For The Girl Who Has Everything : SilhouetteBlue

I've been a bad blogger again! Orders and trunk shows have been keeping me VERY busy and I just haven't had the chance to sit down and blog! I actually have my last Holiday Trunk Show today at 4pm, so, wish me luck!

Anyway,I thought today I'd share with you one of m favorite Etsy paper artists, SilhouetteBlue. Megan, the woman behind SilhouetteBlue has an eye for color and simplistic silhouetted designs that are both modern and retro at the same time. It's this mix of styles and gorgeous selection of colors, that keeps me going back to SilhouetteBlue!

We all have people in our lives that are difficult to shop for around the holidays, the perpetual girl who has everything. Well, in my experience, personalized unique stationary is a perfect go-to! Last Christmas I purchased personalized stationary sets from SilhouetteBlue for both my sister and mother and they loved them! I even got a couple sets for myself because I just can't pass it up! A set of personalized stationary cards runs $25.00, and let me tell you, it's $25 well worth it! The cards are just beautiful and even coe in their own darling gift box, tha I thought was a really nice touch. They are elegant, fun and unique all at once! My Mom and sister loved their stationary, and I loved supporting a fellow Etsy artist! I whole heartedly recommend any of SilhouetteBlue's products, however, I think the personalized stationary is just THE PERFECT gift around this time of year. Personalized is always a great way to show you thought about the giftee more than just walking down and isle and grabbing something random off a shelf , *hoping* they will like it.

Alrighty, I must go prepare for my trunk show! Make sure to check out SilhouetteBlue's shop, and tell her I sent ya! :) Also, the items to the left are all designs that are my personal favorites, most of which I've purchased, but there is TONS more to see at SilhouetteBlue :)

Happy Shopping Blog Buddies!

Go ELF Yourself!!!

Once you Elf Yourself once, you won't be able to stop. I've done it about a million times in the past 48 hours and it never gets old. What better way to ring in the holiday season than by making yourself a little dancing elf alongside your friends an family? You can even sing a Christmas Carol!!! This is THE BEST THING EVER!!!

Sweet Dance Moves...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sweet Vocal Stylings...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

BLACK FRIDAY thru CYBER MONDAY : FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING!!!

The time is here my friends, the holiday season is officially upon on! To celebrate, I am offering all my lovely customers FREE SHIPPING!! Whoo hoo!!

Receive FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING on any order you place in my Etsy Shop from Friday Nov. 27th thru Monday Nov. 30th! No coupon codes required, your shipping amount will be refunded to you within 24 hrs of purchase.

Happy Shopping Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving and A Cheeky Etsy Christmas

I know, I know, today is Thanksgiving and all I have on my brain is Christmas! Thanksgiving is nice and all but for me all it really end up being is a time marker before Christmas. Sorry ancestors, I know I should be more into this whole thing, but alas, the allure of red, green, gold, silver, Santa and reindeer is just far more appealing!

*Fun Thanksgiving Fact: One of my direct ancestors came to America on the first Voyage of The Mayflower. I'm super, extra American! This means none of the food I eat today contains calories! Yay!

Anyway, back to Christmas...

Last year I was in such a frenzy getting all my holiday orders out I had little time to stop and smell the Eggnog ( actually, I've never tried Eggnog and probably never will). I only recently was able to browse Etsy a little for fun gifts and you know Etsy never has a shortage of fun, unique and quirky gifts for some of your especially strange loved ones!

I always find a whole buncha stuff that is adorable but not really anyone to gift it to. So, I will show you what has caught my eye and maybe YOU will have someone thats perfect for it! I mean I was thinking about getting my Dad these adorable glasses with the pink heart decal on them but he already bought them for himself! Jeez Dad!

Anyway, here are my finds!

1. Nerdy Heart Glasses by Steppie : If these aren't the cutest thing in the world I don't know what is!

2. Custom Vintage Image of Your Pet by HotDigitalDog : This is hysterical, I need one for every dog I've ever owned!

3. William Shakespeare Shower Curtain by Custom Shower Curtains : I laughed out loud when I found this!

4. "Thats What She Said" Print by RighteousLens : Ummm, I LOVE "The Office", need I say more?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Another Blast From The Past...

I kept digging through pictures after my last couple fabulous throwback picture finds and found this...and pretty much haven't been able to stop giggling about it for the past 5 mins. It's an excellently perfect 80's Sears Photo Center style family portrait of my parents and baby me!

It cracks me up! I hardly recognize my father in this picture, but my Mom hasn't changed much at all :) I pretty much look the same, I still wear that red jumper from time to time...

It's quite possible that I'm just a little punchy today, and will laugh at almost anything as I haven't gotten much sleep the past week. I've been a busy bee, not only with orders but with helping my Mommy bake things for tomorrows Thanksgiving gorge! I made a Cheesecake, Pumpkin Muffins, and some Cranberry Apple and Walnut Relish....Mmmm! I even spent some time in my jewelry studio, and it's only 3pm! Why am I being so productive? I need to cut it out! :)

Well, that's all for me today! I'm pooped and it's puppy nap time around these parts, and I'm thinking I just might join in! I'm sure I'll find time to blog tomorrow when I a bored to tears being forced to watch football :)

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Back In The Day....

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older."

~ Tom Stoppard

When I was a kid, I was awesome. Actually, I'm hoping that description is still applicable now as well. I kinda looked like a boy, but thats ok, I feel it just added to my effervescent charm and general overall coolness.

I collected rocks and sold them at garage sales, I hated wearing jeans, I tried to drink the juice out of solid fruit with a straw, I LOVED Macaroni and Cheese, I rode around on a Big Wheels and gathered a treasure trove of items to store underneath the cool flip open seat, I was a hairdresser, my favorite show was Sharon, Lois and Bram, and I loved listening to Bon Jovi and Guns N' Roses. I even fought crime with the Lebanon, New Hampshire Police! I was a busy kid, a funny kid, and a generally weird kid. Luckily, not much has changed, at least with the "weird" description.

I came across a couple pictures of me when I was about 4 or 5 and decided they were so excellent that i had to share them with you! I wonder if the tiny "me" in these pictures had any inkling that one day I'd be playing with fire and metal as my job? Or that my life would be almost completely controlled by a silly website called Etsy?

Life was a lot simpler when all I had to do was fight crime, make fresh orange juice and collect rocks to pay the rent :)

Holiday Trunk Show Continued: The Guests Arrive!

I was literally only able to snap a few pictures of the trunk show and guests in action at the very beginning of the show,within the first 20 mins of it while there was still room to move around! Once everyone showed up it was pretty impossible for me to duck in an out of corners to secretly snap photos of the guests shopping so I just gave up and focused on the trunk show itself.

So anyway, here are the few shots I did manage to snap of my happy guests mingling, having cocktails, laughing, browsing and trying on jewelry! Thanks again to everyone who came out, it was so much fun! Can't wait for next year!

2nd Annual Mega Holiday Trunk Show : THE SPREAD!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. " ~Norman Vincent Peale

I am happy to report that the Mega Holiday Trunk Show I told you about a couple days ago, that's been keeping me from blogging for so long, was a raging success! I had a huge turnout, tons of sales and lots of fun! At times it was pretty overwhelming and I was having issues forming complete sentences because I had so many people talking to me at once! I can't complain though since thats a great problem to have :)

I've had a couple days to recover a bit, I had originally planned to give myself the full weekend off, but thanks to a sudden explosion of Etsy sales beginning the night of the trunk show (Thursday) and through the weekend, I'm just as busy as ever!

While I am in fact a very busy bee right now, I DID promise you all some photos of the Trunk Show! I have quite a few so I'm going to have to split them into 2 posts, this particular post will just be photos of the setup, next will be some of the party!

I setup the display the day before the Trunk Show, it took me ALL DAY LONG! I probably had well over $10,000 in retail product displayed! Thank god I planned ahead and gave myself a full day to play with the setup and lights etc! Anyway, enough of this blabbering, on to the pictures!!!

"Why don't you just say it, I'm a Cotton Headed Ninnymuggins..."

Wow, what a bad blogger I've been! Where the heck have I been? It seems as though I had fallen right off the face of the Earth and got sucked into a black hole! Well, actually, I did! But let me explain...

For the past 3 weeks or so I've been feverishly preparing for my Annual Holiday Trunk Show, and today is the day of "The Big Show"! I'm nervous, excited, exhausted and a million other things, I never deal well with the anticipation on the day of the event! Up until today, my days have been packed with jewelry making, pricing, cleaning, organizing and wrapping up loose ends, I think when I go to sleep tonight, after the show, it will be the most magically restful and peaceful sleep of my life. To sleep without the thoughts of a looming show dancing through my brain for one night will be nothing short of bliss!

Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know, I haven't forgotten about my blog, and I promise to get back on the right blog track! For now, I must get back to cooking up some yummy treats for my trunk show guests and making sure everything is in order. 6:30pm is the magic hour, cross your fingers for me!!! I promise to blog about the party aftermath and include some nice pictures of the event! I'm hoping to get some shots of people in action whilst they shop, laugh, drink and play :)

Oh yeah, by the way, my Christmas spirit is officially in full swing, and I wanted to spread the love, so I leave you with this...

Happy 3rd Birthday To My Little Vemelope!!!

Today is a wonderful day, it's my little chicken nugget, Vemelope Sweetie Pie Lover Lambchop's 3rd Birthday!! Yay! She's had lots of birthday fun today, including a trip to Pet Smart where she got some special doggie cookies WITH frosting, a squeeky Rubber Chicken Dressed as Santa, a Purple Monkey and a blue Puppy Snuggie!!!

Mel was also lucky enough to get a birthday package today in the mail from her Aunt Alex who is out in Boston for school! She g

ot this ctie little red hoodie, and Aunt Alex made her a fun little birthday photo collage, and even included the other babies, Macy & Marley!

Happy Birthday Mellie!! We love you!

Reincarnated: I would if I could!

While driving back from the grocery store today, I found myself on a really weird train of thought...it's possible that this is a sign of needing medication but here it goes anyway...

I don't really know what what happens to us when our human life ends, and the rest of time begins, it's something that I've always found to completely mind boggling. That said, I think I believe in reincarnation...for the most part. But I'd rather be reincarnated as something awesome, rather than just a squirrel or a tree or a really cute dog. If was is possible to be reincarnated as a song, this is the song I'd come back as. You could just listen to this song, and remember how awesome I was :)

Etched Holiday Pendants, SAVED!!!

Yay! I managed to salvage a number of pendants from what I thought was a ruined sheet of etchings! These will be LIMITED EDITION pieces, hopefully I will be able to etch some more next week :)

Anyway, I just listed all the Holiday Pendants in the SHOP! And you can check out the HAPPY HOLIDAYS section for more holiday fun-tasticness!

WANT! WANT! WANT!

My little Miniature Dachshund, Vemelope aka Mel, HATES wearing any sort of dog clothing. In fact, she is so humiliated by wearing clothes that she sinks into a deep depression whilst the garment is on her and either scurries away or runs to the nearest person to lay her little head on their shoulder while she cries.

Well, too bad for Mel, because she's wearing clothes because, 1. she's always shivering and 2. I think it's funny :) (I know I'm a bad dog mom!)

Anyway, I'm totally eyeing both of these darling little puppy ensembles for Mel for Christmas! And yes, I totally shop for my dogs for Christmas...

I hope Mel doesn't sneak onto the computer and peak at my blog! It would be awful to ruin it special Christmas surprises :)

Don't judge me guys, I know I can be a little strange, but just go with it!

:) :) :) :) :)

1. Reversible Pink/Grey Fleece Hoodie with Pom Pom by Anniessweatshop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31966412

2. Ruffle Rump Dog Sweater in Grey by hoverfly: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=33140710

Failure & The Pep Talk

Last night I was all excited to etch a sheet of sterling to make some cute little limited edition holiday pendants ....

Well, I etched, and failed. I made a couple of mistakes that ruined the etch quality, major bummer. I even had a mini spazzy "ugly cry" meltdown about it!

So, I turned to the other metalsmiths in the Etsy forums for some advice/support/ideas/troubleshooting and they thankfully came to my rescue and revived the hope I had of making these darling little pendants.

This morning I made the decision to pay the large amount of money needed to order more silver etchant, pay a funky hazardous shipping charge and give it another go. I've decided to force myself to try until I get it right! This motivation was aided considerably by Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt and a secretive Unknown Author...

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places." ~Author Unknown

I ain't givin' up yet guys! Stay tuned for the completed holiday pendants, because THEY WILL HAPPEN! :)

New Pendant Experiment Time! Your Opinion, Please???

I've been wanting to start incorporating faceted gemstones and cabochons into my jewelry for a while now but have struggled with doing so in "my style". The other day I had a rush of design ideas and did some quick sketches and this is what I came up with!

The pendant is small, about the size of a penny, and I'm thinking of doing a series of this style pendant but with different simple silhouetted design variations. I feel like it has a bit of a Renaissance feel to it...Yes?No? I want to do a series of these with different stones in simple tube settings, I used a Pink Topaz in this piece because it was just an extra stone I had laying around, not sure if I'd go with pink for others but we'll see!

Anyway, when it came out of the tumbler with the Bright Mirror Finish I wasn't overwhelmingly excited about it, though I REALLY wanted to be! SO I decided to try out a number of different finishes and compare them via photos afterward, and THANK GOD I did! I totally feel in love with the pendant after the sterile mirror polish was gone :)

I'm personally LOVING the Brushed Oxidized Finish, it brings so much more depth to the piece and I love that it feels a little ancient. I know not EVERYONE is into oxidized jewelry, so I think just even the Brushed Satin Finish is a great change/upgrade from the mirror finish it initially had. A nice bright option for bright silver lovers but still retains a bit of depth.

So, can I get everyones lovely opinions on this? Are you liking this simple pendant style? Which finish are you most drawn to?

Thanks for your help guys! I promise to get to that Trunk Show Secrets post by the end of the week!