cloudy, with a chance of drama

I think this may be my favorite treasury I've ever curated, and I'm absolutely thrilled to say that it graced the front page of Etsy on Wednesday night. Congratulations to these gifted sellers, and thanks for lending your work to my small tale in pictures. Featured shops are listed below the picture.

From left to right, top to bottom, sellers are:
exoskeletoncabaret
natuure
JKphotography
soulyyours
jeremylucido
bykali
JunkhouseDollyard
slightclutter
eastofgrey
jmaylone
enaandtheswan
GetReadySetGO

really?

guerilla marketing: adorn your friends!

My friend Julia came to visit me a couple of months ago, and I made her a pair of earrings using vintage glass pearls I found at a flea market. Just a very simple, classic pair of drops on bright sterling leverbacks. They seemed to suit her beautifully. She wore them on the airplane home, and gave my card to a woman who admired them. The woman visited my Etsy shop and bought two pairs of earrings. Julia wore the earrings to the grocery store. The woman who rang up her order admired them, and Julia gave her my card as well. She ordered the same pair, and then commissioned me to make her a matching bracelet and necklace set to wear to her daughter's wedding later this month. She was thrilled with them, and handed my cards and some printouts of pictures from my shop to her coworkers. And on it went...Thanks, JJ!

I neglected to take pictures of the custom bracelet and earrings before I sent them off, but this is the necklace. I'm pretty pleased with it; I wish I had more of these pearly, heavy textured beads, but I used the whole strand on the three custom pieces.

venial sins of supply shopping

I needed printer ink and receipt books, so I went to Staples this morning while doing my usual round of errands. I already have an inordinate love of fresh pencils and pristine notebooks, and with an Etsy forum thread on school supply lust fresh in my mind, it was perhaps unwise to venture into the temple of school supplies before I was fully awake and alert to the dangers of stickers and patterned packing tape. That's all the excuse I'm going to offer, because there really isn't anything that can justify what happened next. I found my ink and chose two carbon-copy receipt books for use at Renegade, and then I thought I might just have a look at the bins of inexpensive, brightly colored promo supplies that are always in the aisles. Just a look. Just to see if there was anything I'd forgotten. After all, I spent 10 minutes yesterday rummaging around in my desk drawer for a single paperclip. Just in case...

And there's where I made my mistake. Because just past the bins of promo plumage, all shiny and bright, there was a table of bulk, choose-your-own, funky little office supplies. You pick a divided container (a delicious little toy in and of itself), and fill it with your choice of colored pushpins, binder clips and paper clips. Big bin or little bin. Oh, my. I was weak. I not only did this, I chose the big bin. Please note the Tiffany blue binder clips imprinted with antique postal cancellations. Who could resist? (I know, Dad, you'd have no trouble at all. Don't brag.) So I filled my bin, and as I was disentangling myself from the table of bulk temptations, I had to pass the markers. Fatal. Error. I am now the proud owner of a completely unnecessary, brand new, dizzying beautiful set of Sarasa Zebra retractable gel pens (10!) in a heady array of fall colors. Burgundy! Slate! Mango! Grass! Mea culpa.