eddie izzard, new items, and the day i was bombarded with sales

i've just added this cutie to my shop! this is the first piece of my new collection of aanraku bail pendant necklaces, which i am calling washi-scape pendants. the piece above, 'sugar blossom', is a "portrait scape" pendant necklace (being more tall than it is wide), and i have also made another style, which are "horizon scape" pendant necklaces (which are wide).

these little ones are about the size of a scrabble tile, at 1" x 3/4", but in no way am i going the scrabble tile route! that market is way oversaturated, and i always try to find ways to do something different. brandon cut each piece of wood for me, and i filed them all down, one at a time, to make them perfect. also, this is the line i was refering to when i was talking about my epoxy problems. i think i've got it all under control now :p.

i really like the aanraku bail style. at first i was hesitant, but they do look really nice, and i was able to inflict my own style on these so they stand out from all those scrabble tile pendants on etsy. it's my hope that these are a big hit :).

and oh! my sale is going really well so far, too! i've sold 10 tile pendant necklaces so far this month, which is great! i've gotta make room for all the new stuff i'm planning, in addition to my washi-scape line ;). if you have your eye on one of those tile pendants, grab it while you can! and if you see one in my "sold" section that you want, let me know and i'll make one specially for you and it will still be just $4 throughout this month :).

i also listed this pretty piece:



this is 'peace crane', part of another, small line i am doing call "deluxe pendant necklaces". let me tell you, you wouldn't think so maybe, but a lot of work went into this little guy! i am very proud of it :). it's got a glossy sealer on top, giving it a very shiny look that is different from the other items i sell. also, the washi paper (such a cute crane!) is mounted on a stainless steel pendant plate, making it heavier than my other necklaces. it comes on a pretty white organza ribbon and it neatly tucked inside a matching pendant box, all for $17 :).

okay, now i've got to tell you about my saturday! saturday was eddie izzard day, and he was amazingly hysterical as always :). like i said in a previous blog, no cameras were allowed, but i took a picture of the shirt i bought and my ticket stubs for you to see:



the only disappointing aspect of the show was that he didn't dress up in his normal garb (he jokingly refered to himself as "an off-duty transvestite", haha). but his act was very funny :).

eddie wasn't the only good thing to happen on saturday, however. by the time i got home, i had accumulated 3 orders from my shop! woohoo! i sold 9 things in all, just on saturday! this means that i am only 10 sales away from my goal for the month. i think i can make it ;).

well i suppose now i'd better get off the computer and play around with some washi paper. cheers!

♥,
melissa

lots of updates (very long)

1. i went to the chuck palahniuk event last night, and it was AMAZING. i mean, beyond amazing. i was even one of the lucky people who got a wristband to meet chuck and get my book ('snuff', his new one, which he was there to promote) personalized! here are some pictures:

chuck talking up 'snuff'. i loved hearing him talk about his work, his thought process, and his reactions to how the world perceives him and his writing. also, when asked what some of his favourite books were growing up, he cited ray bradbury's 'the martian chronicles', which just so happens to be one of my favourite books, as well!

my copy of 'snuff' and my ticket stub for the event. i will treasure them always ♥.

so here is one of the blow-up sex dolls that chuck threw into the crowd. some friends we made while in line for the signing caught one, and let me and jason take pictures with it. then we all had fun making fun of his non-anatomically correct body parts. see: his mouth is red only inside his lips. see: his horribly-drawn chest/chest hair. see: his heart-shaped head. there were other discrepancies, but i'm trying to keep this blog rated-pg :p.

my signed and personalized page of 'snuff'. too funny (and sweet, in a weird chuck way)! he even sprayed several of the pages with a -really really good smelling- cologne. mmm, i can smell it any time i want and remember that moment :). and i LOVE his handwriting.

me with chuck! ♥ ♥ ♥. i was so starstricken that all i really could manage to say was, "i'm enamoured!" to which he said, "oh!" it was a magical moment. as you can see, i was pretty happy with his arm around me and everything. oh, and look - well, you can't really see it that well, but i'm wearing a necklace from my new line that will be revealed soon in my shop :).

so that was my wonderful chuck night :). it was everything i hoped it would be and more. i really didn't expect i'd be able to meet my absolute favourite author. he's such a great guy :).

2. one of my pendant necklaces, 'pollen', got featured in two treasuries yesterday! thank you, tizz, for being of the currators :). not only that, but i came home from chuck at almost 1 in the morning to find that i had actually sold the necklace! sweet!

this got sold to my first canadian customer (yay!), and she also bought my 'ambrosia' pendant necklace, each for just $4 (remember my clearance on my tile pendants? yeah! go take advantage of that! :D).

3. i am designing my newest line of pendant necklaces, which are going to be similar in style to the tile ones, but better! for this new venture, i needed to get familiar with epoxy. i've always kind of stayed away from it because of all the health hazards, but it was necessary to use for what i'm trying to do.

me, prepping my pendants for epoxyness. sexy, i know. :p.

anyway, the point of this story is that melissa is clueless when it comes to epoxy. well, not anymore, i guess, but i sure was when i started this project! my experiment was... not meant to be. at least, not on the day i tried it the first time. first, i wanted to work outside because of the fumes from the epoxy, so i set up everything on my front patio. i went back inside to get the epoxy, and when i came back out, i found that a big wind gust (it has been very windy the last few days) blew all my wood pieces and all my metal findings all over the yard. ugh. this did not bode well for the rest of my task. so i moved everything inside, to the living room (which is very open) and proceeded to work. everything was going fine more or less, but later i realized that i didn't use enough epoxy, so the metal findings i was attaching to the wood pendant popped right off, even when i waited several hours for it to cure (it says usable strength in just 1 hour on the package, so clearly i did something wrong). i was just trying to avoid having a huge clump of glue on the back of each pendant, but i guess that's how it's actually supposed to be. i'll try again on sunday. hmph. but at least i provided you with a picture you can make fun of me forever with ;p.

4. the eddie izzard performance is tomorrow, and brandon and i are excited! we're not allowed to take pictures at that event, though, so i won't have anything like that to show you :(. but i will let you know how it went :).

okay, i'm off to package that order that's going to canada!

♥,
melissa

several blogs in one

a lot of things have been on my mind today.

thing 1. belfastbeachjewelry

my good etsy friend lara, owner of belfastbeachjewelry, deserves some attention! when i met her, i told her about my upcoming wedding, and she worked with me to create this gorgeous tiara:

this is the perfect headpiece for me; it matches the style of my dress, it incorporates my wedding colours, and it looks fabulous!

but the main reason i brag about lara today is because she's having a great sale right now! lara doesn't just make tiaras: necklaces, earrings, barrettes, and bracelets adorn her shop as well. right now, if you buy any necklace in her shop, you receive a FREE pair of goldtone cherry blossom earrings worth $10! her jewelry is as gorgeous as her tiaras. check it out :).

thing 2. eddie izzard

brandon and i are huge eddie izzard fans. actually, we love a lot of comedians (we saw jim gaffigan perform last year), but i would dare to say that mr. izzard is our favourite.

he's going to be performing 'stripped' at the paramount theatre in downtown austin june 6-8, and since we donate to the paramount, we got presale tickets for saturday, the 7th! we are extremely excited, as you might imagine. we got really good seats, too: almost right in the middle of the middle of the orchestra level :D.

i'll be sure to tell you how the izzard experience went, but unfortunately we'll all have to wait about 3 months to find out :p.

thing 3. my striped merchandise

how come my striped items aren't gettin' any lovins? i'm pretty disappointed in the number of views they've received (significantly less than most of my other items), and i don't think i'll be making any more pieces with that particular washi paper. for goodness sake, not even my 'two for the price of one and a half' is working with that paper! i'm in the process of cutting up my unused paper to be, hopefully, salvaged as 'destash' in my shop. maybe someone else will have more luck with it than i did!

thing 4. a poll

if you have a moment, please respond to the poll on the top right of this page. when i first opened my shop, i had a set of earrings (featuring japanese koi fish) for sale for $17. after a while, it sold. i then decided to only make earrings for my gift sets and not sell them separately. do you think that i should offer them separately as well as included in the gift sets? i would really appreciate some feedback! if you want to elaborate on your poll answer, feel free to leave a comment here.

well, that's what's been going through my mind lately! oh, and i added some new items to my shop in the last few days, including this cutie:

what do you think of her? :)

i hope everyone is having a wonderful wednesday!

<3,

melissa