Shop Local This Holiday Season: #Bergen and #Rockland County, #NY, #NJ

My newest shop! SilverInitialJewelry on Etsy

This season, more than ever, there is a big push in the "shop local" movement. What better way to shop is there?  Local food growers, artisans and small shops are constantly battling  the big guys for the small piece of the pie they need to make a living at what they are truly passionate about.

Beads - good enough to eat!

And that's the biggest difference, passion. Small business men and women, whether they are farmers, jewelers, or artisan cheese makers, cannot do what they do without passion for their product. They live, breathe, sleep, their product; knowing their great fortune is having the opportunity to make a living at what they are passionate about. They yearn  for customer connection as much as their customers seek it out. This personal connection makes it impossible for them  to deliver an inferior product.

Big business lives for the bottom line. Period.

I connect with each of my customers on line. I send at least one email to them to thank them and inform them of shipping time. I have some customers whom I am always in constant contact with, whether or not they are shopping. Etsy's system keeps count of "back and forth's" in their "convo" or email system. It is not uncommon for me to have 50 or 60 convos for one custom order. By the end of this process, we are discussing children's runny noses, and recipes. It is a personal connection yearned for by both parties. As I tell all my customers. "feel free to ask a million questions".

When I stop to think about it, it is a little strange. All this takes place so personally, virtually. This has become what now feels like a connection to people. Granted, ordering from a large company gives you zero human "contact", but what about face to face, hand to hand contact?

I don't do shows, the street fair circuit or any type of market. But I am local to my neighbors. I do have a huge studio that customers can visit. So I am opening this up. This is new for me. I am encouraging my customers to "shop local".  Come to my dusty, basement jewelry studio. Lets meet and have coffee and look at gemstones and pick out typefaces for custom silver wax seal jewelry and initials. Lets have face to face and hand to hand contact.


Its not pretty, but a lot of pretty stuff comes out of it!

Everything is on wheels for functionality

Every day starts with a smudge of Sage

Aromatherapy while I use my Dremel

If you  are local in Bergen or Rockland counties, I am literally on the border,  and you would like a personal studio visit. Email me or "convo" me at Etsy and we can set this up.

Thank you for visiting and reading

25 Days until BLACK Friday, 50 DAYS Until CHRISTMAS, 22 days until CHANUKAH - What Are You Waiting For?

Time is flying! Whether you are buying or selling, scroll down for my post on  stress reducing  ideas for the holiday crush. I wrote it 25 days ago. It feels like I wrote it yesterday!

Spots and Snowflakes Curly Toe Stocking  by Festive Jester

Its here! Lets Get Shopping. 

 Some Helpful Hints:

• Stores are posting their Black Friday flyers NOW!  Just get it over with for more obvious reasons than I can list!  Google "early black Friday deals 2013" and you can sign up to have flyers delivered to your email as soon as they are out.

• Anything that needs to be ordered needs to be ordered NOW so you get your choice of stock and holiday delivery dates. The longer you wait, the more likely your beautiful holiday basket will be out of stock or will have to be delivered a week before Christmas when no family or friends have arrived yet.

• Anything that needs to be shipped internationally needs to be at the Post Office no later than December 1!

• Anything handmade needs to be ordered NOW because crafters get swamped, backed up, and often stop taking orders several weeks before holidays because they are overwhelmed with orders. The "perfect" gift you planned on giving may be unattainable no matter how much you beg the lone crafter, baker, or jewelry maker. 

Don't forget!

Shop locally. Whether online or in a shop - shop fair trade. And support handmade!
 (Artisans - feel free to use these images!)

Visit my handmade jewelry Shops!

Thank you for taking the time to visit and read ,

25 Days until BLACK Friday, 50 DAYS Until CHRISTMAS, 22 days until CHANUKAH - What Are You Waiting For?

 Happy Holidays

 Do you loathe doing battle with the crushing holiday shopping  crowds?  I get panicky just thinking about it. Does  competitive parking bring out a side of you that no one would recognize? Have you ever encountered a sold-out toy shelf only to silently berate yourself for not rising at 4:00 a.m and waiting on line at the risk of being trampled by adrenaline and Starbucks crazed shoppers ready to SPEND, no SAVE, no SPEND, SAVE!  It is all truly crazy when you think about it. 

Whether you're buying or selling this holiday season, the time to be on the move is now! I have read countless news articles and seen TV news features about how retail prices are lower than, or as low as Black Friday right now! 
According to Time magazine, Sept. 24th issue, 49% of big marketers stated they will launch Holiday Marketing prior to October 31st . A 2.4% rise in spending is forecast for this holiday season and adding to the rising pressure is this:

"Retailers have a reduced window of time to capture peak holiday spending as only 25 days lie between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Christmas this year, compared to 32 days in 2012. Typically, weekends are busy times for customers to visit stores and, unlike last year, consumers have only four (not five) full weekends to shop.  Also, Hanukkah starts 11 days earlier than it did a year earlier"

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/09/24/5-ways-retailers-are-trying-to-snag-holiday-shopping-dollars-extra-early-this-year/#ixzz2hsODTQmK

Retailers are rolling out the big guns:

• Layaway
• Early 'hot toy' lists
• Giant retailers are price matching
• Buy-Online, Pickup-in-Store
• Newcomers entering the Online arena: H&M and TJ Maxx.

 My boyfriend and I love to go to garage sales during the Summer. After a while you see the same people at each one, (if you get up as early as we do). We started recognizing other early regular's  cars because of their particularly crazy and fast driving speeds, passing us at  8:00 a.m. in a sleepy beach town. 

Then we realized they all had the same look on their faces. Stress, anxiety; almost seething  to get to the sale before the others. We deemed it "Garage Sale Face".  

One time we needed a new "beach bike" because one of ours had rusted to smithereens.  We knew we had to get there early because good beach bikes go quickly. Off we went with our coffee mugs from home in our hands, "early-birding" the homeowners (annoyingly arriving ten minutes before the start of the sale).  Sure enough, we looked at each other and laughed, we each had Garage Sale Face as the other regulars pulled in. We got the bike, but we had fallen right into the frenzy!

Well, Holiday crowds to me, all have Garage Sale Face and it ain't pretty! 

"Garage Sale Face" examples:  (not exactly but you get the idea )

Take advantage of the early savings and beat the  crowds. Coupons and free shipping deals abound. You must put in a little extra time, do your due diligence and you will reap the benefits of early Holiday shopping deals. 

Shop early and you will also find the best inventory because  of the recession of recent years, retailers have scaled back on inventories in order to cut back on end of season overstock and unplanned super-markdowns.

 Use positive visualization. YOU, finished with your shopping a week before  Thanksgiving. You saved lots of cash and you can actually enjoy the holidays instead of frenetically stressing out through them.

 This is the buying side of the coming season. What about all of you online sellers.
What are you doing to get your ONLINE Shop Ready?   We'll talk more about that next post.

Thank you for visiting and reading,