Visting Etsy - Part 2 - The people at Etsy

We got to meet a lot of wonderful people on our visit to Etsy. Here are a few shots from our visit in and around Etsy headquarters in Dumbo NYC. The people at Etsy were very gracious to accommodate our request to visit them. If you haven't seen it yet, checkout our Etsy Store.

So great to meet some amazing people at Etsy.

Left to right Front: Abby F, Mike Grishaver, Andreas Argentinis, Elisha Argentinis, Chad Dickerson

Back: Heather Jassy, Clare M

A gaggle of Etsians taking a second to pose with some of the gifts we sent them.

A shot of the Manhattan Bridge near Etsy headquarters.

These two lovely ladies jumped up to give great big hugs when we walked by on our tour.
Sarah S, Elisha Argentinis, Andreas Argentinis, Katie Rose C

Bernadette was the host for our visit. She was such a pleasure to meet and an absolute guiding angel. We can't thank her enough for arranging our visit and spending so much time with us.

Elizabeth C was the first person to greet us when we walked in. She has a beautiful smile that is sure to brighten anyone's day. Supreme greeter extraordinaire.

A little selfie of us enjoying the day. I told Andreas not to be goofy, but he can't help it. This is the least goofy of several pictures.

Chad took a few moments out of his busy day to meet with us and take a few photos.

Last but not least.... a professional dog walker in NYC. He's got his hands full. Can't imagine the clean up.

 Visiting Etsy 

As part of our little initiative, Project #ThanksEtsy, we set out to visit Etsy headquarters in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, on March 10th. Our plan was to meet a few Etsians, thank them in person for the impact they've had on our business, give out our handcrafted gifts, and be on our way.

What we thought was going to be short visit turned out to be a several hour affair. Elisha and I were given a tour the of the facility, met a ton of Etsy people, and grabbed a bite at their bi-weekly lunch (appropriately called Eatsy). The visit brought me back to the exciting times during my early career at a young internet start-up called Priceline.com, except the environment at Etsy is much cooler! There is a noticeable buzz at Etsy - not just because they are working hard and have a impending IPO - it's the electrifying feeling you get when great people come together with creative ideas and initiatives.

You're probably wondering what it's like at the crafty marketplace giant. Is the place as incredible as their website? After all, they have so many amazing vendors making everything from fine jewelry like us to wooden tables and beer holders.  So the answer to your question is YES. Etsy is as cool as you thought it would be.  Actually, it's cooler than you can imagine. It starts off with a seemingly uninteresting entrance, but all that ends when you pull open the heavy wooden doors. From there you're greeted with an eclectic entrance and front desk decorated with a cornucopia of all types of goodies from the crafty to the well-crafted.

For a space that houses over 500 employees, it surprisingly doesn't seem too big or overcrammed. We couldn't see any traditional cubicle spaces. Lots of open space with picnic table style desks where Etsians work together a la family-style dining. No phones on the desks (but there are some replica phone booths where people can make their calls) make the space surprisingly quiet.

To top it off, they have a zero carbon foot print initiative! Not only do you see recycling everywhere, but they also have indoor bike parking. Racks of glass "to-go" coffee cups are available to avoid needing paper cups when Etsians take a stroll to local coffee shops. Add to that up-cycling and the fact they all pitch in to pedal biodegradable waste to a local compost, and you'll start to realize that the people at Etsy aren't just cooler than you thought...They are nice, thoughtful, hardworking, dedicated, innovative, and a downright pleasant group people; and one that we happen to be particularly fond of. ;-)

Etsy has played an important role in our business. They created a platform that has allowed our business to thrive and develop.

On March 18th we launched an initiative called “Project #ThanksEtsy”.

It started with a visit to Etsy on March 10th to thank them in person. We felt that with the impact Etsy has had on our business it was time to thank them the best way we know how... with a few handmade gifts. We wanted to express our gratitude and give them a more personal look at the fruits of their labor. This video shows us in action making the silver charms we gave to every Etsy employee.

We hope our Project #ThanksEtsy inspires other vendors to share the positive impact Etsy has had on them through posting video and pics with hashtag #ThanksEtsy.

November is a big birthday month in my family including me, my oldest son, my mother in law and two of my cousins so of course we love citrine! Last month we gave you a list of interesting facts about the Opal(October's birthstone),let's see what Citrine, the November stone can tell us...

1. Citrine is also known as "healing quartz" because it supports vitality and health while bringing energy and warmth to the wearer.
2. The citrine has also been called a "success stone" or "merchant stone" as it is said to promote prosperity. The stones are often kept in the cash drawer of businesses.
3. The stone comes in a variety of hues from pastel yellow to a dark orange similar to amber.
4. Citrine is primarily found in Brazil, Russia, Africa, and the USA.
5. The name "citrine" comes from its citrus, lemon-like color.
6. Be careful! This stone is often created by a lab heat process from the amethyst stone. Make sure you know what you're really getting.
7. Topaz, which comes in a variety of colors, is also considered a November birthstone

Happy birthday to all you October babies! Here are some fun facts about your birthstone; the opal...

1. The opal is associated with hope, innocence, happiness, purity, faithfulness, loyalty, and confidence.
2. The opal is often used to enhance visualization, imagination, dreams, and healing.
3. 95% of opals are mined in Australia. The remaining 5% come from Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.
4. The name "opal" means "to see a change in color". The stone comes in a variety of colors; black, crystal. yellow (fire), and white. All of these variations have their own set of characteristic colored flecks. The milky white opal is most common.
5. Opals should be worn often, because they only contain 2-6% water. They can become brittle when stored in a dry place, but if worn frequently they absorb humidity off the wearers skin.

In April of last year we reported the Top Baby Names  and trends for 2011. The social security department distributes data on births and names annually. By April they still had not released the information for 2012 so we just presented data from 2011.

We finally had a chance to dig up the data and can give you a summary for 2012 & 2013. Some congratulations are in order for Noah and Sophia for taking the number one name spots. Sophia continues her reign of the top spot for three years in a row, while Jacob got ousted from his two year stint as the champ.

Jacob has some consolation in the fact that names for boys that started with the letter J were more popular than any other letter. For girls, the letter "A" takes the cake with 17% of girl names starting with the lead letter of the alphabet. Those letters have held their respective top positions for the past three years.  So who's at the bottom of the top 1000 baby names? Augustine and Aurelia were dead last in 2012 and Darien and Collins replaced them in 2013. And the least used letters? For the past three years, without much surprise it's X for boys at .004% of names and U for girls at 0.0% of names.

It's note worthy that in the past three years not one girl name with the letter "U" has made it into the top 1000 names. What happened to Ursala? We know she is the evil queen from the Disney movie "The Little Mermaid", but aren't we far enough away from 1989 to break that spell?
 

The bottom line is that if you are looking for some really unique names, look at the end of the top 1000 names. There are lots of names that are used way less frequently and year over year vary considerably more than the top 100.

And the most popular Baby Gift? Year over year our Solid Sterling Silver Baby Cuff Bracelet takes the prize. Make it a matching set with our Full Sized Silver Personalized Cuff for mom.

Today is the day to honor your dog so take a moment and give your pet a little extra love! Here's a shot of our happy shop dog, Lightning, and some pet inspired jewelry.

Picking a name for your new baby isn't always an easy task. There are lots of factors involved when picking a baby name. Are you going to follow tradition and use a family name or break away from the masses with a unique baby name. Regardless, the one thing you should absolutely consider is what were the past and trending top baby names.

Every year we make thousands of mommy charms and mommy necklaces for new and expecting mothers. We haven't complied a formal top 10 list of baby names for 2012 but we can talk about some trends from the past year. Traditional names are making a comeback and when mom's are designing jewelry they want the full names spelled on the charms. While there will always be variations in the spelling of names, we've seen a movement away from odd or whimsical spellings and cutsie nicknames.

Naming a baby is serious business for new parents. Whether they know the sex of the baby or not, we've seen an increase in the number of parents that are waiting till the new addition arrives to finalize on a name. More so than in previous years, proud Fathers to be will order push presents for their wives in advance and without a name selected. After the baby is born, sometimes within hours, we'll get a call from an exuberant new dad ready to finalize the customization. We complete the order, sometimes shipping that same day.

There are lots of tools available to help you understand past and trending baby names.

Here are a couple tools and websites that you can use to help you select a great baby name.

1. Social Security's Website - popular baby names
   The Social Security web site provides data on baby names since 1879. You can search the data by lots of criteria to what names were popular for a previous year nationally or by state. The Social Security Department hasn't updated the data for 2012 but here is the top 10 list from 2011. If you look around the internet,you will see this baby name list repeated frequently.
   

   

   
   

   Rank	Male name	Female name
   1	Jacob	Sophia
   2	Mason	Isabella
   3	William	Emma
   4	Jayden	Olivia
   5	Noah	Ava
   6	Michael	Emily
   7	Ethan	Abigail
   8	Alexander	Madison
   9	Aiden	Mia
   10	Daniel	Chloe

   
   While the ranking of individual names is useful, the popularity of the first letter of a name could be beneficial in deciding. Using the data for the top 1000 names in a given year we can calculate the popularity of each letter. I know this is a little on the geeky side of things but here are the results I calculated from 2011.
   
   

   	Male			Female
   J	11.00%		A	16.70%
   A	8.70%		M	9.80%
   C	8.10%		K	9.60%
   M	7.30%		J	8.00%
   D	7.20%		L	7.20%
   R	6.80%		C	6.60%
   B	6.70%		S	6.10%
   K	6.60%		E	5.30%
   T	4.60%		B	4.10%
   E	4.50%		R	3.90%
   L	4.40%		D	3.00%
   S	4.00%		H	3.00%
   G	3.30%		G	2.60%
   H	2.40%		N	2.60%
   N	2.00%		T	2.50%
   P	1.90%		P	2.40%
   F	1.80%		I	1.70%
   I	1.70%		V	1.20%
   Z	1.60%		Y	1.00%
   W	1.50%		Z	1.00%
   O	1.00%		F	0.90%
   V	1.00%		W	0.40%
   Q	0.60%		O	0.20%
   Y	0.60%		Q	0.10%
   U	0.40%		X	0.10%
   X	0.40%		U	0.00%

2. Belly Ballot
   Belly Ballot helps you select your baby's name by enlisting your closest family and friends to vote on names you select. It seems like a fun way to pick a name. They track all the polls and results so they some of the most up to date top name trends on the net. Here are a few.
   
   Increasing in Popularity
   Girls: Audrey/Aubrey, Riley, Aria, Brooklyn
   Boys: Landon, Caleb, Jackson (Jaxton, Jaxon, or Jaxen), Ryder
   
   Decreasing in Popularity:
   Girls: Olivia, Makenzie, Skylar, Sophia
   Boys: Ethan, Elijah, Liam, Gage, Bentley
   
   Consistently Popular Baby Names:
   Girls: Savannah, Ava
   Boys: Michael, Noah, Owen
   
   The Belly Ballot folks also made some predictions for 2013 naming trends:
   
   1) Tech Inspired Names
   2) Multiple Names
   3) Old is New
   4) Surnames for First Names
   5) Crazy Spellings

At the end of the day if you pick the name that feels right and has meaning for you, then it is the right choice. Most of all enjoy your new bundle of joy!