This 'n That

I first used Polyvore this week to enter a contest that one of my suppliers is having this month.  Before that, I had never heard of Polyvore.  Have you???

Well let me tell you, I’m having fun over there now!  It’s a fun thing to do when I need a break.  What is Polyvore?  It’s a website where you can pick items (clothes, accessories, backgrounds, music, letters and more) that you like, and then drag the photos of your items to a blank page to create your own “online collage”.  I used to love making collages when I was younger, and this is a fun, less messy way to make them online!  You can mix & match products from your favorite stores and shop for items you like right from Polyvore!

So, as I was saying… I first tried them because I wanted to enter Foxy Findings blog contest this month.   So I created my first Polyvore, using items that I found there,  plus two items from Foxy Findings (requirement of contest).   This was my first set…

Hello Autumn”" Bye Summer” ;( by ♫♥Ale♥♫join my group;) featuring GAP

This one used my Amber Coil Bracelet again…

It’s cold but not too cold out there by EmilyTheStrange28 featuring Rebecca Taylor

Aren’t they beautiful?  Creative people out there!  If you haven’t yet tried Polyvore, you ought to!  It can get addicting, but at least you are creating something of beauty!

Don’t forget my Labor Day sale in my Artfire studio!  25% off everything this weekend only.  Sale ends Monday, September 7th at midnight

Have a safe and fun Labor day weekend!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

Just a quick post to announce my Labor Day sale in my ArtFire studio.  No coupon necessary.  Everything is marked down 25%!  GREAT time to do some Christmas shopping!  Sale ends Monday at midnight.

Happy Labor Day!

juhutch

Buy Handmade

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

I just read a great blog post at Kenneth Cole Shoes, and wanted to share!

“There is nothing better than handcrafted jewelry, which is a form of wearable art..

When you see someone selling handcrafted jewelry, you can be assured that the piece you are buying has been crafted to some pretty high standards. The handmade jewelry might be made with help of various beads and precious stones that a person might have gathered with own hands and by putting in lots of efforts but the credit for its creation has to go to mind and heart of the person, too.“  Read more on the Kenneth Cole Shoes blog here.

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

UPDATE 10/03/2009: Thank you to all who entered!  Lizzie was the randomly chosen winner for my $40 gift certificate!  Congratulations!  If you would like to participate in my future contests, please sign up for my newsletter!  I offer special coupons and announce my contests to my subscribers.

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To celebrate my first week of blogging, I decided to have a contest!  I’ll be giving away a $40.00 gift certificate to Julia Hutchins Designs – Handcrafted Jewelry.  This certificate can be used to buy pieces that are already made, or for custom orders.

There are several ways to enter my contest.  Each thing that you do from the list below will earn you one entry in the contest.  You may perform each item as many times as you want throughout the contest period.  Contest runs from August 27th through September 30th, 2009.

IMPORTANT: To be entered in the contest, you MUST copy your post or tweet and paste in the comments section of this blog post – be sure to include your Facebook or Twitter name, or the address to your blog or website (a bonus link for you – we can all use more links to our sites!) if you posted a link as your entry.  If you are “fanning” or “following” me, just post your Facebook or Twitter name in the comments section and tell me that you “fanned” or “followed” me.

The ONLY entries that will be counted are ones in the comment section below this post.

To enter, do one or all of the following.  Each counts as one entry.

• Follow me on Twitter, and post a comment about it here in the comments section of this post (be sure to include your twitter user name in the comment section, so that I can identify you as a follower.
• Go to my website – Julia Hutchins Designs or my ArtFire Studio and choose one of my items to “tweet” about.  Tweet about that item on Twitter, with a link to the item in your tweet (you can use a shortened link or the full link), and then come back to my blog and copy your tweet in the comment section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting my website - http://www.juliahutchins.com – or my ArtFire Studio – http://www.artfire.com/users/juhutchins – in general – no particular item.  Post a copy of your tweet in the comments section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting this contest, with my blog address included – http://juliahutchins.com/blog1/ (can be shortened), and post a copy of your tweet in the comments section of this post.
• Fan me on Facebook and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post (be sure to include your Facebook name so that I can identify you as a fan).
• After you become a fan on my Facebook page, post a link to any item from my website or my ArtFire Studio on my Facebook page, add a comment to your post about the item and copy your Facebook post in the comment  section of this post.
• After you become a fan of my Facebook page, post a blurb about my blog, with a link to my blog attached to your comment.  Copy your post in the comment section of this post.
• Send a tweet promoting this blog, with the blog address included – http://juliahutchins.com/blog1/ and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post.
• Promote any my website, my Facebook page, my blog or my ArtFire Studio on your blog or your Facebook page, and copy your post about it in the comments section of this post (be sure to include a link to your blog, facebook page or website in the comment section so that I can verify and view your promotion – plus it gives you an extra link back to your site!)
• Subscribe or follow my blog and post a comment about it in the comments section of this post.

It’s very important to copy your post into the comments section of my blog post so that I can make sure to count each and every entry.  I’ll be verifying the tweets and posts as we go through the contest, but I’ll be using the comments section of this post to to randomly choose the winner at the end of the contest.  You must copy your post or tweet here in order to be counted!   Comments that are found to be false will be removed so that only legitimate posts will be included in the contest.

Contest will end on September 30th, and the winner will be posted on my blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.   Enter as many times as you want, but please avoid spamming.

This is my first contest, and I’m looking forward to seeing who wins!  Good luck!

Baby Freshwater Pearl & Crystal Christening Name Bracelet

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

I recently won a spool of colored beading wire during a quick Twitter contest that Foxy Findings ran.  I just happened to be ‘tweeting’ when I noticed their post about the contest!  I submitted my answer to their question about what their lowest price of beading wire was, and mine was one of the winners.  I chose this Foxy Flex Blue Sapphire beading wire, and I can’t wait to design something with it!  I have several ideas in mind, from an illusion necklace with pearls and Czech glass beads, to some long earrings with crystals and pearls.  I’m sure I’ll come up with several more before I run out of this wire.

Thank you to Foxy Findings for having these fun contests on Facebook and Twitter!  It’s things like this that make the social networking so much fun!   You can be sure that I will purchase supplies from Foxy Findings in the future!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

Social Networking & Marketing… I’ve been doing it all since moving back to my small home town this summer! I’m now a “Tweeter”, a “friend” to many, and “fanned” by some…thanks to social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Ning and various other sites I’ve started using!  The last month, I’ve really been concentrating on getting my website and jewelry “out there” – it takes a lot of time, but I’m learning so much and gaining new friends along the way!

My Twitter profile, juliahutchins, is a place where I regularly post my jewelry and interesting sites I find in my travels on the web.  I also pass on interesting posts and sites that come through my Powertwitter dashboard.  If you are a “tweeter”, I’d love to have you follow me!  I’ll follow you back and look forward to exchanging tweets!

I’ve also added four new jewelry pages on Facebook – Julia Hutchins Designs, Custom Baby Jewelry, Handmade Custom Jewelry and Free Jewelry or Cash! I enjoy interacting with fans of my pages, and hope you’ll become a fan of any or all of my pages!

I’m also working on my 2nd newsletter for my business.  I know that it is sooo important to publish a regular newsletter, and I’m resolving to start sending one out at least monthly!  Please subscribe if you would like to receive these e-mails.  I will not spam you with unwanted junk – you will just occasionally receive a newsletter to update you with news about my jewelry.  I’ll also include special coupons or sale information that can save you some money!  To sign up, click here.

Here’s one of my newest pieces…

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]

There have been lots of changes for me this summer! The biggest change is my big move…in May, I moved back to my small home town in Western Kansas. My parents are in their 70’s and 80’s, and needed somebody to help look after them and their home. Since my business is entirely online, I was able to easily (well… is any move easy?) move from my home in the Kansas City area back to the farm in small town Scott City, Kansas.

Moving was not fun! You see, in addition to designing jewelry, I also buy and sell vintage and antique items that I sell in my Ebay store. I have boxes and boxes of great stuff, and it was not fun to move! Luckily, I have a cousin who very much wanted me back home, and she just happens to run a moving company. She offered to pack us up and move us back home, and gave us a special “family deal”! They have a huge trailer, and let me tell you it was full! Jana and Fred Brittan were a special blessing to us! If you are in need of moving services in the mid-west, contact Windy West Moving Service at 620-872-2957 – 512 W. 5th Street, Scott City, KS 67871.

It has been an adjustment, but I’m really loving being back in a small town. I’ve already reconnected with old friends, and meeting new ones through my family and business! I’m getting ready for the Whimmydiddle, a huge arts & craft fair that takes place here every September. I’m getting excited!

Aubrey Baby Blue Hand Painted Wall Letters $18.00 These beautiful letters will add that special touch to your little ones room. Hand painted to order with your child's name.You canalsochoose a coordinating [Read more] Dwell Baby 4 Piece Dots Chocolate Crib Set $384.00 The Dots Chocolate Crib Set is part of dwellbaby's renowned collection of stylish bedding and accessories. Crib set includes play blanket, bumper, fitted sheet, and crib sk... [Read more] Sweet Baby Pink Frame $32.00 This adorable 7x 7 wood frame is hand painted and accented with a bow. Holds a 4x4 pic. [Read more]