Fanciful Wish

It's been awhile! Being a stay at home mom of two has really been something else.  I thought I was busy with one, but with two, it's been on another level of madness. All of this busy-ness means I haven't had time really to work on my Etsy shop.  It's still open but I've kept hammering metal to a minimum. So for now I took the jump into a new venture.  I just signed up to be Paparazzi Accessories independent consultant.  Yup...who knew, after making my own jewelry for $5 years that now I'm selling jewelry designed and manufactured someplace else. What is Paparazzi Accessories exactly?  It's jewelry at the sweet price of $5 and that's hard to come by.  The products are designed in the USA but manufactured in China.  I own a bunch of their earrings - I'm a sucker for hoops, large and small.  And I love their stuff! I call my shop Leylah's Jewels - which is a play/combo on my children's names.  We'll see how things go, so far it...

Wow - what a month.  I knew it would be busy because my in-laws were visiting us for 2 weeks and after they left it was my son's 5th birthday.  And in all of that, my 7 month old baby girl started crawling, eating baby food and now wants to stand!  So basically I've been busy and one tired mommy! But having people visit from out of state means I got to relax...A LITTLE! Here's a picture from Ko'olina Lagoons  A day at Dole Plantation The beautiful blue sky in Hawaii I'm lucky to live here, though I do admit sometimes I wish we'd have an actually Fall season.  I don't need winter 😂 I just want a reprieve from the sun and heat sometimes, and I love autumn and cooler weather.  Anyway the visit was fun and hectic and I think we are recovering from being on the go. But the end of August also reminds me that soon the holiday rush will be here and my baby girl's 1st birthday, so the chaos it seems, never ends. I added some new items i...

Get it at Fanciful Wish I wish I had more time to play with my new aluminum tags and fonts!  I did manage to make this new cute keychain/zipper pull for my shop . Do you remember in middle school (yes I went to middle school in the early 90's haha) when you signed someone's yearbook or signed a written passed note in class with the acronym LYLAS?  "Love you like a sister" - it was the thing to do at our school.  Funny to think I can truly say this to a few of my girlfriends now after 20+ years of friendship.  Hey friendships based on snail mail and hand written notes should definitely stand the test of time right?  I think this is the perfect gift for a true sister-friend.  Here's how it looks with an added initials tag, E is for my bestie! Hanging from a zipper Anyways I definitely loved making this one!   And here's an update photo in reference to my last post about summer reading...😎 Went to the public library...

I love books.  😍 I've been an avid book reader since the 5th grade when my older cousin was letting me read her teenage Sweet Dreams book series.  Anyone remember those?  I LOVED those.  And Sweet Valley High?  Though I was more into the Sweet Dreams series I think because they were stand alone stories.  My cousin let my sister and I have the books and then when my cousin started reading Judith McNaught it was game over for me on young adult novels for a long while, we gifted the Sweet Dreams series down to our younger cousin who was a big reader also.  But I mean Judith McNaught is still hands down my favorite romance novelist and the other J's, Julie Garwood, and Jude Devereaux.  I started getting back into young adult when L.J. Smith came out with The Vampire Diaries in 1991 😛 .  I bought almost all her books (excluding Night World, because I wanted time to get into that and never did because I was obsessed with the other series haha) ...

I am an island girl, born and raised in Hawaii on the island of Oahu.  And pineapple used to be big business here in Hawaii.  My immigrant family all worked for Dole Plantation back in the day- planting, growing and harvesting pineapple.  Back in the 1980's when I was a child, there used to be this huge pineapple water tower in Honolulu at the Dole Cannery.  They took that pineapple water tower down and the Dole Cannery building is now a movie theater!  My how times have changed.  But our love for pineapples here never ends. Be Strong, Sweet & Unique Keychain or Zipper Pull.  Get it here ! Lately I've been seeing a quote everywhere about pineapples: "Be like a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside." So this is me paying homage to a fun quote.  Let's all be Pineapples!  Or at least enjoy them. No Worries Key Chain - get it here Thanks for reading! XO, Yolanda

Get it at Fanciful Wish Jewelry It's been a little over a year since my last post and boy did a lot happen over that year.  First, I got pregnant, after 2 years of trying and giving up, it happened.  Hence why my blog post title is the verse from Jeremiah 29:11.  I made some new plans and got diverted haha. It was a high risk pregnancy so I took it easy and had many doctor's appointments plus I had to take care of my 4 year old son who is pretty active and energetic.  I was nervous with this pregnancy, so scared for the outcome, hoping for the best but not knowing, in the end it all turned out fine.  My sweet baby girl is now almost 6 months old!  How time flies when you have children. Now with 2 kids to run after, I scaled back on my Etsy shop which makes me a bit sad.  There is so much I want to do, so many ideas, and so little time.  But I have faith it will all work out.  So my shop is up and running but with less items liste...

Aloha! I can't believe it's been awhile since I've been blogging.  I tried out Wordpress for awhile and liked it a lot but I couldn't keep up with blogging and my Etsy shop at the same time.  I was awful at maintaining my page.  Unfortunate, really.  But I was doing too much at one time. So here I am, back again.  I figure I start this particular blog up again, since I already started with tutorials on here.  I want to get back into it.  But wow, so much has changed in my Etsy shop since I last posted here in 2014. Back then I had just gotten into hand-stamping metal jewelry.  With 2 years under my belt focusing mainly on hand-stamping, I have really evolved in my skill.  It's taken a lot of trial and many errors.  Blood, sweat and tears!  Well maybe no blood, some sweat and very little tears.  *patting myself on the back* haha :-) I've collected a bunch of new metal stamp fonts, experimented with different types of met...

One of my favorite parts of my "job" is buying ribbons for my ribbon wrap bracelets.  There are only a few vendors on Etsy where I buy my ribbons from.  Their price is really affordable and the quality is superb.  I went all out this time and order a LOT of ribbons to last me a few months.  When I one day start making my own ribbons (I am in the process, it's been slow-going), I hope to one day make my ribbons as beautiful and wonderful as theirs. It's been quite a process trying to find out how to make the ribbons.  I've never dyed anything (unless you count tie-dying in the 3rd grade), I don't work with fabric and I don't sew (okay-maybe I do but I'm a real amateur, like awful really).  Regardless, I did research online on how to dye silk ribbons, which silks to use for certain dyes and tried it out.  I even bought a Serger, I didn't even know they existed!  Haha... And thank goodness for online classes!  I bought a class from Cr...

I got the idea to make Chakra necklaces because after using the swarovski crystals for my other necklaces I thought the colors were so pretty I wanted to use them for something other than birthstone crystals. I was a massage therapist for almost 13 years before I went into doing jewelry and as a therapist you learn many ways of alternative healing.  It was one of the things I loved about the trade-you learned about different cultures, different ways of healing and different ways of looking at the body itself.  My last job as a massage therapist was at a spa that actually had a Chakra Massage.  I was trained how to do it but never had a chance to give one while I was there, but I did receive it, twice.  What I really enjoyed about the massage was the part where the therapist instructs you, quietly and peacefully, because you are pretty much zoned out by then, on certain affirmation words as she/he holds a palm over the chakra area. I'm not very good at meditating...

Last year I made some hand stamped sterling silver necklaces and I gave them to a few friends.  I didn't have many pieces on hand but I've ordered some pieces because I decided to start selling them at my shop .  It's been in the back of my mind and now that I've gotten more font stamps, I feel like I can offer more of a variety in my shop. I have heart shaped pendants: Heart pendant with birthstone bicone swarovski crystal drop  And I have disc sequins: Disc shaped pendant with round birthstone swarovski crystal drop I wore my E pendant around today, it's my son's initial and birthstone month, August.  It's light weight and I barely knew it was on me until my son made a grab for it! Everything on the necklace is sterling silver except the silver plating around the round crystal and the wire for the bicone crystal drop.  The birthstone crystals are all swarovski and they really add a pop to the pendant.  It's so cute.  I want to ...

Happy Easter everyone!  I just got done filling plastic eggs with treats for a little easter egg hunt at my house tomorrow for my son and my 2 nephews.  It should be fun, though I feel like I don't have enough eggs (how many eggs do 3 boys needs anyway?!). May is coming which means, Mother's Day, Graduation and summer break for some lucky kids.  Are we really near summer already?  And does that mean I have to start planning my child's 2nd birthday party right now?  Wow...where does the time go? Speaking of time, I finally found some - and I made some new pieces for my store.  I also relisted some oldies but goodies that was hiding in my jewelry stash.  I threw them all into a container when the move happened, so I found them once again!  I've majorly discounted the prices on them so please, check it out!  Most of them are bead bracelets.  Here are a few that you can get at my store : Get it at FancifulWish Get it at Fanciful...

I absolutely love making silk ribbon wrap bracelets.  I am obsessed about looking for different ribbon colors that I love and hope as well, that my customers will love (they do, they do!).  I started making them when someone asked me if I could make a bracelet with the word Namaste.  So I credit my yoga lovers for opening that door to me. I've been dying to start up using leather for my metal pieces and I'm happy to say I finally made one. Get it at FancifulWish And I can't say it was as easy as it looks to make.  I could buy precut leather bracelets with the snaps already attached but I found a vendor who makes these awesome tooled leather.  And they use different colors too...of course they sold some without the snaps (they sell a few with them, but I wanted to try my hand with putting the snaps, etc...) and I ordered a few test pieces.  I love them... Check out the detail!  And the color!  This one is black and silver but I got so...

What?  I haven't posted since January?!  Well folks, lots have been going on.  I moved, for hopefully the last time in my life.  The house is beautiful, the neighborhood is what we wanted and all we need to do is put the finishing touches and pack away some boxes. I have been working on a few orders some custom and some not.  I did have a large order of ribbon wrap bracelets so that took some time to do.  Hard to do with an energetic 18 month old running circles around me, but it was done!  Yippee! Here are some new bracelets I have up at the shop ! You can get all of these at Fanciful Wish Jewelry ! Plus I have a 10% off coupon code for use at the store.  The code is EASTER2014.  Use it at check out! I will be introducing leather bracelets with hand stamped metal VERY soon.  Just waiting for some supplies but in the meanwhile I am trying to practicing using rivets and attaching snaps.  But I'm very excited a...

January is flying by folks and I feel like I am trying to keep!  Business has been good, thank you to my new customers.  Also, the coming of February means we will be getting the keys to our new home!  Praise the Lord!  We have been waiting since July for this momentous occasion and my hubby and I are on pins and needles. An exciting part of it is that going into this new house, I get to create the work space I want!  That means many things to me: relief, expectations, someplace safe so my son won't get hurt by my work tools.  I can't wait!!  Moving will take place in the month of March so I will be going on vacation mode at my Etsy shop for a good few weeks.  But you understand right? I made some new pieces yesterday which was nice, want to see? My inspiration for the first one: an iPad Air commercial.  Yup, I was watching football on Sunday and I was mesmerized by the iPad Air commercial.  Which one?  The one that has the v...