The Good News, the Bad News, and Hopie's Rockin' New Scarf

I should probably let you know the bad news first. Hopie-Jo has been rejected. *sigh* It's tough to be rejected. This is our first rejection and it doesn't feel good. We have been rejected by Chesterton's European Market!! I KNOW, we couldn't believe it either. So, we won't be selling our bottle cap bling at the Market as previously announced....bummer....never would have thought...to make us feel better they said they love our stuff but they have a "block" on jewelry...whatever that means. Doesn't make it sting any less.

So on to the good news! 'Cause good news is sooooooo much more fun! Jo and I are headed up to New Buffalo, Michigan tomorrow to get our picture taken, along with our bottle caps, barrettes, and headbands, for a press release for the craft fair we are doing up there Memorial Day weekend (take that European Market!! BLAH!) We are so excited! Gotta love free press! :) Anyone in the NW Indiana or SW Michigan area, here is the info on the craft fair.

St. John United Church of Christ, 200 West Buffalo, New Buffalo Michigan, on Saturday, May 29, 2010, from 10:00 AM—4:00 PM, EDT (Michigan Time)

Come on by, we will be there! We're gonna be in a press release to prove it.

And last but not least, remember this blog when I gushed all about our friends and how talented they are. And I also told you about a giveaway that my friend at Whoopsie Daisies was doing? Well, I didn't win the scarf (sadness) but I did decide to buy one. And boy am I glad I did!!!! It is gorgeous. I love it!!! I'm going to wear it out with my husband for our anniversary. I have no idea what else I'm going to wear, but I do know the whole outfit is going to be built around the scarf. Look how great it is!

Bows…really…more bows?

Jo and I never subjected our daughters, when they were little, to placing a bow, big or small, in their hair. It just wasn’t our thing. We were never big advocates of the baby headband, or giant bows larger than the child’s head. Don’t get me wrong, we were never anti-bow, just never jumped on the bow bandwagon, which proved very hard for me when I moved to Little Rock, and my daughter was only 3, and the south LOVES big bows; the bigger the better. I felt a little out of place not sticking a giant bow in my daughter’s hair. But she didn’t seem to mind. She would barely let me brush her hair, there was no way she was going to let me put something in it.

So, with our indifference to bows, what the heck are we doing making so many of them?!?!?! Maybe if Hopie-Jo bottle cap bow barrettes and headbands had been in existence when our girls were younger, we might have had an entirely different outlook on the big bow! Because take a look at this!

Can this precious girl get any cuter!!!! And how cute is that bow headband?

She was the perfect model. Never fussed once, even as we changed the bows and kept snapping shots.

Yes, we are now on the bow bandwagon. We LOVE bows. I’ll even be wearing a bottle cap bow headband at Chesterton’s European Market in a couple weeks. All you local folks swing by the European Market on May 1 and witness first hand our new found love of bows.

And fear not, our bottle cap charms are still a very big part of our business. Just ask my daughter, she is quite the salesperson. I think she sold $50 worth of charms and necklaces to her classmates last week. And we still have about 7 orders to fill. I think they are finally catching on up here.

We are also knee deep in custom orders! YIIPPPEEEE!!! We are waiting for some supplies to come in, but once they do we will have Cubs, Bears, Black Hawks, White Sox, IU, Purdue (as much as it pains me to type Purdue, all my Hoosier alumni buddies, fear not, Jo will be making all things Purdue related so I don’t end up with hives or something) Butler Bulldogs (Hoosier basketball at its finest), Duke (because order has been restored), Arkansas (woo pig sooey) Pulaski Academy, Chesterton Trojans, LaPorte Slicers, maybe even Valparaiso Vikings (although Valpo=Alpo. I had that on a swim shirt in high school), Michigan City Wolves, and the list goes on and on. Again, we love custom orders. And we can customize the barrettes, headbands, or charms. We aim to please.

And don’t forget about our newsletter that doesn’t exist yet. If you want to be one of the first to receive our awesome newsletter that we will one day design and email out, send us an email to hopiejo@gmail.com and let us know you want to be included. We promise it will be worth it! Coupons and stuff….everyone likes coupons!

Oh, one last thing, Wrights Flowers and Gifts in Michigan City, Indiana is now carrying our bottle cap bow barrettes in the store. If you’re local, stop in and have a look.

We've got such talented and creative friends!

This is my first, off the cuff, blog. I'm one of those bloggers who will write it first (that's right, write, pen to paper...so vintage...so old school), then type it into word, then read it a hundred times, while tweaking and editing and still not be completely satisfied in the end, but I will then cut and paste it into the blog and be done with it. So I have no idea how this one will go...there's no turning back, I got one shot (not really, I can always edit it, but that's not as exciting to say).


Hopie-Jo has incredibly talented friends. The first one is Lee-Ann and her fabulous Etsy shop Whoopsie Daisies. She is all vintage all the time and sews like a pro. You need to go check out her blog, Whoopsie Daisies Days because she is currently doing a giveaway. I really shouldn't be sending you all to her blog for the giveaway, cause I really REALLY want to win the scarf, but she is my friend, and I want to help her out and get her name out there as much as possible. We've been friends for a long time. First our older brothers were friends, and then our families became friends. I grew up going to July 4th picnics at her parents farmhouse (she and I would play Charlies Angels in the barn...oh yeah, we go back a long way) and our families spent Christmas Eves together, and still do! We were even on the high school pom squad together. If I knew where any of my old pics were, I'd include one. Anyway, the whole point of this is to send you over to her blog, here so you can check out how fabulously creative she is. And you should also become her fan on Facebook.


Super talented awesome friend number 2 is Michelle. Michelle and I worked together at PA in Little Rock. She is a super talented graphic designer, a wonderful writer, and a great friend. She also has a blog all about her adventures as a mom. She has the cutest little girl, Lily. Read all about their adventures,here.
Michelle is responsible for our new Hopie-Jo logo (as seen above). WE LOVE IT!!! She is also making us business cards and a banner for our Etsy shop. Cuz we currently don't have a banner and our shop looks really dull. Thank you so much Michelle for helping us out!! And for being so darn talented. And for being a great friend!!


Super talented awesome friend number 3 is Melissa. Melissa and I were Brownie Troop leaders together for our daughters Brownie Troop (our daughters are great friends!). We had so much fun together!!! And I really got to see and appreciate her talent as an artist. She and her husband have a website that highlights their work, check it out Aguiar Art Designs, here. Because Melissa has a heart of gold and likes to help her friends (in this instance, me) she is making us, Hopie-Jo, animated banners and blinkies. She has done some great designs for us, now I just need to ask her to tweak her designs and insert our new logo. Here is a banner she is currently working on for us as seen on her blog here. Melissa also does electronic scrapbooking and creates gorgeous pages! So make sure to check out her blog too, here.Her blog is so full of cool graphic type blinkie stuff...she needs to teach me how to bling up this blog! Melissa, help!


We have lots of other talented, creative and wonderful friends, but we'll have to tell you about them later. Especially our friend currently creating a website for us! You'll learn all about her when our site goes live and we gush all about her in a blog!


We are lucky girls with such wonderful friends!