Shopping today!

So today I took a trip to the mall. Now, I really hate going to the mall up here at college, because I have no car and it's a 1 hour bus ride each way. It's also somehow always raining on the days I decide to take this journey. So, I tramped through the rain and 2 bus stops to the mall and I beleive I made it worth my while: check out that haul over on the left. CLEARANCE, my friends. Everything in that picture cost $1 each. Mmmmm, I sense upcoming craftiness! (Not that I haven't been crafting my butt off - I made at least 50 new items this weekend alone. Pics later.) I also stocked up at Jo-Anns since we don't have one in Louisville, and bought 14 packs of buttons. I hope that will tide me until summer! I've still got 5 pairs of earrings to make for a wholesale order, and I ought to make at least 10 for the craft fair, considering they're kind of my favorite and most iconic item aside from my BITCH wallets. I've been making some new designs and I really want to start selling them, too. Ah, what I need is more time! Anyway, I'll spare you pics of the rest of my purchases, because who wants to see pics of glue, keychain rings and tablecloths anyway?
Coming up next week: craft fair preperation pics! I've been taking pics, folks. I'm just too darn busy to write about it right now! Stay tuned!

Omg! Lia? Gives Back

So last weekend (the weekend I was out of town) was the local chapter of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event. Basically what it is is an overnight relay (walking/running for 24 hours) to fundraise money for cancer research. Well my friend Zilin was organizing the team here and she wanted to set up a table to sell some handmade items to raise additional money, and came to me. I of course said yes and gave her incredibly good deals on all of my jewelry for her to mark up (we're talking 70% discounts here, people!) Well she says it was a total success and all of my earrings except for 3 pairs sold!! I can now officially say that my crafting has helped the greater good. I'm glad I could help them raise money!

Craft Fair in 1.5 Weeks!

So, I'm back from my nice little mini-vacay in time to realize that my first ever craft fair is next-next Saturday! Yikes! I know that you all want to hear the mushy details about my visit home but I hope that this picture of 2 turtles we saw at the Zoo on Sunday will suffice for now (infer what you will. By thw way, if I ever have a turtle, I'm naming it Skipperdee like in Eloise.)
Anyway, because the craft fair is so soon, I'm working my butt off starting today. I've been making stuff nonstop since 10pm (it's 3:30 now! Class in the morning! Woohoo.) I made 10 keychains (they're fun! Why haven't I made more before this?) and 5 necklaces. So that's a decent $100 minimum if they sell. I also sold a bunch of stuff today for some odd reason (3 pairs of earrings and 2 supply lots) so that's more stuff to send out and less to sell at the fair. Oh well, at least I came home to TONS OF BUTTONS for my wholesale order (still need more though, poo.)
Anyway, here's a list of things (mostly for my benefit, skim if you must)to do before my fair:
1. Finish felt sign, sew letters onto sheet.
2. Finish label cards, attach logo onto cardboard backings.
3. Steal more bags from the campus center (ssh, I already paid 50k for them.)
4.Create a giant excel file of all the items I am bringing to the fair
5. Work on getting omglia.com functional (possibly before next fair)
6. Sew the half-made wallets, and make more!
7. Sew some tops!! Lots of them!!
8. More necklaces! and earrings!
9. Big batch of button stud earrings: assemble and decorate
10. Get propay account set up
11. Set up tent outside to test it out, check for weights
12. Put all the stuff from my Things to Bring to a Craft Fair post in a box, ready to go.
13. Possibly start work on portfolio
14. Take a giant 2hr round trip (ugh) visit to the mall for more buttons, more keychain pulls and flickr prints at target (which are apparently free) for portfolio
Phew. Hey, is anyone else NOT looking forward to finals which are conveniently RIGHT after my fair? Relaxing ... what's that?

Update from my life!

Hey all, I haven't updated too much recently because I've been very busy! I'm currently at HOME on MY bed (that would be Kentucky, as opposed to college) and have been blissfully occupied with my wonderful boyfriend. Go ahead, say it ..... awwwwwwww! School-wise, though, it's almost the end of the semester (about 2 more weeks! Yay!) and business wise, I've got craft fairs coming up! May 3rd, 20th, and June 20-21st. I'm also working on all the neccesary stuff for transferring to Indiana University to get my business degree, including a zillion 2hour drives up there to check it out. Meanwhile (good lawd) I've got my first wholesale jewelry order! 15 pairs of button earrings. Which is great because it challenges me to make new color schemes (I've already got 3 gorgeous new designs!) but sucks because I've run out of buttons ... and I actually need to make 30 pairs (15 for the buyer, 15 for craft fairs and Etsy listings so I'll be able to recreate them later.) *sigh* I'm a busy little bee. Oh, and in more exciting news, I totally hired someone to vamp up my website with zencart! Finally my domain will be put to good use ... I've paid $100 so far to have it sit around doing nothing. SO worth another $50 to get someone else to set it up for me :D Anyway, that's my update from life.

Graphic Art, or Doodling

So, it's a little known fact that I like to do graphic art. Well, art kinda, more like artistic doodling. It all started when I went to Hawaii and there was this museum and it had this kickass giant mural filled with all sorts of colorful shapes and designs and just ... well, it was awesome. Ever since that I sort of wanted to make one of my own. I started out making lovey dovey signs to my boyfriend in class my junior year of high school, and graduated to my current obession, which is doodling on the back of postcards (easier to fill up the whole page, and I can whip one out during a class ... haha.) Here's 2 recent examples (yes, they look the same, but it's 2 postcards):

I like them and all, but damn, I use the same designs over and over! It's like, stripes, checkers, stars, diagonal stripes, hearts ... um, what now?

So I was psyched when a friend posted this link on her livejournal. This chick is an AMAZING artist who does the same kind of stuff that I (try to, but mostly just which I could) do. Here's one of her kickass prints:

Woah. I'm definetly inspired. I've got some blank postcards for Monday and I can't wait to fill them up!
By the way, email me your address if you want one! My friends/boyfriend each have miniature collections so I try to send them to total strangers now instead.

M.I.A Concert

So last night I attended an M.I.A concert hosted by my college (and free to its students! Yay!) For those who aren't familiar with M.I.A, she's a Sri Lankan rap/hip hop artist whose songs often convey political messages and awareness/activism goodness. They also happen to be super catchy. My favorite songs of hers are "Galang" and "Sunshowers," though her song "Paper Planes" is currently roaming the charts.

Anyway, the concert was great. Tons of girls, and many guys too (I attend an all woman's college, remember?) I escaped the ridiculously crowded lower standing area only for M.I.A to crowdsurf in the EXACT spot where I was standing later on, grrr. I danced my butt off! M.I.A was pretty drunk, and is a terrible dancer, but oh my gosh she is HOT (why yes, I am straight.) At one point she took a "DO ME" sign out of the audience and put it in her pants. Sexy. Hehe. She also had two really cool female rappers/dancers with her.
My only complaint is that the sound effects dude went CRAZY with the "gunshot" button on his laptop. Every five seconds there was a gunshot noise, it was insane. I get it though. M.I.A's father is one of the leaders of the Tamil Tigers, the rebel insurgents currently fighting the government in Sri Lanka (for those who don't know, it's all based over Ethnic/language differences - the Tamils want their own province, and the ethnic majority and the government don't want to give it to them.) Overall though it was a great concert, and kudos to the college for picking someone political, rather than Fall Out Boy who came last year (lame).

Swappage!!

So I did an awesome swap with Gingerbread Jewelry. Check out all the goodies she sent me!

Mmmm. I'm pretty sure the bag I sent her was just as good (I hope she liked it!) Let me know if you want to swap! I love mystery packages full of awesome supplies!
I lucked out that day, because look what else I got!
More charms and beads! That giant bag of blackness is actually full of awesome black acrylic flowers that I use to make earrings like these mini flower button earrings.

(top row) I ran out of all sorts of colors and they're really hard to find, so I'm going to have a bunch of black ones with pretty buttons instead, hehe.

I should really list stuff on Etsy soon. I keep creating for my craft fairs and ignoring my shop!!

Shopping Domestic

I am such a little mini housewife. Here I am, 18, feminist, hairy legs, pink hair, and all I want is a cute little kitchen and a crafting room. And some toddlers. And a business. And my boyfriend ... *sighs* Anyway, that's not happening anytime soon.

Well this summer, I'm going home (kitchen! crafting ... area!) and I'm going to be a camp counselor (toddlers!) and I get to see my boyfriend (yay! although he won't eat a thing I cook for him.) So I now have all sorts of consumeristic desires. Here's what I'm scoping out to buy on Etsy!


A pincushion! I do sew, and I'm not the best at it, but I'm currently keeping my sewing supplies in a dented recycled plastic container. Lame. Check out this gorgeous orange and pink retro style pincushion from http://SunshineDesignsEtc.etsy.com. Or this pink and black one that is stuffed with emery to keeps pins sharp from http://dottyral.etsy.com.
Or this cute pink retro-style pincushion that says LOVE in the middle from http://tsunamibeads.etsy.com!
Squee! They're all so gorgeous, I don't know which one I'll get yet!
I also want an apron! Over holiday break I took a Wilton Class for cake decorating and I was wearing a strawberry print apron from when I was 6. It barely even covered my boobs. There are tons of cute aprons on Etsy!
Here's what I found. http://Boojiboo.etsy.com makes gorgeous aprons that look like dresses! (I would totally wear these as dresses, wouldn't you?) http://sassyapron.etsy.com has a ton of SUPER cute pin-up style aprons, like this red and white polka dotted one!
Oooh I can't wait to get shopping!

Selling Advertisement Banners!

Hey all! I've started selling Customized Link Banners in my Etsy shop! I've got a lot of experience with making graphics and I'm now offering to share that experience with you!
Why are link banners useful? Let's see...
1. Draws customer's attention and makes them want to visit your shop.
2. Easy advertising! Just paste the img code and voila, your mark is left for all to see!
3. Opens up whole new worlds of advertising! Project Wonderful ads, blog ads, website ads, and more!
4. Stick 'em on your myspace page or website with a textarea so people can paste them right onto THEIR myspace pages, and thus reach even MORE potential customers!
5. Brand name recognition - the more your logo is out there, the more known your shop becomes!
Shall I go on?
Here are some examples of banners I've made for Omg! Lia? (note: some of these are animated, which might not show up in blogger)





Only $5! Get Yours Now!

Proffesional Photography

Last week I sent in these jewelry items to an awesome DIY seller who's going to include my jewelry in her clothing photoshoot! Her photoshoots are always AMAZING so I'm SO excited that she's doing this basically for free (she's keeping one of the pairs of earrings.) I'll reveal everything when I get the photos back!

I apologize for not updating recently, I'm currently going through some personal stuff with the boyfriend and this is just not my weekend. On the bright side, I've managed to distract myself by watching reality TV and lord of the rings while making lots of wallets.... now I just need to sew them up!

BITCH pic!

Ohmygod... best customer pic ever:

Thanks so much, Buttonhead! You rule!
PS you can get your own bitch wallet right here.

Featured!

Counterfeit Chic used one of my magazine wallets in an interesting article.
Femme Details is featuring an interview with me! Check it out!
Oh My So Cute featured my items as well!
And here's a sweet review from Ashley Leigh!
Cuteable featured my rainbow button earrings!
I was featured at Yes I Am Baking a Pie! What a cute name :P
CaityBlog featured my free giveaway.
Love It A Lot featured an ice cream cone necklace!


Let me know if you feature me and want a write-up!