Sunday, December 30, 2012

Here we come 2013! A recap of 2012

2013 is almost here!!!  I honestly can't believe how quickly 2012 has flown by!  It's been a fun year full of lots of interesting moments. Akula Hope Designs has had a really successful year.  Yay! I had such a great time designing new jewelry and had the great opportunity to add my personal touch to many brides' special day.  It occurred to me not too long ago that there are literally THOUSANDS of people wearing my jewelry now.  Amazing!

On a more personal note, I started the year off finding out that I needed to have spine surgery for a severely herniated disc, which resulted in many months of varying levels of rehab and recovery.  Okay.... so, that might not have been so fun, but what can I say?  I like to look on the bright side!

After my surgery I knew I had to get back into shape and strengthen my body again.  My friend Christina suggested we try Couch to 5K.  I knew I needed some kind of motivation to help with my physical recovery, and it sounded like the perfect solution... start slow and work my way up to running.  Now, I've never been a runner...  I've always been the person that runs a block and has to stop because my lungs are killing me, and I have a stitch in my side.  In no way, shape, or form did I ever expect to really get into running.  Boy was I surprised!

This month I ran my first 5K with an awesome group of friends, and I'm happy to say that I actually RAN the whole thing!  It was great!  Not only did we get more fit in the process, but we got to dress up like reindeer! lol!

Post race with friends Christina (aka Dancer), John (Blitzen) and Julie (Rudolph). (I got to be Comet!)

I truly felt like I accomplished something that I never thought possible.  I had so much fun with it that my sister Vicki and I have already signed up to run another 5K in Miami in March!  Yay!

The rest of the year proved to hold many other exciting moments.  It included...

A trip to Alaska with my husband
(and friends Christina and John):
 My husband and I at Mendenhall Glacier

Following by a fun stop in Seattle:
Seattle Space Needle

A summer of boating on Candlewood Lake:
 
An amazing opportunity to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
Beautiful mandala


The opening invocation

The annual Halloween trip to Lake Ossipee, NH:
Skipping rocks!

And a fun holiday season with a lovable (and surly) cat!


Crossing my fingers for an even more eventful and memorable 2013!  Happy New Year everyone!!!

- Carrie             

Monday, April 9, 2012

Spring Has Sprung Giveaway!!!!

Yes yes yes.... I admit it... I have absolutely and completely ignored my blog for AGES!!!!  Is it horrible to admit that I've been going through quite a phase of having nothing to say. ha!

I think that the boredom has finally gotten to me, so I'm back!  Almost two weeks ago I had spine surgery, so I've been cooped up in the house. Yes, I'm a bit stir crazy.  So, I figured, there's no better time than now to sit down and do a little blog post.

I'm happy to say that I've been adding quite a few new additions to the hand stamped jewelry arsenal in my Akula Hope Designs Etsy shop.  I even have a brand new heart shaped charm that I can't wait to use! (that's where you come in).


I hate to admit that I've had these adorable heart shaped charms sitting on my jewelers bench since sometime in December.  Horrible!  I'm ready to finally use them, so what better time than to do a giveaway!  I'd love to have someone special out there to make my heart initial necklace for.  Yes, one lucky person can win my very first Heart Initial Birthstone Necklace!  The necklace will be made especially for you and will be photographed and featured in my store so that other wonderful people will have the opportunity to purchase it too.

Giveaway Guidelines and How to Participate

This giveaway is open to anyone worldwide that would like to participate. It will be running for two weeks from Monday, April 9, 2012 through Sunday, April 22, 2012.  One lucky person will be selected using a random number generator from all of the valid entries received by April 22, 2012.  The winner will be notified via email.  You must claim your prize within 48 hours by emailing me back or a new winner will be chosen.  Good luck!

Listed below are the ways to enter this giveaway.  You have twelve possible ways to enter.  For each entry, please make a separate comment on this post so that your entries can easily be counted.  I hope you take a few seconds to participate because I’m really excited about giving away this brand new necklace!

Main entry: Visit Akula Hope Designs on Etsy and leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite shop item is. (Required – Without doing this, no additional entries will be counted.)

1 additional entry: “Like” Akula Hope Designs on Facebook and leave a comment on this post with your name. 

1 additional entry: Share the link to my giveaway on Facebook.  Leave a comment here to let me know that you shared it.

1 additional entry: Follow @akulahope on Twitter and leave a comment on this post with your Twitter name. 

1 additional entry: Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include @akulahope in your tweet for it to count and post a comment here including your twitter name. You can of course tweet as many times as you’d like about my giveaway, however you will only receive one entry for this. 

1 to 5 additional entries: Pin your favorite piece (or pieces) of jewelry from my Etsy shop on Pinterest. You must post a comment here including the link to your pin for each entry to count. Don't forget, separate comments for each post!

1 additional entry: Write about this giveaway on your blog!  Be sure to include a link to this giveaway page.  Leave a comment here including the link to your blog post and your name. 

1 additional entry: Join the Akula Hope Designs mailing list! Please leave a comment on this post with your name so that I know you’ve joined.  You can subscribe to my mailing list by entering your email information in the top right corner of my blog.

*** All entries must be posted as separate comments at the bottom of this post. Be sure to include a valid email address in one of your entry comments.  Alternately, you can email me your email address at akulahopedesigns@gmail.com if you would like your email kept private.  You will be contacted via email if you win this giveaway, so don’t forget to give it to me! If I don't have your email, an alternate winner will be chose.

Good luck to you all! Have fun!

-Carrie

Sunday, November 27, 2011

It's Holiday Giveaway time!

The holidays are here!!!! yay!!!!!!!  This is my absolute favorite time of year.  My husband has resigned to the fact that the car ride home from Thanksgiving dinner marks the start of Christmas carols 24/7.  Okay... maybe not 24/7, but close to it!  My phone has been outfitted with a Christmas wallpaper and ringtone, and I'm plotting the soon to be holiday transformation of our living room.  All is right in the world. :-)

With that being said, it's time to get into the holiday spirit and do a little giving! That's right.  It's giveaway time!  I thought about giving away a holiday themed piece of jewelry, but I've decided to offer something a bit more personal and versatile.  One lucky reader will be receiving the most popular necklace in my shop, The Mini Birthstone Initial Necklace!



The winner will receive one custom sterling silver initial necklace that is handmade by me using the font, letter and birthstone of their choice.


Giveaway Guidelines and How to Participate

This giveaway is open to anyone worldwide that would like to participate. It will be running from November 27, 2011 through December 13, 2011. You have six possible ways to enter.  One lucky person will be selected at random from all of the valid entries received by December 13, 2011.  The winner will be notified via email.  You must claim your prize within 48 hours by emailing me back or a new winner will be chosen.  Good luck!

Listed below are the ways to enter this giveaway.  For each entry, please make a separate comment on this post so that your entries can easily be counted.  I hope you take a few seconds to participate because I’m really excited about giving away this great necklace!


Main entry: Visit Akula Hope Designs on Etsy and leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite shop item is. (Required – Without doing this, no additional entries will be counted.)

1 additional entry: “Like” Akula Hope Designs on Facebook and leave a comment on this post with your name. 

1 additional entry: Follow @akulahope on Twitter and leave a comment on this post with your Twitter name. 

1 additional entry: Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include @akulahope in your tweet for it to count and post a comment here including your twitter name. You can of course tweet as many times as you’d like about my giveaway, however you will only receive one entry for this. 

1 additional entry: Write about this giveaway on your blog!  Be sure to include a link to this giveaway page.  Leave a comment here including the link to your blog post and your name. 

1 additional entry: Join the Akula Hope Designs mailing list! Please leave a comment on this post with your name so that I know you’ve joined.  You can subscribe to my mailing list by entering your email information in the top right corner of my blog.

All entries must be posted as separate comments at the bottom of this post. Be sure to include a valid email address in one of your entry comments.  Alternately, you can email me your email address at akulahopedesigns@gmail.com.  You will be contacted via email if you win this giveaway, so don’t forget to give it to me!!!

Good luck to you all! Have fun!

-Carrie

Sunday, July 24, 2011

My Heartsy Experience

I recently had the wonderful luck to be able to feature my Etsy shop on Heartsy.  For those of you unfamiliar with Heartsy, I basically describe it as Groupon for handmade goods.  A store will offer steeply discounted coupons/vouchers for their items so that people can have the opportunity to experience their shop for an AMAZING deal.

I really had a great time doing this, so I just wanted to tell you a little bit about this whirlwind experience.  One of the nice things about Heartsy is that the featured shops are chosen by the members.  When I submit my shop to be considered, the members voted on whether they would purchase from my store.  I can't remember the exact figure, but I had around 1500 people vote on my shop.  The results were good enough that I was asked to do a feature!

These are the pieces that were part of my submission.





The next step was that I negotiated a deal with the Heartsy people.  I've heard a lot of other shop owners express negative or frustrating experiences working with the Heartsy peeps, but I actually had a great one.  I negotiated my deal on the phone with John, and he made me feel extremely comfortable.  I think a lot sometimes gets lost over email.  Being able to ask him questions, express my concerns and vent my fears without waiting for responses or wondering about intonation made me feel so much better.  I could tell that he truly wanted to help tailor the right deal for me (us) so that we could all benefit from it.  I also learned a lot about how they've built their systems and how they estimate future sales.  It was quite fascinating actually.  We settled on $28 worth of credit in my shop for $12.  VIP Heartsy members received $38.  I decided that I could handle offering 75 vouchers.  OMG it was really happening!

I honestly had no idea what to expect from my offer.  Would I sell a lot?  Would people actually be interested?  It felt like a crapshoot.  What the heck though?!  I couldn't lose anything from trying, since I only offered what I knew I could handle.  I stocked up on a ton of supplies just in case and made up what stock I could.  Needless to say, I REALLY had no idea what was about to happen!

New Heartsy deals are offered to VIP members a day early. VIPs are those that pay a monthly membership fee to get deals early and an extra $10 store credit in some stores. (Regular memberships are free).  The Thursday morning that my deal went live (at 3am EST) I woke up around 7am to see that not only had a bunch of my vouchers been purchased, but I had already gotten orders! Yay! By the end of my VIP day, I had already sold 2/3 of my vouchers and gotten a TON of orders.  I barely ate because I was so busy sending out invoices and emailing with customers that wanted custom designed pieces.

My deal went live to non-VIPs on Friday at 11:00am EST.  By 12:00pm I realized that the purchases were diverse enough that I could probably offer additional vouchers because I only had about 15 left.  I added an additional 25 to make it 100 total. Within about 4 1/2 hours of my deal going live to non-VIPs I had sold out all of my vouchers.  WOO HOO!!!  Heartsy had a glitch in their system too, so I ended up selling 107 vouchers before they were able to cut the sales off.  oopsie, but that's okay.

So, by mid afternoon on Day 2, I was non stop on my computer relisting items and emailing with customers. Soooooo busy!  Within about 40 hours of my sale starting, I sold about 160 listings, some of which were custom orders and contained multiple pieces of jewelry.  I couldn't be happier.

The following couple of days were a whirlwind adventure of relisting, emailing, invoicing, making jewelry, keeping spreadsheets and packing up orders.  There wasn't much eating or sleeping going on. lol!

As you can see, my work table was in shambles!!!


My faithful friend Christina (and sweat labor for the weekend) really saved my life!


 If only everyday could be like this!!!


By Sunday night, we had the first 30
or so orders ready to ship! 

I did offer an extra incentive with purchase.  For those non-VIPs that purchased $40 or more in my shop and VIPs that purchased $50 or more ($12 over their voucher amount), they received my Silver Retro Heart Necklace for free. Quite a few people took advantage of this extra incentive and received the free gift.

I'm so happy with how my Heartsy deal went that I'm actually still offering this free gift with purchase!  If you would like to participate, please visit my shop on Etsy.  The same stipulation still applies on purchase amounts with a Heartsy voucher.  Regular purchases will also receive the free necklace when $40 worth of merchandise is purchased.



All in all, I had a wonderful experience.  I did have a few people try to take 'extra' advantage of a ridiculously good deal, but I guess that's to be expected.  2/3 of the vouchers purchased were VIP and 1/3 were non-VIP.  6 of those were purchased as gifts for other people.  So far 72 of the 107 vouchers have been redeemed.  Only 14 of them did not go over the voucher amount. 35 are still unredeemed.

I honestly, can't wait to do another sale.  I hope that I get enough votes to have the opportunity!

THANK YOU to those of you that voted for me, cheered me on and purchased from my store!!!!  It was a wonderful experience, and I couldn't have done it without you!

- Carrie


Monday, April 4, 2011

Akula Hope Designs in the Press!

About a week and a half ago I received an out of the blue email from a gentleman named Jack Coraggio.  Jack told me that he was a reporter from the Litchfield County Times and that they wanted to do a business feature on me and my business Akula Hope Designs.  Whhhaaaat?!  Needless to say, I was totally stunned, surprised and excited all at the same time!  Within the span of a few days, I had been interviewed by Jack and photographed by Walter Kidd.  It all seemed so surreal... how did they find out about me?  To this day, I'm still not completely sure how my business card came to be in the hands of the Litchfield County Times, but I am sooooooo happy that it did!

If you have a few minutes, please take a moment to read the wonderful article about Akula Hope Designs by Jack Coraggio.  I think it's great!

-Carrie

Friday, March 25, 2011

Hand Stamped Jewelry

For a while now, I've been wanting to try my hand at making hand stamped jewelry.  I really love being able to make something that is sentimental and has meaning for a person.  My first venture was to create a necklace for my sister.  I hand stamped silver discs with the initials of her children and wire wrapped gemstones to signify each one of their birthdays.  I gave the necklace to her this past Christmas.  She's worn it everyday since. :-)  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of that particular necklace, but I have made many since.  I wanted to share a few of them with you.  Let me know what you think!

-Carrie

You can also see some of these items in my Etsy shop in the Hand Stamped Necklaces and Bridal sections.

 Custom Initial & Birthstone Necklace
(using customer's birthstone charms)

 Custom Mother's Necklace
(w/ baby's initial and Garnet birthstone)

Custom Word Necklace w/ Pearl and Iolite Dangles

 Custom Word Necklace w/ Pearl and Madeira Citrine Dangles

 Wedding Keepsake Necklace
w/ Bride & Groom's Initials, Wedding Date & Wedding Colors

 Custom Bridesmaid Necklace
(Gemstones are the wedding colors)

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Amethyst Earrings Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Karen P. for winning my Amethyst Earrings giveaway!!!  I hope you love the earrings!

In honor of my first giveaway (which was totally fun!!!) I am offering 10% off anything in my Akula Hope Designs Etsy shop.   Please use coupon code THANKYOU10 upon checkout to receive your discount.  This coupon will be valid through February 28th.

Thanks again, and happy shopping!

- Carrie