Sunday, October 26, 2008

Get Your Sparkle On!



Every Girl should have her own Chandelier.....and she should wear it with pride.

Some time ago while walking around At The Warehouse I came upon some Vintage chandelier prisms in multiple sizes. They have been on the top of my work table and swimming around in my head ever since.

I finally decided that they look great with Vintaj brass wire and started working on a necklace. I like the way the dark brass wire allows the crystal prisms to shine but still maintains an old appearance.
I am still tweaking the piece but I love the result and wore it for a while on Sunday to check the balance.
Earrings to match will be coming soon.
I know that Becky has been working with prisms also. I will try to get her to post her pictures soon.
These and other Chandelier prism jewelry pieces will soon be available on the ETSY site and at our weekend kiosk The FamiLee Jewels At The Warehouse.
They are part of the Salvaged Style Collection.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Emily's Great Adventure

Wednesday night at 11:30 a very upset Fred roused me from almost sleep to report that "Emily's gone". I was panicked for a moment until I realized that he meant gone from the yard, not the "big gone".
Emily is our dog...a Greyhound....a retired racer, 14 + years old and very lame with arthritis from all those years of running. Emily was a very good racer and had several litters of puppies for her racing owner before coming to live with us at age 7. She is a Tuxedo, jet black with a white patch on her neck and a few white toes. She has an aged white muzzle gracing her gentle face now, but it makes her easier to spot in the dark.
"How far could she have gone?" I asked. We don't walk her on a leash very far any more because her left hind foot starts to drag before we have strolled halfway around the block.
Fred had searched our yard and the neighbors and the woods close by before coming to get me. We set out looking for her.... Fred in the car, myself on foot each of us armed with a flashlight and a leash.
I walked the several streets near our home trying to discretely shine my flashlight under bushes and on neighbors porches gently calling her name. It was a lovely night, warm by upstate New York standards and the light of a full moon made it easier to see.
As I walked I heard someone running and looked to find a man and his black lab jogging (at 12:30 AM mind you). He stopped when he realized that I was looking for a dog. He had seen her....near the woods on the street near mine. I rushed to that area and began to search again. The man jogged home and returned with his car to help us search.
Two hours slipped by with no sight of Emily. I went back to the house to make lost dog posters to leave around the neighbor hood in case someone had given her shelter for the night. Fred decided to go back out to the bike path to look for her.
As I was typing he returned home with Emily. She was walking herself on the bike path and had stopped to be petted by a man who was out taking a walk (at 1:30 AM mind you). The good Samaritan jogger and Fred found her there.
I never knew that our neighborhood was so busy in the middle of the night. We will always remember the night time exercisers as Emily's angels. She was tired and trembling and had picked up one tick but is otherwise in good health.
We are very happy to have our adventurous girl back home.
She is happy to be back on the couch, a spot the retired racer has earned.
Now when the old girl looks longingly through the back gate we will take her for a little stroll......lest she decide to do it for herself again.

Changes

Perhaps you have noticed a change when you logged on to www.thefamileejewels.com recently. Every so often us Jewels get together and see how we can make changes to improve our business. One of the things that we had been discussing was that we had three websites! We had our main business page, our blog, and our Etsy store. That is a lot for a small business.

Melissa suggested that we move our main site to our blog. She explained how to do it (which I will not go into detail here, because frankly I have NO idea what she did!!), and we all agreed that it would be a good thing. She worked at it with Mom for one afternoon...and this is what we got! Personally I think it looks great.

Another reason for the change is that we wanted more people to be able to follow our blog. First it was just Mom posting on the blog. Every week she would post pictures of new pieces that she was working on, or talk about updates with the family. We thought that it would be good if all of the Jewels wrote on the blog. It is a great way to let our customers, family, and friends know what new we have to offer! Especially if they are not local and cannot get to our store At The Warehouse.

If you came to our website looking for information about home parties, upcoming appearances, our Etsy store, contact information, or a gallery...it is still all here!! Look to the right of the postings and you will see links to all of the information that was on our other website.

We hope that you like the new look, and would love your feedback. Please feel free to leave a comment or email us to let us know what you think!

Have a great day and enjoy this beautiful Autumn that we are having!

Becky

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

What a weekend!

Well, I don't think that we could have asked for a better weekend to be at an Apple Festival!! The sun was shining, the leaves were beautiful, and the fresh aroma of cider donuts filled the air. In case you missed it this year, I am describing Goolds Orchard 20th Annual Apple Festival!

Dennis and I (Becky) brought Freddy to visit Mom and Nana (Bonnie and Ella) while they were selling our beautiful Jewels! We were in the same tent as last year, but I liked the spot better this year. The set-up that they did was great...I am just mad that I forgot to take pictures of the display!! Freddy was still groggy from his nap, so Dennis and I decided that we would get something to eat and then take him to the pumpkin patch. Freddy didn't like walking in the pumpkin patch all that much because the plants and brush were almost as tall as him!! but he did like picking at the pumpkin stems!


Mom and Nana had a successful weekend, with one exception. You may have seen my Dad, Fred, on Sunday. Mom unfortunately wasn't feeling well, so Dad went in her place. So I should have said Mom, Nana, and Dad had a successful weekend. This is what Mom had to say about the weekend:

"Goold's is a great Festival we have done it for 2 years now and I love it. People looked for us this year which was great. Sales were good. I found that people are more careful of spending their money but still appreciate quality hand crafted goods. Favorite customer: A young lady and her mother who purchased 2 necklaces. One a wrapped trilobite, the other a wrapped ammonite. She had studied them in school recently and the teacher was disappointed that he didn't have examples to show them. I think she is getting extra credit when she wears the necklace to school on Tuesday."

I agree with Mom, this is a wonderful show that we have looked forward to all year, and I know that we will be going back next year. I think that Freddy liked it too (once he woke up a little!).
The FamiLee Jewels will be At The Warehouse this weekend. Our hours are Saturday and Sunday 10-3pm. Hope to see you there!

Friday, October 10, 2008

A Weekend at Goolds Orchard

This weekend, October 11th and 12th, The FamiLee Jewels will be a vendor at the Goolds Orchard Annual Apple Festival and Craft Fair. Goolds Orchard is located off RT 150 in the Town of Schodack, NY.

The festival has been going on for 20 years now. There are arts and craft vendors, Pride of NY and Uncork NY food and wine vendors, activities for children and adults, live music, and of course APPLES!!

The Jewels will be returning for our second year and hope to see you all there!

For more information including a schedule of events and directions please visit their website:

http://www.goold.com/festival.html

We hope to see you at Goolds this weekend or At The Warehouse when we return next weekend.