Sponsor: Bright-Eyed Bear

Today I'd like to introduce you to Rosemary of Bright-Eyed Bear. She was kind enough to do an interview with me! My questions are in bold with Rosemary's answers underneath. Enjoy!

First off, please share links to your shop and other relevant sites so peeps can check them out!

Bright-Eyed Bear website

Art blog 

Facebook page 

Tell us a bit about yourself, Rosemary! Aside from creating jewelry, what are your interests?

I love creating anything! I love knitting, baking, photography, drawing, planning events, anything I can get my hands on! I love to read, I'm a huge literature and art history nerd. My art nerdiness is actually what go me into fashion/jewelry. I love seeing fashion as a form of art and self expression. :) I also do a lot of volunteer work for my local library, which is something I recommend to all bookworms!

What do you sell?

On my site I sell handmade necklaces and earrings. At craft shows I try out different things too, like hair pins and keychains. I've also done some photography and some logo design, but I don't consider myself accomplished enough to offer either online yet.

I really like the variety in your store-- everything from lovely Catholic medals to cute, indie jewelry such as bright owls and feathers. Where do you get your ideas? Do you "find" your creations as you make them, or do you plan them carefully before putting them together?

My ideas come from everything I love and find beautiful–and I guess that's why there's so much variety! I also love putting my own spin on trends and making them more affordable.
My jewelry definitely comes together as I go. I usually find some element that I love (like a certain color or charm) and work from there. I currently have a bag of Guatemalan worry dolls, a bunch of plastic cowgirl boot charms, and some vintage buttons lying on my desk. We'll see what happens!

Do you have any particular favorites?

Definitely the Our Lady of Guadalupe earrings. I think the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is so beautiful, and the earrings are so bright! Also the Maria necklace in gold. It is so shimmery and perfect for summer. I've been tempted to keep one for myself!

Where did your business name come from?

It's kind of a long story! I had started making jewelry and had just bought a table at a craft show and I desperately needed a name so I could make business cards and a website. I made all these huge lists of words I liked but everything I thought of was taken or felt forced. I was currently reading The Odyssey for school (and not enjoying it!) and I really liked the description of Athena as "bright-eyed." To me it's a description that refers to both wisdom and beauty.

I felt I had to add another word to it and the first thing I thought of was "Bright-Eyed Bird." I experimented with logos and kept drawing cute little owls. But it didn't feel right. As much as I love owls and birds, they were really popular at the time and not especially personal. Once I realized I was missing something personal, something that had to do with me, I knew it had to be Bear. Bear has been my family's nickname for me ever since my parents brought me home and my sister called me "Rosebeary" instead of Rosemary! ;) Because of that, bears have always been my "thing."

Bright-Eyed Bear alliterated, was personal, and I liked that it kept the nature-y theme. So I drew a logo and that was that. I still don't know if it's the perfect name. It might seem really weird to someone who has never thought of bears as cute or pretty. But it's very me! :)

Do you have any fave blog reads?

Yours of course!
I'm also really inspired by this crafty homeschooled girl: http://aslipperymaiden.blogspot.com/
For tons of crafts, tutorials, and recipes, and thoughts on running a business, I recommend: http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/
I also read waaay too many fashion blogs! Here's one of my favorites: http://www.kendieveryday.com/


Thanks, Rosemary! Guys, be sure to visit her lovely store. It's definately worth a look-over!

(Interested in sponsoring? Info here.)

Sponsor: Blue Skya Studios

As many of you may have noticed, I have some lovely blog sponsors at the moment-- their ads are on the sidebar. (Having blog sponsors allows me to pay for extra hosting space on Blogger and hopefully brings the sponsors lots of exposure.) Today I'd like to introduce you to Maddie of Blue Skya Studios. She was kind enough to do an interview with me! My questions are in bold with Maddie's answers underneath. 

First, please share a link to your website(s) so that we can check it out!

Blue Skya Studios

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hello! My name is Madeleine, and I am the owner of Blue Skya Studios. I try to live everyday to its fullest, be cheerful all the time, and be an inspiration to others, but I usually fail at all three. I am a Catholic homeschooler and come from a big family. Photography is my passion. I love the emotion and memory captured in a photograph. Just one look at a picture can take you back in time, its so cool!

What do you sell?

I sell nature photography and, soon, duct tape bows. I also used to sell handmade greeting cards, also, but it was too hard to measure/take pictures that show how the cards really look/upload the photos of them, so I recently took those off the website

What are your favorite items to photograph?

I really love taking portraits of people, bright flowers, and the sun.


Do you have any particular favorite photos?

 I don't really have a favorite....

Where did your business' name come from?

When I was little, my dad used to call me "Skya" (Don't ask why, I don't know myself). When I was thinking of names for my business, I wanted something that meant something to me, not just a random named that sounded cool. Thus, Blue Skya Studios.

What are some of your favorite blogs/websites?

I like too many website to count, but some of my favorites are  Love Sissy and (Life's too short not to) Wear Red Shoes.

Thank you so much, Madeline! Dear blog readers, be sure to visit her website. Her photos are lovely-- which is your favorite?

Ad Space

(if you are getting to this page from my sidebar button, I plan on writing up a new ad space page soon, as some of this info is outdated. -Shaylynn 01/02/13)

I am pleased to start offering affordable advertising space here on the Faerie Blog!

I love to help support small businesses, artists, crafters, bloggers, etc. :)

 The first few advertisers can get a special price of $5 for two months. The ads should be 125X125 pixels. Just email me at shealynnsfaerieshoppe@gmail.com! My preferred payment method is paypal but I'll give you more details via email.

 Each month I will do a post featuring the sponsors.

I mostly blog about art, crafts, fantasy, tutorials, geekiness, jewelry, and whatever else strikes my fancy. (Mostly art and crafts, though.)

Please note that not all products or services are applicable or appropriate for the my blog and I reserve the right to decline anyone this service.

I've been pondering this decision for a while. Some of you may have noticed the ads that ran on my sidebar for the last month. Those were the sponsors from my big giveaway extravaganza. You can see them all at the bottom of this post.

The truth is, I spend a couple hours (several hours... too many hours) each week working on new craft projects, taking photos, editing photos, writing, networking, and more for this blog. I've made a bit of income with my Shoppe, but honestly I keep things at such decent prices there that I've never been able to "pay for" any of the time that I spend doing all this stuff. :) 

Additionally, and most importantly, I just discovered that I've used up almost all my free image hosting space. This means that I'm going to have to start paying out of pocket to bring you all the tutorials, crafts, artwork, etc, that I regularly blog about. I'm a teenager who doesn't have a job (yet) and simply can't justify spending my money on that. And so...

Since my blog has gotten quite big (by my standards at least!) over the past few months, I feel that I am finally in a position to offer advertising space!

I've been looking around at other bloggers, and many who have much smaller bases than mine are charging much more for advertising. I'm going to be upping the price to a more common $5/month or maybe $10/month soon, so the special price I mentioned above is a special price.

And now for some stats:

Last month I had just shy of 21,000 pageviews.

Currently I have 279 Blogger followers.

302 people who follow via Feedburner.

334 Facebook followers.

I'm also willing to host giveaways if anyone is interested. I'm going to keep it at a maximum of 2 giveaways a month, though.

And since I seem to always be pressed for time, I'd love it if anyone wants to do a guest post. :) I've had a few guest bloggers in the past, check them out here. (You don't have to have a blog of your own to guest blog). Just shoot me an email with your idea to shealynnsfaerieshoppe {at} gmail.com. I don't bite and will probably say yes.

If you would like to do an advertisement exchange, I'd be open to that... if your blog is about the same size as mine it would be beneficial to both of us.