you can manage to get a commonly-searched word pair in both your title and your tags, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Recency still matters
Relisting is much less important with the search changes, but it hasn’t entirely gone away. There are still places that recency is a factor:

Category pages are still sorted by Most Recent. Customers that navigate to categories like Coffee Tables will see the most recently renewed or created items.

The Etsy home page still has a Recently Listed Items section. It’s the easiest way to get on the Etsy home page - although if you blink, you might miss it.

Broad search queries – searches that return more than 100,000 results – will use recency to sort the top matches. Etsy’s example is a search for “dress” that returns nearly 180,000 results – “jewelry” returns over 2 million. In these hotly-contested areas where so many items match exactly, recency will still put you on the top.

Searches – while defaulting to Relevancy for sorting, there is also a prominently-featured strip along the top of each search showing Recently Listing items that match the search. There are 4 items showing, but 40 total if you page through with the arrow buttons.

Naturally, the Most Recent sort option is still available on searches even though it’s no longer the default.

Even searches that aren’t broad enough to hit the 100,000 mark seem to factor in recency. Switch to the list view in a search and you’ll see that even though some items are a few weeks or months old, there’s no real dinosaurs hanging around at the top of search results.

What doesn’t matter
The Etsy search team has confirmed that these things do not affect search placement for relevancy search:

Descriptions – although Google scans descriptions, so these should still be written with SEO in mind.

Tag order – though Etsy recommends having the most descriptive tags first, since it may someday matter.

Item location (even for heavy items).

Number of views.

Number of listings in your shop.

Attributes – for now.
Etsy encourages sellers to fill out the attributes, as they are being given a serious look for inclusion in relevancy search in the near future.
Punctuation in titles – this is automatically stripped out for search purposes.
Pluralization – titles and tags are stemmed before indexing, so having both “earring” and “earrings” in your tags is not necessary, and verbs like “beaded” will also match “bead” in a search.