SMARTFISH

SMARTFISH is getting some blog love today. I first saw these adorable shoes via Mixed Plate and thought... "How perfect are these??!! I want to blog about these too!" Their shoes are handmade, sustainable and vegan. I love seeing CUTE leather alternatives for handbags and shoes.

So, after seeing them on Mixed Plate, I also saw them featured in the Etsy Finds email today. It looks like they are a fairly new shop, so I hope they have fun with their recent press!

I think these flats with the bows are my favorite...

Wheee!!! Tiny Etsy front page feature!

My Crescent earrings made it to the front page...sort of! In one of the scrolling Storque Articles at the bottom of Etsy's home page there is an article called "Basic Skills" and my earrings are featured! Hooray! It's so fun to see the amount of eyeballs that see your product if you are on the home page - it's overwhelming. New views and shop hearts come flooding in. I love it! There are so many Etsy lovers out there. Anyway, here's what the little article looks like. Click it to see all the products featured. My Crescent Earrings are shown again waaaay at the bottom of the article.

Help?

I need some opinions and I know you have them... :). I've been (slowly) working on some brand updates and am stuck on step one and the most important - my logo. I wanted to get away from the big, pink, tropical flower. When I first created my brand, the flower was more appropriate. My jewelry has evolved so much and it's time my brand did too.

I love the script font and I would like to keep the logo somewhat recognizable - so the flower goes and the fonts stay. Here's where I need help. I've narrowed my options down to these 2 logos. I like them both - the first one a bit more, but I think the second one might lend itself to more applications in a better way. Business cards - blog and etsy banners, stickers for boxes, earrings cards, etc...so I am confused!!

What do you think? Leave a comment or email me - erin(at)erinjanedesigns.com. I'll also post them on my Facebook page if you want to leave a comment there. Here are the new beauties:

Welcome 2010!

I wouldn't say I'm glad 2009 is over, but I'm definitely OK with it. It wasn't a bad year by any means, I just think 2010 is going to be a good one. My theme for this year is to enjoy. I have a blessed life and want to enjoy all the wonderful things in it and remind myself everyday how lucky I am. I want to enjoy my home, cook wonderful meals, snuggle up with my dogs and hubby, take advantage of the fantastic city I live in, grow and find fresh, local, healthy foods and share them with friends and family. I want to make jewelry!! Because I love to. Doesn't all of that sound fun??!! What are your resolutions this year? Here are some more of mine:

1. Organize one room in the house every month

2. Run another half marathon

3. Master vegetarian cooking

4. Take a trip with my sweetie to Italy

5. Take a road trip to Minnesota for some cabin time with the dogs

6. Become a better blogger

7. Take more photos

8. Be a more mindful buyer*

9. Double my garden space

10. Make lots of jewelry! Did I already say that??

*Yesterday after erasing any signs of Christmas from our house, I decided to go through the cabinets under our bathroom sinks and all of our bathroom drawers - haven't done that for years - gross, I know. I cannot believe the amount of cosmetics and other junk I had accumulated over the years. All garbage. I felt terrible throwing all of it away. Some was unused and will be donated, but most just garbage. So sad to think where it ends up. I resolve to be more careful!!! Do I really need 8 different blushes?? Nope.

Ahhh.....quiet.

I hope everyone had a happy, happy holiday! We had a houseful over Christmas and it was a lovely time. Everyone is gone now and I'm kind of enjoying a little quiet time. It's back to reality and I really can't tell you how excited I am for 2010. Have I already said that? Well, whatever...I repeat, I think it's going to be a good year. I also have a sneaking suspicion it's going to be an eventful one. I'm not sure what's in store, but I just have this funny feeling that a lot is going to happen.

As far as Erin Jane Designs goes, I've been working on a list of things to do this year. First up, some branding updates - a little logo change, color palette update, etc.... I think I'll be ready to share concepts really soon :). I actually might need a little help deciding on some things.... Next, a bunch of boring organizational things that I won't go into (you're welcome). And, of course, I'm working on lots of new designs. I'm dying to have a full day in my studio - no interruptions. I need to recover some brain cells (too much sugar and booze the last several days) before I'm able to do that.

I'll leave you today with picture of a very cool Christmas gift from my talented brother in law. He drew a comic of my hubby and I on the Seattle waterfront...check out my butt...pretty nice.

Secret

If you are my husband, stop reading! If you know my husband and can't keep a secret...stop reading! Unless you want to ruin Christmas.

OK, now that they are all gone, I can tell you about a couple of my husband's gifts. I usually stay away from handmade gifts for the hubby - not really his thing. But, this year is a little different. I decided to make him some cufflinks and a money clip - he has recently ditched the wallet and just carries cards. I think he's going to really like them!! So, here we go...

For the cufflinks, I texturized thick silver sheet and cut out squares. I polished up my squares and soldered them on to sterling silver cufflink components. Cool, huh? And, totally manly... :)

The money clip was lotsa, lotsa fun to make. I cut a 7/8" x 4" piece of 20 ga silver, rounded the edges, sanded and polished up the edges and then the fun part...I drug the piece of silver perfectly straight across a piece of super coarse sandpaper (a few times - with lots of pressure), then drug it the other way to give it a cross hatch pattern. I bent it around a mandral, gave it a good hammering with a plastic mallet and...voila!

After Christmas, I definitely plan on adding these to my Etsy shop - plus work on a few new designs. I think they are pretty cool. And, I think guys will think they are pretty cool too...

You might have noticed my initials on the corner of the last photo...A few weeks ago I ordered this fancy stamp with my initials so I can stamp my pieces. I just got it in the mail a week or 2 ago. The stamp comes out beautifully! I still feel a little shy about adding my initials to my jewelry. I'm not sure why, but I AM sure I will get over it :) I mean, look how pretty it looks!

Ramping Up...for Christmas and 2010

Well, more neglect. I do apologize. However, I am still recovering. I even made a visit to the doctor! It turns out I have bronchitis. And, a case of pink eye...eyes...both of them. Which is why I went to the doctor in the first place. I thought only little kids got that. For some reason I was sort of embarrassed that I had it. :) Feeling better, but definitely not great. I had a busy week last week and it felt so good to be making so much jewelry! I'm really happy with the sales I had over Christmas. It was quite fun to be so busy.

A lot of bloggers out there are talking about this NY Times article about selling on Etsy. Even though I'm not surprised by anything in the article, it still got me excited about 2010. There's been a lot of sketching going on at my house lately. I've been making a lot of jewelry lately, but not many new designs, so I'm so excited for January. I hope to go nuts with new stuff!

In the meantime, it's all Christmas prep for the next couple days. My dad is coming to town and we will have 11 over for Christmas dinner. Should be fun. Dinner menu follows:

- Pear, blue cheese, candied pecan salad

- Roasted beet soup
- Mushroom risotto
- Thyme popovers
- My FAMOUS Garlic rosemary mashed potatoes
- Panetone bread pudding with cinnamon sauce

I'll post recipes soon. Still perfecting a few... :)