Harvestfest in Hillcrest

  Hillcrest is the neighborhood Matt and I lived in when were in Little Rock. We had a little carriage house on Ridgeway Drive... I think it was about 500 square feet and somehow we managed to live there for over two years with Arlo being an inside dog. It was interesting to say the least, we often reminisce about "Tiny House" as we liked to call it. The rent was cheap and the neighborhood (and the neighbors) were wonderful it was really hard to leave. In fact I think I had a break down and cried when I emptied the house into the moving van the day I left.

  So needless to say, I was more than excited to be doing a show in our old stomping grounds this past Saturday. The weather was perfect, the crowd was perfect and I got to see many familiar faces and old friends throughout the day.

As soon as I got my booth set up a young, sweet lady came up to me and expressed how she loves my jewelry and follows me on facebook and aspires to be like Bella Vita someday. She said she had been looking forward to meeting me all week. I can't think of a better way to start a show! It was so sweet of her to compliment me. In return I invited her to one of the classes that I am teaching this week at Argenta Bead Company.

My booth at Harvestfest! I only managed to get one picture :/

  I also met the owner of Toad Hall Antiques in Memphis and will soon be shipping an order of my jewelry to her store. Bella Vita is branching out! Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Carolina, and now Tennessee! 

This means I HAVE TO GET BUSY MAKING, MAKING, MAKING!

  I am spending the next 3 days here in Little Rock, teaching classes, working at the bead store and meeting with clients. I even picked up a space planning/design job with a client here. Then, on Thursday mornign I head to Leesville, LA to do a show at Threads Boutique. Looking forward to heading South for a night:)

I'll post about that trip when I return!

Biting My Nails

  About a year ago a learned of a Jewelry Design school in San Fransisco and was immediately impressed and wanted to go. After browsing the site for a while I found  a link to some scholarships they were offering. I worked on a portfolio of work, an artist statement and a "why I want to attend the Revere Academy" statement. I completed everything, sent it to my editor (sounds so fancy, I know, but Matt does my editing, he is the KING of grammar and punctuation and would probably die if he saw all these commas...) then I packaged it all up and mailed it off to San Fran. 

  Well, I didn't get the scholarship. I'll have to admit I was a little sadden by the news. They did send me a $100 gift certificate to any class I wanted to take though. Their classes are completely affordable but the lodging is what would kill me. 

  Anyway, I have applied for the same scholarship and another one for "beaders." So this time around I have two chances to receive a scholarship. The results will be announced in 8 days. I want it soooo bad. The scholarship is for any 3 day class, lodging and travel! It would be amazing. Please send all your good vibes, prayers and well wishes my way and maybe a few to the judges in San Fransisco. Please and Thank YOU!

  I am also considering attending this school for a 2 month intensive Jewelry Technician diploma. I just don't know when I could leave my business, my part time job, and my husband for two months.

I have dabbled in metal work before and absolutely love it. The problem is I've only dabbled... I want to be fully immersed in it for a period of time so that I can come home and set up my studio with torches, polishers and all the other studio items it takes to be a full on metal smith. I want to feel fully competent with my skills so that I can work from my own studio and do my own thing. My ultimate goal is to create my own one of a kind pendants and findings to embellish the designs I have been creating for the last 18 years. I think that is what will take my jewelry to the next level artistically. Sometimes I feel like my designs are all over the place! To me it is hard to focus on one line of jewelry or one style of jewelry. I love all materials... from Czech glass to semi precious and precious stones to all things vintage. I think being able to create my own focal pieces and findings might just be the perfect way to tie it all together.

So, in eight days we'll see if I get one of the two scholarships I have applied for. If I don't I'll be ok ;) It will all happen in time.

And a pretty picture b/c I can't write a blog post with out a picture. This is my new favorite color combo, turquoise and rusty chalcedony! These earrings will be up on my site this weekend.

Blogging from my phone.

Just testing my new blogger app on my phone. Now I can blog from anywhere... Check out what I made today.

My first Polyvore!

My first Polyvore! by bella-vita-jewelry featuring skinny jeans

LnA off the shoulder sweater
£63 - oxygenboutique.com

Armani Jeans skinny jeans
£130 - vanmildert.com

Dr. Martens biker boots
$150 - infinityshoes.com

Marc by marc jacobs handbag
$285 - stylebop.com

House of Harlow 1960 dangle earrings
$75 - shopthetrendboutique.com

Nina Designs Giveaway

 As you might know, Nina Designs is one of my favorite vendors in the bead/charm world. I was featurede in their "Jewelry Designer Showcase" about a year ago and I also competed in their "Studio Contest" for the best studio. 

I learned of Nina Designs a few years ago while reading one of my Craft Journals and immediately placed an order for their beautiful sterling silver and vermeil charms. 

 Due to extremely high silver and gold prices and a down economy I have not been able to order from them as much as I wanted to. 

Until now... they have just recently started casting their beautiful, one of a kind charms in bronze. Not only are the bronze pieces more affordable but they are just as stunning as the gold and silver charms are. 

New bronze charms from Nina Designs. Examples of the charms I'll be giving away in this contest.

  I have been given a handful of these beautiful charms to create  some new designs with. The best part of it all is that I am doing a giveaway featuring these new pendants each Friday in the month of October! 

-Friday, October 7th - The peacock feather pendant for you to make something  beautiful with.

-Friday, October 14th - Earrings featuring the bee charms.

-Friday, October 21st - Necklace featuring the tree of life pendant.

-Friday, October 28th - Necklace with a hand stamped charm. (custom letter, name or initial available)

To win this giveaway leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite season is.

To get additional entries you can:

- tweet this giveaway
- blog this giveaway
- facebook this giveaway
- become a new blog follower, facebook fan, or twitter follower

  You can get up to five entries but please leave a comment (on this blog post) for each so they will count. I will put all the entries in one pot and draw from the same pot for all four Friday giveaways.

Good luck!!

The materials above were provided as part of the Nina Designs blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

The Perfect Start to Fall!

  This past weekend Matt and I took a little road trip. It all started with a conferenec he was presenting at in West Plains, Missouri. We left Norman on Thursday evening, stopped in Fayetteville for dinner with the brother and his lovely girlfriend then headed to the parents to get a few hours of shut eye before continuing on to the conference. As we were driving into West Plains I spotted a flea market and said I'm gonna go there! So I did... and inside (and outside) I found a lot of lovely items.

Full of GOOD STUFF I tell ya!

My finds... Wooden boxes for Bela Vita displays at shows, ribbon, vintage pyrex for me, the window pane will be incorporated into some kind of display just not sure how yet, and some vintage chain is always good and a must buy!

The awesome ribbon/trim and chains.

  From here I met Matt for his presentation and then sat in on another presentation on Noodling... if you don't know what that is I highly recommend you google it. It is ridiculous and huge in the state of Oklahoma but banned in many other states such as Missouri. After the conference we headed North and East and made our way to the suburbs of St. Louis. 

  A few months ago, before we were even engaged, we were offered tickets to a Cardinals game and we just couldn't turn that down. And I am so glad we didnt! It was a fabulous time with a fabulous group of friends. 

  Matt and I arrived in the city early and got to watch this flag being raised by two fire trucks right outside our hotel. They were preparing for a parade that was about to take place. The UA Pine Bluff band was even playing in it. They are awesome if you don't know that! I was blown a-w-a-y!

Preparing for the parade.

The view from our hotel rooms.

  Shortly after the parade our friends started arriving and then it was baseball time! This day was so great, the weather was just perfect and it was so nice to be around old friends and the Cardinals WON!

Representing Arkansas at the game ;)

  We packed up and headed home on Sunday. It was a long journey, about 7 hours back to Norman. We started off by stopping in Websters Grove, a favorite suburb of ours, for some breakfast. I don't remember the name of the restaurant but the food was so YUM!

Flowers in Websters Grove.

Matt and I got home Sunday night to this happy fella!

  Now we are both working hard to catch up from all the fun we have been having. I have a big show this weekend in Tulsa called Indie Emporium. I highly reccomend you check it out. For all you Northwest Arkansans that arent into Bikes Blues and BBQ, take a road trip to Tulsa for the day.

I'll have a full recap of this weekend when I get home next Sunday. Until then, enjoy this ah-mazin weather!

Things going on...

  I just noticed it has been a month since I wrote a blog. I hate that! I am always thinking of things to blog about it is just being able to devote time to write about them on here. Especially when writing a blog is a hobby and makes no income... whereas jewelry designing does ;)

  I have been rather pre-occupied as of late. I started a part time job a couple of months ago. I am working a few lunch shifts at a local reastaurant, Coriander Cafe. It is Vietnamese and so YUM!

I really love the job, it is very fast paced and the customers are very friendly and pleasant (for the most part). It is located on campus corner (which is like Dickson St. in Fayetteville for my Arkansas friends). I am able to ride my bike to work and the owner is very flexible with me and my schedule which really means a lot to me. It is really hard to find a job when you own a small business and travel often. It is also really hard to support yourself when you are trying to grow your small business. So, all that being said, my new job came at just the right time and I am really enjoying it. If you are ever in the area make sure you stop by the Cafe for lunch (or dinner).

  Other things keeping me busy...

Matt and celebrated our marriage with our family Saturday, Sept. 10th. You can read up on the details of that on our blog.

I spent about 11 days in Harrison, my home town, working on all of the details. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I am so sad that it is all over... We had such a good time being with our old friends and our lovely families. 

  I am working hard this week so we can leave town on Thursday. Matt is presenting a paper at a conference in Missouri on Friday. Then we are headed to St. Louis on Saturday to watch the Cardinals and the Cubs game. SO EXCITED! I <3 St. Louis!!

  We will drive home on Sunday and then I'll start frantically preparing for Indie Emporium in Tulsa which starts on Sept. 30th. I am double booked for The Plaza Fest and Indie on that Saturday. Matt has offered to run my booth at The Plaza but I am not sure if I'll have him do that or not.
He is actually a great seller of Bella Vita Jewelry!

  After Indie, I might head to Fayetteville for 1st Thursday and a little trunk show for Good Things Boutique's 3rd anniversary. I am kind of holding out to see what the weather does that week.
I have made the drive back to Arkansas so much lately and a weekend at home sounds sooo wonderful. 

On Oct. 15th I will be in Little Rock for Harvestfest, to teach classes and then the 3rd Friday Art Walk the next week in North Little Rock. I am also planning to shoot down to Louisiana for a trunk show at my good pal Leila's boutique. 

  WHEW! Now do you understand why I am crazy?!

My goal this week and next is to restock my consignment stores and to hopefully come up with some beautiful new designs! Thanks to all my loyal customers for your patience. I couldn't imagine executing all this wedding stuff if I worked full time for someone. I am lucky to have a very flexible schedule that has allowed me to take all this time off. Again, thanks!