I'm a winner!

I forgot to mention in Friday's post that I won a giveaway! It was on EtsyExpo's blog and it was given away by ScraftyPaperLady. I had forgotten that I had even entered, it was my first entry into a blog giveaway! Just one of those times when I said to myself "Well those are cute notecards, wouldn't it be fun if I won?!" So I was so excited- I got to pick any of the thank you tags from her shop, which I am going to use in my packaging for sales. I just tried to grab a picture from her shop but I think she's removed the listing, so I will take pictures when I get them and post them here. I'm so excited!

I also had a great day on Saturday for kind of a silly reason. I went to the Goodwill Store to see what I could find to help display my jewelry and decorate my table at the craft fair that I signed up for. And as I pulled into the parking lot I saw signs that they were having a 50% off everything sale!! I figured everything would be picked over and falling apart, but I got so many great things I was so excited! I got 5 little plate/ platter things that I'm going to fill with (raw) white rice and black beans and place my earrings on. (btw- I stole most of these ideas from a thread in the Etsy forum!) I got a vase that I'm going to place spray-painted sticks in and hang my necklaces from them. And I got a spinning wooden thing with hooks on it that I'm going to paint and fix up and put my bracelets on. AND I got 3 tablecloths (2 of the same color and 1 accent color), a mirror, a pair of barely worn Bandolino dress shoes, and a little lawn chair for my nephew.. all for about $24!! I was THRILLED!

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Baby steps...

So I wrote the other day about my difficulties in re-threading all my new beads that I bought. Well I searched and searched online and found hardly anything to help me out. So I decided to post my question in the "Techniques and Materials" section on the Etsy forums. My favorite reply was from FeralGlass who said it was "a job for the 3 P's- Patience, Persistence, and Prozac". haha. funny as it was, it wasn't making me feel any better!

I got a few other suggestions, with the consensus being to try using a needle. This seemed even more painful and tedious to me. But I went out and bought a long beading needle and tried it today, and it cut my "re-threading time" down in half!! THANK GOD! So I feel a lot better about those bracelets now and feel like it's okay to create more of them :)

I also took a pretty big step today by signing up for a craft fair. A friend of my sister's suggested it to me- it's a fundraiser for a Christian pre-school. The entry fee is only $40 so I thought I might as well give it a shot. I've never done a craft fair before so I'm a little nervous about it. But since I've been doing a lot of my pieces as "made to order", I have to get busy creating so I can have an inventory for the show!

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Mid-Week Pick-Me-Up #5

A little later than "mid-week", but super funny nonetheless!

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I'm Either Really Patient or just Plain Dumb!

The other day at the Bead Show, I picked up a bunch of teenie tiny little seed beads. Very pretty and sparkly, and all different colors. I thought they would make some very pretty bracelets. Then just as I was checking out, the man told me to make sure that I re-string them onto some beading thread, which I had figured I would need to, but that should be easy right?

Well this presents an interesting problem... how do you get a zillion little beads that are strung on thread and move them onto a different thread? So I called up my crafty mom and she said that you can loop the 2 threads together and then slide the beads off the old thread and onto the new thread. OKay! Sounds easy enough....

First bracelet- I think I lost about 1,000 of those beads. But the good thing is that they're so small I didn't even need to vacuum them up! haha

Today I worked on the second bracelet and lost only a few beads. Yay! But it still took me about 3 hours to make the whole thing! (of which 2 and a half hours was spent just transferring the beads). Now, I'm thinking I wouldn't pay any more then about $20 for a bracelet, so that makes my hourly wage about $6... awesome!

So I'm bummed- I really love the beads and I've already bought them all but the darn bracelets just take way too long! I must be missing something- there HAS to be an easier way to do this! I think I am going to look for a better way tomorrow, maybe there is some kind of tool that makes this easier. But in the meantime, here is the bracelet I made yesterday/ today, isn't it pretty??

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Featured Artist- Denise from Green Veranda

I am SOOOO excited to share this find with everyone! I have felt so inspired looking at this company's products and the values it stands for... Somehow Denise Marques and I found each other on Twitter and I checked out her website. She is a native of Brazil and is the founder and designer for Green Veranda. The tagline for her company is "Yesterday's News... Today's Fashion," and they produce handbags , home decor, and accessories made from recycled newspapers. Green Veranda products are created with a Fair Trade co-op of 32 women living in Brazil.

My absolute favorite is the large handbag, where recycled or mis-printed newspapers are cut into strips, rolled, and then handwoven to create the effect that you see. The paper is then sealed with a natural laminate to protect it from water. Organic fabrics adorn the inside of each purse and separate the compartments. Each purse is completely handmade and can take the artist up to 2 days to create.

Green Veranda works with the American Forests organization, planting a tree for each of their sales. They also donate a portion of their profit to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or the Children's Hope organization. The artisans who handmake the products receive fair wages and are able to support their families and help build the communities in which they live.

Denise currently lives in Florida and works with co-founder and fiancee' Aaron Goldberg, and maintains hopes of growing the company to reach more parts of the world. Together they will continue to support the artisans they work with and their communities, and give back as much as they can. All while creating super cool eco-chic products.

You can find out more on their website http://www.greenveranda.com/ and keep up with them on Twitter http://twitter.com/GreenVeranda

I will end with this note from Green Veranda's press kit: "It takes a brave person to truly realize that our world needs a change. It also takes a brave person to act and make a difference. And that is Green Veranda's vision... to inspire others to do just that."

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