Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving...and Black Friday/Cyber Monday

I'd like to wish a safe, and Happy Thanksgiving to my stateside friends!  I hope your day is filled with family time and you are creating many wonderful memories to hold near and dear to your heart!

As I was typing up this announcement...



it occurred to me that the month of December starts this Sunday...DECEMBER!!  Where did this year go?  Anyway, I will be adding items to my Etsy shop all weekend long! 

The wonderful folks at Love My Art Jewelry are helping those who create handmade this season. They have provided a link-up on their site for many, many handmade artists who are having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday event in their shops....all in one handy dandy place!  One stop shopping - no driving involved!  Just click the image below :)


Please support handmade artists this Holiday Season! Thanks for stopping by!

xo
Patti


Monday, November 25, 2013

Time for a Rest, Albeit a Short One!

I survived both of my shows last week!  The first show was an open house - I got there at about 9:45 AM and the open house opened at 11:00. It was very slow - sales wise.  However, my table was next to the kitchen and Cathy Seltzer - the hostess's lovely sister - kept putting out the most wonderful food ALL.DAY.LONG. The smells emanating from the kitchen were indescribable, as was the food!  INCREDIBLE. Thank you, Cathy! :)

I had 3 small sales all day long.  Then, about 6:30-7:00 PM, tons of people showed up.  I mentioned on Facebook - it was like a line at WalMart on Black Friday.  Amazing!  So, in the end, the show went well.

Dani graciously allows me to use her kitchen table for my set up (Dani has 4.5 children and her table is huge! (Baby number 5 will arrive within the next 4-6 weeks!)



I put my size 12 black dress on Lolita's size 8 body - luckily it tied in the back!  The dress looked much better on her than me!


Originally, I placed this necklace on Lolita, made with the amazing beads of GlassBeadArt.

I am happy to report that it sold!

I have been using ALOT of copper in my jewelry lately.  Almost all of my jewelry displays are black, which looks great with my silver pieces.  But I must say, the copper gets lost on these displays.  I am thinking of changing to some sort of neutral/natural looking jewelry displays in the future.

Saturday's show was at St. Timothy's Catholic Church in Chantilly, VA.  This show is truly awesome - 125 artists - all handmade.  I did "okay" at this show last year, and I did much better this year.  I was so very pleasantly surprised.  Thanks go to my niece, who brought several of her friends, and other friends who came by to support me!  I could not have done it without you!! It was PACKED from 9:00 AM until closing at 3:00 PM. I also could not have done this show without my sister's assistance - thank you Lori!

A highlight of my day on Saturday was meeting Linda Sinish!  I have known Linda in the online world - I remember that I favorited one of her items on Etsy-she makes incredible jewelry!  She wrote me a sweet convo thanking me for the "Favorite".  She lived in West Virginia at the time, and was preparing to move back to this area.  She is here now, and I am so glad I finally got to meet her!

I am very happy to report that these two special pieces sold:

Gorgeous polymer clay beads donated to me from Jeannie Dukic.
GORGEOUS lampwork donated by Jan Onipenco of Molten Mayhem.
These pieces were important to me, as 100% of the proceeds were donated to Miracle Horse Rescue!  Thank you again, Jeannie and Jan!  I still have more beads from both of you and need to whip these up into jewelry as my last show for the year is around the corner - December 14th.

All in all, I was very pleased with the outcome of both shows and I made a nice donation to Miracle Horse Rescue.  Thank you to the bead artists whose beads I use to create my jewelry.  I could not do what I love to do without them!  These artists include Sue Kennedy of SueBeads, Jan Onipenco of Molten MayhemDonna Millard, Jeannie Dukic, Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio (all of my pieces made with her beads are now history!), Lynda Cogbill of LyndasLampwork, Julie of Outwest, Jody of Inspire Glass Studio, Maryse Fritzch-Thillens of GlassBeadArt, LazyCatBeads.  My list could go on for days here....

I will be having a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale later this week - stay tuned for a sale anouncement!  Also, I am thinking I need to have one more Giveaway after Cyber Monday...it is Christmas after all!  Stay tuned!

Thank you for stopping by!  The next two days will be weather-breakers for most of the Country.... I wish everyone a SAFE and Happy Thanksgiving!

xo
Patti