every little thing

Catching Up

I'm still here!  Been busy around these parts lately, and I'm trying to get every little thing done.  I'm one of those people who, when faced with a deadline, will find anything and everything else to do except the task at hand.  I've been working to correct this habit, so I'm attempting earnestly to complete things in order of importance.  Unfortunately that means that blog-time gets the shaft.  Sigh. 

So, lets catch up, shall we?

1. The yard+estate sales last weekend were disappointing to say the least.  We gave up after a few hours and just went to a thirft store.  This season did not start out with the 'bang' that I was hoping for.   But, I did find some sweet deals while thirfting (including lots of seersucker fabric yardage, oh joy!)  and even some lovelies for the vintage shop, so you know, hope springs eternal.
2. The serger is BACK, baby!  The repairs cost $60 so I really need to get rolling on my projects to make some of that moo-lah back.
3. I did get the update live over in The Emporium a few days ago, and there's some really fabulous new cupcake goodies!  I also want to mention that I raised my shipping prices for the first time in, well, ever.  It's still a flat rate in the US, no matter how much you buy, shippin is now just $1.85 (still pretty cheap, I must say.)  And some very tiny, light-weight items are still the old rate of $1.25.  I hate it, really, but postage rates are going up on May 12th and I gotta do what I gotta do. 

Cupcake liners and new sugar posies.  It took me ages to find these specific wafer flowers, but is was well worth the wait.  Aren't they just perfect?

I don't think the pictures do the pinwheels justice, because they are so amazing.  I literally can not stop blowing on them and giggling while they spin.

Summer-time cupcake decor is pretty hard to find. 

These skulls glow-in-the-dark! (for realz.)

These are definitely on the larger end of the miniature spectrum, but I'm always willing to try new things, plus they're are straight-up retro to the core!  Even the train box looks fabulously old-school.

 

Oh man, are these hilarious, or what??  Who knew that bakery labels could be so subversive.  My favorite is "Better When Warmed." 

...and these are just cute.  If I found them in a thirft store, I would swear they were vintage. 

I'd also like to give  a shout out to some awesome websites that have recently featured items from A. Bel Emporium.  It is always a treat to see your shop admired, and I'm very grateful for the mentions!

Whorange    -  lovely design blog, be sure to checkout the Mother's day gift guide.

Craftershock    -  awesome, crafty-showcase website.

Papyrophobia   -  you had me at "cornbread and butterbeans" 

And  you all know about the Naughty Secretary Club, right?  Well, Jen has written a book about jewelry making and, low and behold, on the cover is an adorable pair of earrings made from the mini-fawns she bought at my shop!

How cool is that??  I mean, I didn't make the earrings OR the fawns, but I'm still super-jazzed about it She was even kind enough to add my shop in resources guide.  What a peach!  I can't wait to buy the book myself, since I don't know nothing 'bout makin no jewelry.  Thank you Jen!!!   The book looks so inspiring, and I'm very excited to be even the tiniest part of it!

(Ok, enough me, me, me for one post.  Back to work.) 

At the EMPORIUM

MARCH 17th + 18th Only!

Here's the deal:

Buy any item at the Emporium (individual miniatures, baking cup, samplers, everything!) and get an equal or lesser valued item free of charge!  Yay!  Good for up to 3 items per person, 'cause what's better than 'buy one get one free"?  Buy THREE get THREE free!    

How to do it:

Browse the shop, choose an item to buy and put it in your cart,  jot down the name of your chosen *free* item.   It can be anything at all, as long as it's of equal or lesser value as the paid item.  During the checkout process, please type your chosen *free* item in the 'note to seller' section during checkout.  Complete payment, and you're all done!  And, if you have a question, you can always email me anytime : abelstudio [AT] gmail.com

*You are welcome to buy as many goodies as your heart desires, but please, only three free items per person.  Thank you!

Thanks for participating in the sale, everyone!  What fun, I love a good BOGO, myself.  And if you missed it, don't worry!  There will be another one when I finish up the *new* shop, (which is really exactly the same as the old shop, just in a different place.) 

Brand Spanking New

Lots of new items are in the Emporium now.  I've had several of these miniatures, including th birthday picks, laying around for ages.  I must try to improve my turn-around speed of when I receive new items to when I actually load them onto the shop!  If only there were more hours in the day.....

You may recognize the sculls from the Halloween mix, but I decided they were so clever they really ought to be sold on their own as well.  Death by cupcake, ha ha!  I do a lot of mixing, jumbling and sorting with these miniatures, as I am often not happy with them 'as is'.  I like offering specific colors, styles, etc.  That's how I like to be able to shop, and I hope that is something that my customers would appreciate too.  I've also been doing a lot of price restructuring, upping the amount of minis per set to be more conducive to heavy crafting and cupcake decorating.  Selling such small sets as I was before was pretty inefficient for me, and not such a great deal for the customer either.  I learn as I go, that's all I can do.

Over the last few months, I've spent a lot of time researching and finding new wholesale distributors and importers.  NOT an easy task, I assure you.  Especially since I'm picky about the items I want to carry.  There a loads  and loads of novelty decorations that I'm sure would sell well and are pretty cute, but I just don't think fit in the Emporium.  There are thousands of cartoons and licensed characters items (Dora, Sponge Bob, Disney, Bob the Builder, and on and on.)  But, when I started this shop, it was truly out of a love for these retro style, vintagey miniatures that were getting harder and harder to find.  I have even had to convince one company to continue selling a certain miniature, one of my most popular-selling items (can you guess which one?!)    It was discontinued one day and I refused to accept it, I pretty much begged the manager to keep selling them to me, and in a way, I feel responsible that they are still even out there!   It still gets tricky sometimes, I have to keep reminding myself that just because something is not my particular taste, that isn't a good enough reason to dismiss it.  It's funny how some of the most popular items I sell really don't appeal to me that much.  You just never can tell.   

I have so many ideas and dreams for this little shop, that I can get frustrated with my lack of time and how slowly I have to take everything.  That's just how it is when you are a one-gal operation, but branching out and hiring help is just too overwhelming an idea or me to grasp right now.  I'd rather be hunting for new things, and I have found even more good stuff lately!  I've discovered some to-die-for baking cups, and a new promotional item that I'm just dying to get made up.  I'm never at loss for new ideas, that for sure.  Time, however, is another story.      

 

Suspicious Bunny (and a shop update!)

Watch your back little rabbit, or Spring will sneak up on you!

    

All of this and more is over in the Emporium today!  I tried to make some cupcakes to use in the photo shoot, but my first attempt at making them from scratch (aka, not form a box) didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  The taste was great, but the texture was a bit too heavy.  More like cornbread. Should I have used shortening instead of butter?  Did I over or under mix the batter??  Guess I'll have to try again, (don't I have a  rough life?) 

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

a small kitchen, more carbs, and some chemistry

Ok, so I'm sort of over the thrifted curtain in my kitchen window.  It just doesn't go in there, never really did.  The kitchen and cabinets are all white, white, white.  I think the curtain needs a lot more charm and color.  I must add that to my to-do/to-make list.  Did I mention that I have the smallest kitchen ever?  I like to whine about it sometimes.  Wha wha, poor me.   But, look at the sweet little valentine banner that totally makes up for it!!  Super-cuteness from the NICE shop.  Love it so, and Caitlin is such a doll-face.

Not a lot to report on this fine, sunny day today.   Feels like full-on Spring out there, a balmy 65 degrees at least, and I'm finding that to be terribly distracting.  Oh, I did make more pretzels last night, and thanks to my kitchen aid dough attachment, they were the best ever.

A double batch, and they're all gone.  I did take a bunch over to the Craft Mafia meeting last night, and that was lots of fun as always.  Plenty of ho-hum stuff for me to do today; bank, post office, laundry.  I get to put the laundry outside on the line though, and that makes the chore just a bit more tolerable. 

And, here is a small sneak-peek of the spring-easter lovelies I am getting together for the Emporium:

Yes, I finally have the  fluted, scallopy baking cups that are so dreamy, and I'm also very happy with the packaging I found for the sanding sugar.  They are almost like little  plastic test-tubes (and yes, I know the label pictured  has the wrong color on it...it's just a test-run.)  If all goes well, I should have these goodies up and running by Wednesday, at the latest.  I know, I'm pushing Easter and V-Day isn't even here yet, but I'm trying to plan ahead, keep up....it's not easy.   You gotta play the game (at least, that's what they tell me.)

It's Monday!  (We can make, just think positive.)

   

Valentine's has hit the Emporium....

...in a big way!  (And about time, too.  I've had these goodies sitting around for months.)

Fun stuff!  I'll chat more about it later.  I 've gotta go cook something for dinner, the natives are becoming restless.   

Holiday Kitsch!

Oooh!  I'm so excited to finally have these in the old Emporium!  Limited edition, holiday tins filled to the brim with miniature cuteness! 

 

Check out the shop for more information, and how to get your hands on one!  There are also several new miniatures and paper bits for your collage and mixed media projects. 

(Check out the mug on that bride, yikes!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Emporium Update (at last)

All kinds of new miniatures over in the Emporium!  I'm still loading up more, too.  Tons of new stuff.  So fun.  I'm holding off on some of the Christmas ones though, because I just feel like it's too early.  Halloween is bad enough,  Plus, it's like 124 degrees here.  Even at 10:55pm.  Urg.

New Miniature things and Thank-you's Galore

Wow, I was really REALLY happy to see all the enthusiasm for my recipe box creation!  Thank you so much everyone, I'm pretty excited about it myself!   I can't wait to load it up with recipe cards, hopefully I'll have some time later this weekend to work on it.  Today, I've been working on another Emporium update.

Look at all the fun, new things I found!  I'm really in love with the all of them.  The pine cones are so strange....can't imagine them on a cupcake!  Since I've got a good-sized stash of minis now, I think it's about time I put together a "One-of-Each" variety bag for the shop too.  For that person that just can't make up their mind, and wants to try everything (like me!)  Oh, and look at the kitschy bakery labels!  I love those things.  Don't know what I'm gonna use them for, but I just can't live without them.  I've been pondering things lately, and I'm starting to feel that all these miniatures and things may be drifting a bit too far from the "etsy aesthetic" (so to speak.)  Etsy, being a handmade marketplace, does allow vintage items and supplies, but I'm starting to think some of these things (and other items that I'm dying to add to my shop) are pushing the definition of "supply" too far.  Decorating supply?  Yes.  Craft supply?  Hmmm.  That may be a stretch.  I'm definitely going to keep my Emporium on etsy for as long as they allow commercial supplies and vintage items (which I hope is a very long time!)  But, I also want to have a back-up shop where I can keep these items too (just in case) and even expand on the novelties and grab bags that I offer.  I have so many fabulous thing lying around that I know everyone would love.  No, they are NOT handmade.  Yeah, they are mass-produced.  But I get just as much of a kick out of packaging and shipping the miniatures and vintage items  as I do from selling my handmade items.  I'm still providing a service, and I just really like doing both!

There, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!  Be on the look out for my own website in the semi-near future.  (As if I don't have enough shops already...sheesh.)

Now I will distract you with some cute, cuddly, oh-so-trendy, vintage owl things:

oh my gawsh, they're so darn adorable!  (wait....what was I talking about before?)

Just a few goodies....

I've got a good bit of new things over in the Emporium now.  I still have more to list, including fabric bundles, sweater-felt scraps and greeting cards.  But, this will be it for today.  I really need to ease up on the thrifting...I've been going crazy lately.  And, now I'm yard saleing Saturday too!  Stop the insanity! 

And I don't even want to talk about Top Model last night.  I don't even want to talk about it.