A Birthday For Frances

My daughter, Taylor, was just invited to a birthday sleepover for a new girl in her class named....Frances! How adorable is that?! And why didn't I think of that name?

Do you remember the children's books about the little badger named Frances who always made up funny songs?

They were my favorite books when I was little and I have proof!

Okay, now pick yourself up off the floor and stop laughing. (You guys are so rude!) Yes, I was a card carrying, bonefied, Grade A, Number One Nerd as a child. (Thank goodness I outgrew it...)

This photo is me at the library after they ran an essay contest called "Libraries Are..." The winning essay was printed on to t shirts and they were sold to raise money for the library.

I practically lived at the library so they naturally used me for a photo advertising the t shirts. (Who can we use for this stupid ad for the library shirts? Hey, there's that little blond girl who doesn't seem to have a home, grab her!)

They had me put on a library t shirt and told me to hold my favorite books. You can't actually tell in the photo, but I am holding all the Frances books!

A brief note about the authenticity of my nerdom:

I actually was not naturally as nerdy as I appear in the photo. I had to ad artificial nerd enhancements. I had forgotten about this little detail until my husband saw this photo yesterday and asked "Why are you wearing glasses in that picture? You don't wear glasses."

He,of course, was not surprised in the least when I explained that I wanted glasses so badly in the third grade (no idea why) that I faked a bad eye test to get them. Direct Husband Quote: "So you were already using your 'I Love Lucy' style plots and tactics at eight years old?" (No comment.)

This childhood among books led to my career as a children's librarian for the last six years. (Before I started my jewelry business.)

Okay, I forgave the first round of laughing at the library photo, but this is just too much. Can you people please try to restrain yourselves for the sake of my fragile self esteem?!

Ahem. As I was saying...Yes, I was a librarian. ( I'm warning you, don't even snicker or this post is over!) Granted I was messy, loud, disorganized, scatterbrained, constantly laughing, never stern, and pretty much hopeless, but I was a librarian none the less. My kids did not learn much about the Dewey Decimal System, but through invented games, ridiculous skits, super involved and complex crafts, rambunctious scavenger hunts, fun prizes, delicious snacks, ...oh yes, and reading,... I did instill in them a passion for books.

I do miss the kids and my co workers, but I'm not so sure they were sorry to see me go. At least I don't think they miss my heaped trash pile of a desk and loud laugh echoing throughout the hallways at the most inappropriate times.

(How was I supposed to know there was an anti drug rally with moving testimonial going on in the gym? What? Well, no one told me the principal had a suspended student and his family meeting with him in his office! Come on now, if you can't whisper a racy joke to a fellow staff member to lighten tension during a long boring board meeting then really, what is the point of even being here?)

Yes, jewelry design was a wise career choice for me. And speaking of jewelry design...

I just had to make a Frances necklace for Frances. I think it turned out pretty cute. Not my usual themes or colors but still very much in my style.



And also very much in my 'style' is the fact that I have no clue if Frances, the girl, even knows who Frances, the adorable children's book badger, is.

I mean, seriously, is this birthday and necklace even really about her?

Dang paparazzi! I told them no more photos of me and my svelte body in my fishnets... I look like a seventeen year old again!

(Hope the above 'model' is at least 18, don't want to be pressed with charges for exploiting a minor!)

The winners! (and the loser...)

Okay, first off, I'm the loser because of my ridiculously poor computer skills. (Using the word 'skills' very loosely...)

So, needless to say no adorable movie of winners being drawn from 'contest beret'.

Too bad too, because in the movie I look extremely skinny and well put together.

My hair is done, nails freshly manicured, and although you can't actually 'see' it, I smell really good too.

Trust me.

Really good.

Oh well...

But now let's celebrate!!!

The winners are:

Second place.....Suzie S.

Hooray Suzy! Carnival Ring and all it's prestige are on their way to you! I'll inform the J.N.V.C.R.C. of their new member. (A word of warning, don't get too friendly...they love to text message. You'll live to regret it. My advice, remain a bit aloof and stand offish.)

Look Suzy, at the fun activities you are in for! Playing 'Hungry, Hungry, Hippo...Wearing matching clothes...

(Are the rest of you feeling a little better about not winning?)

And now...

First place....

Don't you love the suspense?!

Lana R.!!!!!

3 cheers for Lana!

She had the correct answer!

My newest design is my 'Lady Sawed in Half Earrings' !

See them in this photo?

And this one?

The front side is both halves of the lady. The back is 2 parts of this awesome Thurston the Magician poster.

The earrings go together like puzzle pieces, completing a part of the poster.

I am reading this great Houdini book, so I foresee many more magic designs in my future...

For those who didn't win, never fear! I am going to be releasing many designs over the next few weeks and I am going to do more giveaways.

Here's a hint for my next design:

"Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

Any guesses?

(This isn't the contest, just for fun.)

Technical Difficulties! ($%#@&*^%)

Having computer and camera issues...

Contest winners will be announced today, hopefully in a cute little film of my youngest (and most animated) daughter drawing the names out of the 'contest beret'.

Thank you for your continued patience.

My First Contest!!!

Here it is folks...

The first Jamie Noel Contest Giveaway Extravaganza ever!!!

(This tiny photo is supposed to be the grand parade celebrating my contest.) Impressive, I know...

The prizes are: One million dollars!

No, Dr. Evil, it is not one million dollars!(What a jerk, he is always crashing my blog...)

It is even better! (not really, but let's pretend.)

First Prize is: My new jewelry design!

Yes, it's true.

And Second Prize is:

This adorable vintage carnival prize ring!

It is circa 1950's and is marked "Japan".(It's adjustable.)I found a small lot of them and bought them all!

And as I have only given this ring to 4 other people, my two girls and my two nieces, you will become a member of the very elite Jamie Noel Vintage Carnival Prize Ring Club.

Just take a look at your fellow J.N.V.P.R.C. members:

Yes, instant cool status will be yours indeed.

So how can you win one of these awesome prizes?

And wait, what is my new design?

Ha, ha, my friend, you have fallen right into my trap.

That is the contest.

("What ?! I don't get it?!")

Calm down , let me explain.

Somewhere in my last post ("Prizes! Prizes!") is my new jewelry design. You will have to look at the photos to find it. You may also have to peek at my shop to see what my current designs are. (Hee,Hee..sneaky me!)

When you have the answer then post it in a comment. (If I have done this correctly, the comments on this post will be hidden.) (That's a big 'if'.)

Update: Change of plans. E mail your answer to me at:

jamienoel@live.com

Correct entries will be put into the 'contest berret' and two will be randomly drawn. I will film and post the drawing to verify authenticity and to create a sense of drama and unbearable suspense.

Contest will be open until Sunday night at midnight.

Winners will be announced Monday morning.

(Be sure to check back Monday because if it's you, then I will need contact info. )

Okay, on your mark, get set, ................GO!

Prizes! Prizes!

Head’s up:
I am going to have a contest on my next post (Friday, Oct. 3) where you can win one of two fabulous prizes! Go tell your friends and neighbors! (Prizes are not those pictured, that is just a festive prizish looking corner of my studio.)

Stop!!!
Don’t go yet…

Don’t you want to read today’s post?
I promise, it’ll be fun.

Let’s start by playing a game.

See if you can fill in the blank on the following sentence:

Once again, my home is a house of ____________.

Go ahead, try to guess the answer by filling in the blank.

I'm waiting...

Come on! Didn’t you people ever watch The Match Game?

This is where you guess answers like: ‘ill repute’ or ‘cards’
Or anything else that would go with “house of____” . (funky seventies music playing)
If you work ‘whoopie’ into your answer give yourself 5 bonus points! (Charles Nelson Riley's laughter can be heard in the background)

Okay, here’s the answer: sickos

No, ‘house of sickos’ is not the most popular catch phrase, but it’s what we are.

My girls are both sick with bad colds. Everyone is miserable except the dogs.

As you can see, Chewy the Very Rude Dachshund is just happy as a clam to have an all day sleeping buddy. (We love him, but he really is quite rude.)

The good news is that without driving 4 hours each day back and forth to school I have been quite productive.

I am going to now blow your socks off with what I have done.
Warning: Shocking photos below! No, those aren’t the shocking pictures!

These are:

Did you faint? Scream? Think that H-E- Double Hockey Sticks just froze over?! (It may have.)

Yes, I have been organizing my ‘studio’.

What brought on this flurry of organization you ask? Did my husband begging while down on bended knee finally do the trick?

No, this was prompted by one of my trademarked impulsive inspirations. You see, I found this adorable old store rack in an antique store for only $40! In the shop it was black and wire and dirty, but all I could see were neat organized shelves and vintage candy wrappers... (harp music begins to play)
So, I’m very proud of my messy little self and plan to continue this organizing through the rest of my ‘studio’ and home. Let’s just hope this world has enough adorable antique storage containers to keep me engaged until completion.

And with my supplies organized I have been able to work much more efficiently and not spend 2 hours each day looking for things. (Who took my bone folder?!!)

As evidenced by these photos...

Works in progress:

Completed orders, boxed and ready to pack:

And finally, packaged orders ready to ship:

So I hope you are all inspired by my herculean effort at (gulp)… cleaning. I’m getting a little more comfortable saying the “c’ word.

Ooops, 'c-word' could be taken in a different way...

But only if you have a dirty mind so shame on you!

(I see I’ll just have to make my next stop there on my cleaning pilgrimage!)

Remember: Contest on Friday! Real live prizes!

The Jack O'Lantern King!

Drum roll please...

I am about to show you my newest design, which I am extremely proud of. But before I do I have to give you some of my usual background story ramblings.

Admit it, if I just said, “here is my new design, blah, blah, blah…” and posted the pictures you would all think (with good reason) that I was an impostor and the real me had been abducted by aliens. (Hopefully they’re treating me well… and not ‘probing’ me… what’s up with aliens and all the ‘probing’?)

Never fear, it is me and here is my rambling…

In the retail world Christmas begins in July and Halloween in …May? June? I’m not sure, but it’s long before Fall is in the air. Now that I am a full time retail type girl with my own little on line shop (this would be the perfect place to put a shop link, but I’m too lazy) I must now start thinking far ahead of the upcoming holidays and seasons and plan my designs accordingly.

But here’s the thing.

I don’t work like that.

I cannot find the inspiration within me to design a toy workshop necklace in July or a haunted mansion brooch in June.

In July I want to drink Arnold Palmer’s (50 percent lemonade, 50 percent ice tea, 100 percent delicious) and light sparklers and snakes. (Snakes: Greatest firework of all time. A little black tablet that smokes profusely and unfurls into a long snakey ash. Definition courtesy of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.) (Yes, it is...look it up if you don’t believe me.)

(You didn’t look it up did you? You’re too lazy to look it up and challenge me so by default you will have to take me at my word.)

(Okay, I cannot lie… the guilt is too much. That is my own loose paraphrase of the snake firework definition in Webster’s.)

( I feel so much better! Confession really is good for the soul.)

Once again my ADD mind has taken us off course onto a long winding side street, but lucky for us all I have taken my medication today and can easily find my way back.

But before we do that let’s just go down this little alley… I used the term ‘50 percent’ in my Arnold Palmer definition instead of the word ‘half’, which I would normally say because if I used the word ‘half’ I couldn’t have used that hilarious line ‘one hundred percent delicious.’ Just didn’t want anyone to think I was a weirdo that uses creepy analytical type terms like ‘50 percent’ very much in the manner of a talking robot instead of normal words like ‘half’. (Because I’m sure if any of you had the mistaken idea that I am weird, that was what clued you in, didn’t it.)

Now back to the main highway.

So in order to get myself into a Halloween frame of mind so I could design some Halloween pieces before Oct.31 I looked at some old photos of my girl’s in Halloweens past. Join me on this little trip down memory lane… (Get it? Memory lane fits in with my whole driving/ highway analogy I have going on here.) ( Pretty clever.) Here we have Mother Nature and a Starbucks barista.

A close up of mother nature's hair.

Last year we were apparently all in a board game frame of mind:

Ms. Monopoly!

Yes, we made that up, but isn't she cute? Oh, by the way, she decided this costume,(which I completely hand painted), wasn't comfortable and changed into a store bought witch dress. After much arguing,begging, bribing, and tears (mine) she still wouldn't wear it. I gave up, but did inform her that should I decided to murder her and at my murder trial showed these photos, if there was even one single mom on the jury I would be acquitted on all counts. (She is sadly immune to my threats.)And although I did not commit murder that night apparently Miss Peacock did ...in the conservatory, with my very nice large silver candlestick, which I just realized at this very moment that I have not seen since that night. Aaaaghhh!

I may be a mom that occasionally forgets to pick my girls up from school and to date has never had them finish a complete course of antibiotics, (yes, I know this creates super bugs, I’m sorry!), but they have always had creative homemade Halloween costumes and witty baked treats to take to holiday parties. Let’s hope they remember that when it’s time to put mommy in a home…(the costumes and cupcakes that is, not the neglect and abandonment.)

And now we have arrived at our destination. (Unless you unbuckled your seat belt a while back and flung yourself out of my speeding car onto the side of the freeway thinking this a better option than continuing on as a virtual captive for my own little Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.) (Sorry, no refunds. –The Management)

If you did do that then too bad for you. The rest of us will now enjoy seeing my new design. (But I sincerely hope you didn’t get hurt flinging your body out of my car onto the shoulder of the road…with asphalt… and gravel…and prickly weeds…that really wasn’t the smartest decision.)

So here is my newest design, the Jack O’Lantern King Locket!

I have wanted to make something that had a door that could open for quite a while. I can dream up all sorts of designs, but if they will actually work is always a concern. Almost every design I have has had at least three prototypes before I work all the bugs out.( I will post photos of my ‘scrap heap’ sometime.)

It’s extremely important to me that my designs not only look good, but are functional and sturdy to stand up over time. I don’t want something adorable, but sort of rickety or unstable.( Yes, I am a self admitted slob and I can on occasion be lazy, but when it comes to my jewelry I am so passionate about my work that it seems to override these traits.)

I am really pleased with how this turned out. If you look at this item in my shop you can read the details, including where these great vintage images came from. It seems I’m in an extremely chatty mood and have written for quite a while. If I tried to add all those details here then I will have the longest post in the history of bloggerdom.

I’m in a benevolent mood, (along with my previously mentioned chatty mood), so I will not dethrone whoever currently holds that title.

Perhaps another day...