Another Charity Event!
So my very good friend Lisa is training to run the Boston marathon! YAY Lisa! Even more cause for YAY is her cause! She is raising money for Boston Partners in Education (http://www.bostonpartners.org/). As you may know, children are near and dear to my heart, and I am so eager to help her raise some money. To do that, this week both of our etsy stores will be turning over 10% of total sales to Lisa who will in turn donate it to that organization! What a great way to get some holiday shopping done as well as promote Boston public schools! My internet has been down since Friday so I’m a little behind in promoting this event, but even still we have had three sales so far, earning Lisa a whopping $3 🙂 There’s still tons of time! Plus now that I have my wonderful internet back I’ve been able to list three new items! A cha cha keychain, inspired by one of my best friends who I previously mentioned commissioned us to make her mom’s Christmas present, a snowman bracelet to match the earrings we have sold and relisted, and finally a set of celestial earrings! Each item is very unique and a perfect stocking stuffer 🙂 Check out our shops, http://www.naturalluster.etsy.com and http://www.princesspenguin.etsy.com to see all we have to offer and help us help Lisa help Boston Partners in Education help Boston public schools! (whew!) YAY! Happy Etsying!
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It’s been so long since I’ve blogged!
Well, nothing much has happened. I work retail, and as everyone knows last weekend was Black Friday etc. so I worked a lot. I actually worked up a sweat, which is hard to do in my store because we don’t get tons of traffic usually. And Thursday was my first Thanksgiving not with my family! Every year, even when I have had boyfriends, I have always spent Thanksgiving with my paternal grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and most of the time some assortment of cousins. But now I live in Colorado, and my paternal family is not out here. It was weird not being with my Grammy. I think my grammy and I are kindred spirits 🙂 I know I’ve written about this before. In her honor I tried making her traditional lemon merangue pie. It came out alright, but definitely not as good as hers. For starters, I don’t have any sort of electric mixer, so I could only whip the merangue so much… I didn’t get it fluffy enough and I wasn’t able to make the peaks on the pie, it was just flat. And my husband wouldn’t even eat it, so I felt pretty bad about it. Next time I will get a mixer!
What else… we had one etsy sale over the weekend which was so exciting! We’re up to 10 sales total between our two shops. Not much, I know, but it’s a start 🙂 considering these are all carfty things we would be making anyway, selling a few of them kind of legitimizes our craft store bills 🙂
Last night one of my new work friends took me to her gym and was my impromptu personal trainer for an hour or so. This girl is in tip top shape, and I am not. I was a mess. Some things I just couldn’t even do because I managed to lose my sense of balance over the past few months haha! Before my wedding I was doing these Core Fusion workouts every day which strengthened the core and improved balance. Then after the wedding I moved out here and spent the summer studying for the bar, so all else was forgotten. I gained back all the weight I lost for the wedding, and lost my sense of balance! I even noticed it today riding my bike around the golf course. So tomorrow I’m starting up those core fusion DVDs again. I want to be skinny again, clothes fit better that way 🙂
Lastly, I just scored a treasury on etsy! Now that I know the trick to getting one (being patient and watching the number go down) I get them all the time. Tonight I made one featuring all Denver etsians. Hopefully all these etsians I feature in my treasuries will start returning the favor! I still have only been in two treasuries ever not counting the ones I put myself in! I don’t add myself in all of my treasuries, just once in a while if I have something that fits the theme. Here’s my treasury! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=97601
And that’s all! Time to shut off the computer and pay attention to my poor sick hubs. You know how men are when they get sick! ugh!
Free Shipping Worldwide this weekend only!
So we decided to take advantage of cyber-shopping this holiday season and we are offering free world wide shipping from Friday through cyber-Monday! So far I’ve never shipped anything internationally so this promo may come around to bite us in the bum, but I doubt it. Between the two of us and our two shops we’ve had under 10 sales 🙂
Here is a blog post listing the etsy sites offering Holiday deals, including ours! Thank you Pink Dandy Chatter!
http://pinkdandychatter.blogspot.com/2009/11/black-friday-special-deals-etsy-style.html
Yay for tonight!
Today started off awesome, I got to skype with my brother and his family in Germany. He’s stationed there as an officer of the US army. Not only is he awesome, but he married a very awesome girl and they have two of the most adorable kids. Hannah is 3 and already wears a size 6. She has wavy blonde hair and blue eyes and definitely looks like she belongs in Germany. David is 2 and he has big eyes and a big nose and just the sweetest, cuddliest little guy. Hannah is a terror. She is as un-dainty as they come. What’s hysterical is that now she is starting preschool, and she’s also starting CHEERLEADING! If you’ve never seen a three year old cheer leader, imagine a little girl jumping up and down shouting the Patty-cake lyrics, ending with a kick! HAHAHA it’s awesome.
Well anyway, I got to skype (video-chat) with them on the computer this morning.
Then Jeff made french toast! YUM.
I had to work a little later, but it was pretty busy in the store so it went by fast.
I came home and scored a treasury!! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=95569
After that, I was making the bed with freshly washed warm cozy flannel sheets, and *poof*! I got a sale! My very first sale on Princess Penguin! My Jane Austen wine charms sold! WOOO HOOOO I can’t relist because they are unique, but maybe I will see if I can find the charms again 🙂 I’m particularly pumped because this is the first thing I have made that sold! Everything else has been on Natural Luster and made by my business/creative/crafty partner, my mom. I know my mom is awesome, but I was feeling a little down that I couldn’t come up with anything sellable. FINALLY!!!!!!!!
So now I can go to bed in my warm cozy flannel sheets with a smile. 🙂 And maybe I’ll read some more of my Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters before I drift off to dreams 🙂
NIGHT!
Beaded Beauty
I just listed this peyote-stitched Chinese symbol for Beauty! I LOVE it. I’m so proud of how it turned out. It was my first attempt at making a picture with peyote stitch. Peyote is a bead weaving technique traditionally used to make bracelets and amulet bags, but my mom has always used it to make pictures, and she taught me! After I made this one I made her one for her birthday of a coffee mug. I don’t even know why, she doesn’t drink coffee. But she loves it.
I don’t even remember how long this took me to make, but it was a REALLY long time. I definitely got sick of it, but didn’t give up! And then I had it sitting around forever, unframed, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Then the other day my mom gave me a pack of paper she got at Michaels and inspiration hit! The pack is called “cloisonne” and it’s sooooo pretty. It’s really thick paper with designs on both sides, and some have glitter and stuff. I love it. Maybe I will finally try making resin jewelry and use that paper there… I dunno!
Anyway, my friend Jazmin was the inspiration for this Beaded Beauty. She is a beautiful artist and she creates beauty everywhere she goes! So I wanted to create some beauty too, and channel my bff Jazmin from across the country 🙂
I hope you like it! I LOVE it! I rarely am very proud of the things I make, but this I am 🙂
You can find it here! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34949231
I got another treasury!
This one features Swarovski crystals, because I LOVE them!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=75967
check it out!!
Frosty the Earrings Part deux
Last week we sold some snowmen earrings! My mom didn’t have the same exact pearls left so I couldn’t just relist, she had to make a whole new set. So here they are! These ones feature slightly larger pearls, which of course means slightly more fun.
I do love the holidays! I’m already so pumped for Thanksgiving. This will be the first time we are hosting it, and the guest list keeps slowly growing. First it was just my mom, then both my mom and step-father, then add new-to-CO friends Nick and Sarah, and now some other kid they know from their hometown! And me and my hubs of course. We are actually going to have to go back to the furniture store and buy two more chairs! 🙂 I’ve been trying to save my pennies to buy the blue charger plates I registered for at Crate & Barrel, but they are like $40 each. I need those ones because they match our accent dishes. They even match the teacup over there <—- But I can’t afford 8 plates at $40 each right now. I found some festive red plastic charger plates at Bed Bath for $9. And that’s $9 for a set of 6! So cheap. They feel cheap too, but as this is our first Thanksgiving I would rather have cheap but pretty red charger plates than just plain white plates anyway. So now I need a tablecloth!! I want to make my own, but we’ll see. It depends how much time I have 🙂 Otherwise I will be back at Bed Bath with another coupon in my hand 🙂
I can’t wait! I’m in charge of desserts and I’m going to make either my grandmother’s traditional lemon merangue or my great grandmother’s traditional graham cracker pie. Lucky for me I was given both recipes at my bridal shower 🙂 I love family traditions.
I’d love to hear about other family traditions!
Copper Mt. Angels
Posted some new earrings! It’s a copper version of the silver earrings already up. I love them! Show them some love!
They are named after Copper Mountain in Colorado because they are made of Copper and that’s what reminded me 🙂 Copper Mountain is the first, and so far only, mountain I have snowboarded on out here! It was a couple years ago, before I moved out here, so I was on vacation from MA. The altitude kicked my butt! Luckily, Copper had rest stops half way down the run, with a lodge and even lounge chairs outside! I definitely spent some time on those chairs contemplating why I was punishing myself so 🙂
But I recovered! And then I moved out here! This year I will try again, hopefully with less resting 🙂
My First Treasury
Yay! I scored an etsy treasury! Here it is!
Addicted to Austen
So you may or may not know that I am a complete Jane Austen addict. I won’t pretend I’ve read all of her novels yet, because I haven’t, but I have seen all the BBC movies, including multiple versions of the same story. I’ve read most of the novels except… Northanger Abbey I think is the only one I haven’t read… I’ve also read her short stories / poems / letters = hysterical!! She had quite the wit. Someone once compared Pride and Prejudice to today’s Sex and the City, the way both stories are all about people and personalities, and I do have to agree.
Anyway, in honor of my obsession I have made a set of 6 Austen-inspired wine charms!! I love wine charms. They were the favors we gave away at our wedding- my mom hand-made 448 unique wine charms, a set of 4 for each guest! Well, I think I made like 4 of them, and my macho army officer brother even made a few! I always use mine, even if I’m the only one drinking wine, sitting around my house watching tv with my husband. I guess I really just like to accessorize, or maybe it’s because I like to be extra fancy when totally unnecessary. That would explain why I love drinking OJ out of martini glasses and eating ice cream out of vintage tea cups. It’s the little things in life, right?
Anyway, here’s a picture and the link. Go see the rest! There is the cameo as seen here, a knee-high boot, a lady’s glove, a flirty fan, a carriage, and an umbrella, all set with black or silver seed beads and silver spacers! Check them out here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=34517756
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