This is one of my favorite lenses out of all of my Squidoo lenses ~ because it features the practical gifts. Everything featured in that lens is $25.00, except all watches which are $35.00, and the beaded bookmarks which are $10.00 ~ so everything is affordable, and, usable.

None of the items there are frivolous or specialized, they are really gift ideas we all, at one point in time or another, use.

Beaded eyeglass / sunglass chains, beaded lanyards / key ring holders, fan and lamp chain pulls, zipper pulls, beaded bookmarks, bracelet and necklace watches. What jewelry themed gifts could possibly be more practical?? I have a really neat slideshow of each category of gifts. Only thing is you need to view them with Firefox. Works best. Better browser too IMHO.

If you get a chance, go visit my Practical Jewelry Gift Ideas ~ Designer Chic without the Designer Pricetag! lens on Squidoo. If you like what you see, give me some stars and leave me a comment!

If you have a Squidoo lens of your own, feel free to join my Squidoo group ~ Shopping for Jewelry, Collectibles and More ~ and if you fit the bill, please join, we’d love to have you.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?! You don’t belong to Squidoo and you don’t have a Squidoo lens?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Shame on you.

You better go get one right here. It’s alot of fun to build your lens, or lenses, and if you do it right, you can bring alot of significant traffic to your website with it. Mine lens stats vary but have been known to contribute up to 30% of my website traffic. I have 6 lenses I think at last count plus the group, and it all depends on whether I keep them up or not.

So go get your Squidoo lens today! And if you have one, go visit mine and give me some stars!

Took me a while to get back to updating my Squidoo lenses with all that’s been going on lately, plus, I wanted to give them a new look and do something easier for me to maintain.

After I spent a while thinking about it, and exploring other fellow Squid lenses, I decided to go for slideshows. It’s great because I can put all my pictures into my pro Flickr account, and then from Squidoo I can choose the Flickr module which gives you the slideshow option.

I polled a few friends about it ~ whether they preferred the static picture and write-up arrangement as opposed to the slideshow deal. Everyone preferred the slideshow so off I went with that. It’s much easier to maintain as well ~ when I create a new batch of wedding or prom jewelry I just add a new set to Flickr and then add a new slideshow. In the meantime all I need to do is update the actual information on the page to keep the content fresh.

One slight issue is the fact that the Flickr slideshow doesn’t do well in Internet Explorer, it’s a known issue which I read about after a friend mentioned it to me I saw a thread on it in the Flickr forum. So I put a note at the beginning of each slideshow that it would be best viewed using Firefox.

So, go check it out! There are 45 pairs of earrings, 45 bracelets, and over 55 pictures of wedding and prom necklaces to look at! And there is a link in each section back to my website in case something really catches your fancy! I have a great deal on some free stuff for any bride who orders jewelry for at least 5 of her bridesmaids!!

Visit Wedding Prom Formal Beaded Jewelry at Squidoo!

After a week full of not feeling too well, other people being in need of help, my Zoo crew being a bit cranky because of all the commotion, I finally got at least one of my Squidoo lenses updated.

Today’s lucky lens was my Essential Business Tips and Tools lens.

Someone added me to their Squidoo favorites already! I’m surprised as this lens is still pretty new.

I updated my little profile area, About Jewelry Collectibles Design, and re-arranged some of my modules.

I also added a new information block entitled “Empowering My Clients to be Independent” which basically outlines my business ethics and how I work with my design clients. I prefer to treat my clients as the individuals that they are, give them the tools they need, and teach them how to use these tools so they can manage their websites and venues themselves.

Then I added my eBay store design, e-commerce, blog and other design listings RSS feed.

After that I spoke a bit about my newest service offering, which is a completely customized auction listing template that can be used on any venue that accepts HTML in the listing. It’s completely branded to your online business look and you actually get 3 customized templates at one cost.

And at the end I added a few more of my favorite business links for tips and help.

So, hopefully this will be of help to someone out there who is looking for help, advice and tools!  Feel free to visit my squidoo lens, rate me, and leave me a comment if you found it helpful!