The FABulous of fab.com

I sat on the fence with the whole idea of fab.com for a long time.  I didn't want to take away from the handmade part of my designs.  Offering such a huge amount of product suggests that it's mass produced.  I can assure you it's not.  In three days eye on the sparrow designs sold over 450 pieces.  Another 50 pieces sold through the etsy site in those three days.  That's 500 pieces.  Again, remember these are handmade folks.

Since the sale started on the 25 of April I've been up every night until 1, 2, 3am working through designs.  I'm a little tired of my designs at this point.  That's said with a bit of sarcasm.  I'm a little over two-thirds of the way through.

The reasons I wanted to do this sale were two fold.  It's hard to get an idea of how something will do on a national level without participating in a trade show and crawling out store by store.  I've had a great opportunity in a few local stores and stores overseas to see responses.  All incredibly positive.  I also wanted to share the history behind eye on the sparrow.  So many people have yet to hear Carter's music.  So many people need to hear Carter's music.  And so many others.

Like this one.  Rarely do I find music like this.  Painted like your favorite Hugh Grant chick flick, Lefler crafts amazing songs.  Easy to relate to.  Song after song you'll want to fall in love with Hugh Grant over and over again.  Pick it up here.  Grab his first effort while you are there too.  Fun fact- if you've heard of Dashboard Confessional you've heard Lefler's guitar playing.

Other cool music to check out.  Sarah Jaffe, The Body Wins and John Singer Sergeant (The Music and Songs of John Dufilho).

fab.com

The sale is live!  Take a peek here.  I can't believe the response so far.  In less than five hours all but one of the bracelets I offered SOLD OUT!  I am completely beside myself at the response.  I can't even explain how much this means to me and the work I do to support Carter's memory.  I hope everyone out there googles his name and listens to his music.  This one was for you buddy!  Thank you for teaching me how to believe in myself.

Mother's Day Gift Guide- LaunchHER

LaunchHER is this awesome group of ladies who's mission is to provide the boost that women owned brands (like ME!) need by featuring new and fresh companies as well as providing social media consulting, branding, business development and legal services to start-ups.  I'm super excited about being a part of LaunchHER.  (Read:  If YOU are a women owned business, get involved!)  They have just released their Mother's Day Gift Guide with eye on the sparrow designs recycled guitar string teardrop earrings featured for the Green Mama!  I love what they say about a Green Mama too- she care not just about leaving the world better than she found it for her kids, but also teaches them to do the same.  She cares about quality over quantity.  She indulges in the beauty of nature.  I don't know about you, but that's a lady I'd like to strive to be.

Earth Day 2012 Celebrity Gifting

In honor of Earth Day 2012, I'm stoked to share eye on the sparrow designs, in association with The Artisan Group, will participate in gifting a select group of high-profile, environmentally-conscious celebrities including Jeremy Piven, Tom Hanks, Bill Maher, Adrian Grenier, Kate Bosworth, P!nk, Leonardo DiCaprio, Dave Matthews, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Daryl Hannah, Drew Barrymore, Ellen DeGeneres, Orlando Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Hartnett, Sting, Barbra Streisand, Alicia Silverstone, Courteney Cox, Cameron Diaz, KT Tunstall, Mark Ruffalo, and Edward Norton.

On Earth Day (April 22, 2012), each celebrity will receive in their gift bags a business card from eye on the sparrow designs announcing the mission to help musicians reach their dreams... one string at time!

Khloe Kardashian??

A while ago I joined a The Artisan Group.  I stumbled upon this group through a chain of links undoubtedly off of facebook one night.  I struggled with joining for quite a while.  This is the description of the group:
 
'The Artisan Group is an exclusive, carefully juried community of talented artisans. We collectively provide lovely samplings of our handcrafted products – fabulous jewelry, luxurious bath and body products, textiles arts and knit goods, breathtaking art photography, original stationary sets and more, to celebrities at major award show luxury Gift Lounges leading up to The Academy Awards, The Golden Globes, The Primetime Emmys, The MTV Movie Awards, and direct celebrity gifting.'

I can't say that I've ever been all that interested in celebrities, well of course, unless you are Ellen DeGeneres.  For some reason I have ALWAYS wanted to be on Ellen.  We can discuss what that might say about me later.  Back to The Artisan Group.  Ever since I started this little project back in 2009 I've been looking for a group that supports one another.  I've been in one group.  It turned out to be one of the most non supportive experiences I've had along this journey.  So more than the idea of someone famous walking around wearing my jewelry-- which kinda FREAKS me out really-- I joined The Artisan Group to find some sense of community.  I crave a place to share ideas, tips, what not to do.  Luckily it's been just what I was looking for.

I missed out on the chance to even think about doing the Gift Lounges, which I've been somewhat grateful for to this point.  They can get expensive.  But, I have managed to sneak into a few things I want to share.  The first one I completely stressed over and finally managed to get thirty business cards into the mail to be gifted to 'Thirty Earth conscious celebrities'.  Now I'm not exactly sure what I expect to come from that.  In all honesty I expect my business card to be recycled into the trash can without much of a glance.  I'm going on a lot of faith that THAT isn't what happens.  The supposed recipients are the likes of Jeremy Piven, Tom Hanks, Bill Maher, Adrian Grenier, Kate Bosworth, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pink, Dave Matthews, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Daryl Hannah, Drew Barrymore, Ellen DeGeneres, Orlando Bloom, Josh Hartnett,  Jake Gyllenhaal, Sting, Barbara Streisand, Alicia Silverstone, Courtney Cox, Cameron Diaz, KT Tunstall, Mark Ruffalo, and Edward Norton (Yes please-- I'll take him for sure.  YUM!).  With a list like that my doubts are worth the risk.  All that being said I am still really struggling with the idea of someone like Cameron Diaz having any interest in my little jewelry project.  I may need to work on my confidence to be in this group!

After taking that leap I managed to convince myself to provide business cards for the MTV Movie Awards in June or July.  100 of them.  AND if that wasn't enough I added an ad to be included in the event guide.  Who looks at the event guides?  Darned if I know.  At this point I've jumped on the bandwagon of what if!

Aside from Gift Lounges, The Artisan Group also heads up a number of one off gifting to celebrities.  Since I've been involved they have gifted Drew Barrymore, Rachel Ray, Lauren Conrad, Tori Spelling, Sarah Jessica Parker, and probably a couple I can't remember.  Usually there are 29 spots, we all throw our names into a lottery and this random generator randomly picks who gets to be the big winners.  On most of them it wasn't me.  But I did win one.  For this gal:

Yep.  That's her.  eye on the sparrow designs in going to be gifting Khloe Kardashian.  And yes, I'm seriously thinking 'what in the world is this girl going to do with my jewelry'!  I don't know.  I think she'd look awesome in a pair of restored guitar string teardrop earrings.  I'm hoping since she's currently residing in my wonderful Big D that she'll take at least a second glance at them.  I'll be crossing my fingers, my toes, and my eyes.  Especially if I see her wearing them on that big jumbotron in American Airlines Center.  At that point I'll probably faint.  Remember the odds-- don't call the ambulance just yet.

There's the big news.  It's kinda big.  I'll be posting pictures of Khloe's gifty sooner versus later.  Keep a watch out.

New Years Resolutions

Here's to the 452 time that I've sworn I'll do better at updating and keeping this blog. I'm trying to learn from my friend Jayme (friend is a loose term here-- she's one of the people I'd definitely most like to be my friend-- and she's an amazing photographer!). She pretty regularly updates her blog with interesting, funny, sometimes even witty content. None of which is generally me. So, I'm working on my interesting, funny, sometime even witty side with all of you as onlookers. Lucky you.

A lot has happened. That's always the case isn't it. I imagine you are getting tired of hearing that. But, it's true. And all really great, cool things. One being a nomination again for Best Jewelry Designer in Dallas. Two years in a row has to count for something. There are about a billion other nominees, but at least they didn't decide to ditch me this year. AND I'm going to have to go out on a limb here and pat myself on the back. I never ran for homecoming queen or even student council as a kid. I'm not used to putting myself out there and asking for votes. But considering the state of my mother and I after our single handed attempt at winning last year I decided this year I had to ask for help. Turns out it hasn't been so bad. I'm completely uncomfortable when people face to face tell me they have voted for me. I'm not sure that's going to ever change. It's always nice to know somebody out there things what I'm doing is worth while.

In other news, you can now find the little sparrow in a super rad shop over in The Shops at Park Lane called evol society. I love their tag line-- fashion with a mission. Everything in the store gives back. Started by an amazing guy, Samuel Bistrian, who operates Roma Boots. Similar to the TOMS idea they are selling boots to the fortunate to give to the less fortunate. I'm so super excited to be a part of what he is doing. It's an awesome opportunity and it allows me to finally have a store front of my own-- with support of all of these other awesome folks with like minded ideas. So cool.

Last bit of big news to pass along is this. I've been delighted over the past three years to donate over $5,000 to the Carter Albrecht Music Foundation. I'm proud to support them and I am proud of what they are doing. But I've always wanted to do more. I've always wanted to give back more. I wanted to give back more directly to the local musicians actually doing it out there. And until this year I was unable to fulfill that nagging piece. Now with all of the support from music lovers who have supported me by purchasing designs I am able to throw a little extra cash to musicians. The first folks to benefit were Jessie Frye out of Denton, Salim Nourallah out of Dallas, and the Whiskey Folk Ramblers out of Fort Worth. They played at the Kessler Theater a couple weeks ago as part of the KXT Triple Play. I'll be doing more coming up in the next few months with shows at Singlewide and more at The Kessler Theater.

There's the happenings. There's always more, but this is enough to catch you before you start getting bored. I've got a few surprises I'm dying to share, but they will have to wait. I'm keeping my word though. I'm going to figure out how to do this more often. I really have a lot to say. It's mostly stuck inside my introverted brain space clogging up the wheels!

Here's the Happenings!

I'm super excited to announce that eye on the sparrow designs is on it's way to Australia! EcoChix in Bunbury and Can't Think Straight in Daylesford have joined our list of stores. Woo-hoo!

I absolutely love The Girlie Show in Okahoma City! This is such a fun show to be a part of! Those ladies run a tight ship and run it well. Over the two days fifty pieces were sold to the Oklahoma folks. I love the Friday night idea of a show. It's a neat way to hang out with your friends and see some great art from a super neat group of chicks.

I'm really needing help getting strings lately. My supplies have diminished in a few different ways. I'm trying hard to brainstorm different ways of working with different people and organizations. I'm searching for help-- any takers out there?

2012 is sure to bring many new things and changes. I'm hoping to expand into more stores and locations. I'm waiting on figuring out how to clone myself so I can send one of me out to market, one of me to make the designs, and leave one of me to have time to sleep!

Shop LOCAL folks!