Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Featured on Style Me Pretty...

We feel so honored to be featured on this fabulous Wedding Blog... Style ME Pretty is one of the go-to for Brides and we are just tickled that they l o v e us as much as we l o v e them...


Vendor Spotlight: Lillyput Lane Design Company

September 26th. 2012 by Mallory | Filed Under | 1 comment
Okay ladies, get ready because I have just solved your “What do I adorn my neck/ears/wrist with on the most special day of my life” dilemma. Our LBBer Lillyput Lane Design Company creates special pieces we absolutely love. And the lady behind the jewels? Well I decided to sit down and chat with Laurie about the inspiration behind Lillyput Lane – and let me just say, her passion + emotion make me love her designs even more!

Lillyput Lane was created in January of 2011. I have been a jewelry designer for over 10 years and loved to create timeless pieces. In the beginning, it was a hobby with a friend but then we started having jewelry parties and it all changed, we were good and people were buying, a lot. We became in demand, so needless to say, we started to do huge shows in Palm Beach, Boston, Washington DC… It was overwhelming with little children and we were also growing our Restaurant Group Urban Bar B Que, so I had to choose. We now have five, soon to be six very successful BBQ Restaurants, so I had to focus on that.
Then in 2011, my beloved Grandmother passed away and we travelled to Wales to say good bye and take care of everything at our home. I used to live with my Grandparents when I was young and it was a fabulous experience to live in another country. I had such wonderful memories of every Summer spent on the cliffs looking over the beach. I used to walk to school walking down Lillyput Lane. So, when my sister and I were there in January 2011, we started talking about our passions and what we wanted to achieve in our lives. I wanted to be a serious designer, so walking down Lillyput Lane it was created. It seemed perfect, both my Grandmothers were huge inspirations to my sister and I.
I called my husband and told him, which meant I would reduce my role in our Restaurants. Of course, he said go for it, and I did. Now, I do both and love every minute of it. I do not create these pieces for the money but the passion. Every piece of jewelry I make is a thoughtful creation of something in my mind that I hope carries on. I want to make and design jewels that matter, that have a soul almost. Everyone wants to have a legacy, but I want my jewels to be in a memory. For instance, my double faced pendant necklace, I designed with the Bride in mind… One side her initial, the other her beloved. You will always remember why it is you have this necklace and I was apart of this. That is what drives me to create these jewels.
I have found my calling though, in the Bridal world. I l o v e to work with Brides. I myself did not have a Wedding, David and I eloped, which at the time seemed fun and different. Because I did not have the Wedding every girl dreams of, I am involved in hundreds of Weddings. I guess it is the window and the door analogy. Needless to say, I love it. For photo shoots, my girls, Samantha and Jessica are my models. To see them in Wedding dresses, well, it just makes me want to have Weddings, lots of them… I love everything about them.
I think my favorite all time Wedding was last year. I had a Bride who chose me as her designer for her entire Wedding party. During the time of the planning her Father passed away and of course she was devastated. She asked me to make something with him in mind, so I created the birthstone bracelet with the double faced pendant. She wore this in memory of her Father on the hand that he would hold walking down the aisle. It just makes me want to cry, every time I talk about it. It really means something to be apart of peoples lives in the most intimate ways.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Well, it is finally finished...

It is not that easy...

I l o v e my new website. It only took me 6 months and a lot of help from website specialist guru Simone Howard of Magic Button on ETSY.  http://www.etsy.com/people/mymagicbutton and a wonderful OS Commerce specialist Barbara to help me unlock the password. 

I started my own website over 2 years ago and, well, I hated it. I lived with it for awhile and just primarily used my Etsy website... Simone, a wonderful, patient web designer who said I might do better with a OScommerce website went through the hard day by day with with me of the designing and creating this wonderful new, happy, pretty place in the web world. I new I wanted something feminine and girly, so of course, we went with pink. Love it. That was six months ago and then all of the hard work of photographing, uploading. I added maybe six products and well, got busy with life and ETSY. My business is growing by leaps and bounds. I have already doubled last years business in the first 6 months. I have been designing and creating for months and then I thought I better do something with this website I had made 6 months ago. I have a feature coming out September 26 with the most amazing Wedding Blog,  "Style ME Pretty" and they can only link it to my own website, not a third party. So it was on... I had 3 weeks. 

Well, the first problem. My computer with all of the information, crashed. I lost everything including all passwords and my photography. I contacted Simone with this grim task of helping me remember my pass code. It was not going to be that easy, nothing worked. Using an OS Commerce site proved very hard to retrieve this information, certainly nothing that my non computer brain could handle. I do not even now what a ftp file is. Simone is always going on about this and of course, I email back with... Come on Simone, really... She knows my brain just can not handle that kind of process. It took me forever to use go daddy lol...  Simone's OS Commerce friend Barbara, who lives in France, fixed it. In about five minutes, very smart girl. I was happy and relieved and I sent them both gifts... One lives in Australia and the other is in France. You would think I could find someone that lives in the United States but these two girls were the best and I am so grateful for them taking pity on me. 

Stress, doesn't even need to be said. You can see it all over my face...

Karen, sister in law extraordinaire...

Before the madness...
Before the shoot...

I love these dresses....
The second problem. Re shooting all of the jewelry, with my daughters and sister in law as my models. Everyone just so happened to be at our beach house that weekend, so I decided to have this big photo shoot. I even bought Wedding dresses (two). My bedroom at the beach house has the most wonderful light and really made these photos gorgeous...Forgot to mention,  I am the make up artist, hair dresser and photographer. Did I also mention, this was not a "stress free" day.  It was a crazy day, but we ended up with fabulous pictures and a memory with all helping including my sixteen year old son, Zachary. I had to go through thousands of pictures, cropping, lighting and just making them beautiful. That takes forever by the way. 

The third problem is uploading thousands of photos to the actual website. This is a task, and my husband has been complaining literally for the last week. I have spent nearly 8-10 hours a day for a week to get this ready. I wish I had a team of photographers, designers, assistants and another me. I would say, I am a worker and I will not stop until it is done. Mostly the reason for that is,  I will dream about it, every night, all night. If the hot flashes were not enough, ladies, you know what I am talking about, lol...

Here are some pictures of the final product, so please visit this website now that you know how much work has gone into this... I love to design jewelry but I do not think anyone knows exactly how hard it is to do everything else... This is just a snapshot of how hard it really is. So, the next time you look at someones website, blog or store that this is a undertaking and did I mention, very stressful. 

Eternity Necklace

London Blue Topaz Flower Earrings

London Blue Topaz Statement Earrings

Whisper of Pink Hair Accessory

One of a kind Turquoise Re Inspired Vintage  Necklace

Bracelet Collection

Apatite Statement Earrings

Vintage Pearl and Rhinestone Head Piece

We did some family photography that day too....

The fabulous Karen

Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Statement Earrings

Apatite Chandelier Earrings

Keepsake Pendant Jewelry

One in a million Snowflake Bracelets

Mint Green Opal Statement Necklace

Pink Quartz and London Blue Topaz Statement Earrings

Pearl Floral Head Piece

Our mascot...

Turquoise lovelies...
                                                Lillyput Lane Design Company            
                                                         Visit Lillyput here...






I just wanted to thank everyone for helping me achieve my dreams... Without all of you,  it would never happen. I am so grateful to have my family friends for believing in me...

Laurie
XOXO