Spring Trends 2013

Spring Fashion Trends!  Now is the time to start planning for upcoming holidays, and Spring Fashion trends in order to have your shop ready for customers.

We did a blog post not too long ago on The Pantone Colors of the Year so this post won't go over the specific colors trending again you can go here to read about them:  Pantone Spring Color Trends

Some of the upcoming Holidays to plan for:

Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day in February
St. Patricks Day and Easter in March
Earth Day in April
Mother's Day in May

Spring means Wedding season too, so any wedding jewelry sets, cake toppers, veils, wedding gifts would be popular in the coming months.

Don't forget the birthstones of each month, and birth signs as part of your upcoming collections too!

Fashion Trends - Straight From Marie Claire

1.  Water Trend - Includes the beach, sea blues and greens, beach nudes

 

jQjewelry Beach Jewelry 

 CalliopeAZCreations Beach Jewelry

2.  Black and White S & M style - called The Helmut Newton Effect

YudelevitzEco

3.  Stripes - Including Zig Zags, Mod 60's stripes, and chevron stripes

OhHoneyHush Chevron

4.  Mini-midriffs - showing a hint of the stomach

5.  Eyelets, laser cut holes, and panels

6.  Sheer see through panels

7.  Chambay & Denim

GlitterbirdGlass Denim

 8.  Mix of textures

How to Use This to Your Advantage

You have to try to upload inventory to your shop to keep it fresh for Google content, and Etsy searches.  Use these key terms/trends as the 1st few words in your titles, the 1st sentence of your descriptions, and tag your items.  This will help your shop get into more treasuries that are made with these trends in mind, will help your search results and even help your shop with possible blog features or magazine features!

Now is the time to style your photo's, and get inventory made and posted for the Spring!

January Birthstones Garnet

Happy Birthday, January children!


The January Birthstone is garnet. The word "garnet" comes from the Latin word "granatus," meaning "grain" or "seed." This name was given to the garnet because of its close resemblance to the succulent pomegranate seed. It is also the stone for the Zodiac sign Aquarius. Garnet may traditionally be given as a gift on the second or sixth wedding anniversary. 

Rose Photography Print - Home Decor

There are many myths and legends about the garnet. One Biblical legend is that Noah hung this gem on the ark to light his way through the dark and stormy nights of God's wrath. A Greek myth linked to the garnet is the story of the young goddess of sunshine, Persephone, who was abducted by Hades, god of the underworld. Hades eventually released Persephone, but not before he offered her some pomegranate seeds, which guaranteed her return to him. 

Garnet Necklace

First mined in Sri Lanka over 2,500 years ago, the garnet is also found in Africa, Australia, India, Russia, Brazil, and in the United States, in Arizona and Idaho.  

Although most commonly known as a red gemstone, the garnet comes in a variety of other hues, including muted yellows, vibrant oranges, rosy pinks, lime greens, and violets—a virtual bouquet of colors.  This diversity is due to unique combinations of elements within each particular gem, such as iron, calcium, and manganese.  

Valentines Gift - Love Print

Garnets are a related group of minerals. Members of this group include: almandine (red to violet red); spessartite (yellow, rose, or orange to reddish-brown); pyrope (deep red); grossular (white, yellow, yellow-green, brownish-red, orange or black); andradite (colorless, yellow-green, or brown to black). The most prized garnet is an emerald green variety called demantoid and is a member of the adradite group.

The garnet is a protective gem for travelers. A gift of garnet is symbolic of love and the desire for a loved one's safe travel and speedy homecoming.  It is January's birthstone, but far from being only a winter gem, the garnet, with its brilliance and multitude of colors, is truly one for any season.

Garnet Swarovski Earrings

Spiritual Gemstone meaning of Garnet: 
The Garnet is known as the stone for a successful business. If your business is not as good as it should be, just put 3 or more garnets on your desk. It is believed that if a garnet is put under pillow it will cure depression. Garnets can be used to make a person popular and have self-esteem when worn as jewelry. It helps protect one on trips. Garnets bring constancy to friendships. Garnets are also known for stimulating success in business.

Healing properties of Garnet: 
Garnet comes in many colors, this refers only to red Garnet. The Garnet is associated with the thyroid and spleen. It helps cleanse and purify both when held over the area. The Garnet is usually held in the hand or placed on top of the head when searching or meditating on past lives. Information that is beneficial and helpful will usually be released for the searcher.

The Garnet is a stone of purity and truth as well as a symbol of love and compassion. The information released in a search may be painful, but it will always be what the searcher needs. The Garnet will help everyone's security level and spiritual awareness. It can help increase the sex drive.


Researched by Linda Blatchford, Linda B's Jewelry Creations

PFT Goals for 2013

We have had an AMAZING 2012 as a team.  We met all of the goals set:

PFT GOALS for LAST year:

ACHIEVED    1.  Have everyone work on their circles (minimum of 500 each)

EXCEEDED 2000+  2.  Improve upon our team Twitter account (1000 followers)

ACHIEVED   3.  Use Flickr team account more

ACHIEVED 4.  Master Google Buzz and Pinterest

ACHIEVED  5.  Have our team blog up and running

ACHIEVED  6.  Enter more contests, apply for Etsy grants, advertise and more!

I am SURE we did this!  7.  Well over 3000 sales for the team!

So let's get 2013 off to the same success.  Here are a list of goals the team leaders have for our team!  

1.  We would love to have everyone work on their circles, 750 each!

2.  Team Twitter Followers at least 5000

3.  Pinterest Followers at least 2000

4.  To have minimum of 2 blog posts per week, with MANY drafts ready to post each week PLEASE

5.   Blog Followers at least 500

6.  Apply for an Etsy Grant and start more advertising

7.  We want at least 150 members on the team all active and strong

8.  Strive for Quarterly PFT Events

9.  Start new activities through sites such as Wanelo or G+

10.  We want Team Treasuries on a weekly basis that hit the 1st page of the treasuries

11.  FP Treasury features for our team!

I think all of these goals can be achieved easily for our team.  Each year we will grow stronger and have more and more success as a team and with our shops. 

Here is to an amazing 2013!  We are thankful to all of our active members, and hope that everyone will jump in to help us achieve these goals.

Your Team Leadership.

Onward and Upward!

A Few Favorite Recipes

From members of the Promotional Frenzy Team on Etsy.

We all talk about food a lot, especially what delicious food we ate over the holidays. So I thought it would be great to make a collection of some of our favorites!!!

Baked Brie 
From Marianne of CalliopeAZCreations

• 1 package crescent rolls
• 1 wheel brie
• 1 egg white
• jam of your choice

- Unwrap the crescent rolls and press them together to make one sheet.
- Place brie wheel in the middle.
- Top with a fair amount of jam.
- Wrap it up with the crescent sheet and make it look cute.
- Brush top with egg white whipped with a little water.
- Cook according to the rolls directions and start watching it when they are supposed to be done.
- It will take a little longer than what the package says.

Based on the recipe for baked brie by Paula Deen.


Pizza Dip
From Crystal of CrystalGaylePhoto

• 8oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 2 c. mozzarella cheese
• 1 c. cheddar cheese
• 1/2 c. pizza sauce
• 1/2 c. red peppers, chopped
• 1/2 c. green peppers, chopped




Mix first 3 ingredients, and spread in 9" pie pan. Mix mozzarella and cheddar cheeses and spread 1/2 on top of cream cheese mixture. Spread pizza sauce on top of cheeses. Add 1/2 of cheese mixture. Top with red and green peppers. Bake at 350* F for 20 minutes.


Veggie Roll Ups

From Crystal of CrystalGaylePhoto

• 6-8 flour tortillas

• 8oz cream cheese

• 1/2 c. ranch dressing

• 1/2 c. carrots, finely chopped

• 2/3 c. broccoli, finely chopped

• 1/2 c. red peppers, chopped

• 1/2 c. green peppers, chopped

• 1/2 c. onion, chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Spread about 1/4 inch thick onto tortillas. Roll tortillas up and let set about 1/2 hour before slicing into 1 1/2 inch sections.

My Big Fat Italian Turkey
From Bill of PaganCellarJewelry

• 1 orange
• 1 lemon
• 1 yellow onion
• Italian Seasoning
• butter
• fresh sprigs of:
   •Sage
   •Oregano
   •Thyme
   •Rosemary




- Slice your fruits and onion and break apart the sprigs of herbs. Insert slices of fruits, onion and some of each sprig into each end of turkey (after you cleaned the turkey out of course!)
- Stick turkey in pan with 1" of water (to keep it juicy and make gravy)
- Melt down the butter and cover turkey, sprinkle Italian seasoning all over butter. Cover with foil (poke a couple holes for air!) and cook for appropriate hours, at recommended temperature based on weight. When you approach the last 20 min of cooking remove foil and let the skin brown. 
- You wont need to baste, the water will keep the turkey juicy and the steam will stay in with the foil

- To make your homemade gravy, take some juice out of the pan and put in a sauce pan. Add flour until thickened and salt and pepper to taste if needed (remember your italian seasoning will be in there too)


WooooHooooo I have finally gotten the amazing Mac N Cheese recipe out of Janet!!!!! Your Welcome :)

Mac 'N Cheese
from Janet of TrinketsNWhatnots

- I recommend buying blocks of cheese and shredding them yourself. It really makes a difference in the flavor of the cheese.
- The secret to my Mac & Cheese is the type of Cheese. I LOVE Cabot's brand cheese. it is amazing.

• 6 oz. of Cabot's Seriously Sharp cheddar Cheese
• 6 oz of Cabot's Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 12 oz of New York Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• 12 oz of New York Mild Cheddar Cheese
• 12 oz of Colby Jack Cheese
• 3 Tbls. of flour
• 3 Tbls. of butter
• 2 cups of Milk (whole milk is best for a treat of a dish)
• Box of elbow noodles

- Preheat oven to 350* F
- Start with melting the butter, add the flour and stir/mix well until you have a thick sauce. Slowly add the milk, stirring the roux (flour/butter mix) into the milk. Then slowly add most of the cheese. (I keep some cheese back to put on the top at the last minute of cooking).
- Cook the noodles per instructions on the box.
- Pour your sauce over the noodles, MIX well so that the sauce is in between all your noodles. Put into the oven for 20 minutes. 
- Take out to sprinkle cheese over the top, increase oven temp to 375 and let it bake for another 10 minutes until the cheese is golden brown on top and bubbling. 
 **TIP ** You can always add bacon on the top or play around with the cheese to make it different.
This is NOT a diet recipe, it is for special occasions.


Strawberry Layered Jello Salad
from Elizabeth of TurtleXIII

• 9 oz strawberry jello
• 4 c. boiling water
• 2 boxes frozen strawberries in syrup. I think they are around 10 oz each.
• 16 oz sour cream. I used the light sour cream and it came out just fine.





-Mix all the jello and the boiling water until completely dissolved.
- Add the strawberries and stir some more.
- Pour 1/2 the mixture into a 13 x 9 inch dish or a large round dish. Don't use a pie pan, its not big enough. 
- Leave the other jello on the counter top, and stir occasionally so it doesn't congeal.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour, until the jello is firm.
- Spread all of the sour cream onto the refrigerated jello.
- Refrigerate for another hour, so the sour cream hardens, and wont mix when more jello is added.
- Add the other half of the jello, pouring slowly/gently so you dont mix the layers.
- Refrigerate overnight.


Ginger Almond Biscotti
from Ariella of HausofAriella

• 3/4 c. dry toasted, unsalted almonds (you can toast raw almonds in oven for about 10 mins) 
• 1/2 c. crystallized ginger
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

- Preheat oven to 300* F.
- Next, coarsely chop your crystallized ginger and almonds. You can chop them together, since they'll go into the recipe at the same time. Note that the ginger is sticky inside.
- Next you'll need to sift together the flour, sugar, ground ginger, salt and baking soda. If you dont have a sifter, a neat trick is to take a metal strainer and use it to sift the ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, beat the whole egg, the egg white, and vanilla together. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and mix them together well. Then add the crystallized ginger and almonds and mix some more.
-Don't expect the biscotti dough to be very wet or mix well. When it's all mixed together nicely, you should have a substance that looks a bit like very lumpy oatmeal.
-Grease your baking sheet or cover it with non-stick aluminum foil.
- Wet your hands before you pick up the dough to make it easier to shape. Shape the dough into a large log for long biscotti. Keep in mind that while the dough will spread somewhat while baking, it won't rise, so dont make it to thin.
- Bake for about 45 mins, or until it is a nice golden color.
- Take the loaf out and let it cool for 30-45 minutes. In my experience, cool biscotti loaves cut much better than warm ones.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the loaf crosswise, across the thinner part. I usually cut mine into 1/2 inch thick slices.
- Place the slices back onto the cookie sheet, and put them back into the oven at 300*F for about 15 minutes until the get crisp. They'll get a bit crispier once you take them out and cool them, so if they're looking darker after 15 minutes, but haven't reached the level of crisp you'd like, let them cool then check them.


Brought to you by Elizabeth of TurtleXIII
Handmade Sterling Silver Jewelry