NEW Shop Update

I've been a busy bee working away these last few weeks of winter and getting ready for spring (sigh, spring....).

In the coming weeks, you can expect to see a bunch of changes in my glass shop, Penny Glass Girl and even more in my new shop Gibsons Landing which will open at the end of February.

Today I began with listing these key chains which are new to the Penny Glass Girl line.

Shopping Handmade For The Holiday Season Means A Lot To Me

It never ceases to amaze me that so many people have purchased items from me that were once only an idea in my sketch book. Buying local and buying handmade allows people like me continue to provide handmade goods that people can enjoy knowing that a small business can thrive in this economy.

I'm so excited to be partnering with Etsy for their #UnwrapEtsy celebration this holiday season! Here is a small selection of items from my shop www.pennyglassgirl.etsy.com featuring fun, functional gift ideas:

New! Home Decor Products in Penny Glass Girl!

Over the past few months I have been hard at work reconsidering Penny Glass Girl and how I want to move forward with my company. 13 years ago, when I started this venture, I could never have imagined that I would have continued for this long, left my stable career and jumped in full time. It has been amazing, scary, horrible and wonderful all at once. I have used my small business to experiment and hone my sills and came to create a jewelry line that I love.

Now, after some serious time and lots of reflection, it has come time to put that time and energy into a new line, a home goods line that that will incorporate my love of working with glass into functional everyday house wares! The new line will include lanterns, lamps, wall art and light boxes, plates and dishes will be arriving near spring as well.

What does this mean for my current line? Well, it means that there will be lots of changes to my Etsy Shop and to my wholesale line as well. I am still in love with jewelry and accessories and I will still continue to offer a line of accessories, but this line will be more streamlined and less experimental. I will also continue to offer custom colour and personalization to my items because, well, because I want to.

I hope you'll love some of the new lanterns which have already been filtering into the shop, there will be so many more to come!

NEW Penny Glass Girl Bangles

I have been working on this idea for awhile, and FINALLY they are here: BANGLES! I have listed a few Bangle Sets in the shop and will be listing a bunch more sets AND singles in evry colour by the end of the week. They can be worn on their own for a minimal statement or together in bunches (my fav) for a burst of summer colour.

I do hope you'll stop by xxoo Penny

POST EARRING SETS

I have had many requests lately for sets of post earrings, so who am I to deny? Here are just a few of the sets that will be listed in Penny Glass Girl this week:)



P.S! Use code SPRING2014 for a special discount until friday May 2nd:) xxoo Penny

NEW Spring Flower Pendants

Spring is here! Well it was here, but now it's freezing again:( Geesh. I'm getting over it by hunkering down in the studio and dreaming up spring with some new designs.

I've been working with Millefori a lot lately, they are tiny glass flowers made to be fused into sheet glass or beads. This is what they look like before I fire them into pendants:

After cutting, layering, firing and firing again, they look like this:

I do hope that spring appears outside soon. xxoo Penny

50% Off just in time for Mothers Day

I just wanted to let you know that I've added a new 50% off section to the shop - just in time for Mothers Day!

Stop by and pick up a gift or something special for yourself at a really great price as I reorganize the shop ahead of summer arrivals.

New Shop Update

This season has been a busy one for me, phew. I won't complain at all though and happy to be up and running into spring. If only the weather would catch up. I'm using my time indoors while I wait for the thaw, I've been in the studio a ton making new pieces for spring and summer. I do hope you'll drop by the shop and take a peek:)

NEW Brights Post Earrings

I have been working non-stop lately for two reasons: 1. I'm avoiding the winter weather that seems to be pervading the spring and 2.because I wanted to stock the shop with post earrings (my most requested item) in as many colours as possible. I often get custom requests for earrings to match my pendants and while I love to oblige, I wanted to make it easier for people to order these items.

You can find a whole bunch of post earrings in the shop but here are a few new options:

NEW In The Shop Today

Spring is coming, I can feel it. I am so over this nasty winter and have been plotting my new spring colours for some time. To celebrate, I've added NEW post earrings to the shop!

COUPON ALERT: If you enter SPRING2014 in the coupon codes at checkout, you'll receive a special spring discount:)xxoo Penny

Design Your Own Initial Pendants are NEW in the shop this week.

I like colour, I like making things, and I like having as many choices available as possible. I imagine my customers do to. I've come up with a way that everyone wins with my new Design Your Own Pendants in the shop.
Come see how you can design your own pendant here:

New Colours for Spring!

Choosing colours and sticking with them is not my strong point. Much of my design sense is driven by colour, so narrowing down the pallet and focusing on a few choice colour combinations is always painstaking for me. Yet, decisions had to be made for my Spring 2014 collection. Even though I have dozens (most likely over 100- really) of glass colours to choose from, by focusing on a dozen or so choices I can streamline the design process and provide a well thought out colour pallet for the season that compliment my jewellery design in the best possible way. So, here are my main choices so far (I think, really):

Look out for my new Spring collection coming to the shop this week. Yes, I still hope for spring, even though it -20 and snow covers most of my windows!

More NEW pendants are being listed in the shop today! This time, these wood bezel and fused glass beauties I've been working on for awhile. I have sold these at craft fairs and in my studio for sometime, but recently decided they belonged in my ETSY SHOP as well.

Each pendant is one of a kind and is made in several stages just for you. I love the vintage feel and mixing the wood bezels and fused glass gives them a natural texture. Come by and take peek. XXOO Penny

Studio Re-do: Before Pictures

This week, I'm redoing my little studio. When I say little, I really mean teeny tiny.

You see, I used to have a much larger workspace on the third floor of my house, but there have been many life changes around here in the last few years, one major one being my Mother moving in with my family of four, now making us a family of five in 1900 square feet of already squishy quarters.

When I moved into the sunroom off my kitchen (formally, a little mudroom) It looked something like this:

And This:

....and after my husband was tired of my ranting he built me this for my tools:

It wasn't my ideal space, but I grew to like this sunny little spot off of my kitchen,even though I have to pass the cookie jar 800 times a day as I walk in and out of it (a very bad geographical hazzard).

But soon enough, life happened again, we are renovation our house to make a fully contained apartment for my mother and giving my little boys some more room as they grow to be not-so-little. Now, I have this lovely washer and dryer in my tiny space to keep me company:

I know, right!?!

So, after I had my pity party during which I said I would never work again, my creative career was over, and, at one point, I would sell this *&^% house and get one that works, I decided a complete redo was in order.

Given that it's such a small space, investing in some shelving and work space that work, some paint, and some fabric and new lighting, shouldn't be all THAT expensive. So, guess what I'll be doing this week? Painting and organizing, and shopping and perhaps, maybe even sewing (yikes!).

Here's just a few more BEFORE PHOTOS:

I hope to be back to share a FINNISHED once and for all space soon!

XXOO Penny

Happy Thanksgiving Sale!

This Thanksgiving weekend is so special to me. I have struggled with many obstacles this year, but in the end, I realize that I have SO MUCH to be thankful for. Thanks to all that have supported me and my business in 2012:)

BIG THANKSGIVING SALE: use coupon code FRIENDS2012 to get 25% off everything in my shop.

Making Today: Napkin Rings

Hello:) Today, I decided to make some new napkin rings for a dinner party we're having with friends tonight. It's a csual BBQ type dinner, so I wanted to keep it light and simple. The napkins, made by my talented friend and fab textile designer, Saskia, are my favourite shade of sunny yellow and feature lovely little brids in various colours.

To make the napking rings, I used some fused glass cabs that I had left over from making some jewelry (but you could used anything with a flat back side for this). First, I glued a pad used to make a bolo style tie (I get mine at a jewelry supply store locally and must say that they come in handy for so many things)and let them set for about 3 hours:

Then, when the pads were set on the back, I threaded some ribbon through the back and flatened the ends down:

Then I tied the ribbon in a loose knot around the napkins and ces't fini!

Now I get to spend the afternoon cooking up some yummy bbq. Hope you get to spend the weekend with those you love. xxoo Penny

A Day Off

Today, I decided to take a day off from work (one of the very best benefits of working for myself:) Instead of lounging around in my jammies, which I was very tempted to do, I decided to make tackle a few projects off my to-do list.

Since tomorrow is friday (yay!) and we are having friends for dinner, I was a busy bee planning my menue and digging up some decor ideas for the table. I love my oak dining table, but I wanted to dress it a little differently tomorrow for a fun bbq. I kind of wanted to dress it down a little, you know, picnic-style to brighten a wintery day. In the end, I decided on this ANNAMOA fabric from IKEA for the table cloth. I think it'll be the perfect addition to our fun casual table:

I'll try and get some pics of the table tomorrow before the festivites. I'm really looking forward to an evening with good friends after a particularly busy week:) xxoo Penny

Sometimes, the little things mean the world to me.

Today, I haven't been my usual upbeat self. I'm not one to complain, well, not TOO much, but things just having been going my way.

At least, that was the way my day was going until a good friend dropped by "just because",after my can-anything-else-go-wrong!!!! morning, and just brightened my day. AND she brought me ribbon which she just happened to see on sale and knew that I used for my packages. I had just run out of ribbon and was going to have to go all the way accross town to get it but now I don't have to. It's like we have some kind of friend esp:) Sometimes, especially during the bad times, I feel so lucky to be reminded that I have a great back up system.

So thankful for the little things today, and isn't this ribbon adorable? Right? Love it, and THANKS friend:)

A Fine Mess This Weekend

Today, I woke up to find this mess on my dining room table:

It seems that my two boys were up early and had the sudden need to decorate the bird houses that a neighbour gave them almost a year ago. Although, I didn't relish the idea of cleaning up, I was happy to see that they were productive and not seated in front of the TV or computer. And hey, I was able to sleep in on what seems like the first saturday in history when we didn't have to wake up and make a mad dash for the hockey rink, the ski hill or some other such activity. AND they thought to use placemats!

A few hours later, and I had another mess to clean up (this time my own):

Since it really feels like a holiday on this lazy saturday, I decided not to do any work, but to make a few beaded bracelets for myself with beads that I have been meaning to use for a while:

So far, it's been a pretty fine day, hope your weekend is lovely too. xxoo Penny

In The Studio Today

I always feel very lucky on days like today. I'm lucky that I get to play away in my little studio and watch the snow fall and the light filter through the windows and reflect on the quiet while the boys are out and the husband is at the office. On days like these, I know for certain that I have chosen the right path for myself. Yes indeed, there is no place I'd rather be than right here.

I hope you are where you really want to be today.

xxoo Penny