Moving On

Okay, I'm taking the plunge.  Consequences and branding be damned.  From now on you can find me at Petals and Metals.  To shop, go here.  Fan me on Facebook here.  Hope to see you in my new digs!

More Feel Good Feedback

I got a note from a bride this week:

I just wanted to thank you again for the hairpiece. It fit beautifully for my wedding look. I wanted to send you a picture of the final look. I got so many compliments on my hair piece! It was so unique and different for my wedding day. Thanks again!! C
Gorgeous, no? Love the dress, love the necklace, LOVE the hair style (it's so natural...usually updos are all stiff and shellacked). Then I was like, "how'd she get my hair vine to sprout out of her hair all cool like that?" So I went back and checked to see what she bought. It's not a hair vine. This is what she's wearing:
I haven't made one of these since I sold this one to C. What was I thinking? Wedding accessories have always been among my best sellers... So I'm going to get on the stick and make some more pronto. I'm kinda bummed wedding season's over.

Thanks for sharing, C. You made a beautiful bride!

More Old News (But Good News)

I'm so far behind. On August 4 (my birthday) the latest issue of BeadStyle Magazine hit the stands and yours truly had a project in it! My Southern Charm earrings:

I posted about it on my status update on Facebook. Later a girl who used to babysit me (so you know that's a long time ago) posted a photo of her finding my project in BeadStyle in Kansas City. I'm everywhere!

Time flies by...the girl I used to babysit in the Hague is now a nationally published entrepreneur! Congratulations Ann! We found your work in the Kansas City stores!

Thanks, Rebecca, for the awesome pic. It meant a lot to me that someone went looking. :-)

Events (Y'all Come By!)

I've been hard at work fixing up the studio, which has been sorely neglected these last few months. I've been concentrating more on the front (show) area and less on the back (work) area, though that desperately needs my attention.

The occasion? Open Studios this weekend (Saturday, 9/12 from 2 - 5 p.m.) and the 5th Annual Winter Street Studios Artists' Exhibition (Saturday, October 3, from 6 - 9 p.m.).

November brings the Winter Holiday Art Market (Friday, November 20th from 5 - 10:00 p.m & Saturday, November 21st from 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.). This is a very fun event.

As Christmas approaches, events & shows start to pick up. I'll be posting about them here so keep in touch.

Now I just need to make some jewelry to fill the empty spaces!

Fun with Photofunia (Or: Another Timewaster)

Check out photofunia.com. Here's what I came up with after about a half hour's tinkering:

Back In The Saddle

The kids are back in school and I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things here in Houston. Got a lot to do, both at home and at the studio.

So, once again, catching up:

1. Here's the first pair of earrings I've made since I broke my arms:

Like 'em? You can find them here.

Though my strength & range of motion are still not what I'd like them to be, it's safe to say that I can pretty much still make jewelry without too much trouble. And I'm still doing physical therapy, so there are still improvements to be made.

2. Anyone remember I wanted to change my name from Beadiful Things to Petals and Metals? I did a little poll in the sidebar and the overwhelming response was in favor of Petals and Metals (by about 2 to 1!). Well, I was really gung ho about this. Tried to get a domain name. Oops -- petalsandmetals.com is taken. So is petalsandmetals.net. That's a problem. I was very determined, though, so I paid godaddy to determine the value of the domain name and then offered to buy the domain name from the current owner. No dice. It's really irritating too, because currently the domain name is just parked.

In the meantime (while waiting on word from the petalsandmetals.com owner), I set up an Etsy shop, made myself a cool new banner using a photo of some petals by my friend Nannette (of oranje.etsy.com):

Pretty, isn't it? I made it myself!

And generally got all excited. So...it's a bummer. But do I have to have petalsandmetals.com? Could I make something else work? I dunno. Petalsandmetalsjewelry.com is tooooo long. I did snap up petalsnmetals.com. And now I'm asking you if you have any other ideas about a domain name that'd work [besides petalsnmetals.com -- the "n" as "and" is semi-annoying to me so I'm actually holding off until/unless I (or you!) come up with a better idea.]

This is becoming marginally important to me because I'm discovering that lots of people had the same idea my sister had with the whole beadiful pun. I don't want to direct people to my competition, but if you Google the word "beadiful" you'll find a lot of hits, and they won't all be leading you to me ("beadiful things" though -- that'll get you where I want you to go). So...help me, Obiwan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

And...just to keep things interesting, if someone comes up with a domain name that I like and that's available (which is the tricky part), I'll send them a pair of my Sweet Nothings earrings.

Pest

I'm having to enable word verification for comments because someone from China is bombarding me with spammy comments right now.

Hopefully that will fix the problem. If not, we'll be moving on to comment moderation. I hate coming across word verification and comment moderation whenever I leave a comment on a blog, so wanted to explain why I'm being forced to use them.

Of course, since I haven't written much of anything all summer, real readers aren't commenting much as it is. Carry on.