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>