Thankful Thursday...

Its a rainy Thursday here, but there is still so much beauty in the day.  Stepping outside this morning you could smell the freshness of the clean air, the sweetness of fragrant blooming trees, the lushness of the greenest grass and feel a slight coolness on your skin.  Just a gorgeous, rainy day!  All these little gifts make-up a beautiful package and opening the front door this morning was like opening this natural, wonderful present that was filled with so many small surprises that made a spectacular larger present to please the soul. What a great way to start the day (with a "gift")!

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday and are thankful for your many "gifts."

Take care,

Traci

Visit me on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/DowntownGlam

Visit my Etsy Shop at: www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam

Thankful Thursday...

(iPhonography by me)

Another Thursday and another day to be thankful.  

Today, I am thankful for each day that I wake up, take another breath and have a beautiful, happy & healthy family.

Have a great day and remember to reflect on your many blessings today.

All the best,

Traci

Come follow me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/DowntownGlam

Where you can find my jewelry: www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam

STOP! Hammer time...and Giveaway!

Somehow I feel like I should be wearing really baggy pants and doing some MC Hammer dancing.  I've been spending a lot of time at the hammer and torch this week.  It started as an experiment and I am really enjoying making these new hammer copper penny buttons and charms.  They can be ordered either heat patinaed or not (just plain copper). 

And of course, I have made some plain hammered copper penny buttons.  

Below is a finished custom order.  The customer wanted the charms to just have designs and no words, she also wanted some heat patinaed and some not.

I can see a lot of uses for these little buttons, sweaters, jewelry, shirts, hats, etc..  So, to kick things off I'm going to have a little giveaway.  I will select 2 winners, 1 will win a set of 3 charms (picture below) and the other will win a set of 2 plain buttons.  I will choose the winners from the comments left on this blog post by random picker.  

 GIVEAWAY 1: Set of 3 Charms

GIVEAWAY 2: Set of 2 Buttons

How can you win?

1.) Leave a comment on this blog post

2.) Share this blog post on your Facebook Page

3.) Tweet this blog post

4.) Follow my blog

For each item you do leave a separate comment. 

Have fun and I will choose the winners on Friday, February 1, 2013 at 9:30 a.m. (MST).

OK, I am off for a little more Hammer Time.  Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

All the best,
Traci

You can purchase my buttons and charms in my Etsy Shop at Downtown Glam.

www.facebook.com/DowntownGlam
www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam

Experimenting....

Things got a little back to normal today, so I decided it was time to try a few new things.  I have been hammering a lot of copper lately.  I thought I would try using a flame to the copper to get that lovely patina look and I LOVED it!  Then I got a crazy notion to try stamping and then take the flame to them, OH MY!  I'm hooked.  Here's a sampling of what I started to do today.  

 

 A couple hammered and patina'd sets, I think they will make great earrings! (picture above)

Then I decided it was time to try stamping them and made these charms. (pictures below)

Ok, so if I could make earring charms and these fancy little stamped charms, then why not BUTTONS!!

Here's where it gets really crazy for me, STAMPED BUTTONS!

So, I was thinking of adding these to my Etsy Shop. Let me know what you think?  I had a lot of fun today and can see a lot of possibilities for me.

All the best,

Traci

www.facebook.com/DowntownGlam

www.esty.com/shop/downtownglam

A little of this and a little of that...

This week has been a little all over the map.  I've had a sick kiddo all week, home from school all week, so my time making jewelry has been limited (which is perfectly fine).  I did have some time to come up with a few new things.

(www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

I've been playing around with metal a little more and seeing where that takes me, here are a few of my new pieces.

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

(www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

(www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

I've also seen a lot of spring colors popping up in my designs and colors I really haven't been drawn to in the past are more appealing to me now.

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

(www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

 (www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam)

 Finally, I had an opportunity to create a Custom Keychain for a local Charity, The C eFfort.  The C eFfort is a great local charity in Calgary that is focused on 'improving and lengthening the lives of those suffering from Cystic Fibrosis while raising the awareness and education about this horrible genetic and always fatal disease in Alberta and beyond.'  You can visit their Facebook page - The C eFfort, give them a like, let them know Downtown Glam sent you and check out their upcoming fundraising event on April 12, 2013 (Dinner and Silent Auction with guest speaker), its a very inspirational & worthwhile evening. 

That's been my week in review, may you have a great weekend and I'll look forward to catching up with you next week.

All the best,
Traci

Come follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DowntownGlam - stay up to date on all new jewelry.

A little photography update...

Photographing my jewelry has been the most dreaded task for me since I started creating & selling it.  The daunting chore of trying to capture the colors, texture & essence of the piece.  

I've been snapping hundreds of pictures & editing pictures for the last several days and have completed the switch over for the great majority of my Etsy Shop.  All in all I've been pleased with the results, but I do think my photography will always be something that I need to slow down and focus on (no pun intended).  

Here are a few pictures of what's come out of my many hours of re-photographing and editing.  

 

All pieces are available in my Etsy Shop at www.etsy.com/shop/downtownglam

All the best,
Traci

Photography, trying to get it right...

So, I've been doing jewelry design for 2 years, but have always kind just got by with the photography end of it.  I'm going to try to get it right this year.  Christmas 2011 my hubby bought me a great photo light studio.  The photo booth is great, but again, I have just not taken this photography seriously, so the pictures are still so so.  

Today, I decided I would take a trip to our local home renovations store and buy a nice floor tile to use as a base for my jewelry.  I'm trying to standardize my pictures for listings, make the details of my work show off instead of the background.  This evening I had plenty of jewelry to photograph and all in all, I'm pretty pleased.   Here are some of the fruits of my labor this evening;

I just love that floor tile I bought, kind of wishing I could put that down in my kitchen and hall, but somehow, I'm thinking its not in the budget.  All I could afford was 1 tile ($5 for a 12"X12" tile = ouch to the pocketbook)  :(

Anyway, hoping this new tile brings me some luck in the photo booth for many months to come. 

All the best,
Traci