What's New? Keep Reading...............

This will be a busy month for me! We were able to get into two different Markets, the one we did last month in Boerne Texas and New for this month will be the Market Days in Gruene Texas! I am very excited about the Gruene Market.... It's a juried Market, Artisan only, so it's NOT easy to get into. We know we've been accepted for September, but not sure about the follow on months... We'll find out more when we do the Market.

The Boerne Market Days are September 10th-11th and Gruene is the following weekend, September 17th--18th. If you live in the San Antonio area, please come out and see us! These Markets are both really cool, have lots of interesting stuff and it's NOT too soon to start thinking about getting great handmade items for Holiday gifts!

I have a number of items I am selling at the Markets only.. You WON'T fond them in my Etsy shops... You'll have to come out to the Market to purchase them.  Plus having the opportunity to look, touch and feel is great! I don't have photo's of my "Market Only" items to taunt you with yet, but will get some taken and post them!

I am gearing up for the Holidays! I know it seems early and it does seem annoying when you go to the store and see Christmas decorations out before Halloween has even past, but from a retail stand point, you have to start early, and when you make EVERYTHING you sell by hand.. YOURSELF.. it takes a bit of planning!

The pretty soft pink earrings pictured are a nice, different, slightly less showy version of Vintage Jewels. They are transparent and domed, rather than faceted and foil backed. They still take in lots of light and have a nice sparkle, but are a nice, more subtle option for those who like things a little less.."Look at me". I have a similar jewel in a beautiful olivine green soon to be listed, and just got in a wonderful ruby red, which will be great for the holidays.. I have them in both antiqued brass and silver settings, but I have a limited supply. Sometimes I can get more... Sometimes I can't.

I have a nice stash of new crystals in and have been making Vintage Style bracelets out of them. I am working on some coordinating earrings as well, so look for those to be coming soon!

If you want updates on new listings, follow my Twitter! I post things there daily. I also post to Facebook, but less frequently. I have buttons on the side bar on the right if you aren't already following those pages. Be sure to check my Principessa Jewels shop for new jewelry listings and Principessa Glass for beads! Thanks for stopping by!

August Market Days...

Saturday Set up

I recently started selling at the Boerne Texas, Market Days with another Etsy seller, Katie, from Bling is my Thing / The Orange Poppy. I have wanted to do this type of thing for a long time and finally connected with the right person to do it with. Katie has been selling in this manner at shows and Markets for several years, so she knows the ropes pretty well and had built up a nice display booth. I had none of these items, so it was nice not to have to start from scratch and buy all my own equipment just to get started.

Saturday set up

First let me start by saying this was one seriously HOT weekend! We did have a lot of fun and learned a lot. Getting set up was a bit chaotic, but we did have the tent and tables set up the night before. We set up things with the tables towards the interior on Saturday to see how that worked with this market.

Sunday set up

One must note that the temperature was over 100 degrees each day, so from a logical stand point you'd think people would appreciate shopping inside the tent, out of the sun, but alas... this is not how it worked out! We did do OK on Saturday, which had a reasonable traffic flow, but I think the excessive heat, combined with school starting just a week after this market, it wasn't a booming business.

On Sunday we decided to change things up and see if that improved our business... Sundays are traditionally a bit slower and not usually the higher dollar day of the weekend. Moving all of our displays to face out made a BIG difference and we did more business on Sunday than Saturday! People stopped and looked and were willing to walk around all three sides to look at items...in the BLAZING sun! For whatever reason, people REALLY don't like walking into single tent spaces.. They will go into larger ones, but not a single.. WACKY! I'm sure we have some bugs to work out of our set up and such, but I think we are on our way!

Sunday set up right side

Emily

My Daughter Emily comes along with me to help with everything and does very well! She is awesome in engaging people, greets everyone who comes near the booth, before I can even open my mouth and does tons of work with all the set up and tear down.. all this in over 100 degree weather all weekend! The only relief we found was the lady selling Hawaiian Shaved Ice right next to the bathrooms... Brilliant! We we're drinking gallons of water, so frequent trips to the public facilities were made, and then we made a stop at the Hawaiian Ice  shop! Kept us form melting completely!

Sunday set up left side

We will be back in Boerne each month through the end of the year, and if all goes well, we'll probably continue at this market each month next year. If you are local in the San Antonio area, stop by and visit us!

I'll soon be opening my own website! I'll still have my Etsy shops, but I decided it was time to branch out and  have a little place to call my own. I'll be having both items from my jewelry shop, Principessa Jewels and my Artisan Lampwork Bead shop, Principessa Glass on one website. I'll let you all know when it's live! It'll be www.principessajewels.com (right now that link forwards to my Etsy shop, but is active). Thanks for stopping by!

Oops! I Did It Again.....

Yes... I won yet another blog giveaway! I wish the rest of my life was going this smoothly! I really should seriously think about buying lottery tickets... I will say... that I enter FAR more of these blog giveaways than I win, but I seem to be on a roll and am almost feeling guilty since all three that I have won, have been on the same blog! I can assure you that there is no favoritism being given, I am just entering like anyone else... why I am winning is any one's guess! I for one, am not complaining!

My goodies from DondaLee's Blog Giveaway!

Once again this was from DondaLee's Blog.. She has some really fun posts, great giveaways and a really cute Etsy shop. You'll have to pop over and check out what she has going on. If more people enter these contests, I'll have much less of a chance of winning.. not that I dislike winning, but I'd like to share the wealth! 

The bundle of goodies I received from Dondi this time were all items made by her and available in her Etsy shop. I got a set of darling note cards, some hand stamped tags with cupcakes on them and a really cute cut edge, a pair of pink glass earrings.. and I do LOVE pink.. a really fun, rolled flower fabric brooch, also in PINK! It was all packaged so cute! Part of it was in the cute little muslin bag, also hand stamped, and the cards and tags were both tied up in pretty, colorful, bakers twine.. I just love that stuff and have been thinking about getting some for quite awhile.. Honestly I don't know what I would actually do with it, but I am sure I'd find something!

I've been posting some of the cool giveaways I find here on my blog so that others can enter them too.. this may be shooting myself in the foot, but I don't want to be greedy! Thanks again to DondaLee for another great giveaway.. and for the record, I was one of three people who won this one, so it wasn't just me this time.. she gave away three bundles..I just got one, which was great!

Look What I Just Found!!!!

Earlier this week I posted my favorite cookbooks on the book page here on my blog, along with my very biased opinion on them. I've been cooking for a LONG time and have amassed a LARGE collection of cookbooks. I have thinned out the collection a few times, and have about 250 or so currently.

1950 Edition Betty Crocker Cook Book

One of my all time favorites is the 1950 edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. I have a copy that belonged to my Grandmothers Cousin. It came complete with notes in the margins, old recipes from the newspaper and a few recipe cards tucked into various pages. All in all the book was in great shape and it holds some of my favorite recipes, ones I still make! Why? Because they are classics, things that haven't been improved upon. As the revised publications of this book came out it evolved with the current food trends of the times and adapted to a more quick and easy form of cooking using packaged foods, etc. Personally, it's not how I cook. Yes, old style can take a little longer, but if you've been doing it a long time, making a pie crust from scratch takes less time than going to the store and buying that stuff they sell in the refrigerator section and it only contains ingredients a six year old can read.

Today as I was scrolling through my activity feed on Etsy, I saw listed in a shop a book I easily recognized...Yep.. the 1950 edition of Betty Crocker! If you LOVE to cook.. I'd run and grab this gem! They did reprint the book a few years back and put it in a note book style format, I also have that one, I acquired it from my Grandmother, who purchased it when it came out, but honestly, it NEVER gets opened...I like my old, starting to fall apart at the binding, full of history, yellowing pages, antique copy! I do also have my Mothers copy from the mid-1960's which is literally held together by some string, it is missing a few pages, but I do still use it for a few recipes. That edition is also worth getting. It was before they really sold out to convenience. I know the current editions still have some recipes that do require actual cooking, but they are a far cry from where the books began.

Simply Whimsical!

A few weeks ago I entered yet another contest on DondaLee's Blog and low and behold... I won... AGAIN!  For someone who up until this point, almost never won anything.... this is amazing.... I may just run out and buy a lottery ticket....I mean it can't hurt right!

This time she was featuring the Etsy shop "Simply Whimsical". To say it is adorable would be an understatement! The owner Kathy, has filled her shop with listing for adorable, unique little "Pinch Pot  Holders" (that's what I won), and darling aprons in really cute designs, made from the most beautiful fabrics! Who wouldn't be twirling about the kitchen in one of these aprons with your "Pinch Pot Holders" at the ready to fetch your fantastic dinner from the oven?

Kathy also has a web site which is amazing well done and easy to navigate. It even has some yummy looking recipes for you to try.. She included a really cute, printed recipe card with the pot holders for some Blueberry Muffins, which I intend to try very soon!


Please stop by Kathy's Etsy shop and check out all of her amazing handmade items!  Thank you to both Kathy and DondaLee for a very fun giveaway! Check out DondaLee's Blog for her latest fun giveaway!

Favorite Finds!

I used to try and do features on some of my favorite Etsy shops a while back and got busy with life and stopped. I need to start doing them again, so here I go!

My first feature goes to Shades of Heaven. I love this little Etsy shop which is dedicated to making handmade fabric flower pins and brooches.  Her style and designs are delightfully fresh and unique! I have bought these type of flowers from a number of other Etsy sellers and each one seems to have their own way of making their flowers a little different adding ones own personal style.

What sets this shop apart is ShaLayne's stellar customer service and attention to detail! I love her unique choices of fabrics and color combinations, along with the inclusion of those pretty little rhinestone pieces! She is very quick to respond to messages, does custom request when possible and ships it all out with amazing speed! I should also mention this isn't her only Etsy shop either! She does all this, on top of making gorgeous jewelry which I have admired for years! Her other Etsy shop is Shalayne Originals, where she makes beautiful, romantic styled pieces, many featuring lampwork beads (now you know why I noticed her work!).

ShaLayne is on facebook, stop by and "like" her page, so you can get updates on new products, sales and such. I found my latest flower brooch on her page and asked her to make me one, since the one from her shop had sold.. she did and it was to me in no time at all! Be sure to check out both of these great shops from a fantastic Etsy seller! Thanks for stopping by!

If All Else Fails......

Make spacers! Yep.. when confronted with a lack of creative thought in the bead making dept, but a desire/need to make beads.. I go to making SPACERS! This time around.. little Pixie Pairs.. cute cute, I must say.

I have jars and jars of pixie dust I have bought over the years, but to be honest I usually just grab my "go to" pearl pixie power.. all purpose, goes on anything because it's just a shimmer with out any color and I call it good. Well, what do you do with all those colors and finishes that sounded good when you ordered them... I could leave them to collect dust with the jars of frit.. (my frit challenged status is another post) OR I could play with them and see what happens.

That is about the extent of my creative flow in making beads this week.. what can I do with different colors of pixie dust over different shades of glass???? So far the results have been good. Only one dud thus far and by dud, I mean, I didn't like it, so therefore, I won't be taking pictures of it and listing them...

I've had a couple nice surprises. I thought putting a gold highlight over a woodland brown would produce a deep gold, but instead I got this great antiqued bronze look.. defiantly going to remember that combo! For the most part, things have come out about what I thought they would and I hate to say it out loud.. (I guess I'm not, I'm typing so it doesn't count right?) I think I may even by a few more colors and do some more experiments...

I have loved pixie dusted beads since the first time I saw one.. Don't know why.. I just do.. sweet, sparkly, but not over the top. I have been adding them to my bead sets since I starting selling beads and even put them in my Pandora style sets. I occasionally put a whole set of regular sized ones for sale in the shop and may do so in the near future. I like things that are basics, but with just a little more pizazz to them. I think pixie dusted beads are just that! I have both regular and Pandora style beads in pairs and sets (Pandora Style only in larger sets right now) listed in my Principessa Glass Etsy shop. Stop by and see what's new! There are also new listing most days in my Etsy jewelry shop Principessa Jewels. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Now Open for Business!

My new Etsy shop, Principessa Jewels is now open for business! I put a few listing up today and will continue to move listings from my old shop, Juniper Gems over to the new one. It will take me a while to get everything all in one shop, but eventually it'll all be done.

I've been adding a lot of new jewelry pieces, especially the vintage jewels. I have some new bracelets to be listed this week and some really cute necklaces. These pieces are so much fun to wear. These aren't just for those "dressed up" occasions, although they are great for that. These pieces look awesome with a simple t-shirt and jeans, or a simple dress. I love being able to put a little sparkle into everyday life.

Here in Texas sparkle is Queen! You don't have to look hard to find anything and everything embellished with a little bit of bling! I learned very quickly that if you are going to do sparkle here.. then you DO IT! Let's just say it's not a subtle little shimmer.

I've been working on getting more beads in my other Etsy shop, Principessa Glass, but that has been slow going! I did just list three new sets of Pandora style beads, and I will hopefully torch another time or two this week and get a few more things done. Stop by and check out my new shop! Thanks for stopping by.

Super Size Me!

Hearts That would be..........I have some new extra large, focal sized hearts, I just put in my shop. They are about 32mm x 30mm x 18mm(1 1/4 x 1 1/8 x .75 inches) in size. I also have another new shape which is a folk art/ Shaker style heart, which is long and slender.

The large focal heart can be made with either a horizontal or vertical hole. The folk art heart is available in three sizes, the largest of which is currently listed in my shop. I will work on making the smaller two sizes this week. I think the smallest one will make a really cute earring size.

The bigger hearts do have a bit more weight to them. They take the better part of a rod of glass to make and a significant amount of time to build. Since these spend a lot of time in the flame this size may not be well suited to some of the more sensitive colors like pink, which tends to get fickle when heated too long. The more heat loving glass like ivory and opal yellow are awesome with this size, since the longer you work it the more interesting it gets.

I will be playing around with designs on these two new sizes and shapes in the weeks to come. The larger heart offers a really nice big canvas in which to work on.. lots of potential for design possibilities there. It's also a lot of glass to control and keep hot!

I am still playing with my vintage jewels! I will continue to explore designs with them and you'll see these larger hearts be incorporated into my heart necklaces soon. I may also do some simple pendant style necklaces with them as well. The jewelry as always, is listed in my Juniper Gems shop. Thanks for stopping by!

Different Metals...Make a Difference!

Seems like a simple concept doesn't it, but it isn't usually till you see things in action that you realize how a small change has a big impact on the overall look of the same items. What do I mean exactly? Well, I have been using a lot of vintage jewels in my jewelry designs lately and I LOVE them. They are pretty, sparkly, affordable and have a little history built into them. It's kind of cool to add these pieces to my jewelry knowing they have been around for awhile either sitting waiting in a warehouse somewhere to be discovered, or they have already lived some life and are now being re-purposed .

I love the look of antiqued brass and the way it combines so well with the vintage jewels, but not everyone likes that look, plus I also wear a lot of silver jewelry myself, so I have been finding more jewels set in silver plated brass. I have found it rather amazing, how by simply putting the same color, size, and cut jewels in two completely different settings gives such a different look. The vintage jewels are still the same of course, but the setting have a big impact on the overall look.

I have posted several pictures here of jewels in the same sizes, cuts and colors.. the only difference is one is set in antiqued brass, the other in silver plated brass. Take a look and you'll see what I mean. I like having the option to offer the jewels in both metals. I wear them both and find they both go with anything. For those with a strong preference one way or the other, you have choices! I still find more things in antiqued brass than silver, but I have a supplier I am working with to get more variety. You'll see more of both versions, along with necklaces and bracelets in both metal options in my Etsy shop, Juniper Gems in the weeks and months to come. Thanks for stopping by!

My How Time Flies!

Apparently it has been almost a month since my last blog post! Shame! I was really trying to do so much better about being consistent with posting... ah.. such is life! The big news this week, is my kiln has decided to take a vacation.. I am waiting for a part, which I am told (fingers, toes and any other parts that will cross, crossed) will likely fix the problem and be easy to install. I am fairly handy, so hopefully this won't be beyond my capabilities! In the mean time... NO BEADS... Can I just go on record to say how much that sucks!

I have been working diligently on making more jewelry. I have a lot more listings in my Juniper Gems shop. I have lots more things to list with many more in the works!

On Monday my little girl will be turning 17! We are having a birthday party for her this weekend and I am currently praying that all 20 of the 16-17 year old's she invited DON'T come! I do like her friends..and yes, we did let her invite that many, but partly because in past years such a small number actually ended up coming to the party, that I figured  push the number a little higher and and hopefully she'll have a satisfying turn out...Nothing is worse than your kid sad that nobody is coming to their party!

Hopefully my kiln will be back operating by the beginning of next week. I have a feeling I am REALLY going to need an outlet after this weekend.. either that or a whole lot of wine! I have several new things on the bead front planned, but I am going to keep them a surprise for now...Not a big departure for me, but something new just the same!

There are still plenty of nice things in my bead shop.. hopefully I will have some new offerings sometime next week! Spring break comes early here in Texas.. the kids are out the week after next I think.....I guess I will have to find some entertaining things to do. At least it's warm now! Thanks for stopping by!

Ignorance is............

Can be bliss, but in this case it's losing money! I finally made myself sit down the other night and do a comparison of glass prices. I knew where sterling silver had been going. It was hard to miss that. But I hadn't really been paying attention to the rising cost of glass. I bought when I needed it, tried to get things on sale when ever possible, but recently a couple different sources referenced the rising price of pink glass. This caused me to actually sit down and look at what I had paid for these colors in the past. Let me just say I about fell over! One glass, which thankfully I haven't used a lot, but I do like and would like to use in the future has gone from $30.00 a pound to $85.00 a pound!

If you buy glass, you'll know that the expensive, silver laden glass can run between $85.00-100.00 per pound. The glass that just went up to $85.00 is just a soft pink, semi-opaque color, that doesn't do anything special!  Needless to say, in the future, if it is pink, it's going to be priced a wee bit higher than other beads. I also just ordered more sterling silver tubing for coring my Pandora style beads and that is about 50% more than it was a year ago. I have been making more sets of beads unlined and they seem to be getting a good response. I am still going to core some of the beads, but may just stick to doing so on larger focal's and single beads.

I have been listing beads at least once a week in my Etsy shop, some times twice. I think I have found a pretty good rhythm that works for me and allows me the time to fit in other things and doesn't wear me out. I have decided to stop previewing my beads on Facebook. I am trying to fine tune things down to only doing that which is a profitable use of my time. While I really do enjoy giving my Facebook customers the opportunity to see things in advance, this was only creating twice the work for me, so I need to cut out what isn't helping me. I'd rather have more time to do the creative part of this endeavor, and be more efficient with the necessary,  but much less fun parts like photos, editing and listing!

I am working on getting more jewelry pieces listed consistently. This seems to be the thorn in my side right now! For some reason, I just can't seem to get all my ducks in a row on this one for more than a week or two at a time! I will just keep trying. Thanks for stopping by and listening to me ramble!

My Latest Creations!

I finally got myself back on my torch and spent some time working on goodies for the shop. As usual, I placed a large empathises on hearts. This time I spent a good deal of time working on some ocean/beach themed pieces. I am pleased with the results, but there is more I can do with this concept, so you will be seeing more of these in the days to come.

I made a couple of bead sets with a focus on spring. I am SO done with winter! While it is not truly winter here in Texas, it has been cool lately, cooler than I am interested in, so I am ready to see some nice spring temps!

I am working on keeping a better stock of Pandora/Troll style beads in the shop. I have been focusing on unlined sets currently, but I am working my way into some nice cored focal pieces and may possibly put in some basic spacers sets in a variety of colors and see how those do.

I continue to preview my beads on facebook prior to listing them in my Etsy shop. I try to give some notice of when I am going to be putting items up for preview. It is a bit random and depends upon some of my other life obligations which tend to not always land on the same days. The best thing to do is to just check often! I am working on some new pieces for my Juniper Gems shop. Hopefully I will have some things to start adding soon. Thanks for stopping by!