Last week I was part of the event, Craftcation, a three day indie business & DIY workshop conference which took place in Ventura CA. I was one of the presenters and I did a lecture on Retail vs. Wholesale and talked about the pros and cons of both.

I was also on a panel of “Start Up Stories” with Melanie and Dana Harvey of Harvey’s Seat Belt Bags and Christine Hayes who has published books and sewing patterns and is a master seamstress. It was fun to be on a panel and hear their stories and the similarities and differences we all have in start up and running of our businesses.

I am still very proud to make our products here in the USA and it was nice to be able to meet with many people that are working towards the same goal. A special thank you to Nicole Stevenson and Delilah Snell who put on Craftcation. They are also the lovely ladies who run Patchwork a great craft show we love to exhibit at. Come see us there soon and Keep on Craftin’!

Panel time!

Leopard ladies! Me & Nicole

Me & Ron getting our 80s on!

This weekend we were up in my old stopping grounds of San Francisco. Classic Hardware did a trunk show at the Wak Shack Salon and then the Annual 3rd Street Warehouse Sale. It was great to see old friends and meet new jewelry fans.

We stayed at The Pheonix Hotel in the always interesting Tenderloin area of town. This is known as the rock n’ roll hotel because for many years (including today) many young bands stay there due to their central location and great prices (and the heated pool doesn’t hurt!).

When I was still living in SF years ago they renovated it and it continued to grow in popularity. The restaurant/bar, Chambers, that is attached to it has changed names and hands a couple of time but I was pretty amazed to see how hugely popular it was this weekend. When we arrived on Thursday night it was very quiet, but I fell in love with the decor. They had thousands of vintage albums lining the walls on bookshelves with tube lighting built in. This gave it just enough light to see the display, but still keep it dark and groovy. This is such a great decor idea because you can constantly change the theme by just displaying a different record. Since it’s holiday time, they had all the Christmas albums showing. This is right up my alley as I still have many of my own albums from over the years and recently have done a retro-style necklace line of 45RPM records using some of my favorite songs as part of the art. I love that the record is making a comeback in style and design!

The record lined walls in Chambers Bar

The view from our room!

A sampling of our new 45RPM record necklaces.

And the icing on the cake, 7×7 is having a contest, you can win tickets to Pink Mammoth’s New Year’s Eve Party at the Phoenix Hotel!