I'm Back!  What a fun week, we left last Thursday May 24th  to go visit family in Central California.  On our way we had to go through the Sierra Nevada range, which is the top picture, many pretty places to see there.  Then we drove to the San Francisco Bay on Saturday May 26th.  Yes it was crazy busy, but that is to be expected due to the holiday weekend.  It was so kewl to see everything.  I had never been over a bridge like that, and it wasn't to scary at all.  The Warf is where we visitied, and it must have taken near 45 mintues just to drive through and find a parking space.  After parking we sent to eat at a nice resteraunt for some fresh seafood.  After this, we went to the dock and found an old ship to tour, as well as take photos of the places on the bay, such as Alcatraz in the bottom picture.  This was the first time I had seen cargo ships...........  they are huge!  The day was windy, but we did tour the little Aquarium, which was fun as well.  Pricing was not as I had expected, and I look forward to spending time in the city within the next year...........  but will skip the holiday weekend.

With this experience, it was interesting to see the different colors on the coastal areas.  Water, though merky, can still be a pretty color to incorporate.  I did visit a small bead shop in the town of Modesto, pricing was a bit high, and customer service was not great, not sure if I'll be back.  Also didn't have a good selection.  With being so close to the Bay, where imports can be less expensive, I was hoping to get reasonable pricing.  O'well, they need to make a living right! 

I am posting a few new items today, on happigirljewelry.luulla.com .  Check them out, pretty copper and crystals.

So, I now have a new store I want to invite you all to check out.  www.happigirljewelry.luulla.com .  I am very excited to be apart of this new Handmade ONLY seller site.  Etsy, appears to have some very opinionated sellers, which if you open the door to that, you can only blame yourself. 

I am speaking of a thread on Etsy I started, and all in all the majority were very helpful and nice.  I even managed to get private help from a seasoned seller, so I am grateful.  Anyway, there are some who are just not good communicators, and come across wrong in my opinion.  Some of the feedback I recieved.........that I did not want to take in at first, has actually been good for me.  I have started updating good photos, and I've gotten help with writing better descriptions.

I will be making regular updates to my new site, and I am not sure at this point if I will relist with Etsy once my items expire.  I would love to just use luulla, but we will see.

Update for my second auction on Tophatter.com.  I did my second auction, and though I could not log onto the site during my auction, I did sell............again, at a substantial discount.  So, it appears that I need to try less pricey items..........  may try some steampunk since it's crazy popular, and ALWAYS brings good returns.  I have another auction planned for May 14, at the 5pm auction, which will be for some pretty copper and glass bead earrings.  We'll see if anyone bites........  I do love the auction energy.  Outbid has potential to do well, but there is absolutely NO advertising done my the site owners.  They are using us as the sellers to do that for them......... 

This picture above is a new items listed at www.happigirlgifts.etsy.com .  It's genuine Agate and Turquoise.  Beautiful Agate, loved this color combination.  This measures the average 7.5", and is sure to get attention. 

NOTE:  if you like my blog, or have any comments or questions, please let me know.  I try to update my blog each week.  Would like to hear from some of my followers.

So last night I tried Tophatter for the first time.  I ended up selling this set for a substantial discount...........but it sold!  So I scheduled another auction for May 9, 9am auction, which means it could take over 3 hrs for my item to come up, but it's all fun.  What was exciting is that it sold to someone in Rochester, NY.  Though I love my local clientele I'm building, it was neat to sell to someone on the other side of the country.

Today I have an order to fill so will be completing that, as well as whatever else stirs my motivation.  I did buy a peice of board today from Lowes so I can work on a pyrography sign for Mothers Day.  Getting ready for a busy week, we'll see what I have to say come next weekend.  As always you can catch me on Tophatter this wed morning selling a beautiful Jasper and wire bracelet......