Tis the Season

Happy Holidays Folks!

Where oh where did this year go? It flew by! Good news is that I've been super busy since my last post and if you've read that post from October, you may remember my comment on the economy. That weekend at the craft show in Leesport turned out to be a pretty decent show. I had another craft show in Leesport after Thanksgiving which was even better! Yay! My in-home jewelry parties have also been surprisingly successful. In fact, the 3rd annual HJD Holiday Show and Sale just recently took place in my home on Dec. 5th and despite the snow storm that just had to occur an hour before show time, I ended up with 15 guests in attendance! I am so grateful to my wonderful friends, both old and new, who braved the tretcherous roads to attend. We had a great night with yummy food courtesy of my friend Jess who sells Tastefully Simple and spiked jello jigglers courtesy of my friend Teresa who drove 45 minutes over snowy slushy roads to get there. I also must thank Miss Caitlyn, my 14 year old daughter who really came through for me that night with multiple shoveling trips up and down the driveway. We only had 1 vehicle get stuck in the snow but thanks to my hubby and Jess' hubby they were un-stuck in no time! Whew!

The kids continue to keep us busy. Zoe earned her first girl scout badge, Caitlyn's Rage soccer team made it to Nationals in Florida where they came in 2nd place and she was named to the All Tournament Team as goalkeeper and Zach was elected Senior Patrol Leader of his Scout Troop. Aeryn continues to surprise and amaze us on a daily basis but seems to be getting in less trouble these days. Following my last blog entry, Miss Aeryn managed to shave one of her eyebrows off. Fortunately she didn't hurt herself in the process and her eyebrow has grown in nicely.

So the holiday season is upon us and the kids are going nuts waiting for Christmas to get here. Funny how the excitement we had as children changes when we become adults. It is pretty cool to see the excitement in the kids but when did it turn into so much work? Christmas prep that is. I still have a few presents to wrap. Cards are finally in the mail. House is decorated and the trees (1 live, 1 fake) are trimmed. I had a bunch of last minute custom orders but they are done and ended up being really cool projects to work on.

A customer asked me to make Autism Awareness jewelry to give as gifts to the many specialists that help her autistic son. I immediately thought of a sterling silver puzzle piece charm to hang on a sterling chain and suggested we personalize the necklaces with an additional charm such as a crystal. The charm next to the puzzle piece is representative of the logo colors used by their autism management support system and consists of 4 Swarovski cyrstal cubes wrapped in fine gauge sterling silver wire within a sterling silver square. The initial order of 5 necklaces grew to 8 as we discussed details of the project. With the addition of a chakra balancing necklace and a pre-made anklet as additional gifts, I really had my work cut out for me!

Another fun project I recently worked on was custom grandmother necklaces and a custom aunt bracelet. Did I mention I'm accepting custom orders again? Yeah, give the people what they want right? Anywho...The grandmother necklaces consist of each grandchild's name hand stamped onto sterling silve sheet metal to dangle along side of a sterling silver wrapped pearl necklace. Each pearl repesents a child. The customer wanted something "funky" for the aunt bracelet. Again, I hand stamped AUNT onto a sterling silver disc that I cut out of sheet metal using my newest jewelry toy...I mean tool...and added crystals and a pearl for the birthstone of each niece and nephew of the Aunt. Fun Stuff. I also hand forged the sterling links of the bracelet.

Thank you to all my customers both new and repeat, custom and pre-made, life-long friends and new acquaintances, for all of your support and encouragement over the last year especially during these difficult economic times.

Well that's it for me tonight. Sorry this was so long but I had lots to catch you up on! If I'm not on here again before Christmas, have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ~Heather

Another School Year is Upon Us

Hello All!

My appologies for being absent from the blogosphere lately. The summer flew by and next thing I knew I was doing my happy dance and singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year" for the start of another school year. Silly me, I'll never learn, I should not have been so quick to send the kiddies out the door for when they return at the end of the day, the homework and running begin.

Here's a rundown of our fall activities:

Zach (10th grade)--school soccer, scouts, student council, Spanish club...seems like I'm forgetting something...driver's ed is coming up soon--that's a scary thought

Caitlyn (8th grade)--premiere soccer, rec soccer U17 and U14, school volleyball, student council, art club

Zoe (1st grade)--swimming, girl scouts, rec soccer U9

and then there's Aeryn......she is my lovely little 2 1/2 year old monster :). I love her dearly but as you know the age brings with it many challenges. Challenges to my patience. Yesterday, for example, I thought she was content to watch her shows on Nick Jr. so I went in the kitchen to wash dishes. Next thing I know, she comes running into the kitchen to grab a dish towel and runs back out. History has taught me that this usually means she has created some sort of mess and is attempting to clean up her "creation" and/or hide the evidence. When I followed her back to the livingroom I had discovered the peanut butter jar on the floor, clumps of smeared peanut butter on the carpet and up both her arms. Now, knowing that this would be my doggie's idea of paradise, I call the dog to clean up the chunks...hello...less work for me right? Well my little Aeryn decided she wanted to be like doggie and got down on all fours to lick the peanut butter right off the carpet. That's when I abandoned the mess and took the child straight into the shower--clothes and all.

You'd think that'd be the end of the story right? Child scrubbed, smelling all pretty, dressed. Nope. I decided to throw a load of laundry in the washer and when I returned to my precious she had found a purple marker and used it to color lines up and down her arms, legs, bottoms of her feet and armpits. Clearly, I cannot let this child out of my sight for a second.

So anyway, you'd be surprised that I can get any jewelry made at all right? Thankfully Daddy is great about taking her along to run the kids to sports or just to run errands. And well, let's face it, making jewelry is a creative outlet and keeps me relatively sane. Relatively being the key word here.

But I digress...

The summer had lots of running with the kids for sports camps, driver's ed classes, camping trips etc. We took a trip to Maryland with Caitlyn for a soccer tournament and went to Connecticut to visit family. I had a craft show and jewelry showings and just last weekend walked with the Hillcrest Jewelry Design team in the Berks County Heart Walk. This was our 2nd year walking as a team. Had wonderful weather and enjoyed the day but sadly noticed a sharp decline in overall participants this year. I can't help but wonder if that has anything to do with the current economic conditions and I hope that that is not a sign of whats to come this weekend at the Leesport Market Craft Fair.

This weekend, both Sat. & Sun. 10/10 & 10/11 I'll be set up at the Leesport Market Harvest Craft Show. For those who are interested, the show is located in Leesport, PA which is just a 15 minute ride down Rt. 61 from Cabela's. Parking and admission is free. The show starts at 9am and ends at 4pm. There is a large selection of handcrafted items including primatives, crafts, and of course jewelry. Food, candles, soaps, and framed artwork are also amongst the many items that can be found. I'll be indoors in the smaller of the two buildings. Look for the sign for the meeting room and come say hello!

Trying to find balance

I crave balance in my life. I am a Libra, you know, the scales? When I feel like life is imbalanced I get a little wackier than normal :) Lately, the scales don't come to mind but for some reason I have this image of a seesaw that can never really stay horizontal for long. It's not natural for a seesaw to be like that. A seesaw is more about the extremes-high or low and that's what makes seesaws so much fun, if you go with the flow of the ride and enjoy it. Hence my problem. I'm always fighting the natural ebb and flow of the seesaw. I get too much weight on my end so I put it off to the other end. That's where hubby sits. He balances the load and he does it well and I know if he weren't on the other end I'd be on my keister on the ground. Are ya all following me? Problem is, when he's all the way down there at the other end, we rarely get to meet up and that's what it's been like lately. He is wonderful with the kids, the food shopping, cooking meals and paying the bills and ladies, you can't have him! He's so great with the kids that I find I'm seeing less of him and the kids as I throw myself into building my little business. I miss my family. It is the price I pay and so I've decided that while I do not wish to sacrifice my entrepreneurial endeavours, I need to change something so that I can make the time to see them. After much thought and consideration, it finally dawned on me that hello...I am the boss, I can call my own shots, right? So, the shots have been called.

I am discontinuing my custom design services. All current projects will be filled, however, going forward, I will not be accepting new custom orders. Custom design can be extremely rewarding (as well as frustrating at times) and time consuming. In the current market it's not as profitable as one would think. I will still be making my unique, funky, wonderful (okay, I'm biased) designs and selling them through in home jewelry parties and craft fairs. I am also in the process of listing pieces for sale on my new etsy on-line shop, http://www.heathermgannon.etsy.com/. The shop is up but it's looking very sparse at the moment so feel free to stop by but please be patient as I figure out all the etsy ins and outs and get my products listed. For now, I plan to put all the newest items in the etsy shop. I will be removing items from the original http://www.hillcrestjewelrydesign.com/ website as they sell so you may want to view both sites. You may purchase directly from the etsy shop, however please send me an e-mail at hillcrestjewelrydesign@comcast.net if you would like to purchase an item from the hillcrest site as the hillcrest site does not have a shopping cart on it. Confused? I hope not. Let me explain.

I set up the original website with the intention of adding a shopping cart at a later date. I found out after the fact that the options I chose with the website necessitated certain requirements for a shopping cart that would have been costly and time-consuming. Live and learn. The website serves as a sort of on-line catalogue though so I kept it going. When I'm having a show, my customers can preview stock prior to party time. I do not have a printed catalogue as my inventory is constantly changing. So that's that, in a nutshell.

Now, getting back to the basics. The jewelry making continues as I prepare for an in home jewelry party this weekend. Potty training is in full swing: potty, pull ups and pee accidents OH MY! We missed dance class this week as someone forgot her dance bag and mommy didn't remind her prior to leaving the house, so more than half way there, we turned around to get the bag only to realize that we'd be missing more than half of the class by the time we got there. The amazing goalie got to play the field for the school's varsity team yesterday and managed to score a goal from the center fullback position!!! She was quickly pulled off the field as her coaches didn't want her to push up the field that far. Big picture people--she scored! She also had an assist from the same position. For those of you not in the soccer mindset, the full back position is way back on the field far away from scoring position. In addition, more soccer, volleyball, a yearly check up at the pediatrician, a school field trip and Zoe's birthday party mark the calendar this week. Did I forget something?? Probably.

Enjoy the pics, enjoy the wonderful weather we're suppose to get this weekend and happy belated earth day! ~Heather