Monday, June 13, 2011

A Stranger is Just a Friend I've Never Met

"A stranger is just a friend I've never met." Will Rogers, American writer and humorist

We had a great time this weekend showing our wares at the St. Johns Community Marketplace and really felt like seasoned pros with our spiffy new canopy.  The weather started out overcast (as is typical for a Portland June morning), but by about 11 a.m. the clouds had burned off and turned into the perfect sunny summer day, the kind of day that causes first-time visitors to Portland to want to move here permanently.  Friends later showed up, stuck around and ate at the food carts, and it ended up feeling like a really great company picnic. 

We were able to meander around a bit at times, look at other vendors' goods, and have some nice chats.  Our neighbor to the left side was a gentleman from Denmark who hand carved and hand painted small and large wooden animals, sea serpents, Vikings, and other fun and fanciful characters.  Just like his figurines, he was absolutely delightful, and we were able to strike up a friendship.  As you might guess, his shop had a steady stream of customers throughout the day, and whether they bought or not, they left with a smile on their face.  Cari and I spent a lot of time reaching out to people as well, saying hello, welcoming them to the shop, talking about our products, but most of all I think just spreading the good cheer and happiness we felt about being out in the sunshine, meeting people, and sharing our products that we enjoy making.  We made a few sales, as did our friend from Denmark, but mostly enjoyed just hanging out with each other and our friends.

Our neighbors to the right were a mother-and-daughter team with quite lovely jewelry.  They were a little distant upon arrival, but we just chalked that up to the fact they were busy getting set up.  After awhile, we chatted with them some, but they didn't encourage much conversation after that.  For the rest of the day, they sat more or less immobile (including their faces) and there was a certain amount of gloom and doom surrounding them and their shop.  We never once saw them greet people or chat much with those who did stop to look.  They seemed to take the customers for granted.  A little black cloud settled over their heads when their sales expectations were not met, and they packed up and left early. 

Cari (my partner in crime) and I talked about the difference in vendors a lot during our actual time at the marketplace, and I thought about it some more yesterday and this morning.  You never know how a show is going to turn out; in fact, it's a pretty unpredictable business, but sellers are responsible for not only making a pleasant experience for customers (whether they buy or not), but also so responsible for their own happiness as a seller.  There are a lot of rules I could write out here as a series of bullet points.  I'm sure most of what Cari and I are learning are things that more seasoned sellers already know.  Mostly, however, I think the easiest way to sum it up is in the simply profound statement by Will Rogers, "A stranger is just a friend I've never met."  Give it a try.  It can make your selling experience a joy.  Sell without it and I can almost guarantee your selling experience will be miserable.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Shameless Self Promotion


I'm shamelessly self promoting for myself and my partner in crime, Cari (Wahkeena Photos) today, but I also think it's a excellent opportunity to promote a local business that is going to be a success. So, we hope that you'll come visit us at our booth on opening day for the markeplace this Saturday, June 11.  We'll be there from 10 am to 5 pm.  The address is 8200 block of North Lombard & Richmond in Portland, OR, and it's on four different bus lines, so you don't necessarily have to drive, but if you do, there's also plenty of parking.  Don't worry about food, there are food carts there as well (with more on the way), and it all sounds very tasty.  For more information, visit the website here at http://www.crystalfoodgarden.com/index.htm  If you want to be a vendor, the booth prices couldn't be more reasonable at $5 a day, so be sure to call David, the director, at (503) 803-6709 to chat about vending opportunities.

Cari is going to be featuring her usual line of gorgeous photo prints and notecards, but she's adding some new products that will be featured during our time at the St. John's Community Marketplace.  I know you'll be excited to see them!  Cari's Etsy shop can be visited here for a peek at her work http://www.etsy.com/shop/WahkeenaPhotos?ref=top_trail

I've added a series of decorated bobby pins to my usual line of jewelry at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Earringopia?ref=si_shop and I hope you'll enjoy seeing them at our booth at the St. John's Community Marketplace as well.

We're looking forward to seeing you at the opening day of the St. John's Community Marketplace.  It's exciting to be part of a new venture, and it will also be fun to see how it changes and grows over the summer.

Monday, June 6, 2011

The Shoe Doctor


I usually write about jewelry-related subjects, but I think I'm going to stray a little off the beaten jewelry path today and talk about something I'm equally passionate about ...

Customer service, including going the extra mile and excellent work ethic.


I was in visiting with my apartment manager, Heather, about a couple of different items.  While we were chatting, a young woman dropped by to deliver some shoes to Heather.  I thought I recognized the young woman and indeed it was Tanya, who cleans apartments for our building management company, but after she handed me her business card, I realized she also has other talents.


Tanya is also The Shoe Doctor and not only does shoe repair, but also picks up, shines the shoes, and delivers them back to their delighted owner.  She was very personable, professional, and easy to talk with about what she does and in showing me her finished product (the shoes she delivered to Heather). 



Besides knowing how hard she works cleaning apartments and producing sparkling and timely results there, I was really impressed by her work ethic in having a second line of work repairing shoes.  However, what I really liked most of all was that she had figured out a way to not only save people money by repairing shoes, but also by serving up exceptional customer service and savings in time in terms of picking up shoes to be repaired and delivering repaired shoes for free.  I walked away from my chat with her feeling inspired by her example.



So, my thanks to Tanya, The Shoe Doctor, for the inspiration.  If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, give her a call at (503) 329-2274 for her shoe repair services and possibly some inspiration in customer service and work ethic!

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Ruby Ale Jewelry

Yup, you heard me right.  We're talking about ruby ale jewelry today.

Let me give you the back story.  I met a group of fabulous friends on Twitter a couple of years ago.  We got along so well online that we started having tweetups and found out that several of us had a love of Ruby Ale made by the McMenamin Brothers here in the Portland and Oregon environs.  We all became just plain old friends, not tweets, and the tweetups turned into meetups at Edgefield (a McMenamin's outlet) and finally the meetups turned into Ruby Council (coined by Nick (Schnik), which is the hashtag label we use on Twitter to organize our gatherings.  Several of us have talked in the past about having badges or tee-shirts or SOMETHING emblazoned with "Ruby Council" to let people know who we are (they certainly hear us when we're together because there's lots of loud laughing and talking).  Ruby Council members decided to get together at another McMenamin's property, Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, yesterday, and I decided to get busy and make badges finally for Ruby Council.

To make the OFFICIAL Ruby Council badges, I traced circles out of black felt and glued those to cut-out circles of bright red paper plates.  After that, red glitter glue and gold glitter glue were used to free-form decorate the badges.  Once the glitter glue was dry, I glued pins to the back and voila Ruby Ale jewelry was born:





I arrived first at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse and sat out on the patio, had a Ruby Ale (natch) and handed each arriving Ruby Council member their badge as they arrived.  Each person pinned their badge on.  One member, who shall remain nameless, started to use it as a coaster, but was quickly reminded by several they needed to be wearing that badge proudly.  Anyhow, my friends and fellow Ruby Council members made my day by enjoying and wearing their new badges.  I wonder if anyone else on Ruby Council is going to come up with other "branded merchandise" for future council meetings?

UPDATE: I won't say which member, but someone on Ruby Council is working on some "branded merchandise" for next Ruby Council.  I love, love, love this because it just adds to the fun.  Remember, next Ruby Council meeting is at the Goose Hollow Inn, date yet to be determined, but I am really looking forward to that (possibly because it's one block away from my house, LOL, but truly it's all about fun and friends).

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Nature's Jewelry


Mother Nature has been busy lately festooning herself with her form of jewelry, new leaves, colors, and blooms.  Looks like she added some diamonds to a simple bamboo ensemble above.


Of course, her acumen in color choices is legendary.



And sometimes she likes just a simple splash of green.

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Next Elizabeth Taylor


Saturday, my partner in crime, Cari, and I participated in a really fun benefit craft bazaar for a preschool here in Portland, OR, so there were lots of little folks bouncing around.  The bazaar organizers did a fabulous job of keeping them occupied with an excellent activity table, but they also meandered around to look at the various vendor tables with their moms and grandmoms.  One grandmom came by with her little red-headed sprite who immediately related to my jewelry.  I recognized a sparkly kindred spirit.  As she was getting to leave with her grandmom, her little fingers spidered across and took a necklace and put it in on right over her head.  Her grandmom and I managed to get her to part with it, but later the same little person came back on her own (grandmom was nearby) and still wanted to "borrow" some of the jewelry to wear.  I gently told her no, but that she was welcome to stand with me and look at all the jewelry and even "borrow" some to wear while standing at the table.  She proceeded to go over everything intently and brought many pieces to me to discuss and to wear for a bit.  Her eyes sparkled while the jewelry sparkled.  Little one was able to carry on very articulate conversations and had a great many good questions.  After about one-half hour, she tired and left to find her mom, and her grandmom came back over to chat.  I told her I recognized a sparkly kindred spirit.  Grandmom told me Scarlett, the kindred spirit, had loved sparkly things since birth and even now at two-and-one-half years of age gravitated toward the shiny things in life. 


Scarlett, of course, Scarlett.  Scarlett of the aquamarine earbobs from "Gone With The Wind."  Grandmom agreed that the red-headed sprite and her name were a perfect match.  I laughed and told Grandmom that not only was Scarlett the perfect match, but that they might have a future Elizabeth Taylor on their hands.



We both chuckled about that and about the love of jewelry in general, but then grandmom told me that they hoped Ms. Scarlett would not only love jewelry, but that some day she would end up an engineer.  We agreed that would be very good, but it also left me with the thought how wonderful it is to be two-and-one-half years old and be your very own truly remarkable sparkly self.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

My Earring & Necklace set for Portland Circle of Friends & Family Preschool Spring Extravaganza Bazaar Raffle

I've already shared with you the fact that Cari (Wahkeena Photos) and I are participating in this Portland Circle of Friends & Family Preschool Spring Extravaganza Bazaar this coming Saturday, April 30 (9 a.m. to 3 p.m., 4904 SE Hawthorne Boulevard (Eagles Lodge), Portland, Oregon.  I just finished the necklace and earring set I'm contributing to the raffle and thought you might like to see some photos of the finished products.






Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Portland Circle of Friends & Family Preschool Spring Extravaganza Bazaar


Saturday, April 30 is another great bazaar that you can attend to find all sorts of wonderful items for your spring and summer events.  It is sponsored by Portland Circle of Friends & Family Preschool and is a great event for every member of the family, young or old.  Besides vendors such as Earringopia (http://www.etsy.com/shop/earringopia) and Wahkeena Photos (http://www.etsy.com/shop/WahkeenaPhotos) with a great assortment of handmade jewelry and beautiful photo stylings, there will also be a number of other vendors offering their handmade wares.  There will also be a raffle, bake sale, activities for children, and more.  I think it sounds like great fun and sure hope to see you there!



The bazaar will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is located at 4904 SE Hawthorne Boulevard (Eagles Lodge) in Portland, Oregon.  Stop by, say hi, have some fun, and find some truly unique items from local Portland artists.



Tuesday, April 19, 2011

This Week's Favorite Etsy Find


I had to clean my floors recently with my Swiffer and realized I had run out of the boxed Swiffer pads.  It was then I realized what I wanted to feature in my next blog post, this great reusable and washable and reversible Swiffer cover for both wet and dry use.  The boxed Swiffer pads sure don't come in gorgeous colors like this and it's just one more way to be both thrifty and kind to the earth.  This excellent product is available from MontanaDaisyGirl on Etsy at Ecofriendly Handmade Cotton Swiffer Cover  I know I sure want one.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Dutch Iris Necklace


This necklace started out as an odd fragment of a coil of wire in a box of supplies.  It kept talking to me, telling me it would make the most beautiful pendant for a necklace, but I ignored it for awhile.  I finally hung the wire fragment from an earring holder on my work table and it grew on me enough that I pulled out my bead box.  There were several lavendar and violet blue beads and one larger aurora borealis bead that worked their magic on me. 


I am not an experienced wire wrapper, so it took me awhile to arrive at the final shape and pull the ends together and wrap the wire.  I was pleased with the final product save for the top part where I had wrapped the wire tightly and securely, but really didn't like the end product there.  Poor me, I made a trip to my local fabulous button and ribbon store, The Button Emporium (http://www.buttonemporium.com/ ) and spent a very pleasant couple of hours picking out ribbon and buttons (button story later).  I used the very pretty ribbon to wrap around and over the unattractive wire portion and it came out looking like this:



A much prettier product I am proud to present.  Here's a further closeup of the ribbon:



And in the end this is how the necklace looks as it would hang on a neckline:



Like I said, I am pleased to present the necklace and found working with the wire fun, but seriously I don't want to have to work that hard or long in the future.  There's always a better way, so I've decided to sign up for a wire wrapping class with my pal, Cari (a talented photographer for the record at http://www.etsy.com/people/WahkeenaPhotos ) at a local bead shop, Let It Bead (http://letitbeadportland.com/ ) on either Sunday, May 15 or Sunday, May 22.  I'd also like to invite you to join us in the wire wrapping class.  If you do want to join us, please leave that wish in the comments section below along with the better of the two Sundays for your participation.  Also be sure to leave any questions you might have below in the comments section as well.

Basic info about the classes:
When: Sundays at 2 p.m., two hours in length
Cost: $35 for two hour class plus cost of materials for any project you wish to make and keep. 
Where: Let It Bead, 1426 NW 23rd Avenue, between Pettygrove and Quimby Avenue, Portland, OR



The necklace is now listed at Earringopia (http://www.etsy.com/listing/72005248/spring-iris-blue-and-purple-color-wire)  Should you decide to order the necklace between now and Mother's Day, an extra added little matching set of dangly earrings will be added to your order (picture of that treat will be shown in the listing) as a thank you treat.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Sew Po First Anniversary Party - Please Join Us

CaKe Enterprises (Earringopia and Wahkeena Photos) is very honored to have been invited to participate in Sew Po's first anniversary party.  I think it's particularly important to note that Sew Po, a small business in Portland, Oregon, has reached out to other local artists and invited them to participate, but then that's the Portland way, something we should all be very proud of.  So, please come and join not just Earringopia and Wahkeena Photos, but also all the lovely people featured in the above announcement for Sew Po's first birthday party.  I'd like to give a particular nod to Emily Engdahl (http://www.songbirdfreelancedesign.com/ ) for designing the beautiful, cheerful, colorful announcement pictured above!