Pretties in my creative space

Well, it's one week of school holidays down and one more to go!  I'm a little flustered at how busy we've been this holidays and would love to just lounge around doing nothing.  But who am I kidding?  You all know how much I love working on orders for my customers, especially special custom pieces!  And I have to say that a lot of last week was spent working on these pretty creations below.

The Mr Darcy pocket watch necklace and the Scoring Wilder quote locket are standard items in the store, but no two sold are ever the same since they come specially customised with a choice of bead and tassel colour as well as the optional addition of initial charms.  The "love you" earrings, however, were specially designed and created for a gentleman to give to his wife as an anniversary present and feature the words "love" and "you" taken from my specially printed fabric.  The brooch on the top left was specially made for a bride to add to her bouquet on her special day next month - I can't wait to see the photos!  Which piece do you love best?

Those you have helped this past year

Once again I am posting a "thank you" post to all my beautiful supporters who have promoted my stores, made purchases and continued to boost my visibility on social media with your comments, re-posts and so on.  I am so thankful for all of your support and wanted to show you others whom you have also helped this past financial year.

As many of you know, I aim to give 10% of profits to aid organisations each year.  This year, my customers have helped to support World Vision Australia's work in Asia and Africa, TEAR Australia's work in Laos, Mozambique and India, and Barnabas Fund's work with Syrian refugees.

So thank you all, from the bottom of my heart!  Not just for supporting Two Cheeky Monkeys and Domum Vindemia, but for helping me to help those who do not know the privileges that we take for granted every day.

The beauty of handmade

Just a quick post today, sharing some recent pieces I have been working on for customers.  Each of these pieces was specially customised and personalised for my customers with alphabet initials and bead colours of their choice to make it a special, one of a kind gift for their loved one.

Which reminds me again why I love handmade so much.  Although each of these pieces was an existing design in my store, being the designer as well as the owner of my jewellery label means I can easily offer customisation to my customers, unlike large chain jewellery stores.

And I love seeing how different customers ask for different customisations, and I LOVE finding out who they're giving their purchase to and why.  It's a little romantic, really!  But best of all, when you get bored easily like I do, having variations in the pieces I make helps when it comes to creating the more popular designs over and over again.

Like a rhinestone cowboy...

 

Okay, apologies for anyone who now has that rather kitschy country song stuck in their head!  But I really couldn't resist with the new rhinestone pretties I am showing off today.  That's right, I only just added new additions to the Glam It Up earstud range, and now I've decided to add a few more.

There are three new additions this time, each of them unique in their own way.  Firstly, there are two square sets which can also be worn as shorter diamond shapes if you twist them 45 degrees.  One set is an out there, eye-catching neon yellow for the fluorescent fans, whilst the other set features stunningly textured emerald green rhinestones which look like they have been carved from a precious stone.

The final addition is a super sparkly hyacinth orange set in a classic round shape.  While orange isn't my favourite colour, I know there are many of you out there for whom "orange is the new black"!  So what do you think - which set is your favourite?

Image source: http://themusicuniverse.com/glen-campbells-rhinestone-cowboy-gets-expanded-40th-anniversary-edition/

Mother-daughter relationships and necklaces

Back when I first introduced my new line of mother-daughter locket necklaces, I hoped they would touch people's hearts and remind us all how important and special parenthood (especially motherhood) is as well as working to create beautiful family relationships.  And wow, I have been so happy with your response to these necklaces!  There have been so many things to love with how customers have reacted to this new range.

I love that several sets have been bought by men to give to their wives and daughters.  I love seeing whether mothers and daughters will choose the same bead colour or a different one from each other.  And I love all the custom queries about this design, such as adding extra daughter necklaces for women with multiple daughters, creating only daughter necklaces for women to give to their daughters, and creating only mother necklaces for couples to give to their respective mothers or for parents to give to their daughters who are now mothers themselves.

I have also received queries about grandmother necklaces, which I am currently playing around with in my design space.  So stay tuned for news about those as well as a new range of mother, daughter, father, son quote bookmarks I hope to add to Domum Vindemia!