Stemless Magnetic Wine Charms

I'd like to introduce you to another new item in my Etsy shop which I hope people will enjoy. I've been thinking of ways to expand my Wine Charm line, and I decided that one of the best ways to do that would be to branch out in the kind of wine charms I make. Two weeks ago, you saw my first magnetic clasp wine charms.

Today, I'd like to introduce you to my magnetic wine charms for stemless glasses, although you certainly don't need a stemless glass to use them!



I made them in a set of 6 (chose your colors) and a set of 13 (you get one of each color). To play it safe, I found some simple colored tiles to launch this line. If it becomes popular, I'd like to create my own tiles with a more personal touch. I'm already experimenting with different types!

No, I didn't forget to rotate the picture! I'm holding it
 on its side to show how strong the magnet is.

You guessed it: this one is really upside down!

An example of twelve different colors offered. The
thirteenth color is the one at the top of the page.

What do you think? Is this something you'd consider buying for yourself or a loved one?

Taking Inventory...

I have an admission that probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to most people: I don't like taking inventory. Does anyone? However, as I'm considering how I want to expand Absolutely Kismet, I know I need to better know exactly what of what I have so I'm not reordering when I'm down to one or two items. Last week, I talked about expanding my wine charms, so that's where I started.

Over the last year and a half or so, I've been selling the alphabet wine charms and keeping track of the letters on whatever paper was handy to write on, then keeping all these scraps of paper together in my money box. I didn't even bother writing down the letters from my online sales because I can just look up the old sold orders, which is what I had to do today. It was not as quick and easy as I thought it would be!

Today, I went back through almost every sale I've made and documented the letters. I say almost because there were a few sales in the beginning where I have the sale recorded but not which letters were bought. Oh, to go back in time and tell myself to keep better records! (shakes head ruefully) ;)

Because I want to move more into larger custom orders, it would obviously be helpful to know the difference between needing to reorder when something is running low or letting a low number stand because it isn't very popular and isn't being used quickly. It might interest you to know that A, B, C and K, L, M are currently my most sold letters. Who knew? I certainly didn't!

Needless to say, I now have all of my letters documents and on a handy spreadsheet which says both how many of that letter I have in stock and how many have currently sold.

How often do you go through your supplies? Do you make notes of what's been used as soon as you use it?

New Charms :)

I finally had time yesterday to create a variation on my popular alphabet wine charms: number wine charms! I also updated the colors that are available for the rings. You can order the set in 0-9, 1-10, or you can custom create any numbers you want. I really like the way the double number above (10) came out. I can do that with letters, too, if someone wanted a first and last initial.

Mostly, it just feels good to get this project done. I've had the charms for months, but just never had the chance to put them together. Part of that was that I had a lot of new bead colors, so I didn't want to just put the numbers on some of the older colors that are being discontinued, and I didn't have time to make a lot of new rings when I was still selling the older colors.

Have you ever had a project that seemed to take forever because one part couldn't be completed until something else was done, which was waiting on some third thing?

 

I used Picasa to add the words under each color. Love Picasa! I also edit in iPhoto. What program do you like to edit photos in?