Freshie & Zero Holiday Gift Guide

Well hello there, November. You kind of snuck up on me this year. Usually I'm one of those annoying people who does Christmas shopping year-round; it's one of the perks of going to craft shows across the country and finding wonderful handmade gifts along the way. However, this year I have been off my game. I haven't even started shopping! I know we have 41 days as of this blog post, but trust me, those days will fly by! 

This year, I know that Gift Guides will be my saving grace! I love getting inspiration from my favorite brands to see what they have hand selected from their collections. With that in mind, I present to you the Freshie & Zero Gift Guide. Let's face it - we have a lot to choose from and it can be overwhelming! These are some of my personal favorites and I hope they help you in your holiday shopping!

Keep in mind when shopping:
~ The 18" chain length fits almost everyone, while 16" is considered a choker on most people.
~ All of our jewelry is nickel free and is great for sensitive skin.
~ We offer gift wrapping for a $2 charge, but each piece always comes in its own gift box.
~ First Class shipping is $2.49 and our turnaround is 2-4 days on average.
~ You can upgrade to Priority Mail for $5.49 if you would like to shorten the time in transit.
~ Don't order too late for December 25! Our ordering deadlines are below:

CHRISTMAS ORDERING DEADLINES:

FIRST CLASS MAIL: December 15

PRIORITY MAIL: December 17

Happy Valentine's Day! Treat Yo' Self!

It's Valentine's Day! Cue the hearts, gold foil, hot pink, burning red, and general floral overload.

Whether you are single, coupled up, married, divorced, or complicated; I'm pretty sure what you need to do is TREAT YO' SELF! Go out and buy yourself a red velvet cupcake and devour it before you get back to your car - it's your right on this heartiest of heart lovin' holidays! The red crumbs on your jacket can just be your DIY Valentine's Day accents.

If you'd rather buy yourself something that won't give you a sugar high, may I suggest procuring a piece of jewelry from our collection? Perhaps one of my personal favorites, the Lolly Earrings?

Treat yo' self! Go get them here!

Or maybe you'd rather get a new bold piece for spring, like our Double Chevron Necklace? This piece  is also an easy way to update your wardrobe with a nod to the chevron accessory trend!

Treat yo' self! Go get it here!

Either way, we hope you have a lovely day and hope you are not covered up in snow that you can't shovel your way out of! If that's the case, maybe you should just go outside, make some snow hearts and Instagram that sucker like this adorable gal from Norway:

cute hearts from Instagrammer Benhagdau

The Uncommon Goods Holiday Catalog has landed!

It's that time of year again when I excitedly check my mailbox, hoping to see the latest Uncommon Goods catalog waiting for me! I'm not only excited to see my name in print alongside my jewelry, but I also like to see what other wonderful items they have selected to be a part of their holiday gift guide and if any of my crafty friends make an appearance.

Well lo and behold, who is on the cover but our talented friend Dolan Geiman! He is not only an amazing artist, but he's a really nice guy, too.

Yay Dolan! Nice cover!

I was also thrilled to come across a page featuring my Georgia buddies from Rinse Bath & Body who make the most delicious-smelling soaps; here their Wine Soap Set makes its catalog debut: 

Rinse seriously makes the best soaps.

Not pictured in the catalog but available on the Uncommon Goods website are these educational and fabulous Presidential Glasses, designed by my friends at 1canoe2. They're full of tidbits about each president they feature - did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was the youngest president?

Sigh. I just love everything 1canoe2 illustrates.

And last but not least, is my Love Necklace in all its glory! This is the necklace I designed when I was pregnant with my daughter four years ago - it was my non-cheesy motherhood necklace representing, well, becoming a mother! I also have to share that mine is the original "Mother and Child" double circle necklace - don't be fooled by imitations! :) 

ta-da!

Uncommon Goods also sells my Love Bracelet and Earrings, both of which are exclusively available through their website. They're really a great company to work with - if this is your first introduction to their site, go take a few minutes to poke around. I know you'll find at least one thing to add to your own Christmas wish list!

New earring styles on the website!

I just added some new earring styles mixing sterling silver and gold filled metals to the website! My personal favorite is the Gold Swirl Teardrop, but the Honey Halo is a close second.  I'll be adding lots of new items and images to the website over the next few weeks, so keep checking back!

Fall is here - finally!!

It's getting very fall-like around my website! I changed the background to a brown pattern and took some photos outside today on my deck for a print ad. I liked them so much, they already made it onto the home page. They look a little too orange on the website, but whatev. It was heaven to be outside in pants and feel the cool breeze. Let's hope 90° weather is behind us!! Welcome fall!!!


In other outdoor news, Greggars and I went to the TACA craft fair in Centennial Park today. Kinda funny that on my weekend off, I went into the office, so to speak. It was great to see my crafty friends including Lisa Norris, Bebo & Betty, and Karen Fincannon, and introduce them to my extended family (Zero and baby) since I don't bring either to craft shows. And I scored a sweet wooden brownie spatula, so I guess I'll have to make some Trader Joe's brownies again - yummy!

While I'm away...

... you can still order from my in-stock-shop on etsy! Since I have such a hard time slowing down, I will be listing items that are made and ready to go as time permits in my etsy shop. Maybe it will help you indecisive ones make a decision since there's only a limited amount of choices? Check it out!

October

This month has been a whirlwind, and just when I think I'm caught up, I get totally slammed again! I'm not complaining, especially since I just got to take a fabulous 4 day mini vacation with my husband to Treasure Island, Florida, which I highly recommend...


I hit the studio hard when I got back and had to finish up the biggest wholesale order I've ever had! I started it before I left town, but since I had a bunch of website orders I needed to get out when I returned, I did not get the big order done and shipped it two days past their desired ship date. I guess the busier I get, the more that is going to happen, but I'm just not used to being behind and it is irritating! This year will be my first Christmas season after stepping into the wholesale world full force, so it will be interesting to see how I keep my sanity! I had big plans of getting ahead by stocking up on my best sellers so that I wouldn't have to make everything when an order came in, and boy was that wishful thinking!! Such are the woes of small business growing pains, I guess.

I better get busy in the studio again this week because this Saturday, I actually have a show in my home town! Twist Art Gallery is hosting a handmade show in the Arcade downtown coinciding with the First Saturday Gallery Art Crawl and several talented Nashville artists will also be there including Mary Ink and Amanda Conley!

Come see me at Handmade in the Arcade, Sat, Nov 7th 1-9p.m.
Downtown Nashville, TN (click for directions)

ad for SF weekly

Check it out, San Francisco! Look for my ad above in the next issue of SF Weekly. Part of the marketing machine that is Freshie & Zero. :) I thought it couldn't hurt to advertise on the West Coast for the upcoming Renegade Craft Show since I've never taken Freshie & Zero there! In the next issue, I'll be sharing an ad with the lovely Olaria studio. Of course, the timing isn't great since I had to close my website down for the month of July since I'll pretty much be out of town the whole month... Le sigh.

New Jewelry!

I've been hard at work making new items! I've stayed up really late the last couple of nights hammering away (my ears can tell - they are intermittently ringing - yikes!). It was all worth it, though. Check out the new earrings!


These are the Bermuda and Little Bermuda styles. I am loving them! They aren't on the website yet, but if you're in Richmond, Virginia this weekend, you can snag them at Spring Bada-Bing or if you're going to be in Birmingham, Alabama next weekend, you can snag a pair at ONB Magic City! I will also have them available as necklaces.


If you're watching the Modern Economy Specials - you should know that I won't be changing them this Sunday, but the current ones will remain up for an extra week or so. I'll be out of town until Monday night and then I'm leaving again on Thursday so I don't have time to do all of the necessary website editing to make it happen. Hang tight, though - I'll make it up to you with a really great special the week of April 27th! Feel free to comment below with your favorite item or items that you are would like to snag at a Modern Economy Price!

New jewelry!

I've been extremely productive today, even though I've been in my pajamas all day. Showering can wait - I have new jewelry to show the world!

I've been experimenting with sanding some of my pieces to achieve a matte finish which I think is very pretty, but I needed to make this finish available on very specific pieces that had their own look and style. So far, all of my disc and solid pieces come in the matte finish but I wanted to try out some matte finishes on some of the wire pieces, too. I've also been curious about working with slightly thicker wire - it's a little harder to work with but can hold its shape on pieces that are more open (like the lucky or bucket) as opposed to all of the other work that has finished lines that all connect. The lucky and bucket are fine and don't need any reworking, but how could I take that idea further?

After playing around with my materials, I arrived on a solution - hoop earrings! Not exactly earth shattering or re-inventing the wheel or anything, but hoop earrings in my own style could be nice, right? I thought so, and I love how they turned out:


I have never done anything like this before so I only have three styles available and I haven't even named them yet (any suggestions? if you have a good one and I use it, a pair is yours). I have a rectangular hoop and a small and medium round hoop. The closure is a bridge style that I have created, which is pretty exciting that the entire thing is created with my wire! So far, I have put them in my etsy shop to see what happens. I get more traffic on my website, though, so I'll be adding them soon. I may make a few extra pairs and then send them to Bliss in Knoxville and Art & Invention in Nashville - two of my stores that have carried my jewelry the longest to see what they think. What do you think?

I also have a new heart necklace that I'm excited about. I've been playing around with heart shapes for over a year, and it's about time that I made one that I'd like to add to the line! I call it the free form heart, since each one is made entirely by hand and the shape is pretty much up to how the wire and my tools interact.

Please vote (for me!)!!

Shameless self promotion strikes again, my dear readers. One of my favorite magazines, Venus Zine has amazing coverage of the DIY scene and they have a reader's poll every year featuring music, film, and fashion. One of their categories just happens to be "Best DIY Business"! Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club and Susie Ghahremani of Boy Girl Party have won in the past and aren't they fabulous???

So what can you do? Go and vote for Freshie & Zero in their survey! Pretty Please? The DIY category is at the very bottom of the page, #17. All you have to do is select "Other" and write in Freshie & Zero. I know it's super easy, but I made a little skitch image below for your viewing pleasure:


I do not expect to win, of course, but I would love to be on their radar... who knows? The poll is up until October 15th. Please tell all of your friends to take a sec and vote for Freshie & Zero and in the meantime, if you don't see Venus Zine at your local bookstore, ask them to start carrying it! It's a great magazine and just keeps getting better.

Thanks and no more self promotion for a while... although this weekend is the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago and I'll be there in case you were wondering... lots of new stuff not on the website... I'm just saying...

I signed up for Trunkt

Does anyone know much about this website (www.trunkt.org)? It is an online portfolio and I paid for the "standard" one so that I get 9 images on the site and supposedly people will be looking at my profile all the time. So far I've had 79 portfolio views since I signed on, which I think was last week after I read Whitney Smith's interview on etsy and she mentioned the website (I just love her and her interview solidified it!). I had heard of it before but I'm totally new to it so if anyone has any tips or tricks I'm all ears! Please come by for a visit and sign my guest book! If you're crafty, sign up and try out the "basic" account - you can upload three photos for free!

5.12.08 Update
I haven't gotten jackola from Trunkt yet - no wholesale inquiries, no sales as a result of it or anything! Does anyone have a success story from Trunkt that they would like to share?

Mark Your Calendars!

I have a show coming up in Nashville on April 5th! It's not only a chance to shop for Freshie & Zero jewelry, but it's also an amazing art show and a big fat portion of the proceeds (40% - 50%!!) goes to The Tomorrow Fund! Here are the details:

Saturday, April 5th, 6 pm - 10 pm, 2008

The Tomorrow Fund ArtistTree Show ~ Take 121 Arts, Nashville, TN

There will be food provided by Past Perfect and wine tickets will be for sale for only $4 (all proceeds will benefit the Tomorrow Fund). There will be a DJ, so in addition to great art, there will be a very cool atmosphere. I hope to see you there! I will post up more information when I find out who the other artists are.

treasury features galore

My "side project" Charm Star has had quite a run on etsy this week! It's been in four different treasuries, and two made it to the front page! Check it out:

boom box charm

jellyfish charm

bicycle charms

tiny sewing machine charms

Another thing that is so cool about Charm Star is that it really speaks to people overseas - I have sold so many items to people in Europe, and recently Australia. It's so exciting to fill out a customs form and know that your little product is going on quite a journey to another part of the earth.

Freshie & Zero didn't do too bad last week, either. My eclipse necklace was featured in etsy finds - an email that goes out to anyone on etsy's email list. I don't know how many people that is, nor do I know how many hits it generated since etsy's hit counter reset to zero by accident over the weekend, but it was still a super cool surprise - and THEN it was on the front page!

All this to say - what a bright shiny silver lining to my cloud on Thursday! My car was broken into for the third time in the past few years and I had to pay to fix my window (again). Grrrrr. These crooks better stop messing with me, or I'm going to have to get a gun permit and show them who's boss! (do I sound tough???)

introducing feather goods!

Uh, oh... Another side project! Can I possibly manage another etsy store? Why not!? Did you know I started out making jewelry by using vintage jewelry and remaking earrings and brooches into fun necklaces? I am getting back to my roots of re-purposing vintage findings and have created a new shop - Feather Goods. I actually already own the domain name for another purpose yet to be determined... Here is my newest selection of one of a kind items made from vintage materials:

new stuff in my Charm Star shop

I spent ALL DAY yesterday styling, photographing, and editing pictures of my Charm Star charms and I'm feeling a bit like a couch potato even though I was technically doing work. Sitting at home in your PJ's all day can do that to you, though. It was worth it, though, because I already sold the deer and the telephone booth and relisted them! Check out the awesome new stuff!

working on an ad for Venus Zine

So, my last Freshie & Zero ad in Venus Zine generated zero sales (but maybe they just forgot to use the coupon?) but I have decided to give the magazine another go. One, because it's cheap, and two because the necklace I promoted in the last issue has barely sold at all, which is so sad because I thought it was SO fabulous. Oh well, it was a pain to make anyway.

However, this time I have decided to promote Charm Star, my side venture, instead. Here are two different ads I'm working on. I think they're fun and silly, which is what Charm Star is all about. What do you think? (click on 'em to see them more clearly)



Of course, there's a downside to promoting an etsy shop. I can't track my hits! I wish etsy had a little stat counter code installed on your shop home page, just so I could see how many hits I get and where they come from. Speaking of, have you gone to etsytools yet?

the Stitch podcast is up!

I just now found this, even though it was posted a couple of weeks ago, but it's the podcast from Stitch, of which I was interviewed for! Usually I cringe at myself on camera, but they did a great job editing and it actually turned out really well!

The podcast is hosted by Vickie Howell, edited by Cory Ryan and soundtrack provided by Has Anyone Ever Told You? This segment is all about the craft bazaar at Stitch. Look for interviews with 31 Corn Lane, Felt Good Fibers, Freshie and Zero, Handcrafted by Vera, I Like Apple Juice, M. Schopper Ceramics, Leslie Bonnel, Ruffeo Hearts Little Snotty, Duncan, Birds, Lollibomb Beauty, Fort Cloudy, Carlo Rossi and More!

Check it out: