Made With Love by Kat

I'm back! Yes, I've made a new season resolution (if there is such a thing) to give some more love not just to this blog but to my jewellery line as a whole. The last 12 months have been so hectic I've let thing slide but enough is enough! Time to dust off the cobwebs and get myself sorted (plus, y'know, Christmas is on the way...) I've not been sitting with my feet up, mind. One of the things I've been particularly busy with is taking care of the PR and marketing for my local horse show, Leigh and District . I've built them a blog and set them up a Twitter feed . In the meantime, I've also learned a lot about social marketing, which I will try to share here as and when I can. For now, though, here's a quick post with my pick of the best Halloween finds on our faithful friend, Folksy . For a cheap and cheerful way to add some spooky style to your Halloween outfit, these cute Kawaii badges by Asking For Trouble feature the artist's illustrations...

Like a vintage-obsessed Clark Kent, when I'm not indulging my ego as a jewellery-making entrepreneur, I'm a working journalist. Mostly I write about music and the arts, but at Uni I specialised in fashion journalism. Now I've been on the receiving end of a lot of press releases - good and bad. And now the shop is functioning, this weekend I need to get cracking on the Made With Love releases. But to be helpful, I thought I'd share some dos and dont's when it comes to writing your own press releases - from a journalist's perspective. This is the most important thing I can tell you - look for a news angle. Your mere existence does not constitute news and does not entitle you to a feature - you have to find a hook. Being local or new (or, better, local and new) is always a good start, but also look at how you fit in with current fashion trends, consider what makes your product unique or highlight something exciting you've done recently. Having a sale or speci...

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" Here are a couple of the first necklaces I've made. I've gone for a "patchwork" effect on the chains, something which I intend to make a feature of all the forthcoming collections one way or another. A glance through the marvellous website Etsy suggests that romantic names for each design are smiled upon, so I've named these Sparkle (for obvious reasons) and Autumn (as an homage to the Keats poem). I'm going to be setting up my Etsy shop sometime later today, and adding to it as I get the proper photographs through. According to the marketing advice helpfully provided by Etsy's Storque magazine I need to get people interested in this blog - this is where you come in. It's a simple swap - link to me from your blog and I'll put a link to you on mine. And as a bit of an incentive to go a bit furtehr I'll offer a special 10% discount to anyone who gives me a good-sized mention through a blog, ne...