100th Post Giveaway Ready At Last

Giveaway is now closed.  Winners will be posted in a blog post by midnight tonight.  Good luck!

I finally have the items that I'm offering for free to celebrate my 100th post I've posted on my blog, which was about a week ago.  This blogging journey has been fun and continues to be so, and I'm in the celebrating mood.  After all it is Thanksgiving this week, and I have much to be thankful for.  Thank you for your loyal following thus far, and to those of you that become new followers, I hope to get to know you in the future.  Thanks for stopping by.
I have 3 jewelry gifts that I have created and will be giving to 3 followers of my blog.  Good luck!  Grand Prize will be this necklace below.  More details and photos about the prizes after the whens and hows just below this closeup photo of the 1st place prize.

When and how do I enter?

You may enter only ONCE, but the entry requirement is two-fold:

First you have to become a follower of my blog. This means going to the side bar of my blog page part way down on the right where it says FOLLOWERS and adding your name to that list.  You just click on become a follower and it will take you to another page.

Second you have to leave a comment on THIS post before midnight, Friday 12/4/09. The winner will be selected via the old fashioned way with drawing names out of a hat, and will be  posted before midnight, Saturday 12/5/09.   The winner will be mailed the gift they win by Tuesday 12/8/09. Remember, I have to be able to contact you either via blog or email address so make sure one or the other is in the comment you leave!

In order to get 1 additional entry into this giveaway if you post this on your blog and link back to my page, you will get an additional name put in the drawing.

You don’t need to be a blogger to enter. Here’s how you do it if you aren't already a blogger, or if you are just leave a comment like you normally do.

Click on the link “Comments".   Scroll down through the comments until you find a blank box.  Then just type your comments in that box.

Click on “Select a Profile”. When the window drops down, choose “Anonymous”.

Type your comment. Leave an email address so I can contact you in case you win.

Click “Post Comment”.

Type in the word verification word provided.

Click “Post Comment” once more. That’s it!

1st Place Gift - Value is $49.  Vintage Czech glass large faceted beads strung on a small chain with adjustable closure.  The pocket watch porcelain white face is a vintage Elgin piece with a sterling silver

fleur d leis attached to it.

2nd place is a glass 1 x 1 square disc with an Eiffel tower image attached to it.  It has a ball chain to create this necklace.

Prize #3 is this is an adjustable ring that consists of my layering techniques.  Mother of pearl, layered with a metal filigree piece, layered with another mother of pearl and finally a coral rose in the center.

French Flea Shop Open This Friday and Saturday

French Flea Shop in Anoka, MN

November 27 & 28

10-5 p.m.

Come and spend some time with us this week-end.  I will be working at the shop on Friday from 1-5 p.m.  Stop in and say "hi".  I am the jewelry designer at the shop, but also create smalls and sell other small accessories as well.  Hope to see you there.

This is the front view of our shop on a late Friday evening.  It has such a lovely glow at night.

The gorgeous urns came with the building, and the contents were gifted to our shop by one of our loyal customers, Carolyn.  She just happens to be my best friend, and is such a support to us all.  Thank you for your generosity in sharing these greens with us.  They really add to the stores ambience.

Jewelry I've designed for the shops upcoming sale dates:

There is a large assortment of Eiffel tower French themed jewelry available, as well as my trademark vintage pocket watch faces with birds flying on them.  I also have a number of new pieces that are assembled with a variety of cool vintage elements, like some of the below pieces.  They make great Christmas gifts and each is a one-of-a-kind design.

Smalls that I've created or have for sale at the shop:

The bottle brush trees in the silver pieces flew out of the door at an earlier sale. 

I have created more for this sale.

Love this mini bottle brush tree under the wire cloche and butter pat.  My design.

Another couple of bottle brush trees I created.  One is under a cloche and saucer, and the other is in a pinecone base.  I also am offering the vintage shaving mirror for sale at the shop.  Fun stuff!

Lori, our burlap purse designer, created this lovely silver clock piece and the bottle brush tree are mine for sale.  Love the cloche, with the etching and the silver tray too.

The silver tray, plate and cloche are all elements I've brought to the shop to sell.

The emerald green dishes here are almost all mine for sale as well. 

They show up so nicely in this wonderful white painted desk piece.

These green dishes are sandwich style dishes.  They used to come in boxes of oatmeal years, and years ago.  I've collected them for years, but am doing some down sizing of some misc. items, and these are available to go to a good home.  The small saucers and juice cups are an awesome set up for young girls birthday parties.

What a lovely vignette Julie created here.  I provided the polka dot clear vase with greens, vintage key, etc. on the left.

Again, Julie has some wonderful painted flower pots for sale in the shop.  Right corner, "Peace" pot.  I have the black register grate, two books with holes cut into them (for a vase to fit into) and the greens offered here.

A lovely urn I found and painted.  It is so cute with the bird on top.

To see many more photos of the French Flea shop, please visit our official blog for the French Flea here , as we've just posted 40 photos on this blog post link this morning.  I just have added some of my personal items on my blog post, so to see more of the general vendors collecitons of great items check this blog out.  You also will find additional photos at another of our vendors blogs, Lanette, of Cottage Elements, and may view her blog here.  Lanette also has news about the Home Tour offered through the French Flea on December 12th.  There will be 5 homes to view for a ticket of $10.00.  Shopping at the store, and treats.  Just one of these lovely homes are worth that small ticket price.  They are truly filled with inspiring ideas!!!  Won't you join us?

I will be photographing the jewelry hopefully today for the give away to celebrate my 100th post.  Its pretty dark and dreary in the house, so I may have to turn on the lights to photograph vs. using natural light.  There just isn't much available naturally today.  Stay tuned, I haven't forgotten about the giveaway.

Gretchen

Giveaway and New Items Created

Good morning!  I am just going to post a little update about my giveaway.  It has been delayed due to a few reasons, but will still happen.  I'm sorry for the delay.  My hubbies car broke down, and he had to use mine, so was without a car.  Then I had out of town guests and wasn't able to make it into the store when it was going to be open to get the give away items to photograph and put up on my blog.  Honestly, it will still happen, but probably not now until next week.  I will have access into the shop on Friday night, our family is going out of town over the week-end for an early Thanksgiving with Jon's family and than we'll stay the night at our cabin.  When we arrive back home, I am expecting once again out of town guests for the rest of Sunday, so I'm a bit overwhelmed at this point to get it all situated before next week.  Thanks for understanding.
So onto some of the new jewlery I've been working on.  I've got a couple of different lines that I've been creating with.  One of them is these squares with Eiffel tower images behind them.  I will let the jewelry show for itself what it is becoming.

All previous photos are hi-liting details of this piece.  It is hand wire wrapped with the vintage crystals and the chain portions are vintage pocket watch sections.  An eiffel tower image has been set into the oval charm, the vintage pocket watch face dial has a wonderfully worn almost rusty patina to it and my signature bird is layered on the watch face.  Price for this piece is $54.

This eiffel tower necklace is one of my newest lines of jewelry.  It is a silver tone chain with the addition of hand wire wrapped vintage crystals with black wire.  A simple, but elegant piece.  Price for this is: $44

Another example of one of my newest designs.  A combination of beads and vintage chains are the backbone of this piece.  This one is $39.

This is the most simplest of the designs.  This one is priced at $29.

Let me know what you think of these new pieces through your comments. 

I appreciate each one of them, even though I don't always get back to you.

100th Post Giveaway Coming Here Soon

What shall I offer?

Maybe, one of these lovely Swedish crystals turned into a fabulous necklace???

100th Post giveaway is on my mind lately, and today is actually my 100th post. So in celebration of this exciting point on my blog, I plan to bring you my readers a wonderful giveaway soon. I say soon, because I am currently over my head with commitments through this week-end, and I want this giveaway to be well worth your while. I plan to have 3 different giveaways. One will be a fabulous $49 value piece of jewelry that I've created for Mimi-Toria's line at the French Flea, another will be a less expensive jewelry item, and finally the third will be home decor products. I am busy gathering my items and will post this early next week for the giveaway. If you care to leave comments or suggestions as to what you'd like to see offered as a giveaway, now is your chance. Comment away, while I'm busy working at the French Flea's occasional sale.

                 

A mixture of styles of jewelry that I create for the "French Flea" in Anoka, MN.  This shop is an occasional style store, so has limited days of operation, but when its open its a fabulous shopping experience.  On the right is a pearl and Paris image Swedish crystal.  It could also be created into a ball chain style necklace for a more casual feel.  I also do button style necklaces, rings, and my trademark pocket watch with sparrow flying bird.

A frame filled with vintage redesign style necklaces.

Mimi-Toria's jewelry trademark is beautiful pocket watches with the bird flying.

15 Year Anniversary Sale at Antiques Downtown

ANTIQUES DOWNTOWN
309 JACKSON AVE. NW

ELK RIVER, MN 55330

15th Anniversary Sale
November 13, Friday, 10 - 8 pm;
 November 14, Saturday, 10-6 pm
November 15, Sunday, 10-6 pm

Come help me celebrate with my friends at Antiques Downtown in Elk River.  They are celebrating 15 years in business and are offering fabulous sale prices this week-end.  They are passing on to you and I their customers celebration savings starting:

This antique shop does a great job with providing their customers with true antiques, as well as an array of furniture and home furnishings that are updated with the new craze of painted black or white furniture.  They also do a nice job with displaying booths through out the shop to look like it might look in one's home such as part of this vendor booth above.

This area is on the upper level of this multi level shop (3 levels of shopping for your pleasure).  Notice how they've got a nice offering of white pieces here.  I personally am a fan of the black and white painted pieces, but they also offer a lot of in the rough as well as the mint finished furniture too.

This shop has a bounty of jewelry vendors and a very broad spectrum of jewelry available for sale.

Antiques Downtown in Elk River, has a number of new vendors they'd like you to come out and welcome to their shop. Some of the specialized vendors are in glassware, furniture, jewelry and collectibles. It is a wonderful place to spend time searching for some great treasures. This sale is worth your time!

Now would be a great time to start that holiday shopping and get some people checked off of your list. It would be a great year to go "Green" and recycle for gift giving. I've heard a lot of chatter amongst my friends that this is their plan for this years holiday gift giving. Won't you join in on the fun?

Jewelry at the "French Flea" & other Fun Stuff

Isn't this the cutest French poodle you've ever seen? She's nestled in amongst some fabulous silver candle sticks that are for sale at the shop, and I've added the bottle brush trees to some of them for a fun and different look. Later in this post you will see other smalls that I'm selling at the shop this holiday season.

Mimi-Toria's Jewelry Display Area at the "French Flea"

Here is a photo of my entire space. It is small, but adequate. I figured out it is about 10' in length by 3' deep and goes up to the ceiling for height. I'm trying to figure out with the space allowed what is the best way to display jewelry for maximum amount, as well as still giving the customers easy access to viewing, touching and trying the jewelry on. We'll see how this arrangement works out this month. It will be the first time it is set up like this, with a large mirror for viewing and access to the frames without stuff being too much in front of them.

As we move further to the left, you'll notice there is a wide array of items on this side. Because I have Isabella on the right side a lot of the jewelry is displayed on the left. Just so happens that I have a small door wall that allows for the large grey shutter filled with "junk" style jewelry to be displayed.

I also created a vintage wheel display for many of my button style necklaces which is in the foreground, as well as another smaller mannequin which is displaying crystal bling necklaces. I then have two smaller frames filled with earrings, with one for silver and one for gold as well as a large frame displaying many necklaces.

I'm loving these new crown charms I purchased this past month to design with for the holidays.

As we view from the right side, you'll see Isabella, my wonderful mannequin addition. On the far right there is a cool black rod iron filigree piece that defines my space, but is mostly their for aesthetics.
As you move closer you'll see that Isabella is holding her own. She's wearing about six necklaces and is loving being a part of the "French Flea".

Two more wall frames are in places behind Isabella. She tries to make her hips skinny, so that customers can reach around them to check out the fun vintage pocket watch face necklaces. We'll see how this arrangement goes this month. Isabella may be put on a diet!

Pocket watch faces and flying bird accents are my trademark.

This is an original design by Gretchen of Mimi-Toria's.

Vintage white Czech glass beads in opaque with rhinestone roundels.

Notice some of the vintage pieces I use for display. The warm toned vintage suitcase, the rusty claw bathtub foot, the vintage crystal lamp, the vintage gold crown filigree display piece on the suitcase and the grey oval little girl in the frame is used to talk about my jewelry design.

My new business cards, with a hand display that Robyn, a fellow vendor found and gave to me with a bracelet on it that I created using an array of vintage finds. Details of it are below.

This bracelet has been all hand wire-wrapped with the utmost care. Lots of hours involved in creating this, and it will have to be for the perfect fit, as I am not adjusting this bracelet.
I had to drill each one of these holes in the gold shoe clip in order to create this bracelet. All of the beads which include these wonderful gold fluted as well as the aurora borealis crystals are vintage and only the 14 kt gold filled wire is new. The clasp is also vintage.

Isabella & Buffet

In a recent post I shared with you that a few of my dreams had come true. You see I've wanted a mannequin for a long time to use as a jewelry display, and have been searching for a piece of furniture that was perfect for my jewelry display area at the "French Flea". I was patient and time paid off, a Anne one of our vendors had found both of these pieces last month, which I was then able to acquire through her for my space. This month, I was able to add to that a wonderful small black table as well as a mirror for above my buffet. I think I'm set now, and will just have to tweak things a bit in the future. Let me know your thoughts through comments on my blog. Does this space beckon you to want to come see my jewelry? Would you be pulled in by the display if you were shopping at the French Flea? Please share your thoughts. Now, for a bit more about these wonderful treasures . . .

Look at these details on Isabella . . .

Rumor has it her former life was with a fur designer and now she's stuck with a jewelry designer. I think the load I put on her is a bit lighter than the furs she's used to holding in place.

I hope she's happy.

Awesome vintage details!

Love the original letters on this.

Love the wire on the bottom and the stand too.

Thanks to Anne, she's mine - - -

Buffet Display

Look at the details on this display piece. Notice the curved front as well as sides. Love it!

I really love the glass knobs they used to have on these vintage pieces.

Details . . .

Look at this molding . . . The grey paint wash over this piece was applied by Julie before I even saw it and it really hi-lites the details of this piece. Thanks Julie for doing this for me. I truly love this piece for my jewelry display area and appreciate your artistic touches you added to it.

What is it about curves? Just love them.

Other Fun Stuff I Sell in the Shop

I also sell smalls at the shop. Below I've featured in these photos some of the types of things I sell in addition to my jewelry. I also collect to sell vintage silver, crystal, pretty misc. items, umbrellas, tins, buttons, cloches, and anything else that may go with this theme.

I re purposed the silver candle holder that is displayed with my

jewelry and affixed a bottle brush style tree instead of a candle.

This is what greats the customers when you come inside the front door. This Frenchy colored dresser/storage piece, the wonderful french door, feathered wreath and mix of silver and silvered candle holders with my mini trees.

Details of the beautiful silver pieces that are offered up at the French Flea shop. Yum!

Again, the bottle brush style trees are mine.

The silver compote in front is something I have for sale at the shop.
I fell in love with the detailing on this piece as well as the bird on top.

The ceramic angel and trophy cup with tree are mine.

The little tree is mine.

"Wise men still seek Him . . . "

This is my vignette. I found this cool bell shaped wire thing this week at an occasional sale and created this and used it as a cloche. I have more photos at this site where I'm a contributor, and have posted a post about these elements.

For lots more photos of the French Flea that I took yesterday during final set up day and work day, go to Julie's French Flea blog and check them out.

http://thefrenchfleaofanoka.blogspot.com/2009/11/holidays-at-french-flea.html