New pieces for the Week

All of the new pieces are now on our website at tagyoureitjewelry.etsy.com. 

Come back to the blog later this week to find out how you can WIN a Tag...You're It necklace!!

This 6" sterling cuff has room for multiple names- great Mother's Day gift!!

I think this piece would look adorable along with a monogram pendant for a wedding gift.  Personalize with name or date!

LOVE this sterling bird.  Again, you can personalize with any name up to 6 letters.

 This is a very thick sterling guitar pick that can be personalized with names:)  It can also be turned into a necklace for a guy!

 Although it is hard to tell in the picture, the 1/2" disc is slightly domed. 
Gorgeous gift for a teacher!

We've given our birds nest a new style with a more tarnished look. 
We also added a sterling bird, which is a perfect accent.

Do you have a favorite?



Back to School...

So...I signed up for Indie Business 3.0 an online class run by three smart, crafty women

who have succeeded at their dream of owning their own business.

I feel like there is this new generation of crafters

who do not have business backgrounds or business degrees

but are making their dreams come true by starting a business

from the ground up.  It is so encouraging to realize there are so many

crafters out there who are SUCCEEDING at this!

Last night, our "portfolio" was available for download and they recommended that we print it in color.

Of course, I wanted beautiful color copies, so I ran to Office Depot to print out cute copies.

When I was walking in, I realized my friend, Laura, from lillypie was also walking in.

She is also taking the class, and also had to have beautiful color copies!  We laughed at the fact

that this is the perfect class for us because the supplies include scrapbooking supplies and alphabet stickers!

Well our copies would not print for some reason [grr..], but we still

ended up buying fun binders and permanent markers to decorate our binders.

When we started Tag...You're It! a year and a half ago,

we really had no business background and just threw ourselves in to sink or swim!

So far, we are swimming, which is incredible, and I look forward

to new ideas and new inspiration, which will hopefully come from this class! 

Fingerpainting with Baby Food

Somewhat slow day.  Isaac is puking, so Brodi thought it might be a good idea for them to NOT come over today, which I appreciated. 

A few years ago, I worked at a daycare. In the infant room, they used to fingerpaint with baby food, so I thought that was something fun that Delaney could do today.  I decided to go with orange and purple (sweet potatoes and plums) for the paint. 

I thought Del would make a huge mess, but I don't think she really knew what to do.  She didn't put it in her mouth (surprising), but just kind of moved her little hands around.  She made a cute little picture.  I had hoped to keep it, but maybe I'll wait to see how it dries:)

An afternoon without Baby

I am fortunate in that my parents and Mark's parents both live about 10 minutes from our house.  So, I almost always have a babysitter when needed.  Today, I decided I would take my mother-in-law up on her offer to watch Delaney.  I had some things to get done, so I packed her bag and sent her on her way.  She has been gone about five hours and so far Brodi and I have accomplished the following:

updated blog w/ new picture and button

stamped three necklaces

oxidized, polished, hole punched, put together about six necklaces

packaged four necklaces

printed labels

cleaned my work space

took pictures of new necklaces

purchased our new domain!!--> tagyoureitjewelry.com

made dinner

emptied dishwasher

loaded dishwasher

packed Mark's lunch for tomorrow

It was a VERY productive day, but it is after 5 o'clock and I'm missing my Delaney-bug.  It is amazing how much I can accomplish without her, but I miss her when she is not here!  Her daddy should be home with her any minute and I can't wait to squeeze her.  How could I not want to give her a big squeeze and non-stop kisses?!  

I LOVE Consignment Sales (not to be confused with garage sales, which I also love)

So one day last year I was watching the Duggars.  You know, 19 Kids and Counting, the family who has 19 kids, yet still seems to have their life completely together.  I will admit that I do love the show because I feel that they are a family who really loves the Lord and it is evident in their actions.  Anyway, they went to this giant building where there were hundreds of strollers, highchairs, baby toys, clothes, etc.  I was pregnant at the time, so I became very interested.  They were saying that is was a "consignment sale" and that they have it every year at their county fairgrounds.  Of course my first thought was, "I wish we had those here!! [Indiana]"  I started searching on the internet and it turns out we did have consignment sales in Central Indiana.  There are actually three different sales both in the Spring and Fall!!!  Brodi and I decided we had to go shopping at these sales.  After a few sales, I ended up buying almost everything I needed to feel prepared for having a baby, including: 

 

90% of my maternity clothes, an exersaucer, a playmat, a brand new Laura Ashley pack-n-play, a Pottery Barn crib bumper, a changing table, a Bumbo with tray, a Boppee, a baby/activity gate, oh and oodles of clothes for Delaney!

Here are some pics from a kids consignment sale in the Indianapolis area, called Whale of a Sale

(Photos courtesy of Shuttergirls Photography)

P.S. If you want to shop at Indy's Whale of a Sale (March 10th)  BEFORE the pregnant women even have a chance, Tag...You're It! was given some VIP passes that we are GIVING away.  They are being sold online at $10.00 each.  You can have one for FREE by just sending us an email through our etsy or facebook page while they last:)

A Rainy Day Find...

I have a teething baby on my lap right now. There are no teeth that have popped through yet, but they are on their way. Last month, I had a woman stop me at the grocery store and ask me if I knew my baby was teething. I did. She's been a drooling fool and chews on her paci more than she sucks on it. Anyway, I came across Tweet Baby Designs online and fell in love with the "teething" necklaces for mommies...

New Designs
We've been working to prepare for our upcoming show at Whale of a Sale in a few weeks. We've made some new designs and have more on the way.

Making Memories...

I look at other blogs and their children look like they are in modeling ads for daily life (playing on their farm in Gap clothing, baking cakes with a Kitchen-Aid pink mixer and the child usually has batter on her nose, etc.). I have been trying to take pictures of Delaney a lot because she is the happiest girl I have ever met. If I so much as look at her, she smiles and she is constantly laughing. She just seemed to find her voicebox a few days ago, and she has NOT stopped "talking" since. However, with all of these giggles and laughter, as soon as I get the camera out she gets very serious. She could be laughing up a storm, and as soon as I get a camera out she freezes.

She also can't seem to keep her eyes open when a camera flashes. She is 6 months old, so I don't blame her since her father is 28 and also can't keep his eyes open when a camera flashes. However, this has resulted in hundreds of frowning pictures with her eyes closed and they are usually blurry because I have an $80 Costco camera (I'm saving up for a better one). My question is "Do I keep these blurry, closed eye pictures?" I feel bad deleting any bad pics since they are of my beautiful daughter, so I feel like I have to keep them stored in my computer just in case. (Like I am ever going to print an enlargement of an out of focus, closed eye picture!)

A friend of mine took a picture of her daughter at each month milestone to watch how she grew during her first year of life. Well, I missed out on that already. Del is 6 months, and I always forget to take that milestone picture. So, instead I have a collection of blurry, closed eye pics that are slightly out of focus. I assume, of course, that is my bad camera, so as soon as I get a good camera you will be seeing much better photos on this blog. But until then, I wanted to share a photo collage of Del during her first 6 months...

TYI's Shop/Office/Daycare :)

Right now, we live in a three bedroom house. We have a great room, where the living room and kitchen are like one large area with a half-wall between them. And we have the 2 bathrooms and a laundry room. That is pretty much the home tour.

When we moved in, I told Mark that one spare bedroom (now Delaney's room) would be our "guest" bedroom and the other bedroom would be "his" room (kind of like a mancave, but less cavish). I hung up all of his Marine Corps awards, his sword and Ka-bar (a large knife for all of the women out there), pictures and memorabilia. It was his room to study for school and get his homework done. That was three years ago.

I don't think he's been in the room in at least a year because it is now the "jewelry" room (with a sword and Ka-Bar on the wall). It is still being used as an office (for Tag...You're It business stuff). Oh, and a toy room for my nephew to keep "his" toys at my house (not the girly baby toys!). And a place to package up all of the orders. And a place to keep the pack n play. We take turns putting Harper (1 yr.) and Delaney (6 mos.) in it, but NOT at the same time because Harper currently likes to press on Delaney's face. And a place to hang the Johnny Jump-Up because Delaney loves to jump. It also stores my scrapbook supplies and gift wrap supplies. Oh, and my teaching stuff.

Of course I already have great plans for our "next" house (not that we have any plans on moving anytime soon). It will have Mark's mancave where I can showcase his Marine Corps awards. and a furnished basement where I can do all of the jewelry work. and of course four bedrooms for when our family grows. oh, and definitely a bigger backyard...at least that is the plan.

A Show Year in Review

SO...last year was our first real year of doing craft shows...lol, we have learned A LOT! I'll go more in detail, but let's just say that at the end of our first outdoor show, it ended with a pregnant woman (myself) crying and not speaking to anyone on a long 45 minute ride home. Thankfully, we have improved and know how to zip a 10 x 10 tent now (for the most part anyway). I LOVE going to craft shows and I also love being a part of them. Here is our show year in review:

Chica Boutiqua--I think this show was in April but I blocked it from my memory, so I could be wrong. It was in Zionsville, so we thought we'd be golden. I missed the set up for this show since I was still teaching, so Brodi and my mom did all of the set-up. We made a TON of inventory for this show and thought we should all 3 be there for the non-stop slew of people that we knew were going to be coming. However, when I first walked the space, I lost all of my hope. It was basically in the hallway attached to an indoor barn. There was no advertising except for a small sign by the road. The admission fee was for a charity, so I felt bad that there was no traffic at all

AND it was a two day show. Although there was hardly any traffic, we actually did okay at the show. It wasn't our best, but it wasn't our worst (that comes later...). The best part of this show was meeting other etsians, including Twoseasidebabes, madrindesigns, and steeldreaming. We have actually stayed in contact with all 3 of these vendors since that day.

Shoe Festish and Fashion (May 27 and 29) You can read about this in one of my older blog posts from last year. It was a horrible show, but it provided a lot of great laughs for Brodi and me. It was SO hot and the location had no working A/C. The only person who bought anything was a man who was drunk and a woman who I know felt sorry that we were there. It was just bad in so many ways. We spent the money we made on milkshakes from Hardees on the way home. Oh, and it there was a super freak rainstorm that we had to pack up in. On the 29th, it was in Broad Ripple, so we thought we were reaching a higher fashion area. Haha- the best part of my day was the Turkey Tom I ate at Jimmy Johns. I was 6 months pregnant and moving tables up three flights of stairs. It was a weird day, something I look back at like a Twilight Zone episode. We didn't sell anything and left early.

Fishers Freedom Festival (June) This was our first REAL show. We were the first ones there on Saturday and arrived before the planners because we were so eager and excited. This was a very successful show for us, but it was EXHAUSTING. I was almost eight months pregnant at this time, so I walked to the port o johns about 25 times during those two hot summer days. At the end of the first day, my sister, mom, and I tried to zip the tent up since it was a two day show and we'd be back the next day. Umm...it took over an hour. We were all three so tired, and I was crying and yelling a lot. We finally got it zipped up, but I was not looking forward to the next day. On Sunday, there were threats of storms the ENTIRE day. We waited it out since we were hoping for more sales. Vendors started leaving early. One after another, after another. It sometimes sucks when vendors leave early because no one wants to walk down a row of tents if there are only 3 tents left in the row. However, we stuck it out till RIGHT before the storm hit, and it seriously paid off (although we packed up in record time and put the last board in the car before the downpour). P.s. At this show, we learned that ants were weirdly attracted to our white tent. They were EVERYWHERE. Ew.

Brownsburg FOTA-August (also known as Farts in the Park in previous blog entry)- This show was hot. So hot. I was pregnant. SO pregnant. At one point I felt something weird happening to my feet and I looked down to see that my ankles and feet were replaced by the ankles and feet of an elephant. The heat kept people away. We don't plan to do this show again, it just wasn't worth the effort.

Zionsville Lions Club Fall Festival- September. Ugh. I had just delivered a baby three weeks prior. I cried when I left her for the day. It was freezing cold on Saturday and a million degrees on Sunday (Indiana weather). We were directly across from the band tent, so we heard 50 renditions of showtunes ranging from junior high to senior citizens. We made our booth rental and a little extra, but not enough to do it again. On the plus side, they had nice restrooms and a great hotdog/chips/cookie combo lunch.

Avon Community Festival- September- This show was disappointing. People were not there to buy, they were there for free stuff and things for their kids to do. We thought it was our worst show ever. However, we went with our golden rule and stayed until the very end. While we were packing up, a girl came by and bought 5 necklaces, making it worthwhile. We were SO grateful for that ending to the day!!

Whale of a Sale October- Although this wasn't our biggest selling show, we loved everything about it. We were able to by a ton of stuff for our little ones (it is a HUGE consignment sale for kids) and we were able to market to new moms who want necklaces with their kiddos names on them. We are doing this show again in a few weeks and can't wait!

Fishers Christmas in October- We L.O.V.E.D. this show! Our location was ideal and there were so many awesome vendors there. I could have shopped all day. I did buy a great pair of wool gloves. At the end of the day, we went ahead and bought our booth space for the following year because we did really well.

IUPUI Fine Arts Show- October- Okay, I'm starting to sound like negative Nellie, but this show was AWFUL. There was this huge room where everyone was. Except we (and about 10 other vendors) were stuck DOWN THE HALL in a small classroom. I wanted my money back and was honest about it in my review of the event. I also wore new shoes (duh, Kelsey) and had HUGE blisters on my toes and heels. Brodi couldn't stop laughing when I came back from the bathroom with my heels and toes wrapped in toilet paper (I didn't have bandaids). The funniest part of the day (besides the toilet paper bandaids) was the fact that the woman across from us was selling Russian faux fur hats like crazy. Just watching people try them on was pretty entertaining.

Hoosier Artisan Boutique- November- This show was pretty good- we'll do it again. It was organized well, advertised well, and they provided food, which was great. I think we set out standards too high because we thought it would be the show to end all shows. It wasn't our best show, but I enjoyed shopping around and looking at other etsy vendors.

So, that's about it...We learned a lot our first year of shows. We're currently gearing up for our shows for this year. I'll post a schedule as soon as I get around to it. I'm really trying to blog more, since right now I'm aware that we have a "blahg" as they call it I think. We'll see how that turns out...