Mu-Yin Jewelry

What Happened Since May

2011-11-14T00:05:00.002-05:00

Oh. My. God. Has it been that long since I posted any update about Mu-Yin Jewelry? Well, I guess that is the case. I hope you, my lovely readers / customers, have not forgotten bout me! Everything has been going well, and I have been doing fine. It's just that there have been so many things on my mind that I simply couldn't pick myself up to do a blog update. I have always liked writing long, thorough blog posts, which means it always takes hours for me to do each update, and this becomes difficult when I have too much on my mind. However, I have been (and will continue to be) updating photos and news about my designs on facebook, so if I do disappear again from my blog for whatever reason, I promise you'll still find me on facebook!

Now, if you have not read the post about my decision to change my business structure, it may be helpful to read it first before you continue with this post.

With the incorporation came a lot of paperwork, and I was very confused for a long time. I had some issues with the accountant who originally filed the paperwork for me, and had to switch accountant a few months ago.

I went back to Taiwan for three weeks in September, and also got a lot of new pearls and gemstones from my suppliers in Hong Kong. I have had a few requests on large pearls in the past few years and here they are, my new gorgeos finds --

I have listed a few large freshwater pearl earrings in my Etsy shop. The most notable ones are the12-14mm bright cherry red freshwater pearl earrings as shown in the picture at the top of this post. These hard to find pearls are pricey so I only bought a very small quantity. If you are wondering whether I will make rings with these pearls, the answer is yes! The prototype ring is already made. I just need to list it -- so many things to do, and so little time! See how big the pearl is....

My trip to Taiwan went very well. I made several business contacts, and was approached by a publisher friend about the possibility to write a book about my online jewelry business. I won't go into many details about it, as nothing is final yet, and the the book probably won't be written and published until a few years later. But know that there's a book cooking and the direction of my business may be changing in the next few years. My long term goal is to eventually have it published in English as well, since my main customer base is in the US.

My music business is still at the preparation stage and that's another reason why I had a hard time finding the balance in the past few months. I didn't want my jewelry business to be disrupted by my music business, as the latter probably won't bring in any income for a while. Piano practice takes A LOT of time and requires much discipline. It was something that I was very accustomed to while still at music school, but now that I have a full time jewelry business, time management becomes extremely important. I studied my practice pattern and concentration/energy level throughout the day for a while, and finally figured out a new daily routine a month ago which I have been following through religiously. Originally I thought I would have less time to work on my jewelry business with the daily piano practice, but on the contrary I have been working more and getting more things done, so everything is looking good.

There are a few more exciting plans for Mu-Yin Jewelry, but let's save them for future posts. The holidays are coming up and I need to get ready for those first.

And if you like classical music, be sure to check out my music website. All recordings on this website can be download for free while I work on my recording skills.

So I guess that will be it for today! I'm hoping to do AT LEAST one more post before X'mas about new designs. If you don't see me again before then, you know where to find me!

Ying's 2nd Birthday

2011-07-17T02:22:00.001-04:00

Today is my niece Ying's second birthday. The last time (also the only time) I met her in person, she was only 6 months old and just learning to sit by herself, and now she's all grown up, walking, runnning, and speaking three languages!

Like last year, my mother did a portrait of Ying (see picture above) and my dad did the calligraphy on the portrait with the words --

Year by year

Grow up happily, Ying.

If you take a look at last year's portrait, you'll see how much she's grown.

My gifts for Ying this year are a sundress and a reversible hat, and yup, I made both of them from scratch! They were my second clothing sewing projects. The first one was a year and half ago, when I made Ying her first pair of baby booties.

The sundress has adjustable straps so hopefully it will grow with her for a few years.

Love these cute sunflower buttons...

I'm pretty happy with the finishing details. :)

And here is the hat. I didn't have enough fabric of the same color, so I decided to do a little patchwork. One side has brown and pink --

and the other side has pink and purple --

The finishing details. The side seam --

and the top -

I didn't expect the hat to take more time to make than the dress, but it actually took a while for me to match and cut the fabrics.(If you are interested, both patterns came from the book Making Childrens' Clothes.) The pattern of the hat is for 3-5 year olds, so, again, I hope Ying can wear it for a while!

My mom is taking the gifts to my brother's place in a bit. I hope Ying has a great birthday party and enjoys the gifts from her auntie!

Rain

2011-06-24T23:41:00.001-04:00

It has been a very dry and hot summer here in Summerville / Charleston. Our brand new grass that was just sodded last winter never really had a chance to grow before it dried up from the heat. Then, after over a month of drought, we finally had one day of good rain two weeks ago.

Then it became dry and hot again, until yesterday. I was at the grocery store when it happened. This time it rained harder -- the thunderstorm, the lightening, and the extremely loud sound of pouring rain lasted over half an hour. I was ecstatic. The grass needs it, and I need it too. I feel as if my creativity has run dry for a long time (not related to weather) to the point that I am almost starting to wonder if I will ever be creative again.

The rain somehow assured me that it will. The rain seems to show me that's how nature runs its course -- it will rain after the drought, you just may have to be patient..

Tomorrow I'll be gone to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday (technically I wouldn't call it "celebrate", since I hate birthdays because they remind me that I'm getting older, so perhaps the correct term to use here would be to "escape" my birthday) with Mike and two other friends. Hopefully this will be the first step to getting my creativity back.

Quick and Fun (and no bake!) Dessert - Chocolate Coated Frozen Bananas

2011-05-30T22:15:00.002-04:00

I recently discovered Magic Shell and quickly became addicted to it. Today I noticed some of the bananas I bought a while back were getting too ripe, but I wasn't in the mood to eat them, so I came up with this idea to make some frozen dessert for myself. It's so quick and easy and yummy I have to share the recipe!

The ingredients are very simple...

bananas - I used two, but you can always use more!

magic shell - if you prefer making your own, I also found a recipe for you here

nut toppings - walnuts, pecans, or almonds

And here are the steps...

1. lay a sheet of wax paper on a plate (this is to prevent bananas from sticking to the plate after they're frozen)

2. cut bananas into small chunks

3. coat bananas with magic shell

4. sprinkle nut toppings all over!

5. leave the bananas in the freezer for a few hours, until they're frozen, and then serve!

This is a fun and easy recipe and will be great to make with kids. It's also a healthier alternative to ice cream. Hope you enjoy!

New Directions

2011-05-16T02:54:00.001-04:00

Today is one of those rare days when I am overwhelmed with joy and new understanding for life. Everything has been going very well recently. I sold many custom birthstone necklaces and rings before Mother's Day; making them always make me happy, knowing my simple creations will be cherished for a long time.

I also made my 6000th sale on Etsy a few days ago. This means in less than 4 years (I listed my first item on 7/4, 2007) I made over 6000 pieces of jewelry by hand from scratch, and shipped them to over 30 countries in the world. Wow. To this day each sale still feels like a tiny miracle -- how did these customers find me in the big ocean of internet, and what made them trust me enough to buy jewelry that they have never seen or touched in real life? Wow. I hope my jewelry doesn't disappoint in person!

Another thing that makes me happy is the incorporation of my business.I have been thinking about doing this for the past two years or so, but after talking to my new accountant last month, I felt it was time. While the main reason to incorporate is to save on the heavy self-employment tax, another reason to incorporate is that I am ready to start another business in music, and this would make it easier for me to file my tax returns(instead of filing two returns for two separate businesses, I will only need to file one for the incorporation). The detailed directions of my music business is not decided yet, and I'm planning to go very slowly, so I think the main focus of my business will probably still be jewelry for the next year or two. After that, I will still continue to make jewelry, although with the focus of my business gradually transitioning to music.

In the past few weeks I met some local musicians. After spending every single day at home for the past three years (since I started making jewelry full time), it's actually quite refreshing to go out and meet strangers! I'll start to attend some more local events and also perform in the great Charleston area. I will keep you guys updated about my music business as well. :)

New Arrivals and Mother's Day Ordering Deadline

2011-04-17T23:47:00.001-04:00

Sorry it took me such a long time! I finally got these two new custom mother's birthstone jewelry designs listed yesterday -- the Bridge family birthstone necklace (picture above) and a family birthstone charm bracelet (below).

As with my other family birthstone jewelry designs, both of these are made with natural gemstones of your choice. You also get to choose from three different chains for the charm bracelet.

Some other news include the new stock of solid 18k white gold and rose gold, as well as the hard to find 14k rose gold filled wire! They're not updated on my website or Etsy shop yet, but you can leave me a note at checkout or contact me if you are interested in jewelry designs made with any of the above wire, especially my safety pin earrings and forged hoop earrings.

Now, the ordering deadline for Mother's Day.

If you are not located in the US, the odering deadline has passed, unless you are willing to pay for international express mail shipping charge.

For domestic US customers, my current turnaround time is 3~5 business days. Shipping upgrade is available at checkout on my website. The last day to order mother's birthstone jewelry is 5/2 with express mail shipping to anywhere in the US.

IF you are located in Charleston or Summerville area and can pick up the jewelry at Four Green Fields Gallery, the ordering deadline will be 5/4 (for pickup on 5/6 and 5/7).

Flowertown Festival Special!

2011-03-31T00:31:00.001-04:00

Spring is officially here in Summerville, SC! I would love to meet more local customers face to face, especially those of you who have been following me on my blog, facebook and twitter. Stop by and see me at Flowertown Festival (booth G49, inside the Azalea Park) and receive 10% off your entire purchases!

Mother's Charm Bracelet

2011-03-29T17:03:00.003-04:00

Coming soon - Mother's birthstone charm bracelets made with genuine gemstones!
This will be listed after I come back from Flowertown Festival, just in time for Mother's Day. If you can't wait, shoot me an email and I'll work on the details with you.
This is a delicate design that will be perfect for layering.

Personally, I think the more stones the prettier, but I will show you what the bracelets look like with different numbers of stones --

This will be a great piece of birthstone jewelry for expanding families. How awesome is that. :)

===================================================
UPDATE: now available on the website!

Palmetto Tree Necklace

2011-03-21T11:14:00.001-04:00

April and I had another session to discuss Flowertown Festival again yesterday. She also gave me tons of new ideas for jewelry designs, among them is the palmetto tree on the South Carolina flag. At first I wasn't quite sure about how it would turn out becuase of some technical issues, but after I started making it, I actually had so much fun that I made two of them.

Now I'm seriously considering wearing this one at Flowertown Festival.

Countdown and Practice - Rookie Craftshow Preparation

2011-03-17T07:42:00.001-04:00

Before I start, just a quick note that if you would like to help the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, you can make a donation to various charity organizations such as the Red Cross, or if you happen to need to purchase gifts(or for yourself!), many Etsy sellers will donate the proceeds for you. I have two of these fundraising listings in my Etsy shop.

Remember my last post about Flowertown Festival? It's now only two weeks away, and I am nervous! Last night I had a dream about making tons of sales at Flowertown, and when I woke up, I realized I hadn't even made that much jewelry for sale.Ha! Guess that's what I will be devoting my spare time to from now until the Show.

About two weeks ago I decided to ask April to help me with Flowertown Festival. Not only has she been giving me ideas for the booth setup, and she also built me two wooden shelves, which were absolutely my dream display. She brought the shelves last weekend so we could practice the setup with them.This was actually our second practice session.The first time was two weeks ago, when we decided the general layout of the booth and the need for the shelves. I don't want to spoil the fun, so there will be no closeup pictures until after the show. :) But as you can see in the following picture, this is how the tables will be laid out. I will be using a 4'x2' at the front to draw attention to the crowd. The other table of the L shape is a 5'x 2.5' that (hopefully) will lead the crowd into the booth. I will be sitting behind this "counter". In the back corner of the tent is another 5'x2.5' table. This layout is designed to ensure smooth traffic flow if two people want to come in or leave the tent at the same .

On the right sidewall of the tent is a pegboard(it was painted black after this photo was taken) that was attached to the the frame of the tent using bungee cords. Most of the earrings will be displayed on this pegboard.

I'll give you a photo that shows some of the displays and the wooden shelf April built. It measures about 4'x1', which will put the displays at eye level so that customers don't have to bent down to look at the jewelry.

Now, I'd like to mention something that I was so terrified about prior to this experience - setting up the canopy by myself. Don't ask me why, but no matter how many people told me that it would be ok, I simply wouldn't believe myself until I actually tried it. After much consideration and research, I eventually went with a Caravan canopy instead of an E-Z Up (these two are probably the most popular brands for professional crafters). Caravan is known to be durable and, therefore, bulky. It has a steel frame and is pretty darn heavy, but I am glad to know that I can (to my surprise) pick it up and walk a few feet without problem. It also comes with a wheeled carrying bag, which should make it easier for me to move it for a longer distance. When I set it up by myself, I have to keep walking in circles and work from one corner to the next for a few times until the whole Canopy is pushed up. It takes me about 20 minutes to set up the tent, and then another 20 minutes for the sidewalls. Although I haven't tried, I can imagine with two people it would probably be much faster than that.

Now, you may wonder..how much does it cost to do a big craft show like this? Well, this is something I was not prepared for. Originally I thought the cost would only be slightly more than the booth fee, since I don't have to travel (it's only 2 miles away from my house), but I was totally wrong! Let me give you a quick breakdown on the costs...

booth fee - $350 (for a three-day show)

canopy - $200 and up (My Caravan cost close to $270 including the sidewalls)

folding tables - $150~200 (depending on how many tables and what size you need)

display - $100 and up depending on how fancy you want your booth to be.

banner(s) - $50 and up

business cards and misc. supplies - this would easily cost more than $100. I had to buy a dolly($30), bungee cords ($15), business cards($50) and a few other items, and there still seems to be more things to buy.

I believe that was over $1000 there already. Thankfully, other than the booth fees, the rest are re-usable for future shows, so I suppose I will be doing Flowertown Festival every year from now on.

It's time to get back to work, so I'll talk to you again after the show - please come by and say hi if you are around the area between 4/1 and 4/3. My booth is G49, inside the Azalea Park.

Gearing up for Flowertown Festival

2011-02-21T02:34:00.000-05:00

photo courtesy of Anniehowes

Happy Presidents' Day! Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing long weekend. Yesterday we invited our friends April and Josh over for a nice dinner. Knowing April was a fan of handmade goods, I started chatting with her about the big local show Flowertown Festival that was coming up in a month. She told me she had been going every year and asked if I was going this year (I had just learned about Flowertown Festival not long ago and haven't had a chance to go since). I told her that actually I would be having a booth there. She started talking about her experience with Flowertown, and now got me all nervous about it!

To give you a little background about Flowertown Festival, it's a three day show hosted at the beginning of April each year, when all the flowers are blooming. It is the biggest annual event in Summerville, SC and attracts 200,000 people each year. An actual photo from Flowertown Festival depicts the crowd...

photo courtesy of bobkinney45

When I applied for the festival, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.I thought I would worry about it after I got accepted. After I was accepted, I told myself that I would worry about it after I paid the booth fee. After I paid the booth fee, I finally spent some time checking out the details about the festival, and when I saw the stats and pictures of the event, I literally panicked.

My first formal show was 8 months ago. It was a one day indoor show with a small table, so there was not too much to worry about. And yes, even though I had told myself multiple times that I would not do any outdoor shows, I eventually gave in to Flowertown Festival because it was 2 miles away from my house!

In the past few weeks I did some research on canopies and finally bought one today. Now it's time to do some research on booth displays. Again my Etsy buddies have been of immense help.

photo courtesy of glasscat

I spent the whole night doing research on booth displays. There are many things I need to worry about with an outdoor booth. I have never set up a canopy so that definitely makes me nervous. I have also never handled a full 10x10 booth, so I have to to purchase quite a bit of extra displays including tables, tablecloths, banners...etc. There are also quite a few major mistakes which I learned from my last show that need to corrected at this show.The more I think about it, the more it overwhelms me, and having an online business suddenly feels so much simpler!
I browsed a lot of photos on Flickr and asked myself how far I want to go with my displays. I can have a very basic basic set up, or a super professional high end looking booth, and, of course, the costs are completely different! As I was pondering this, it suddenly came to me that even until four years ago I still had no idea that one day I would become a jewelry artist with a booth at a big craft fair.Even though I have been selling jewelry full time online for almost three years, every once a while I still have a difficult time defining myself as a "business woman" or "professional jewelry artist". I remember years ago, when I was just a student, I used to love to go to craft fairs and admire those artists beautiful booths and works and their professional presentation in general. I never thought that one day I would be panicking for my first big show and spending hours and hours doing research on booth display! Oh well, I suppose not everything in life is as glamorous and easy as it seems.
When I get my canopy, I will practice the full booth set up once before the show, just to get a general idea how long it takes and if there are some details I want to improve.
If you are around the area from 4/1~4/3, come by and say hi!

sneak peak of new designs - wire sculpture

2011-02-03T20:42:00.001-05:00

Some simple wire sculpted pendants/center pieces for new necklace designs -- flowers, branches, four-leaf clovers, hydrangea, rose and ginko. Which one is your favorite?

new stamped charm samples

2011-01-27T16:59:00.001-05:00

Just received the first batch of my new symbol stamps and had to try them out..These will become pendant necklaces and dangle earrings, with the choice to be paired with gemstones(birthstones) or pearls.

Steinway Moving In

2011-01-19T00:45:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I posted on facebook about my weekend plans, which included posting new designs. It ended up that I had too many other things on my mind and only listed some 14k solid rose gold hoop earrings on Etsy. I didn't expect myself to get all carried away by my new piano, which was moved in on Monday morning. I spent all Saturday and Sunday working on my new website for my music business, and on Monday morning I practiced on my old upright for the last time before it was officially traded in and taken away by the piano movers.

I took one last picture of my old Yamaha U1.

This was the first time I saw how grand pianos are moved into a home. The piano movers had to take the legs off because the piano was too wide to go through the front door.They put two legs and the pedals back while the piano was still lying sideways on the dolly, and then turned the whole piano 90 degree so it would stand upright on the floor.A thick moving blanket was folded and placed under the piano so it would serve as the temporary "third leg" until the piano movers put the real third leg back on the piano.

After going through the tough moving process, my beloved antique Steinway went seriously out of tune, but I still practiced on it with excitement for a few hours, and also took some pictures for the music website. I have never taken photos of myself using a tripod and timer before, so this is a new experience. I'm sure it can be done a better way , and I really probably should hire a professional photographer to do this, but for now let's just put some "home made" photos up so I get get the new site up and going.

I picked out a few photos and just cropped them and turning them into black and white to make them look more professional and also match the template of my site.Here were a few ones I was deciding on...

In reality I identify myself more with this look -

or this -

and when I perform in concerts I usually tie my hair up like this(although I still always wear glasses when I am on stage) -

but I ended up using this one, so that basically you can't see what I really look like -

Here is a screenshot of the website in progress. It's a very simple profile website using wordpress as the platform. I'd like to give special thanks to coding genius Laura at prix-prix for helping me fix a few details on the design -

This is again another new experience for me. I have never used wordpress before, so there was a bit of learning curve for me, but once I got a hang of it, and once everything was set up, it was very easy to manage.

I will upload some of my home recordings on the new site in a few months, when the piano is tuned and when I figure out how to set up my home recording studio. Oh, and of course I need to figure out how to upload the music and make it downloadable for everyone. :)

My First Grand Piano

2011-01-09T01:20:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since my last long update. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I haven't had time to sort out my New Year's resolution, but I have another news I want to share so we will leave that for a later date.

I have been looking for a grand piano since October, about a month before Mike and I moved into our new house. I was so excited about finally having a big enough piano room to fit a grand piano in it that I just couldn't wait until the moving day to check out some grand pianos at the local music store.

Now, you may be interested to learn a little background about my piano obsession..

I grew up in Taiwan, where most people in the cities live in small, one level condos, and only professional musicians would own grand pianos. Since I had been an amateur pianist until I was 21 years old, there was no point in purchasing one. Also, since there was simply no room in our condo, I never even thought about asking my parents to buy a grand piano for me.

The first time I realized how much I wanted a grand piano was when I had a chance to perform on a Bosendorfer concert grand. That was the first time I played a concert grand piano, and it was love at first "sound". There was simply no other way to describe it. I was literally in shock that I almost forgot how to play!

A year later, against all odds, I was accepted to the BM program (Bacholor of Music in piano performance) at Birmingham Concervatoroire and started my music advanture.During the whole time I was working on my degree, I felt like Cinderella being invited to the King's palace, totally out of place. My piano professor John Humphreys not only shared with me many old recordings by great pianists, and as a piano collector himself, he also loved telling me stories about pianos (which I always loved to hear).That was when I started to develop a taste for Steinway pianos -- especially the old ones built during the "Golden Age"(early 20th century).

I did my Master's degree in Music at Indiana University, where almost every practice room has a Steinway grand piano in it. There were also other brands, but other than Steinway, I only seemed to like Baldwin. All of these piano I loved had a distinct rich and warm sound.

After being in a music school for seven years, I had this dream of having my own Steinway grand piano one day, but I never had enough money nor room for it, so I bought a Yamaha upright to practice on. I suppose psychologically that was never enough for me, so the first thing after I realized I would have a good size piano room at the new house was to search for a grand piano.

In October, I first went to the local music store, saw a few old Steinway pianos, and only liked one -- and of course the one I liked just had to be slightly out of my price range, so I started searching for pianos from individual owners. I drove all around Charleston, and also checked out a few stores in Columbia. I saw a few pianos that were either newer, cheaper, or larger, but there was always something "missing" that made me feel uncertain about buying them.

I don't know why I always do this, but I do it anyway -- I would think a lot and try out many things, but eventually always come back to the first thing I liked. So, after three months, I went back to the same music store, negotiated with the sales person for a price I could afford, and then bought my first grand piano. It is a 1925 Steinway model L in walnut color. The original owner put a lot of money in it, so not only does it still sounds gorgeous, it is also in great cosmetic condition. It is a dream come true. It's funny, but for the first time I feel like a "real" musician - whatever that means. :)

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-20T17:46:00.001-05:00

I will stop taking Christmas orders tonight, after a whole month of intense work schedule.Here is a big big big thank you to my wonderful customers, family and friends for your ongoing support. Wishing you all a warm and cozy holiday season!!

New Studio

2010-11-21T14:54:00.001-05:00

My shops are getting really busy in the past few days. I knew the first thing I needed to do to get ready for the holiday season was to finish unpacking and get my studio set up properly so I wouldn't be looking for supplies in the middle of chaos. While I would love to have a fancy expensive professional built-in studio, my budget simply wouldn't allow it (especially when I just bought a house!), so I had to get creative.

This is my third studio after I became a full time jewelry artist (if you have been following my blog closely, you may remember I moved three times since 2008) , so I finally started to understand better the kind of set up I needed to make things more efficient. Thankfully this is also the largest studio I have ever had (around 13'x15', plus I'm also storing some extra supplies in an extra closet outside the studio). You can see my past studios here, here and here.(I probably could win an award of "the most messy studio". It seems like I was always working in a big mess. But thank god it seemed to be getting better with evevery move)

Here are some "before" photos of my new studio.I'm still trying to figure out the layout of the tables and shelves.Specifically, how to increase my work surface and get everything off the floor. -

And here are some "after" photos with the "cubicle" setting -

So far I feel pretty good with this layout. I'll probably add one more shelf in a few months when I'm not crazy busy with orders.

If you are planning to order my popular custom birthstone or pea pod jewelry, for X'mas, now is the time! Last year, at least 10% of my customers who ordered late had to pay extra for shipping upgrade to ensure delivery by X'mas because of the high demand. Save money by ordering today!

Sunrise

2010-11-18T19:30:00.001-05:00

As of today, I have been at our new house for almost a week, and so far everything is just perfect. I love everything in this house. I have enjoyed unpacking, which I do a little bit everyday. It's nice to have tons of storage space so I can keep everything organized. My new studio is slightly bigger(photos later when it's complete!), and I also have an extra closet outside of the studio to store extra supplies. I have been sleeping better, eating better, and therefore have better energy. The house is very well ventilated and has a lot of natural light. I no longer need to use artificial lights when I work, which puts less strain on my eyes.

Speaking of sleeping better, I have actually been sleeping less and getting up earlier since we moved here. Mike goes to bed before 11pm, so I try to go to bed at the same time.Two out of the five nights since we moved here, I slept through the night (which is very very rare for me, who has had sleep problems since being a child) and woke up feeling refreshed at 4.30am, so I just got up and started my day early. I got to take some photos of sunrise behind our house on both days. The picture above was from this morning, before 6am.

This next photo is a little later, probably around 7am.

It was very foggy this moring. You may still remember this lake view from my last post..

I really, really love fog. It reminds me of my school days in England, and the little lake behind our house reminds me of The Lake District.

The other day when I got up at 4.30am, there was actually a beautiful sunrise that turned the whole sky orange like it was on fire..

and this is about 7am, when the sun actually rose..

I plan to get up early more often from now on, so I could enjoy more daylight. :)

More Photos of the New House

2010-11-06T20:03:00.001-04:00

A few facebook friends asked to see more pictures of the house, so I'm posting some here..We put most of the blinds up in the house today and the new fridge was also delivered.

Work in progress...We also tried out our gas fire place for the first time.I love staring at the fire.

While Mike was working on the blinds, I went upstairs to check out the views. I didn't know there was actually a lake in front of our house.Sooner or later there will probably be some new houses built across the street, but before that I can enjoy some lake views.

Close-up of the lake across the street from our house..

There is another lake right behind our house, and we get a clear view of it from the master bedroom. The great thing about it is there will not be new houses built between ours and the lake. Can you see our neighbor's house in the picture? Their house is closing in two months.

Close-up of the lake behind our house..

Okok, i know i'm obssessed with the lakes. I'll post some pics of the my new jewelry studio AND piano studio after we settle in. :)

My New Home!

2010-11-04T21:59:00.001-04:00

Today is an important day because I have officially become a home owner today! Mike took the afternoon off from work to go to the closing attorney with me. After signing pages of paper for over 40 minutes, we finally received the keys to our brand new house.

Our official moving day is next Saturday. I have been packing slowly whenever I get a chance -- and this is when I'm glad a lot of my stuff is still unpacked from my last move a year ago. But my studio will always be the most difficult and annoying to pack. Since my website and Etsy shop will stay open throughout the move, I also need to quickly unpack the whole studio straight after the move so I can go right back to filling orders on Monday. I'm very excited and also nervous, but it's all good -- I look forward to starting a new life at this new home!

Store Wide Sale This Weekend - 20% off EVERYTHING!

2010-10-13T22:35:00.002-04:00

hello guys! It's been a long time. Just a quick update that I will be running a huge sale this weekend. From now through 10/17, enjoy 20% off everything on my website. I will be away for a few days and orders will be processed upon my return next week. If you don't mind waiting for a few extra days, now is the best time to order your X'mas gifts, as this is the last sale I will run before X'mas.
Enjoy!
Mollie xo

New Arrivals!

2010-09-15T17:08:00.001-04:00

Finally, another new custom birthstone necklace! On this necklace your choices of birthstones will be wrapped onto a hammered wire bar, which is connected to the necklace chain.What I really like about this necklace are its minimalistic design and the flexibility to add new stones in the future if your family is still expanding. Also, since the hammered wire bar is also hand crafted by me, I can pretty much make it into any length you want. The image above shows birthstones on a 1.25" bar, which will be my standard small size and can fit to 9 or 10 stones. The large size(see image below) will be 2" long and will fit more than enough stones!

Length for the necklace is also customized. I recommend a short or choker length for this design.

This necklace will also be listed without birthstones.I think it especially looks gorgeous layerd.

Before the birthstone necklace is available on my website, I need a few volunteers to order it so I can get some more prototype photos for the listings. You will receive 20% off the regular price ($45~60 depending on the choice of stones, bar length and metal). Contact me for details!

Joint Account

2010-08-22T20:50:00.004-04:00

This beautiful story about how a joint account saved a marriage was originally written in Chinese by an anonymous writer. I have translated it into English and also converted the currency for American readers. Enjoy and feel free to re-post it!

On my wedding day, Mother handed me a check book for a new bank account. Expecting to receive more money for my wedding, I looked at Mother with disappointment when I saw the balance of mere 30 dollars. Mother smiled and said, "This is a special joint account I opened for you two.

"From now on, make a deposit in this account whenever you have a special event in your marriage that makes you happy.

"When you grow old, you will not only have abundant money in the account, but also abundant happiness."

At that time, I paid little attention to what Mother said. My husband was the one who kept these words in his mind. He soon made two deposits of 15 dollars, the first one for being promoted at his job, and the second for my being discharged from the hospital after a surgery. Even though I joked about him being silly, deep down it melt my heart to know my being healthy made him happy.

Not long afterward, I became pregnant and deposited 70 dollars in the joint account. Soon after that, all the fights and disagreements started. The joy of having a newborn didn't last long; endless feeding and diaper changing further worsened our relationship. The check book of the joint account was forgotten and left inside the corner of a lonely drawer, collecting dust.

When we decided to get a divorce, Mother said, "Why don't you go ahead and spend all the money in the joint account before you start the divorce process. It may not be a large sum, but after all it is your shared property."

For the first time, I withdrew 30 dollars from the joint account and went shopping. Just as I was leaving the mall with some new clothes I had wanted for a long time, I suddenly turned around and said to the cashier, "I am sorry, but I have changed my mind and decided not to keep these. I would like a refund please."

It was an embarrassing moment, but at that time the only thing I could think about was where the 30 dollars came from --

Despite his shyness, he once shouted out "I love you" in the middle of the street. For this I deposited 5 dollars in the joint account...

He remembers my birthday, my shoe size, my pin numbers, and things I am most afraid of. For this I deposited 10 dollars on my birthday...

He is a gentleman and keeps a distance from women who have a crush on him. For this I deposited 15 dollars…

Ah! There is so much happiness in the mere 30 dollars. Tears came to my eyes when I look at the balance of over 700 dollars in joint account.

When I went home that evening, I gave him the check book and said, "Go ahead and spend it all, so we can get the divorce started."

The next evening, he handed me the check book. I opened it and saw an extra 30 dollars on the balance. He said, "Every dollar in this joint account recorded the journey we shared. It made me realize how much I love you, so I deposited another 30 dollars in the joint account."

We reconciled after that.

Mother was right -- open a joint account for love, and deposit every sweet moment of your marriage in it! With a joint account that collects happiness, even the poorest marriage can be abundant.

Many people may fall in love with you in your life, but you may not fall in love with anyone of them. Seize the chance when you find your true love, because opportunity knocks but once.

California Trip

2010-08-08T15:38:00.002-04:00

Last week, I took a few days off to host a jewelry class as well as visit some friends in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was an intense trip, and I had a blast! I was really excited to finally meet and stay with my childhood best friend Beth after losing contact with her for over 10 years. We have known each other since kindergarten and were very close to each other when we were at elementary school. We took some long walks near Menlo Park, where she lives.You can see more photos on my Flickr.

Beth was also my fabulous driver to Modern Mouse (where I consigned some of my jewelry as well as hosted my jewelry class) and Renegade San Francisco.I was very excited to see my jewelry displayed at Modern Mouse, as well as meet the amazing shop owner Eleen for the first time.Eleen did such a great job preparing for the jewelry class.We even had snacks and drinks at the class! The funny thing is everyone was too busy during the class that I ended up being the only one snacking after everyone left. :P

Renegade SF was awesome. There were hundreds of fabulous handmade designers selling their products, and I was pretty overwhlmed. I also met quite a few Etsy friends from Full Time Etsy Crafters Team in person.More photos are available on my Flickr.

I got back on Tuesday morning and spent the past few days catching up with orders.Hopefully everything will be back to normal next week!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ying!

2010-07-16T22:31:00.002-04:00

My niece Ying just turned 1 year old today(Taiwan time)!! Happy birthday, Ying! You are our family's sweetest little angel!

My family gathered together to celebrate her birthday.Since I was unable to be there, I shipped her birthday presents to Taiwan.They included some clothes, two little pearl bracelets, and a handmade card that actually took much longer to make than the bracelets!

I was excited to be able to use these 3D flower stickers(haha, I didn't make them :P) that I got a long time ago.The papercutting is the time consuming part -- and my craft knive breaking didn't help either.

After I made the envelope, I decided to carve two heart shape to reveal the yellow card. I loved how it turned out!

The birthday gift from my parents was a portrait of Ying done by my mom. My dad did the Chinese calligraphy that says "Ying Checking Out the Novel World Through Her Beautiful Eyes." I wasn't able to find the original picture, but this portrait looked just like her!

The last time I saw Ying (February), she was just learning to sit and eat from a spoon, and now she is standing already.Hopefully when I see her next time, she will be able to say the words "aunt Mollie" :D

Book Review - Deliverying Happiness

2010-07-06T00:10:00.004-04:00

As a business owner, I am always looking for new inspirations for my business. When our FTEC member Eleen recommended the book "Delivering Happiness", I was intrigued by its title. We all want to be happy, but what exactly does Tony Hsieh mean by "Delivering Happiness?"
Delivery Happiness started as an informal autobiography, with stories of Tony Hsieh's multiple failed business attempts as a child as a result of big dreams, great concepts, and lack of experience and research. Hsieh's desire to make big money by owning a business was not deterred by his failed attempts, and eventually one of his business ideas (custom buttons) actually succeeded and generated good income for the teenager. From there Hsieh continued to have different businesses. He became a milti-millioanaire after selling LinkExchange (which he co-founded), got involved with Zappos as an adviser and investor, and then eventually became CEO. Within 10 years, Zappos grew from almost no sales to $1 billion in gross merchandise sales, and was eventually acquired by Amazon in 2009 in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.
Just like many other great success stories, Hsieh's success almost seems too glamorous and too easy -- that is, if you don't read the book Delivering Happiness, in which Hsieh candidly shares his roller coaster ride with the readers. There were ups and downs over the course of 10 years, and it took a lot of courage, passion and wisdom to create an empire.
Half way through the book, just when I was about to start wondering, "ok, so this book is about the background of Hsieh's success story. And what does it have anything to with 'Delivering Happiness'?" the direction of the book suddenly changed.
The book was divided into three sections...
Section I - Profits
Section II - Profits and Passion
Section III - Profits, Passion, and Purpose
These three sections symbolically represent different periods of Hsieh's life. Before his business succeeded, all Hsieh wanted was profits -- "I just wanted a job that paid well and didn't seem like too much work."(p.29) Then, after his success with LinkExchange, the young millionaire realized that money alone couldn't bring him happiness -- "I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, but I knew what I wasn't going to do....I had decided to stop chasing the money, and start chasing the passion."(p.54)
A turning point of Zappos was when Hsieh and Mossler(Fred) decided to make the Zappos brand about the best customer service -- "in the long run, little things that keep the customer in mind will end up paying huge dividends."(p.128)This is where "Delivering Happiness" came in --"As we rolled out these additional services, we slowly realized that we were becoming part of a bigger movement. It was no longer just about Zappos. We were helping change the world."(p.208) Hsieh talked about how Zappos delivers happiness through their unique culture/core values. Not only does Zappos try to make customers happy, it also strives to make the employees and vendors happy.
I had started reading Delivering Happiness hoping to learn to make profits, and it was nothing like what I expected -- It was much, much more.
If you are interested in learning more about Delivering Happiness, check out their website, twitter or facebook page! (I especially love Tony's twitter page among the three)

mollie (aka muyinmolly)
Disclosure: I have received the book free of charge . I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

new house

2010-07-01T14:56:00.004-04:00

Mike and I are buying a house!

The house is not built yet but will be done in four months.We just signed the contract and I took some pics of the lot.This is a corner lot and the trees are not cleared yet and are totally blocking the view from the road.

There's a lake behind our yard! OMG! I've always wanted a lake next to my house!

This is how close the lake is from the corner of our property.My cell phone camera doesn't zoom in.The lake actually looks closer in real life --

overlooking the road from our property line.See my little Cube there?

I'm so excited.I drove pass the lot at least five times today until the constraction workers started waving at the strange Asian girl in the strange Cube... :P

Lowcountry Artist Market Update

2010-06-07T20:33:00.001-04:00

[all photos by lulaboutique]

Hi all! I just got back from my first craft show Lowcountry Artist Market and am totally exhausted. It went pretty well, although maybe not so smoothly.I will explain it in a bit.

As always, I put off everything until the last minute -- well, basically, I "thought" I had enough time, so I kept making more and more jewelry until Friday night, and then I started packing and making earring cards...and still didn't finish everything by 4am on Saturday. I slept for four hours, got up at 8, and then arrived the Music Farm at about 9:30am. The show started at 10:30, and I "thought" by arriving an hour early I was doing a good job.I was totally wrong! People started coming in about 10am, and I was still setting up and doing the last price tags at 11.00!! Argh!!

I think part of the reason I was really slow at set up was because of inexperience.I brought tons of displays but had no general idea how I was going to arrange them. Originally I was going to put all of the earring cards on two wire CD racks, but it turned out they wouldn't stay put on the racks.When one of the first few shoppers took a earring card off the rack, the rest of the earring cards all fell off the rack, so after that I decided to leave all earring cards on the table instead.

Other than the little set up chaos, I was pretty poud of myself for remembering a few things.

1. I asked to have a booth next to a power outlet when I knew there was going to be electricity available. I brought the extension cord, a surge protector and two small desktop daylight lamps with me. This was a little trick I read somewhere online a long time ago about jewelry displays.When having an indoor show, shine extra light at jewelry will make it look more sparkly and give it a more "expensive look".

As soon as I arrived the Music Farm, I was really glad I brought extra lights.The Music Farm was a pub and the lighting was pretty poor. My booth was actually at a prime location.It was right in front of the main door and received the best lighting, but it was still pretty dark. Quite a few customers told me " you are smart to bring your own lights". I believe these lights also helped me with sales.

2. I am glad I practiced using my credit card imprinter at home.

I just got a merchant account a few weeks ago, and also bought an imprinter for shows.I actually had no idea how to use it, and the instruction included wasn't quite clear. Luckily there I had an imprinter receipt in my wallet from another event I attended, so I used it as a reference and practiced using the imprinter with my own credit card. It turned out about 75% (!) of my customers paid with credit card. I was a little nervous when I received the first credit card payment, and almost forgot how to use the imprinter, so my little practice really helped me to remember the steps.

3. I brought tons of pens and two notebooks for newsletter sign up.

I'm not sure why I remembered to do this, but I brought at least 5 pens and two notebooks.There were times when I actually had two customers signing up for the newsletter on both sides of the table, and whenever a pen was misplaced I could always pull out another one for the customer.

I didn't get a chance to look around during the show, but there is one booth I have to mention.When I arrived in the morning, I was surprised to see the booth across me was already completely set up!

This is Karen(lulaboutique, left) and her sister(right). Karen sells vintage style jewelry, and I just love her creative displays. I had been thinking about how to do a "vertical display" that is aesthetically pleasing, and Karen's booth was such an inspiration for me. She used two large gift boxes to lift up the earring display.The boxes are so pretty that they serve as a decoration as well.The cork board on the left is another simple and gorgeous necklace display that I may have to try next time.I have been hanging my necklaces on standard white necklace displays.They look ok, but because all the chains overlap, it is not convenient to remove necklaces from displays for customers to try on. And if customers can't try them on, they are also less likely to purchase them.

Karen also uses frames to display her shop name and credit card sign.

From this angle you can see how Karen displays her jewelry at different height.

I went to check out Karen't booth during the slow hours.We started chatting, and she ended up taking photos for my booth for me -- Even tho I brought my camera, I forgot to charge it and the battery died just after a few crappy shots. So, all of the photos in this post were taken by Karen.Thanks, girlfriend! :D

Mu-Yin Jewelry at Lowcountry Artist Market

2010-06-01T01:16:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! I enjoyed sleeping in and working on jewelry while watching TV. Since my jewelry is made to order, I have been trying to build a small inventory for a local show "Lowcountry Artist Market" this coming Saturday(6/5) at Music Farm, downtown Charleston. I am pretty excited about it, because this will be my first real craft fair.The last time I had to set up a booth was at a farmer's market , and people were really surprised to see artists there. Since then, I have been selling my jewelry exclusively online, and after much consideration have decided to refrain from craft show commitments.That is why I still don't own a canopy.

Two months ago, when a past customer Kristin contacted me about this new craft show she was organizing, I was intrigued. She said she fell in love with buying handmade on Etsy when she was planning her wedding (she bought my pussy willow jewelry for bridesmaids) and decided to organize a craft show featuring local Etsy artists. Since it will be held indoors, I don't need to worry about not owning a canopy, and I am also excited to join other local Etsy artists in the same show.

Stop by and say hi if you get a chance!

mollie xo

In case you couldn't open the link for the event, here are the details(from the official flyer)....

Saturday, June 5th

Lowcountry Artist Market

Music Farm

32 Ann St

Charleston SC 29403

Etsy.com inspired Event featuring anything and everything Handmade, Vintage, and Local.

On Saturday, June 5th, the bands, lights, and music generally filling the Music Farm will be replaced by handmade jewelry, vintage clothing, customized home goods, and a variety of talents from all over Charleston.

The Market will be open from 10:30 am until 5:00 pm. Featuring upwards of 40 vendors, the Market will provide a variety of local jewelry artists, vintage clothing dealers, custom children’s clothing, home and fashion accessories, as well as artwork – all from the Charleston community.

The Music Farm will have the bar open, so patrons can enjoy beverages while they shop.

For more information, email Kristen@musicfarm.com or call (843) 577-6969.

Poll -- Lariats or Y Necklaces?

2010-05-27T00:39:00.001-04:00

All things being equal, which one do you prefer?An Y necklace or lariat?

The two pictures above use very similar stones(the lariat uses slightly larger stones) and I will be listing this design with only one of them.

Here's the close up structure of the Y necklace.It has a standard clasp at the back, and a "pendant drop" at the front --

and here's the structure of the lariat.Instead of having a clasp, the necklace is worn by dropping the pendant end into the other end with a loop --

Yes! This is a poll! Leave me a comment to let me know which one you prefer, and why. I'd love to hear your ideas!

mollie xo

Old Designs, New Selections -- and a special sale!

2010-05-17T03:09:00.001-04:00

I am psyched! It took me quite a while, but I finally made a complete pearl color chart for my new shop. This is the first step to my long term goal of making more pearl designs customizable. If you have learned about my jewelry from my Etsy shop and loved it, I believe you will love my new shop even more.Here are just a few reasons I can think of...

1. easier navigation

I am able to organize my categories and designs more efficiently, and therefore you should be able to find a design more easily. Some designs are now listed under multiple categories so you won't be digging through the whole site to find the design you have in mind.

2. full customization

Most of the designs in my new shop are customizable using the drop down menu in the listings, so you no longer need to contact me each time you need to change the listed design slightly to your choice of metal or color (even though you can still contact me if you feel a little uncertain!)

3. multiple shipping options at checkout

Need something in a hurry?You can now select priority mail or express mail at checkout!

4.pay with your credit cards

Love my jewelry but hate paypal? No problem! My new shop now takes credit cards! Unfortunately, it is still not set up to take American Express, but I can take Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

5. special sales!

In my Etsy shop it was very inconvenient to run sales, and therefore I tried to avoid it. But that is not the case for my new shop! To take advantage of my sales, make sure you sign up for my newsletter , or follow my twitter and facebook updates closely.

Did I say "sales"?I have one running now through 5/23. Enjoy 10% off on the following fully customizable pearl jewelry. Chooss from 22 pearl colors, as well as your desired metal, ring size, chain length.Be sure to share this great news with your friends and family as well!

Enjoy!

mollie xo

Three Tips on "How to Make Money on Etsy" by Muyinmolly

2010-05-15T01:59:00.004-04:00

Last week I had a phone interview with Inc.com for a post on "How to Make Money on Etsy".The reporter Lindsey Silberman talked to a few Etsy sellers for this article and included a few pointers from me on running a successful Etsy business. Overall I think she did a very good job quoting me, but I would like to add a few words not mentioned in the article.

If you are interested in starting a part time or full time business on Etsy, be sure to check out Etsy seller tips on Full Time Etsy Crafters Team blog as well as my blog. One of my favorite posts is the post written by Susansheehan.

Back in 2007, after selling on Etsy for 6 month, I wrote a blog post on "Three Pointers about Starting on Etsy". A new Etsy seller SalvageNation told me that her shop took off after she followed my tips religiously. However, now that my Etsy shop is almost three years old, I feel the need to revise the tips I wrote two and half years ago.

If I am asked again to give you three quick tips on running a successful Etsy shop in the order of their importance, this is what I will tell you now..

1. You must have a niche, a special product

No matter what you sell, you need to do it well enough to stand out from the crowd. There needs to be something special about your product. This "something special" can be your design (e.g. a special color combination, or a special size), can be the material you use (e.g., a special fabric for purses), or can be a different skill (e.g. if you are extremely good at something that others cannot do as well as you), but it should not be being able to price your items lower than others.If you are able to give customers a very reasonable price for your products, that is always a bonus, but it should not be your goal to price your items as low as possible.

[cricketscreations] -- gorgeous color combinations

[jpatpurses] - her fabric selection will blow you away!

[BSArtstudio] -- "mixers" original art paintings.What a concept!

[nicholasandfelice] -- hard to find shawl pins with amazing wirework

2. You must have excellent, clear photos, and if they are stylish and show your personality, that is even better

In the Inc.com interview, I mentioned "Etsy-style photos". What does that mean? You may notice a lot of successful sellers shoot their photos from a different, interesting angle, with a special background, on a mannequin or display..etc. You will notice while every seller does them differently, successful sellers always have great and consistent photos that show their personality. On Etsy, the photos of your products are part of your products.This is important for all online venues, but on Etsy it is even more important.

We all know that since online shoppers cannot see and touch, or smell (if that applies) the products before buying them, you need to help them see, touch, and smell your products with your photos. Give them a sense of the colors, measurements, sizes, styles, fragrances, and functions of your products with your photos.

[pinkquartzminerals] -- help customers feel the texture of your products

[daisycakessoap] -- help customers smell your products

[muyinmolly] - life size mannequin helps customers gauge the sizes

People buying handmade like to feel a connection with the artists.Treat your Etsy shop as a big, 24/7 online craft show, and your photos are your booth. What would you do with your booth when you go to a real craft show? You do not just set up a tent, lay out your products on your tables, right? You dress up your booth.You arrange your products nicely on your tables. Or maybe you have some special displays on your table. People going to in-person craft shows like pretty booths. People going to online craft shows like pretty photos. Some sellers (including me) include photos of themselves either working at a studio, or wearing/using their products.This also helps customers to connect with the artist behind the lovely products.

[papercutsbyjoe] -- Joe holding his own papercut

[ileaiye] -- Cherylline modelling her hand knit

You do not need a fancy DSLR camera to take great photos.The styles and clarity of your photos are more important than the model of your camera. Practice with a decent digital camera and study the manual (they are all pretty good nowadays). Understanding your own camera is the first step to great shots.

3. Clear and SEO friendly titles, descriptions, tags and the whole shop set up

Now that you have the products and great photos, the next step to help shoppers find you by providing them the right search keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. If you are still wonder what SEO means, I would urge you to do a little research in the Etsy forum or Storque. I am not personally an SEO expert, but just "happened to be doing a few things right" from the beginning.

Even if you have great products and great photos, if shoppers cannot find your listings when they type in a keyword search, they are not given a chance to click your photos, not to mention making a purchase.

While listing consistently is a way to keep your items at the top of the search, you need great titles, descriptions and tags to keep your products on the RIGHT search pages. Other than product titles, descriptions and tags, your shop title, shop announcement and section names are also very important for SEO.

If you do these right, you should start to receive decent traffic from search engines, and, hopefully, sales. Do not blame Etsy for not making your shop SEO friendly -- YOU are the person who needs to make your shop SEO friendly, and you can.

[sudlow] - high search ranking on both Etsy and search engines lead to a continuous sales flow

[anniehowes] - high search ranking on both Etsy and search engines lead to a continuous sales flow

It took me more than two years to realize everything I wrote in this post, and I hope you find them helpful. Remember -- selling on Etsy is hard work. Everything I mentioned was easier said than done. I am always doing research on my category and developing new products. Most of my photos have been re-shot multiple times. I am always working on my SEO. In sum: I am always working.

Every once a while I would receive a convo from artists telling me they just lost their job and would like to try to make it full time on Etsy.While I always wish them good luck, I know how difficult this can be and how lucky I have been. In my interview with Inc.com, my story may sound like a fairy tale to many of you because I "made profit after selling on etsy for one month", but please do remember...

1. I had a year of online selling experience on Ebay prior to opening my Etsy shop, which gave me a small customer base plus a lot of chances to practice my photography.

2. I did not quit my day job until 10 months after I opened my Etsy shop, which means I saved enough money to float me through slow times. I did not start selling on etsy full time until my business was fully established and making consistent sales. If you are just starting, be prepared it will take you a while before you can make this a full time job.

Shortly after I became a full time Etsy artist, I started the Full Time Etsy Crafters Team. While our team is meant to be a support group for established full time Etsy artists, I often receive membership requests from brand new Etsy sellers wanting to join the team to learn how to become as successful as us. Now, I believe I have just shared my success secrets with you within this one single post. However, you will NOT become successful just by reading this post. You need to work on these tips I gave you.You need to work on them, work on them more, and then work on them even more.

If you are "trying to make Etsy full time" and have not read this "T en Things I Learned the Hard Way" post by Piddix, you really should. Corinna shows you what it takes to succeed.

best wishes to you all,

Mollie, aka muyinmolly

Happy Mother's Day - and a gallery of birthstone jewelry

2010-05-09T17:27:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all moms in the world! I would like to share a gallery of some interesting birthstone jewelry I made recently.These were custom orders by customers so I was very excited how they turned out.

The ring above has a center pearl (birthstone for June). In the birthstone chart I didn't offer pearl as a birthstone for June,because I thought the birthstone jewelry would look better if all stones used had the same cut. I guess I was wrong! I just love this colorful ring with the pearl accent. Here is another birthstone necklace with a pearl --

I also had another creative customer who decided to change my birthstone arrangement.Instead of having the stones arranged in two arches at the bottom, she wanted her parents' birthstones to "overlook" the children's birthstones.Here is the completed pendant --

A few customers who loved my birthstone ring but only needed two or three different birthstones ordered them with the following arrangements --

Another design I will be listing soon is the birthstone earrings, created for a customer whose grandmother only wears earrings, and not necklaces --

I hope these special pieces will be cherished for generations to come.

If you havea special design idea for a piece of jewelry that you don't see on my website, please feel free to contact me.

A lot of the time they are not listed on the site only because I haven't had time to get to them!

I hope everyone enjoyed this post. I will be back again when I get more new designs posted!

Behind the Scene - the Truth About the Wedding Dresses

2010-04-30T14:18:00.001-04:00

Selling online and having to take photos all the time, I have learned to be creative with my limited resources. I will be launching a new bridal line in the next few months and would like to photograph my jewelry on a mannequin with different wedding dresses that matches the jewelry style. Two major wedding dresses styles are strapless(see above) and V-neck(below) --

Did I fool you for a second to think I actually own three dresses?(please tell me I did!)

Actually I own none...

Bought this piece of satin fabric from the clearance section of my local fabric store, and it works wonders for what my need. :)

New Arrivals

2010-04-25T14:41:00.001-04:00

Two new pearl bracelets inspired by the spring blossoms in Charleston -- Azalea and Zinnia .

These are limited editions made with some of the most amazing pearl colors I collected in the past few years. I only have enough pearls to make 10 or less of each of these two bracelets, so be sure fo get them while you can. :)

mail box..

2010-04-24T21:02:00.001-04:00

Last night, while watching a movie, Mike and I were startled by the sound of crumpling sheet metal outside of our house.We went outside and couldn't see anything because it was too dark.

We found out what happened this morning -- a broken mail box.

Thankfully for us that was not our mailbox. It belongs to our neighbors across the street. (I truly feel sorry for them).

If that driver had hit our mailbox, I wonder what would have happened....

Magnolia Plantation and Garden

2010-04-20T00:40:00.004-04:00

Last week, I took a short afternoon break to the beautiful Magnolia Plantation near our house (only 3 miles away and I had never been there! Wow!) , partly to force myself stop working for a few hours, and partly because it suddenly occurred to me that i had moved to Charleston for almost two years but knew so little about the beauty of the lowcountry.

I took my 60mm macro lens with me and got some nice shots.If you have been following my blog, you probably still remember my first macro shots a month ago.The majority of the time I use this lens to take photos of my jewelry, and this was the first time I had some chance to take photos of flowers.I was amazed by the vivid colors and sharpness of the images.

Most of these photos are only gently edited, and by "editing" I mean increasing the contrast very slightly in Picassa3. Photographing flowers outdoors was much harder than I expected. Even though I had read in photography books before, I didn't expect every gentle breeze to blur my images so much.

Fortunately, after a couple dozen shots, I did get a few good ones.

Here are some images taken with my 18~105mm Nikkor zoom lens.They should give you a quick peek of this gorgeous plantation. I love, love, love it and wish I could live inside the plantation. Either I have not traveled enough, or I just love flowers too much, or this plantation is just too gorgeous, I must say it is the most beautiful garden i have seen and I can see myself visit it again and again.

If you would like to see the other pictures I took at Magnolia Plantation, check out this flickr set.

Also, just a quick reminder -- the Mother's Day sale is finishing in a few days! If you haven't ordered your birthstone jewelry, now is the time :)

enjoy!

mollie xo

New Website Grand Opening -- 10% off on Family Birthstone Jewelry

2010-04-13T21:37:00.001-04:00

Mu-Yin Jewelry's new website is finally here! In the past two weeks, I have been adding more items to the new shop.It's a slow process, but I will continue to add more designs in the next few months! If you are looking for a piece of personalized genuine birthstone jewelry for Mother's Day,now is the time! From now until 4/25, the most popular Mother's birthstone jewelry designs are all on sale for 10% off.This includes Family Nest --

Circle of Love

and more!

I'm hoping to bring you a better shopping experience with my new shop. Now you will be able to customize your jewelry directly from the drop down menu on the product page.Almost everything can be made with different metal or finish (bright sterling, 14K gold filled, oxidized sterling), and you can also select your preferred chain length or ring size.

I hope you enjoy my new shop -- I would love to hear some feedback from you!

New Arrival - Mystic Quartz lariat

2010-04-10T21:16:00.001-04:00

New lariat, now available on my brand new website : )

New Mother's Birthstone Necklaces -- Ichthys and From the Bottom of My Heart (large)

2010-03-27T23:53:00.001-04:00

Just listed some new Mother's birthstone necklaces for Mother's Day!

This Ichthys necklace was an idea inspired by my little brother's wedding.Both him and my sister-in-law are devout Christians, so I thought it would be a good idea to combine the Christian fish symbol with family birthstones.This particular Ichthys necklace shown in the picture is made for my sister-in-law, but the fish frame will fit up to 6 birthstones, and I can also easily create a larger frame if more birthstones are needed.

The picture below shows a 16" Ichthys necklace(the length includes the fish), but I can do up to 19" at no extra charge.

Then, thanks to two customers who requested a larger "From the Bottom of My Heart" necklace, I finally got these listed -- in sterling silver as well as 14K gold filled.They will fit up to 7 birthstones.They measure about 1" wide.

Here's a size reference for the small and large "From the Bottom of My Heart" necklaces on 16 and 18" chains.

Be sure to put your order in as early as possible to avoid the Mother's Day sales rush.As it gets closer to Mother's Day, the lead time will also become longer.

Photoshop Practice - Clone Stamp

2010-03-24T23:57:00.001-04:00

I'm finally learning photoshop slowly and loving the "cloning stamp" tool ! Dug out a picture I took for my parents and removed that annoying pole. :)

My New Car

2010-03-22T19:57:00.002-04:00

This was my car until this afternoon--1997 Chery Cavalier.I had this car for 5 years.It had been a great car for me, but as it got older and more parts needed to be repaired, I decided to get a new car...

Here's my new car--2010 Nissan Cube SL :) I test drove it last Saturday, and Mike and I picked it up this afternoon.See those gunmetal rims?Mike loves them.

What a weird looking car.But I love how smooth it drives, and of course all the safety features,blue tooth, automatic temperature control and automatic on/off headlights are definitely bonuses.

I love my Cube :D

Nikkor 60mm Macro test

2010-03-15T20:30:00.001-04:00

After much consideration, I decided to order the Nikkor 60mm macro lens for my D90 last week. It arrived today and I couldn't wait to test it out.This is my second lens and also my first prime lens.It also feels very different from standard prime lenses I tried before because of of its macro function, so I wasn't very used to it yet.I spent the whole afternoon practicing, and here are a few better shots I took.A few in the yard...

And here's some jewelry ..

I still feel very much restricted by my knowledge on DSLR and photo editing, so I am also starting to read more books on photography and photoshop.It's a lot of work --in fact, more work then I expected, and therefore I haven't been able to start listing more new designs as I have hoped. But I will start listing again next week -- with photos taken with my new lens!

Homemade Sushi Rolls in 30 Min

2010-03-10T19:33:00.001-05:00

Mike and I both love sushi.Since it's expensive to eat sushi at a Japenese restaurant, I started making some easy homemade sushi recently -- no raw fish, just some basic ingredients easily available at grocery stores.

To make shshi for two ...

1.cook and then cool the rice

first you need to cook 1 cup of short grain rice.After the rice is cooked, simmer for 10~15 min, then open the lid and stir the rice gently with a wooden spoon to fluff the rice so the air gets to the bottom of the pan, and the rice will taste better :)

Then, cool the rice...

2. Prepare for the "stuffings"

you can pretty much put whatever you like in it, but here are what I used...

1/3 seedless cucumber - cut into strips

imitation crab meat(same amount as avocado)

1 avocado -cut into strips

optional - fish eggs(not pictured)

optional - green onion-chopped

optional - spicy mayo -- I made this by mixing some chilly sauce with light mayo in a zip loc bag.Cut off a tiny corner and you can squeeze the mayo out easily.

3. Let's start rolling! You need a bamboo sushi roller and some seaweed sheets.

I put a cheet of cling wrap between the roller and seaweed for hygienic purposes,and it's also easier to clean the sushi roller later, if some stuffing drops onto the roller.

The first roll is spicy california roll. Spread a thin layer of rice onto the seaweed as evenly as possible.Then, line up avocado and imitation crab meat on it.Then, roll it up slowly, applying gentle and firm pressure using the roller as you do this.

Another roll is cucumber roll.Instead of Imitation crabmeat and avocado, simply use cucumber as your stuffing.

Done! Now you can use a serrated knife(one like a bread knife) to cut the rolls.It's easier to start your first cut from the center.Cut slowly and try not to squash the rolls with your fingers!Depending on the thickness of the cut, you can usually divide each roll into 6~8 pieces.

After the rolls are cut, garnish the california rolls(the ones in the back) with fish eggs and a dab of spicy mayo.The cucumbers rolls are fine just the way they are!

Top the california rolls with green onion (my favorite!), and enjoy!

p.s. use soy sauce (and wasabi) for dipping if preferred!

(Mike -- "are you taking more pictures still?When can we eat?")

Quick DIY Idea -- Swarovski Crystal Filigree Necklace

2010-03-02T23:39:00.001-05:00

While my current jewelry lines only consist of freshwater pearls an natural gemstones, I have always had a secret love for filigrees, so I was excited to receive these amazing Swarovski crystal filigree samples from Artbeads a few months ago.I have been so busy since then and finally had time to play with these lovelies last weekend.Hopefully this will be an easy jewelry design idea for your wedding, dinner party, or a fun night out.

Here are the supplies you will need for this necklace.They are all available from Artbeads --

- 1x 38mm gold plated filigree round crystal (code 62010-GCRY)

- 2x 19.5mm silver plated filigree daisy crystal (code 62006-RCRY)

- 2x 22.5mm silver plated filigree lily crystal (code 6207-RCRY)

- 2x 27mm silver plated filigree sunflower crystal (code 62004-RCRY)

- 10" silver plated chain(cut into 2 x 5" chains) -- choose a style you like that's under 4mm

- one silver plated clasp -- choose a style you like! I used a lobster clasp

- 8~9 silver plated 6mm open jump rings or split rings to connect the filigrees and clasp.

- (optional: 3" silver plated cable chain for the extender -- choose a chain that's slightly thicker than the main chain)

These filigrees are a little costly, but they really sparkle like crazy under the light! You can choose to have all of the filigrees in the same metal -- all silver or all gold.When I made the necklace,I thought it was a nice contrast to mix the metal, and I was glad it turned out nicely!

The necklace is very easy to make.Basically, you need to connect filigrees using the jump rings or split rings.I recommend using split rings because they are more secure.However,they also require a little more skills to open and close.Jump rings and split rings are very useful findings and it never hurts to keep some extra in stock!

These filigrees are very easy to work with because they have these "built in holes" for you to thread the jump/split rings through. You can also make easy and sassy matching earrings with these filigrees.the 19mm filigrees are just big enough to get you noticed, while the 27mm ones are a total show stopper!

Here's what the finished piece looks like. I added an extender so it's adjustable from 18~21"--

On a party dress --

On a wedding dress --

Happy jewelry making!

Disclosure: I have received the products free of charge from Artbeads. I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

4000 sales!

2010-02-21T14:42:00.002-05:00

Hooray!!!

I'm still catching up on orders placed during my time away, and before I noticed, I had my 4000th sale today!

Ying learns to sit by herself

2010-02-05T02:55:00.005-05:00

More baby photos!
I've been having a lot of fun playing with my niece Ying. My sister-in-law stays at home to take care of her full time while my elder brother works to support the family of three.Ying is smart, curious, focused, and just (what can I say?I'm a proud auntie!) irresistibly cute!Check out these photos..

She just learned to sit by herself without the help of an adult yesterday.As long as she is properly positioned, she can sit still for a few minutes(although still leaning forward most of the time) until she is distracted and tilts her head to the side, and then she would fall.It's so fun to watch these "baby steps" --

quick photos from Taiwan

2010-02-02T07:28:00.001-05:00

I didn't realize it's been two weeks since my last update,and so many things have happend in this short period of time.I worked like crazy until my flight on 1/25, and then flew back to Taiwan to help my little brother with his wedding on 1/30.I also met my 6- month- old niece for the first time since she was born. Since I'm still slightly jet-lagged and it's close to my bed time here (9pm), I guess I'll write less and let my photos speak for themselves :)

The food..

The niece..

The wedding..

The post-wedding photo shoot

more sewing projects!

2010-01-18T21:10:00.001-05:00

Another update on my new sewing projects!

After a few card cases, clutch, heat pads and coasters, I decided to try something a little more challenging.I have been wanting to make some file organizers to hang on the wall, and since "they don't look very hard to make",I decided that would be my next project.There was no pattern for me to follow because I already knew exactly what I wanted it to look like.

It turned out to be a little harder than I expected.I spent two nights making this thingy....

Hmm...overall I'm pretty happy with it.The stitches on the canvas are not quite straight, but I think they look pretty good on the two front cotton pockets.I'm not quite sure why I don't sew very well on canvas.Maybe because the fabric is thicker?Or maybe I was a little sleepy when I made it.

Overall the bias binding tape looks good too.I'm still not very good at doing the corners, but I'm getting a little better.

After I finished this file organizer, the book I ordered from Amazon came, so I was ready to move on to the fun stuff -- baby booties! My mom told me on the phone that my 6-month-old niece's hair is not growing evenly.Traditionally (Taiwanese tradition) when this happens, people believe if the babies are gifted booties from their aunt, their hair will start to grow evenly, and their teeth will also start to grow sooner (If you read Chinese,you can check out this link about "姑姑送鞋").So, I have a mission to accomplish.I already read through the pattern many times and the booties didn't look hard to make, so I thought maybe I could whip up a few pairs before I fly home next week...

I didn't expect to spend 5 hours (!!!!!!!) on these tiny booties --

Alright alright, maybe I exaggerated, but I swear it took me AT LEAST 4 hours to make them.This is probably because I also made some mistake because I was confused about the pattern (I get confused very easily and when I get confused I would think really, really hard to understand why I'm confused..). But I never expected certain steps to be so difficult! For example, machine stitching around the top of the booties means super small and tight corners.I was very nervous about stitching the top shut so I moved very very slowly. I HIGHLY recommend this book "Making Children's Clothes" for sewing beginners who are learning to sew for babies and small children.It includes 25 full size patterns and the instructions are overall pretty easy to follow.

I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.Mike decided that my next project should be a fleece jacket for him.That doesn't sound too hard -- probably just another 10 hours...

New Arrivals and 10% off Sale

2010-01-17T20:06:00.001-05:00

New in shop -- initial necklace in gold, available in heart and round shapes.Great as Valentine gifts!

This tiny Tornado necklace in gold matches my popular tornado post earrings.

and these freeform hoops. They are available in two different sizes, but if you prefer a different size, or like them in gold, just let me know!

I will be away from 1/25~2/16 for my younger brother's wedding and Chinese New Year, and nothing will be shipped during this period.If you need to order Valentine's gifts or birthday gifts, please order in the next few days.I will ship out all orders placed by 1/23 before I leave.

From now through 1/23, mention coupon code "happy10" at checkout to receive 10% rebate** on all jewelry orders.Buy more, save more!

**the discount amount will be refunded to your paypal or credit card AFTER you submit the payment.If you don't receive it within 24 hours, please email me!

my first sewing projects

2010-01-16T23:58:00.001-05:00

If you have been following my blog, you may stll remember my other handmade adventures. I am a craft junkie and have tried many, many, many other crafts -- soap and candle making, stamping, scrapbooking,glass bead making,metal smithing,polymer clay,to name a few.Usually I would get very addicted to one hobby for a while, spend tons of money on supplies, and then all of a sudden move on to the next hobby. In the winter of 2008, I tried to learn to crochet. After a few long nights and three crochet bunnies, I put all my yarns away and haven't touched them since.

I had been wanting a sewing machine for a while,but when I was living in an apartment, there wasn't any spare corner for it, so now that we finally moved to a house, Mike finally got me a Brother XL2600-i for X'mas. In the past three weeks I have been in and out of the fabric stores to buy sewing supplies and bookstore to check out sewing books.The fabric store was having an after X'mas sale so I got some canvas and linen-like fabrics at a great price.

My very first project was a cotton body pillow case.It's very boring so I'm not going to show it here.After that, I got more comfortable with my machine,so I made a cute pillow for my niece who was just born a few months ago.

Then I made some card cases,a journal cover and clutch.I really like this "vine" stitch on my Brother, so I used it to add some interest to my card case --

Then comes the heat pads...

After making these projects, I decided(just like what I found out with my other hobbies) sewing was too time consuming and expensive and it's easier to buy what other people sew than do it yourself.So I bought some pouches from J Pat Purses. :) When I told Jenese(JPat) I was learning to sew, she generously spared me some of her super pretty scraps, so I used them to make these coasters--

I love them! Thanks Jenese!

I still have something else to show you, but we'll save it for next time. :)

Tutorial -- How To Pay With Credit Card Through Paypal

2010-01-14T13:13:00.002-05:00

(written by Mollie Chen at Mu-Yin Jewelry)

You don't need a paypal account to pay for a paypal invoice. If you receive a paypal invoice but would like to pay with a credit card, here's a step-by-step tutorial.

Your invoice would be a separate email with a subject as "Mu-Yin Jewelry would like to be paid through paypal".Open this email, and click "Pay Now", and you will be prompted to the payment page.

This page describes what you are being charged for.Review the charges and click "continue"

Ignore tha big "log in to paypal" box on right of the next page. Instead, you will see a small link on the left side of the page next to the credit card logos that says "Continue" .Click it.

Here's the page where you fill out all of your credit card info(left side).After you fill out the details,click "Review Order and Continue" to finalize the payment, and you're done!

This is a very secure way to pay for your online purchases.It is more secure than giving your credit card number to the vendor over the phone or in person, because the vendor will not see your credit card info when you pay through this method.Also, even if you have a paypal account, you can still use this method to pay with credit card.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful!

Fungus - D90 image test

2010-01-09T18:40:00.001-05:00

Mike and I went out to the country where his father has a lot on the river.He talked to his dad and the neighbors while I walked around looking for interesting stuff to photograph.So here are the results of my little practice.These pictures of fungus were taken with my new +4 close up filter and the 18-105mm kit lens.They were only slightly edited in Picasa to increase the contrast.

Another image I really like was this bridge.Hopefully I'm starting to get more used to my new camera.

a good start..

2010-01-07T01:06:00.001-05:00

I still cannot believe another year has passed and that I have been a self employed full time jewelry artist for 1.5 years. After a very successful holiday season, sales have slowed down enough for me to take a breath, so I will (finally!) be listing a few new designs in the next two weeks.

But, before that, I have to tidy my studio first so I'll have room to work and..uh..walk around.What you will be seeing next is a top secret so please do not share it with anyone else ;)

This is my "cubicle".And you're wrong, this is not the "before", but the "after photo.

I know, it still looks like there's tons of stuff everywhere but at least most of the trash is off the floor now.This may look funny to you, but I actually sit on that computer chair when I make jewelry.I would constantly turn the chair to check emails and orders, and when something is ready I print out shipping labels(my little dymo label printer is right next to the computer), and put it in the bubble mailers, which are right behind the computer chair.Everything is within reachabledistance--yes, I'm that efficient(or you can also say lazy).The pile of paper at the very front of the photo is actually my other lazerjet printer(well, under the paper)

Did you see that world map on the wall?I use it to mark the countries I have sold my jewelry to.

You just saw the right side of the room, and here is the left side -- crafting books,jewelry supplies,packaging supplies(above the tall book shelf)

Believe it or not, I didn't realize I actually have a business until after I sort of organized my studio today.I am still trying to make this tiny office more organized to facilitate my work,so I may be putting some more tables in the office.

My New Nikon D90

2010-01-02T16:48:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

I finally bought my dream camera Nikon D90 after X'mas! I'm still trying to figure out all of the settings, but I'm excited to see the camera already literally "automatically" takes much better pictures for me even tho I have never used an SLR.Here's some photo comparisons

My old Canon Powershot SD950--

Nikon D90--

I have had my Canon point n shoot for two years now and have really loved it.However, like all point n shoot cameras, it has trouble taking photos under low light (and my house is always dark like what you see in these pictures..)Here's another example

Canon SD950--

Nikon D90 --

I'm still having trouble taking photos of my jewelry with D90.Even when I zoomed in to the maximum and use the macro setting, the jewelry still looked awful small in the pictures,too small to see any details, and a lot of the time the lens did not focus well, whether I used manual or auto zoom.With my Canon Powershot it was so much easier because I set the digital zoom to 2x(but I don't think I can change the digital zoom on D90?). Because I'm so new to DSLR, I still don't know what the problem is, but I'm guessing the lens I'm using now (18-105 mm) is not the best lens for jewelry, so I may need to get another lens and some macro lens filters.If anyone out there can help me with this little photography question, I'd really appreciate it :)

Happy Holidays & a big gallery of birthstone necklaces

2009-12-24T20:04:00.001-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful time with your family right now.I just finished my last X'mas orders on Monday, sending over 10 express mail packages out.I am so thankful that everything went very smoothly this holiday season.I have a lot of sales and was super super super busy and unfortunately had to decline a few last minute orders.I made a few mistakes on the orders during the chaos but thankfully was able to fix them and still have the packages delivered before X'mas. I ALMOST ran out of my supplies a few times, but fortunately my new supplies always arrived right before I totally ran out! I am also very grateful that I have a very nice and reliable mail carrier Suzanne, who has been picking up my packages everyday, and my Full Time Etsy Crafters Team buddies, who shared all the joy,fun,excitement and frustrations with me throughout weeks of working overtime.

There's one thing I have been wanting to do, and now I finally got a chance to! I want to share with you a big gallery of birthstone necklaces I made this month.I photograph every single piece of birthstone jewelry before I ship it out just to remind myself what I have made.

I hope every mom and grandma who received their birthstone necklace like what I made for them!

From The Bottom of My Heart

2009-12-10T00:25:00.002-05:00

Today is the suggested cut off date if you need to purchase from Mu-Yin Jewelry for X'mas, so please send in your order NOW !! I have been working overtime every, single, day, trying to get things out asap, but I'm only one person (ONE PERSON!) and can only take so many orders.After today, if you need anything, shipping upgrade is REQUIRED for the jewelry to deliver in time for X'mas.

Remember..All jewelry is made to order and based on my current sales volume,orders placed today is scheduled to be shipped on 12/15~/17. Even tho it's not required, I would stll highly recommend that you upgrade shipping to priority mail or express mail.

If you are in the mood of ordering something, but are not in a hurry, I would appreciate it so very much if you could leave me a note at checkout specifying it's not for X'mas,so I can process other X'mas orders before yours.I will gladly include a little surprise gift for you in return for your patience when everyone else is in a hurry. :)

Back to the topic..The new "From The Bottom of My Heart" family birthstone necklace is finally listed!It's a little too late for X'mas, but just in time for the incoming Valentine's Day and Mother's Day!, or a sweet little after-X'mas-treat for yourself.I hope you like it as much as I do.

At the end of this post, I would like to let all of my awesome customers to know I am so honored to be given a chance to create a custom birthstone jewelry for you.I would like you to know that I make every single piece as if it was meant for my own mother.I spend considerable amount of time selecting each gemstone to match their size, shape and color, hoping it will be the best X'mas gift the gift recipient has ever received. :)

Deadline for Christmas Orders

2009-12-07T01:57:00.003-05:00

I have been super super busy with orders.I am working overtime everyday to get the orders out asap, but it will still take 5 business days to ship out orders.If you are planning on ordering something from Mu-Yin Jewelry for X'mas, please send your order in as early as possible to avoid delays! If it's more convenient for you, I will also ship the jewelry directly to the recipient and also gift wrap and include a gift note for no extra charge.Suggested X'mas order deadline is 12/10 and after that I would STRONGLY recommend that you contact me to upgrade shipping to USPS priority or express mail.

Remember, if you are near Charleston , South Carolina, you can shop for my jewelry in person at Tea Farm Cottage (you can ask the owner Deborah for free jewelry boxes when you purchase from my booth!)

more family birthstone necklaces...

2009-11-30T21:38:00.004-05:00

I have been working overtime to make sure orders are shipped out on time.Today I shipped out 9 family birthstone necklaces plus a few other orders.It suddenly occured to me that I've never made so many birthstone necklaces within such short time, so I took a snapshot before packing them.

This one is my favorite --

As of now, I still have 11 more birthstone necklaces on my work list, waiting to be made and shipped. :)

my first yard work

2009-11-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

Alright, you are going to think I am totally silly here, but I grew up in a city on a small island (Taiwan), where very few people have yards, and where nobody rakes the yard(If my understanding is correct, we believe decomposed leaves are good fertilizer so people leave them in the yard).So, when I moved into this house a month ago,I was excited to receive my first rake as a "moving present" from Mike's dad.

I raked on the day we moved in and had great fun (I really like the crunchy sound of leaves for some reason).But since we didn't have any clear plastic bags, I left piles of leaves in the yard for weeks.And this is what happened after four weeks, when you have two big trees in front of the house.

Well, today we FINALLY got some clear yard bags, so I decided to finish my incomplete job last time by raking AND bagging the leaves. Before we start, we need to do something to celebrate my beautiful brown yard...

can you tell what that is? Yup. A leaf angel :D Sad it doesn't snow in South Carolina so this is the only thing we could make.

It took me( -- plus a little help from Mike, but mainly I did the job :D) an hour to rake the yard.There were simply toooooooo many leaves.....

Check out the "After" photo of the yard -- so naked.and there's hardly any grass on it.Sad.

Let's count....there are 9 bags of leaves. NINE!!! (oh, and you didn't see the leaves under the bags.No, you didn't see them.That's not th main part of our yard so you didn't see them)

Good job, Mollie :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T21:58:00.008-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope all of you had a great time with your loved ones.I took the day off from work, so I'm now all recharged ready to start working again!
I am very thankful that so far my business has been thrived despite the economy.I could not have done this without my customers' support. (I know I have said this many times before, but I just can't help saying it again.) It's such an amazing feeling that people actually like my jewelry enough to pay for it.And the more amazing thing is there are enough people paying for my jewelry that I am actually able to support myself with this little skill of mine.
I never knew that I could actually contribute to the society being a jewelry artist, so I gladly said yes when I was asked to donated my time to teach jewelry making to some teenagers at Carolina Teenager Development Center how to make jewelry (Thanks to Maureen Cody who sent me the photo from the first session a few months back). I have also donated my jewelry to some other charity this year.These little things makes me feel more like a "useful" person.

I also want to thank my parents for supporting my music education. Music is the best thing that has ever happened in my life.I would like to thank my piano teachers Pandora Yeh (葉曼青), John Humphreys, and Edward Auer, whom showed me the road to improving my skills and musicianship. I mention this because since I graduated from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music three years ago I had stopped playing the piano and begun a long "soul searching" process. Long story short, I have a strange relationship with the piano. Throughout my life all I want is to produce the "perfect music", and throughout my life I have hated myself for not being able to produce the sound I want. After I finally overcome every difficulty to pursue my music studies in England and the US, I spent every minute hating the sound I produced. It was simply bizarre -- the better my playing became, the less confident I was. After 6 years at the music school, I had forgotten what it was like to enjoy playing the piano.

In the past three years, a lot of things have happened in my life, and I am (thankfully) gradually able to look at life and music from a different angle. If I look back the path I have walked, I must say I am quite proud of myself.After moving to my current place a few weeks ago, my piano is now sitting in a separate "piano room"(which is supposed to be the guest bedroom, but since we never have any guest, I think it makes more sense to call it the piano room), and I have started practicing again.

So, on this beautiful day, I would like to share with you a little "home recording" I made this morning. This is a totally imperfect recording of my practice on an imperfect piano with imperfect acoustics. I will admit that it took a lot of courage to post something like this on my blog, since I know there are some professional musician friends of mine out there who may listen to it and say my playing is crap.But hey -- I've warned you.I haven't practiced for a while, and this is just a "test recording".

But I hope most of you will enjoy it, and I promise the next recording will be better.Here is the theme from the 3rd movement of Beethoven Sonata, Op 109. (click the link to go to the recording)

New Arrival -- "From the Bottom of My Heart" Family Birthstone Necklace

2009-11-25T17:01:00.001-05:00

This post is actually for a few new arrivals.I think it would be fun to do a quick post on how my designs evolve.

I have been working on a new heart framed family birthstone necklace for a long long time.Sinec I specialize in wire wrapped jewelry and no solder is used, I have to hand sculpt the "frames" using heavy gauged wires, and sometimes use fine wire to connect any "loose" part.

In 2008, I created a heart necklace for Valentine's Day, which you can see from the picture above. The opening of the heart shape was secured with fine wire, and at the bottom of the heart are three tiny ruby stones.It's actually a very pretty design, but somehow it did not match my ideal of "the perfect heart necklace".

But it finally happened this week, after I made this You Are Lovely necklace --

I have no idea why it took me so long to come up with this simple design.I also made some matching stud earrings --

Well, the beautiful part about this design is how I can attach birthstones to the pendant. This will be an early Valentine's design.This time I have used garnet instead of ruby, and called named this lover's necklace "Cupid's Arrow".My favorite part is that the stones actually roll on the wire, and the transluscent color of garnet looks like two tiny blood drops.At 5/7", it's also a little smaller than the original From the Bottom of My Heart design(about 1").

Most of my other family birthstone jewelry started as single gemstone jewelry; and then became a custom design as soon as a customer requested to have it made with their birthstones.When I get some custom requests for this design, it will be listed as a new piece under "From the Bottom of My Heart" again.

This design will fit up to 4 birthstones.

New Arrival -- Family Nest Necklace

2009-11-20T10:42:00.001-05:00

Introducing another family birthstone necklace design. This "family nest" necklace has actually been in my store for a few weeks,but I suppose it can still be considered a new arrival.I have sold enough to post a small gallery here.

It looks the best with either 3 or 4 stones.I actually really like the four stone design.The birthstones used are the same size as my Circle of Love necklace, so you know this necklace is smaller.

I have been working overtime this week to prepare for the holiday.Today's work included updating the photos for this Family Nest birthstone necklace as well as fixing my birthstone chart

Be sure to place your order as soon as possible to avoid delay.The holidays are just around the corner!

bye bye to S.A.D.

2009-11-19T07:05:00.001-05:00

hello again everyone! I want to thank you all for the nice comments all over my blog :) I haven't responded because I have been busy working and unpacking, but I have read everyone of them (you'll know that because I have to approve the comments) and really appreciate you for stopping by!

Remember when I was having trouble with the lighting in my new studio? That was posted just two days after I moved in.The day after that post, I found myself in a terrible mood everytime I had to walk into my studio.It simply didn't have enough lighting for me to inspect my pearls and gemstones.I had a ottlite that gave me "OK" lighting at the work bench, but the rest of the room was still dark.Everytime I walked into my studio, I felt like I was going into a small work bench sized cell, and that really depressed me. I actually thought about giving up making jewelry altogether just because there wasn't enough lighting, and when I noticed that I actually refused to walk into my studio, I realized this must be the so called SAD(Seasonal Affective Disorder).So I turned to my buddies at Full Time Etsy Crafters Team for recommended lighting solution, and picked up a few bulbs from Home Depot.The picture above gives you an idea of the new lighting of my studio(on the left) compared to the original lighting in another room(on the right).

This is probably not the best setup yet, but since we're renting, and I do have a budget, I have decided to go with a cheaper way -- clamp lights and daylight bulbs.

The picture shows two clamp lights, but I actually have more daylight bulbs on my ceiling light.In total I have two 100w bulbs and two 60 w bulbs...yeah, I know, that's very, very bright.but it makes me feel so good :) It's so bright that if I work in there for too long my eyes would actually hurt, but the important thing is my heart doesn't hurt anymore :) Also, with the studio being so bright day and night, I can now work and even take photos in the evening, so I am all ready to work for the holiday!

New Arrival-- Custom Family Birthstone Safety Pin Brooch

2009-11-17T15:16:00.001-05:00

A few new design have been been delayed because of moving,but I was able to list this cutie a few days ago.This particular custom birthstone safety pin brooch is only 3/4" long.The birthstones are securely wire wrapped onto the pin.It's a great gift for moms who don't wear "regular" jewelry but would like to keep birthstones of their children close to their heart.

The whole safety pin brooch is made from scratch and I have sharpened the pin end. It's much sharper than the commercial safety pin and will not leave holes on your clothes.

Depending on the number of stones required, I can make this safety pin as large as needed.

Mu-Yin Jewelry and Modern Mouse!

2009-11-15T19:37:00.001-05:00

Mu-Yin Jewelry is now available in California! If you are near Alamada, CA, be sure to stop by Modern Mouse to see a selection of my works.The pictures shown here are from their grand opening yesterday--thanks to Marianne of Mae Bee Jewelry who took the photos at the event!

Looks like they had a nice crowd at the grand opening.

This jewelry display includes a few designers works, including mine.

The store opened on 11/9 and I have already made a few sales, so I will be sending Eleen(owner of Modern Mouse) more next week!

settling in

2009-11-03T20:39:00.001-05:00

After a crazy weekend, we finally finished moving. I was too weak to pick up most furniture, so Mike had to get a friend here to help us with the move.Most of the big boxes and furniture went with the U-Haul truck, while I moved my studio supplies in my car. We finished moving and cleaning the old apartment on Saturday night, unpacked some so we could cook and take a shower, and I started working on Monday, surrounded by the mess you see in the picture above.

I ordered two big shelves online, but they are not here yet so I can't put my supplies up yet. Right now everything is sitting on the long folding table which is supposed to be my work surface.

So far I quite like this new place.I just wish the lighting could be better.My studio is really dark(and it's already the brightest room of the house) and I have to work under an artificial light throughout the day. The following picture gives you an idea how dark it is during the day.

The house is also very cold. It's completely under the shadow of the trees in our yard, which makes it cooler in the summer(which just passed) , and also colder in winter(which is around the corner!).There are two heating/cooling units in the house, which doesn't heat up every corner in the house, so we may have to get a small space heater soon.

I will post again when the shelves come in and the studio is organized!(or--uh.."semi-organized")

a moment I have been dreading..

2009-10-28T11:54:00.001-04:00

Packing up my extreme messy studio for the move...

I have been putting this off for the past two weeks, but now that I have packed and moved everything else, I cannot avoid packing the studio anymore.We have to be totally moved out by this Saturday.

Tea Farm Cottage Grand Opening

2009-10-17T20:33:00.007-04:00

I went to Tea Farm Cottage's grand opening today.It was a lot of fun.There were so many people there that it almost looked like a craft show.Some food vendors from Tea Farm Cottage brought samples, and there were also some artists demonstrating their crafts.

The pastor gave the blessing, and then everyone released the balloons, which symbolized sending of our prayers to heaven, and also indicated the start of the Grand Opening..
The best part was that I talked to a few crafters and made friends with them.Some people signed up for my jewelry class today so I will be giving a class in November. :)
Here's a short video clip of the balloon release --

Website Update

2009-10-12T00:27:00.001-04:00

I spent the whole weekend working on the shopping cart of my website. I finally figured out how to change the banner and the left side boxes from a darker smoky color to a lighter gray.I really like the original darker background, but since the shopping cart is going to be connected to my home page, I think whe whole site will look more consistent if the shopping cart has a brighter background/banner.

Nothing is final yet.I'm still learning this complicated zen cart at a super slow pace.It has been an amazing learning experience for me and I am really proud of myself for figuring this whole thing out.

Here's the product page.Not sure if you can see a little "test" that I'm doing -- the price of the ring sizer is marked down.

I am really excited that there are so many cool things I can do on this site.I believe it is much more user friendly for my customers.If you move the mouse over an image, it automatically zooms in.I think that's pretty cool.

and here's the product page.There's is a "prev", "listing" and "next" button for easy browsing other products.

Almost all listings will have custom order options for different metal(bright sterling silver,oxidized sterling, 14K gold filled, and sometimes 14k solid gold) and sizing.It's probably going to take me a long time to upload the products,but after everything is done it will be a shop dedicated to fully customized jewelry. :)

New Arrival-- pearl bracelets

2009-10-09T13:35:00.001-04:00

Here are some new pearl bracelet to go with my new pearl rings ... :)

Moving

2009-10-08T22:25:00.006-04:00

Mike and I have been living in a two bedroom apartment.After much discussion,we decided to rent a house after our lease expires this November.I thought it would take a while to find a place that we would both be happy with, so I started looking a few weeks back on Craigslist.
Even though I had heard a lot about Craigslist(both good and bad), I had never bought anything from it before.I marked a few posts of interest, and emailed two landlords. The next day, I got replies from both of them, both emails are in a similar format, telling me they were pastors relocated to West Africa and would like to least their house to "honest people who will take care of the property".The email also includes an "application form" asking for some basic personal information, and their contact number in West Africa..
If I had only received one email like that, I may have believed it more.But since I received two from supposedly two different "pastors", and one especially had very poor English, I was pretty sure they were scams.
We contacted the third landlord by phone.It was a local phone number, and we were able to see the house on the day of the phone call.The house is in a very convenient old neighborhood, about 3 miles from where we live.It has 4 bedrooms,a one car garage,and a pretty big yard.It's not the perfect perfect house.Everything is very basic--it doesn't have central heating(luckily it doesn't get too cold here), no garbage disposal,no dish washer, and no blinds either!But, the location is good, and the rent was right, so both Mike and I thought this would be a nice starter house for us.We will be moving here at the end of October.
The rent doesn't include lawn service, and apparently no one has taken care of the yard for quite a while.The grass is not growing.
Even though we're renting, we have been shopping for various home essentials such as blinds,flood lights and lawn mowers.I will have a slightly larger jewelry studio, so I've been thinking about getting a proper work bench (I've been making jewelry on a small computer work station for two years!), and maybe another one or two shelves for my jewelry supplies(they've been sitting on my floor for a long time as well!).
Other than the jewelry studio, I will have another piano/guest room.We hardly have guests, so most of the time it will just be my study/piano room.The other spare room will be the gym room.Both Mike and I are very happy with this arrangement.I can't wait to start working from my new studio, but I really really hate packing.I have been squeezing in one packing session for the past two days and hope to continue doing so until the move.

New Pearl Rings

2009-10-07T21:09:00.001-04:00

Tea Farm Cottage Booth Display Update

2009-10-01T00:50:00.001-04:00

I stopped by Tea Farm Cottage today to restock my jewelry.The shop has been open for two weeks and is really doing great! Over 70 crafters are selling their crafts in this big house, and there's more coming! Everytime I go in there, I have an impulse to buy something from other sellers -- and I probably will sooner or later.I just have to decide what to buy so I don't over-spend!

The grand opening will be very soon.I will be running a grand opening sale for my booth, so make sure you tune in to my blog/facebook/twitter/newsletter for sales info.

The house is full of crafts from inside out.On the shelves on the porch there are some plants and painted gourds.

Here's my new booth display.The new displayes I ordered last week just came in yesterday, so I brought them with me today.I switched the black ring display trays to white,so almost everything in my booth is white now.

This is a closeup of the lower shelf.I sorted the rings by size and color.If you read my blog post on the shop two weeks ago, you'll notice there're also some more earrings.I'm trying my best to stuff my booth full :)

I also added another hand display and a bracelet tree to the top shelf. I spent quite a bit of time arranging everything, which is really a lot of fun.I'm still feeling a little uncertain about the selection and display of the jewelry,but for now I'll give it a break since I still have many other things to do about my business. So far this has been a wonderful experience for me.

If you are near Summerville (near Charleston) , South Carolina and are interested in seeing some of my jewelry, be sure to stop by at Tea Farm Cottage!

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New Arrival -- safety pin necklace and bracelet

2009-09-25T16:59:00.002-04:00

Expanding my safety pin collection. :)

New Arrival -- more huge flower cocktail rings

2009-09-19T16:18:00.001-04:00

Not a new design, but definitely a new color -- Gardenia Blossom is now FINALLY available in champagne..Along with the autumn flower ring, I am slowly adding more colors to my flower ring collection.

Etsy Seller Tip with Muyinmolly -- How to Use Postling to Save Your Time on Marketing

2009-09-17T19:48:00.004-04:00

This tutorial/review is written by muyinmolly using the "Create a Blog Post" function" through Postling.

If you joined Etsy in 2007 or earlier and was very active in the Etsy forum, you probably remember one of the Etsy founder "RevolvingDork", the geeky dude who gave us updates on tech issues of the site. Along with a couple other ex-Etsy folk, they've started a new company called Postling, a tool to help small businesses like us manage our social media. You can post to twitter/facebook/blogspot/wordpress/tumblr etc all at once, and it aggregates the comments for you so you don't have to check everything individually.

When I learned about Postling through our Full Time Etsy Crafters Team member tinysaur, I was almost as excited as when I discovered EtsyHacks.(P.S.If you sell on Etsy, you've got to use EtsyHacks.Period. It's full time Etsy sellers' life saver).Like many Etsy sellers, I have signed up for as many social networking sites as possible, and also have been neglecting most of them, simply because I don't have time--or maybe I just don't want to waste my precious time checking all of my sites.While I blog regularly and am on facebook all the time, my flickr account has long been ignored, and my twitter updates consist of only links to my new blog posts -- which have been fed automatically through twitterfeed.

I thought Postling may be a time saver for me to triple my marketing effect, but you never know something until you try it out.And why not?They have a 30 day free trial which doesn't even ask for your credit card info, so I signed up(I heart free trials :D )..Ok, so what happens next?At first I was surprised there wasn't an instruction page for my dashboard, but I soon realized it was so simple that you really don't need a lot of instructions to use Postling.You will need to be familiar with the functions of the social media you want to integrate -- in other words, you need to understand what "Update Your Status" or "Share a Link" means for your these social media, so you can select one to start.

After you log in your dashboard, the first thing you need to do is to click "Manage Services" and add all of your blog,flickr,twitter,tumblr,facebook account to Postling.Then they will show up on your right side bar when you work on your new post/update.In this post I wll show you how I manage a blog post through Postling.

Before I start that, I thought you may be interested to know that I use Postling to manage two blogs, three facebook accounts(one personal account plus two business/fan pages),two twitter accounts and one flickr ALL AT ONCE.

Did you read yesterday's post on our team blog? This post shows you how I created that post through Postling.First I click "Create a Blog Post", and check which where I want to post it to.

I usually just post it to my blogs, but you should also post it to your facebook fan page and/or personal page to maximize your marketing effect IF your facebook pages are not yet set up to import your blog posts automatically.(my facecbook pages are ALL set up to import my blog posts--this is an option in your facebook account)

When I finish the post, I publish it, and on the next page I will have an option to post the link of this blog post to any service I want to.You can use this step to do your twitter update.If this is what you want to do, click "Insert the link below" and select your twitter account on the right side bar.

I personally skip this step, because my twitter accounts already imports my blog posts using twitterfeed(since this is a review on Postling,I won't explain how to use twitterfeed).

But that's not what Postling is all about.If you don't need to do any update, you can click "skip to Photo Publishing"

This is the stage where you can do your photo publishing.I publish my photos to flickr AS WELL AS my facebook fan page and personal page.I must say this is one of my favorite part about Postling.People may not stop to read your imported blog posts on your facebook page, but many of they don't mind looking at your photos and leaving some nice comments :)

Just one thing to remember--if you want to publish the photos to your facebook page, you want to put the text under "description" instead of "title"-- it would be the best if you can do both title and description, but if you are as lazy as me and just want to do one of them, simply fill in a short description, and the text will show up on both your flickr and facebook.

So, after I am done, this is what my post looks like on FTEC blog..

and the photos published to FTEC fan page look like this --

Plus you know what photos look like on flickr.

Then, about 30 min later, twitterfeed updates my blog post, and facebook also imports my blog post.(or if you have used Postling to do these updates, they will all show up simultaneously)

We just finished 6 marketing tasks all at once.

Just a little side note. A little tool I really like about Postling is their photo resizing function.When I want to make the photo smaller but keep the same proportion, I only need to change one dimension and the other dimension will be automatically calculated.You can also easily enter the "Alternative Text" as well (note:if you don't understand this very useful little function, try google it)

Above is the tutorial, now here's what I think about Postling.

You will like Postling if you try to be active on many social media but don't think you have time, or you just absolutely hate logging into any one of them(for whatever readon) but still want to appear active on it just because you KNOW it's an effective marketing tool -- maybe you don't quite get facebook fan page, or maybe you are not so fond of twitter, or maybe you don't blog (hey--you can always use Postling to do a "photo blog")

You will not like Postling if you are very inexperienced at these social media that Postling manages, or if you only intend to be active on maybe one or two of them. Here's why --

- facebook business pages is now integrated with twitter, so your facebook updates will show up on twitter if you set it up in your facebook account (although, unfortunately, this doesn't work for personal pages.)

- facebook has an application for flickr(which I don't know how to use, but have seen other people using it) which will automatically display some of your flickr photos when you do a flickr upload.

- you can set up under facebook "Notes" to automatic import your blog posts

- you can set up twitterfeed to automatically update your Etsy new listings and blog posts if you don't want to do it manually

So, if so many things can already be done automatically, why do I still like Postling?

- it gathers all comments from your flickr, blog, facebook and twitter account, so you don't have to check them individually.

- I love the resizing function.

- I hate logging in and out 8 accounts.Now I only use two -- Postling, plus my facebook page(which I'm the most active on) -- and can still keep track of what's going on out there.

-I love being able to upload photos to flickr and facebook at the same time.

-I love being able to enter "alternative text" without having to access html codes

-(new discovery!)When you click the "edit" link to the right of the post on Postling home page, you can edit content as much as you want, and the edits you make there will automatically be sent to all of the places you sent the post originally.

At the end, there are a few little things I really hope I would be able to do through Postling...

-bulk photo upload function: for example, I am not able to upload 5 pictures at once when I do a blog post.This doesn't bother me that much since the photo uploading speed is amazing. However,other than that, there seems to be a maximum number of 7 photos to be uploaded at once when I do a photo update after the blog post.

-I would like to be able to save drafts of my posts in my Postling account before posting them.It's true I can always use a notepad or save my drafts to a word file, but..don't ask me why, I would still like to be able to save it in my postling account :)

-I would like to be able to edit the layout of my personal postling page, which is a blog that gathers everything I posted through Postling from short updates to blog posts. Currently there is only one look for the Postling blog.It would be really nice if I could personalize it.

Other than that, no more complaints so far.I think Postling is saving me a few hours every month and for that I am happy to pay a small fee for their service.

Booth Display Update at Tea Farm Cottage

2009-09-16T19:29:00.002-04:00

More on my first retail shop! The photos from yesterday showed my jewelry displayed in the middle shelf in the case.I took over the middle shelf because it was the perfect height for jewelry.But when I got home I started to worry about another vendor renting the top shelf and blocking my light. After talking a few full time Etsy sellers, I took the plunge and rented the whole locked case all to myself.Because the original top shelf was too high for me, I rearranged the glass panels, removing one and moving another one down, so the case now has two large shelves.I brought more jewelry in today.

I forgot to bring my canon poweshot so these photos were taken with my sony cellphone.They are a little blurred, but you get an idea of the whole layout.Here's some close-up photos..

I brought in over 50 rings, 20 necklaces, 20 pairs of earringsm, 3 bangles and some bangle charms.

Right now the earring display looks a little sad becauce it's not full. I'll bring in more pearl and gemstone earrings in a few weeks for the grand opening.

I felt very uncertain before I rented the booth, but now that everything is all set up and ready to go, I'm just happy. I guess, just like my buddy monkeysalwayslook said, you should try everything at least once to know whether it will work or not. This is my first time to deal with a retailer in person.I'm very lucky the owner Deborah is extremely pleasant to work with.She's simply sweet.She is also en Etsy seller and found me through Etsy.Deborah makes the most beautiful hair accessories -- they were the first things I was attracted to at Tea Farm Cottage! There are so many amazing crafters at Tea Farm Cottage that I am afraid I would spend money on other people's before I make any sale :)

At the end of this post, I would like to say special thanks to my great Full Time Etsy teamies, who helped me with my decision to go for my first retail shop: bizzilizzie, beckandcallgirl, eleen, XOhandworks, monkeysalwayslook, ileaiye, mpaperarts, southpawstudios, epicerma, cricketscreations, nicholasandfelice and kfarrell, I probably would have come to the same conclusion without your help, but you made me feel so much more confident about every little step I take. I'm so lucky to have your support.

My First Official Retail Shop --Tea Farm Cottage

2009-09-14T20:04:00.002-04:00

Remember what I told you about my first retail shop?The shop owner Deborah has been working extra hard in the past two weeks and cleaned up the place real nice so she will be opening Tea Farm Cottage this Wednesday.The picture above shows the jewelry showcase at the counter two weeks ago(with Deborah in the picture), and the slanted jewelry showcase at the front was the one I intended to rent.Unfortunately, I was a little slow than other vendors and someone took that spot alread. (Oh no!)

While I was a little disappointed, I decided to go ahead and rent another booth just to get some retail experience.So, I spent the whole morning making earring cards and tagging items.Then I went to the shop at about 1pm.

I forgot to take more photos of the shop as I arrived, but I was amazed by the variety of items already displayed in the shop! Better yet, I noticed a real nice locked shelf at the entrance, right opposite to the counter.I was told it was still not rented, so I quickly moved my jewelry in the best spot available!

Did you see how busy this small place is? The counter was jewelry showcases were already filled with jewelry.More and more vendors came in today to reserve their booths.

My booth lights up.It looks a little strange right now because of the displays used..I had prepared my displays for a lower shelf space(the counter jewelry showcase), so all the earrings are just laying flat right now, and the necklaces are actually laying on a bracelet display! I'll be back in two weeks to put my jewelry on proper displays(which I have to order first..).I'll probably bring some more jewelry as well.

If you are near Summerville South Carolina, you can see my jewelry in person starting this Wednesday(9/15).I have many pearl rings listed at a special price($10) because the colors are discontinued in my Etsy shop.

The address for Tea Farm Cottage is--

808 N Cedar St

Summerville, South Carolina

New Arrival -- interchangeable pearl charms

2009-09-10T16:52:00.002-04:00

Finally! Took me so long to get the color chart done,but here they are.The pearls are of such great quality that I don't even want to obstruct them with any more wire wrap.Again I'm offering a 10% new arrival discount on this item until 9/17. Mention coupon code "colorfun" at checkout and I will reimburse you the discount amount.Let me know if you are interested in more than a pair!

Website Shopping Cart Progress

2009-09-07T22:44:00.002-04:00

I hope all of you had a great Labor Day Weekend. Mine wasn't so fun, although I can say I have accomplished "something". I started working on the shopping cart for my website.The picuture above shows the main page of my shopping cart.The next picture shows my test product listings.

I know so little about HTML, not to mention CSS. But in the past few days I have edited a lot of html and css codes in the template of my shopping cart. It seriously gave me headache and I'm still not sure if this is what I should be doing.

I have also been thinking about going with BigCartel instead because they're known for their ease of use and gorgeous templates, but the problem is they have a maximum product number of 100, and I really would like to have a larger store than that. And yes, I know I can hire a professional to finish this up for me, since time is money (anyone out there willing to help?), but part of me also feel if I will be the one maintaining the site I better figure this out so I can fix it if something goes wrong.

I still have a lot of questions in my head and I don't know if they will ever be solved. My questions are mostly about whether to have my own shopping cart and which shopping cart to use. But a few things i'm especially excited about having my own shopping cart is I can add custom options to the product.For example, customers can use the drop down menu to give me their choices of ring size, birthstones, and metal. There will also be a coupon code box, plus multiple shipping options.Thess features are really what Etsy should have done a long time ago.

Pre-Order & Labor Day sale -- 20% off on 14K Solid Gold Family Birthstone Necklace

2009-09-01T15:50:00.010-04:00

Yes, the 14K gold birthstone necklace pre-order sale is finally here! From now through 9/7, receive 20% off the listed price on this beautiful family birthstone necklace. This item requires 2 weeks lead time but with the discount it's worth the wait!

To take the advantage of this discount, you can..

1. order this listing through my Etsy shop and mention coupon code "fall09" at checkout.Proceed to payment and you will receive 20% instant rebate of your total within 24 hours.
2. email me at muyinjewelry@gmail.com to set up a custom order for you in my etsy shop reflecting the discount.

Enjoy!
mollie xo
Mu-Yin Jewelry

Custom Family Birthstone Necklace For Brides

2009-08-30T17:44:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to do a custom birthstone necklace similar to the Romance Necklace, so I was very excited to receive a custom order that's even better than that.A customer wanted to design a family birthstone necklace for her best friend. We worked together on this design until she was happy with it.Along the circle frame are 15 birthstones of the bride and grooms family and best friends, and suspended in the center are the bride and groom's birthstones.Next to the handcarfted hook closure are two decorative birthstones that symbolize the month when the lovebirds met.

I felt in love with this necklace as soon as I finished it.

Another version of this design(without the center stones) is now listed in my Etsy shop under the title "We Are Family"--

This is Just a House...

2009-08-30T00:56:00.002-04:00

Or can it be more than a house?

It was a beautiful day today. I went to this house to meet with Deborah,the lady who rented it just a few weeks ago.She will be turning this house into an arts/crafts/antique shop in October. Deborah found me through Etsy a few days ago and asked if I would be interested in renting a booth from her new shop in Summerville, South Carolina. After a few emails, I decided to meet with her to check out this potential first retail shop for Mu-Yin Jewelry.

Since I moved to Charleston,South Carolina, I have been receiving emails from local customers asking if I have a shop in the area. I have been saying no for over a year, and now it looks like I may be able to say yes from now on. Although this seems like a casual thing for seasoned crafters, it's truly a big step for me because I started my business online and have kept it exclusively online until today.I have never done any craft shows or consignments, and the only few wholesales I have done were all processed online.My Etsy success has hindered me from getting out of my shell to meet with real retailers.

But my meeting with Deborah went pretty well, so I think I'll take the plunge for the first time. :) A lot of things are going through my mind right now, mostly concerning detailed business arrangements and the potential risks involved. I'm very nervous, and also a little excited. Running a small business involves so many things I never thought I would've had to deal with, but it's an adventure everyday, and I look forward to it.

Hopefully, I will be able to give you all an update on my first retail shop in a few weeks.Oh, did I mention I may also start to give jewelry making lessons here? :)

Family Birthstone Necklace in solid 14K gold

2009-08-28T16:18:00.004-04:00

I have been planning for this for a while, but I'm finally actually doing it now..I will be placing an order on 14K solid gold wire and chain in September to get them ready for the holiday.A few designs in my shop are already available in solid 14K gold, so I'm just going to expand the selection to my popular family birthstone necklaces.If you are interested in pre-ordering them before they are posted, I will be offering my facebook fans, twitter followers,blog readers,and mailing list subscribers 20% discount, so please keep an eye on my updates containing the coupon code!

Can't wait? -- contact me directly!

mollie xo

Around the World in 777 days

2009-08-27T12:36:00.003-04:00

Today I got my free world map from AAA(I go nuts for maps.That's why I get AAA membership... :D ) and was finally able to do something I've always wanted to do -- figuring out where I have shipped to since I started selling on Etsy, approximately 777 days ago. I had great joy circling the countries I have shipped my jewelry to, and was pretty impressed by my achievement!

Wow! In 777 days, Mu-Yin Jewelry has traveled around the world.Check out this list...

Finland
Sweden
Norway
United Kingdom
Latvia
Netherlands
Germany
Belgium
France
Austria
Hungary
Croatia
Italy
Greece
Spain
Russia
South Korea
Malaysia
Thailand
Australia
canada
US

Among all of the above countries, I have shipped the most often to the US(of course!) Canada, Australia and the UK.

I can't help but imagine what my customers in different countries are like -- what they wear, what they eat, what their streets look like..I also wonder how long it takes for my jewelry to arrive its destination.I wish I could visit these countries in person!

Weekend Deal!

2009-08-21T10:51:00.005-04:00

TGIF! Enjoy my weekend deal through 8/23 :)

mollie xo

Pray for Taiwan -- Typhoon Morakot

2009-08-18T23:08:00.007-04:00

Some of you may have read about the typhoon that struck Taiwan on August 8th (Typhoon Morakot). This was the most serious typhoon in the past 50 years. I was not home to witness the flood, but watching the videos about Morakot alone is heartbreaking enough for me. I remember as a child I used to get excited when a serious typhoon hit and we didn't have to go to school. As an adult I see things differently. Being a small business owner myself, it really saddens me to see farmers losing their crops to the flood brought by Morakot. Tens of thousands of pigs and chickens died. Costs of food, especially vegetables, increased dramatically (just to give you an idea -- as of today, prices of cucumbers are up by 600%).
And we haven't even mentioned about those who lost their homes or even lives.

If you would like to help Taiwanese people rebuild our country, you can donate your money to one of our largest charity organizations Tzu Chi Foundation. We appreciate your generosity.
If you cannot make any donation but would like to help, you can also pray for Taiwan...

3000 sales!

2009-08-07T20:27:00.003-04:00

I took a day off from work and bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate my 3000th sale on Etsy today :)
It's been over two years, and every small sale still feels like a magic. Thank you again, to my family, friends and my wonderful customers!

Test Website Finally Up!

2009-08-04T00:06:00.006-04:00

Remember my last post about my website? Since then I have been working on that one web page everyday, and by last night I decided I could try to publish it.

My original plan was to do some basic editing and have Yuli fix the details and load it to my web hosting, but after I surprised myself by setting up a basic test webpage (two weeks ago i didn't even know what a html editor was and not to mention using one), I thought maybe I could try to load the files by myself too. So I started another online chat with Hostgator's tech support and ask them to help me load the files. It seriously was very scary for a newbie like me, but I kept telling myself, "it's ok, if something goes wrong, I can always start over.This is just a test site."

And I did it! It's live! The current url is http://muyinjewelry.com/test because,uh, it's a test website, but every link I added worked.This is really a HUGE accomplishment for me, considering one month ago I still didn't know what a "server" or "website hosting company" or "cpanel" or FTP" was.
I want to say a special thank you to my friends Julia and Joyce for helping me with the website along the way (they are my new buddies and we joked that I should change my name to Jolly so we would be 3J's ). Julia answered tons of my questions when I first started working on the site, and Joyce wrote a javascript function for me last night.When you click the little number icons next to the picture, you get a new picture ...

I like how this function makes the home page look like a gallery.I know this is a jewelry website, but my jewelry seems to look prettier framed :D

I'm so proud of myself and very glad I gave it a try.It really took me quite a while to get this far, but every time I accomplish one tiny step it gives me courage to learn more. Also, once I figured out the answers, I don't have those tons of questions in my head bothering me anymore.
I can't help but mentioning Laurie Jo, a tech support at HostGator. When I first signed up with them in July, I was so totally clueless, confused and really panicking, so I contacted their online support wanting go cancel my plan. Laurie was the rep who entered the chat session, and she was extremely patient and encouraging. Before her, I had talked to about 10 different online chat reps, who only made me more convinced "there's no way I can do this without a graphic designer", but somehow Laurie calmed me down and made me believe I could do this myself. Without her encouragement I wouldn't even have tried.When I recall this, it's just amazing how much we tell ourselves "I can't do this" and how a little encouragement can go a long way.

So,next step -- a shopping cart for my website! :D

oh dear..what have i got myself into?

2009-07-29T21:04:00.002-04:00

I'm finally starting my own website.Yay!

But things aren't as easy as I thought. Long story short, there was some misunderstanding and I signed up my web hosting with Hostgator on July 4th. I had no idea what was supposed to happen after one registers with a hosting company, so I was totally shocked when given a link to this thing called "cpanel", and even more shocked when I saw dozens of icons in it that I had no clue about! Even tho Hostgator's tech support has been amazing, it really doesn't help much if you know nothing about website building just like me, so i eventually had to ask my graphic designer cousin yuli to help me design my website.

Yuli hasn't got a chance to look into it, and I kept asking myself more questions about the website, especially whether I wanted to stay with hostgator or switch to pappashop (known for thier ease of use) before my 45 day trial period ends.

So I downloaded a free html editor online today along with a free template from Hostgator.To my amazement, I actually figured out how to do some basic editing in the html editor, even though I still had no idea what I was doing! It was such an encouraging news for me that I decided to start doing some more reading about website building.

Anyway..the picture above is a test page I just did tonight.I'm really hoping my first website can sorta look like this.There's still a lot of techincal problems to be sorted out, but at least I have a good start now.

How I Started Making Jewelry

2009-07-28T19:09:00.007-04:00

Enough people have asked, I suppose, so here is my story.

I was never into jewelry.I didn't even used to wear any jewelry.I never knew I would start making jewelry until the day it happened, and never knew I would be selling jewelry until I actually did it.

I have always been crafty since I was young.I loved making things with my hands.I have also always loved to buy handmade stuff. About 6 or 7 years ago, I went to a flea market in London by myself (I was studying in Birmingham back then), and saw a booth with lots of jewelry made with wire and glass beads. I was the only one at the booth and the seller welcomed me with great enthusiasm. It was the first time I saw handmade wire jewelry, and I was totally drawn to it, although back then I didn't even have a clue that's what I would be doing in a few years. I asked if he could create something for me, and he did.He made me the earrings you see in the picture above.

Except that he did not make the round amethyst dangles at the bottom.
So where did those dangle come from?
Ha! I added them :)
So, technically, they were the first piece of jewelry I made.I added the two little amethyst dangles I had for a while to the bottom of the earrings I bought after I went home, because the original earrings had a loop at the bottom.I had no tools at that time, but I had nails, and that was what I used to assemble the earrings.

I graduated from my school and came to the US for my Master's degree. I loved going to the hobby store because, as mentioned before, I loved making things! I also loved reading crafting books at the bookstore. In 2005, I saw some interesting books under the at the bookstore about jewelry making.I loved one so much and had to buy it.It was Sherri Haab's Designer-Style-Jewelry. Haab remains my favorite jewelry instructor til today.I tried out a few projects in that book, and soon got addicted to making wire jewelry.The following picture shows one of my earliest works.It is an unfinished link bracelet made with glass beads and steel wire.

And here are some of the early "wire sculptures" I did around the same time --

I made jewelry for fun for about a year or so, and then decided to try my hands on selling it, so I could get some extra cash to buy more supplies as jewelry making was becoming too expensive a hobby for me.I opened an Ebay store in summer 2006, which I talked about in one of my early blog posts . Here are some pictures of the old Ebay listings that were sold.

I continued to read books and magazines on jewelry making at bookstores whenever I had time, but I never bought another book on wire working.I flipped through them and almost always picked up the skill right away.Very soon what these books could offer me was not enough, so I started looking for more tutorials online. I bought a few tutorials by Eni Oken, and then I was on my own.I read one free tutorial online about wire wrapped ring, and then came up with different variations.
In July 2007,I started selling on Etsy.Two years later, I'm here selling jewelry full time. :)

How to Use Picassa 3 to Create Cool Photo Effects

2009-07-16T23:24:00.009-04:00

As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, I use Picassa to edit my jewelry photos. It's free to download and also very easy to use.On top of that, it can actually create many cool effects to make you look like a (semi) professional photographer.See the photo above? It was taken with a Canon Powershot SD750 and then extensively edited using Picassa. Here's the original photo --
If you are thinking "oh wow!" (and I hope you are) then I know you will finish reading this post.It took me a while to pick an example photo in which I (on the right) look half way decent. The pretty smiling girl next to me is my best friend Rana.I won't be going through the very very basics of the Picassa in this post, and I'm going to assume you have played with it a little bit and know there are three tabs that we use to edit photos. The version I'm using is Picassa 3, in which the three tabs are called Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects (left to right) and we'll be using a few Effects today.
Since you are reading my blog, I assume you may have more interest in me than my friend(even tho she's apparently prettier than me), so I'm going to crop(under "Basic Fixes") the photo now... Here's me.The first effect I choose is "Soft Focus".It blurs out the background.Move the mouse to determine your focus, and use the slide bars to determine how much soft focus you want to use..
The next effect is glow.It makes the photo..uh..glow...The photo will look like it was taken in a beautiful sunny day :)
Now we're going to switch back to "Basic Fixes"(the tab on the left) and use the "retouch" function under this tab.You can adjust the brush size and remove unwanted spots.Carefully compare the following picture with the one above.Notice the difference? Hehe, I have removed the mole below my lips using the retouch function, and also made my skin tone look more even.Now I look like I have put on some concealer and foundation...
The picture still looks a little plain to me, so I'm going to add more contrast.You can adjust the contrast under "tuning".I tend to use more "Hightlights"(gives a spotlight effect) and "Shadows"(makes the darker part darker) than "Fill Light"(makes the whole photo looks lighter).I am pretty happy with this picture now already, but since we're doing a tutorial, I'll show you one more effect.

Click "B&W" under "Effects", and you will get a black and white photo as shown at the top of this post--

Oops, and now I just noticed my eyebrow was poorly trimmed, so I decided to use "retouch" again to paint my eyebrow.Can you see the difference? :)

Did you have fun so far? There are a few more effects that I have not used, but you can click around and play with everyone of them before deciding what you like the most.

have fun!
mollie xo

Happy 4th of July--30 second chocolate "mugcake"

2009-07-04T16:07:00.005-04:00

A facebook friend posted an interesting recipe yesterday.It looked so fun I had to try it out.I apologize for the scary ugly picture,but this thing is so easy to make and tastes good too.
Here's her original post--

----------------------------------------------------------------

Call me when your pants don't fit as a result of eating too many of these. We'll do kettlebell swings until you renounce anything containing sugar. Here's the recipe if you dare—

4 tbsp flour

4 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cocoa

1 egg

3 tbsp oil

3 tbsp milk

bit of vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in a large, microwave-safe mug. Mix in egg. Mix in oil and milk. Add vanilla. Put in microwave for 3 minutes on high. Remove.

--------------------------------------------------

BTW, I added some baking powder to my mugcake so it looks a little "overflown".I stared at the microwave thoughout that 3 min because I was afraid the cake would explode, but it didn't.It turned out just right :)

Pearls!

2009-07-03T18:07:00.003-04:00

I've been working on these new pearl listings in my supply shop in the past few days and I love this color combo I have now!I admit I stare at these photos and smile, and I'm going to smile now as I post :)

Anniversary + 4th of July Sale!! -- 10% off on All Jewelry Orders

2009-06-30T08:29:00.005-04:00

Just a quick post on my anniversary sale!From now through 7/7, all jewelry orders in my jewelry shop will receive 10% off. All PEARL orders in my supply shop will also receive 10% off! Better yet -- shipping from both shops can be combined.Simply contact me for a revised invoice!

I was actually reminded by a customer that I've been on Etsy for two full years now! I'm thrilled and grateful to say that after 2 years my jewelry shop is still going strong and I am now actually expanding my business to jewelry supplies. If you check my sold item list, you will find I made my first sale on 7/5/2007.I had registered on Etsy on 6/29, but did not list my first item until 7/4 (so technically 4th of July is my anniversary). I was one of those lucky ones who made their first sale within 24 hours after their first listing, and I immediately recognized the potential of this new online venue after my first month.
Almost one year after I started selling on Etsy, I was able to quit my day job and started doing jewelry full time.You can read more about my story on Etsy Storque.

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

One Birthday, Two Cakes

2009-06-28T21:34:00.005-04:00

I turned 31 yesterday.Even though we don't usually celebrate birthdays in my family,it was a good excuse to have a family dinner and buy a cake while I was in Taiwan, so my mom decided we would celebrate my birthday a week earlier, just the night before I came back to the US.I love cakes.The last time I had a birthday cake was almost 10 years ago, when I was in England (I could be wrong, but I remember I actually made the cake myself that time).
My friend Wanda(sitting next to me) came to say good bye to me and joined our family dinner and birthday celebration. As you can see, my cake was actually a "combination pie" that I picked at a bakery. It looked sorta funny, but I liked how I got to try a little bit of every flavor.
My bad habit is to try out the food when everyone is busy doing something else, but my little brother caught me tasting the whipped cream and took this snap shot....
I sure do look happy in this picture. :)

On my actual birthday(yesterday), I went to a local seafood restaurant(The Crab House) Michael and his father.
After the lunch,the waiters and waitresses talked towards us clapping and singing a birthday song.I thought someone else in the restaurant was having a birthday, because we "apparently didn't order a cake". It turned out to be a surprise from Michael.

Here's my key lime pie--
and a birthday photo --
I'm not so thrilled about getting older, but I did have some good time this year. And I do hope my birthday wishes will come true!

Back in Charleston

2009-06-23T11:59:00.002-04:00

Hello America, I’m back! And I’m all ready to work after my 3-week vacation plus business trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong. I can’t wait to share a few exciting posts with you in the coming weeks, including a recipe for Chinese dumplings, my trip to the beautiful south and east Taiwan, and some travelling tips in Hong Kong.

Despite the long layover, my flight back to the US was one of the best flights I have ever had. I had to transfer twice, with the second flight being the longest, and also overnight, flight (about 13 hours). If you have taken an overnight flight, you probably already know how uncomfortable it can be – you need to train yourself to sleep in those small seats for at least a few hours or you can arrive another country all jet-lagged.
I was lucky this time -- only ¼ of the seats were taken on this flight!
I was not the only one excited by what I saw. As soon as the fasten-seat-belt sign was turned off, many passengers started moving around and picking their favorite row of seats. After dinner, everyone made themselves comfortable and fell asleep.
My flight to Taiwan three weeks ago was exhausting because I couldn’t sleep among the crowd, but this time I had 3 pillows, 4 blankets and 3 seats all to myself (ALL MINE!) , so it’s not hard to make myself comfortable. I slept so well that I even missed the midnight snack (which never happened to me before). When I woke up, I saw a piece of carrot cake the flight attendant left on my table. What a sweet surprise.

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-04T05:20:00.005-04:00

dining area,the kitchen and the door to the very green back porch

Finally, after spending over 24 hours in the airports and on the airplane,I arrived home in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan around midnight last night.There's not many places I can go (or want to go) today because it's been raining hard all day long.It's a perfect day to blog tho.I never shared pictures of my home because I grew up in an "abnormal" home.By "abnormal" I mean serious, and you'll see why by taking a quick look at the following pictures...

These are just a few corners of my home.We have books in EVERY corner of our home -- my dad literally flooded this small condo with books.If you are not amazed yet, you should know you only saw a friction of his book collection(He must have hundreds of thousands of books). It's very hard not to become a serious person like me growing up under this environment.

The following picture shows a few paintings I did in high school.My mom has displayed them on the bookshelf along with the books.. If you have been following my blog for a while, you may still remember the post when I talked about my artistic mother. She has been taking watercolor classes and will have an exhibition at her friend's gallery next year.I checked out her watercolor paintings last night and was amazed how much her skills have improved.She framed a few of her paintings and put them up on the wall.Here are two of them...

My mom has been feeding me like every three hours since last night (I had dumplings at midnight last night!) I hope I don't gain too much weight here.But it's dinner time now, and I'm hungry, so I'll update again in a few days with more pictures of Taiwan :)

mollie xo

New Arrivals "My Lil Birthstone" Necklaces (and other stuff..)

2009-05-30T17:17:00.007-04:00

I can't believe it has been two weeks since my last update. I wonder what I have been doing these two weeks! My Etsy shop has slowed down a lot after Mother's Day, and I got some time to relax and sleep.I seriously have been sleeping A LOT recently, and it makes me feel guilty because I feel like I'm sleeping my life away.But, I've gotta do what I've gotta do -- I can't work when I'm sleepy!
I'm leaving for Taiwan next Tuesday and have been pretty nervous about the trip.There's a lot of things to be sorted out and my small brain is stuffed with a big to-do list.The first thing was to get my new 12 birthstone necklaces listed. I finished making them and photographing them on Memorial Day, and started listing them a few days ago.My goal is to finish listing all 12 necklaces before I leave.They are all listed under the title "My Lil Birthstone".I have quite a bit of different gemstones in stock and it took me some time to decide which ones to be used in this collection.My final decision was to use stones of the closest size and shapes and therefore larger stones and marquise shaped stones are not included, but I'm open to custom orders if customers are interested in them.

I will also admit that I'm still playing my silly farm town game whenever I'm not sleeping or working.(and I admit I've been sleeping more than working) I have met some other "farmers" on facebook and made friends with them, so in some sense you can also say I've been busy making friends :) My farm has grown a lot since my last update, and I was able to grow crops in patterns.See if you can read what I'm trying to say on my farm.The crops grow everyday and here's the picture from day 1 --

Day 2 ...
Day 3, almost complete..
Did you see the message? :)
I'll be posting again after I arrive Taiwan next Wednesday.Murphy will be travelling with me this time and posting for me when I'm busy!

happy weekend!
mollie xo