The Website is Up!!!

Yay! It looks like the website is finally ready to go live! Check it out at LaurasDesigns.com. In celebration of the new site, and the upcoming long weekend, everything in the shop is 10% off through Labor Day! When you go through checkout just enter the code "LABORDAY2010" in the comments section and I'll refund the 10% back to you via Paypal.

swimmy thoughts

So, my son and I drove out to Newport, OR yesterday and went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where we saw all kinds of amazing and beautiful things. Including these jellyfish -



Now I've got thoughts of jellyfish earrings floating around in my head. I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing anything more than daydreaming about them but it's fun to think about. :)

props due!

Wow! Yesterday was SO MUCH fun! I'd never vended at, or even attended, the Multnomah Days Festival and I was super impressed by how well it went. It was well organized, the street was closed for the duration so it felt leisurely and safe, the organizers, other vendors and people attending were nothing but friendly and kind. Everyone seemed to be having such a great time all day. A snafu early in the day (vendor in the wrong spot) was handled with grace and good humor. There was a fun (if long) parade, good weather and loads of people. Yesterday was the kind of day that keeps me doing this kind of thing. Kudos and thanks to everyone involved with the festival!

The website is really coming along. I think I need to add more pictures to fill out the gallery and then it'll be ready to roll out. Very exciting!

Next up - Belmont St. Fair. Should be a lot of fun. :)

Multnomah Days Festival this Saturday

Just a heads-up that I'll be vending at the Multnomah Days Festival from 9 til 4 tomorrow (Saturday the 21st) in Multnomah Village here in Portland. If you're gonna be around, come check it out!

celebrating the small things

Woot! I hit a milestone of sorts on Etsy this week: as of Monday, I now have 100 people on Etsy who have called my shop a 'favorite.' I know this is still really small potatoes but I'm rather pleased nonetheless.

Also, this Saturday I'm going to be vending at the Multnomah Days Festival from 9-4. If you're in town, come check it out. :D

blog feature!

Laura Salisbury Designs was featured today on TeamBPAL's blog for the Friday Spotlight. There's bit of an interview there that may or may not shed a little light on how things happen around here. It's really up to you as to whether or not that's a good thing. ;-p

new website in the works

So, I've been wanting a real website of my own for ages now but my skillz are rusty or nonexistent and I am a procrastinator at heart so it's been a shelved project for a couple of years now. Well, no more! I got a notion and finally sat down and sketched out a rough idea of what I want my website to look like and then I found a tool (Wix.com) where I could play around with different elements to create a prototype. A practice run, if you will. The result is linked over there on the right or you can click HERE to see what I came up with. It's a work in progress so it's not fully fleshed out and it has a couple of issues but I think I'm generally satisfied with how it turned out.

Now the trick is going to be creating something from scratch on my own without the handy-dandy bells and whistles of the tool that makes it so easy. I installed WordPress and I'm going to give that a go and I've been spending time pouring over stock image websites looking for and gathering elements to play with. No small task I'm finding. I'm trying to persist in the madness and I keep telling myself that I can do this but, holy crap, this is complex. :-\ I hope this works!

Yay! I made it into a fun treasury!

My Flower Beetle (Mr. Happy) made it into an awesome Etsy Treasury called Feeling Kinda Buggy. It's a really fun treasury and I think he's in good company. :)

Fits & Starts

Went to a gem fair yesterday and came home with a few goodies, although mostly I just restocked some supplies. Gem fairs are always so fun, even if a lot of the stuff is the same time after time. I always look forward to seeing some of the vendors and seeing what new things they are excited about. I got some fantastic crystals to make into pendants that I think are going to be very nice.

I got some new things made and am sifting through and editing photos so can get them listed. One of them is this -


I suspect the pendant is some kind of calcite or maybe even chalcedony shot through with streaks of carnelian but that's just a guess. Whatever it is, I think it's gorgeous. I paired it with serpentine, carnelian, red jasper and some fire agate and gave it a silver wire bail. I'm quite pleased with it.

I've also added a new street fair to the summer line-up. I'll be at the Multnomah Days Festival in Multomah Village in Portland on August 21st from 10-5. I've decided against vending at the Hawthorne Street Fair this year but I will be going just to hang out and have fun.