Appel and Frank 2009

Thank you to everyone that came out to the Appel and Frank show (especially my friends that brought their friends, grabbed a few drinks, and visited my booth to chat!).  The turnout was great and it was a constant flow of people from start to finish.  The vendors there were awesome too and I got to buy a few things for myself!  This is only the 2nd show that I’ve done, so it was a great experience and I had so much fun.  I have to say that prepping for the fair was a bit stressful, but I think as I do more of these, I hope to get the hang of it and stop worrying about every little detail.  What can I say..I’m a bit of a worry wart

Here were a couple of the best selling items:

Azalea (in both gold and silver!)

          

Lovely Petals 

Lisa (in both Gold and Silver)

Medallion (Gold)

Sea Breeze (Gold)

Catherine Earrings (Silver)

Here are a couple pictures from the show!

 

I wanted to share a coupon code for www.madebystella.com that was on the back of my business cards at the show: af10.  Feel free to use it when you make your next MadeByStella purchase!  

Thank you again for an exciting and successful show!

Free tickets!

Free tickets to the Appel and Frank Chic Summer Soiree on August 13th!  What a great deal!  (Otherwise, it is 2 for $10 online or $10 each at the door)  Get your tickets here:

http://www.appelandfrank.com/tickets/order_tickets_new.asp?event_id=25

Select the number of people attending,  enter in discount code DESIGNERSF, and fill out your info!  Anyone in the bay area that reads this blog, please let me know if there are any particular items you would love to see at the show!  Email me at info@madebystella.com.   And don’t forget to check out my new summer collection at www.madebystella.com!

Summer is here….at MadeByStella

A new summer collection has arrived at www.madebystella.com!  I had so much fun putting this collection together.  You’ll see that as a whole, the collection is a bit more colorful and vibrant than some of my other items, but that’s what makes it SO SUMMER!  Here are a few of my favorite items:

Lemon Drop Earrings:   The kidney wires add a really nice length to this piece.  I recently purchased these lemon topaz stones and i just love working with them!  They are bright and summery, and these earrings seriously go with anything.  It’s the perfect fun piece for summer!

Waterfall Earrings:  Wow, the color on these apatite stones are sooo beautiful in person.   What I love about these earrings is that they are on the longer side and they have a flow-y quality about them. 

Purple Splendor Earrings:  This piece took a lot of time to complete, but I was so happy with the final product.  I’ve hammered the oval piece and wrapped some rose quartz stones along the bottom.  In the center is a gorgeous amethyst stone.  I’m not much of a purple girl, but I’ve made this pair for myself and worn it so many times already.  If you’re looking for a unique and bold piece for the summer, this one is the one for you!

There’s a lot of new necklaces to choose from as well!  The above pieces are just a few of my faves.  Make sure to sign up for the mailing list (found at the bottom left hand side of www.madebystella.com) if you want notifications on new jewelry that is added to the site! 

Does anyone watch Top Chef Masters?  I love this show!  Remember Chef Ludo from a couple week’s ago?  I’ll be stopping by Ludo Bites this Friday for dinner!  I’m super excited!!  I’ve heard such great things about it.  Anyone that lives in LA should make reservations and try this place out- it’s only gonna be around till the end of August!  Here’s the website for more info: 

http://www.ludolefebvre.com/ludo-bites/

I will report back on my experience at Ludo Bites!!

Gray and Yellow- so pretty together!

I went to a friend’s wedding back in April and her wedding colors were gray and yellow.  Such a unique and BEAUTIFUL color combo- I just loved it!   I went away thinking that if I could do my wedding all over again, I would have SO picked those colors!  Then a couple weeks ago, a lovely bride contacted me and wanted me to create some custom pieces for her bridesmaids.  It turned out that her wedding colors were also gray and yellow- just my luck to incorporate these 2 beautiful colors to make a lovely set for her bridesmaids!  I went shopping for some bright and sunny yellow stones (which actually turned out a bit hard to find b/c a lot of the yellow stones i intiallly found had a greenish tint.  but i hit the jackpot when I checked in with one of my favorite vendors!), ran some ideas back and forth with the bride, and came up with this:

     

The pictures don’t do these pieces enough justice, but the color combo on the necklace is SO pretty in person!!  So much so that I might have to make this a part of my ongoing collection.   The little stones on the side are of a gray/charcoal shade and it looks so beautiful against the yellow stone.   These are going to look so beautiful on the bridesmaids and I can’t wait to receive pictures from the bride so that I can include it in a “real weddings” section on my website (which will make an appearance soon enough!).  Custom orders can be challenging at times but when the finished product turns out to be a success, it makes me so happy! 

Also, I have some exciting news for anyone in the Bay area!  I will be part of the Chic Summer Soiree on August 13th, hosted by Appel and Frank.  Click here for more info!  There’s going to be some amazing designers there (I’m looking forward to shopping myself!), so get a group of your girlfriends together and come out for a night of shopping, free food/drinks, goodie bags, etc!

So Much to Say

I feel like I have so much to say this morning for some reason..maybe it’s b/c it’s a Monday and I DO NOT want to work!  I’ll create a list so that I can gather all my thoughts together in a somewhat cohesive way:

1)  Dave and I have been in a “dinner and movie” kind of mood these days, which makes me happy b/c I’ve seen some really good movies and went to some really amazing restaurants in the past few weeks:

-A16 for some delicious burrata and thin crust pizza, followed by Angels and Demons

-Limon Rotisserie was a repeat but they have rotisserie chicken that is to die for, followed by UP.  Pixar is just amazing- their films never cease to amaze me!  Did anyone catch Fentons at the end??  It’s a real ice cream shop in Oakland!  I love how Pixar adds things from the Bay area in some of their films- it makes me so proud to be a resident!  The movie made me feel so many emotions though- I laughed, I cried….AGH, can’t wait for the DVD!

-Cafe Jacqueline (no website), followed by The Hangover.  Ok, I have been wanting to go to Cafe Jacqueline for the past 2 years and MAN was it worth the wait!  Their souffles are indescribable- you just have to see for yourself.  We had the french onion soup (the BEST i’ve ever tasted), lobster souffle for our meal, and the chocolate souffle for dessert.  WOW, one of the best meals ever.  The waiter even brought us back to the kitchen to introduce us to Jacqueline!  I made Dave snap a picture- how cute is she!?

The Hangover  was ridiculously insane and the last minute of the movie pulled everything together so well!  You know what I mean if you watched it

2)  Ok on to the next thought.  My first thought was extremely long, haha!  But at least it gives restaurant reviews and movie reviews all in one!  Anyhow, my family and I are going to Ireland in September for my dad’s 60th birthday!  Totally excited about that.  We just booked our plane tickets and have some more planning to do, but I’m so excited  to go on vacation and secretly, I’m most looking forward to trying the Guinness (along with the beautiful landscapes and history that Ireland has to offer..)!

3)  Head on over to theDailyObsession to enter a giveaway for the Lisa necklace!  This is one of my all time favorite necklaces and it could be yours!  Hurry, the giveaway ends this Thursday!  Click below!

4)  I had some time this weekend, while Dave was at home working (poor guy), to work on some new jewelry designs!  Stay tuned- the website will be updated soon!  I’ll blog about some new items as soon as they are up!  Another side thought….A bride recently contacted me to purchase some jewelry for her bridesmaids as well as some family members.  She was the sweetest person ever and I had the pleasure of meeting her in person since we are both in San Francisco!  She later emailed me and wished me luck with my website and said to never stop making jewelry since she is counting on being able to buy my jewelry for a long time.  How sweet is that?!  This is the type of stuff that makes me so passionate about what I do- in addition to meeting awesome people, it’s so rewarding to hear things like that- makes me so happy and gives me the motivation to keep on goin!

5)  Holy cow, I have so much more to say, but I really need to start working.  Hope you have a great week!

One word…AMAZING!

Holy cow, the finale of American Idol was AMAZING!  It totally felt like the Grammy’s!  I think it’s great how the contestants were paired up with different artists- it made the finale so different and memorable!  It’s crazy to see how far American Idol has come- I’ve watched since the first season and it’s become such a staple in our pop culture, I love it!  As far as the results…what did you think?!  I’ve been a Danny Gokey fan since the beginning, so needless to say, I was truly disappointed when he was sent home last week.  I think Adam is crazy talented and for me, Kris was just okay and never stood out  (don’t hate me!).  After Danny was sent home, I was rooting for Adam based off of pure talent, and after his INSANE peformance with Kiss last night, I thought it was a shoe in that he would win.  So when Ryan Seacrest announced Kris as the winner, I was shocked.  I won’t go into details on how shocked I was, but obviously, I was disappointed with the results.  I know I don’t have too many readers, but if you are a fan of American Idol, let me know your thoughts on the finale!  I’m so sad that American Idol is over, but with the end of A.I. comes the beginning of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!  Woohoo!  I am the biggest TV junkie in the world….

Before I go…just a quick reminder!  The 20% sale on my website is quickly coming to an end, so go ahead…shop shop shop!!    www.madebystella.com (coupon code twentyoff)

Two Tickets to Paradise!

I’ve got…2 tickets to paradise!!  In other words, my husband and I are heading to Hawaii on Thursday!  I am so excited!  We are in desperate need of a vacation- it’s been crazy busy getting the website (www.madebystella.com)  up and running, and with my bday in a couple days and our anniversary right around the corner, it’s perfect timing!   Some of the things I’m looking forward to:

1)  Birthday dinner at Alan Wong’s to kick off the vacation

2)  Kayaking and Hiking

3)  Eating some local food and getting shaved ice (Kokonuts, where President Obama went!!)

4) Lounging at the pool with cocktail in hand….

So many things to look forward to!  My coworker is originally from Hawaii so she gave me a lot of tips and non-touristy destinations.  2 more days!

I meant to write about this earlier but just got around to this today!  A wonderful person I “met” on Etsy contacted me last week- she has a really cool blog, which can be found here, www.upnorthpreppy.blogspot.com, and she wanted to do a feature on my new website and do a giveaway in celebration of her 100th post!  She is so sweet and she did an awesome post about my jewelry.  Check out out her blog….the giveaway ends tomorrow! 

Official Launch

Hello everyone!

I’m so excited to announce that www.madebystella.com is officially open for business!  I know I didn’t share the website news on my blog before, but I didn’t know when the site was going to launch and I wanted to keep it as a secret!  It’s been a long process but I learned so much from it and am so excited about the site!  Here is the official email that went out earlier today:

To anyone that reads this blog, please use the discount code if you are interested in any jewelry on the site,  and share with your friends and family! 

Stay tuned for more detail on how this website was developed! 

My New Obsession…

…is reading the Twilight books.  This is really unusual behavior for me b/c it’s really difficult for me to read books.  Yes, I loved the Harry Potter books, but other than that, it always takes me soooo long to finish books.  I don’t know why, I think I get distracted easily and it’s hard for me to focus on something for a long period of time.  But WOW, I’m on book #4 and can finally understand why girls around the world are so obsessed with Edward Cullen and the vampire world!  These books are so addicting, I’m almost sad that it’s coming to an end for me.  However, I have to say that I am deeply disturbed by the events of Breaking Dawn, book #4.  I’m halfway done.  I was up till 12:30 reading last night (the husband is on a business trip), but what a mistake.  I ended up seriously having nightmares about vampires.  Woke up, wide awake at 5:00 in the morning and had a really difficult time getting back to sleep.  These are the times when I would normally scoot over to my husband for comfort (kind of like when dogs place themselves RIGHT next to you so that some part of their body is touching you…I always assumed it was for comfort?) but alas, I was all alone and was beyond scared!  No more twilight reading before bedtime.

Besides Twilight, I’ve been busy working on some special orders.  Ever since I’ve been on Etsy, I’ve focused primarily on necklaces and earrings, but I made some bracelets for a very special bride recently, and wanted to share them:

Champagne Citrine Bracelet:

Keshi Pearl Bracelet

I also got a new stone recently (blue topaz) and did something kinda fancy with it:

I’m having a free shipping promotion right now (with the purchase of 2 or more items) for an indefinite amount of time- so check it out!

Until next time…..

Happy New Year!

Where did 2008 go?  I find myself constantly asking myself this question, but maybe it’s time to move on and embrace the new year!  Even though 2008 went by so fast, I realized that I had a very blessed year.  I am thankful for all of life’s happenings, good and bad.  I learned a lot last year about myself and I hope to use those lessons in the most positive way for 2009.  Happy New Year to everyone and thank you so much for a fantastic 2008!