Testing a Feed - Ignore! :)

  Hey everyone, don't mind me -- we seem to be having a little trouble with some of our RSS feeds so we're testing a few things out.  But here's a picture of my little Roxie if you'd like something cute to look at! :)

 

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Never Left ... But I'm Back

Well.  I could make a lot of excuses about where I've been the past couple of months, but the truth is that although I never really left, it's just been a difficult couple of months for me.  A week to the day after my last entry here on the blog, I wound up in the hospital for gallbladder surgery, and although I bounced back from the surgery quite quickly, the weeks just continued to offer up one-two punches for a while.

In particular, I've been dealing for some time with a personal family situation about which I haven't yet decided whether I'm prepared to discuss openly.  For now, I will say that it has been an extraordinarily challenging period for me and my family, and for a time it was imperative that I hunker down and concentrate on my family and myself. I've been dog tired!

On the bright side, however, for the first time in a while things are looking up, and is that ever a welcome change!  For one thing, my hubby Doug and I decided to proceed with our 2nd annual Halloween Costume Party, and it was lots of fun!  Nothing like a bunch of crazy friends dressing up and dancing the night away to brighten one's spirits!!  I have some awesome pictures that I'll post very soon.

Another bit of welcome news is that I believe Isabelle Chase Studios will be showing up in some press come December or so.  If and when it happens, I will be posting the links!

Now that I'm emerging from my self-imposed time-out, I'm excited to be looking ahead to the holidays and beyond to the new year.  I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm already anticipating that 2011 will be a fantastic year!

TTFN!

Happy Saturday!

Enjoying a perfect afternoon at the shore, which wouldn't be complete without a dead crab with which to torment one's sister. Blech!!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Gorgeous Custom Pieces

My wonderful client, Danielle Lavis of Danielle Lavis Photography, LLC in Clarksville, MD not only creates stunningly beautiful photography, she also has an eye for customizing jewelry!  Check out the custom version of our Noce Necklace she came up with by upgrading it with our jeweled CZ photo charm -- something even I hadn't have thought of -- and it turned out to be fabulous!  Lucky for me, turns out Danielle is also a gifted product photographer.  When I didn't have time to photograph her pieces before shipping her order, she quickly snapped these amazing photos of both the Noce Necklace and the Jeweled Toggle Necklace.  I told her I need to hire her as my product photographer!  LOL  These images and more are on her blog.

If you're lucky enough to live anywhere near Danielle (Clarksville, Maryland), do yourself and favor and book her!  And thanks, Danielle, for making my job a little easier today. :)

Remember, most of the pieces on our website can be customized in many ways so they become even more personalized and perfect for you!

Yikes! (aka, Open Letter of Apology to our iPhone & Droid App Users!) and an Offer

Well.  Nothing like starting a blog, putting out an iPhone and Droid app, and then not updating them!  Way to go me!

In all honesty, I PROMISE I didn't forget.  Had a few things going on the past couple of months that left me a little depleted in the creative energy department.  The passing away of a dear friend sidelined me a bit, even more than I anticipated.  About the time I started to feel like myself again, all the busy end-of-the-school-year activities began, with two kids "graduating" from 5th and 8th grades.  Very cute, lots of fun, but BUSY!  Then there were a few hitches in our ICS Jewelry app which took a lot of wrangling with the developer to correct.  I believe they're taken care of now, but you'll have to let me know if things don't appear  to be working correctly.

In any case, I think we're finally back on course!  I will not leave you all hanging again, I promise!

While I'm thinking about it, let me take the opportunity to ask you if you've joined our Facebook Page yet?  We're going to be doing a lot with it this year, so be sure to come on over and become a Fan, or "Like Us"!  In fact, let's do this:

Through the end of this week (that's through Saturday, July 3rd, 2010), if you become a new Fan on our Facebook Page and drop us a comment telling us you heard about it through this post (whether reading it here, or through our iPhone or Droid app), you'll get a 20% off coupon.  

You've got to post a comment or we won't know that you came from this post. :) We will message the coupon to you via Facebook.

Just call it a little peace offering for being such a bad blogger the past several weeks!  And look for lots more great stuff this summer.

Have a wonderful day!

Quick poll - what would you like to see next?

Posted via web from Isabelle Chase Studios

Why I Love My Job - Reason No. 4

Because I get to take sweet moments like this and turn them into something that will hopefully melt a mother's heart come Mother's Day, and for many years to come. XOXO

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

What I'm Working on Today

Well, actually it's what I FINISHED today.  Just delivered a new Chocolate Cherry Necklace to a dear friend; it will be a gift for her beloved au pair who is leaving to go back home.  I hope she loves it and that it will help remind her of these two little sweethearts who have been in her charge for quite some time. :)

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Why I Love My Job - Reason No. 7

Because no one gives me a funny look when I wear my fuzzy slippers in the afternoon. Except maybe the Chinese food delivery guy just now. But that's okay because he's not an Isabelle Chase customer ... YET.

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Curious who the big Facebook page players are in fashion?

Check out Stylophane's "Facebook Fashion Index".  It's very cool to look through, whether you're interested from a marketing perspective or just looking for your favorite brands' Facebook pages so you can become a fan.

http://stylophane.com/fbi/

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

My Recycled "Charging Station"

Once you've been married and in charge of your own household for a long while, it's astonishing how many things can begin to pile up.  We went through a major renovation a few years ago and although we did get rid of a lot of excess stuff, somehow we've managed to hold on to quite a bit that kind of got stuffed away for "some day" when we had more time to sort through it all.  One can choose to view this as a problem, or one can be like me and begin to view one's attic and basement as a veritable shopping mecca ... all for free!

My BlackBerry is usually attached to my body in some fashion for most of the day.  However, occasionally it needs to be juiced up again, but having a big ol' ugly cord hanging around on the kitchen counter was bugging me -- it was just always in the way.  I'd been intending to buy one of those fancy "charging stations" one of these days but hadn't gotten around to it.  Recently I found this dinky little metal easel in the far reaches of my basement.  I don't have any memory of where I got it, but I know I've had it forever.  I was about to toss it when I realized it made the perfect little charging station for not just my phone, but for my entire family's fleet of phones (the all use the same style charger).  I set it up on top of the little French country armoire in the corner of our kitchen, wrapping the cord around the metal legs so that it doesn't go slipping away out of reach behind the cabinet.  I love that it sits upright so that it serves as a clock while it's charging, and it's within quick reach if I hear it dinging that I've got a new email.

Problem solved!  I like it so much that it's become a permanent fixture, and now I'm on the prowl for more things sitting around the house that I can reuse in some cute or clever way.  My great-grandmother would be so proud!

Going Bug-Eyed!

I tell you what.

I'm geeky, but if I had to do all this website stuff all the time I would be insufferable.  The last time I went through a major website revision, I had the help of an assistant; this time, with the exception of my fabulous web programmer Scotty, I'm going it alone.  Don't get me wrong, it's fun and I thoroughly enjoy the creative aspects of it.  But the TESTING!  OY!  Going through and trying to make sure all the T's are crossed and the I's dotted is NOT easy!

Still, I'm excited because I just KNOW the end result will be worth it.  The little kid in me wants to just launch everything right away, but no, I'll be a good girl and continue to work out all the kinks so that it's as flawless as humanly possible when we go live in a few days.  This is easily the biggest change we've made, from soup to nuts as they say, so it doesn't do anyone any good to rush things.

So bear with me as I try to keep my eyes from crossing with all this computer work.  We're coming to the final stages and I hope to be making the big announcement in just a few more days!

Back to my laptop I go ...

Gloomy Day

Ugh. This is the view out my front door today. Not at all conducive to accomplishing much of anything except cuddling up in Hubby's fleece sweatshirt and doing mostly computer work. That's okay, though, plenty of that needing to be done, and I'm definitely not complaining about being able to go to work without even putting on my shoes! So for today it's just me, my laptop, and my ever-present fuzzy baby Roxie. Life is good.

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

Busy, busy, busy

Working on so many things right now, trying to get ready for the launch of our new website.  So many details to attend to -- I have lists and post-its all over the place.  I must say, it's shaping up quite nicely!  I haven't been this excited in a long time about bringing out something new.  Right now we seem to be looking at the end of the month for our official launch, but I have hopes that it might be even sooner.  I'll keep you posted!

Posted via email from Isabelle Chase Studios

This is What Insomnia Looks Like

Watching NCIS reruns at 3:36 am.

The Beginning ... v. 2.0

Welcome to our all new blog.

It's been a long time in coming, let me tell you. I've had a lot of false starts over the past couple of years -- all the best intentions, but dropping the ball almost as quickly as I started to pick it up. It took me a long time to figure out why, but now I think I know.

See, I LOVE blogs. I read many of them every day, reveling in the inspiring words, beautiful imagery and colorful personalities contained in each one. Whenever I leave a blog, I leave feeling as though I've just spent time with a friend. I feel warm and fuzzy and inspired. Why, then, was I having such a difficult time summoning up enough inspiration to tend to my own blog?

It finally hit me. I had felt limited to discussing ONLY things directly pertaining to my business. Now don't get me wrong, I adore my business. I think I have one of the most interesting "jobs" on the planet. But for some reason, in my head I reserved the Isabelle Chase Studios blog for informational purposes only. And quite honestly, there just wasn't a whole lot to report when looking through that narrow lens. There are only so many newsworthy items in the day to day life of a business.

I really don't know why it didn't occur to me to round the subject matter out a bit until now. But once I finally had that "head-whack" moment, it was like shackles were removed from my brain. I began really absorbing other blogs in a way I never had, and realize that the very best part of a great blog is getting to know the person behind it. I'm intensely shy and reserved by nature, so at times I struggle with the idea of delving into today's standard of transparency -- something I'm sure to touch on in posts to come. Still, I've come to realize that reading a soulless blog devoid of all human touch is about as appealing as a dry crust of bread.

So from now on, I've decided to allow myself the freedom of flexibility to talk about whatever comes to mind, which may or may not always have to do with the happenings at Isabelle Chase Studios. In doing so, I hope to find myself more inspired than ever to keep up with blogging, creating, and many other things. And I hope you will find this more multi-faceted approach to be a welcome breath of fresh air.

Here's to change!