Did you Hear?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whooo Hooooooooo!!!!!

For those following the CPSIA law and fighting to have it amended, they have delayed mandating it for a Year so they can review it!!
Yipeeeee!

Check out the info here on Etsy.

Closing up shop.......

Not Permanently!!
I'll be putting my shop on temporary hold this weekend to list new designs and to finish up several pieces I've been working on.


I literally have about a 100 necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings sitting on my workbench that I just haven't had time to photograph and list. Below are just a few examples.

So for the sake of my sanity and to free up some space on my bench I will spend sometime getting these goodies ready for their debut.

Be sure to stop in on Monday and check them out.....
Plus the Pink Sale will start on Monday (Better Late than never :o)

In the spirit of Valentines I will have a Give away starting on Monday!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Canela

Keeping the romance alive :o)

With 6 little guys running around the house life can get stressful and there is NEVER enough time. It feels like there is always something needing to get done, some event to go to. We try to live a simple life and keep our marriage and family first.

My Honey and I work very hard to keep our marriage strong and happy. We have been active in World Wide Marriage Encounter for over a year now. (it's such a wonderful ministry ask me about it!)

We write each other a love note every night and take 20 minutes to share our letter and how our day was.

Wednesday nights are date night. We don't actually go out (can you imagine what it would cost to get a bay sitter for 6 plus dinner out and a movie!?) We stay home sometime play a game of scrabble, or watch a DVD, but we shut the phone off, shut the computer off, and just focus on each other. I really look forward to Wednesday nights :o)

We are always looking for new ideas that cost little to nothing for date night ....So in a tough economy and busy times what do you and your honey do?

Wishing you many blessings and much happiness in your lives. Happy Wednesday!!

Are you a Twilight Fan?

So I finished reading the Twilight series last month. Okay fine to be totally honest I finished listening to it. With 6 kiddies the only book I actually get to sit down and read are curious George, and Veggie Tales. But back to the point....

So when I read about the bracelet Jacob gave Bella I knew I would have to make one as soon as I got a free minute!

Well here it is :o) Now I couldn't hold true to the one in the book...I'm fresh out of 5 carat diamonds, with the recession and all ;o) and well I could have carved the wolf from wood, but I would have shredded a few fingers in the process...some day I'll show pictures of my burns from my torch, can you imagine super sharp carving knives? Yeah. So this piece feature a sterling silver wolf, and a cubic zirconia heart. The chain is hand crafted by me.

It really is a beautiful bracelet. Check it out in my shop if you like :o)

A fun new bracelet

Have I mentioned I love doing trades? It's such a joy to be able to share our talents . I think I would have enjoyed the days of trading beads for goods.

I finally finished a fun trade with Dana of The Old Red Barn Co. I'm officially addicted to her soaps and scrubs. My personal favorites are Cinnamon Apple Peach and Man soap.

Dana gave me free reign on our last trade. So after stumbling around for some time trying to figure out what to make that she would like, I remembered that she had mentioned really liking Matryoshka dolls. So I decided to make a family bracelet with Matryoshkas. One for each family member.

Thanks for the challenge Dana!

Are you as excited as I am!!!!!

Whooo Hoooo!!!

The new season of Lost starts tonight! I can't wait!

Would you pay $770 for one of my simple name necklaces?

Have your heard of the CPSIA?
If you move about in the circles of Children's designers then you've heard about this, but if you don't then this may be new to you.

Take a minute to hear what this is and then maybe even get involved in helping to amend it!

CPSIA is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act...

At heart they have the right idea in trying to protect our children from lead poisoning and other harmful chemicals and heavy metals that might be present in their things, but this is OVERKILL

Anyone who sells items intended for children under 12 would have to have every single component of every item tested for lead and other chemicals and heavy metals.

Now I am still educating myself on this law and the ramifications it would have on me.
As a jewelry designer I would send my piece of jewelry into a certified lab where they would dissolve the jewelry in Chemicals and then test for acceptable levels of lead. Each component is charged for separately at about $125 per component.

So for a simple name necklace...
Silver disc $125
Jump ring $125
Chain $125
Clasp $125
Wire $125
Extender Chain $125
Add in the $20 that I need to charge for the necklace that's $770!
This is only for Lead, I would have to pay separate fees to test for the other heavy metals.

Now I know my metals are solid sterling or fine silver, I know my stones and pearls are genuine because I buy from a reputable company, but proving where i purchase my supplies from isn't enough I would have to have every design tested.

How do they expect anyone to continue their business. On etsy alone there are 164,997 items under childrens that would be affected!
This Act will devastate all Stay at home moms who try to make ends meet by designing and selling for Children. Some who are now the sole provider in their homes because their husbands have been let go from work.

Now even if you don't by hand made (shame!!) Just kidding...maybe :o)
Big retailers are not going to just absorb the cost, they will pass it on to the consumer.


Check out my Friend Kristens blog gocks frocks. Scroll down about 3 posts and she has all the official links for this, plus an interview she did about how it will affect her as a children's clothing designer. Her designs are Beautiful!

Seriously this is not the way to solve anything!!! Make your voice heard!

Info on CPSIA
The Consumer Product Safety Commission :http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.htmlFAQs on The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act :http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/faq/faq.html

Make your Voice heard!
Write/Call/Contact YOUR State Reps, Congressmen/women, etc …and tell them your concerns & suggestions!https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtmlhttp://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfmWant to know what they voted on this law?http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-1185

Love Birds

I had a bit of time to play with my Precious Metal clay this week.

These little cuties will be up in my shop once I finish the necklace.

We can't change the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

Vote for me Pretty Please :o)

I participated in one of Etsy Forums on Shop make overs. Now they are having a poll to vote for your favorite item for all those that participated.

Soooooo. If you have a moment hop over here and vote for my Capture Life Necklace... Oh Pretty Please :o)

The winner will make it into the Gift Guides section on etsy's home page!

looking through old photos

I was cleaning out some of our overly full photo files and I came across these so I thought I would share......Plus somewhere in a time long ago my friend Gioncarla "tagged me" to find the 6th photo in the 6 th file, or something like that. Here it is, My handsome honey and I (and unborn Nathaniel) in DC.
I love this one it looks like she saying "brothers are too much!"

Thomas at Grandma and Papa's

My Happy boy, He always smiles.

My adventurer....this one is responsible for most of my grey hair :o)

Happy Day!

Canela

Getting noticed :o)

I was thrilled last week to find my bracelet on Etsy's front page!



I also stumbled across this necklace in two of etsy's shopping guides.

And this necklace was featured in two treasuries and on this blog's Saturday shopping guide :O)

YAY! Thank you to the esty admins who chose my items. Thank you to the gals who featured my in the treasuries, and thanks Sophie for featuring me on your lovely blog.

Seeing Pink!

So, I'm a total Girlie Girl when it comes to Valentines Day. Not for all the Romantic notions that go along with it (even though I am a total romantic at heart). I'm not even sure if my Husband and I have ever gone out on Valentines.

I love it for the excuse of lavishly decorating the house in Pinks and Creams. Lots of Hearts and Roses, and vintage lace.

I love to dress my girls in pink heart adorned outfits, and gussy them up in lots of mommy made jewels.

Well that said I have decided to have a Pink sale in my shop! I have several designs I have been working on for the last couple of months, that I finally had a chance to finish. They are all ready made. I took pictures of them on Bright Pink Paper so they will be easy to spot. Everything on Pink paper will be 10% off, and just because I love all my customers :o) I will have free shipping on everything during the sale.

The sale will start on January 14th and end on Febuary 14th. Enjoy!!!

Here is a peek at a few of the pieces...

Whoo Hooo!! I made it to Etsy's Front page today!

I was featured on Etsy's Home page today! Before I had a chance to copy the treasury to my blog the Bracelet sold.

(Hey if anyone know's how to copy the treasury to a blog could you let me know...please!)

Happy Day!
Canela

Catching back up on life!

Whew! It seems like everything since Thanksgiving has been a blur. Between Christmas orders, and Christmas events, and family visits, and the inevitable illnesses.
My crew still has one more week of Christmas vacation so I plan to enjoy it :o)

On a slightly business note...For any of my daily giveaway winners, if you did not receive your surprise please email me jewelrybycanela@yahoo.com

The post office decided to play hide and seek with some of my holiday packages. I think I managed to track down all of the ones through etsy but I know a couple of the giveaway packages are still missing and I want to be sure I didn't over look anyone else. I promise they will get to you one way or another.

That said I have to ask....does anyone else have issues with their post office? This Christmas was a bit of a nightmare for my packages! I only made one address error (sorry again Jen!) But still had about 10 packages go who knows where before finally arriving to their destination. Some 1st class packages took almost 2 weeks, some Priority packages took almost that long too, and the one Express mail package I sent took 5 days!!!
I'm giving serious thought to using UPS, but I would hate to raise my shipping costs that high.

Oh well I'm done griping for the day :o)

I'm back at my work bench a bit this week so keep an eye out for some of my 2009 collection plus a fun Valentines collection!

Happy day to everyone!!!
Canela

Yum!

My little guy is almost 8 months now!!
It's been tough finding foods he can eat but he loves Sweet Potato, and his little tummy seems to agree too.
I snapped these after dinner yesterday :o)

Happy New Year!

Just thought I would check in quickly to wish everyone a very

Happy New Year!

Christmas has been Wonderful. My sister is visiting from Oklahoma with her Family.


It has been Blessed Chaos with 10 kiddies running about. (7 of them under the age of 4!)

Here is a Christmas morning photo....

I am still on "Vacation" but I will be back visiting soon :o)