The hunt is over!

While on my trip to Florida and South Carolina, I visted as many bead shops as I could find. I used to live in Gainesville, Florida so I already knew of Gifts Of Avalon. I love their selection of pendants and gemstones. Just like in all bead shops, if you look for the right beads, you will definetly find affordable, beautiful things to add to a peice of jewelry to truly make it special.

After gathering beads in Gainesville we then went to visit my best friend Tessa near Hilton Head South Carolina. I helped her set up her own shop on Etsy and Artfire while I was there. You can see her things at www.bellacreation.etsy.com

Tessa and I went to a bead shop (I can't remember the name now) and found lots of goodies to add to my collection from Gainesville. Then we spent a lot of our time beading. It was a really nice visit as well as productive. Gotta love that!!

So, now I have some beautiful new jewelry to add to my site - but not until I take some more fabulous pictures of Cassie wearing them!! I love having a model and think she's truly a beautiful reflection of what Gypsy Jewels represents.

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday - however/whatever you celebrate.

`j.

Bead Treasure Hunt

Currently I am on vacation in Gainesville, FL and heading to Bluffton, SC (near Hilton Head) in the next couple of days. I have been relying on the Internet to help me find bead supply shops so that I can bring home the most fabulous new gemstones to use in some 2009 jewelry. Even though I am enjoying my vacation, I am almost more excited to get home to bring together the beads I've found on my trip with the beads that I ordered from Etsy right before I left and get these necklaces in my head out of me!!

Keep your eye out for some fabulous new things in the coming year. I'm positive they will not disappoint.

Have a happy New Year!!!!

Gypsy Jewels has a new model and has reached 100 sales!!

Gypsy Jewels would like to introduce Cassie! My new official Gypsy Jewels model. That's right, folks! No more hassle with self portraits - not when I've got a beautiful girl like her more than willing to have some fun and let me take pictures of her!

We are also celebrating our 100th sale today!! Winter Solstice I hit 100, and I think that is pretty rad! This is a perfect milestone to hit right before we really overhaul Gypsy Jewels and start taking things a little more seriously. Better pictures, better beads, trying to incorporate more sterling silver without having to increase my prices (fingers crossed), and most of all - aggressively seeking avenues toward opening my own coffee shop / art studio. These are my New Years Resolutions. What are yours?

Gypsy Jewels and Arbonne Party!

The first offical Gypsy Jewels party was hosted by Shawna and Leticia, and we had a wonderful turn out! What a great way to kick off this new chapter for Gypsy Jewels!!

Sylvia Longcore from Arbonne was there doing amazing makeovers and being that helpful ball of light she always is! These products are truly wonderful and it's great to see products that aren't only bent on being beautiful, but being safe for us AND our environment!

The Raffle for our Grand Prize was a smashing success! For $5.00 people were given the chance to buy a raffle ticket for a drawing at the end of the night to win a beautiful pearl necklace and bracelet as well as a very nice Arbonne spa package! I almost wanted to buy a ticket myself! Carrie Karston was our lucky winner, which I felt was karmically owed to her after having her spinach artichoke dip locked in her van and unable to enter it into our recepie contest.

The recepie contest was many people's favorite feature. The ladies who attended this party more than rose to the challenge! We had the BEST food and plenty of it. From Tuscan dip, Chicken and rice and crab stuffed mushrooms, which Shawna made and took the prize for best appetizer to "Better Then Sex" cake, cookies, fruit punch cake and the prize winner - Banana Bread. MMmmmmmm. This is definetly a feature I will be holding onto in my future Gypsy Jewels parties!

Overall, I think everone left having had a great time, which is ALWAYS good. :O)

Gypsy Juliea's Natural Beauty Secret - Anti- Cellulite

Did you know that jojoba oil is the closest to our own skin's compound - therefore it penetrates deeper than any other carrier oil? It's true. That makes jojoba oil the best oil to use in this following anti-cellulite regime.

Anti-cellulite treatment:
Take the warm grounds from your morning coffee and put them in a bowl. Grab a carrier oil (jojoba is best, but you can use other oil's such as almond or grape-seed) and bring everything to the shower with you. When in the shower, put some of the ground in your palm and put some carrier oil on top of it (you don't need much - there should be more grounds than oil). Rub your hands together slightly to mix the grounds and oil and then rub vigorously into thighs, belly and anywhere else you may have a problem with cellulite. Circular motions work best.

When you are done, rinse off and rinse the grounds down the drain (it does not harm your pipes - it's actually GOOD for them!).The bottom of your tub may be a little slippery from the oil, so be careful!This is also a great thing to do after shaving - it leaves your skin the softest and smoothest it's ever been. I PROMISE.

My 100th Sale!!

I have 92 sales right now and I want to get to 100 before the holiday comes - so I'm giving a beautiful freshwater pearl bracelet to whoever is my 100th sale and FREE SHIPPING on their entire order!

I wonder who it will be.....

Wednesday Dec. 3

I guess I'm motivated, even if I don't feel very good. Today I finished three projects that I'm really happy with! Three decoupaged items, kind of a strange mix, but, whatever. I'm a weirdo and I'm OK with that. But, I bet you'll rarely find pot boxes next to baby boxes anywhere else! :O)

I have opened a new shop on Etsy called "The Smoking Section" and it is going to contain all of my marijuana themed items. I think that ending prohibition is an absolute priority. I think it is wrong to turn good citizens into criminals for something that is completely harmless - especially when you consider the amount of Rx meds, cigarettes and alcohol that are killing people on a daily basis. Even if marijuana WAS harmful (which I do not believe that it is - I believe that smoking it can be harmful, but that is because of the fire - not the marijuana. There are HEALTHY ways of ingesting marijuana.) it should still be legal because we are grown and this is a "free" country. We should be allowed the right to choose a SAFER buzz. This shop will be my outlets for expressing that, and I'm eager to get things in there! I already even have my first order.

Check it out...stuff will be going in pretty regularly - at least weekly. http://www.smokingsection.etsy.com/

This next item isn't exactly a box, it's BETTER! I did an exceptional job on this one and loved the way my vision for it was complete!! The paper is really hard to get around the hardware one the front of the drawers but damn I did good! I really REALLY like this one, and the drawers pull out smoothly - which is what I'm always going for.