Sale! & Vacation!!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and with Thanksgiving comes Black Friday and fantastic sales. I will also be leaving early Friday morning for a vacation in Florida - Disney World! We're driving down (2 loong days!), but we're stopping in Georgia to visit with friends. My husband and I have been looking forward to this vacation for months, and our daughter has been super excited ever since we told her where we're going.

My shop will be staying open while I'm gone, but orders will not be shipped until we return from our vacation. I will, however, be posting sales throughout the week in my shop, so keep an eye out for great deals!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ahhhhh.......

Ahhhhh........ at last! A nice shiny new laptop, wireless internet AND a new camera to play with!!! To have a computer that not only moves quickly, but can actually handle the internet without having it shut it down every 10 minutes ----- I am in HEAVEN!!!!

Still need to play around with the new camera. Hope to experiment with it tomorrow (well, later today since it's 1 am right now), maybe even start added some new items to my shop after the jewelry home party this week.


Ahhhhhhh.... this is so nice!

8 Years & FREE Shipping

Today Lance and I are celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe we've been married that long. To mark this occasion, I will be offering FREE SHIPPING in my Etsy shop from 9am EST today to 9am EST tomorrow (11/5).

Don't forget to vote today!

Getting organized

Whew!  A busy summer followed by an even busier fall has left my main workspace a mess!  For the first time in over a month, I have an entire weekend without anything in particular to do.  I sat down a little while ago to work on a few pieces and found that I couldn't because my workspace was such a mess.  A little over an hour later, I have it clean up, beads, findings and wire put in their proper places and all my scrap wire in the scrap tray.  Now I can finally get something done!

It's amazing how much of a mess can accumulate in such a short time. Back when I work as a jeweler full time, we cleaned up our benches every day before we left.  Now, with working a full time job, taking care of the house, family, friends AND trying to run my own jewelry business --- well, something has to slide from time to time. LOL  

My hours at my day job were recently cut back from 5 days a week to 4, which will allow me more time to create, photograph and list, and possibly keep my workspace in better shape.  Well, maybe!

Vote for Kelly!!!

If you have a few miniutes, vote for my cousin's wife Kelly. She entered in the Belly Pumpking contest that WKRZ is having. The winner gets a year of diapers!
Vote here. Look for Kelly McFarland.

Great Outdoors Festival -- this weekend!

This weekend is the Great Outdoors Festival at Whitetail Ski resort. You don't want to miss this event if you are in the area! This festival has plenty to offer: good food, entertainment, demonstrations, crafts (look for Zen Creations!), Belgian Horse wagon rides, Penn State Timber Spors team, a climbing wall kids activities, and a ski, snowboard and golf swap.

Great Outdoors Festival
October 25 & 26th, 10am to 5pm
Adults - $6, Ages 6-12 & Seniors - $3, Under 5 - FREE
Whitetail Ski Resort
13805 Blairs Valley Road
Mercersburg, PA
http://www.skiwhitetail.com

Fulton Fall Folk Festival this weekend!!

Tomorrow we head out for the Fulton Fall Folk Festival. It will be nice to vend at a craft show that is only 30 minutes from home. This is the first time vending at a 3 day show and our first time at Fulton Fall Folk Festival. So far, it looks like the weather is going to be nice. A real plus after all of our rainy craft shows this year!

Looking forward to tomorrow, but I still have plenty to do tonight to prep. Still need to finish pricing a few new pieces and packing up the jewelry, need to repack my displays before packing them up in the car. I had better get my checklist out and start checking things off when I get home from work!

Fulton Fall Folk Festival - this weekend

I have 2 craft shows coming up:

35th Fulton Co. Fall Folk Festival
October 17, 18 & 19
Location: McConnellsburg, PA


Great Outdoors Festival:
Whitetail Ski Resort
October 25 & 26th
Location: Mercersburg, PA

We've been spending as much time as possible prepping for these events. The last few months have been very busy for us, and we've done 2x's as many craft shows this year as we did last year. Overall, it's been an extremely busy summer and fall. It certainly has been a challenge this year to balance family, health issues, Etsy Team duties, full time job, Etsy, craft shows and creating new pieces. As much as I enjoy creating jewelry, I am looking forward to taking a week off in December for our family vacation.

Bubbles!

Just had to share this photo from the weekend. Thank you Sara for this picture!

Things have been very busy here lately. Between craft shows, making jewelry, home parties and family functions, I've barely had time to take a break! I do have some new pieces that are almost finished that I'm very excited about. Hope to post pictures of these pieces very soon!

Mercersburg Townfest 2008

The day started out rainy and gray today, but it cleared up quickly and ended up being a beautiful day. This was our first year vending/attending Mercersburg Townfest and I have to say, this town really put on a nice little event. The local churches hosted breakfasts and lunches and the First United Methodist Church had rooms full of goods for sale, goodies to eat, music and a gym full of silent auction items. Outside on the streets of Mercersbug, there were vendors of all types, yummy foods, activities for the kids and music and dance performances.

I had the opportunity to meet Amy and view her absolutely beautiful jewelry up close. I especially loved her colorful chainmail pieces. I also got to meet another local Etsy seller - Mad for Needles.

Overall, it was a nice day, weather ended up being just right - not too hot, not too cold. Plus, it was fantastic to only have 6 minutes travel time to a craft show! Ahhh, there's nothing like tearing down, packing up, driving home and unloading only a few minutes later!!! I will post some pictures soon from this event.


Tomorrow, we have the alpaca event at Stone Meadow Alpacas. They have invited us to not only sell our line of Stone Meadow Alpaca jewelry, but our other designs as well. We will be there to set up at 9am and will stay unitl 4 - 4:30pm.

Alpaca!

Recently I was commissioned by Stone Meadow Alpacas to create some jewelry using their logo for National Alpaca Farm Days 2008.
Here's a sneak peek at the jewelry:

 

 

 

 

These items will on display and available for purchase/order from 9am to 5pm on September 28th, 2008 @
Stone Meadow Alpacas
14514 Hollowell Church Rd.
Waynesboro, PA 17268
- at 10am there will be a small talk on the Alpaca Fiber industry and a free alpaca product will be given away. For more alpaca industry talks, fun, food, a fashion show, and prizes visit 6 participating farms nearby during the weekend. Visit http://www.cvalpacs.com for more information and scheduling details.

29th Annual Mercersburg Townfest - this weekend!

This Saturday I will be vending at the 20th Annual Mercersburg Townfest. This is our first year doing this event and I'm very excited!! I've heard a lot of great things about it, and from the looks of the vendor map, there are 2 full streets full of vendors.

Mercersburg Townfest
Saturday, September 29th, 9am to 3pm
East and West Seminary Street + a portion of Main Street, Mercersburg, PA.
you can read more about it and view a list of vendors here.

*Zen Creations will be located on West Seminary Street, around the corner from The Mansion House, 3rd space in, diagonal from Mix 95.1.

Also - check this weeks Mercersburg Merchant for our ad and coupon for Townfest!!

Perez on Martha!

Yesterday, the Queen of All Media, Perez Hilton was on Martha Stewart. I subscribe to the RSS feed for his blog and I find myself taking short breaks from work several times a day to read his posts. (I know, I'm an addict! LOL) He's made a name for himself, and while some hate him, a lot more people must love him since his blog gets sooo many hits and comments every single day. Maybe it's a love hate thing? Either way, I love to read it and you have to admit, it's amazing what he's built for himself from blogging.

Here's the clip from the show so you can check it out and enjoy. He gives some great tips on blogging:


I also have to mention that his efforts to slim down & shape up have really paid off. He looks great!

New fall goodies!

I've been very busy the last few days, working on new pieces for my Etsy shop and Townfest. Here's a few of the new fall goodies in my shop!:

Fall Spiral Earrings


Coral and Carved Wood Necklace


Eye of the Storm Braclet


Falling Leaves Necklace

Getting ready

Yesterday I went for what will hopefully be my second to last chemo treatment for a while. My Dr gave me some great news - my counts are up from 74,000 to 118,000! So I have just one more treamtent in December and then hopefully I'll get atleast a year of remission out of this. Yippee!!!

While I'm off work a few days, dealing with my chemo side effects, I'm trying to get some new pieces planned out and hopefully finish some that are already in progress. My next craft show is the Mercersburg Townfest in Mercersburg, PA on September 27th. This will be my first year doing this show and I look forward to doing this show.

Boonsboro Days 2008 Recap

Saturday morning was gray and quickly turned to rain, but many sellers and shoppers still made it out to Boonsboro Days. I was glad we set up our canopy Friday night! We managed to get our area set up and ready to go before the rain began, and toughed it out as long as we could. Around 1-1:30pm everyong closed up shop for the day.

Sunday turned out to be beautiful, not too hot, not too cool. There were almost twice as many people there on Sunday as there was last year as well. We ended up making up for Saturday with shoppers and sales, and it appeared that everyone had a good time. In addition to the music, food and crafts, there was a classic car show, craft demonstrations and pony rides.

I took some pictures of my booth and one of my mom's booth. Check out her great fabric pumpkins!

www.flickr.com

Boonsboro Days 2008

I'm putting the final touches on a few pieces tonight and then we will be ready for Boonsboro Days. Crossing my fingers that the rain will pass up by and we will have beautiful weather. This is one of my favorite craft shows for both vending and shopping! I got to seet some of my mom's new pieces that she will be selling this weekend. I might have to buy one of her rustic fabric pumpkins!

Check out this website for more information about Boonsboro Days and the history of the Boonsboro, MD area.

Boonsboro Days:
September 6th & 7th
Shafer Park,Boonsboro, MD

-We will be located near the rear of the band shell in Shafer Park. Last year we were between country/primative crafts vendor (my mom) and a candle vendor; across from Cedar Ridge Soaps. My mom's country/primitive crafts will be in the tent right next to our again this year so be sure to check out her stuff!



SPECIAL OFFER: Mention my blog and get 10% off your total Zen Creations purchase at Boonsboro Days!

Pretty little pearl earrings

I've been busy this holiday weekend, finishing up pieces for Boonsboro Days. Last night I made several pairs of these pretty little pearl hoop earrings and I was so pleased with how they turned out, that I made a second set for my Etsy shop.

Here's a littl sneak peek:

 

 

 

 

I have 6 different colors in this style, which will be added to my shop over the next few days.

Boonsboro Days & Mercersburg Townfest

Boonsboro Days:
September 6th & 7th
Shafer Park,Boonsboro, MD

-We will be located near the rear of the band shell in Shafer Park. Last year we were between country/primative crafts vendor and a candle vendor; across from a soap vendor. SPECIAL! Mention my blog and get 10% off your total Zen Creations purchase at Boonsboro Days!


Mercersburg Townfest:
September 27th, 9am to 3pm
Downtown - Mercersburg, PA
- more information will be posted later.


Also, I have added an events section to my blog to post a list of upcoming events. This will be updated as events are added.

Finally!

Well, it took me longer than I would have liked, but I finally have several of my newest pieces photographed and ready to list. I listed on pendant necklace earlier this week, my current favorite:


Here's a sneak peak at another pendant and a pair of pyrite earrings that will be listed this week:



Boonsboro Days is coming up soon too! I just found out that I will have the same spot as last year, so I'm very excited about that!