Dragon Lady Nails: randomness

Showing posts with label randomness. Show all posts

Possible New Shop And Lower Prices

As a polish buyer I would to buy from a website that gives be the best deal on what I am buying. I currently pay $0.20 per listing, another $0.32 per transaction and then another $0.64-0.68 per item through Paypal or Etsy depending on which checkout option my customer choose. That's $1.16-$1.18 per item! I am thinking about finding a website that doesn't charge as much to sell Dragon Lacquer polishes through. This way I can lower the prices on Dragon Lacquer products. Sounds good, right? However, the ones I know about have extremely limiting free accounts and if I have to pay a $20 (or more) monthly fee, it doesn't help me to be able to lower prices.

BigCartel
For example, BigCartel.com allows only 5 items with one picture a piece on their free account. Also, you have to upgrade to be able to make coupons, etc. There are ways to work around the 5 item listing limit, I could make each polish name an option in a drop-down menu but it would be time consuming both to set up and for the customer to scroll down through the list to find the one they want. I currently have 70 items listed on my Etsy store. I set one up just to try it out and I'm not to impressed. You can check it out here but can't buy stuff as of yet.

StoreEnvy
Next is Storeenvy.com, again limited functionality for a free account. Allows for up to 5 photos per item, similar to Etsy but I can't customize shop sections to make shopping easier. Again I set one up just to test, check it out here. One thing I don't like is that I can only customize the colors of the shop a small amount, no uploading a custom background or the ability to make it more appealing.

FreeWebStore
Another place I found is FreeWebStore,org. They allow for up to 15 item listings on a free account with way more options than the previous 2 sites provided. Far more customization ability, in design and category/item listing. Down side again, I have 70 items currently listed on Etsy. I would have to decide which 15 I want to keep selling and ditch the rest. I did set up an account to try it out, check it out here.

Miiduu
Okay, when I first came across this site I had never heard of it before but I though what the heck and set up a free account. The first thing I notice is that short of being able to fully customize my shop design with background images and font preferences and the ability to edit website HTML and coding (although I believe I can if I decide to upgrade down the road) it's like a fully functional webstore. I can customize categories, items, it tracks stock, customers can register an account to track their orders and use the WISHLIST function. Yep, a wishlist! I know I like to wishlist polishes I like so I can easily find them when it's purchase time. Down side, no coupon codes unless I upgrade BUT it is extremely easy to edit pricing for sales in the account management section. You can check my demo store out here. So far I think I like this one the best.

So here's my question! Does it matter to you, as a potential customer, which site hosts a store? If you have actually read through this and checked out the "store" options, which one do you like the best and why? I am seriously hoping that you all will help me out here. If I leave Etsy, I can reduce polish prices by at least $1.00 if not more.

Thanks in advance & Much Love & Lacquer,
Kevan

Finals are FINALLY over!

So happy right now, I had 3 finals yesterday and I took my last final of the semester this afternoon. Today's final was in my Game Design class and my team & I completed our game demo and nabbed third prize in the Top Game Design out of our entire class. I did SO much game programming this semester but this video game has consumed so much of my "free" time for the last several months that I actually skipped doing my nails because of it. Crazy right?

I look forward to being able to post more frequently now that the semester is over (atleast until Fall semester starts). Too drained to post one tonight but I hope to not only paint my nails but do a little nail art as well! Man, I miss stamping...

This just might be me this weekend!

I am also looking forward to actually playing a couple of video games I bought several months ago.

That's it for now...Gnighty all!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Update

My lovely PC has died on me. I am currently working on repairing it. I have narrowed down the issues to a few possibilities. Unfortunately, one of those it that my motherboard and CPU might be toast. Anyway, on said PC are all of my pics, emails, passwords, etc so it has been extremely rough. I guess you don't fully realize how much you depend on something until it breaks. I have access to a laptop but I can't edit photos on it at the moment so I only have the small file of pics that were on a flash drive. Will keep you posted as I can. I haven't forgotten about the winners of the nail contest but don't want to announce winners without being able to show their beautiful nail art. As I mentioned before, I will be adding a little something to their prizes to make up for the delay. Miss you all!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Starting to feel better...Back soon!

Hello my lovely readers! Sorry I have been gone for so long, I caught what turned out to be 3 strains of the flu back to back (ahh... the joys of having 3 kids in school/daycare). I have felt miserable and couldn't even make it out of bed most days. I can't believe I have been sick for over a month and have SO much stuff to catch up on. Still feeling a bit queasy at the moment and easily tired but I also feel stronger than I have in the last few weeks.

Have no fear I should be back posting soon and will have the winner announcement for the giveaway and contests soon too. I feel so horrible I wasn't able to pick them sooner I just might have to add something to each of the prizes to try and make up for it. I will also be posting the TNT Challenge weeks that have passed. I have managed to take weekly pictures, just didn't have the strength to do much more than that. Lucky for me the Ask Cosmetics products are so easy to use I could apply TIPS even half dead to the world.

Thanks to all of you who emailed me to check up on me, I appreciate it. Miss you all lots! Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Update and more

Sorry I've been missing for a few. I got a nasty summer flu right after I posted my giveaway and was down for a whole week. I have been frantically trying to get caught up with all my college coursework since then. Basically, trying to find my balance. I will be picking the winners for my 1000+ follower giveaway after class tonight and hope to have them contacted soon after.

We are going to do something kind of different today as well...

The first person to email me at: dragonladynails@gmail.com with their name, email, mailing address, and correctly guess the answer to the following question will win a prize.

Question: What is special about today?

Please remember to include you information or I will toss out your entry. I will edit this post once someone has won. Good luck all! If no one guesses correctly I will post a hint later this afternoon.

***UPDATE****

We have a winner. Brandi, emailed me her info and correctly answered the question. Today, is

DragonLadyNails 1st Blogoversary!!!

So be sure to keep an eye out for my Blogoversary Giveaway. Much Love, The Dragon Lady

My Contest Entry - Please vote!

I just entered the BirchBox Color Club Fall themed mani contest on FB. Please help me out and vote for my mani here. Thanks bunches!

In other news, I hope to finally get my newest giveaway up later today and I am taking swatches & doing manis like no tomorrow because I will be taking part in the TNT Challenge from ASK Cosmetics (stating very soon) so I won't be able to paint my nails for 12 weeks. Craziness! I am trying to "store" up some posts basically, but you will probably also get mani pics for my mother, and daughter, and possibly some toes as well to fill in the gaps. =)

If you were wondering about what I used for he fall mani entry...generic ridge filling base coat, 2 coats of Color Club Catwalk Queen, then stamped with Mash-27 (leaf tip image) using a very old bottle of Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Emerald Amethyst, topped with Seche Vite.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady - and thanks for voting!

.............

Wow, I suck. Not only have I not been blogging much lately but I just realized that back when I swatched the Essie Metallics...I apparently forgot to actually publish them. I set them up for auto posting but didn't publish them. FAIL!!

As for the rest, I have been taking photos and doing my nails just not finding the time to post them. About the only thing I have actually done this summer is some serious nail care and some testing of nail treatments (I'll have to write those up) and I have managed to actually grow out my nails a bit these last few weeks. I also received a Summer Vox Box and I have that to review for you as well. Some cool stuff in there.

School is starting up in the next few weeks for the kids and the hubs and I. After such a busy summer I am looking forward to school again. My goal this weekend is to get some of those photos I've taken actually posted. Next Thursday I leave for a mini family vacation to Fort Bragg,CA. I hope to be regularly posting again and have some auto posts set up for the time I'm gone....and yes, I will double check that I actually publish them this time. LOL!

I am also trying to figure out how to celebrate reaching 1000+ lovely followers. I have so many ideas I can't decide on one.

Ok, off to bed for now. See you tomorrow and in case you were wondering...Here's what's currently on my nails! Sally Hansen Pink Rose Diamond, 2 coats no top coat.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Anyone still here?

Hello? Remember me? I didn't fall of the edge of world or die in some freak nail polish bottle avalanche. I finished up my finals week yesterday and can't wait to do my nails. I am pretty sure I got another round of A's. I have maintained a perfect 4.0 since starting college and I work really hard to keep it there. So very excited to be leaving for Fort Bragg with my hubby and our friends from the Horticulture Club at my college. We busted our tushies for the last 2 semesters with the club so we get a four day paid vacay to the coast. We rented 2 huge houses on the beach. Works for me! So basically, I am going to pack and try and get some manis and swatches prepped for auto-posting while I am gone.

I am happy to be back blogging and can't wait to show all the polish I have been hording since my last real polish post! So let's kick this off with a haul post!

If you remember, I was on a No-Buy for the month of April...let's see how well that went. Shall we?

Snagged the other Boho set for $5.49 at Ross

Kleancolor minis

Barielle Growth Activator & Speed Dry Manicure Extender - $6 for both at Ross

Orly Dayglow, Beach Cruiser, Melt Your Popsicle, After Party

China Glaze Glitter Crackles

Finger Paints - Late Night Rendezvous

China Glaze - Agro, Harvest Moon, Spontaneous

Unnamed Cosmetic Arts polishes - purple, steely blue, lavender

Color Club Factory Girl

So, seven of these my mother bought for me other than that No-Buy April = Big Fat Fail! It's even sadder when you find out I bought all these on the last day of the month. I blame Sally Beauty and that buy 2 Get 1 free Deal they were having (and of course my 15% off coupon on top of that)! LOL!!! I have a smaller May haul that I'll try and show you tomorrow. Hopefully a mani too! Oh and don't forget to enter my current giveaway if you haven't already! It ends in 5 days!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Missing you all!!!

Hello my lovely readers, oh how I miss you! Life is crazy for me at the moment. I wish I could say it's crazy good but not all of it is. My sweet kitty, Spaz has gone missing since I last posted and I miss him terribly. I was holding out hope that he would return but it has been over a week and I fear I must now face the fact that something has happened to him. Because of this I am keeping my other two cats close to prevent anything from happening to them. It is terrible not knowing if he's alive and lost or if he's dead. I keep torturing myself with the what if's. I live in a rural area just outside of a small mountain town on 20 acres. So, basically, I don't know if he picked on a rattlesnake and it got the best of him, or a fox or mountain lion got him, or one of my few neighbors hit him with a car, or what. I can only hope that if he's dead, his death was quick and as painless as possible. Mostly I hope he'll just show back up, healthy and happy.

Spaz

So on top of one of my fur babies going missing, I am still trying to catch up on school work, get ready for finals (just 2 weeks away), I put in a garden (and destroyed my nails and cuticles some more), I am getting an internship setup doing web programming for the summer, trying to get childcare worked out for finals and summer, my car is in the shop, my camera is malfunctioning (won't let me upload my photos to my PC), and on top of all this...I am experiencing a decided lack of inspiration to paint my nails. I hope to find away to get some pictures of my April haul up tomorrow and maybe a mani as well. It feels pretty weird to be running around with just clear polish (Barielle Growth Accelerator and Nail Aid Extreme Steel Hardener) on.

Did I also mention I am designing a professional website for my web design and programming teacher? Yep, custom icons, menu dock, and all. So basically I am just tapped out lately. I hope to be back posting more regularly here soon so please bear with me.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Still here!

Sorry my posts have become kind of sporadic lately. I have a life, shocking I know! ;) Currently I am trying to catch up some Computer and Networking Security Labs from the 2 weeks I missed when the baby and I were sick. I am also trying to catch up Unit 2 and 3 in Access 2010. If any of you deal with Access on a regular basis, I know you feel my pain! Good news is I am most of the way through that Unit 2 in Access and then I'll be "on schedule" with finishing my units before the semester ends. Still working trough those labs but I'll have some time to catch up on Monday as my teacher cancelled class that morning.

What does this mean for you? I am hoping it means I'll be able to sneak a Pink Wednesday post in tomorrow and possibly a 750 Follower Giveaway post as well! If I'm super lucky and my posting break happens during a certain toddler's nap time, I might even get to do my 52 Week Dotticure challenge post too.

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Some Blog Love

Just giving a little blog love to a friend of mine, Meredith and her blog, La vie, l'amour et la pâtisserie. She and her husband, Josh, have just embarked on a journey from Chico, California to Yssingeaux, France where Josh will be attending the pastry school there at ENSP - Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Patisserie. Meredith, a journalist, began writing her blog about their adventures in the beginning of the month. I hope you all go check it out!

I am curious, are any of you following from France? Much Love, The Dragon Lady

No Hiatus!

Okay, I found out several things including that pictures 800 x 800 pixels and under are not counted toward your 1GB pic limit here on Blogger. I also discovered that becoming a Google+ member allows you to go from that 800 x 800 pixels max "free" pic to 2048 x 2048px size and under not counting toward your limit. So yep, you guessed it. I caved and now am a Google+ person. I will be resizing my pictures so that the largest side is 2048 just to get them in under that 1GB restriction. If this proves to be too much of a pain in the tush, I may try hosting all my pictures on my old photobucket account and see what that does.

So basically, NO HIATUS! Woo hoo! I'll be on later with an Untried Tuesday post for you! Also, I got the threaded comments/reply feature to work again in this custom layout. ;) Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Out with the old, in with the new (to me)

Sorry for not posting yesterday or today, I owe you all a Shany plate review and year Challenge post but it's been a crazy week and even crazier weekend. I was hoping to get all this fun stuff (posting, playing with polish, make polish with my new supplies, etc) done this week and instead I did business type of stuff. I didn't even do any home work! Oy! I did manage to score a new desk (well new to me) though, and I am posting this while taking a break from setting it up. Not sure I ever posted the pics I took of my nail polish setup before but I know I took pics.

Basically the hubs and my bedroom is this weird 2nd living room style room with a bath in our rental house (aka the King of the Add-on) so our bedroom is huge, so before we had both our computer desks, a book shelf, 2 fish tanks, and our bed on one half. On the other half was some shelves for polish, my "nail desk", a table for my light box & computer repair, 2 storage towers for art supplies, and the last quarter of it we walled off and made a mini-room for the baby. her toddler bed, dresser, toy box, toy kitchen, etc.

So if you caught that, I have not one but two desks. One for each "hobby." this made it a total pain in the tush to do my nails, move to the table where the light box is, take pics, move to the other desk and post. Today at a hospice thrift store I found this monstrosity of a desk (I actually thought it was an entertainment center at first). I has 3 sets of cupboard doors you can close - to keep toddlers out for example. Unfortunately, I had to take down a set of polish shelves and the polish from these is now in the desk but I plan on chopping up an old book shelf to make more polish shelves that will work with the wall space I now have left.

As for my former "nail desk" it now happily resides in my middlest daughters room and the small computer desk will be moving into my oldest daughter's room probably tomorrow. I will need to do some serious rearranging of the rest of the room to "even" it back out but I love this thing so it was worth it. Oh did I mention I scored it for $50! Yep, the price made me love it a little more. =)

Ok, enjoy some old "nail desk" setup pics and hopefully I'll be able to post some new ones tomorrow. Keep in mind these were taken on Christmas aka over 200+ polishes ago. Hmmm, 200+ polish in 3 months...the first step in dealing with addiction is admitting you have a problem, right? LMAO

Top shelf of main storage

Middle shelf of main storage

Bottom shelf of main storage

Metallics & foils I also use for stamping

Desk, corner of table, & more polish storage (white drawers)

Inside my old nail desk there were 3 drawers on each side and one in the middle for a total of 7.

Bottom drawer left side - kids polish & clear based glitters

Middle drawer left side - franken drawer

Top drawer left side - treatments & tools

Center drawer - misc

Top drawer right side - nail art stuff

Middle drawer right side - stuff for gels


Bottom drawer right side - UV light

On top of white drawers - small white drawers (nail art/konad) & removers

Top white drawer

2nd white drawer

Drawer 3 is miscellaneous storage (like spare camera cords), drawer 4 is my giveaway stash, and drawer 5 is more polish storage (mostly backups). Okay, off to tidy up a bit and head to bed. Hope to have pics of the "new" tomorrow followed by some mani pics! ;)

Much Love, The Dragon Lady

Craziness!

I really can NOT believe it! To start March off, I am celebrating 500+ followers, 400+ on Facebook, almost 350 on Twitter, and have cleared 10,000+ page views and tomorrow's post will be my 100th. So many milestones all at once! Sheer craziness!!!

So to all my wonderful 500+ followers, be watching for a Follower Appreciation Giveaway as soon as I can get through these last two giveaways' entries. My first follower giveaway ended with over 2000 entries! I am almost done verifying them all and will try to post the winner first thing tomorrow. I'm so excited!!! I hope you all are too. My second giveaway ended at midnight yesterday with over 4000 entries, which is just crazy!!! My next giveaway will definitely NOT have so many optional entries NOR will I hold them open for so long.

Also my class workload at school just went from relatively easy to major overload in one shot with no warning! I have until Monday to rebuild a website from a screenshot for my web design class. Ouch! Wish me luck!

Much Love, The Dragon Lady