Beach Glass Clean-Up

I just cleaned up the beach glass category on my website. I removed the sold and added fresh finds with new colors. There are some "last ones in this color" as well. So please check it out. More coming tomorrow. Here is what was listed today:

Here is one of the 4 strand sets:

And these too! Just click on the photos to visit the listing.

Honorable mention to my number one most requested color "Cobalt Blue". I cannot get any more of these for a while. (Sad face)

Please visit. Many new colors and even one spicy confetti strand. (Those are sold out too. Hope to find more)

Victorian From Head to Toe!

I was researching a piece and found myself looking though lovely things from more than a century ago.  Here are my favorites!

The MOTHER of ALL SALES!!!

The Mother of all SALES!! 35% and 40% OFF!!!!!

I decided to hold over my sale through Memorial Day Weekend~~But this time I added something:

All THREE of my Etsy Shops!!!! 
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Yourgreatfinds

My Daughter's Shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/HerRoyalShyness17

And the shop where I offer inventory from One Kings Lane that is not being shown at the time...at drastically reduced prices.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageJewelryChick

I also raised my discount to 40% in many categories in my main yourgreatfinds Etsy shop.

Thank you for helping me reduce my inventory so I can find things when shipping. With 6 stores and 2 websites, I am overflowing with jewels. Even the best organization fails with you have too much.

I hope that you'll find something that you can't live without.

Beach Glass, Baby!

I just purchased a beautiful selection of African trade beads known as "Beach Glass" or "Sea Glass" for it's frosty texture.

These strands or necklaces are vintage. The beads are Italian and can be as old as 150 years old. They are strung on cotton with raffia wrap.

They are available in three sizes: Jumbo, Large and Medium.

Here's the scoop. The jumbos are pretty much gone. I bought all that I could get. My contact tried to get more from Kenya and nothing came.

Red beads are gone in the jumbo and large size.  Just a few in the medium left. I bought the last of the cobalt large beads. No more came in from Kenya. Hoping more will be here in the future.

There are some colors that I have not offered before that just came in to the US. A bright 7-Up bottle green, a new blue and cola brown.

I have some new confetti colors in the medium beads with some indigo that I am SO coveting right now.

What you see here, I have about twice this amount in stock.

I will be offering them first in my One Kings Lane Store, then they will be appearing on my website at a later date. One Kings Lane sells them as fast as they are offered in those amazing events. Many colors will be exclusive to One Kings Lane.

Here is a sampler of what is coming soon!

Update!!! Just added to my website! Click on photos to visit listings.

To find more Beach glass and ethnic jewelry visit my website: Yourgreatfinds.net

Please Help This Sweet Girl: Alena

This post is about a sweet friend of my daughter's. She has been diagnosed with countless issues and needs to get to Mayo Clinic from California. Rady's Children's Hospital is amazing, but they can't help her anymore. Her family needs help funding this long and very needed trip.

Alena is an advanced student and has an amazing talent with her singing voice.

This is Alena, who gathered her strength to attend prom this weekend. Isn't she beautiful?

This is Alena with some of her friends at Prom. Her friends are raising money at school with an "Open Mic" performance to raise money for her.

Here are photos of her performing arts group at school. She's the beauty at the back center in the red. The pretty gal to her left is the friend who is the captain if this "GoFundMe" campaign. 

If you can find it in your heart to help, please donate to her GoFundMe campaign and give this girl some hope. I already did. She's only 16 and deserves a chance to get to the bottom of this and find healing.


You can follow her story and progress here on her Facebook page.



Here is a letter from Alena,

Ladies and gentlemen... A letter from Alena, the strongest woman in the world.

Hi! My name is Alena Morales. I’m 16 years old and go to Guajome Park Academy in Southern California. I own an amazing service dog named Xena and have a passion for everything related to theatre- singing, acting, stage makeup- you name it. I am truly happy when I am on stage, and I have made many close friendships with my theatre family! I love to make cheesy puns and am able to laugh at the smallest things. I’m very happy… but my health isn’t in the best place right now. While everyone else my age is out with their friends or doing sports, I’m miserable at home, fighting a battle with my own body. I have multiple chronic illnesses that give me a lot of different symptoms. The doctors have always called me a “hard case.” I’ve always had some sort of health problems, but things started spiraling out of control as I received more diagnoses.
It all started about 5 years ago when I woke up in the middle of my karate studio 6 hours into testing for my black belt. The room was so hazy and I felt so dizzy upon standing. I wanted to keep going but my body just wouldn’t let me continue. From that point on it was a two year long period that I felt like I would get a heart attack at any time. San Diego Children’s Hospital had no idea how or what to do with my body. The first year they blamed it on dehydration, stress, and “maybe that’s just the way your body works”. My pediatrician never gave up on me and kept sending me to specialist after specialist. My body became weaker and weaker. I would stay up all night in extreme pain, but I kept pushing myself to go to school and still managed to get good grades despite missing 50+ days of school. I study for hours and hours to stay on top of work that I was absent for or wasn’t feeling well enough to do the night before. First, the diagnosis came of Fibromyalgia. Thanks to medications, I finally got some sort of relief, but it didn’t explain the tachycardia, passing out, or complete exhaustion I was experiencing.
My parents were desperate for help and with the help of family and friends we went to the Mayo Clinic in 2013, where I was diagnosed with severe POTS Syndrome/Dysautonomia and anemia. My autonomic nervous system doesn’t function correctly. Everything my body is supposed to do on its own… doesn’t work. The Mayo Clinic told me there was no cure for either illnesses, but I still received a good treatment plan to help with my symptoms. I was given a beta blocker to help with the heart and blood pressure issues, and was told to drink 6 liters of fluid and eat 10 grams of salt a day! This would help with my blood volume and help regulate blood flow in my body. My mom, for the first time in 2 years, was able to return to work and life was good… for a while. Things started going downhill during the start of the summer before my junior year. I reacted to an antibiotic I was on from a sinus infection and caught C. diff. C-diff is a bacterial infection that eats away at your stomach and intestinal lining. My digestive system was literally being eaten away by flesh eating bacteria… this led to a year of pain, vomiting, hair loss, and the inability to eat. Because of these issues, I’m not able to drink the 6 liters a day and eat the salt I needed to, so my POTS got out of control. It’s a vicious cycle that all relates to Dysautonomia. If I don’t get my POTS under control, it triggers one illness, which triggers another illness, etc. Back to square one.
I was eventually diagnosed with Severe Gastroparesis. My stomach, small intestine, and large intestine are all practically paralyzed with a 90% delay; and the muscles in between these organs do not communicate the way they are supposed to (Thanks, Dysautonomia!). Every time I eat something, I feel miserable afterwards. It’s made family parties, restaurant visits, and social events more difficult. The doctors at Rady’s had me try some different medications to help with the Gastroparesis, but I had an allergic reaction to every single one! My parents and I wondered why I was reacting to so many things. The doctors said there was not much more they can do, so they placed a PICC line in so I can receive the fluids and infusions I need. It didn’t help much, but it was something.
Going to school became an extremely hard task. I have to carry around my infusion backpack, and am constantly feeling countless symptoms at all times. The reactions I received seemed to be the start of a new issue… I get episodes where I break out in hives, cannot breathe, and my muscles get extremely weak. It’s as if my skin is on fire, and I’m unable to move. I feel as if I have no control over my body. Sometimes it’s from an allergic reaction, and other times it happens randomly. I sometimes describe it as being “allergic to myself!” My allergist tells me I have Mast Cell Disease, but I cannot get off the antihistamines to properly undergo testing. I live on IV fluids, a bucket of medications, and smoothies. Doing even the smallest tasks is extremely difficult, but I am determined to continue doing the things I love with the people I care about!
The team of caring physicians has concluded that I desperately need to go back to the Mayo Clinic for consultation, testing, and permanent decisions about a PORT, G Tube, or J Tube. Now, this isn’t a cure. There isn’t a cure for my illnesses. But hopefully, the Mayo Clinic will find me a treatment plan that will allow me to live a normal life. So I can keep being on stage, and enjoying the little things that teenagers should be able to enjoy.
Unfortunately, our insurance doesn’t cover the thousands of dollars in Mayo Clinic costs and my parents spend $800.00 a month in my care here at home. The Kiss Campaign is intended to promote awareness on illnesses that connect to Dysautnomia and fundraise for the costs so I can go to the Mayo Clinic and get the answers I need. My body has drained my parents financially and physically, but they still push me to achieve my goals and live a good quality of life. All of these illnesses are a part of me, but they are not who I am. They have taught me compassion, strength, and patience, tested my limits, but they will not beat me!

I am not “the girl who is sick.” I am not defined by my illnesses. I am me.

May 14, 2015

You can help Alena here: GOFUNDME.  And thank you so much!

My Seller Experience with the Pinterest Promoted Pins Portal

Hi!
I just wanted to share my experience with Pinterest promoted pins.
I want to start advertising on Pinterest as it is a fantastic driver of traffic.
   
I started a sale yesterday in my Etsy shop, created a collage style add. I blogged it, pinned it from my blog to a special board on Pinterest. I created a FB ad with my biz page and posted there. It's a 5 day sale so I am running the ad 5 days. FB ad was running within 15 minutes.

Went to Pinterest, chose the pin from that board (Pin ad has to be pre-pinned).

...Hit continue and went to the next screen where I was prompted to add my credit card information. 

I entered my credit card information and went to the next screen where I had to show the dates of the campaign, create tags, and audience etc. One thing is asked for is what city I am targeting, I chose "All". I spent about 1/2 hour doing all of this set up and then submitted the ad.

About 2 hours later it was declined. It took about 10 minutes navigating the ad portal to learn that they did not like my choice of cities. (WTH? -right?)
So, I chose 22 cities and re-submitted. It went through and shows as running, but pending.

This morning it was still showing as running and pending and first 24 hours of my sale is now over. I waited a few hours and then paused it because there was no way that I could find to cancel the campaign.

Overall, I really would like to try advertising on Pinterest, but just like their paltry customer service, their advertising portal is less than easy to use and their response time basically, well...sucks.

I am wondering if they just don't want small sellers and are targeting the corporate accounts as they always have.

I sure hope that they design something easy to use and create a customer service unit like Shopify has. They want to take our money, but need to provide service to go with it.

Crossing my fingers for a new and improved, easier to use Pinterest Promoted Pins Portal -say that fast five times!


***Update: The feedback that I have received from other sellers that have tried promoted pins as well, have been 100% in line with my experience. Has anyone had success with this program? If you are out there, please share.

35% Off Sale In my Etsy Shop NOW!

35% OFF SALE!

Where? YOURGREATFINDS on Etsy

When? Today, 11:00 Central Time

What? Everything in my Etsy shop.

How Long? 5 Days- Until Wednesday at 10:00 PM Central Time.

Why? The 33% OFF sale was fun. Ended last night and I have emails asking for more time... so I upped the discount to 35% as a THANK YOU and started her up again. Those of you who were waiting for payday- Here you go!!

(Note*** At this deep discount, some items are offered at less than I paid for them.)

35% Off Sale In my Etsy Shop NOW!

Tiffany Stained Glass Windows

Just a patchwork collection of antique stained glass windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Which is your favorite?

Antique Beaded Purses

When I was in my early 20s, I was already hooked on antiques and one of my muses was Victorian beaded bags. I had them displayed on my bedroom wall and I took such good care of them.

Years later when I had some hard financial times, I had to sell those purses, and they took care of me.
I wish that I had photos of them for there were some fine bags, some with jeweled claps.

I wish that I had them today...My collection was something like this:

Antique Hair Combs

Here is a lovely collection of antique hair combs. Some are set with genuine diamonds and gemstones.

Which is your favorite?

I AM SO SICK OF MYSELF!!!

Ok, I am so sick of myself. I have too much inventory for the small area that I have to warehouse it.
Every day when I have to pull items to ship, it takes forever to find everything.
I am very organized, but with 6 stores, there is just toooooooo muuuuch! I buy too much! I cannot stop myself.

On a whim I just created a sale. 33% OFF for 3 DAYS + 3 HOURS.
EVERYTHING 1493 ITEMS IN MY ETSY SHOP MARKED DOWN!!!!

Click on the collage to go straight to my store.

Sale stared 19 minutes ago.

Here is a sampler:

Just Listed

I am staying in today to get some listings up. How will you ever see what I have waiting here if I do not get after this task?

Here are today's fresh finds:

Vintage Mexican sterling silver earring and choker necklace demi-parure set with azurite on malachite inlay. 

Vintage sterling silver orb bracelet by Danecraft.

Vintage Las Vegas Casino Chips

My sweetheart came across an estate collection of vintage Las Vegas Casino chips. They are being sold on ebay right now HERE.

It is so interesting learning about them. The collection even includes hard to find counterfeit chips.
In fact one of the chips here is a counterfeit. Can you guess which one?

Here's just a few: