Charming Charm Holder

The unveiling of Hopie-Jo’s first charm holder:

IT'S SO CUTE!

And it looks fabulous with charms and necklaces hanging from it! So functional, so fabulous!

We have been going back and forth with charm holder ideas. Trying different materials, throwing around different ideas, and this is our first success! We are so excited! Not only is it cute and functional but the material in the center was once a fabulous shirt, no longer worn, looking for a new meaning in life. We feel really good about reusing/upcycling old clothes. We’ve decided this is our charm holder calling, reusing/upcycling forgotten, outgrown, vintage, thrift store find clothing.

Since we both have pack rat tendencies this is proving to be a great idea for us. We both have this habit of cleaning out our closets of clothes we no longer wear just to put them in a big plastic container and stick it in the basement. You never know when you might need something again. The black floral velvet dress worn to a college formal too many years ago to admit, yeah, that will be worn again…NOT! How exciting to find that dress and realize how cute it will look as a charm holder!

Check out this pile of treasure!

It might not look like much now, but just wait until they have new life as charm holders.

Clothes may go in and out of style, but there is always a use for fun and funky material.

The charm holder will be going up on our Etsy shop soon. I know, I know, we’ve been saying that for awhile, but we promise, Etsy shop will be open this week!! Also, we are planning an Open House to showcase all our great stuff. If you are interested in being added to our email list to be notified of the Open House, emailed coupons for our Etsy shop, and general news on Hopie-Jo, please send us an email to hopiejo@gmail.com and let us know you want to be “Hopie-Jo in the Know.”

On a personal note, Jo will be having back surgery on Friday, so please, everyone send good thoughts and prayers her way. Once she is back on her feet we have so many plans for Hopie-Jo!

Family = Friend, Air Bubbles = Enemy

There is one enemy of the perfect bottle cap. An enemy that can strike at any time once the glaze goes into the bottle cap and can completely ruin a fabulous charm. We have the perfect design, we fill the bottle cap with glaze, all seems well. Moments later, a glance at the drying bottle cap reveals a bubble peaking out from under a flower pedal, or a cluster of little bubbles have gathered around one edge. URGH, frustration! We have been fighting air bubbles! Trying to find the perfect glaze that will not produce multiple air bubbles is not easy. We have tried four? Yes, I think we've tried four different kinds. We've gone back and forth on some, and thought we had it figured out. We were so excited to receive our most recent shipment of glaze thinking our bubble troubles were over. However, it has been air bubble madness this past week since our recent shipment. URGH! So now, we are anxiously awaiting yet another shipment of glaze that will solve all our problems! Or we hope anyway...we might lose our minds between now and then. We glaze our bottle caps and we have to watch them...for hours...because air bubbles pop up...seemingly out of nowhere...one minute no bubbles, the next, a HUGE one....or multiple little ones...either way, it's a nightmare. AND, if we don't catch an air bubble in time, and the glaze sets, we're screwed. Oh the trials and tribulations of a fledgling business! We'll figure it out.

We have to figure it out, because we have SO MANY NEW DESIGNS (and so many charms in need of a coat of glaze)!!! We are so excited about our latest group of bottle caps. Now, if only we can keep them air bubble free. For those that don't know, Jo ruptured a disk in her back a few weeks back. The poor thing hasn't been able to sit up in weeks. One good thing has come out of her misery, however, and that is her creativity!!! While being confined to her recliner all day, she has been a bottle cap charm making machine. Her creative juices are flowing and she is producing amazing stuff! While Jo is being uber creative, Hopie is popping air bubbles, keeping spreadsheets, and photographing bottle caps for Etsy. Here is a sneak peak at some of our new charms that will be debuting on Etsy, hopefully within the week!

Notice the tweezers? Tweezers are great for popping air bubbles!

Remember, you don't have to wait for us to open our Etsy shop, you can order direct at any time!

Hopie and Jo traveled to Avilla, Indiana on Sunday for our nieces birthday party. The birthday girl, Mya, received 2 charms and a pink choker necklace as a gift from her Aunt Hopie and Aunt Jo.

Here is Mya sporting her new necklace while blowing our her candles.

She also received a charm from her cousin Abigail and proceeded to wear that charm most of the afternoon (as seen in the above picture). We have the greatest family support team EVER!! Our sister-in-law Amy (Mya's mom) proceeded to buy more charms and choker necklaces.

Picking out the perfect charms!

Cousins all wearing Hopie-Jo bottle cap charm necklaces! Aren't they cute?!

AND, Amy's sister-in-law Julie also bought a couple charms. Hopie-Jo scored! We need to have family birthdays every weekend. :) AND, sister-in-law Tina placed a custom order for charms to use to hold up notes at work. She promised to post pictures when she receives her order. We love our family!! But we really really don't like air bubbles....