Trick or Treat! And a Sale too!

Happy Halloween!

My little Trick or Treaters were so excited this morning when they woke up. Would have slept in their costumes had I let them! Since Halloween is today (Saturday) I figured we would get an early start on visiting the family and then maybe get a chance to work the neighboorhood this evening. I hope you have fun with your little goblins tonight!

Which brings me to the FALLING LEAVES SALE! I held this sale on my Facebook Fan Page last week. My fans had first dibs on the pieces available, so if you'd like to sign up, the link is to the right!

(This is a photograph I had taken last fall, it's actually for sale in my Photography Etsy shop: Middlebury Leaves)

Ok here are the details on the sale. From today until Saturday November 7th, you can take 10% off your purchase of $40 or more and 20% off your purchase of $100 or more. Just mention the coupon code "FALLING LEAVES" in the comments section of your order and I will send you a revised invoice. This is a great opportunity to get an early start on your holiday shopping. Many people have cut down on giving gifts to the entire family and they just draw names. This is a wonderful way to give a special gift to that one name that you draw!

Also, not listed as of yet, will be some key chains and cell phone charms. I saved them for the craft fair last weekend, just in case someone was looking for a smaller item to purchase. But these are great gifts for teachers, bus drivers, etc. Something small but personal and pretty. Can't go wrong there!

So have fun Trick or Treating tonight, stay SAFE above all and don't forget to check your candy before the little ones eat it! Then come home, get comfy and go SHOPPING! :)

Well the festival the other day was entertaining to say the least. I didn't sell much, but I had a nice day out and handed out about 60 business cards. It just wasn't the right crowd for my pieces. I knew that going in, but exposure is exposure, right? I guess you take what you can get. It's been raining all day here. My Maple tree is making a HUGE mess in our yard and on our deck. The leaves are really turning now and with the wind and rain today they are falling, falling, falling...all over the place! Guess a lawn clean up is in order! I'm sure my hubby will love that!

I've been semi unproductive this week in the way of jewelry designing. But I did get some beautiful pendants in from Chinook Jewelry yesterday. They are AWESOME! Very "Fall" colored and I can't wait to play with them. I am so happy with my choices and I'll be working with those next. I'm getting ready to call it a night, I'm just beat. I got a ton of stuff done in the house this week, so I will have some time to play with beads tomorrow! I hope you enjoy your night!

Festival tomorrow...

Just a reminder that the Spirit of Waterbury Festival was rained out today and will be held tomorrow starting at 11am! I'll be taking my store offline at that point until I get home. The weather is supposed to be better (chilly I think - but sunny) so wish me luck!

Feeling Inspired...

Last night my daughter had the opportunity to meet Alicia Sacramone, the 2008 Olympic Silver Medalist in Gymnastics. Here is a photo of them together. Meg had one of her leotards signed and she was so excited! I'm going to frame it with this picture as a keepsake and a source of inspiration for her. This is proof that you CAN be whatever you want. You CAN succeed with a lot of hard work and effort. You CAN make your dreams come true, if you set your mind to it.

On that note, I am feeling inspired! There are a lot of things going on here as of late. My car is in the shop and going to cost me a small fortune, I have some friends who are having some troubles at home, I am stressed beyond belief at the prospect of Christmas being about 9 weeks away and yet... I'm inspired.

The only way to get through the bad stuff is to look for the silver lining. You know there is ALWAYS a silver lining... I am looking, and I think I can see a glimmer...

I'm going to try to sit down tonight and make something that I've wanted to get made for a while. After Meghan's school conference, I'm locking myself in my office and not coming out until I have some of it done. Stay tuned for some photo's to come! This is a big undertaking, and I'm ready for the challenge! Wish me luck!

Pray for Sun...please!

This weekend I have the only craft fair that I have signed up for this Fall. Guess what? They are forecasting rain for Saturday. BOO! I really need this! I'll be so upset if it gets rained out. They will reschedule for Sunday if that's the case. Here's the info on the event if you are going to be in the area and would like to stop by and say hello!

Spirit of Waterbury Festival on the Green 10/24 An all day fest with farmers market, crafters, civil war camp, antique car show, chalk draw, hay maze, bounce tent, food and more! Shakesperience will present Rapunzel. The Mattatuck Museum has a Civil Ward Exhibit. This is a family friendly event with something for everyone. Free parking at all municipal garages. Raindate is Sunday 10/25.

I made an Etsy Treasury!!

Thanks to Paulasdesigns for choosing to include my bracelet! My first Treasury! There are some great fall items in it so be sure to check it out and comment if you can!

More new things, and a new favorite!

Let's start with my new favorite. This bracelet is SO stinkin' cool!!! The focal bead is made by Jennifer Cameron (Glass Addictions) and the color is fabulous! I have accented it with some Mykonos Greek spacers, Bali Silver Bangle tubes and beads, Swarovski Crystal in Black Diamond, Volcano and Indian Sapphire and finished with a Bali Toggle. Definitely a new favorite of mine!! Trying to decide whether to list on Etsy or bring to Sandy Hook... I think probably Etsy is going to be the right way to go on this particular piece. :)

Glass by Deb, and tons of Mykonos spacers and crystals, finished with a silver toggle. Another really great bracelet!

Here are a few keychains I made with a bunch of focals that I couldn't seem to incorporate into a complete design. They are still gorgeous on their own and I thought this would be a great way to showcase them!

Here are some Cell Phone charms, or purse pulls... whichever suits your fancy! Fun little dangles and some great beads made by Carey!

And Jena's focals stand out so brightly in this bracelet. These were her prototypes and I loved them all! I think they are a great fit for either fall or spring with the colors.

Still working hard at making more pieces! I have to get these priced and ready to go for the shop, but look for some of the new pieces on Etsy in the next couple of days!

I've never eaten so much in my entire life!

Once a year my husband and I get to go out for dinner on our anniversary. Yes, I know, we're pretty boring people! But with three kids, and a very hectic schedule, you know the drill. So we went to the Olive Garden last night. I ate like a freakin' pig! Never in my life have I eaten so much! I was almost sick when I left the restaurant. I suggested that we stay away from appetizers because you get bread and salad anyway, and that maybe we could get dessert instead. He was game for that. So he had some kind of Beef Tortellini and I had Chicken Parm, Bread, Salad and then I got the biggest piece of Pumpkin Cheesecake for Desert. It was the size of my head, and SO GOOD!! He got a raspberry white chocolate something, and seriously, we were ill from eating too much!! But we had a great time, enjoyed each other's company and decided to try to get a "date night" in once a month.

Before we left though, I had several hours to design for Sandy Hook and here is what I managed to get done yesterday! I'm working on more today. These are all going to the shop, unless you grab them first, so just email me if there is something you'd like before I bring them next week! Have a great Sunday, and stay tuned for more pieces to come later on!

I had an "A-HA" moment!

OK so I was busy yesterday creating some beautiful things! I am focusing this weekend on restocking one of the shops I have jewelry in to get ready for the Holiday's and they like earrings. So I made earrings! Plus this killer necklace! I ran out to the bead store this morning because I had another idea, but they didn't have what I needed so I'll need to try to find it online. I have many new things coming so I'll try to get photo's up asap!

The hubby and I are celebrating our 13th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow! My mom offered to come over and babysit tonight so that we can go out for a nice quiet dinner. I'm going to steal a line from my friend Cathy who went out to dinner with her hubby and no children last week and pointed out that it was nice to go out and eat without having to ask anyone to "take 3 more bites"! Looking forward to a nice quiet evening out! Olive Garden, here we come!

The A-HA moment comes in here... I always love to search online for new things to put in my designs. I have seen these spacers being used in a few lovely designs and I thought to myself, I have to have them. Well I've been looking for them for MONTHS! MONTHS I tell you! I thought that they were Hill Tribe Silver or something, but a couple weeks ago, I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Silver Parrot) and she posted a picture of these silver spacers that she found on Etsy. Uh, HELLO? That's exactly what I've been looking for!!! So I finally got my hands on some and I'm going back for more, I love them. Love. Thanks KJ, I am so glad you shared, because I have been going out of my mind looking for them! They do add some beautiful shine to my designs.

This one is called "Golden Raisin". These are Melissa's beautiful glass beads, and I got a whole strand of them in different colors, perfect for earrings!

"Maple Walnut" (the color reminds me of the ice cream!) I made my own circle charm dangles at the bottom of these, and they hang from White Topaz Gemstone Earwires.

"Iced Green" - These hang from Silver Earwires and have some beautiful Bali Bead Caps in addition to the Swarovski and handmade circle charms.

"Pumpkin Patch" - Made with beautiful glass pumpkins made by Maureen of Pumpkin Hill Beads. I paired these with some of Melissa's beads and hung them from Saki Silver Earwires. Love these!!

More to come, tomorrow is another day! Hope you enjoy your Saturday!

Let's hope the sun will come out tomorrow!

Several new pairs of earrings and a gorgeous, fabulous, beautiful, can't wait to show it to you necklace!! Stay tuned! Just waiting on the sunshine to photograph! :)

Lights, Camera... ACTION!

It's been quite a while since I last photographed my kids. Not by my choice, of course! They are at that age where they can't sit still or won't look at the camera (with the exception of Meghan - she's been an awesome model for the past 11 years!) Well today I decided that before the rain and heavy winds we are expecting in the morning, that I was going to get the kids portraits done. Come Hell or high water, they were getting done! Once they all got home from school, I packed them up and drove the half hour to Topsmead and we walked around for an hour and a half! They were so good!! I was thrilled! A couple little fights along the way, a little brotherly pushing and shoving but all's well! Take a look!

Fighting the Boredom Blues...

Been searching around for a new blog background... I was SO bored with the black. I liked it, but I was bored. I'm bored with everything lately! Absolutely everything! That's my newest saying. So along with "Seriously", and "SHUT-up", I'm adding "I'm Bored". LOL! But this background really lifted my spirits! I googled and searched Yahoo all darn day looking for something that would compliment the 3 column style, as well as fit into my color scheme and I'm in love with this one. What do you all think? I'm not really a Black kinda girl. Brown is my black. But when I chose the colors for my remodeling of my marketing materials, I just think that the black stood out and looked really professional with the green. And now I'm kinda liking the black... And green's my favorite color. So it kind of all just fell into place! YAY! It's nice when that happens!

A little hand sanitizer, please pass the Salsa...oh and a bloody finger to boot!

This weekend there was a gem show in Hartford... oooh I was SO excited to go. I had planned to go on Sunday, but since it rained on Saturday the hubby didn't have any lawns to mow so I got to go a day early. I was on a mission! I wanted some Smoky Quartz. Not really expensive, just some different varieties/shapes of it because it's one of my favorites. I'm sure you can see the color kick I was on on this particular gem show run. It's all about the neutrals today!

Let's tackle the Bloody finger first! LOL! This is Ann's new necklace I made her. She bought this glass bead from Maureen at Pumpkin Hill Beads at the last gem show we went to and I personally think it's disgusting! But she loves it! It's an oozy, green, bruised and bloody finger. Perfect for Halloween! I just say...YUCK! :)

Here are some shots of my goodies from the Gem Show. There are three strands of Smoky Quartz in the mix. One that is micro faceted, then there is a strand of lighter colored briolettes and then a darker strand of big nuggets. I love smoky quartz! These are so beautiful and I plan on using every last one of them.

I also found some stands of glass beads that are similar to Czech Style beads, but they were called "Chinovski". Normally I wouldn't even look twice, because I'm a Swarovski Girl through and through, however, they just caught my eye. The colors were so sparkly and the fact that they were beautiful neutral colors they came home with me.

And last but not least, here's another stash of Bali Toggle's! LOVE them! I was running low and I love the fact that I can hand select the toggles at these shows. That way if I get a bad one, it's my fault, and no one else's.

After our trip to the gem show, Ann and I went out for Chips and Salsa at On The Border... THE.BEST.MEXICAN.FOOD.EVER! Plus we couldn't wait to wash our hands after sifting through all the bins of silver and just being around all those people...That's the only downfall.., too many grubby hands...good thing we both keep hand sanitizer in our cars. That held us off until we got to the restaurant to really clean them!

So, there was little in the way of designing this weekend, unfortunately. I had to help with some moving of furniture in the house and I was working on my books for HOURS!!! Damn program is supposed to be easy to import your Excel files into and I struggled with it for far too long. I'm not a genius, but I'm not an idiot either. I've worked with Excel for years, I know how to merge documents and I'm quite "techie" but for the life of me I could not get my inventory spreadsheet to load into quickbooks. I finally gave up and I'm now entering my inventory one piece at a time. Oh my gosh, I'm going to be doing that for at least a week. I have a lot of inventory! LOL! Oh well, once it's in there it's in there.

I had a good Etsy weekend sales wise and I'm thrilled to have sold several beauties. I'm on a mission to make some more tomorrow. I still have lots of idea's swirling about in the ole' brain, but have not had two minutes to sit and get them out!! I will rabbit, I will! Tomorrow... yes, definitely tomorrow!

Random thoughts...

The ideas are swirling around in my head... there are so many of them! Which one do I do first? They are just swirling, swirling...almost like clouds forming...but they are beautiful white puffy clouds...thoughtful clouds... not storm clouds... good clouds... swirling, swirling around... with beads in them! LOL! :)