I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to attend Alt Design Summit last week in Salt Lake City. I can’t possibly recap all the goodness that was packed into the four day conference, so I’ll share some of the highlights beyond the delish food, amazing hotel, beautiful city and fun parties ::
- Rooming & connecting with a good friend from Long Beach – that I haven’t seen in a year – Beth Giles – owner of Salvage Life. We had such a great time together – catching up on our personal & professional lives – lots of laughs – midnight room service – and time inspiring each other in our businesses. I miss her already.
- Hearing Ben Silbermann speak – co-founder of Pinterest. So engaging! I love hearing stories about the journey of following your dream – it was a good reminder that there are always trials & slammed doors along the way. He talked about how he feels like he lives at the intersection of terror & joy. I can definitely understand that space. Terrified is a good word for how I feel when taking bel kai designs to the next level {like right now, actually}. So, yeah, I’m a bit terrified. And yet, joyful at the same time, when I think of the beginning and where we are now.
- Moving on…
- Dinner with Danielle & Allison – the fab ladies from Sway Group.
- Meeting new faces…Nicole Balch from Making it Lovely, Erin Loechner from Design for Mankind, Brooke White from Girls with Glasses Show, Gabrielle Blair from Design Mom to name a few.
- Reconnecting with some of the amazing artists I have collaborated with over the years – meeting some face-to-face for the first time… Tracey Clark, Karen Walrond, Sarah Jane, Marisa Haedke.
- So, so much good information. Too many brilliant panel speakers to list – my head is spinning with inspiration and new ideas.
And the final highlight…coming home to my two loves…
So, if you can’t tell, I highly recommend Alt Design Summit if you are in the design, e-commerce, blogging world. It’s really great to have concentrated time with other creatives, away from home…to just feed off each other. Light bulb ideas flashing all over the place. Personally, I desperately needed a re-charge and I most definitely got one. I think 2012 is going to be a sweet year around here and I’m really excited to start sharing more and more with you…yes, that means that I’ll be blogging again and consistently. I miss it – last year was hard to make it a priority, but I’m putting it back on the front burner. We’ll be sharing more about the behind-the-scenes around the shop, new products, bits of inspiration and we’ll have some other contributors from time to time. And please let us know if there is anything else you would like to see! We love to hear from you.
Okay, signing off for now…see you soon!!
Such a busy holiday season – thank you!! We are really, really excited about 2012 and all that we have planned for Bel Kai Designs – we’re getting organized and carving out time for inspiration this month. In the meantime, help us celebrate the New Year…
I’ve been a fan of Karen Walrond – Chookooloonks - for years. Her photography is stunning. As a jewelry designer, I couldn’t help but picture her art in our necklaces. After meeting her at the Creative Connection this past September, I was even more inspired to make that a reality. She is so very compelling and her energy is crazy contagious. So, we’ve collaborated…using her images and lessons from her book, The Beauty of Different, and created a collection that we can finally share with you!
Choose from five different images/messages – your pick of a sterling chain necklace, leather cord necklace or charm bracelet…
Added bonus? Just take a look at the packaging…
Your ‘beautifully different’ piece comes packaged with a handmade ‘beautifully different’ LoveBand bracelet from Mudlove. You have FOUR more shopping days for regular shipping for holiday delivery. Happy Shopping!!
So thrilled to share this new collection with you. We’ve been a big fan of Sarah Jane Studios for years – and lucky us, we met Sarah Jane at the Creative Connection in September … we’ve been working on this collaboration since – and today – we share them with you!
We recently added a silver-plated category to the shop. . . you may or may not know this, but the price of silver has been climbing quickly for the past couple of years. So, we have been looking for some plated options to use for some of our designs and found some that we love & think you will too! We will be adding several new designs to this category this week. We’ll be sure to let you know about them here on the blog. And finally, finally, we are adding keyrings this week too! I know you’ve been waiting…thanks for your patience.
On to the newest design {above} – don’t you just love it?! Well, I do – and wore mine all weekend. It’s now in the shop – you can find it here. It’s a slighter larger pendant size than anything we’ve done before. I wore it long all weekend and loved the look, but it is just as beautiful on a short chain.
Hope you are doing well this Monday afternoon!
{select photos by jaci forshtay photography}
We’re celebrating autumn with two specials…. The Delicious Autumn necklace – normally $58 is on sale for $40 – now through Saturday, October 15th.
And, the autumn sparrow necklace, normally $42, is on sale for $30 – now through Saturday, October 15th.
Also – we’re working on adding keyrings to the shop – look for them this week! Start thinking Christmas gifts…
What a weekend we had in St. Paul at The Creative Connection! Everything was amazing, from the speakers, panelists, handmade market…all the way down to the weather and food. We came away with a couple of new relationships and exciting opportunities to look forward to. I took my good friend and now, Studio Manager, Jackie {did I tell you I hired her? more on that soon} with me. We always have a great time together and it was really nice to have someone there for me to talk through some of what I was inspired by, learning in panels, etc. We participated in the Handmade Market, so she pretty much ran our booth there. There was such a wealth of information in a short amount of time – it can be hard to process it all at times. I am still recovering from the mental, physical & emotional energy that was spent. But, as exhausting as it was, I came home completely recharged and motivated to jump into this…my dream, my passion, my work.
Biggest takeaways from my time there ::
- we are stronger in spirit than we know or recognize,
- I am not alone in this creative journey even though I sometimes feel I am,
- to adjust my thinking and look at big problems as big opportunities,
- take care of my vision – don’t be compromised by other voices,
- stay authentic, true to self, go with my gut…success will follow,
- big dreams = big money = big payoff {I scare away from spending money},
- hire people smarter than you {check!},
- and I need to wax my eyebrows more often. Ha!
Also, a good reminder for busy moms, creatives, business owners… Anytime you are saying yes to something, you are saying no to many things…make sure they aren’t top priorities. So needed to hear that!
I feel like I am always saying this, but we have some new and exciting things in the pipeline…hang with us while we get organized and it won’t be long. Look for loads of new product hitting the online shop very soon – and a couple new collaborations, too. It’s gonna be fun!
We’re back! We had a great weekend at the Bucktown Arts Festival in Chicago over the weekend. Thanks to all who stopped by!
We received a special request from a friend & beautiful bride, Grace, this summer – bouquet charms & necklaces for her bridesmaids – in a classic monogram style. Here are photos of the happy couple, gorgeous wedding & necklaces. They turned out beautifully…
{wedding photography by Studio 12, Todd Kuhns}
The bridesmaids’ used them as charms on their bouquets for the big day and then added them to a chain after the wedding day for a sweet keepsake & bridesmaid gift. You can find them in the shop here.
Let’s give one away!
We’ll be drawing for this on Sunday night, 10pm EST. So, leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway… for extra entries, facebook it, tweet it, blog it…and be sure to leave a comment for every entry. {US Residents only} Good luck!
WINNER :: Michelle is the winner of the giveaway, who said “Beautiful!!! I’m sharing this with a friend who’s getting married soon!”
