Friday Finds: YouAreMySunshine

Meet Nina from youaremysunshine in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. She specializes in handmade fabric flower brooches, fabric flower hair pins, rings, earrings, bracelets and statement necklaces in a rainbow of colors to bring sunshine to your day.

This beautiful woman was born and raised in the city of Marikina, MetroManila, Philippines in a very entrepreneurial family. She began studies to be a vet in college, but was always interested in interior design, the arts, creating. One of my favorite comments from her blog is this: "I always thought and still think that I could live in a cardboard box and it would be the most inviting and cozy cardboard box ever!"

Sit back and enjoy my interview with Nina:

How did you get your start on Etsy?
I started my shop in October of 2007, taking my first pictures, experimenting with photography. The results were terrible! I learned a lot along the years.

How did you choose your shop name?
When my sons were little, I would sing them to sleep with the nursery rhyme "You Are My Sunshine." Now that they are older, cuddles consist of discussions about anything and everything important to growing boys. Yet, as sleep overcomes them and their eyelashes finally fall onto their soft, smooth cheeks, their lips relax into innocent worry-less smiles and their ninja warrior/transformer gyrations settle into peaceful, lyrical sighs, I look at each one and still think, “yes, my love, you are my sunshine.”

What does a typical day look like for you?
I work a full time job so I do all my creating, listing, etc. on the weekends.

Name one thing that not many people know about you.
I love to sing, I love to eat.

Most people have something or someone they look to for inspiration - what or who is yours?
My inspiration is nature. I love color and the way nature always surprises me with its wonders.

What is the one thing you would want to be remembered for?
I would like to be remembered for what my children think about me when I am gone.

Do you have any family traditions that you hope are carried through to future generations?
I tell my kids I love them everyday. I vocalize what I feel and they in turn have responded in kind. I tell my mom I love you also which I never did consistently when I was growing up. I hope my kids will never be shy about saying those words to anyone who matters to them.

If you could be anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be?
I would love to be back in Paris for one day. San Francisco would be a close second.

You can also find Nina in her vintage Etsy shop, her blog, and on Twitter.

Friday Finds: plumbeadacious

Meet LeAllyson Meyer of Plum Beadacious in Severance, Colorado.

She has a beautiful shop on Etsy, and I had a chance to catch up with her and ask her a few questions. I think you'll enjoy getting to know her.

Name one thing that not many people know about you.
My parents won the family showcase on the old TV show, The Price is Right, in 1957. We were poor and at that time you entered the contest with post cards by mail and guessed the price of the showcase. My parents won a new "Hillman Minx" convertible car, diamond watches, perfume, and a leather photo album. My parents wanted to go to New York to pick up the prizes. So the family (4 of us) got on a Grayhound bus in St. Louis, MO and traveled to New York. We did a bit of sight seeing, took the new car to Niagara Falls and across into Canada, and came back down through Chicago. I remember purple money in Quebec and people speaking French. I remember riding in the car with the top down, making lunch meat sandwiches, sitting on the grass for a picnic, and wading in Lake Huron. This was a wonderful experience for me. I was seven and my brother was three.

How did you get your start on Etsy?
I discovered Etsy on the internet back in 2006. I had been making handcrafted jewelry for a little over a year. I opened a shop under my name, LeAllyson. In February 2008 I felt the need to come up with something more creative and to open a new shop.

How did you choose your shop name?
I was trying to think of something with the word "bead" in it that had not been used for a domain name. Not an easy thing to do. I just started writing down lots of ideas. Somewhere along the line, I thought of a saying that I thought I heard years ago on TV. No one but me can seem to remember this, but I thought Gomer Pyle would say on Andy Griffith, "Well, that's just plum bodacious!" I have no idea why this popped into my head. It's not like I was watching reruns of Andy Griffith. Anyhow, I thought, why not use "Plum Beadacious". I did a little research and found that plum can mean "extremely desirable" and bodacious can mean "remarkable". So I thought changing the word to beadacious was a fun thing to do.

What does a typical day look like for you?
A typical week day for me starts about 6 am. I get up and get ready for my day job. Before I leave I take a few minutes and sign on to my Etsy and Artfire shops to see if I sold anything. Then I go to work. Even if I sold something, I attend to it once I get home. After supper, I sit down at the computer and renew items, and then post something new if I can. I try to work on making an item or blogging also. I spend most evenings working on my little jewelry business. I do most of my photos on the weekend in my bedroom by the east window. I get good light there.

You can also find plumbeadacious on her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Artfire.