Friday Features: An Apple a Day

There are a few theories on where the giving an apple to your teacher originated.  They range from the fact that teachers were poorly paid and the farmers would send in one of their popular crops with their child to school, to it's known as the Fruit of Knowledge in Judaic religions - from the story of Adam and Eve.

I heard of a different term when I was a child, but apparently back in the day a child who gave an apple to the teacher was often teased by other children with the name apple-polisher.

Today our grocery store shelves are filled with a multitude of apples in many colors.  I went searching on Etsy with those colors in mind.

Green Beaded Button Bracelet by Random Creative

Upcycled Book Apple by Whimsy's Workshop

Hand-dyed scarf by Splendid Little Stars

Small IOU Apple Necklace by Geeekalicious

Dyed Coral and Glass Earrings by Linda B

Crocheted Dishcloths by Magnolia Surprise

Back to School Girl's Apple outfit by Green Meadow Designs

Faceted Bead Earrings by Pruitt Design

Red Crocheted Gloves byJN Originals

Apple Tree Teacher Necklace by Jewel Mint

Will you send your child to school with a gift showing appreciation for their new teacher?


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Janet Bocciardi is the owner and designer of Honey from the Bee Artisan Jewelry.  Her shop features many one of a kind designs inspired by her love of nature and travels around the world.  She creates for the woman who has a story to tell.  In her blog she shares her inspirations and what is dear to her.

Artisan Spotlight -- PoppyHill Creations

7 Questions is our spotlight on our favorite artisans. Please welcome...

Jamie of PoppyHill Creations!

 1. What do you sell in your shop? I have two Etsy shops. At PoppyHill Creations I sell digital art and printables ranging from scrapbook papers and clip art to diy party supplies such as invitations, cupcake accessories, and banners - all digital graphics of course.

At PoppyHill Baby I sell baby gifts. Right now the majority of my items are what I like to call diaper creations - diaper cakes and diaper motorcycles. I've also recently started to sell my tummy time quilts, something I've been making for the past five years for close friends and family.

tummy time quilts

diaper creations

2. What is your favorite thing about Etsy? I love that I can sell from home and that if I ever have a question I can jump onto one of my team threads and ask. I have learned so much from my teammates and have really found a sense of camaraderie. It's been a really positive experience.

3. What is your least favorite thing about Etsy? Getting found and finding the right tags. I'm still learning what works and what doesn't. It's very frustrating. Thankfully, something must be working because my views have increased over the past month to averaging around 50 per day...finally!I'm open to any advice on how to find good tags for products.

4. What does your studio/workspace look like? Usually a mess...ha! When I'm working on my graphics, the mess isn't so bad. Just paper, pattern books, and printouts all over my computer space. I tend to draw a lot of things out by hand before I scan them in and touch them up or detail them with photoshop/illustrator. However, if I have an order for a diaper creation, or if I'm sewing then you might as well forget about walking in my workspace. There is usually fabric, diapers, ribbon and all kinds of baby supplies strewn about as I assemble products for shipping. All of my listed items for PoppyHill Baby are housed in storage bins in my closet in my loft. Yeah, I could do one of those things where I say something will "look similar" to this item and purchase supplies on an as needed basis. But, I prefer that my customer knows exactly what they are going to get when they make the purchase. So, that means I use up storage space. It's okay though...I have a system...LOL!

5. What do you do to relax? Spending time with my two kids - ages 3 and 15-months - and I guess my hubby too...just kidding. Of course, I love spending time with him! I especially love introducing my boys to new mediums and watching them create their own kind of art. My favories right now are dry erase crayons. No mess! How could I not love them? I'm also a TV and movie junkie. So, when I'm not spending time with the fam or crafting, I'm probably watching something on TV or I'm at the movies (though I don't get out to the movies near as often as I like). In fact, come September I'll be eagerly awaiting the new and returning fall premieres. This year I'm especially excited because I'll be posting critiques on my blog for the first time!

6. What accomplishments are you the most proud of? Definitely my family. They are the best thing that I have ever done and I'm so grateful to have such wonderful kids and a loving husband that take care of my like they do. I only hope that I'm as good to them as they are to me. I'm also really, really proud of my Etsy shops. They have given me so much confidence in my artwork! It still catches me off guard when I have people tell me how cute a diaper motorcycle is or how lovely one of my quilts are, or how well a paper pack worked in someone else's creation. It's wonderful to be appreciated for something that you have a passion to do!

7. What are some of your goals for the next year? There is a lot of goals that I have set for myself in each shop. My number one goal is to grow my views and my sales for both of my shop. I know that building a shop, let alone two shops, takes time, but I feel like as long as I'm persistent I can accomplish this goal. In PoppyHill Creations I'd like my views to reach 150+ per day and I've set a sales goal of 100 sales by the end of 2012.

In PoppyHill Baby I'd like to grow my quilt line. This is my slower shop as I spend more time on the graphics shop, but I'd like to see views increase to 60+ per day and sales to 35 by the end of 2012.


You can find Jamie at these places:
PoppyHill Creations (Jamie): digital downloads and art
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoppyHillCreations
Shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoppyHillBaby
Blog:  http://poppyhillcreations.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PoppyHillCreations

Worktable Wednesday: Blog Features

While reading the blogs of our BBA members, I've noticed a trend in having regular features.  Even on this blog we have regular weekly posts!  I decided to highlight some of these creative features today.

Rose at The Beadings and Buttons of Randomcreative has been doing a cool monthly feature called "Color Combination Inspiration."  In these posts, she shares pretty images with gorgeous color combinations.  Here is her latest of these posts.

Turquoise and Brown

Another cool feature is "Get it Together Thursday" from Janet at Honey from the Bee.  In these posts, she presents a fun fashion board of various pieces along a theme.  In her latest post, she shared some great finds for a rock concert.

Rock Concert Fashion Board

Sharla at Beaded Tail always brings us great features.  Excuse me, really it's her pets that do the work.  One of my favorites is Tortie Tuesday as told by Isabella.  I used to have a tortie kitty of my own so these make me smile.

Isabella Snuggling on a Suitcase

What other features have you seen lately?  Are there any that you do on your own blog?

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Today's post was brought to you by Jenny of A Bird In The Hand Art.  As the artist and owner behind A Bird In The Hand Art, Jenny spends her time creating unique jewelry and one-of-a-kind home decor pieces.  See her work in her shop or read some of her craft tutorials on her blog.