Thursday Three (or 12) Wedding Edition

Something Old, Something New

For this Thursday Three I've made a treasury!
I couldn't resist going overboard today, since it's been a while since my last T3 (oh i just came up with that! feeling clever!).


Weddings are a great excuse to go overboard with accessories & favors, and an appropriate time to inherit or gift heirlooms. I LOVE weddings..oh the acoutrements!!


I've included two of my sisters works in there too, flowers for your hair by AnnMarie, and sterling hair spears by Monique. They both work very hard at what they do, full time, and I want to show everyone else what they make too!

Visit this list, where you can comment, click and buy it all. Buy one for me while you're at it :)

HAPPY JULY EVERYONE!

NEW in the shop...Butterfly wing CUFFLINKS!

Can you tell I'm excited? These have been on my 'bridal list' for ages, I'm very happy to
1. have finally made them
and
2. have amazing photos of them for the shop. It's not easy!


(Here's a little secret, the shirt in the pictures is just a regular shirt. shhHHH!!) I had to pretend its a French cuff for the photo shoot. Next trip to the store, and I'm going to get a nice crisp white one ready for my next wedding event so I can dress up my date! (and have a new model to sport some around my pals). Find them in the jewelry section of my shop.

What do you think?

Photographers Assistant!

I had the pleasure to assist and work with one of my best-est girlfriends in September on a wedding shoot! A REAL wedding! The gorgeous wedding was in Bethel NY, at the site of the original Woodstock in 1969. Jamie of Jamie Kaminski Photography takes professional photographs of weddings, showers, family portraits and all kinds of fun photo shoots around New York. Shes also a mother and a teacher. Aaand she just finished a portrait project to raise money for a scholarship fund in her friends honor. She's a busy busy gal! Buzz buzz buzz! I dont know how you do it with such grace. Truely.

I got to see a lot of this** all day (above).
**Thats the grace I must have been talking about.

She invited me to assist her on the shoot, as I had worked with her during our University years together and we also traveled through Europe as a two-woman circus act. (okay so that part is only half true, there was no acting in that circus). I think we're a great team!

I held her cameras, bags, boxes, moved her ladder, beckoned her when there was break dancing, styled the wedding party, I even found myself affixing boutonnieres! I was like a mule that day. It was fabulous! heehaw heehaw
photo above by me, the assistant, overlooking what I thought was the music site, but turns out it was behind me.

It really made me appreciate her skills. She scoped out the place ahead of time and planned out some good places to take photos of the bride and groom and wedding party. Once the couple arrived on-site we got straight to work, taking photos of the dress sans bride (I would hang it where she directed and she would take the photos) . I took some photos for myself and realized that shes in the right profession. The whole time I was there I just wanted to write a Martha Stewart article about the handmade details (of which there were a million). I also realized that it's really hard to take a great photo with a point and shoot snappy camera of my own. Her camera is really the bees knees. It makes everything bigger and brighter. She even taught me a few things about composing a picture. I liked watching her work.

Here's the sneek peek that she posted in her blog for the newlyweds to glimpse:

above photo by jamie kaminski photography

above photo by jamie kaminski photography

Yes, they actually had a rainbow! They were rushing and running for the perfect shot before the faint rainbow vanished, and turned out that a great one was of them actually running.

I asked the groom if I could take a picture of his bout for my own use (and so that he wouldn't think his pro photos were being taken by my little ol digital snapper. The brides family made them and also made the bouquest and all the flowers for the tables. I HAD to share them with you, in case you loved wedding details as much as I do. The bride said they picked all the flowers themselves! WOW!


photos here by moi, the wedding lover and assistant. I couldnt help but share this cake with you its insane and fabulous! Below are the beautiful hand picked flowers that were sprinkled all over the glass room.


Thanks Jamie!

busy bee/ busy butterfly

Ive been away working and playing. Im in Cape Cod! I packed for an 8 day trip and its turning into a 20 day trip. Good thing I brought half my studio with me.

Its been fun and BUSY! Im still trying to perfectly balance keeping up my business, selling jewelry on the pier, making new things (or collecting supplies with the intention to make new things) and spending time with my enormous family (four sisters from out of town, four neices and nephews, friends), and this week....building a carnival parade float to ride on for Thursdays parade! It never ends in the summer. There is only balance, and my daily nap (neither of which I am getting as much as I want) . I hadnt taken naps for years (though I have always always been a big fan and advocate of the nap), I find myself napping everyday at 2pm, or trying to at least. The days I cant, due to something fun happening or packing/shipping etsy things, I am in bed by 9:30pm.

These are the newest butterfly wing necklaces. It was a special custom order that is just so gorgoues when together. This is a side-by-side photo of the reverse of each pendant. There are two different wings in almost all of them, Can you find the ones that are singles wings? Its tricky because some do not look the same front to back.

SO, that is my update for now. I know Ive been neglecting the blog and updates- but its just the way summer goes. Im even considering when to close the shop for two weeks so that I can just sit down and create completely new items like earrings and etched glass works, resin castings and molds. I find that even when I put a shipping delay I still ship because I know it will be too huge of a pile of work at the end if I dotn slowly get it out the door.
It all takes time, but i think if I temporarily close the shop I might be able to hunker down and work work work. Which is actually what I love to do. See you soon!

Etsy Handmade Weddings: featuring...ME! (okay, ALL the Popko sisters)

How exciting! My sister AnnMarie wrote an article for the Etsy Storque (their blog) about my Handmade Wedding! I knew she wrote it, but we didnt know when it would be published.

Today I was feeling a little bogged down with work and orders and my public art project that was due last week. But my frown just turned upside down for sure!

I went to the etsy homepage a few minutes ago... and there was a photo of me and all my sisters!

Here's the article that she wrote in its entirety. AnnMarie runs two shops on etsy, superduper for headpieces, and things to wear and a few vintage supplies, and also her gourmet pecan shop, cocktailparty. Way to go AnnMarie!

Shout Out!

This SHOUT OUT goes to AnnMarie of superduper fame!

This is her Deluxe Burlesque Flower Headpiece in lavender and silver. I cant resist this glamourous look! Theres a photo in the listing (if you click on it) that shows the different colors she has and they each have their own personality. I can see wearing this to any event really, or a really lame event to make it an insta-party! Yahoo!

I like that the feather is a sort of gray and moody, lending to the idea that the person wearing it is from another era. "Victorian" is one of the new trends spotted by etsy recently, and this could certainly fit there too. I wore a "superduper" piece for my wedding and I now have something really special to wear that reminds me of the biggest party Ive hosted.

It puts me in a girly mood just having it lay on my dressing table.

Everyone ought to visit her shop to find all sorts of delights. But hurry, she JUST made her 100th sale and is on a roll! Way to go!

EDITORS NOTE: I want to add a side note here, and point out a comment that I received here about the feather pieces. It comes up A LOT and think its something that AnnMarie hears over and over again...
Heres the comment:

"These are really cool. I've always wanted to wear something like this (especially with feathers) but never felt like I could pull it off."

And this is my response: Yes, you CAN pull it off, silly dilly!! And theres a few ways to go about it. One is to attach the feather clip just a little lower than your ear, kind of tucked as if it was a flower in your hair. This makes it more of an addition to your hair than a hat-like piece. I wear the small feather clips in the back of my hair just above my low ponytails when I waitress, and they arent crazy looking, most people are delighted.

Heres a photo of me wearing my newest superduper piece, which isnt a big over-the-top piece, and would be easy to add to any wardrobe.

Another way to enable yourself to wear them without feeling like your heading to the kentucky derby is to find a color that blends with your look. If your hair is dark, get a black feather combo with maybe a sprig of blue or red to pop. This really adds volume to your hair, and a lot of pizazz without the look of a showgirl (though I dont know why anyone wouldn't want to look like a showgirl, they have so much fun!).

Heres a photo of my sister wearing one that shows how it can blend a little and still add glam.

You could also go the showgirl route for parties though. Everyone likes the gal that looks like she cared enough to dress up for the party. The nice thing about these is that all you have to do is clip and go. You really don't have to do much to look like a million bucks.