Struggles

I am not a natural saleswoman.  Sure, when I was little I had a lemonade stand periodically throughout the summers, and when I was in Girl Scouts I sold cookies.  I never "worked retail" though.  I did flirt with the idea of selling stuff like Tupperware or Pampered Chef or even Lia Sophia jewelry, but was talked out of it by my hubby.  I liked the stuff, but I'm not a very good seller.

Which is one of the reasons why I don't seem to be doing so well with the blogging bit.  Blogging requires salesmanship. However, I truely believe that with effort, anyone can turn a weakness into a strength.

Through the encouragement of several friends, I've improved my tweeting abilities (@PinkAstilbe), and I've even got a semi-decent facebook page, though I'm not very good at finding followers.  Like me please!

I'm starting to realize that I cannot just tweet the newest items that I've listed.  I need to share my personality with people.  I need to sell not just my jewelry, but myself.

I'm going to try and be better with the blogging.  Not just focus on vintage jewelry.  I'm NOT going to delete my old posts, they're part of the learning curve. However, I will try and be a bit better with them.

Thanks for following me, if you did!

-Joanne
PinkAstilbe Vintage

What the heck is a Pink Astilbe?

Welcome to Pink Astilbe Vintage! I'm so glad that you've found us and want to know more.

First of all, an explanation. It's pronounced "Uh-still-bee" and its a flower that grows in my garden.

When I started my Etsy store, I had to come up with a user name that would also be part of my URL. Originally, I was making beaded jewelry and thought that it was good enough to sell. My first ideas, things like "beads-r-us" or "beading-chick" were taken, which ended up being a good thing. My hand-made jewelry was nice enough that people smiled at me and liked them as gifts, but honestly, no one would pay for them.

Regardless, I still needed a name. I spent a good couple of hours staring at the screen trying to come up with a great name. I finally sighed, leaned back in my chair and stared vacantly out the window at my garden. What was in bloom? Roses? All the possible combinations with "rose" in the name was taken. Sweet Woodruff? Taken. Creeping Charlie? Too creepy. Finally my eyes settled on the fluffy puffs of the Pink Astilbe in bloom underneath my gnarly old tree.

Aha! Pink Astilbe! Unique enough that no one would likely have it and, luckily for me, vague enough that when I switched from trying to sell my not quite right handmade jewelry to sharing my love of vintage jewelry (and subsequently funding my vintage jewelry habit) it made the switch with me.

Here's a picture of a Pink Astilbe flower for your reference.

Anyway, the purpose of this blog is to share my love of vintage jewelry, information that I've learned about vintage jewelry from my own research, and increase awareness of my store. Look for further posts with new listings, announcements of sales and even hints about finding good pieces! -PAV