Jewelry Party Part Uno

I spent my entire weekend getting ready for my first jewelry party. I can't believe I have been making & selling my jewelry for almost a decade and this is the first party I'm doing! I've done more shows, fairs & festivals than I care to recall but I am still super nervous. I have a bunch of jewelry to bring but I still keep obsessing about whether I am bringing enough. Right now, everything...and I do mean everything is set up on my kitchen table. The more I think about it the more things I remember I have want to bring.

Once I have this under my belt, doing them in the future will be a lot easier & less stressful. I am still not sure if I am going to play any games or not. I have been doing some research on the web for jewelry party games that I can do without having a business like Lia Sophia or another franchise. I found a few really great suggestions, see below.

Celebrity Jewelry Game - basically someone said they cut celeb pix out of a magazine and laminated them. Everyone gets a photo & they have to select jewelry of yours they would see this celeb wearing. Then everyone votes for the best answers & the winner gets a prize. I am considering playing this game but we'll see. 

Memory - this game consists of me picking a few pieces of jewelry and showcasing them. Then I hide them & the guests have to write down as many as they remember. Whomever remembers the most, wins a prize.

I think I am going to do a raffle where for every piece of jewelry someone gets, they get a raffle ticket & then I do a drawing at the end of the night. Hopefully enough people show up for me to do this. I'll let everyone know how this turns out. 

The last thing I am freaking out about is pricing. All of my jewelry is on my website & 99% of the jewelry I make at this point is made to order. To sit & put a price tag on everything would be a huge waste of time. I was thinking of printing out all of my listings & making a catalog...I really hope I find the time this week to finish this otherwise I know when it comes to pricing there is going to be a huge issue that will effect my sales. I am also not going to be sending people home with their jewelry. I am going to be taking orders just like I would if I was running one of those franchise jewelry parties. We'll see how that goes. There's only one way to learn which way works best for this & that's experimentation!

Time Suck Websites

They should create a support group for those of us addicted to Pinterest.com. Going onto that site is like a huge time suck. I have every intention of briefly checking to see what genius new money saving/cooking/decorating ideas these work & stay at home moms have come up with & before I know it, it's 2 in the morning & my eyes are burning. I would be surprised if I still have fingerprints because my fingertips are probably so worn down from all my mad 'pinning'! 

Which brings me to this. Guess where I found it? If you say Pinterest, you win (not like a real prize or anything). Thanks to that website I don't even own a home or have children yet but I know exactly how I'm going to decorate my house & I have the first 10 years of my children's lives planned out in parties & clothing & crafts. But really, if you haven't checked this site out, you totally should. It's grrrrreat!

So tell me, are there any other websites out there as great as this that I should know about? Do tell.

'Tis the Season & All That

Don't mind the decorations...I stalled clean through from Fall to Winter :)

So today rather than getting my apartment cleaned, laundry done, cookies baked, Christmas shopping done & gift wrapping started I filled orders & worked on a little furniture project. I think I learned my lesson for the last time. I don't like to keep stock on items unless they're a big seller because frankly, I don't have the room & why am I going to make a ton of something when I can have it made to order? I mean, I am a procrastinator & I would much rather be able to customize it at the original time of creation. That being said, I screwed myself because today was mostly spent working...as if I don't already work 40 hours a week. But I digress. In the last few days I also was introduced to Pinterest.com by my good friend Alexandria (although I am reevaluating that friendship due to all the time I spend on this site now...jk, I love my Alex). 

So at any rate, I told myself...no promised, I promised myself I was going to get my shelf painted. I have had this ugly green set of drawers sitting in the middle of my dining/living room/kitchen for over a month now & it needed to get painted so I could find a home for it. And by home, I mean a spot in my own home. Well originally I was going to go for he shabby chic thing (shocker, I know) but I couldn't find my famous ivory & gold crackle spray paint kit anywhere...wah wah wahhhhh. So I had to go with something sleek. I figure it works since right now the apartment has a sleek, bachelor-pad-esque couch going on (the price & size was right). So it goes...for now...until we get a house. Anywho, I figured I would share with you the 'before' & 'after' of my little storage place where all my new supplies will be neatly put away. It was a true 'trash to treasure' example. With a can of $4 matte spray paint & 5 new acrylic (fooled ya, you thought they were glass!) knobs for $4 each, I have a new, snazzy piece-o-crap turned piece-o-furniture for $24...not bad, not bad.

I would also like to add that it took me all of maybe 45 minutes from start to finish. I buffed the paint with my sander ($35 at Sears, best investment to date), and painted it with 1 can of spray paint, let it dry, went over & touched up spots I missed, let it dry & put on the knobs. I would also like to add that it was pitch black outside when I did this so I used my cell phone's flash light app. It had to be done. I told myself I would have it done by Christmas & this was my last chance!

Darker Days

Can it really be? Summer was here & now it's gone, almost like a magic trick. I always make all these great leisurely plans for the summer months and they never seem to work out quite like I planned. Shorter days do means a few good things though because with more time spent in doors, that means more time spent doing some of my favorite things...baking, cooking, reading, organizing & designing! And while people spend all summer trying to come up with great fall jewelry designs, I am already looking forward to spring!

Pumpkin Carving

Today as I wasted away my afternoon (which slowly turned into my day) in the doctor's office waiting room, I was able to read an entire issue of Woman's Day. They had a few interesting tips in there for decorating for the fall that I wanted to share. 

I really enjoy pumpkin picking out on the east end. The way I judge if a pumpkin is what I'm looking for is if it has a nice stem. If it's unique and especially if it has a few curly q's then I'm sold. But we spend so much money pumpkin picking just to carve them & have them rot in a week or 2. So as I was reading in Woman's Day they said to do the following to preserve your jack-o'-lantern;

 Mix 1 tbsp. bleach & 1 qt. water and wipe down the outside of the pumpkin & the inside after it's been cleaned out. This kills decay causing bacteria. After you have carved your pumpkin, use the same mixture to wipe the cut surfaces and then seal with petroleum jelly. 

I plan to give this a try. If you decide to try it, let me know how it works out.

Beachy-keen Weekend (& a recipe)

Roasted chicken thighs, potato salad with a slant & some red wine.

I spent my weekend in a rented beach cottage on the north shore with some of my buddies. One of our friends is getting married next month and it was our bachelorette weekend out. After spending the day at the beach I made some chicken and salad because it was so hot out & it came out so good I figured I would share the recipe with you here. And it is pretty healthy. The only fats are olive oil & goat cheese (but they're healthy 'fats').

I made a great sangria I found & will share the recipe for that. That was a very enjoyable beach drink.The chicken was just 2 packages of chicken thighs (with skin & bones). You don't have to eat the skin, personally I am not a fan (it skeeves me out) but you want it on there when you cook it because it keeps it very moist & juicy & adds flavor. I rinsed the chicken & let it marinate in soy sauce, honey & garlic. Pour the marinade into a deep baking pan, put the thighs skin side up and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. The meat falls off the bones. 

The salad I used fresh spinach, laid it out on a plate. I boiled red potatoes (scrubbed clean) for 16 minutes in salter water, rinsed cool & cut into quarters. Then I mixed together 1/2 c. olive oil, 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, 2 tsp. Dijon mustard & 1/4 c. goat cheese (you can use crumbled blue cheese if you want). I threw the red potatoes on the grill 4 minutes on each side & they go on the spinach. Then spoon the dressing on top & garnish with some chives. It looks pretty & when I made the leftovers for my husband he said, "it's like a party in my mouth" so that means it gained his approval. If you try it, let me know what you think. I also can't take credit for these recipes although I wish I could. My boss is an amazing cook and she has made these before at her beach house. 

Functional Decorations

"Royally Chic" necklace display by Etsy artist & shop owner Audra of AChicShop

When you're not wearing your favorite costume jewelry out & about, there is another place to hang it. Why stuff it in a dark drawer in your jewelry box when you can have it out and about where everyone can see how fashion forward you are? It seems these days jewelry display in the home is all the rage. I know I have my jewelry draped all over my room and that is not just because I am a jewelry designer...I just love looking at it! I am not just talking about my designs, I am talking about my whole jewelry collection. You can decorate yourself with jewelry & decorate your bedroom.

I have a serious love for all things country french, shabby chic and vintage looking (not retro, mod vintage...worn shabby vintage). So that is what I am so in love with glass or crystal knobs. My grandmother's house had crystal glass knobs on all the door and I really thought it was such a nice touch. I mean, it looked so classy and glamorous. When I was recently in TJ Maxx (fave store) or Marshals...I can't remember which one, I spotted a bag of small crystal glass knobs for a dresser or cabinet. Now I don't currently have any projects going on but I fell in love and bought them. Which is why I recommend checking out this shop on etsy. Her name is Audra (cool name right), her shop is called A Chic Shop and she sells super cute knob necklace and headband hangers at a really reasonable price. She has so many different designs and her shop is open for custom orders. Just click the link (after you have signed into Etsy of course) that says, "request custom item" & give her the details of what you're looking for.

Buyer BEWARE!

Well today I had an awful experience buying from Etsy seller evezbeadz. Apparently it is not cool to ask about the legitimacy of items in her shop. Sorry if I find it hard to believe that you're selling genuine Juicy charms for $6.00 but I doubt the nasty messages were really necessary. Shame on your for having such a violent temper. It's unprofessional and I did not appreciate it. Shame shame shame.

This is just a warning for my fellow jewelry designers, beware of this shop. You might want to take your business elsewhere. Just looking out for all my fellow artists!

--UPDATE 7/15/11--

I just checked my Paypal and she only refunded me 80% of the money for my order and kept 20% as a "fee". She then wrote to "check her store policies", which she had updated that same day (Etsy puts the date of updates on the bottom of a policy page) to say she charges $1 "fee" for every $5 spent. Umm I am pretty sure Paypal doesn't allow that. Etsy refunds your fees and so does Paypal so what exactly is this fee for? By the way she canceled my sale, not  me.

I'm protected. After some research I knew she couldn't do this to me. Under Etsy's Dos and DON'Ts it says under Transaction Cancellation: "The seller has refused service to the buyer (see Refusing service). If the buyer has already paid, the seller has refunded the buyer (price paid for item plus shipping)."

:) Always do your homework. I'll let you know how it turns out.

--UPDATE 7/24/11--

I have now, finally, after putting in a claim with Paypal, received my FULL refund.

Neglect

They say when you have more than one etsy shop, you always take turns favoring one and the others suffer. I have found lately that this is true. I have been trying so hard to get the Findings Fix shop up and running and pulling its own that poor Heatherly and Mademoiselle Parfait have totally been neglected. This is a shame because I didn't stop creating new stuff or even photographing it. But I did fall off on the photo cropping and description writing and listing of new items. This means that hopefully over the next few weeks, I'll get to play catch up and you, you will get to see the last few months collection of goodies all at once.

Edible You Say?

When I was doing research for my DIY wedding I came across this wonderful fellow Etsy seller. The funny thing was, at the time, I wasn't even looking for edible cake decorations. After doing a search on etsy for autumn wedding ideas I came across these amazing fall foliage sugar leaves. I can't imagine the patience or talent required to come up with these amazing confections. Who ever knew food could look this good?! 

I recommend you check out Andie's Specialty Sweets & see what amazing things they have for all you fellow DIY dessert makers.Some of the items they have for sale you'll do a double take because you won't be able to believe they are actually edible. Like these flowers! They look no different than the hair fascinators you see being sold all over.