And the winner is...

Congratulations to Katie (blogger username Meet The Browns)! She has won her choice of Retro Glam vintage glass earrings from my shop Out of the Blue.

Thanks to everyone that entered. Keep an eye out for a new giveaway to be posted soon. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season!

Black Friday through Cyber Monday Sale!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Now that we've all had our fair share of turkey...let the holiday shopping begin. Out of the Blue wants you to have a wonderful and stress free Christmas season. Forget the crowded malls...get comfy in your pj's, grab a cup of cocoa and come find the perfect gift for the special people on your list.

From Black Friday through Cyber Monday save 25% off all of your purchases at Out of the Blue with discount code "holiday25". In addition, we are offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $15 (after discount).

We are making gift giving even easier by providing free gift wrap with all jewelry. Sending directly to a friend and need a message included? Just let us know and we'll include it for you.

Two locations to shop at:
Out of the Blue Etsy
Out of the Blue Jewelry

New Jewelry Monday

Since I skipped last week's New Jewelry Monday, I've got lots of new goodies to show you today!

Little Treasures Charm Bracelet $28

Tiny Coral Cabochon Earrings $5

Winter Wonderland Bracelet $16


Gothic Rose Cuff $28

Bohemian Flowers Pendant $26

Aunt Agatha Necklace $32

November Giveaway

This month I am giving away a pair of my Retro Glam earrings...perfect for upcoming holiday parties! You get to choose any pair you like...view the entire collection here:
Retro Glam Earrings

To enter:
Visit my online shop Out of the Blue

Find an item that you would love to either give or receive this holiday season, then come back and post a comment about which item you've chosen.

For extra entries: Tweet about my giveaway, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

Entries must be received by Midnight November 30th. Winner will be notified on December 1st.

New Jewelry Monday

I only have two new pieces to list this week...but I love them so...hope you will too!

Blue and White Cameo ring $14

Blue and White Cameo bracelet $18

New Jewelry Monday!

I'm really excited about the new jewelry designs that I have added to my shop this past week! I've added three fun new charm necklaces and a funky revamped vintage cocktail ring...take a peek:

Personalized Initial Pendant charm necklace $12

WISHBONE charm necklace $14

RED RIDING HOOD matryoshka charm necklace $18

PRETTY IN PINK adjustable ring $14

Free Shipping Friday!

Happy Friday! All purchases made at Out of the Blue today will ship for free...just my way of saying "Have a great weekend" :) No special discount code needed. Shipping costs have been adjusted to $0 for all items.

New Jewelry Monday

Last week it seemed like I was on an earring kick...well this week is necklaces! I have two new necklaces listed in my shop Out of the Blue...take a peek:


Wing and a Prayer charm necklace $34

Starfish beaded necklace $40

First Monday Sale!

It's that time again! Etsy Texas Crafters is having their First Monday Sale on Etsy. Out of the Blue is offering 30% off everything until midnight tonight. To check out all of the other wonderful sales, visit our forum thread for a full list of participants:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6208880

Free Shipping Friday!

Happy Friday! All purchases made at Out of the Blue today will ship for free...just my way of saying "Have a great weekend" :) Mention "free shipping Friday" at checkout and I will refund your shipping.

New Jewelry Monday

I've just listed some exciting new pieces at Out of the Blue this morning:

Dice Earrings $10

Eiffel Tower Earrings $15

Flea Market Chic earrings $24

Something New

I'm getting geared up for the Farmers Market this weekend and decided to try out a few new items in addition to my jewelry. First of all, I had a big box of old childrens blocks that I purchased at an antique store a while back that have been taking up room in my cabinets. I decided to glue them together as words...with the help of an anagram tool I found online I was able to come up with about 12 words: friends, shop, lol, dad, cupid, junk, etc. Wouldn't these be fun sitting up on a shelf or in your office as a conversation starter?
I've also been wanting to do some paperweights for awhile now so I decided to make a few to try out this weekend. If they go over well I may decide to add these to my Etsy shop as well. I had a lot of fun making these with vintage photos, old sheet music, vintage atlas pages, etc. I soldered the bottom edge and then added a piece of felt to the bottom to finish them off. I had some organza bags in my supply closet that they fit perfectly in so I will be packaging them in those.

I found this really cool vintage suitcase at my local antique shop for $5 the other day. I'm going to use it at the market to display some of my items...that's my new paperweights in the front. This should be a fun addition to my vintage themed display.

New Jewelry

Well between my cold last week and a road trip to Austin for my nieces birthday, I didn't have time to add many new items to my shop this week. However I absolutely adore the two items that I did get listed...have a peek:

Chrysanthemum Bloom necklaces $20

Bloom vintage inspired bracelet $16

Free Shipping Friday!

Happy Friday! All purchases made at Out of the Blue today will ship for free...just my way of saying "Have a great weekend" :) Mention "free shipping Friday" at checkout and I will refund your shipping.

New Jewelry Mondays

Now that my daughter is back in school and my son has started pre-k three days a week, I'm trying to get back in the groove of things. My business was pretty much on an unofficial hiatus during the summer so I have some catching up to do. I will be posting a ton of new stuff in my shop and will highlight many of the new items here each Monday...so stay tuned for lots of fun new jewelry.

Mocha Peony Earrings $12

Mocha Peony Necklace $28

Fly Away Home Necklace $20

Topaz Orb Necklace $22


Chrysanthemum Blooms $10

September Giveaway

This month's giveaway is a $25 gift certificate to be used how ever you please at either of my Out of the Blue stores. To enter:

1.Visit my Etsy shop or my Big Cartel shop and tell me what goodies you would get if you were the winner.

2.For extra entries: follow me on Twitter, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

3.Entries must be received by Midnight CST September 30th. Winner will be announced on October 1st.

Good Luck!!

First Farmers Market

I recently participated in my hometown's new Farmers Market and had a great time! I had been wanting to do some sort of craft show for a while now, so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to get my feet wet. It was even better because my mom and sister decided to jump on board and share a space with me. They made some adorable stuff...decorative picture frames, letters, magnets, checkbook covers, etc. It was definitely a learning experience for all three of us, but we had lots of laughs and made a few sales.


The majority of the shoppers were looking for produce...however due to the terrible drought we've been having in South Texas there was none, so calling it a "Farmer's Market" was a little misleading. There was a gentleman selling tropical looking plants a couple booths down from us and he seemed to be doing very well. There were also some sweet ladies selling nuts beside us that said they sold three times what they usually sell at other local farmers markets.

I had lots of fun planning out all of my jewelry displays. I had purchased a glass front display cabinet at Michael's last year for 50% off. I had it open on my table and displayed vintage dictionary word necklaces on one side and the other side, which had small display areas, was perfect for holding rings and other small items. I hung all of my soldered pendant necklaces on a metal "tree-shaped" stand...I had lots of positive comments on it, but none of the necklaces sold. My personal favorite was the display at the entrance of the tent. My husband salvaged an old window out of our shed and said he thought I could turn it into something. I purchased a roll of screening from Lowe's and stapled it to the back (my husband had already knocked out the glass for me). I hung lots of earrings in the screening and also hung some necklaces on hooks that I mounted to the sides of the window. I purchased a large ornate easel for around $35 from Hobby Lobby and placed the window on it. Rounding out my display was an old cigar box that contained a bunch of marked down items, a small treasure chest type box that held all of my stud earrings and a large frame that I added fabric to and pinned earrings from.

The next market is taking place this Saturday and we will be giving it another try. I've decided that I will take more small ticket items with me this time...I'm making some simple earrings that will be priced at $5 that I will display at the front of the tent to entice shoppers. I'll probably leave the majority of my higher priced items at home because I don't think the local crowd appreciated the value of my revamped vintage items. I had an embarrassing moment at the last market when a woman approached me with a bracelet made from a variety of antique buttons. She handed me a five dollar bill and I looked at it for a moment with what I'm sure was a very puzzled look on my face. She reread the price tag before I could speak and said "how much is that? $25??" her voice was filled with disbelief. She took her money back and immediately walked out. It wasn't how I envisioned my day to start out...but I bounced back and ended up having a fairly successful day.

All in all it was a lot of fun and we look forward to doing it again. If you are in the area, come by the Aransas Pass chamber of commerce parking lot on Saturday and say hello.

Fun With Old Dictionaries

I recently pulled out a couple of my old dictionaries that have been collecting dust and decided to make some fun new jewelry with them. I browsed through them and clipped out fun and inspirational words. I mounted the words behind oval glass cabochons and then set them in silver plated bezels. I then took the bezels and created pendants and rings with them. Aren't they fun?! Some of my favorites are: laugh, survivor, kind, chocolate, craft, and vintage. They are available at Out of the Blue for $12(rings)and $15(necklaces)each.

August Giveaway!

This month's giveaway is a $25 gift certificate to be used how ever you please at Out of the Blue. To enter:

1.Visit my online shop and tell me what goodies you would get if you were the winner.

2.For extra entries: follow me on Twitter, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

3.Entries must be received by Midnight CST August 31st. Winner will be announced on September 1st.

Good Luck!!

We Have a Winner!

Congrats to Jessilyn82...she is the winner of the $50 Out of the Blue jewelry giveaway for July! Thanks to everyone that entered. I'll be posting a new giveaway soon so please come back and enter!

Introducing Our New Website!!

I've been contemplating starting my own Out of the Blue website separate from Etsy for quite some time. Although I absolutely love Etsy, and will continue to have a shop there as well, I really felt like the next step was to gain a little independence. My new website is a work in progress but I finally feel like its ready to share with you. Visit me at www.outofthebluejewelry.com and receive a 20% discount through the month of July with discount code "OUTOFTHEBLUE20".

July Giveaway!

This month's giveaway is a $50 gift certificate to be used how ever you please at Out of the Blue. To enter:

1.Visit my online shop and tell me what goodies you would get if you were the winner.

2.For extra entries: follow me on Twitter, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

3.Entries must be received by Midnight CST July 31st. Winner will be announced on August 1st.

Good Luck!!

Visit My Studio

It isn't very often that my studio is clean and presentable, so when I recently went on a cleaning rampage I decided I should take some photos. Hopefully looking at these will inspire me to keep everything organized. Visit my Flickr page to view all of my studio photos.

First Monday Sale!

It's that time again! Etsy Texas Crafters is having their First Monday Sale on Etsy. Out of the Blue is offering 25% off everything until midnight tonight. To check out all of the other wonderful sales, visit our forum thread for a full list of participants:
http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6208880

Congrats!

We have a winner! Make that winners :) In celebration of my 2 year Etsy anniversary last month I gave away 2 $50 gift certificates...the winners of the giveaway were Eloise and Kathy. They got to pick out lots of new goodies from my shop! Thanks so much to everyone that entered and be on the lookout for a new giveaway to be posted any day now.

A Perfect Morning

Tuesday night my husband, Kevin, surprised me and the kids by asking if we would like to go to St. Jo Island the next morning. Kevin works extremely hard and is always on the go...he's never been the type to "stop and smell the roses" so to speak. So when he actually offered to set aside some time to hang out with us we jumped on board!

He picked us up by boat so that we didn't have to wait in the ferry line to Port Aransas, then off we went to St. Jo. It is a small island just off the coast of Port Aransas and is only accessible by boat. It is uninhabited and has no public facilities or buildings, but it is a wonderful place to search for shells and to fish.

When we arrived, Shelby and I decided to walk to the shore and hunt for shells while the guys stayed on the boat and fished. My daughter and I are both wimps when it comes to getting in "mysterious" water. We had to trek through about 30 feet of sea grass and other unknown objects to get to our destination. We had a good laugh by holding hands and chanting "Ommm...take me to a happy place" over and over.


We were able to fill our bucket full of shells to add to our growing collection at home. Kolby and Shelby did some fishing together before we had to head back and they each caught 4 or 5 perch. Everyone had a wonderful time on our perfect morning together!

June Giveaway!

To celebrate my 2-year Etsy Anniversary this month, I am giving away two $50 gift certificates to be used how ever you please at Out of the Blue. To enter:

1.Visit my online shop and tell me what goodies you would get if you were the winner.

2.For extra entries: follow me on Twitter, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

3.Entries must be received by Midnight CST June 30th. Winners will be announced on July 1st.

Good Luck!!


**************Don't miss out on my Anniversary Sale*****************
All items in my shop are 30% off until June 30th. Just mention "anniversary30" in the message to seller at checkout and wait for a revised invoice.

Anniversary Sale!

I am celebrating my 2nd year on Etsy and want to thank everyone that has been a customer, followed my shop, or encouraged me along the way. Through June 30, 2009 I am offering a discount of 30% off everything in my shop. In order to receive your discount, just mention discount code "anniversary30" in the message to seller at checkout. Please note that Etsy does not have an automated discounting system in place. I will manually adjust your cost when I receive your message and send you a revised invoice. If you prefer to complete the checkout and pay without waiting for an invoice, then I will promptly refund your discount through Paypal.

Thanks so much for a wonderful two years! I look forward to what the next few years have in store for me and can't wait for all of the new friends I will make along the way. All the best to you!

Bridal Jewelry on a Budget

Eleven years ago my husband and I eloped and were married in the Reverend's living room with her husband as our witness. It was a total spur of the moment adventure...and probably the first and last spontaneous moment of my life. Do I sometimes regret not having a real wedding with all of our family and friends...sure. Am I thankful for all of the money we saved? Absolutely!

Because I'm a frivolous person myself, I decided to design a line of bridal jewelry for brides on a budget. Here is a sample of some of my designs that are popular for weddings.

The Heirloom pearl initial charm bracelet makes the perfect accessory for bridesmaids. Each bracelet is $18, but I will give a discount for 5 or more bracelets ordered.

These cuff links are made from small aluminum working compasses mounted to silver cuff link blanks. These would be a wonderful groom or groomsmen gift! These are $18 each.

Every bride deserves to feel glamorous on her special day, and what better way then with these Retro Glam vintage rhinestone earrings. Available for $20.

Going for a romantic vintage feel? These sweet white rose earrings are a perfect fit and are only $10.

Another wonderful option for vintage inspired weddings is this chic Victorian Elegance necklace. This would be beautiful for a bride or her bridesmaids. Available for $24.

We have a winner!

Congrats to Danielle...she is the winner of the $50 Out of the Blue jewelry giveaway for May! Thanks to everyone that entered. I'll be posting a new giveaway soon so please come back and enter!

First Monday Sale!

ETC First Mondays -- 24 Hours of sales & special offers held on the first Monday of every month (12:01am - 12:00 midnight, Central Time / 1:01am Monday - 1:00am Tuesday, Etsy Time). For a list of participating shops and their sales, join us in the Etsy forums at http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6170555

My sale this month is : 30% off all items in shop!! Visit my shop at Out of the Blue.

Retro Glam!

I am excited to introduce a new line of earrings called Retro Glam! They are created from vintage glass stones in a variety of shapes and colors. I handset each stone in a brass setting and hang them from gold plated leverback earwires. Retro Glam earrings are $20 per pair...see the whole line at Out of the Blue.

May Giveaway!

Where in the world did the month go?! I usually like to have my giveaways posted earlier in the month to give everyone a chance to enter, but I'm a bit behind. I had so much success with last month's giveaway I've decided to repeat it:

This month's giveaway is a $50 gift certificate to be used how ever you please at Out of the Blue. To enter:

1.Visit my online shop and tell me what goodies you would get if you were the winner.

2.For extra entries: follow me on Twitter, follow my blog, or subscribe to my newsletter. You will receive one additional entry for each one that you add. If you already follow you can still receive extra entries...just mention each in a separate comment.

3.Entries must be received by Midnight CST May 31st. Winner will be announced on June 1st.

Good Luck!!

Memorial Day Sale!

In honor of Memorial Day weekend, Out of the Blue is having a huge sale! All items will be 30% off from Friday through midnight Monday 25th. Please mention "Memorial Day" in message to seller at checkout and wait for a revised invoice.

Front Page Treasury

I awoke this morning to 14 new "hearts" so I knew I must have been featured somewhere. I went to the Flickr photo group which has the Front Page Treasury screenshots and found my Music to My Ears earrings featured in this lovely treasury! I'm always excited to find out my products made it to the front page...too bad I didn't get to see it "live" :)