Shop Onyx Friday!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled dance opinion and cosmetics reviews for a shameless plug! I am participating in Onyx Friday which is an awesome on-line "Black Friday" sale featuring handmade items from small businesses! Not only will I have more than 15 items of one of a kind jewelry in this sale, but there's also a lot of other great items from other sellers! This is an especially great sale to shop for gifts for the bellydancers in your life, as there's some gorgeous Taureg jewelry, awesome yoga pants, and beautiful henna-inspired artwork among other things. But there's also plenty for the non-dancers too, like sandblasted pint glasses in all sorts of designs, beaded jewelry, and lovely scarves.

But don't just take my word for it, here's the official description:

Onyx Friday: a black friday alternative

Handpicked Artisans • Easy Online Shopping • Huge Discounts • November 29th • Special Sale on Everything!

www.pinterest.com/sirensongevents/onyx-friday-a-black-friday-alternative

Join us for the sale the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 29th, 2013!

Onyx Friday is an incredible, online-only sale comprised of hand picked artisans as an alternative to the traditional "Black Friday". No waiting in lines, no fighting for parking spots, just happy, easy purchasing of beautiful, hand-crafted items from an amazing array of artists who will all have DEEP discounts for Onyx Friday ONLY!!

Sale items will be listed on our Pinterest board here: www.pinterest.com/sirensongevents/onyx-friday-a-black-friday-alternative

And on our Facebook Page here: www.facebook.com/OnyxFriday

Raising Funds for Vegas

 It's just two weeks until I take off for the Las Vegas Bellydance Intensive! Because I'll be performing, I'm investing in video and photos, which is leaving me with less money for shopping. So here's the thing: I have an Etsy shop. If you happen to like handmade one of a kind jewelry, and supporting artists and helping a dancer buy more costumes, then you can go buy some things! In fact, to sweeten the deal I currently have a sale going on: use code BUYALLTHETHINGS for 30% off any purchase of $20 or more. This is a steeper discount than I usually offer, but hey, all of this beautiful jewelry isn't doing me any good since I don't wear my stock!

I try not to use this blog to promote my jewelry too often, but there's so many good vendors to go shop with at Vegas! I hope you'll pardon this moment of shameless self-promotion and come back tomorrow for more dance-related blogging.

Swap Meet (Busiest Weekend Part 3)

I went to Yasmina's Bellydance Swap Meet to try to sell my jewelry. On that count, I was not very successful. I made one sale of three items... to a non-dancer who decided to see what was going on with all those tents at the women's center. But that's OK. It helped me make some definite decisions about what I'm doing with my jewelry this year.

Aside from the whole "sitting there all day not selling jewelry" aspect, the swap meet was great. I took a fan veil workshop from Yasmina and also bought myself a pair of fan veils from her (the nice thing was that she had loaner pairs for people who wanted to try it without investing in the prop, but I knew already that I wanted them). I'm pretty excited about fan veils and am already working to use them to "Crooked Muse" as opposed to the traditional veil I have been using.

I also had a nice time talking with people all day. My booth neighbor was Dawn Z who does silk dying (she made my above-mentioned veil) and is just a really sweet woman. We helped each other set up our pop-up canopies because that is never a one-woman job! I saw a lot of other Phoenix-area dance friends that I hadn't seen in a while, and Jess Walker from here in Tucson was up to teach a workshop and spent some time at my booth chatting with Jolie and I.

Oh, and of course I shopped. I was going to not buy things if my sales didn't go well, but that didn't really last. After being so good at the Desert Shakedown, I couldn't resist finally buying some new costuming! I got a great little overskirt and tie-top from Gail aka Rukshana, and I scored a really sweet pair of never-worn batik-dyed real Melodia pants (not those cheap rip-offs) for a ridiculously low price. They fit me like a dream! People were watching me check them out in the mirror and telling me to buy them from halfway across the event, so of course I had to give in to peer pressure.

I will not be returning to the swap meet as a vendor (unless it's to share a booth with a friend to clean out our dance closets), but I will definitely come back for workshops and shopping! It's a great event to learn new skills, see friends, and pick up costuming.

Come see me at the Shakedown!

Well, I will not be performing at the Shakedown as I originally thought, but I will still be there all day. First I will be taking a workshop with Frank Farinaro (my first time with a male teacher!), and then I will be vending my jewelry!

Normally I don't use this blog to shill my business, because that's what my beading blog is for, but I will say that pretty much all of the money that I make between now and May will go to TRIBAL FEST (!!!!). So if you can find it in your heart and pocketbook to either visit my booth at the Shakedown or my Etsy shop, you can be confident that the money will be going back into the dance community in the form of workshops and shopping.

I have been hard at work this week making new jewelry, including some awesome tribal designs that I am pretty proud of!

Whether or not you want to shop, if you are at the Shakedown please stop by the Erthe Fae Designs booth to say hello :)

Healing Through Dance for PJ Sessoms

I am pleased to announce that my next performance will be at the Healing Through Dance benefit for PJ Sessoms, who is the other of my classmate Jacque. Mrs. Sessoms is battling cancer, so we're putting on a benefit to raise some money to help the family with the costs. See the flier for all of the details you need!

I'm part of the "...and more!" performing, and I am also donating two pieces of my unique handmade jewelry to the raffle. There will also be a rummage sale of gently used costume items, so if you're looking to work on your costume closet, you can't go wrong there. All in all, I think it's going to be a pretty awesome event and I'm looking forward to it.

By the way, there is no set admission but they will be requesting donations at the door. Plaza de Anaya is donating the use of the studio for the night, so all of the money will be going to the Sessoms family. Please come as you can and donate as much as you can, whether is by paying at the door, buying raffle tickets, or participating in the rummage sale. I hope I'll see you there :)