Lesson Learned Today---Don't Take a Famous Dead Author's Name in Vain--aka Don't Name Your $20 Pair of Earrings After Him---By Him I Mean Dr. Seuss

Looked at Majaba View Counter to check out the views on my shop and saw that I was less 1 item. Yayyyy! This means someone bought something. Do do do do...click on my email to check out which one got sold. EEEEEEeeeeeekkkkkk! Got an email from Etsy--2 exactly---that they inactivated 1 of my earrings b/c I named it "Dr. Seuss No. 2" and they actually received an email from Dr. Seuss Corp's attorney. Yikes! They were complaining about my use of "Dr. Seuss" as my earrings name. So, Etsy inactivated it. I wasn't really scared sXXtless b/c I thought "wow, such fuss over a $20 pair of earrings". (See photo above---the infamous pair of earrings)

Do do do do...I started a new listing and renamed the formerly known as "Dr. Seuss No. 2" earrings to "Candies Forever No. 2". I was contemplating renaming them "Candy Land" but thought against doing that. God forbid Hasbro or whatever company owns Candy Land were to complain. Then, I renamed my new earrings "Cindy Crawford's Mole" to "Looks like Cindy Crawford's Mole". God forbid Hollywood comes after me and I end up on E Entertainment with Cindy crying into the camera with the Cat in the Hat (anime style) hugging her and providing her with moral support. Egads!

Wow, how did they find out about my little ole pair of earrings? Does this mean there's an attorney or attorneys or their sidekicks, aka paralegals, doing Google searches everyday looking for any innocent harmless soul who unwittingly and unknowingly takes the name of Dr. Seuss in vain? And then sends out a letter to cease and desist? Wow! I didnt' know that I hit the big time.

Oh well, lessoned learned. Here's some photos of my now renamed "Candies Forever" line (formerly "Dr. Seuss"). If anyone can come up with a better name, please...I'm open to suggestions. What about "Seussy Baboosy"? Agh, that might get me into trouble again.


Update: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 4:45pm Hawaii time
Guess what! I just checked my computer and looked at my shop and discovered that some male new customer just bought (I'm assuming it's a gift and paid via Paypal) one of the formerly known as "Dr. Seuss No. 4", now known as "Candies Forever No. 4". OMG, I think I have not only a parking fairy (that's a whole 'nother story) but I have a jewelry fairy too. Yayyy! Bythe way, the earrings that was just purchased are the ones below with the pink large vintage lucite beads and green vintage flowers. ;)

Latest Find---Antique Keys and Cool Crystal DooDads

Last week, my husband Jimmy and I went down the street to check-out a nearby garage sale, or rather house wide sale, on a Friday. weird day for a garage sale. unusual man selling his collections of things that i guess he decided he could live without. he knew the history behind whatever you touched be it old cigarette trading cards with racing cars on them to little postcards with barbara cartland like drawings on them. you could tell he was an avid collector of stuff. trading cards, baseball cards, postcards...you name it he probably had it.

well, we looked thru his "leftovers" the things he didn't mind parting with. they were all still so cool but some of the prices were---to me---not a fanatic collector---too pricey. guess he got the hint that i was willing to spend so much and i really wasn't in any mood to haggle, so after awhile his prices got a tad bit lower or maybe he really didn't give a rats behind that he would be parting with his barbara cartland like postcards for a song. i really wanted them b/c they reminded me of all those cartland books with her overly masculine handsome men who saved the english damsel from some barbarians and such. ohhhh, brings back sweet memories. ok, wiping drool off of my mouth...i digress.

besides the set of 6 postcards, my hubbie got a cool looking glass container with a pretty metal cover, some antique keys found in the guy's dresser drawer. he told us that he got the keys from the different antique pieces of furniture that he collected over the years. told you he had a story for everything. anyway, as i was giving him his money for our finds, it was $1 short of a $20. so, i caved in and got the cool crystal round faceted doo dads which he said he didn't know what they were but thought they were too neat to toss.

here's a photo of the keys and the crystal doo dads. enjoy! planning to turn the keys into cool vintage necklaces which i'll later post in my etsy shop---stacysdesigns.etsy.com. come by and check it out. thanks! ;)

Circle of Love---Glass Container

Just wanted to share my creation for the Circle Challenge for my Etsy Gal Pal Group, Create A Day. For weeks, I pondered what to make, what to make...And then, it hit me. Decorate my glass containers. I've always loved glass, still do. And in the past, I used to paint flowers and such on glass containers---bottles, plates, etc. All my friends and relatives loved them and would buy them up. I started thinking again about glass containers again b/c I do love them.

So, I decided to work on this glass container b/c of its unusual ovalish shape which is comforting to my eyes. I glued various sea shells, real fresh water pearls, and glass that I have onto it.

The round white shells with a hole in the center are known in Hawaii as "puka shells". The word "puka" means hole in Hawaiian. When I was a young child, there was a mad craze with these puka shells and lots of people were collecting them at the beaches and turning them into necklaces, bracelets, earrings for everyone to wear. These things were expensive, especially if the shells were all uniformed in shape, color and size. It cost a lot b/c of the time and effort it took to find them and then sort them and then have enough of one type for that uniform look. My aunt and her family used to make these and I still have my necklace and bracelet.

Anyway, I have a stash of these puka shells which I got from a friend. I thought these would be perfect to use for this very challenge for obvious reasons.

I've attached an oxidized copper "love" tag that I have attached to the top of the container with vintage cord. This tag was made by my husband Jimmy! He's been teaching himself to engrave. He's created several neat engraving gadgets and tools for his engraving obsession. Anyway, I asked him to engrave this tag specially for this container. Love it.

Something Old, Something New---Vintage Up-do

I had purchased a lot of vintage chandelier pieces from a woman who had bought and used them to repair her chandelier. They're very pretty---faceted glass pieces which let's the sunlight shine thru without giving off that overly sparkly effect. Perfect for wedding jewelry. For brides who want the vintage glamor without going over the top.

I've created several earrings and a beautiful fresh water pearl vintage cuff bracelet. I'll be adding more to this collection as well as my other ones. This collection is very pretty. Please check it out for more details in my Etsy Shop---stacysdesigns88.etsy.com

My Husband is a Terrific Cook & Baker

Yesterday, before I started making my Red Velvet Cake (see posting below on this), my hubbie made ScOneS from ScrAtcH...yes, he's as crazy as I am. My husband likes to experiment with food and try new things, more so than me. After eating some Apricot scones from our local neighborhood bakery, Liliha Bakery, (which has not only delicious pastries but a super vintage still running diner with great & simple diner food) which were scrumptious and flaky---the way we like them. he decided to try his hand at some of his own homemade scones.

I don't know which recipe he used but I believed it was from his Bread Bible book. Anyhoo, he added dried blueberries that he got from Sam's Club in those killer massive bags. They were delish! He made a whole batch for his office as they were having a morning meeting. So, he took along some honey, butter, and some jam to go with the warm scones. He told me that the men in his office didn't take any of the scones prior to the meeting...it just sat there. But once the meeting was over, "boom" all the scones were Gone! How's that?

I ate my hubbie's scone---it was hot and ever so yummy. Ohhhh, I poured some local honey over them and put a dab of butter...heaven. Here's a photo of his scones. I hope he makes them again.

LoVE Red VelVeT CaKe!!!

It was my BFF's birthday today so I got up super early and made her Red Velvet cupcakes from, yessirreee, ScrAtCh. YOu heard that right...sCraTch. This is my all time fav cake and my fav recipe.

I always remember eating red velvet cake when I was younger and remembering loving it. Don't know if it was the "redness" or the cream cheese frosting or both. While it has cocoa in it, can't really say it taste like chocolate cake. If you've never tried it, run to your nearest local bakery and buy some.

Anyhoo, I swear I smelled like some sugary bakery person when I was done frosting the cupcakes with the super delish cream cheese frosting (which I mistakenly added 2x the required butter...oh well, no one knows and it tasted super!). If you've ever made red velvet cake, you know that the one big problem is all the redness from the red food dye gets all over...your fingers, the table, etc. It's called washing your hands a lot so you don't turn your kitchen into an absolute red fest!

I decided to decorate the cupcakes with little paper parasols. By the way, these parasols had tiny tiny rubberbands around the parasol to keep them closed. Ok, some unfortunate person in China is sitting there all day putting these stupid rubberbands around these paper things and wondering why these crazy Americans buy these things. Akkk!

Besides the parasols, I sprinkled my favorite sprinkles on the top. Hey, you can't have real cupcakes without the sprinkles!

Needless to say, my BFF and my fellow co-workers LoVeD the cupcakes...I knew they would. Who can resist HOMEMADE SCRATCH Red Velvet Cupcakes???? Yummmmmmmy.

When I was first searching for the perfect red velvet cake recipe because I wanted to have this as my wedding cake, I researched on the internet and my old cookbooks. I compared the differences in the recipes. I read about other Red Velvet Cake ("RVC") fanatics who swore by one thing or another. I tried several different recipes but was unsuccessful at getting the "perfect" RVC. Until one day, when I was talking about my quest and my husband's niece said that she had the perfect recipe. She gave it to me. I tried it. My quest was over. I found the Holy Grail.

If you're interested in getting your hands on this all time favorite recipe of mine---it is a Winner!, then leave a Comment and include your email and I'll be happy to shoot it over to you. Check out some of the photos of the RVC process from beginning to end.

Going International Baby!

Within the last week or so, I've had 4, count them 4, purchases of my jewelry by folks living outside of the USA or wanting their jewelry to be sent as a gift outside the USA. I think this is so mind blowing. I'm an international seller. I feel like when I was a kid and had pen pals outside of Hawaii. That was big time for me when I was a little kid. I remember one of my pen pals...she was a fellow Bay City Rollers fan with the tartan accessories and everything. Okay, I digress again. Now, as an adult this selling international is So exciting.

My first international sale was from a gal in Canada. The other was from London UK. Saturday, I had a very nice male customer who wanted his jewelry to be sent to his friend in Columbia as a gift. So, I even included a card with the gift with his sentiments on them---like what florists do when they send a gift of flowers and a card. Too Cute! Sunday, I had a special request from a super nice gal whose daughter is going to have her 1st Holy Communion next month and will wear my jewelry on her special day. I feel so honored. She purchased a custom order of my matching "Simply" necklace and earrings set. She's from Ireland. As another digression, I'm finishing up Maeve Binchy's book "Whitehorn Woods" which is another winner for her and is set in Ireland---read it, you'll love it. Love her little vignettes of her character's lives.

Anyhoo, check out the photo of the newest custom listing which I'll mail out to my Ireland customer tomorrow, Monday April 21st. I have a similar pair of the "Simple" earrings in my Etsy shop.

Miss Batch--Adorn Magazines Editor in Chief "Hearted" My Etsy Shop

A little while ago, Adorn Magazine's Editor-in-Chief "Hearted" my Etsy shop as one of her Favorites. I'm so honored and excited! That's something that someone of Miss Batch's caliber has picked me as one of her favorite Etsy shops.

Just wanted to crow about this one b/c I'm so proud.

Here's what the Adorn Magazine looks like. I tried to buy one from our Barnes & Noble at Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu but they were all out. I have to check back in with them in a bit to see if the new magazine came in. (Oops...sorry, the pic is NO longer available as of 7/09)

Etsy Artist---Hadley Hutton

I just purchased this lovely print from Etsy artist Hadley Hutton. It's entitled "I think my Hair Ornaments are Flying Away". It's absolutely gorgeous. So victorian looking and yet so whimsical. I bought it as part of my sister-in-law Sarah's 40th Birthday goodies. Today, Sarah picked it up from my house and she LOVED it. They just repainted their staircase area a lovely green and she plans to frame this and put it in the perfect spot.

Check out Hadley Hutton at her Etsy shop---hadleyhutton.etsy.com
You'll love her artwork. Her use of color and natural elements like plants, flowers, birds, people are just amazing. Everything is so beautiful. Her photos of her artwork are very accurate. Love it!

Flowers In My Garden

Again, on my quest to save things vintage, I spotted this cute barrel (which turned out to be plastic---but you can't tell) with "fake" water spout on my neighbor's grass waiting to be taken to the garbage dump. I decided it would make a cute planter with a little TLC.

So I took over to my yard where it sat for a bit. When I had the energy to tackle this project, I took out my trusty spray paints---white and black---and sprayed the areas to cover up the old paint which was a green yucky color. My husband drilled some holes on the bottom, placed some rocks on the bottom, and filled it with the big big bag of soil he bought from Home Depot. I planted some pansies (which I love), thyme, mint, and tried some Manoa Lettuce and mixed lettuce. Here's some photos of my pansies and the cute planter barrel. The lettuce isn't doing so well, kinda wilting---think it's too hot and it needs a lot of water.

In our garden, we aren't able to grow the beautiful bulbs like you gals on the continent. Here's some photos of the orchids that are blooming and the cute clover flowers in a pot. Our garden is so cute and green...I love it. Here are some photos of the other plants growing in our garden.

My Etsy Funk is Over...for now

I only started adding to my blog yesterday. Why? I've been MIA because I was in an Etsy funk. Nothing was selling in my shop and I was thinking "why?" and driving myself crazy like a loony person thinking all sort of crazy thoughts spinning in my head.

I kept putting new creations in my shop. And at times I felt like I was "chasing" a sale---making things that "others" might like but not necessarily my normal "style" that I sell. Like my Understated Beauty line. Which while I never really made "simple and understated" pieces to sell to my friends and customers in Hawaii, I actually did create "simple" pieces for myself to wear on a daily basis. You know, that "throw it on and wear it with anything" kind of pretty yet uncomplicated jewelry. I just never thought that my customers in Hawaii who normally buy from me would want something like this.

Then I realized that you can either have a whole bunch of the same look in your store or you can change it up and try to attract different markets. It's not necessarily "chasing", it's running a business. But, after couple weeks, I didn't think that my Understated Beauty line was striking a cord in anyone b/c nothing was moving at all.

Until this Saturday and then boom, boom--2 sales both outside USA---one from Canada, the other from England. Wow! Had to learn how to fill out those International forms and then stand in line at the post office to mail them to foreign lands. The 2 gals bought necklaces from my Understated Beauty line. So, I decided to forge on and create more simple but elegant, wear everyday and any occasion jewelry.

Here's some of my newest creations that I made using my fav pearls---Keshi pearls. I love these pearls that I picked up at the Tucson trade show this year b/c they have such a beautiful nacre and luster to them---love the color...creamy rosey color. Keshi pearls cost me a pretty penny (vs. the cost of your standard fresh water pearls) but totally worth it. They remind me of dainty rose petals. No two are alike which makes them all that more special. Check out my Etsy Shop for all my creations---I've made quite a few newbies.

New Look For Front Porch

Yesterday, my hubbie and I went to the Buddhist temple to pay respects to his mother who is deceased. As we turned out of the temple's driveway, I asked him to drive in the opposite direction than we normally take b/c I wanted to check out the cute homes in the area. As we were puttering down the street, low and behold, I spotted several totally cute chairs that someone had put out near the sidewalk for bulk pick-up.

Immediately, I asked him to turn the car around b/c I wanted to take a look at the chairs. They were so cute and vintage. My hubbie's trusty old Suzuki Aereo car was able to fit all 3 chairs in the back. It's like Santa's red sack---it can hold a ton of stuff.

Anyway, took them home and found the perfect spot for the adorable light cream chair right on my front porch. I put some pillows that I had picked up from Walmart awhile ago and voila! I spent the day sitting out on my porch reading a book and sipping my bubbly water. I'm in heaven.

My vintage craze comes in handy. I can smell something cute and vintage a mile away.

The other pic shows a cute metal bird atrium thingy that I had spray painted Robin's Birds Blue and put a potted pink spotted plant I got from Home Depot. The other shot shows the other 2 cute low to the ground chairs with lots of paint peeling. LOvE them! ;)

New Designs for Spring--Understated Beauty

I just recently created some jewelry which can be worn everyday and for every occasion. How great is that? I call it my Understated Beauty collection. These charming and pretty pieces are created for those times when you just want to wear something which will be pretty but not bold. I like to wear these when I go to the neighborhood store, have dinner in town, meet friends for lunch, go to work, go to a party...you get the idea. They are that simple, easy, and cute to wear. These would also be perfect for your bridal party to wear at your wedding. It will accentuate your bridesmaids' dresses without overpowering them. Understated Beauty. ;)

From Sheasy's Shop---Little Pink Bunny--New Craft Room Mascot

Newly arrived---just hopped down the lane to my white cottage today...Little Pink Bunny from Sheasy's shop. You have to check out Sheasy's Etsy shop (sheasy.etsy.com)because it has the cutest little handsewn felt creations like cupcakes and little capped mushrooms. So cute! This little bunny is going to be my craft room mascot. She'll be looking down at me when I'm creating my new jewelry.

Ever see the movie "Amelie"? That offbeat Parisian movie about a shy coffee shop (or is it a pattisserie?) waitress who tries to make the lives of the people around her better---like her dad and the garden gnome who keeps traveling to a bunch of different countries and magically sends her dad back photos showing the gnome's latest trip.

Well, here's some photos that Little Pink wanted me to take of her to capture her first day in Hawaii and the new friends that she's made so far. The first photo, Little Pink with her new friend Rocko on the front step. The second photo, Little Pink meeting her new next door neighbor Mr. Woo. And lastly, Little Pink taking some time to smell the flowers. I think she likes it here. ;)

I Love Flowers---My Latest Treasury in Treasury West

I'm at it again! Someone please stop my addiction. Nah! I love doing these.

Now I've been turned on to "Thumbalizr" which takes snapshots of screens for me. Yayyy!

Please check out my new treasury creation by clicking here. I have used several of my CADdy gals creations as well as those from my WeLoveEtsy pals. Enjoy! And stay tuned for my next Treasury----you may be in it. ;)

Treasury Addict---help me!

I'm a Treasury addict...constantly in the right place at the right time. I've made about 5+ different treasuries w/in the last month. Once you start, you can't stop especially when that little box just pops up like "magic". You can't say "no" to it. Luckily, I just go thru all my favorite items that I have hearted and I come up with a theme. Takes me about 1 hour to choose all the items and add it to the treasury. But the results are rewarding.

Here's my latest Treasury West creation called "Birds of a Feather". My inspiration is my little peacock blue lovebird Tobey. Thought these creations by my fellow We Love Etsy, Ning artisans to be just fab and had to be shared with my fellow Etsians.

Just wanted to memoralize it before it expires in 2 hours. Tried the "thumbalizr" to take a snapshot of the screen to place it here in my blog. Neat! Try it---you'll like it.