After the Sale - Jewelry By Mignon

Do you smoke? Do you smoke in the same house as where you store supplies you sell or store the supplies you use to make your art piece? Can you smell the smoke on the items you are shipping? Not likely if you are the one doing the smoking. Is it ethical to sell your product, whether supplies or artisan piece, and not disclose to the buyer that the item is stored and worked with in a smoking environment?

What's the harm, right.

Well, to the average person, there probably isn't any 'harm', they may not buy from you again if the smell repulses them, but probably not any harm. However, what about the asthmatic person who just so happens to be allergic to the mere smell of cigarette smoke? That person can have an asthma attack due to your lack of ethics in disclosing the smoke-filled environment. What's an asthma attack? It's just a little wheezing breathing thing where the person just takes a couple puffs of their inhaler and are right as rain, right. Seriously, what's the harm.

Asthma can kill. It is literally the equivalence of drowning because even though the air is right there, you cannot breath because your lung muscles have swollen shut due to the attack.

So, if you sell, create, produce anything in smoke-filled environment, please disclose this to the buyer on your shop's front page. The actual bubblewrap mailer from which supplies I ordered came in had the strongest smell of smoke. One would have thought it was the equivalence of having been in a closet with the smoker while they were smoking. I literally couldn't get the product out of the mailer quick enough and then had to fling the mailer, tissue, and mini ziplock bags across the room to pick up later as an attack was coming on.

And, while I'm on the soap box of many cigarette smokers not having a clue of the potential harm and dangerous risk they cause, and understand that I realize that most smokers 'do not realize'...... they risk the lives of asthmatics when they light up just outside the exit of a building or lighting up for that last puff while standing in line at the movie theater - I mean really people, your rights versus another's life. Seriously. Step FAR away from the building, step FAR away from the exit and DOWN-WIND, and disclose the smoking environment of your product to your buyer.

Jewelry By Mignon is in a BNR Treasury ;)

Jewelry By Mignon is in a treasury.
Want in??
Buy from any shop on the treasury and you take their place on the treasury. It does not have to be the item from the shop that's in the treasury. It simply has to be an item from a shop on the treasury. :)

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=110297

Wicked is Having a Giveaway :)

Do go see Wicked's lovely soap shop with much more than just handmade artisan created soaps.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wickedsoaps

and the darling host of this giveaway is

http://auntiedis.blogspot.com

Auntie Dis is also on Etsy with lovely SOY candles and charming earrings.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/auntiedis

Custom Valentine Request - Jewelry By Mignon

Becoming a jewelry artisan who shares her work with other people has enriched my life so very much. I had originally started on this journey for only making and designing pieces for myself. However, the fates aligned such that sharing my designs with others was inevitable. Sharing has led me to being able to be a part of so many lives for fleeting moments. There's the little girl who wears a sweet little pair of earrings I designed and her mom wrote me to tell me she can hardly get her out of her earrings to go to bed. Then there's the wedding where the flower girls all wore lovely pale lime green pearl and copper bracelets which showed up beautifully against their pale blue dresses. There are friends who smile a little bigger because they know I made them a piece with love. I have lots of sweet stories that touch my heart even from people who don't buy but are so moved by the jewelry that they touch my heart.

This time another sweet person has touched my heart with her story and we are currently chatting back and forth trying to align what's in her head and what comes out of mine. This bracelet is a culmination of this ongoing discussion.

The cord is a colorfast cotton cord that lasts longer than leather. The sweet faceted beads are uniquely enough acrylic beads I had bought to make gifts for nieces and other little girls who are in my life via the wee one's class at school, but they just may foot the bill for this order. The findings are copper. The heart is created by hand by me. I used a length of round copper wire, shaped, hammered, soldered, and antiqued. The heart has a nice varied pantina that will only become more beautiful with age.

I love this happy bracelet for all ages. Don't you?

Jewelry By Mignon - Mommy's Fairy Dust

Mommy will become Mom or Momma one day soon, but not tonight. For now, I still get to be Mommy for a little while longer. Our precious miracle son went to sleep tonight with a Benadryl and a stuffy nose. By 1 A.M., he was awake, in tears, the Benadryl having worn off, and his little nose completely stopped up. Earlier in the night he had a boo-boo on his foot and he was in pain from where the kitten accidentally scratched him. I pulled out my magic band-aids and they made the pain go away a bit. Upon the wee one waking at 1 A.M., I set the kettle on the stove to bring the water to below a boil for the wee one a cup of Jasmine Green Tea with honey. Hubs administered Benadryl, Aleve, and Robitussin. Of course none of the meds have any magic. Mommy's honey by the tablespoon has a nice sprinkling of magic while we wait for the water to warm. The scrumptious cup of jasmine tea has all the magic of any fairy's wand. So, we sat on the antique sofa in the art room across from the kitchen, drank Jasmine tea with extra honey, and watched a smattering of Antiques Road Show in the middle of the night. It is wonderful to be Mommy, more wonderful to have smatterings of Mommy magic, and most wonderful of all to have the trust of one's own child who knows when hurts or sickness come that Mommy will be right there with hugs, kisses, magic band-aids, tea, and honey all in the cupboard - all coverd in fairy dust.

De-caf Jasmine Green Tea and other enticing flavors can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/teaman

Jewelry By Mignon - New Shop Banner

I created a new banner with sterling silver hearts I created from a coil of sterling silver wire. I cut the wire, shaped it, hammered it, soldered it, polished it and created a new design for Jewelry By Mignon. I've had the heart design in my head since before Christmas, it just takes awhile to get the designs out of my head to the work bench sometimes.

http://www.jewelrybymignon.etsy.com

Let me know what you think of the new banner and the new pieces found in the banner. :)

M.

http://www.artsycraftsy2.etsy.com Valentine Giveaway

Artsy Craftsy 2 is having a Valentine giveaway. ;)

Click the title to go straight to her blog for the giveaway.

Click the link below to go straight to her lovely shop.

ArtsyCraftsy2

M. ;)

Giveway Information for Dawn Correspondence on Etsy

Dawn Correspondence is having a giveaway for some of her classy and lovely correspondence. Dawn is a fellow Etsian and I just love her shop.

Click the title and you'll go straight to Rik Rak's blog - she is hosting the giveaway.

You may find Dawn's lovely shop by clicking the link below.


Dawn Correspondence

M.

Valentine Ideas :)

Do you have Valentine's on the brain yet?? We artists have to start planning the next occasion well in advance of the big day so that we have awesome ideas to get those cogs turning about what you might would like for the big day. I'm already planning next Valentine's jewelry presentation and this one hasn't gotten here yet. That's how we do it. So enjoy the first pieces in my Valentine Ideas thinking box. ;)

M.

Thinking About a New Giveaway

Why do giveaways??

Giveaways are fun for those who enter and those who do them. It's a great way to advertise, but have fun while doing so. I can pay for advertisement, which I do here and there, or I can do a giveaway. Which would you rather do? Pay for advertisement which doesn't really make anyone smile or do a giveaway which makes both the shop owner and the entrants smile. It's fun, it's quirky, and at the end of the day - giving someone an unexpected gift is very rewarding and leaves a warm spot in your heart. I did a giveaway in December on Facebook and I can't wait to hear from the recipient about her necklace. What's really fun is the people who tell me they've never won anything in their whole lives, yet they win a piece of jewelry from me. It's rather a pay-it-forward endeavor. So, look for the next giveaway to be coming soon, but this one will be on the blog. ;)

Hope are you having a fabulous New Year so far! ;)

M.

What can a smile do?

There are these two teachers who stand at the door to the entrance I use to enter my wee one's school each afternoon this year when I pick him up from school. These two teachers give me a smile about 9 out of any given 10 days I enter and exit those doors. So, for Christmas, I decided that after half a school year of truly looking forward to their smiles each afternoon that I would give them a little Christmas happy in the form of necklaces for each of them.........along with the following note.

Merry Christmas to two sweet teachers who give me a smile nearly every afternoon when I walk through the gym doors to pick up my little guy from first grade….I’ve enjoyed your smiles very much the first half of this school year. So, I simply had to give the two of you a little simple happy.

About 18 years ago I was a waitress while I was pursuing my first degree. I had this customer I waited on every single afternoon after she picked her daughter up from the elementary school. This lady never smiled, more or less had this grimace, and hardly said a word to me as I waited on her each and every afternoon at nearly 3:00 P.M. on the dot. You could set your watch by her arrival. She always ordered a medium coke and a small coke. She never tipped, I don’t even recall a thank you really, just that grimace every afternoon that I still remember to this day. After I waited on this charmer for a year, she had already come through for her daily two sodas and left, she asked for me – I had no idea she knew my name. I couldn’t imagine how two cokes could be messed up. I went out to see what was the matter as I could only assume from her usual grimace that something must be the matter. I found out that day her name was Victoria. Victoria didn’t have a complaint. She had an envelope. She told me that she had been coming to the restaurant everyday for the last year because everyday I smiled at her and that smile was what got her through the day, because she knew when she left her house to go pick up her daughter, it meant she was getting her daily smile……from me. About a year before I began to wait on Victoria, she and her daughter and her son had been in a car crash. They had been hit by a drunk driver. Her son didn’t survive. Her grimace was all she could muster each day. I unknowingly gave this stranger a reason to get out of bed each day. What was in that envelope you ask? Well, Victoria proceeded to tell me that she knew I had been ill the last few weeks and that she hadn’t been seeing my smile, so to my great surprise, the lady who had never tipped me, gave me a $100. She said that I had given her so many smiles to make her smile that she wanted to do something for me to make me smile.

So, do keep smiling, you never know when you may come across another Victoria who may just need that smile of yours more than you may ever know.

Merry Christmas Ladies!

Wee One's Mom – Mignon 

We truly never know what a smile may mean to a stranger. I had no idea that a smile - my smile - could mean so much to another person, but it did. The next time you come across someone with a grimace, instead of thinking that they must be miserable, give them a smile and plant a seed that may help them get through another day. You never know what your smile may mean and it's free to give them away.

M.

Free Shipping for December 2009 ;)

Hey guys! I've gotten some Christmas spirit and I'm sending some from our home to yours. Any purchase totaling over $20 this month equals free shipping for the month of December. So, whether you are Christmas shopping or spending your Christmas gift money after Christmas, then come right on over to the online shop and know you are getting a great deal with free shipping. :)

Just click that title to go right to the shop.

Peace!

Mignon

When a Coconut Cake Isn't a Coconut Cake

About 10 years ago I began a search for the ultimate coconut cake to make for the father-in-law. The FIL had always talked about his momma's coconut cake and how he missed it. So, I'd never actually met a coconut cake I liked, but I figured I could find an awesome recipe to make for the FIL and he could have some connection to his momma's cake - not to ever substitute for a memory for you know you can't ever top a memory. I found two coconut cake recipes before I was done. One was a good 100 years old or better as the lady I acquired that recipe from was hitting near 50 and she had gotten the recipe from her grandma which puts the recipe at bare minimum of 100 years in age. The second I found in one of my gourmet Christmas books. Both of the recipes have become a Mignon's family tradition. The cake far exceeded my expectations and far exceeds whether the FIl likes or loves the cake or not. I must say that the look on my husband's face when I make either of these two mouth watering moist coconut cakes is comparable to a child on Christmas morning. By the time I put all the ingredients in for a scratch batter, divide out the batter into three sections, bake and cool the 3 layers, make, cook, and cool the filling, and make the icing, and get everything put together and the cake put in the icebox to chill for the night so that it is glistening by morning ready for its big presentation for afternoon desserts after our Thanksgiving meal and all the oohhs and awws of this delightful confection, it is certainly a labor of love.

Uniquely enough I feel the closest to my late grandmother when I'm cooking, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It is through Grandma Mignon that I learned to cook and to love baking and cooking and I discovered that you can reach a person through their stomach. My sister was my first food taster when I started cooking at age 10 and my family still never knows what may come out of the kitchen. I just came up with another new recipe to try in the near future.

I made one of these scrumptious coconut cake delights today and just put it in the fridge for it's Thanksgiving Eve chill. I realized this evening when reading the expiration date on the corn syrup that it had expired the autumn of 2007 which meant I hadn't made one of these dreamy cakes since the Thanksgiving or as late as the Christmas of 2006. The arduous amount of work and time required to bake one of these cakes that dance through the hub's dreams rather than sugar plums was not something I was physically capable of doing for the last two years. I had a silent moment of sheer delight when I realized through a cake that I am continuing to get better and to improve from my injury. It isn't a trophy or blue ribbon moment nor will my name be called to receive a degree from this special moment and only you may know what a cake and an expired bottle of sticky corn syrup mean to me, but I know. Just an expired ole bottle of corn syrup gave me hope and I could feel God's hug and could almost hear Grandma's chuckle and know that all will be ok even if the life I had thought was perfectly packaged is now not perfectly packaged and I don't know what happens next.

Sometimes a coconut cake isn't a coconut cake....sometimes it's an arduous labor of love for one's spouse and family........sometimes it's a way for a granddaughter to reach out to heaven and find her grandmother.........and sometimes it's a way for God and Grandma to reach down to me and give me a little faith that everything is going to be alright.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends.

Mignon

Autumn Morning Stroll

{All photo copyrights of all photos on this blog are reserved by the owner.}
I went out to do a photo shoot this morning using the morning sunlight to shoot some pictures for uploading to an online shop. The surprise sun and even more surprising 80 degree morning led me to amble through the property shooting photos of my witness to the changing autumn colors. It was a delight to be able to actually walk around our property for a spell by myself without help and take in the colors, trees, flowers, and wildlife. Not an hour later a strong wind blew through and it rained for less than 20 minutes and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. It was just a little gift to enjoy the morning before the storm came.

Happy Autumn

Happy Autumn. :)





We took the wee one to pick out a pumpkin and a hay bale yesterday. We actually don't carve our pumpkins each year. A friend taught me years ago to buy a can of clear coat, spray it, and then you have an autumn decoration through the fall. Plus, it's a fantastic spot for Christmas photos with the Leland Christmas tree as backdrop each year. I love having Lelands planted throughout the yard.

Our winter garden is starting to grow. The hubs planted green onions, broccoli, spinach, garlic, and the three varieties of regular onions - red, yellow, and white.

I took a nice autumn walk around the property this morning. I went to sleep in fleece and woke up searching for shorts. That's Mississippi weather for you - you just never know what you may get. One day may be 40 degrees and the next day may be 80. I'll be sharing some of the photos from my walk (thankful I can walk a wee bit now).

Have a great autumn day.

Mignon

Pink Necklaces....Which Do You Like Best?

One of these is going in the Etsy shop and one is going in the Artfire shop......or maybe 1000markets' shop. It's funny what minute little differences can do to a necklace. One I kept tighter and gave little slack to the beaded section - so it lies a a little straighter. The other, I did give slack and and it has a more angled presentation. One has Bali beads and the other has Swarovski AB crystals. Oddly enough with the obvious variance in the color of the two necklaces, the beads all came from one strand of Rhodonite beads - great example of variation in a given gemstone even when the quality is the same. One strand is clearly pink while the other strand lends itself to almost a pink lilac with obvious lavender hues.

Do you have a favorite of the two?

M.

Too Cute Not to Share

When this little guy was 7 weeks old, we brought him in from the porch after we had found homes for his brothers. 3 went to the in-laws and this little one was claimed by our wee one. I have to be honest, this was not the kitten I wanted to keep if we were keeping one. This little adorable thing went on to become a bull in a china cabinet and we had to put him outside. When he was 7 weeks old and as he grew before he went outside, he slept in my purse A LOT. He hasn't been inside in probably two months and then it got cold and has rained a lot the last 9 weeks or so, so he got to come back in recently. He reclaimed this purse as his bed. I have elected to choose my battles and as long as he's using to sleep in and not a bathroom, then I'll let him have this one. He's gone on to win my heart over and follows the family around outside like a dog. Too fun. He's the sweetest most loyal little thing and at the same time just a ball of energy that cannot stay in the house. He's the reason there are rubberbands on the cabinets to keep them shut. He'd go in there and push all the food out on the floor. I think the last draw was when I found him lying on a stack of plates in the top cabinet above the counter. So, little sweet kitty comes in to visit and then goes back outside to run off that energy. He's just wormed his way right into my heart - the little rascal.

Plum Crazy Purple Necklace

There was this antique muscle car that would come through the restaurant where I was a waitress in high school at a local drive-in restaurant and this car, besides being absolutely gorgeously restored, was painted plum crazy purple with a clear coat on top and that paint coat of purple just shined like it was on fire. I'm not sure my love of purple isn't grounded in the day that the car first showed up at the restaurant. For many years I wanted an antique Volkswagon bug painted in that glorious purple color, but with the metal specks and of course the clear coat on top, and to have topped it all off I wanted a yellow smiley face on the back trunk and maybe some smaller ones about the size of a silver dollar placed just right on the doors close to the mirrors....

So, my love of purple began.... :) I've been wanting to design this necklace for probably 5 months or more, but I had to find the right beads and I found them in the Czech glass beads I used for this first OOAK design. There will be more designs to follow, but no two will be precisely alike.

I did shoot the necklace inbetween cloud bursts as it has been raining nearly every day for the last month, so the placement of the front of the necklace isn't just so in the pictures; however, the 3 darker 'amethyst' colored beads that are together almost at the front are actually the front of the necklace.

Giveaway Winner (s) Announcement

Nope, didn't forget; I however, am on permanent island time....Flip flops, straw hats, fishing, and sand between my toes.

I have decided to do two winners. The first winner will the winner who wins the $20 shopping spree for any of my jewelry and/or art shops on Etsy and Artfire. The first winner was selected by those who commented on the giveway, tweeted, etc.

The second winner was selected by the blog's followers at large with the commenters and their tweets added in again for the second giveaway. The second winner will have a choice of having a $10 spree in either the Artfire shop or the Etsy jewelry shop.

******So, without further ado - the $20 shopping spree goes to.............Dirt of http://www.dirtroadsouth.etsy.com

*****The $10 spree goes to Michelle of http://www.michelleperkett.com

If you've not ever visited Dirt's shop - she does mosaics and the cutest jewelry that reminds one to smile. I just saw a bacon necklace she did the other day. Just made me smile. She and I both love knowing our work makes people smile, so check her shop out.

One of my favorite artists on Etsy is Michelle. I found her shop and blog last December or so. I even have some of her fairy cards. Her work has such a positive aura about it that I find it soothing. Do check her lovely shop out as well.

Congrats to both! :)

Ebay Listings - Mainly Toddler Boys Clothes 12 Months, 3T, and 4T

I have a few Ebay listings up with no bids. I'll be adding new listings directly. In the meantime, these listings go off in less than two days. My philosophy is why pay retail, especially for children's clothes when they grow up so quickly. The wee one had a growth spurt where he outgrew his new shoes and boots in 3 months - of course shoes is an area that I prefer to buy new, but still you do get the picture.