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Ok Hija4 Designs Blog will no longer be posting blogs here. Please visit me at
http://houseofraquel.blogspot.com

HIJA4 is changing

Hija4 (4th Daughter) I have decided to change my business name after many conversations with important people in my life.
1st Reason - I wanted a new name that people could pronounce and understand.
2nd Reason - House of Raquel is preparing for a Larger than life future.

I hope the name change isn't to disturbing to all my customers. It's all good!! Look for a new blog, new website, and exciting NEWS!

White Iris Designs

I wanted to start including on my blog a weekly interview with another jewelry designer. Yes I also create jewelry but I am always interested in hearing about what others have to do to get their results. Hope you find it as interesting as I do. My friend an awesome jewelry designer, Tammy McCain was kind enough to be my very first interview.

What inspired you to start creating jewelry?

I have been creating something or another since I was a little girl. I love unique pieces of jewelry, things that look handcrafted not mass produced, I guess I would say I decided to start creating my own pieces after wanting so badly to purchase jewelry out of Robert Redford' Sundance catalog. The pieces were what I loved, but for a price that was not in my budget. So I decided that I would try to make my own versions. I did & for a fraction of the cost.

How long have you been making money selling your jewelry designs?

I would say that I started selling my designs not long after I started making them. I would wear pieces & get compliments all the time & still do. women would ask where I got it & when I told them I made it they would ask, if I could make something for them. It started out as family & friends, but soon grew.

Anyone who designs jewelry knows that you quickly develop what it called "beader's stash". I needed a way to use the beads that were left over from various projects, so in the summer of 2006 I decided to open a bead section in my flower shop. We offer beads, findings & supplies needed to make jewelry & offer some bead classes occasionally. We also do Beading Birthday Parties for little girls & tweens. My customers may come in anytime, during business hours, sit at a table in the flower shop, work on projects using our tools & just pay for the materials that they use. We charge a small fee if we need to help them with their projects.

Is jewelry designing your only business?

No, I am a floral designer & I own a flower shop in a local town not too far from where I live. I use to jokingly say that I am a "Floral Designer by Day & a Jewelry Designer by Night", but that has now become part of my tagline on my business cards. I love everything about flowers & love beautiful jewelry, so to be able to do both of them, I feel very blessed.

Do you ever get in a slump in your creativity?

I wouldn't call it a slump, what happens to me is I have so many ideas in my head, that I get frustrated that I do not have enough hours in my day to get all that I would like done.
Since I do have a brick & mortar shop, the floral designs come first. From 9 to 5 the flower shop dictates my day. It is a rare occasion that I am able to sit & design jewelry in the flower shop. Too many interruptions.
Usually by the time I get home I do not have a lot of extra time to work on the jewelry designs, therefore I have unfinished ideas left in my head.

What do you do to get out of it?

If I ever do feel creatively blocked, all I have to do is look at beading magazines, watch TV, or get out my bead stash. Most of the time just going through all of my beads will inspire me. Sometimes when I haven't looked at all of them for a while, I forget what I have stashed away in all of those little drawers. When I look again, with fresh eyes, I will see things that I bought a while ago & remember what I wanted to design with them. That usually jump starts the creativity again.

How do you sell your designs?
Right now I have jewelry in my flower shop that is for sale. I also have a friend who owns a salon & she sells my designs. I have some pieces in a tanning salon that are geared more toward teens & girls in their early twenties, that are a bit more affordable for them. I am in the process of populating my website where my jewelry will be for sale. I am hoping to have it open very soon.

Do you have a blog? Yes/No

Yes, I have a blog.

What is the name of your blog?

White Iris Designs ~ Flowers, Jewelry & Other Girly Things

whiteirisdesigns.blogspot.com/

Do you have a website? Yes/No

Yes, I will be opening my website very soon.

What is the name of your website?

White Iris Designs

whiteirisdesigns.com

Where do you advertise other than your website and blog?

I think of myself as walking advertisement everyday just by wearing my jewelry. Just the other day I was delivering flowers to our local High School & a lady stopped me to compliment me on my necklace. I thanked her & told her that I made it & gave her a business card. She remarked that she could tell that it was handcrafted, not something that she could buy in a store. I walked away with a smile & hopefully a new customer. I also believe that word of mouth is some of the best advertisement you can get.

I sometimes advertise in our local paper, mostly during holidays. I am not sure it is worth it though, I find it is hard to guage how well it is working.

I hope to exchange links with other business women with websites once mine has gone live.

What are your future plans?
My future plans are to try to make my website an extension of the quality products & services that I offer to my local customers & make them available to the world.
I would like to focus more on weddings & event work with my floral designs. Maybe a destination wedding, that would be fun.
As far as the jewelry designs, I would like to offer eparties. Since my time is already an issue & home parties are really not that probable, I feel that the eparties are my solution. I hope to add them in the near future.

Social Networking

I am a member of Divapreneur. I found this network group of women on another network group, Myspace. I have since neglected my myspace page. My new network group has done so much for me. This is a group of business women who are interested in helping one another. Yes Believe IT!
The Diva Executive is Elaine Bliss and she is the reason for the success of this very fast growing group, my opinion of course. She gives of herself 100% at Divapreneur and she is a wife, mother and Entrepreneur on her own accord.
Since I've joined Diva, Elaine and I are not only business associates but I consider her one of my friends. We chat about our husbands and children. hahah. Yet I can ask her business questions and if she doesn't have the answers (but mostly always does) she will recommend another Brilliantly talented Diva.
Ladies if you have a business and need to step it up, may I recommend to you,
Divapreneur. Your life will honestly, change for the BETTER!

Weekend Plans

What are your plans for the weekend? I can feel it. Friday! The lighter energy, everyone is happy.
The weekend is close and I don't have any plans. I'll be working on my photos and doing laundry.

I've just finished my cereal I put raspberries and blueberries in it, it makes it so delicious. That will keep my stomach happy till lunch. Gotta get dressed to go to work. I work full time, my jewelry is my part time passionate job.

After work I'll stop on the way home to get my favorite Chinese food. I like to stop in at least once a week. It's take out.

When I get home my cats (3) are yelling out me to feed them. I just want to sit down and eat but they won't stop yelling out me.

I'll watch my favorite soap on Tivo, The Young and The Restless while I eat my dinner and turn on my laptop to check my email, Divapreneur messages.

Tomorrow I can sleep in and drink my morning coffee in bed, awhhhh. That evening I'll go see my son's band The Federalists rock!



Oh today is the 28th!! See how plans can change. What are yours?

Learn to Draw

Designs

In two days I’m gonna start to take a draw design class given by Elaine Biss.
I’m so excited about it. I want to learn to draw so I can create my own Sassy Girl wearing Hija4 jewelry Designs.

Who takes great pictures?

I am not a Photographer


Before I retouched the background:

After using the few tricks I know:

I've still got quite a bit to learn to get my photos looking crisp and sharp for my website. If you don't have the photoshop program, it is a must. I have the EZcube lighting system and as you can see my photos just weren't doing it. Photographers (which) I am not know what to use to enhance their photos. Finally I'm on the road to Fabulous.

How do I get my pictures brighter ?

On Easter, I went to my Mom's house to enjoy Easter with my family. Of course, with the website now a huge part of my life, I had to bring my laptop with me. I needed to work on re-touching my website pictures. My brother lives there and knows a whole lot more about photoshop than I have the time to learn. I asked him if he could help me touch up my photos.



Yesterday he sent me an email telling me that he now has photoshop and would love to touch up my photos. What a blessing for me! I can now keep my energy toward jewelry creations! I have to face the fact that I am not a photographer or a graphic artist. Although I enjoy taking photos for fun. But I simply don't have the time it takes to make the most important feature on my WEBSITE fabulous.



I am so grateful to my brother and I thought maybe just maybe there are others out there in cyberland, who might need a little help touching up their photos for their website too. So I asked my brother to create a banner and get a blog so just maybe he could get a little business going.

Drum Roll please.....

And the SASSY GIRL winner is ...

Barbara Curran - Shop for a Cure

Hi Beth and Raquel,

I just read the blog, YIPPEEEEEEE. I'm doing the Happy Dance!!!!! Thank you so much. I will wear the necklace with pride and am adding it to our Shop for a Cure as a grand prize today. Please include your business cards or flyers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sending you both a great big HUG!

love, Barbara

Help spread the word about "Shop for a Cure", visit:
www.finderskeepersjewelry.blogspot.com

Thank you to all who left a comment.

I'm giving away my jewelry

Do you want a chance to win Hija4 designs ?

Beth at My Chic Things has a Chic Friday Give away Contest and this Friday it was Hija4 Designs, "Sassy Girl" necklace.

The necklace is two 36" strands one of sterling silver large link chain and the other strand is quartz crystal.
If you would like your chance to win my "Sassy Girl" please check her out. Just click on:

http://mychicthings.blogspot.com/
Leave a really good comment! Contest ends midnight tonight so don't be late!

Vote for Kristy Yamaguchi

Does your GF do this?

Get coaching from a girlfriend...

Somedays I want the get up and go, but fail to get anywhere. If you find your mornings start this way can I suggest a great website to start your day with www.girltimecoaching.net. She is very passionate about inspiring women.


Surround yourself with:



People who motivate you



People who inspire you



People who acknowledge you



People who support your desires


And ...



People who love you!



Stay away from:


To see the rest of this saying please visit her website: http://www.girltimecoaching.net/

If you would like you can check out her blog.
http://christine-livepassionately.blogspot.com/

New Earth Ring - HIja4 designs

Have you been inspired by the Mega Live Webcast going on each Monday? I haven't been able to attend it Live, but have downloaded the free podcast. I've only just listened to one of them so far. It's been amazing. This design was inspired by the book, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It is my New Earth Ring.

New Sonya Line

I'm most known for my sterling silver jewelry but once in awhile I like to turn it up to HOT! Soon I will be offering a 14kt Gold jewelry Line for the Gals who prefer to wear Gold!
Hot Hot Hot

Rachel Capil

I know an awesome photographer Rachel Capil Photography. She is Famous! Isn't she great?
Check out her website at www.rachelcapil.com

4th Daughter

I don't know if any of you know what the meaning of my business name Hija4 is. (pronounced eee-hah) It is Spanish and means 4th Daughter. I have 3 other sisters and I'm the fourth.

However, I wanted each letter to have a bigger meaning for my business. Any suggestions?

H - Hip
I - In Style
J- Jewelry
A - Accessories
4 - The Diva in you!

What do you think?

I was...
blogged about today. Or should I say, hija4 designs was blogged about today. I got an email first thing this morning telling me that someone had blogged about my jewelry today. I was like huh, who?
If you would like to read it about what was said and who said it , you can go to
http:/shealamode.blogspot.com. I am still sitting on cloud nine or possibly ten.

Also today I announced the opening of my website http://www.hija4.com/. I recently obtained the services of http://www.mrosewebdesign.com/ to redesign my site. She did a fabulous job, don't you agree? It took her no time at all, so if you need a great web designer please check her out and let her know I recommended her. ;) She came highly recommended to me and I'm passing her along to you. She'll be there after you are up and running. She will support you after she has finished her job. I don't know any other web designers that can say that they will stick around.

Another gal I'd like to also mention is Michelle Pippin. If you need a great business coach, http://www.womenwhowow.com/. She will take you with your business to the clouds, but I'm sitting here on Cloud 10.

Lighting is everything.

I'm updating the photos for my website. I wanted to create a more uniformed style. If you are looking for getting better pictures for your product. I used the ezcube with two photo lights on the outside of it. I'm so happy I bought them. Great investment! I never dreamed I'd have photos so crisp!

I am getting so excited and its really hard to keep it a secret much longer. I've been working with several of the Diva women lately and they are extremely talented and brilliant women. If you need to change your website image or business direction. I suggest you get in contact with me. Do I know People that will get you excited and then you can have a secret too!

Look for upcoming news about Hija4 designs. She's my baby. She's been growing for 4 years now and last year was the best year yet.

But this year, oh baby she has blown the roof off the house, its hard to contain her. We're anxious to spread our wings and fly! How's your business?
;)

Recently I met with Elaine from hipnchic.blogspot.com and shealamode.blogspot.com. She is an amazing, intelligent, talented woman. She changed my logo and suggested other ideas to help with the growth of my jewelry business. I'm excited and look forward to implementing many of her ideas. She could help you too, visit her at http://shealamode.blogspot.com.

The next step I am taking is a brand new look for my website designed by www.mrosewebdesign.com
If you think yours need a lift and you're looking for a fabulous designer check her out. Mine will be done soon and You will be the first to know!

Hija4 Designs - I love working with silver chain and wire. Two simple elements and wala a 26" Sterling Silver necklace with silver wire pendant swarovski crystal siam heart and charm.

My son is the guitarist in this indie band called The Federalists.
The Federalists 2nd cd release show is tonight in Berkeley at Blakes.

Check out their music, http://www.myspace.com/thefederalistsrock

Divapreneur 1st ever mag was delivered yesterday with RAVE reviews. It was 47 pages long. Has valuable information for women who own their own business. I purchased a spot in the Sweetheart Guide.

If you would to get a copy of your very own, you can purchase it at:

http://divapreneur.org/dpadd.html

I love purses, recently I purchased one from Spirited Style at Divapreneur. But you can check her designs on her ebay site. http://myworld.ebay.com/spirited*style/

Spirited style created this hobo bag for me. I wanted my business logo and wala, not a problem for this talented diva.
I took the item out of the box and the packaging was so nicely done , I didn't want to ruin it by opening it. But I was so excited I ripped it open.
I saw her site and emailed her to see if she could add my logo to her hobo bag style. She said absolutely. So I emailed her a jpg file of my logo. She did it! hija4 looks so awesome on it. Don't you agree? I added a few more pictures to show off her brilliant creativity.


Don't you want one?

How do you listen to your MUSIC?

I like to have my whole music collection on my ipod and recently I bought a Jbl On Stage. My sister recently received a ipod for Christmas, after years of me raving about mine. She just celebrated her birthday and the wonderful women at her workplace got her this JBL On Stage for her to listen to her ipod. She came over to show it off the other day, and I just had to have one.

The JBL has volume control and runs either by electricity or on batteries. I got mine at Best Buy for $80.00 If you want it to match your black ipod pay $20.00 more. I just wanted something portable to carry back and forth to the office so I could listen to my music collection.

I especially love listening to music when I'm designing jewelry it always inspires me. Harajuki girls!

Communication.
After being a Verizon cell phone customer for several years, I had a Treo 650 and I Loved it! But I finally switched to an iphone. Easy, brilliant I had to have one. After all I got on the apple wagon with the ipod at first then I had to get a macbook. I'm seriously in Love with my apple cart. I have my website on my mac, the can style that Mac offers. It was good enough in the beginning, but I'm ready for my Flavor and style but especially a Shopping cart. Eventually one of the Diva's will be redesigning it, and I hope sooner rather than later. Its impossible for me to update my website when I'm at work.

I don't know about all of you but I still remember the rotary phone and the days when there wasn't an answering machine. I'm so wired, where can I go to runaway? Don't get me wrong I love keeping up with communication and technology. I love seeing what's on all my friends blogs and how can I make mine more entertaining. I always try to leave comments too. I enjoy text messaging but funnie I don't enjoy leaving a voice mail on someone's phone when I need to speak to them NOW! hahaha

People stop and visit, but I want COMMENTS, you know that communication! It works better when its a two way conversation.
Love to hear from you, real soon!

Valentine's Day
What are you giving your valentine?

Visit hija4!

Visit myspace!

What I love about creating jewelry is that the elements I use have a life of their own.

I sit at my designer table with several gauges of sterling silver wire and my artist pad. My "Apad" contains the drawing of the design I want to create. As I start to wrap and twist the wire it begins to take a life of its own. Many times what I drew on my "Apad" is not even close to what life the wire takes as the end result.

I'm sure many artists, sculptors and other jewelry designers would have to agree, right?

I'm passionate about creating jewelry. My customers appreciate having accessories that their friends compliment them on. When asked where they got their jewelry, they would reply that they knew this lady who handcrafted unique pieces. They would come to me to buy gifts for their girl friends and soon enough their girl friends were coming back to me for more.

They all enjoy wearing hija4 designs that no one else had!

My son is the guitarist in a band called, The Federalists. Their second cd is going to be available in February.

If you wanna take a listen go to their myspace page. I've included the address in my link list. You'll love it!

First time blogger on google.