Thinking About Christmas

Guess today's chilly weather has put me in a holiday mood, and that has me thinking about gifts.  It seems as though it gets more difficult each year to come up with new and creative gift ideas.  Being a jewelry maker, I have gifted many people in my life with my handmade jewelry, and I truly enjoy making something unique for the special people in my life.  I think about them a lot while I am working on their gift, which makes me feel even closer to them.  In effect, the gift is given to us both!

Here are a few new items I developed this weekend in a spurt of creativity!

New Shop on Bonanza

http://www.bonanza.com/booths/brightideasjewelry?utm_campaign=booth_complete&utm_medium=email&utm_source=email

Bonanza is a website similar to Etsy (handcrafted items).  Eventually, I will have all the items from Etsy also on Bonanza, a site that offers some additional features such as Rushes--short-term sales made up of multiple sellers in a collection of related categories.  A different Rush is held each day and items are discounted at least 15%.  I think it sounds like fun!  Also, buyers have the option to negotiate prices on specified items, which gives some additional flexibility when shopping.

Also, remember to check (and "like") my Facebook site -- listed as Bright Ideas Jewelry.  I have photos of the majority of my jewelry on this site, and some of these items have not found their way to Etsy or Bonanza yet, so you really get to see everything before it goes on sale publically.  Remember that many items can be customized with your choice of bead color, length, etc. Feel free to contact me through the FB site if something is calling your name! 

Thanks, and feel free to spread the word!

Kansas Winds

Saturday was the third annual Paxico Meatloaf Festival (yes, really) and my husband and I  had signed up as vendors.  We were there bright and early to set up our pop-ups and displays on the city's main street.  A thunderstorm had just passed through, so it was a little wet, but it promised to become a beautiful June day. 

It was beautiful -- but WINDY!  We tied the tents together and then tied them to street posts, and had weights all around, but our displays were no match for the Kansas wind, which gusted to 40 mph all morning.  After blowing over much of my display, including my earring stand, and after putting it all back together several times, we gave up.  My husband lost a couple of clocks and I had several damaged pieces.  Very disappointing, but a good reminder that 1) the wind always blows to some extent in Kansas and 2) outdoor shows require new thinking when it comes to wind-proof displays.

Here are a couple of new hoop earrings that survived!  Happy 4th of July to everyone!

When it rains...

We experienced one heckuva weather pattern last week, with tornadoes, baseball sized hail, near constant lightning, and absolute buckets of rain.  Fortunately, my home was not greatly affected, but sadly, several of my friends experienced damage.  One friend has been providing child care in the basement of her home.  After 7" of rain, the basement filled to the ceiling with water.  She and her family and friends spent the weekend clearing 7,000 pounds of MUD from the basement -- by shoveling it through the window!  I can't even imagine how tired (and dirty!) they must have been, and also how discouraged.

Her child care center has been completely destroyed.  Insurance will help, but won't cover all the costs of starting up again.  To help her replace supplies, toys, furnishings, etc., I would like to donate 50% of all sales from my Etsy site during the month of June to her.  Here is the link:

http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?q=brightideasjewelry

Here are a few earrings from my site, and I will be adding more this week.  Thank you for your help!

                           

Hot Fun!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/brightideasjewelry?ref=pr_shop

Just received and read the latest issue of Jewelry Business Success News (link below) and, as usual after reading this fabulous newsletter, I'm wishing I could be home creating something beautiful.  But --the regular job must come first!  I really loved the tip from one of the readers about Squareup.com, a site where you can obtain a credit card reader that attaches to your phone.  What an amazing idea!  It will make future craft shows so much easier.

Feeling in a summery mood today and chose to feature "Hot Fun" earrings -- created with silver plated wire that plays around with a hot orange glass bead.  

If you are a jewelry artist, a wannabe jewelry artist, you wear jewelry, you like to look at pretty stuff -- check out the site below.  In addition to extremely helpful information, there are numerous photos of stunning jewelry and links to artists' sites.

<a href="http://www.home-jewelry-business-success-tips.com/newsletter-149.html%22%3EJewelry Business Success News, Issue #149</a>

Has spring finally arrived?

Last week I needed to drive to northern Kansas for work, and my route took me through the rolling hills of the prairie.  In Kansas, farmers and ranchers burn off their pastures in the early spring, and for a short time the ground is black and charred.  However, after just a few days, new bright green grass begins to emerge, which I'm told makes for fatter cattle!  It also makes for a beautiful landscape, and last week was the perfect time to witness this.  The gentle hills are covered now in stunning bright green grass, and one pastoral scene followed another.  I definitely need to get out more! 

So, my jewelry choice for this week is "Time for Spring" earrings -- long hoops with bright green seed beads in the color of new grass!

Whew!

What a weekend!  My Sweet Adelines chorus had our first Spring Fling, Bling, and Sing event which included a scrumptious lunch (I will post the chicken salad recipe when I get it -- it was terrific), favors of homemade marshmallows in pastel colors with matching cupcakes, all followed by a fashion show from CJ Banks and Christopher and Banks.  Of course, there was singing by the chorus and shopping with HCI Fundraising.  All in all, a very fun afternoon!

This was followed by another scrumptious lunch at Red Lobster with my husband, mother-in-law, and two of her friend in honor of Mother's Day.  My Weight-Watchers plan suffered horribly this weekend, so I am back off the "gravy train" for the workweek.

Here is my featured piece of jewelry for this week: Celtic Inspired Earrings of silver plated wire -- light, delicate, versatile

Today I am honoring my sister Lori, who not only raised lots of money, but also walked the entire 39 mile route at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington DC this past weekend.  She walked in honor of her many friends and relatives, including our sister Sue and myself, who have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.  She said we are her heroes -- but she is mine!  Thank you, Lori, and all the others who have raised money, and blisters, for this cause!

Keepin' On

Last week I received some aluminum wire I had ordered and I was anxious to try it out.  Since it was 16g, I thought it would be good for a pin -- and I think it was!  However, my fingers were totally black from working with the wire, which was very tarnished.  It took a lot of polishing, but here is what I came
 up with:
  

Monday again...

Good morning!  It is a beautiful spring day here in Kansas. I'm back at work and recovering from a busy two-day show, the annual Tulip Festival in my home of Wamego, KS.  What a wonderful turnout -- of course, the great weather had a lot to do with that!  I had my Bright Ideas Jewelry booth there, and did pretty well.  Also got some new ideas and great tips from other vendors about supplies (checking out Trimline and KD canopies), doing shows out of state (how to deal with the sales tax thing), and tips for easy packing/unpacking of supplies (working on a "fold-up" necklace display).
Have a wonderful week!

More snow!

I'm definitely not a winter weather fan, but I am grateful for a "snow day" today, which means I will get to stay home!  I have joined the Year of Jewelry 2011 activity, and can really use the time to work on this week's item.  Jewelry designers create one piece each week based on a given theme, and submit their work to a group blog  http://www.bleilysgems.com/YearofJewelry2011.  Check out the amazing work done by the YOJ artists!  This week's theme is "Down and Dirty..." and I am still trying to figure out how it might translate into something...

Here is my submission for Week 2 -- Eclipse:

Happy New and Exciting Year!

My holiday break (from my "real" job) just ended.  It was wonderful to be able to sleep in and make plans for each day based on what I really wanted to do.  What I wanted to do a lot was make new jewelry -- so I did!

Thanks to Eni Oken and Friends fabulous website (http://www.jewelrylessons.com/), I downloaded a few tutorials for inspiration. Check out new earrings at http://www.brightideasjewelry.com/:  Every Which Way, Simple Spiral, What's the Question?  I still have a few more new things to get posted on the website, so stay tuned.

May you have a fantastic, fullfilling, and bejeweled 2011!