Why I love what I do.

Ok, the header is a little misleading; there are a lot of reasons why I love running Erthe Fae Designs, and I'm only going to talk about two of them in this blog. But if journalists can have inaccurate headlines, then so can I!

One thing that I love about being a jewelry designer is the ability to make things to go with my favorite outfits. Today I made a great black, purple and white necklace to go with a black, purple, and white blouse. They're perfect together and I can't wait for the temps to drop so I can wear the whole ensemble (it also involves a heavy purple stretch velvet skirt).

Another thing that I love is the ability to occasionally barter my products for the products of other Indie business owners. Over the past month I've had the opportunity to do this twice (three times, if you count the writing trade), and the second package just arrived today. I now have a handful of adorable "Cute as a button" hairpins from Gerbera Designs. Not only are they cute and well-made, but the base pins are a lot sturdier than normal bobby pins. If you love awesome hair accessories (and bags, and iPod cases), you should definitely check her site out.

My other trade was with Jenny at Kristine's Shower. Not only are her products amazing and professionally presented, but they're very well-packaged too. I had almost as much fun opening my package as using the items! Her Shea Butter Body Frosting is to die for -- even Chris likes it, and he's not one for frou-frou bath products. I've also tried the Lava Gloss and Soy Candles and have been universally pleased.

I hope that they both enjoy their jewelry as much as I enjoy my goodies!

Great big sale going on now!

Today I started my big sale. It's not actually a moving sale -- got at least a few more months of saving up to do, as it turns out. It's more like a "Making room for my awesome Autumn collection" sale, because the website was getting a little, well, over-stocked.

Things are very busy for me right now. In a little over 2 weeks, I'm leaving for my annual visit to NY to see the in-laws. My first two days there will be spent at a wedding. I still need to buy a dress for said wedding, and then make gorgeous jewelry to go with it. And before I leave, I need to photograph all of the 2008 LL-BFAC projects I've received and mail them back out. I don't feel comfortable with leaving other peoples' artwork in my home while I'm gone for a couple of weeks. And of course, I have lots of other little things to take care of, including jury duty on the 30th. Never a dull moment...

Because of this, I'm taking a small hiatus from weekly updates. During this time I will be putting more of the current stock on sale, doing general maintenance, and probably adding some items to the Gallery. I will also be beading new jewelry. On August 25th, once I've had a little time to recover from my trip, I will unveil the start of my Autumn collection. Expect to see soft neutrals and rich earth tones.

Coincidentally, my big sale will also run until the 25th! I kicked it off today by marking down all of my Crystal Bracelets to $45 from $60, and discounting some assorted necklaces. I intend to put a few more things on special, but there was a thunderstorm overhead so I had to shut down ;) I'll certainly post sale updates here.

Today's Cool Thing is the Vintage Indie blog. If you love the vintage aesthetic, and you love supporting Indie businesses, then this is the blog for you!