Friday Finding

I am so thrilled because one of our designs has been featured!! Susan of Capitola Girl writes a weekly column for Posh Mama about great new jewelry findings. She has done a write-up about her ring fetish and has included our Ring of Autumn as one of her faves! Have a look:

http://www.poshmama.com/profiles/blog/show?id=896743:BlogPost:135996&page=1#comment-896743:Comment:136323

The Feeling of Frustration

...with everything right now! For starters, my almost 3 year old daughter has woken up every night this week screaming for a certain animal to hold in her hand. Not just once, several times a night. Now, this may be my fault for letting her sleep with stuffed animals, but why is this necessary?! I'm lucky if I get 2 good hours of sleep before the screaming begins. My room is right next to hers, so thin walls make her calls for help even more prominent. My daughter has always been a handful, but this is starting to wear on me. I guess she likes the security of her animals and I hate to banish them all from her bed, but if this continues, I guess I will have to. She is not one that will not persist in getting her own way. Secondly, my husband. Now I am not going to give a breakdown of all the things that drive me crazy about him, or I'd be here for days. However, his unwillingness to ever get up with our daughter in the middle of the night or his failure to see where I'm coming from is about all I can stand! Lastly, my business. Now, I LOVE making jewelry! It's the only thing I do for myself. However, I spend any and all free time (when daughter is sleeping) working on ways to get my name out there. It can be EXTREMELY time consuming and exhausting!! I'm not a very patient person, so I guess I thought it would all happen overnight. Obviously not the case!! There are hundreds of very talented jewelry artists out there and finding your niche can take a long time. At least I know I'm not the only one who feels this point of frustration. A fellow Skwiggazine member, Hilary Johnson, has blogged about this as well. Hilary is a very talented jewelry artist who is finding it overwhelming, as I am, marketing yourself on the internet. Visit her blog, Designing Hilary, and show her a little love. Well, it helped getting my frustrations out. Now I need a nap!

Our Furry Friends

I have almost finished adding a bunch of new items to our website. We've also added some new categories. With summer fast approaching, we've added Anklets to our collection, and since I've fallen in love with Vintaj natural brass, there is a Brass category filled with necklaces, earrings, and a pretty cool bracelet if I do say so myself. Check them out and let us know what you think.

I love visiting other blogs to see what others are doing. I recently visited Karen's blog Cherished Dreams and couldn't help feeling both happy and sad. Karen is a real animal lover. She recently became Mom to a 5 year old dachshund named Peanut. She now has 5 doxies and 5 kitties. The sad news is one of her beloved kitties was hit by a car. I can't imagine how she must have felt. Ever since I was a little girl I have loved animals. I even wanted to become a veternarian. Like Karen, I have a dachshund. Just one, however. Andy is quite a dog. He is five years old and has a mind of his own and isn't happy until he's tight up against you. He is a wonderful companion to my little girl. She loves to feed him, give him toys and play with him. He is very patient with her as she can get a little rough sometimes. He is the first dog I've really ever had. I've always lived with cats. My feline baby is almost 11 now. The moment I saw Pumpkin as a furry little baby I fell in love with her. Even though my attention has shifted quite a bit, she is still very loving. She spends most of her day hiding from Andy and Chloe but she does let Chloe feed her treats every night. It's very cute. I don't know what I'd do without her. I can't imagine a home without pets. They can be a lot of work sometimes, especially dogs, but I wouldn't want it any other way!

Great New Places

Getting your name out there is truly a hard thing to do. I never could have imagined how many great jewelry artists there are out there. Every day I try to plug away a little bit, while Chloe is sleeping or playing. I recently joined a group called Everything Skwiggle, which is dedicated to bringing artists together for a place to chat, show off their newest creations, and help each other out. Missy has done a really great job making this a community for all of us. She has taught me many things and I'm happy I had the opportunity to "meet" her, so to speak!

Through Everything Skwiggle, I have also had the pleasure of "meeting" a very talented jewelry maker, Annette Piper. She has a background in gemology and has some phenomenal pieces! She has a great blog, Under the Loupe, which you should check out. Annette lives in Australia, which I can't even imagine, but they are getting ready for their winter months. I have to say I like all four seasons, but there's something about curling up by the fireplace while snow is falling outside that just makes me happy. I'm probably one of the few. Go see for yourself these great new places to visit!

The Hidden Meaning of Your Name

I found this little quiz and thought it would be interesting:

What Michelle Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Most of this is true, however, there are a few things that aren't. I am not flaky, irresponsible and I'm not usually too relaxed! I also can't say that success has ever come to me easily. I've always worked hard for everything. Well, it can't all be true, right?

We are back from our first Girls Night Out event! We managed to sell quite a bit of jewelry, gave out some business cards and had a great experience! It was definitely exhausting to say the least, but I'm so glad we did it! Here are some photos of our booth and new pieces we hope to add to the website soon.

Here We Go

It's a rainy day here in Lebanon, but Cindy and I are doing our first Girls Night Out event tonight in Philly. I have spent some long and tedious hours making new pieces for the show and for our website. I have to say I'm a bit nervous! Not only is this a new experience for me, but I'm not used to being away from my little girl so much! I'll be gone most of the day and only home about midnight each night, but at least I'll get to see her in the morning! I hope to bring back some great experiences and a lot less jewelry!!
I have been contemplating opening an Etsy store, which I only found out about after we launched our website. It seems like a great place to sell your products and there are a lot of talented people out there. One I've found is Marilyn from Cigarbox Beads. Not only is she a very talented designer, but she is featuring 90 Etsy artists in 90 days on her blog! Go check out what she's got going on. Maybe when I'm finished with the week, I will go ahead and open that Etsy store! Well, here we go!!