open house/trunk show and my weekend in Chicago wrap up

Thank you for all of the well wishes about my open house/trunk show!  The two custom orders that I got before the show were a great sign of things to come and were enough to cover all of my travel expenses.  However, I'd still put a lot of work into the prep for this show and was hoping for lots of sales there as well.  It didn't disappoint.

The Pros:

-It was a very relaxed atmosphere.  People were happy to just hang out and eat.  I highly recommend providing food and wine and playing music.
-It was a small enough group (20 or so people total over 3 hours) that I was able to talk to everyone.  It was nice to socialize and not have all of the talk revolve around the business aspect of the event.
-While I knew most of the people there, my mom and our friend who hosted had invited some friends I didn't know so I was able to network with new people.
-All but about 2 or 3 people bought at least one item.  Almost everyone spent over $10.
-Lots of people picked up business cards and/or free shipping cards without any prompting.  I am always surprised at shows how many people make purchases and don't pick up at least one business card.
-As for the new items, the glass magnets and metal charms were a big hit.  I got a lot of positive feedback about my cards and sold a few.
-As for the freebie items, they were very well received.  I had a mix of button post earrings, glass magnets, button magnets, button rings, and button hair pins.  People took just about everything except the hair pins, which just weren't a big hit at this show.  That's okay.  If I do another small event like this, I will offer freebies again.
-Linda was able to come!  It was awesome to meet her and see some of her work in person.

Personal Notes About My Display, the Logistics, Etc.:

-I like to allow at least 2 hours to set up for any show.  I only had about an hour and 15 minutes to set up for this.  While I did have some set up help, this was not nearly enough time, especially considering all of the new displays and items that I had.  I can rethink some of my new item set up to minimize the time it requires in the future, but I still need at least 2 hours.
-I knew that going super cheap on my card display easels was going to bite me in the butt, and it did.  I think I'm going to base them on card stock and then secure the card stock to my tables in the future.
-My new banner did not have enough support in the middle.  You can see that in the photos.  I will need to create some loops like the sides have to secure the top to the table next time.  Tape just doesn't cut it with the fabric table covers.  Otherwise it worked well.
-I've been thinking about adding at least one skinny table to my display for 2012 shows so I can create an L shape of sorts.  Adding all of my new displays out for event made it very apparent how necessary that is.  I don't want to crowd my jewelry or compromise the new item space.  Eventually I'd like to add two skinny tables and make an open square but for now, one should suffice.
-A 3 hour show is not a long time to sell when you consider the 3-4 hour set up/tear down time around it and the travel time.  I have a lot of family and friends in the Chicago area so I don't mind making a trip there for the social aspect of the weekend as a whole, but a local open house does make more sense logistically.

Would I do this again?

Definitely.  I would adjust a few of the logistical things I mentioned above.  I would also give potential guests/customers more notice.  We put this together in a few weeks, which worked out okay, but a few more weeks would be preferable I think.  Additionally, I'd be interested in doing a local show at some point, too.  We'll see if that idea can pan out next year.

What else did I do in Chicago?

While I was in Chicago, I had the opportunity to do a few other fun things as well.

Have you done an open house before?  How did it go?  Share your stories, tips, etc.

I included this post in Erika's It's a Wrap Link Party - 2/13/2012.

weekend happenings

As promised, I did take a picture of my bead organizers in their new home.

I've added some more stuffed animals to the top since then.  You get a little glimpse at some of our dorky/nerdy books, too.  Half of Jake's fantasy and sci-fi books are on the top.  All of the classics books that I'm keeping (for now anyway) are on the bottom along with a few random medical books/materials.

I got a custom order on Friday for a couple of my button embellished designs.

You can see the original versions that are still available in my shop as well as the buttons that I'm going to use for her longer versions.  I've been planning to make another rainbow version at some point anyway so this is the perfect excuse to use some of those tiny buttons that I've been hording.

I'm also in another treasury.  Jillian (CreativeLily) included my Beaded Bracelet - Jade Elegance in her Etsy Bloggers Team: Spring is on Its Way (I had to correct the grammatical error there.  Hopefully you can forgive Jillian, too, because this is a beautiful collection.)

weekend show, October EBW Challenge voting

Since I know that people are curious, I'll go ahead and post briefly about the show this weekend.  It was pretty much a bust.  I broke even, but that's about all I can say for it.  It was not a juried show, and a lot of people suffered from the lack of diversity in available products.  There were also a lot of people who were just there looking and not buying much.  I had a pretty good time and met some nice people.  Jake and I had a good time visiting some of his relatives while we were out in the Des Moines area.  It's still not a show that I'll do again.  The show that I'm doing in November is also not juried but is larger and has an admission fee so hopefully people who are coming will be more serious about buying.  Hopefully the November show will have more Christmas shoppers, too.

I took some pictures of my display.  I was against a white wall so my larger shots didn't turn out very well, but you can see closeups of my two larger tables.  I had two smaller ones on the side with my business cards, button magnets, pattern CDs, and a few other things.

Moving on, voting for the October EBW Challenge Autumn Falling of Leaves started yesterday.  You can vote at the EBW blog by clicking here.  Voting is on the right side of the page.  You can vote through October 15.  Many people chose to interpret falling of leaves loosely or simply made autumn pieces which was a little disappointing to put it nicely.  Here's my own piece again:

as well as some of my other favorite leafier entries:
Autumn Jewels Beadwoven Necklace by beadsandblooms

Maple leaves bracelet EBWC by AnnaCohen

OOAK Maple Autumn Falling of leaves Necklace October 2010 EBWC by bead4me

Autumn Leaves Bracelet - EBWC Challenge by Starwaves

Drift By My Window Beadwoven Cuff Bracelet - EBWC by littlestonedesign

weekend happenings

I spent a lot of time this weekend going through more old books that I want to list on Amazon or Ebay.  Just when I think I'm nearing the end of what I want to list, I find a whole new shelf or box that I haven't gone through.  This is a picture that I took in the middle of my progress today.

I linked my Amazon and Ebay shops above.  I have a lot on Amazon.  I only have a few listings up on Ebay right now, but I'll be listing more over the next month.  It's a lot of work, but every book we sell is one less book that we'll have to move again.

I've been working some more leafy pieces this weekend.  I'm going to list my EBW October challenge piece tomorrow.  Here's a sneak peak of it.

I'm going to use the longer leafy piece pictured above for the challenge.  I'll have a shorter one available for sale within the next week, too.

Finally, here's a picture of Angel that I took yesterday.  She's been spending a lot of time sleeping on the couch recently.

As you can probably tell by the scissors that I left there, that is exactly where I usually sit on the couch. :)

treasury feature, remake, wedding

As predicted, we've been really busy the last few days with all of the wedding events for one of Jake's best friend. It's been so much fun. :) Now I'm playing catch up with everything else.

My fellow EBW member Paula (PFordCustomJewelry) included my multicolored diagonal stripe peyote cuff in her Peyote cuffs! treasury in Treasury East. Thanks Paula!
You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE.

I edited and updated the listing for the leafy series - modern today for my newest version of it. I'm actually still in the process of tweaking the original version for the customer, but there is a new version for others now.


I took almost 175 pictures during throughout the weekend of the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and the other events surrounding everything. I still haven't gone through all of the pictures from my sister-in-law's confirmation weekend a couple weeks ago so I obviously haven't gotten to all of these yet either. I edited a couple of my favorites, though.

wrapping up the weekend

Overall it was another productive weekend. I photographed all of my finished bead woven projects and a handful of button stud earrings. It was pretty cloudy most of the weekend, but I was able to get some decent photographs in the natural daylight. I finished a couple dozen button magnets. If I complete all the magnets currently in process, I'll have just over 50 for the Arts Festival. I will probably work to get at least a dozen more, but if not, I'm still pretty happy with I have. I made progress tagging my items. I'll finish that up sometime next week when I finalize my inventory.

I also got my cash apron in the mail yesterday. I ended up getting the RTG - A HENRY PICNIC vendor - craft apron from PoppysGardenGate. Poppy and Cinders have a couple really cute Hello Kitty aprons in their shop. It took all of my self restraint not to get one. Hello Kitty has been one of my favorite things ever since I was little. I'm 27, and a lot of people think that I look younger than that. I don't want to do anything to encourage that notion so I resisted. I'm still pretty happy with the Henry Picnic print. I was a little worried that the apron would be long (I'm 5'2 and skinny), but it's just right. I will be 100% honest here: It's not the finest craftsmanship that I've ever seen, but for something that I'll wear/use pretty infrequently, that's okay.

I almost finished a pair of peyote triangle earrings to match my new fall embellished cuff. I have a few more small projects that I've lined up for this week as well. I spent the majority of the rest of the weekend cleaning and doing laundry. I have spared you from the full washing machine drama here, but we do have a new washer (this is new #2) that is working so we are caught up again. I cannot tell you how good it feels to say that!

I hope that everyone has a good week. :)

continued weekend progress

I hope that all of the mothers reading this have had a Happy Mother's Day. :)

Today was another productive day with crafty endeavors. I finished the majority of the signs for my booth. Currently I have them under a large book to flatten them out a bit. I will take (and post) pictures of them later this week. I've decided that I will have enough magnets to sell them at the Arts Festival so I need to finish all of the ones that I have assembled but not yet glued. I made a decent amount of progress with that today. I photographed three bead woven items and two button stud earrings. I organized my finished but not yet photographed button stud earrings. The weather was gorgeous today, and I was able to photograph outside. Finally, I finished a cuff that I've been working on intermittently for the past couple months. It's similar to my Easter morning peyote cuff but with a fall color scheme.

I picked out the beads for a pink/black skinny peyote cuff. I think working on Sharla's cuff a couple weeks ago inspired me to make another skinny cuff right away because I finally finished pink/black one yesterday. While I had the pink base beads out, another idea came to mind. Normally if I name my pieces, I don't do it until they're completed. Also, I normally don't pick out the button that I'll use for the clasp until I've finished the rest of the piece. However, a name popped into my head right away, and while I was searching for a pink/black button clasp, I found a perfect button for this cuff, too.

Here's my mix with the button. It's going to be a wrapped cuff like this one but with more embellishment. I'm going to call it Birthday Cake.


I hope that this week gets off to a great start for everyone tomorrow!

new listing, button treasury

I listed my second pair of leaf earrings tonight. This pair is in cream.

I have another pair in turquoise that I'll be listing soon. I had fun going through my seed bead collection and finding Czech seed beads that matched delicas. I have pink and lime green pairs picked out for future earrings.

I also curated a Treasury West today. As I'm sure you know, it's pretty rare that I catch an opening, but sometimes on a weekend or a break it does happen. This one is called Buttons in Action! I'm pretty excited about it. I haven't featured button items in WAY too long.

You can view this treasury live by CLICKING HERE until Monday May 10 11:08PM EST.

Some of these items have been in my favorites list for quite a while, but I came across a few of them this weekend: the red and gray button earrings, the daisy chain button bracelet, and my new favorite the clock button ring. Now that I've started tackling button earrings, I'm itching to do a few button rings. If anyone has any advice about where to get quality ring blanks, please let me know.

I photographed a handful of new items today, including a few more pairs of button stud earrings, which are now ready for the Arts Festival. It's been chilly here today (high 40s) so I took pictures inside. They still turned out pretty well. I'm planning to work on the pricing signs for my table this weekend. I'll have tags on all of my items, but I'm going to have signs for items with the same price and for 2 for 1 price deals as well. I have a pretty good idea how these will look, but if anyone has any ideas/advice for a bigger shop sign and how to hang it, please let me know!

the creative routine (or lack thereof)

This blog is not a place for me to rant about anything. However, I came home from work today and attempted to use one of our newest appliances, only to find that it's malfunctioning. We have not had the best luck with the majority of our appliances in this condo. The past 4 months have been especially bad. I did not have the best day at work and that was the last thing that I needed to come home to. It will get taken care of, but it is still no fun to deal with.

I know that's not much of a rant, but I usually don't like to spend a lot of time on things like that there. I did have one really good piece of news today and that took a lot of the fun out of it for me tonight. So I'm waiting until tomorrow to reveal it. Stay tuned!

Other than being really burned out on this semester in general, things are going pretty well. Jake and I were with his immediate family for the weekend for his littlest sister's confirmation. It's always crazy driving back to see either of our families for a weekend, but it really meant a lot to her that we were there. I will post a few pictures from a couple different things this weekend on Facebook at some point. I've been a little slow about getting non-jewelry/Etsy related pictures posted lately. I brought two bead weaving projects with me. I normally don't get any or get very little jewelry making done when we're spending time with family, but I actually finished both projects! I have a lot of errands and meetings the next couple weeks, which will make weekday picture taking even more tough than normal. I will find some time to get all of my new items photographed at some point, though.

Since we got back, I've been resorting/organizing beads from some of my recently completed projects and figuring out what I want to work on next. More on that soon as well as some more features and other fun things. :)

more green for spring

I did not do any more gluing work or take any pictures today because it was colder again (by which I mean 50's), cloudy, and off and on rainy all day. Next weekend is looking the same, but hopefully there will be at least one or two days this week that will allow for either activity. I had to redo the original the leafy series - modern bracelet for the person who bought it, and while I had the beads out this weekend, I went ahead and worked up another one. I haven't worked on any leafy designs since I did the original modern one back in the winter, but this got me excited about the design again. I need to redo my own purple/pink one (which is my fault for twisting the beads). I'd like to make another version of that to sell as well as new versions in turquoise, pink/green, and autumn.

I also finished another pair of earrings, made progress on a cuff that I've been working up sloooowly for a couple months now haha, and got everything ready to start Sharla's bracelet!

I put together another collection of green, not specifically leafy items for spring. Enjoy!

Cards Park Trail watercolor landscape Mill by lauriesdesigns

Black Peyote on Pear Silk String Bracelet or Choker by SandFibers

Set of SIX TUMBLERS made from Recycled Wine Bottles by bottlehood

Landen Road Kiln Fired Clay 2 inch Button Set by LandenRoadDesigns

Continuing with the buttons...
Blades of grass on a spring morning Handmade Pottery by Mudcakes

Tree Silhouette Wrap LEATHER Cuff Brown Chartreuse by hollyhawk

And other cuff...
Triple strand fabric cuff in fresh green sprout by PonderandStitch

couple new listings, Saturday progress

I actually put this first listing up yesterday, but it totally slipped my mind to post about it here.


I took pictures of these beads at two different times, and both times they came out really dark. They have the same purples that I used in my purple beaded leaf earrings. I know that those photographs also turned out pretty dark. However, if you look at the third photo in that listing, you'll get a better idea what the beads really look like. They would work wonderfully for earrings, a bracelet, or necklace. They also make neat jewelry toggles.

I listed this new pair of earrings just a few hours ago.

Believe it or not, this was the first time that I attempted single drop peyote stitch with delicas. I had mixed single and double and done single with larger beads like size 8 Tohos, but never done a straight single with delicas. I am really pleased with the overall look of these earrings. I may make something similar again the future, but I don't have any specific colors in mind at this point.

I got all of the beads in the earrings through the Art Beads blogging program. These are actually from my Valentine's Day stash. I still haven't gotten to a project with my spring stash! These earrings include beads from the Swarovski section and the seed beads section, specifically the Miyuki delicas.

Jake and I got a new washing machine today. (We actually bought it last weekend but waited to have it delivered until today so I wouldn't have to take off work.) I've only done one load in the last two weeks so I've been playing catch up! While that's been going on, I did some gluing work for new earring studs, magnets, and tacks before it started raining this afternoon. I also finished the second of two pendants in my color explosion scheme that are currently listed as "made to order" items in my Etsy shop. I thought it was worth restocking them. Finally, I started working with Sharla (BeadedTail) on a custom bracelet to coordinate with her raspberry filled peyote triangle earrings! It will be a skinny fringed cuff like this one. She just okayed the beads that I picked out so I'll share them here.

I'm excited to start working on that this week. :)

Disclosure - I received my ArtBead's products free of charge through their blogging program. I am honestly reviewing their products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products I received.

weekend happenings

Last night was the annual med school Frolics at Iowa. I got a picture of the sign this year.
Basically Frolics consists of 30-40 students from each class putting on a "skit" (which can include music, videos, etc.) about what their year of med school is like. It's one of the best events all year. Out of the 3 years that we've been, this show was the best yet. Good times.

In other non-jewelry related matters, Jake's desk chair broke this week. Target had a wonderful model on clearance so we ended up getting two new chairs. I took my old one to work (because believe it or not, the old one is much better than any chair I've ever had there). Yay for another upgrade to our living room! It would be nice if we enough room for a separate office space, but for now, this works well.

Our washing machine has been on its last legs for a couple months. I was hoping that it would make it until the summer, but it started smoking twice during a load on Friday. Thankfully I managed to get it to finish the current load (pictured below), but I'm not risking that again.
We bought a new one from Best Buy yesterday. They had a front load model in open stock that we got for a great price. It's small, but very efficient. We're having it delivered on Saturday so I won't have to take off work.

I spent most of this afternoon cleaning and getting stuff done around the condo, but I took a little time to work on some more button earring studs and button tacks. I also took pictures of a couple finished button studs and reshot a couple older pieces. I like spacing out my picture taking. I get burned out and my pictures get boring if I take too many at once.

I will be listing a coordinating button charm bracelet and earrings tomorrow. Stay tuned!

book recommendations, new listing

There are several new jewelry/bead weaving books that I've checked out lately that I haven't mentioned here yet. The first is Custom Cool Jewelry: Create 200+ Personalized Pendants, Charms, and Clasps by Melinda Barta, which I got for my birthday. This is not specifically a bead weaving book and only has a couple ideas that incorporate any bead weaving. However, I will still get a lot of inspiration from this book. I really think that anyone who makes jewelry will. Melinda combines a lot of different materials in unique ways. The pictures and directions are pretty good.

There are also a couple books that I've recently checked out from the library. The first is The Pattern Companion of Beading by Ann Benson. This book covers a wide range of projects in a number of different stitches for both loom and offloom techniques for a pretty wide range of skills. The only thing I was really disappointed about with this book was the pictures. The directions are decent but the only pictures are small and honestly of pretty poor quality. They don't reflect the genius and beauty of the bead work. The second is The Art of Beaded Beads: Exploring Design, Color, & Technique edited by Jean Campbell, which has been the most inspiring book of the three. Any of you who bead weave probably already know that Jean Campbell is awesome. This book is no exception. That's really all there is to way about that. If you are interested in bead weaving at all, you will be inspired by something in this book.

I listed another square stitch cuff today. This one is in dark blue and dark turquoise. I posted a sneak peak of it a while back. Click on the pictures to check out the listing!


I am still thoroughly enjoying these square stitch cuffs. I completed a neutral one this weekend. I'm thinking about doing a bright one next: orange, yellow, and maybe some bright red...kind of a tropical color theme. This weekend I also took pictures of my newest 3D triangle earrings, the new cuff, and a couple more vintage button studs, plus I assembled a handful of new earrings, magnets, and tacks. Yay for nice weather!

Happy Easter (and weekend happenings)

Happy Easter everyone! I hope that you've been able to relax and spend time with family and/or friends today. I have. :)



I've also gotten a lot accomplished with making jewelry, taking pictures, etc. No sales but otherwise no complaints for the weekend. I made fourteen vintage button stud earrings, retook pictures of four older pieces, took pictures of five new pieces, made progress on two cuffs, and started another pair of earrings. I still have a lot of photo editing work ahead of me before any of my new or reworked listings will be ready, but taking all of the pictures was still a big accomplishment. Here's a picture of the vintage button studs in progress.
My in-laws gave me a ton of vintage button cards for Christmas. I sorted through all of them this weekend and picked out one pair from each color/style: fourteen in all! There are a couple smaller (less than 1/2") buttons as well that I didn't use for earrings. I'm very pleased with the results. More details on these to come.

I applied for the Iowa Arts Festival a while back and found out this week that I'm on the alternate list. They'll let me know if a spot opens up by mid May. There are a huge number of applicants for it so I'm glad to be considered at all. It's still a little let down of course that I didn't make the first cut, but that's okay. At a friend's urging, I've been looking into the North Liberty and Iowa City Farmers' Markets, both of which have booths available for crafts. I sent an e-mail to the North Liberty contact today and will send my registration form to the Iowa City office tomorrow. We'll see what happens!