Everybody's Blogging for the Weekend!

I have spent the morning emailing a few of my favorite blogs letting them know I listed them in the Everybody’s Blogging for the Weekend section of The Naughty Secretary Club Book. Maybe I will get lucky and a few will give the book a shout out! Anyone who has ever had an office job knows the importance of a few good blogs to help the time between 9 and 5 not seem like an eternity. Heck I haven’t had an office job in years and I still need blogs to make my day go that much faster.

Here is a list of who made it into the book that you might want to check out…

52 Projects
Bits and Bobbins
Claudine Hellmuth
Coquette
Craft Mafia
Crafty Chica
Cute Overload
Décor8
Design Sponge
Fly: Fabulously CreativeFred Flare
Go Fug Yourself
Hambly Screen Prints
Handmade Detroit
Margot Potter
Modish
Perez Hilton
Posie Gets Cozy
West Coast Crafty
Whip Up

These are just a handful of my faves. What blogs do you read? What do you look for in a blog?

If you ever see The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry mentioned anywhere like a blog or magazine pretty please let me know. My Google alerts don't catch everything. Also if you wanted to blog about the book or put a review up on Amazon I would think you were super swell and will be sure to link to you here on the blog! A big squishy thank you to Margaret Nock author of Knit 1 for the Road for popping my Amazon cherry. Yowsers that sounded PG 13, but it was a special momement for me to see that someone had given my book 5 stars!


Did I mention the book is out now and you can order a signed copy from Naughty Secretary Club or a copy from Amazon.

Get Your Indie Fixx with Free Marketing Tips

I cheated on you today and guest blogged on Indie Fixx. I whipped up a little article about free marketing tricks for Indie businesses. I'll be blogging there for the next two Wednesdays! Pop over and read all about it and then come back and let me know what you thought. Were the tips helpful? Any other freebies I am leaving out? Do you use these free marketing tricks already with your business.

Speaking of other blogs I also snuck in a new post on Badassical about my new favorite artist Mustafa Maluka.

What's the Difference Between a Nostalgic Notion and a Revamped Vintage?

Do you ever lay in bed nights and wonder what the difference between a Nostalgic Notion and a Les Classiques Necklace is on Naughty Secretary Club? I thought that you might and that is why I thought I would take the time to explain a few sections to you today. I swear there is a rhyme and a reason to the sections.

Les Classiques is our newest section. All the pieces whether they be rings, necklaces, bracelets, brooches or purses are vintage. I know most everything on Naughty Secretary Club is, but usually we do something to change it make it into a new necklace or paint the vintage purse. Les Classiques are straight to you how we found them. I go to so many antique stores, estate sales and flea markets that my collection of jewelry and purses was starting to get out of control so I thought I would share the goodies with you. From time to time we even have dead stock vintage which means you will be the first person ever to wear the vintage piece of jewelry! Some of the vintage purses are also listed on Etsy.


The Revamped Vintage section is what started it all. When I was trapped in my world of making the same pieces of resin jewelry day in and day out making revamped jewelry on the side is what pulled me through. I eventually phased out the resin jewelry I was initially known for and made my one of a kind pieces of Revamped Vintage Necklaces, Bracelets, Brooches, Earrings and Rings the focal point of Naughty Secretary Club. Each of these pieces is one of a kind as well as hand designed and made by me using various vintage bits and pieces transformed into something completely different. The picture below shows vintage buttons, fabric, cookie tin parts, Bakelite, Cracker Jack charms and more!


Much like the Revamped Vintage section Nostalgic Notions are all handmade using vintage parts. The major difference is that the necklaces, bracelets and earrings are not one of a kind. If I can buy something in bulk, especially vintage jewelry parts like cameos of Abraham Lincoln or pink toy hand mirrors I am going to do it. Many times these are also vintage charms that I have added to a chain or a vintage cameo that I have attached to a bracelet.


All our new Nouveau Jewelry, Watches, Change Purses and Pop Purses are hand selected just for you. We didn’t make it, but we put a lot of time and thought in picking it out just for you. All the jewelry and purses are brand spanking new and are usually a little trendier than the other things on Naughty Secretary Club. Look for Nouveau Rings, Necklaces, Brooches, Earrings and Bracelets.


That little sister of mine Hope Perkins is quite the artist. Here on Naughty Secretary Club you can see her art on hand painted necklaces, purses and earrings. You can even find her handiwork on the occasional belt buckle or tissue cover. Oh and if you snag a copy of the Naughty Secretary Club book you will be using her art to make the Phoning Flo Necklace, Secretaries Delight Resin Bracelet and All Access Pass Badge Holder.


Hope and I are not crafty genetic anomalies, oh no we come by it quite honestly from our mother Fredda Perkins. You can find mom all over Naughty Secretary Club with her amazing collection of vintage Barkcloth fabric sewing Purses, Christmas Stockings, Baby Bags, Pillows and Journals. Mom also makes the adorable cigar box tissue holders, purses out of old vinyl records, custom belt buckles as well as her own line of jewelry. Not to mention mom handles all the pop and change purses!


Other random sections include Crafty Curios (craft supplies), Hair Goodies, T-shirts, Books and Thing-a-Ling Earrings and Bracelets (hand made jewelry with non-vintage parts).

I hope that clarifies the various sections on Naughty Secretary Club a little bit. Any further questions?

Rock Your own Secretary Chic - A New Book Review!

I am so excited I could pop, a new glowing review of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry is out on Venus Zine entitled Rock your own Secretary Chic: Jennifer Perkins tackles publishing with the release of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl’s Guide to Handmade Jewelry! Thanks tons to the lovely Marilyn of Pulp Sushi fame for writing it! The fun graphic they made up gives you a wee little sample of some of the fun projects inside like the Specs Appeal Necklace, Pencil Pusher Necklace, Secretaries Delight Bracelet, Hotel Key Necklace and Secretary's Day Bouquet Necklace!

The book is out now! You can order a copy through Amazon or a signed copy through Naughty Secretary Club today!

CHA Roundup in Pictures!

I was waiting for all the pictures to come in before I blogged about my adventures at CHA Chicago and the last batch is here! Last week I flew out to hang out with my friends from Duncan and play with Liquid Fusion Glue with a bunch of crafters. It was super fun. Also in the booth was my sister Hope Perkins painting and glittering up a storm. Kathy Cano Murillo was there with her amazing new Crafty Chica line making earrings. Sonya Nimiri was to my right ironing on sparkles and Traci Bautista was to my left using her new product collage pauge! My apron was a big hit and all the ladies had made their own adorable versions! Here are a few pictures to sum up all the fun that was had!

Here I am in the Duncan booth I had made a set of jewelry and a matching purse to be displayed on the booth wall. You can see Susan Beal's handiwork next to me.


I can't wait for the Crafty Chica line to hit a craft store near me, the glitter, the saints, the tote bags. Its too craft-a-liscious to stand!


Hope painted an amazing dress for the wall that pictured a deer with an ice cream sundae in his antlers!


I brought a whole bunch of Crafty Curios and Duncan brought the glue and pogs and we made fun brooches all weekend long!


It was so fun to meet all the crafters. I even met a lady from Austin who lives in my same neighborhood.


After a long day of crafting it was time for sushi with the ladies. Going around the table counter clock wise we have Sonya, Kim, Hope, Traci, Jen, Cami (omg awesome resin jewelry), Claudine (check out her new Studio Line!) and Bernie. Maki sushi makes a mean bowl of Udon soup.


On the way home all of us somehow managed to fit into Bernie's van, it was a Christmas miracle and we wore funny sunglasses and giggled the whole way.


Day number 2 Traci and I pushed our stations together because we could not bear to be seperated. Plus my Crafty Curios look awesome with her paper and vice versa!


I finally got to meet the cute as a button Margot Potter in person! It's so fun to meet email friends in person!


Another person who I was so excited to meet was Candie Cooper! Candie, Margot and I are all in Bead Bloggers together. I was surprised to run into my friend Leah Kramer from Craftster at the event and she stopped by our crafty happy hour!


I heart Cathi and Steve from Creative Juice they are always so much fun. It was nice to hang out with them in a situation where we were not having to film anything!


Hope, Kathy, Sonya and I posing for some last day pictures in front of the wall o' Chica.


I almost forgot my home town Austin buddy Jenny Hart was going to be at CHA so it was good to see her for a little bit. We also met Ed from Stencil One one of the more Indie/arty booths at CHA. Thanks ladies of the Petaluma Craft Mafia for telling me about the booth!


Hope and I make the lovely Alyson from Duncan the meat in a Perkins sandwhich!


Hope, Kathy and I pose for one last picture. All that's left now are the flecks of glitter and a few good memories!


Here are a few links to some other fun people I met at CHA that you might wanna check out!
DIY Bangles - Can't wait to order some!
Mardy Baker
Denise Kasher - She became a pro-crafter at CHA!
Jodie McNally
Mark Montano - even nicer in person!
Angela Daniels - I want to be a Fiskateer!
Laura Kelly
Pattie Wack - Another person I was excited to finally meet in person!
Amy Tangerine - What cute T-shirts!
Gina Smith - A ZNE memeber (I'll be speaking there spring 2009)
Mark & Kat Nagasawa - The tagline for their store Kan Create is awesome "Who said crafts have to be pretty and pink".
Linda Cain - I was excited to meet someone from my Grandmas hometown of Morton, IL and she gets the award for cutest business card!

Get Crafty with Austin's Naughty Secretary Club

I'm so excited my very first Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry google alert just came rolling through my inbox! Hot off the presses from the Austin American Statesmen....

Get crafty with Austin's Naughty Secretary Club
Skip the TV this evening and do something crafty and kitschy. Austin's Jennifer Perkins of the Naughty Secretary Club recently published "The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry" (North Light Books, $16.99). The paperback is packed with more than 50 jewelry projects plus sidebars on office romances and the best secretary theme songs to listen to on a lunch break as well as how office supplies can be transformed into jewelry. Perkins is a founding member of the Austin Craft Mafia (www.austincraft mafia.com), and she co-produces the indie fashion and craft show Stitch.

New Flooring & Packing for Trips Don't Mix

Here is a lesson learned this week: never decide to get new flooring in all of your bedrooms and closets the same week you are trying to pack & leave for a trip, teach a class, go to doctors appointments, promote your book and think of Halloween ideas. I'm trying to play outfit party for CHA but all of my clothing is scattered throughout the house as we had to empty all of the bedrooms and closets. My shoes are in black garbage bags in my game room as my empty shoe racks crumble and fall apart. My jewelry is stuffed inside empty drawers and ontop of every free surface we have. I know I'm going to get to Chicago tomorrow and realize I have forgotten something of major importance like underwear or make up. In theory Chris is putting together all my new shelving while I am away so at least next week I can play home decorating party and that sounds super fun. Oh and the new flooring is looking awesome!

Links, Links and More Links!

This week over at Craft Gossip I did some fun interviews that might tickle your fancy.

One Good Bumblebee - A website full of whimsies.

Paper Boats and Grocery Bags - A fun interview by Paper Boat Galleries.

Kailo Chic - Hob Knobbing with Project Runway Alum, Features in Seventeen Magazine and More!


Only two posts this week on Badassical, but they are juicy ones! I did a little post called An Igloo of My Very Own and Karly did one called Hypercolor My World.


About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy declares, Red Brass Rocks! Consider red brass wire as an alternative to gold-filled if you have been put off by the price.

Art Bead Scene
Give your Art Beads a Summer Vacation!

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Swimming in the deep sea of imagination, Melanie discovers inspiration's treasures in many places

Jewelry & Beading
Make a bright and breezy knotted turquoise necklace for the summer!

Linda Augsburg at BeadStyle Magazine
It's better than a backstage pass! Check out BeadStyle's open house, all-access pass this weekend. And get links to Bead&Button and Art Jewelry's open houses as well!

Naughty Secretary Club
Read Jen’s wrap up report of her adventures at the BEA convention. Actual copies of Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry were spotted!

Strands of Beads
Melissa discusses the curious byways down which inspiration leads us and is, herself, inspired by Shakespeare



Have you been watching the live how-to videos on Etsy this month? Learn screen printing, glass etching, sewing and more!

I found a new social networking site and this time it is all about food! Tweet What You Eat is twitter meets food diary.

If you run your own small business might I recommend adding The Man Who Souled the World to your Netflix list. Being an ex-skater my hubby Chris rented the movie about Steve Rocco and his company World Industries and I was a patient wife and agreed to watch it with him. The movie was actually a really interesting documentry about starting your own small business.

Have you heard of death by blogging? The New York Times seems to think it's possible.

The Rubber Stamp Bracelet on Design for Mankind intriques me.

The Casual Friday Necklace Gets Transformed into an Apron

Did I happen to mention that there are a couple of projects in The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry that involves sewing? Well there are, heck there is even embroidery! Yesterday I headed up to one of my favorite Austin stores Craft-o-Rama to have my friend and the owner Hayley help me transform one of those sewing projects from the book, the Casual Friday Necklace, into an apron for me to wear to CHA. Craft-o-Rama is where I teach my jewelry and business classes and also where I am having my book release party Saturday August 30th! Anywhoodle sure I have a sewing machine, but Craft-o-Rama has fabric, trim, huge cutting spaces, hot irons ready and most importantly ball fringe! I of course brought my camera along with me to show you just how dang easy this apron was to make!


First of all I chose the fabric for my apron. The necklace is aqua and red so I thought a bright yellow and white polka dotted material would be fun. Next step I drew out a rough idea of what I had envisioned my apron looking like. I openly admit that Hope got every last art gene left in our family so don’t hold the drawing against me. The point was I knew I wanted to use the necklace I already had made as the part of the apron that went over my head, I just need to design the body.


Luckily I had brought my favorite vintage apron with me to show Hayley the style I was thinking of. Hayley being a much better seamstress than I quickly decided that we would just use it as our pattern and it worked out perfectly. She laid the apron right on top of my fabric and cut away. We did fold the bottom of the apron over because I wanted it a bit shorter.


Next I pinned bias tape from the start of neck of the apron where the necklace was down the sides to where it hit my waist. I left the extra bias tape long so that it could be what tied around my waist in the back. I did the same on both sides and then pinned more red bias tape as trim down the sides of the bottom half of my apron. This is of course after I ironed both the polka dotted fabric and the tape well. I hate the ironing part of sewing, barf. My definition of ironing is throwing my wrinkled clothes in the dryer with a wet towel. Anywhoodle I sewed the bias tape onto the apron and was sure to follow my stitch all the way down the lengths of the long pieces of bias tape that were going to tie in the back.


Hayley had whipped my up a cute pocket pattern and I picked some aqua and white polka dotted fabric out of their scrap bin. I ironed the fabric and folded it in half and cut out two pockets at once. We ironed the top seams over to make a little hem and then ran it through the machine with a zig zag stitch and red thread to hold it in place. From here I stood in the mirror and decided where I wanted my pockets to sit. I pinned more red bias tape around the pockets (the curve of the pockets was a bit tricky), then pinned the pockets to the apron then off to sew we go.


After the pockets were sewn into place it was time to attach the necklace. We used a red thread to sew the necklace into the neck of the apron. We followed the outline of the necklace with our stitches so that it did not take away from the design.


The very last step was ball fringe across the bottom, because you can never have too much ball fringe. I am pretty dang smitten on how it turned out and hope that it is a big hit next week at CHA. If you are going to be in Chicago for the convention stop by the Duncan booth, make some jewelry with me and check out the new apron in person!

Oh and you have to get a copy of The Naughty Secretary Club to learn how to make the necklace :) Don't forget you can pre-order now and it should be hitting book stores August 6th!

HGTV, Cosmo Girl, Groggy Puppies & More!

Here are 10 excuses for why I did not get around to blogging yesterday….

A producer from HGTV.com emailed to ask if I would be interested in flying to Knoxville to host 20 Halloween themed webisodes. Um ya. Anyone know where I can find some super cute Halloween inspiration online? I spent the evening thumbing through my collection of vintage craft and party books.

Campus Talk Magazine wrote asking for jewelry for a photo shoot that I had to get ready.

Ella got spayed so I had to spend a lot of time cuddling a groggy puppy.

Cosmo Girl Magazine wrote at about 3pm asking for jewelry for a photo shoot today which meant I had to make it and send it by 5pm! Luckily I had a lot of stuff handy that they were looking for.

I had to run out and get last minute supplies for a purse I am making to go on display in the Duncan booth where I will be working next week at CHA in Chicago.

I’m doing an interview for Threadbanger’s upcoming jewelry episode and needed to review the questions Corrine sent me and devise a plan of where I would be filming everything. I'll be giving away free copies of Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry on the webisode too!

Took a bunch of pictures of my cluttered studio for the Handmade Spaces interview I am doing on Modish.

Snuck out to a thrift store and scored some fun jewelry to tear up and awesome ephemera for Crafty Collage Curios.

Chatted with the ladies of Stitch about when the next event will be, at least 2009 fer sure.

I cheated on you and posted on Badassical about Eskimos instead.

I think those are pretty dang good excuses if your asking me. Today is my favorite day of the week Chris is not working from home and no assistant is here so I get to be all alone. Today is the day where I get things done, reply to outstanding emails and think deep thoughts. Oh I wish there were 3 days like this every week. I am going to Smithville tonight to surprise my mother-in-law for her birthday. She is having a new house built and everyone is going to write scriptures in the concrete of the foundation. Did I mention my mother-in-law is a Methodist minster? I hope someone has a bible handy for me to cheat and look at it, I don't know any scriptures. My family didn't have scriptures hanging around on the walls when I was growing up, my dad posted quotes around our house instead. I can still see "A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned" and "Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds". IF there was a nook, free space on the fridge or spot in your direct line of vision from a toilet the man posted a quote. Once Hope retaliated and posted a page from her Care Bear's coloring book that said "Sharing Means Caring". Maybe I could write that in the cement.

Cynthia Rowley's Necklace was the Star of Sunday's Design Star

I miss Top Design on Bravo so much I have resorted to watching Design Star on HGTV instead. So far not one or their rooms have blown me away. The rooms on Top Design seem so much hipper. Given Bravo gives them the Design Center in Los Angeles to shop in and HGTV gives them Garden Ridge & Bed, Bath and Beyond in Knoxville. I’m assuming that is where the show is filmed since when I have been to DIY Headquarters it was in Knoxville.

I have only seen two episodes of the show thus far and my two top picks are Jennifer and Matt. Matt is a good designer but not the strongest host. Jennifer has good designs and hosting potential. It was interesting to see them have to do the little blurb on Sunday about being at the Opry Land Suites in 3 takes. It is harder than it looks I promise. You try and memorize script in like 2 minutes and say it back to a camera with 20 people staring at you as you do it and still remember to be perky, suck in your gut and gesticulate.

The whole point of this post is not for me to confess to yet another reality show addiction it is to talk about the necklace that judge Cynthia Rowley was wearing. Who made it? What is it? I want to understand it. It was this taunt hoop and I could not tell if it was metal or plastic. Does anyone know who made it? I’m not sure if I liked it or not, I just want to know more about it.