Introducing Wanda Maria Designs and the San Gennaro Festival in NYC!!!

Life is quite interesting at times - and that is an understatement!

For several months, I have been planning to go to New York in September, 2014 in order to promote my jewelry business, and I ended up receiving the opportunity of a lifetime.   My business will be a sponsor and vendor of the Annual San Gennaro Festival in New York's Little Italy.  This is a big deal as the special sponsor/vendor status is granted to only 12 businesses each year.  The promoter informed me that they have not previously had any businesses which make handmade Catholic and faith-based jewelry participate in the event.   They felt I would be the perfect addition to the festival. Needless to say, they really bent over backwards in working with me to bring me on board.  I can't tell you how very excited I am about being able to participate in this event, which is expected to attract between 1.5 and 1.75 million visitors this year.  This is a huge networking opportunity for me.  I will meet hundreds of thousands of people; in addition, the promoter informed me that one of the large Italian Fashion Houses will be helping with the event.  The Fashion House works strictly with jewelry and clothing designers.  I am very excited about getting to meet them while I am there.  One never knows what could happen.... *fingers crossed*.

San Gennaro - patron saint of Naples, Italy and blood banks.

I have been thinking about rebranding my business name of "Two Crafty Mules" for awhile now.  It was a cute name when we started the business in 2000.  At the time, we were making everything from dolls to quilts to jewelry and other sorts of homey, crafty things.  As the business evolved, it essentially became a business that sells primarily mixed-media and faith-based jewelry designs.  Two Crafty Mules no longer encompasses the type of product designs I make and sell.  In order to better capture the spirit of my handmade jewelry, "Two Crafty Mules" is being rebranded as "Wanda Maria Designs".   The Etsy store name has been changed to accommodate the name change, and a new website is being developed.  The Facebook page - which is currently a work in progress - has been set up here.  This blog will remain as "Two Crafty Mules" and will continue to share craft projects, tutorials, recipes and the like, as will the Two Crafty Mules Facebook page.  The "Wanda Maria Designs" page will focus more on sharing new jewelry designs to accommodate those who are interested in just the fashion aspect of my business without all of the crafting.  Confusing?  I hope not.  My main goal is to keep my customers and blog followers from the past as I garner new ones through "Wanda Maria Designs".

The logo for "Wanda Maria Designs"

Until the new website is set up, I will continue to share new jewelry designs on this blog.

I thank you for your past support, and I appreciate you sticking with me as I go through this exciting transition.

By the way - to help me launch "Wanda Maria Designs" on a nationwide level, I have started a project in Kickstarter.  Please feel free to stop by and check it out.  Any support you can offer will be much appreciated.  Those who support me there will have the opportunity of receiving FREE jewelry pieces from me, including, but not limited to lovely pieces like these:

I hope to "see" you there!