New Year = New Stuff!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a restful Christmas and joyous New Year celebration! The Bead Up house went from crazy busy to crazy relaxed and back to crazy busy over the last week and a half! Between filling in lots of Bead Up orders for Christmas (both custom and from the shop) and even saying "yes" to a crazy call at 12:30p.m. on Christmas Eve to make a custom necklace for a co-worker who, at the last minute, needed a Christmas gift for his wife (...?!), the days leading up to Christmas were both rushed and quite profitable ;) The hubs and I then flew to my parent's in Kentucky at 4am on Christmas morning and spent the week celebrating the birth of Jesus and my own birthday! In addition to sleeping in, eating whatever was in my path of destruction, playing lots of board games and watching lots of movies, I also did quite a bit of shopping and stocked up on what I think is the beginning of my Spring Collection of supplies - all I am going to say is that it will involve lots of word charms :) Since my return to LA a few days ago, I already have quite a few custom orders on the queue, many of which I can't wait to blog about in the near future! That said, I managed to score quite a few free, cheap, or totally expensive items over Christmas, all of which will be very helpful to Bead Up in this new year! Back in November I entered several giveaways hosted by my new blog friend Celeste (with whom I did a giveaway earlier in the fall). I guess good karma gets returned to you, because I won a super awesome tote bag compliments of Memento! After a few e-mails back and forth with the creator of the tote, which included debating over colors and fonts, I got this beauty:

This tote is not only super cute and useful, but it's also collapsible! Perfect for jewelry parties and shows, in addition to storing my stuff around the craft room!

Lime, pink, and brown - Bead Up's favorites!

Thanks again, Celeste and Memento, for sharing your time and talents!

Next on my list was more items from Vistaprint. I have blogged before about how much I love their website and deals, which include crazy free e-mail promotions with no strings attached! I splurged a little before Christmas and ordered a (free!) Bead Up note book (with a slight typo - can you find it?!)...

And some Bead Up letterhead and Gift Certificates (which can be purchased for $25, or any other denomination, here)! If you found the typo in the notebook, maybe your eagle eyes are also noticing a slightly different quality in my pictures. My last, but not least, Christmas splurge was...

A Nikon D3000!!!

I have been planning on buying a new, slightly more "professional" camera for awhile (the camera I have been using, a Fuji Finepix S5200, has been a great companion in my travels to Asia, Europe, and around the US in the last 3 years, though I was ready for the next step!). The hubs, my parents, and I are planning a trip to the Holy Land the year (and not the amusement park in Florida!), and I plan to bring a camera that's worthy of such a trip. And with such a successful Bead Up year, I figured it's not only a reward for all my hard work, but also a great investment for Bead Up's product photos! I have yet to read the owners manual (I kind of like figuring it out organically!), but plan on getting to know this thing like the back of my hand in the new year! So, thank YOU, Bead Up friend, for helping me reach this goal and buying this camera!

Prayers to you for a happy and healthy new year! Here's to another decade!

I Love You, Wednesdays: Christmas Inspiration

Nativity - 18x24 on Canvas, by Penhoyt on Etsy "My soul proclaims your greatness, Oh Lord, and my spirit rejoices in you. You have looked with love on your servant here and blessed me all my life though." (Marty Haugen's Holden Evening Prayer, based on the the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55). Merry Christmas!

Fashionably Friday: Tiffany's for the Holidays

It's that time of year where countless commercials do their darnedest to convince you that your life wasn't complete until you had (fill in the blank with meaningless item here), or that your stocking isn't stuffed without (fill here again), or that your man doesn't love you unless he has a mint-colored box in his hand. That's right, you read me correctly - it's that time of the year where Tiffany's commercials of women in 30's vintage dresses playing their piano in slow motion remind all of us that we aren't really loved until we have a Calvin Klein model slowly and ever-so-softly handing us a Tiffany's box of jewelry. See what I am talking about: 'Cause we have all had that happen to us, right? Yeah, me neither. In fact, these commercials make me a little sick. No offense to anyone who has ever be given a Tiffany's piece of jewelry (I myself have several faux Tiffany's necklaces from China, what?), but doesn't it seem odd that the company really does have some woman believing that the true mark of a man's love is that little blue box in his hand? Because I thought the true mark of my man's love is when he holds my hair back when I am hanging out in the bathroom with the flu. Or when he changes a tire in the rain and lets me sit inside the car chatting with my friend on the phone.

Ok, stepping off my soap box...! That said, Tiffany's is one of the new main-line luxury jewelry companies that I found to carry LOTS of holiday items. I really wish I could buy some of these charms at Michael's so I could make them myself and give them to myself in a little LIME GREEN box (yeah Bead Up!). I love me some value, but of course Tiffany's falls under the category of high-class that they can price their items astronomically high and people still buy it. Sigh... Here's a small selection of the many items on Tiffanys.com:

$135 ... for just the charm!

Candy cane in traditional red or Tiffany blue - so cute. Well, except for the $115 price tag!

I am pretty sure that Tiffany's has the monopoly on snowflake-shaped diamond jewelry pieces. Here they've incorporated it to their traditional link-chain bracelet... for only $500 ;)

And if you can't get enough diamonds... ($2,350 for this subtle thing...)

Why not wear a broach-sized snowflake diamond mess - for only 25 THOUSAND dollars!

And it only gets uglier and pricier, my friend. Take this gold semi-tree of a charm, yours for only $1,625!

Or this ... thing... for only $2050! That's more than my rent!

And if a Tiffany blue $150 ice-skating charm doesn't wet your whistle...

Surely a $2250 diamond and emerald plated ice-skating charm will make your life complete, no?

Yeah, me neither.

I Love You, Wednesdays

Being the homemade Etsy advocate that I am, it only seemed fitting to buy the bulk of my Christmas gifts for others from my favorite website this year :) I started a few months ago when I sat down with my husband to discuss who was getting what: gift cards for the hard-to-please, jewelry for those who would appreciate it, and Etsy gifts for the rest! For the Hub's grandparents who love to cook, we figured personalized aprons would be the best bet. For his grandma, I found a plain customizable teal-colored apron on which we could embroider "Caroline's Kitchen" (cause, let's face it, woman rule the kitchen, and not in a pregnant and barefoot kind of way!). The seller, Significant Stitch, was super great with correspondence and making sure I got exactly what I wanted. In the end, and only $22 later, we got this looker! We ordered a similar one for the Hub's grandpa Norbert, embroidering the words "Norbert Sherbet" (spelled funny, though sound the same!) in red on a plain black adult male apron (which wasn't too easy to find at first, but I finally got a deal from She's In Stitches for only $30 total, which included a great gift bag, too!). Sadly, though, I forget to take a picture before I wrapped it! Check out the original listing here and use your imagination! Next on my list was a computer sleeve for my Hubs. Though the Mac store had lots from which to choose, I was pretty persistent in insisting we support homemade as planned and find one on Etsy! Though we found lots of options, the Hubs finally chose a green and blue brachiosaurus (vegetarian, yeah!) sleeve from Lollington. Though the Hubs knew I was going to order the sleeve for him, what he didn't know was that I asked the creator of the item to also, if possible, put his initials somewhere on the sleeve, to make this expected gift a little unexpected! Turns out she was more than happy to oblige for no extra cost, and for only $44 later, we have this!:

Lastly, I was in the market for my own home -- we were in desperate need of Stockings! Though this is our second Christmas together as a married unit, we have never really had stockings since my parents always had them waiting for us at their house. Our fireplace was getting lonely! I searched and searched all over Etsy looking for the perfect stocking to go with my black, white, and red polka-dot Living Room with no avail. I even listed an Alchemy order request on Etsy asking for something traditional but funky with boas and polka-dots. Though I got lots of bids on my order, my husband wasn't too thrilled with the idea of boas on our stockings (why not?!), and politely asked I search for a more "traditional" design (have you met me? I am far from traditional!). We also wanted whatever design we purchased to be easily re-producable for when we have kids so we can match their stockings to our own. I finally found a great listing from With Love From Alabama, only to find out that the shop owner recently moved to Verona, Italy and warned it would take a while to process my order. Since it was then early November, I obliged (especially since the items were so flippin' cute)! Here is what they look like - I LOVE EM!

Polka dots - check; black, white, and red - check; advent calendar (paper rings) - check; red rose - check; crosses - check; a happy woman of the house - CHECK!

The material used on these is SUPER GREAT - nice velvet-like lined green and a soft and velvety red with felt-like polkadots and a thick canvas backing - which means extra sturdiness for all the stocking stuffers in this sock's future! I also hung super-cute Sandra Magsamen ceramic Christmas-themed crosses to cover up the tacky 3M plastic hook I used to hold the stockings up (I asked the Hubs to make stocking holders to match our stockings but gosh darnet finals and exams got in the way - next year they will be done!). I HEART Sandra Magsamen's designs and definitely credit her as a source of inspiration in my jewelry creation!

My little Christmas home :)

Thanks again to all the vendors who helped make this possible!

Two Boutique Showings in less than 30-hours!

Well it's been a crazy busy week and weekend for Bead Up! I am just now getting to posting about the two Christmas shows I did this weekend because, go figure, I got sick as soon as we got in the car after the second show! This seems to be my luck, as it's the third time I have gotten sick after one of my shows... coincidence? Anyway, the weekend began on Friday morning when the Hubs and I got up early to pack the car with all my products, display pieces, and even a few pieces to work on while at a Christmas Boutique at a Catholic high school in the neighborhood. We were the first to arrive and were happy to see that they had given us the table nearest the door in a small-ish conference room near the outdoor cafeteria (only in California!). It was nice to have a whole two hours to take our time setting up and making sure all our ducks were in a row. Turns out the vendor stationed at the table next to us canceled at the last minute, so we were given another 8" table! Sixteen feet of table space near a door and against a wall all to ourselves - perfect! The people traffic started sooner than we had expected when the kids having lunch heard that there were baked goods in the conference room! My first customer, a high school student, bought 4 necklaces right off the bat! Next followed the mother of the gal who threw me the jewelry party back in October (who was also my contact person for this show - I don't know what I would do without her!) bought most of her Christmas presents for her kids - and herself! My kind of lady! Throughout the day we had lots of friendly and familiar visitors, including several of the school's students who are in my church youth group and our youth group mascot, Leslie the Kat, who also acted as a display holder for a necklace ;) Throughout the course of the show we made good friends with the other vendors around us, including a lady who sold Acai berry energy drinks and a woman who sold brittle. There weren't very many other vendors, though that thankfully didn't stop people from coming by to buy a cupcake and see what we had to show. I made the observation that about every person who walked by our table at least had the courtesy to stop and chat with us, and one out of every three people who spoke with us made a purchase. Not bad odds! The show ran from 1-7pm, and add that with the two hours we spent setting up and and hour we spent tearing down, it was a full day! At the end of the day, I made 4x the amount of the deposit I had placed to be in the show a few months ago, which totally exceeded my expectations. PLUS - we had fun doing it and met a lot of really great people. I treated my husband to dinner and a little shopping trip after the show and kept saying to ourselves, "Wow, what a great day!" The next day and Christmas boutique showing, however, was very different. I slept in entirely too long (10:30am - I was pooped!) and woke up freaking out over all the work I had hoped to do before this show - make a custom order that was needed by a customer from the first show by the next day, make some more necklaces to go on my art canvas/easel display, and incorporate some brass charms I have been meaning to use on a few necklaces. I of course first discovered that I was out of spring rings (clasps), which meant an impromptu trip to Michael's and less time at home to create. Before I knew it, it was 1pm and time to make the 45-minute trip to Redondo Bead (near Santa Monica) for our Saturday showing at a Lutheran School. We made good time getting down there, though were surprised with how small the venue was compared to all the rules and regulations I had to sign off on in order to even have a table at the show. Since the organizer of this show found me on Etsy, I didn't know anyone going into this one or even who I should answer to once we had arrived. After being mistaken for a volunteer (must be the pastor's wife look I usually have on my face!), we finally found someone who could answer our questions and show us to our spot. Turns out they had a measly 5 foot table (which I had to pay $20 for!) in the middle of the room surrounded by other tables - no wall to act as a safe place for our stuff, no chairs, no nothing - just wide open table space. This of course made me especially tired just thinking about the 8 hours ahead of us, but thankfully the cold coming in through ALL the open doors in the room were distraction enough (it's been in the 30's here in LA this week - we are all so confused!). We had to hurry up our display since we had to also move our car before we get ticketed for parking in the church lot (?)! A vendor on the right of me set up a 9-foot table of homemade cards and luggage tags; to the left of me a gal set up another jewelry booth, though hers was hand-forged metal pieces. The other vendors were just as impressive - cashmere sweaters and scarves, pearl and Cubic Z jewelry, homemade cookie jars, elegant down covers, even a skateboard vendor. It didn't take long to assess that I had one of the most affordable booths in the whole room - I was going to make a killing! The show started at 4pm. By 5pm we had to yet to make a sale (or even have any real human interaction - much less friendly than the day before!) and was wondering when the show would officially "start" - vendors outside were still setting up their crepe booths, the snow slide, and the Grinch photo booth (yes, they had a guy dress up as the Grinch to take pictures with the kids. They seemed more freaked out than enchanted, to be honest!). By 6pm we had yet to make a sale, even though lots of people had been walking by. As opposed to the show the day before, where most people at least stopped to chat with us, people at this show were just walking past and hardly looking at what we had to offer. It sucked, I am not going to lie. Felt a bit like junior high, or when you are applying for jobs or a school and the institution doesn't even acknowledge your application. Lame. To add to the odd-ity of the whole thing, I had a migraine from hades and the open doors letting in the cold weren't helping (even though I was wearing a sweater and a hat!). We finally folded and bought some food they were selling at the show, which was hardly a condolence to the headache and chill! I finally made my first sale to a gal who was singing in the concert that went along with the boutique, and another to a little girl who insisted that her momma buy her some earrings. The hubs enthusiastially asked, "So how are we doing?" Sixteen dollars and counting, friend. I think one of the main reasons people might have been reluctant to buy was because you had to first get a receipt from me for your purchase, and then go to a "cashier" to pay, who then stamp your receipt and send you back to the vendor, who then checks that you have paid and THEN can give you the item. Though I think it's great that this allowed people to pay with a credit card (which I of couse don't have the capacity to do on my own), I think this may have been a major hurdle in the buying and even shopping process. I still couldn't figure out why I wasn't selling, though. Each mom who walked through the room had a larger engagement ring on than the one before her, and her kids in Hollester and Abercrombie were running around with large bills of their own. It was very Orange County meets LA Beach life. The gal at the jewelry booth next to me shared that she wasn't selling much either, only one $50 sale, in fact! This wasn't looking so good. I was counting down until 9pm when the show was to finally end - my headache and lack of sales was making me want to crawl under my table and hide from the cold. Finally, the other vendors started packing up shop and also checking out other people's booths. As the Hubs started putting the merchandise away, one lady from a booth down the way came by and just started picking out things: "I"ll take this, and this, and this!" She bought 1/4 of my total sales at the end of the day - thank goodness! Since I was going to be paid by check later on in the week by the school for all my sales I had no "Wow!" moment when counting my money, only instead when counting my receipts, and not a "wow" in a good way. After giving 20% of my sale income to the school (which was my vendor fee), we made only half of what we had made the day before - and worked twice as hard! It was especially perplexing since I was the most affordable vendor in a sea of very expensive booths and wealthy shoppers. The gal next to me said she wouldn't be back next year, and I sadly agreed with her. Oh well! (this was the Christmas tree the venue set up for just the event - wow!) So what can we add to our list of "Things Learned" from this one? Overall - there is no science to these things! I for sure thought I would do better at the second show since it was in a very nice neighborhood and I had the most affordable items around. I also originally thought I was taking a crazy gamble on the first show at the Catholic high school because the vendor fee was very high - though at the end of the day I made more sales at that show afterall! I also learned to not go in with any expectations, including expecting your friends to come to these things (I kind of don't blame them!). Oh, and even if you have displays CLEARLY marked (ie, "Items priced as marked on back of each item"), people will STILL ask you where they can find the prices. It never fails! Finally, I must give props to my Hubs, who helped the whole time AND juggled writing his final grad school term papers on the edge of each display table amidst the craziness of each day. I heart him! So, there's the report. In the meantime, I have taken this opportunity to post some items I was saving for shows but want to now share with the Etsy community - they would made some GREAT Christmas gifts - click to see them on Etsy!

I Love You, Wednesdays

Now that December is finally here I publicly proclaim my love for CHRISTMAS (What? I didn't tell you that I have been planning and crafting for Christmas for months now?! Why do you think my mom, who birthed me 4 days after Christmas, named me CHRISTyn?). Falalalalala! There are countless reasons why I love Christmas, one in particular being that we can spread the love to others with gratitude and gifts! This year, I have decided to buy most of my Christmas presents for my friends and family from Etsy, partially because I have some very specific gifts in mind, and partially because I love supporting the website that has given me the freedom to start an online jewelry shop of my own! One of the most nifty aspects of shopping on Etsy's homemade website is that you can bookmark your favorite items in a very unique, visual way. Every time you visit an Etsy shop, you have the option of clicking on "Add item to favorites" or "Add seller to favorites." Once you do that, the item or shop is saved on an interactive list for your future reference. As a seller, I can even see who "hearts my shop." I will admit, when I first opened my little Etsy shop last spring I was a bit obsessed with how many "hearts" both my shop and my items were receiving. I have been so pre-occupied with other Etsy things that I nearly forgot I had such an obsession until today when I accidentally click on "See Who Hearts Me." Turns out my numbers have gone up a bit since I last checked back in July - currently 163 Etsians "heart" me, and the 58 items I currently have for sale have received 78 hearts! Not bad :) Here's an image so you can figure out how to track items you have book-marked/hearted, and who hearts your shop/items in return! Feeling the "heart" love I figured what better way to spread the holiday love and promote other Etsy sellers than to go through the list of those who heart me and hand-pick a few items from their shops that I think would make GREAT Christmas gifts?! So here's my way of saying THANK YOU FOR HEARTING MY SHOP and also to SUPPORT HANDMADE - now start shopping!

ocstylescreations, lesleyanne, fabfabrique, knitsbywlsm12 AuntieDawn, BLinkDesign, KatieDydDesigns, lbolter PragyaK, DecemberLeaHandbags, soule, SusannahTucker

Visit their shops for great Christmas gift ideas!

So, what inspires you today? :)

Oh, and speaking of spreading the Etsy love, make sure you stop by Your Creative Way today - the author did an entry on Bead Up and this here blog! Thanks, Raychel!

Fall Line = COMPLETE!

I have been a bad, bad blogger. Please accept my apologies for suddenly vanishing into thin air over the past week! After my jewelry party (more on that later!), I came down with a fierce cold and missed a WHOLE week of work! With all that's been on my plate at work, in addition to not having any additional pictures of the party to share, I have had no time or energy to blog! Please forgive me. ::hug:: Great, now that we've made up we can move on. There is so much I want to share about the success that was the jewelry party with you, but I am still waiting on pictures from my impromptu photographer and don't want to spill all the beans without pictures to accompany! So if you don't mind hanging tight for a few more days I would be most grateful! With the left over energy of the party's success, I have gone out on a limb and signed up for 3 other shows. The first is a "Christmas Boutique" at a local Lutheran church here in town - and it's this Saturday! I don't know anything much about this show other than it's a collection of artisans and crafters setting up booths in a church fellowship hall (which is the type of thing I grew up attending!). I have been told that I will have a table and my name on a program, but other than that, I am going into this rather blindly! I haven't stressed out about the event because I have alot of products left over from the jewelry party with tags still in place on each item. It could be a success or a huge flop - but since I already have the products ready to go, might as well try to sell more! The hubs is able to join me for the whole of the event, which means that any last minute need will be met easily and with enthusiastic help. I plan to also work on a few pieces while at the show - I have from other jewelry makers that doing so has helped sales and custom orders at the event. 15% of my proceeds will go back to the church. Meanwhile, while preparing for the jewelry show, I made all sorts of new items to premier at the party. Of course not everything sold, so I have added them to my Etsy site, concluding my Fall Line! Take a look! (click on any picture to go to it's corresponding Etsy page)...

I can't wait to get back into the loop with you all! Thanks for your patience!