Secret Anniversary Sale!

This month I marked the 2nd year anniversary of my website, Cupids Charm! I thought I would let my blog readers in on a quick celebration and holiday sale….everything is 20% off and if you select Standard First Class shipping, your order is shipped FREE too! But only until Wednesday, September 3rd, so grab your pocketbook and let’s visit!

To receive your 20% discount, please enter the secret code “Charming” in the voucher code box on the check-out page. Then make sure to click the “recalculate” button to confirm your discount. Please click HERE to visit my webshop!

My heart is overflowing with happiness and gratitude for all the wonderful customers I have had over the last 2 years! I truly appreciate your business and wish to THANK each and everyone of you for your kindness and continued support. Have a wonderful holiday weekend! ~ xoxo ~ Joy

Clean

Housework is not my passion. Every now and then I am overcome with a feeling to strip everything bare and start from scratch…floor to ceiling.

Yesterday afternoon was one of those days. I was bugged by the accumulation of “things” on the dining room table and buffet. Whenever I can’t find a place to put something, I tend to stack it on one of those surfaces. And before you know it, clutter has taken over

I started first by rolling up and removing the area rug, which is now decorating the alley behind our house until garbage pickup day. A victim from housebreaking a puppy. Now the wood floors can breathe and look a beautiful buttery caramel color after a good cleaning with Murphy’s Oil Soap.

I then removed all the heavy burgundy color drapes and patterned Waverly swags from the windows. Bagged them up and off they go to Goodwill. After a good window washing, I hung simple lace panels on the windows.

I then proceeded to go through all the drawers of my china cabinet and buffet, tossing “stuff” that had accumulate over the years. Stuff I forgot I even owned. More goodies for Goodwill.

It felt so good to lighten up and get rid of the clutter. I then rearranged and revamped the accessories to suit my lighter mood.

This morning was the payoff. As I walked through the dining room with the early morning sun streaming in, I was amazed at how much better the room “felt”. With the heavy drapes, rug and clutter removed the room felt so clean, light and fresh. That’s a good feeling.

Now I just need to keep this streak going and tackle about 6 more rooms. Room by room…here I come.

Halloween Jewelry in the Shop!

Before long, the Haunted Season will be upon us! I’ve had lots of fun in the studio this week working on a new collection of Halloween jewelry, all featuring vintage postcard images. Halloween is a favorite holiday because it seems so playful to me!

Did you know that for Victorian families, Halloween was not just a holiday, but an occasion? There were masquerade parades, harvest frolics and All Hallows’ pumpkin festivals and each event required elaborate costumes. For months beforehand, women’s periodicals featured articles with details for making homemade costumes. And sending Happy Halloween postcards was all the rage! It’s still pretty easy to find vintage postcards and the artwork on these cards can be wonderful. It’s in this "spirit" that my jewelry is created…to celebrate and show your Spooky Spirit!!


This necklace is a favorite because I put a spin on the popular Red Hat Society. During the Haunted Season, wear this necklace to celebrate your Inner-Witch by showing membership in the Black Hat Society!!

The necklace below is a FUN one! Some of us could best be described as being a combination of “Good Witch / Bad Witch”, depending on the day, time, or hour! I designed this necklace to wear the Glamorous Witch side showing when you are feeling your beautiful, sexy self. And when you are feeling FOUL, flip your necklace over and wear it showing the Scraggly Old Hag and no one will dare cross you!

I love this little kitty necklace below wearing the Witch Hat. I kept thinking about how cats are supposed to have Nine Lives. And since this kitty is sitting pretty all perched upon the glittered pumpkin, I decided that she must have given up one of her LIVES to become a Fashion Victim!

Wear this necklace to declare your Royal Status as Queen of the Coven! With her sparkling gown and her menacing cape, your subjects had best acknowledge your royal status or face your bubbling cauldron!

This playful Jack-In-A-Pumpkin reminds you that sometimes Tricks are more fun than Treats!

For the girl who is ONLY a little bit Wicked, this necklace will show your playful and mysterious side!

And finally, this Happy Halloween Bracelet is a collection of ten different images. Lots of little witches, both scary and sweet, black cats, goblins, pumpkins and trick-or-treaters too!

I can’t believe that next week I will be working on Thanksgiving and Christmas jewelry! The holiday season will be here before we know it. I have already been working on custom Christmas orders for some of my lovely customers who are really on the ball. I SO ADMIRE these ladies who are ahead of the game with their holiday shopping. Every year I hope to join their ranks, but so far…nope, not yet.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of my new holiday jewelry. Thank you for letting me share my newest creations with you!

Neighborhood News and a Gallery Tour!

Please come join me for a mini-tour of my neighborhood! It’s been an exciting week for our neighborhood association and I'd like to share it with you. The August-November 2008 issue of American Bungalow Magazine has featured our neighborhood, Historic Kenwood, in their current issue!!!

We live in an urban neighborhood on the edge of downtown St. Petersburg, which was built in the early 1920s.

If you love old cottage style homes, you might like our neighborhood. We have the largest concentration of bungalow style homes in the state of Florida and are very honored to be on the National Register of Historic Places.

Our neighborhood has come a long way since the early 1990s when many homes were in deplorable shape. But every year more and more homes are being renovated and the old 1920s charm is coming back.

This is our street and these are my neighbors in the photo above! The benefits of living in a revitalized urban neighborhood is that we can now walk to antique stores, coffee shops, galleries and restaurants.

We were also delighted in 2006 when Cottage Living Magazine selected our neighborhood in their Top 10 Cottage Neighborhoods!

It takes an awful lot of work to bring an old house back to life and if any of you have taken on a project like this, you will understand what I am talking about. Our neighborhood association sponsors monthly “porch parties” where neighbors gather and talk about projects and share resources for making our homes and neighborhood a better place to live.


I’d like to take you to visit a neighborhood treasure, The Craftsman House Gallery.

This restored 1918 bungalow, pictured above, is now a popular art gallery, pottery studio and café. It was once the original “model home” for the builder of our neighborhood. Craftsman House was also featured in American Bungalow Magazine this month!

The owners, Stephanie and Jeff Schorr hosted a party this week for our neighborhood to celebrate the American Bungalow articles. Come, let's go inside......

Everything in the gallery is made by talented artists, like these beautiful candles!

These beautiful original windows over look a patio garden where you can enjoy lunch!

Just a few of the lovely creations to bring a little art into your home.

Beautiful handmade pottery! Stephanie is a very talented potter who creates pottery right on site in her studio.

Colorful artist creations for your garden!

Beautiful handmade blankets and leather goods.

I fell in love with these beautiful and colorful blown glass balls! They are so pretty in front of the windows and catch the light almost like stained glass! Of course, I could not be satisfied with just one, since I suffer from a "more is more" affliction, and I’d have to have a whole window full just like this!

Thank you for coming with me on my mini neighborhood & art gallery tour and also for sharing in our celebration!

Shoe Shopping

I found these Marie Antoinette shoes while surfing the web tonight….geeez, why do I torture myself this way?

Now that I’ve seen these shoes, I simply MUST have them! To make matters worse, they are sold out and the website is only taking waiting list orders right now. So I thought I would blog about these shoes, looking for a little understanding and compassion out there in blog land.

Can you just picture how darling these would be with a pair of jeans? How sassy would anyone be when wearing these cuties??? I think the Powder Blue pair are my favorites with the Pink pair running a close second.

Just for fun I thought I would try my first attempt at adding a YouTube video. If you love shoes, fashion and all things frou-frou, please click the link below to see a clip called “I Want Candy” from the Marie Antoinette movie by Sofia Coppola. Turn up the volume on your computer to enjoy this video.

In parting, I’d like to leave you with a quote I saw embroidered on a pillow today while out shopping - “It only takes 1 shoe to change your life – Cinderella

”.

Family Memories Cookbook

With the holidays fast approaching, I wanted to share a project with you that I gave as Christmas gifts a number of years ago. I created a cookbook that was filled with family recipes, memories and photos.

I made this cookbook because I realized that I did not have a single recipe of my mothers or either one of my grandmothers. My mom is a great “old-school” southern style cook and both my grandmothers were too. And like most great cooks, none of these ladies really used a recipe. Everything was cooked mostly from the heart with a pinch of this and a dab of that. I called my mom and asked her to put a number of our favorite recipes in writing for me. I also contacted my sisters. We all love to cook, but since we each live in a different state, we never get to entertain each other. I had each sister send me her favorite recipes. I also contacted my mother and sister-in-laws for their best recipes too. I had everybody include a reason or memory of why that recipe was a favorite. I then went through my parent’s stash of photos, both old and new, so I could include them in the book.

Now, I made this book back in 2004, which was way before I discovered the art of digital scrap booking and collage. And it was a pretty labor-intensive project that took a number of months to type and assemble. Especially since each book has 158 pages! Once I had all my recipes collected, I sorted them by categories and then typed them in my computer with a word processing program. I added photos to the pages from pictures I scanned. I also purchased an inexpensive clip-art program from an office supply store and added food related graphics to some pages

I purchased plain binders and page protectors from Michaels craft store. After I typed all my recipes up, I printed out the pages and put each recipe in a page protector. I highly recommend this part because I can take the pages in and out of the notebook as I cook, and if I spill a little something on the recipe, I can wipe it off!

For each chapter page, I made a little collage using scrapbook paper, fancy scissors and stickers. I then took these pages to a copy center and had enough duplicate sets made so that I could create 7 books to give as gifts for Christmas.

It’s so great to have all my best recipes located in one special book! I use this book all the time and everyone who received one for Christmas says the same thing about their books, even after all these years!

The cookbook project takes a bit of time to compile and create, but it really makes a lovely gift - for someone special on your Christmas list…or even for yourself!

That's a picture of Mr. Cupid, in the above photo, taken when he turned 12 :)

It's great to see old family photos, especially photos of the family gathered around the table. I thought these were perfect for a "recipe book"!!

I tried to use old photos from family milestone celebrations - birthdays, anniversaries and holidays

And special photos too. The picture above is the last photo taken of me with one of my grandmothers.

The photos bring back such sweet memories too. It's nice to see them everytime I open my book to look for a recipe!

The clip art graphics add a great little touch where there are no photos.

Another fun memory photo...taken Christmas morning with my sister as we open our gifts. That's me with the big happy-grin as I play with my new Chatty Cathy doll. Gosh, I wish I still had that doll!!!! I tried to match the photos with the recipe, if I was able. This Christmas photo was perfect with the Holiday Sweet Potatoes Recipe!

I even included Mr. Cupid. Here is a recipe of his that we love around here. He makes wonderful sauces and rubs. He is from Kansas City, so my man knows Bar-B-Q!!!

My little niece even wanted to join in. When she saw her mom writting recipes down, she wanted to write her own recipe. The fact that she was too little to read, write or spell, did not matter. The above photo was her contribution to my book. I treasure this little picture!

It was really nice to have everyone include their memories with the recipes. It really made the book feel extra special. You know the question about "What would you grab if your house was on fire"...well, this recipe book would be something that I would grab and run with!

I am working on a new book now. This collection will include all my favorite healthy recipes. About a year and a half ago, I lost a bit of weight and starting exercising routinely and eating a lot healthier. As I try new healthy recipes, if I really like one, I put a copy of it in a special binder that I keep in my kitchen. When the binder has enough recipes, I’ll make another special book!!!

I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe it has given you an idea for creating a special Family Memories Cookbook of your own!

Magical Guardian Cupids In The Shop!

You’ve heard of Guardian Angels before, but what about Guardian Cupids??? Me neither, so I just designed a new line of jewelry that features Cupid and Semi-Precious Gemstones. My intention was to create a piece of jewelry that would be beautiful and fun to wear and would guard over all your romantic notions for a beautiful life!

Victorian Guardian Cupid

I don’t often work with semi-precious gemstones, so in doing research on jewelry making using these stones, I was intrigued to learn what these stones can represent. The meaning of individual gemstones has been a part of ancient history and folklore throughout the ages. Each stone is said to be powerful in a different way and for different things. Many people today still believe that certain stones carry unique powers or healing properties.

Romantic Guardian Cupid

So I researched the stones that best conveyed what I wanted my Guardian Cupids to be about and made my selections. The bottom of each pendant has a trio of genuine semi-precious gemstones that include:

Citrine: The stone for wealth. Citrine is believed to enhance self-confidence, abundance & prosperity in your life.

Moonstone: The stone for health. Moonstone is believed to enhance happiness, health and emotional well-being.

Rose Quartz: The stone for love. Rose Quartz is believed to enhance all forms of love: self-love, mother love, caring, kindness, platonic and romantic love.

Sweet Heart Guardian Cupid

Garden of Eden Guardian Cupid

Now, I hope you’ll find this jewelry both beautiful and special, and while I can’t guarantee the magical properties of these stones, my hope is that my jewelry will add a little beauty and magic to your day, whenever you wear it.

Back Image

The back of each charm features 2 enduring symbols of romance, a love poem in French and a rose. The French love poem paper scrap is from a vintage 1920's book and the sparkling pink rose blossom image comes from a vintage postcard.

And who knows, with all these romantic symbols and magical gemstones, with just a little bit of faith and belief, maybe these stones will bring more wealth, health and love into your life. And who couldn’t use a little more of each?!!! : )

We Have A Winner!!!

Congratulations to Lisa at Studio Rose!! The number generator at Random.org selected #21 and you are the winner of my Marie Antoinette portrait necklace! Please contact me so I can send Marie to come live with you!

Thank you so much to everyone for all the lovely comments and wishes you left as I celebrate my 2 year website anniversary. I appreciate your kindness and I am thrilled everyday to have so many wonderful, talented and creative women stop by for a visit.

Anniversary Celebration & A Give-A-Way Too!

Next week will mark the 2 year anniversary of my website, Cupids Charm! I can’t believe it’s been two years already! To celebrate, I am having a 15% off sale, good on anything your little heart desires. This includes my newest Broken China Bracelets, Postcard Bracelets, Lace Jewelry, Queen Jewelry, Initial Charms and more!!

To receive your discount, simply enter the secret code “Charming” in the Voucher Code box on the checkout page. Make sure to click the “Recalculate” button to see your savings!

I am also offering this beautiful Marie Antoinette portrait necklace in celebration of my anniversary! Just leave a comment on this post and I’ll let RandomNumber.org select a winner to receive this pretty necklace as a gift from me. A winner will be selected on Monday, August 11 at high noon (EST).


I want to take this time to offer my sincerest thanks to all my previous customers and my faithful blog readers for allowing me to share my passion with you. I am forever grateful.

Inspiration In The Studio…

I spent time in the studio today organizing and putting things back where they belong. I like to start the work week fresh because by Friday, it can look like one of our legendary Florida hurricanes has come through. I do everything in there from create, paint, ship orders, photograph items, plus all the personal crafting I do on the weekends. There is a lot of stuff in this small space!

Mr. Cupid wanted to watch a man movie tonight (bloody action flick) and I’m not really into violence, so I gave him a kiss and sent him to the sofa. Instead of watching the movie, I thought I would enjoy taking pictures of things I came across today in the studio that are inspiring me right now. So this post is coming to you from the serenity of my studio where I am listening to French Baroque classical music and making pretty pictures for my blog and with a small glass of Pinot Noir by my keyboard, I am in girl heaven. Which I guess is a good place to be because right now, judging from the noise coming from my living room, it sounds like the world is about to end!!

So here we go...

These are beautiful potpourri balls that have been glammed up with bridal netting, plenty of lace & satin ribbons and then embellished with crystal dangles and a vintage rhinestone earring. These would make beautiful gifts that you could easily make for the upcoming holidays. I think these would be pretty for bridal showers too!

Vintage white buttons, keys, lace and pearls. A few favorite things that I never get tired of and I use these goodies on an almost daily basis.

I am always inspired by little cupids and cherubs. My studio is full of them and I am always searching for new ones to add to my collection. They make me smile everytime I look at them!

I’ve started collecting vintage needlework. I love pieces from the 50’s and 60’s. Especially little hand towels, dresser scarfs and pillowcases. I don’t look for perfect stitching. I love the pieces that look as if they may have been done by a young girl just learning to sew.

I’ve had these handpainted enamel pillow beads for awhile now and I am searching for just the right project to use them with. The colors are so bright and beautiful and I love the little crystals embellished in the center of the flower design!

These are a few hand painted heart charms that I am experimenting with. It’s been ages since I sat down with a paint brush to paint pictures or small details. These little charms are only about 1 inch wide and I’d love to mix them in with my broken china bracelets, but I need to practice a bit more before I feel they are ready for the world. There are also a couple of decoupage charms in there too. I am also experimenting with some new techniques for those.

Bowls of German glass glitter are starting to pop up all over the studio! As it gets closer to the holidays, the glitter will practically form snow drifts across my work bench! I just love the sparkle of this old-fashioned glitter.

Here are a number of blue theme vintage rhinestone pieces that I came home with recently. There are also some lovely tarnished Bali Sterling Silver beads in there. The detail work on these beads is really stunning, especially when you consider they are handmade. These goodies will probably be used in another embellished picture frame project.

Thank you for spending time with me in the studio and letting me share these pictures with you. I think Mr. Cupid's movie is over, so it’s back to the real world. Have a wonderful and inspiring week!!! xoxo ~ Joy

Welcome To The Party!!!

Today is “Show Me Your Dress Form” party day, as hosted by Tiffany at Shabby Scraps. For those of us who love our dress forms, Tiffany created this party as a little Show and Tell of our favorite girls.

If you have a dress form, it’s traditional to give her a name…with old-fashioned names being preferred. Meet “Miss Gertrude” who came into my life from an eBay adoption…err, I mean… auction.

When she arrived here from New York City, she was a bit “new” and needed a makeover to have that glammed-up vintage look I envisioned for her. I was inspired to adopt her after reading a “Make Your Own Mannequin” project by Heather and Tara that appeared in Romantic Homes magazine.

She is now the official jewelry model for Cupids Charm and she often wears ribbons, flower garlands and vintage lace. She is never naked. She wears my jewelry everyday and always in layers….after all, more is more, around my studio!! I am constantly moving her around, dressing her, photographing her, embellishing her…she is like a large Barbie Doll that I get to play with! She even wears my vintage tiaras on occasion!

Someday she hopes to have a beautiful vintage lace wedding dress to wear, hopefully from the 19-teens and she even secretly wishes for a big poofy 1950’s crinoline skirt, and maybe a big ruffled prom dress from the 40’s or 50’s. Yes, she is a girly-girl and I am so glad she came to live in my studio!

I hope you'll enjoy traveling around blog-land today to visit all the other girls who are attending the party. Thanks so much for coming to visit us! xoxo ~ from Joy and Miss Gertrude (Gertie)