Post earring love
This post is dedicated to pretty post earrings. These are some of my most popular.
Find them here (pink hearts), here (pink round), here (light blue round), and here (grey round).
Photography inspiration
A little while ago I had purchased a new camera and I was also looking to upgrade my lenses. I had been admiring Maria's photos (her Etsy shop is here) for awhile, and decided to ask her what lens she was using to take her stunning shots. Long story short, she volunteered to take some photos of my earrings for me. They turned out beautifully and inspired me to think a little differently about my own product photos. The images below are all by Maria, and my photographs have improved significantly since I became newly inspired and also purchased a new lens!
Gold leaf and berry sparkles
I made these earrings as a custom order sometime around Christmas. They came out so pretty, I made a few extras but never got a chance to list them in my shop because of the crazy as usual holiday season. I only have two pairs, and might just have to make some more.
Introducing Color Story Collections!
I am so excited about this! I am trying something new where I'm making a small collection of one, two, or three of a kind earrings and necklaces in a limited color story. This keeps me the freedom to experiment more, offer a variety of items, while being able to see what sells out quickest and might be worth making in a larger batch. These items are all in one Etsy listing and will be removed from the drop down once they are sold out. The items that sell quickly will be considered to be made again as permanent staples in my shop. This also allows me to make some earrings and necklaces that can be purchased as a set! If it goes well I will be doing this more often with different color stories, shapes, sizes, etc. My first collection is a variety of baby blue, aqua, and salmon pink jewels all with gold leaf and glitter called the Cotton Candy Collection!
Of course, this isn't available for wholesale since most of these items are one or two of a kind and the collections are experimental in nature. I do always love hearing what my wholesale customers like, though, and keep those thoughts in mind when I'm deciding what to add to my wholesale linesheet.
I had so much fun taking photos of this collection. I am so pleased with them!
Valentine's Day pretties
I'm probably a little late with this, but I have a lot of Valentine's Day stuff in my shops! Honestly they aren't really only for Valentine's Day, but this is when I make a lot of little heart things that stick around my shop year-long until I'm out. They are so cute. I really love how the tags came out. The little hearts were painted with watercolors and scanned into the computer.
My birthday is on February 17th, so it's always a crazy week for us personally filled with many delicious dinners. When it's over I'm usually happy to get back to home cooking. By the way, I tried Hello Fresh for the first time a month or so ago because my sister had an extra box and passed it along to me. We were both (husband and I) super impressed with the food, and how incredibly fresh everything was. It's a really nice way to not have your fridge filled with stuff you will not use, buying more than you need for one dinner and having waste, etc. And I found all of the ingredients to be even better than what we can get in the grocery stores around here. If you are interested, my referral code is TRKXPU for $40 off of your first box. We are getting our second box next week and I'm really excited about it! I do enjoy cooking but it's nice to have most of the work (planning and grocery shopping) done for you, and no waste in the fridge! If you have tried it, let me know what you think. I have to say, I would never have ordered it on my own but I'm so glad I tried it!
plants and cats
This week I finally made a terrarium. My houseplant collection has grown significantly over the last few weeks. I figured it was about time to finally make all of my terrarium dreams come true. It was more annoying to make than I thought, even with the large opening in the vase I used.
Whenever I photograph jewelry for the shop, I end up getting distracting and taking photos of the kitties instead. Warning: this post has a billion photos in it (that's probably more fun than words anyway). No photos of Stella though (the other kitty) :(
Oh, and the jewelry. I guess I should share that.
I also got a dresser from the Salvation Army for the living room last week. Oh, and that poodle. It was $1.99 at the Goodwill... how could I not?
I plan on painting the dresser. I like it as it is, but it just doesn't go right with the room. You can see the paint swatches that I have on it, I'm thinking about a dark, emerald-ish green or a light to medium blue shade. I won't paint it until I narrow it down. These decisions take time.
new in the shop
I've been busy making a bunch of larger earrings for my shop. People have asked for them many times throughout the years, but I never really got around to making them. It's about damn time, I think! The only thing that sucks about making them is that they must be made in smaller batches due to their size. I will be making less of each for now, and the designs that are most popular will probably be made over and over, like what I do with everything else. I do have more room to work with though, which can only be a good thing!
These little babies are new too. I seriously love them. I made myself a larger pair in the 8mm style (they will be available in the shop later this week as well). Should I make more like this? Multicolors and varying sizes of glitters? I really think I'm onto something here and will be making a few more colors of these.
new size
I've had a lot of requests for larger sized earrings, and though I've made this size in the past, I never made many and they have never been entirely filled with glitter. They are much more difficult to photograph for me, because of their size and the fact that they don't seem to look as nice in my usual setup. I'll be experimenting with photographing them a bit differently in the future, and if they sell, making more and more colors. Right now they are available in silver and gold:
glittery digits
Today's manicure, sponsored by glitter. FYI, I used Red Carpet Manicure's gel kit, but with regular polish, glitter polish, and some glitter from my stash. I've been using their gel polish and it lasts a good week before there's any sign of wear, two weeks until I want to take it off. Not sure how it performs with regular polish yet (though it's more difficult to apply to their base coat than gel polish is).
Oh, and if you were wondering, my ring is from the very talented Laurie over at Hedgerow Rose.
In the shop
New in the shop today...
Leather and Glitter
Ever since I first brought some leather into my shop, I've been thinking up ways to combine it with glittery resin pieces. Well, I've finally done it and here's a sneak peek of how it turned out. I think that the pretty, delicate sparkle of the glitter and the toughness of leather works perfectly together. They'll be listed in the shop soon, along with some similar earrings not pictured here. I'm so excited about them!