{On the boardwalk at Sandgate}

Today was a journey of yellow, pink, pyrite, polka-dots… and business development? Hey, that last part might not sound so sexy, but I promise you, it was pretty damn awesome.

I kicked off this lovely Saturday with 2 hours hangin’ with my crafty peeps at the latest BrisStyle I *heart* Craft Info Session.

There were quite a number of us who gave short talks – I spoke for 15 minutes about the importance of having an engaged and vibrant mailing list for your business. I felt like I was SUPER-SPEEDY JESS as I talked a mile-a-minute to try and get across as much info as I could in that time.

A few lovely people came up to me afterwards and said I did a good job (thank you!) so hopefully I got a few people inspired to get out there and get going with a mailing list!

{image by @gita_ – it was lovely to meet you!}

Next stop was Peppertown Gemworld. If you live in Brisbane, like making jewellery, and have never been, you must go post-haste!!!

I buy quite a few of my tools from there, and today I picked up some new hammers – and, particularly excitingly, a rawhide hammer, which I haven’t gotten my hands on before! I use these hammers to shape and harden silver (especially rings) so my old ones have gotten quite the beating (literally) over the last few months since I released my wedding ring range.

The wedding rings have been selling so well that I’ve decimated my hammers much faster than normal!

Then, Nick and I did something unusual… we had an impromptu lunch date! We stopped at one of our fave places to relax, the Full Moon Hotel at Sandgate. I love the view over Moreton Bay.

I also now love that they’ve started serving their Rekorderlig ciders in these custom cider glasses. Yes, it looks like a vase! But that was just one bottle of Rekorderlig, promise! {Strawberry and Lime, my fave, in case you were wondering. Or you’d like to bribe me.}

Finally! I wanted to share some pics of this ADORBS new dress that I bought from Bess Georgette. I have dubbed it the ‘Gidget’ dress. I don’t know why, the name just seems to fit. And how about that bow, eh? That is what totally sold me on this dress. So cute.

I paired it up with a vintage jacket I bought in the UK last year, a belt from another polka-dot vintage dress I own, and some flowery shoes. Oh, and my currently ever-present Interrobang bag, of course!

Also – in case you were wondering – the pyrite necklace and earrings I’m wearing are from the Epheriell  A/W 2012 collection… which I am FINALLY ready to launch!! It’s been a long time in the planning, but all the pieces have finally come together.

You might have seen me instagramming and facebooking some rings last week that will be part of the collection – these are just a taste of the designs I have lined up for you all.

The collection is titled Raw Earth and features a range of rough-cut gemstone necklaces, earrings, and rings in a number of different hues, combined with the silver chevron motif and long v-shaped earwires.

If that sounds up your alley, make sure to sign up to the Awesome People List NOW so you don’t miss first dibs on the (mostly) limited edition collection. I’ll be sending out a Raw Earth launch email to the APL within the week before I release the collection publicly.

I have been having a blast creating the new range, so I hope you love it!

P.S. If you’re a Brissie crafter and want to come along to future I *heart* Craft Info Sessions, here’s the schedule! I’ll be giving the Social Networking talk on October 20th.

P.P.S. If you want to learn more about running a successful mailing list, you can check out my new ebook, or come and see me and a few other fabulous people share our knowledge about online creative business at the Artful Business Conference in early September.

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