Allison Franks (Hobbit.Town Jewelry)

Sunday, August 24, 2014

#7 Days of Happiness

Hey you guys! Sorry for not posting more often. To be honest...life has been a little rough around the edges for me lately. I've been letting it get the best of me for a bit, but have recently resolved that no matter what I'm going to make this week super awesome no matter what!

Thus begins... 7 days of happiness! So get ready for new items, outrageous discounts and a super special bday surprise from yours truly. That's right! It's my birthday this Saturday!! I can't believe I'm already going to be 28. Feels really strange... Now I gotta figure out how I wanna celebrate it! (haha)

Until then... cute kitties!! That makes everything better, right?


Saturday, August 16, 2014

SHOW ALERT!!

Hey everybody! Looking for something to do tonight? Well then you should come by my booth tonight at the Thirsty Camel! I will be there from 9pm-2am selling all my creepy cute stuff. There will be live music, vendors, art, food and best of all BAT SHOTS!! I still don't know what that means.... but I'm excited about it! (haha) I kind of imagine it as something like this...


Cute right? Anyways I hope to see you all there tonight! I will be unveiling some brand new goodies at the event and will be wearing my pretty fuckin' fantastic new Mars Attacks dress!! (Thanks Marcus)

Check out the flyer below for more details...


Thursday, August 14, 2014

Well hello there...

Did you miss me!??! I've sure missed you guys! It's been a busy year full of ups and downs and all around craziness. So yeah.. it's been an interesting ride to say the least! But I'm finally back and raring to go!

SPOILER ALERT: This isn't going to be recap post. I'll get to that soon though. Promise!

I did however want to take a moment to announce that hobbit.town jewelry will be moving in just 2 MONTHS!! I'm not sure where I'm going yet either. SCARY!!! Don't worry it won't be a super crazy move, just something around the area. But my lease is going to be up soon and I gotta find a new place pronto as they have sold the property. O-o

So you know what that means?? You guessed it! I'm having a moving sale in my etsy shop! For the next 2 months ALL customers will receive 20% off their entire purchase with the coupon code: MOVINGSUCKS
And what's even better is that I will be posting new items every day! That's right! You can get brand spankin' new goodies at 20% off!

So come by say hello and grab these goodies while you still can! Supplies are very limited!!

www.hobbittownjewelry.etsy.com

Also if you live in the Texas area please come by and say hello and one of my upcoming art shows! I only have a few left!

2014 Summer/Fall Shows:

Saturday August 16th - 1313 Art Show @ Thirsty Camel - San Antonio, TX
Saturday September 20th - Creative Creatures Art Show @ White Rabbit - San Antonio, TX
Fri-Sun September 26th-28th - Alamo City Comic @ Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center - San Antonio, TX

Friday, May 30, 2014

The EPIC hobbit.town jewelry facebook giveaway has begun!





I am happy to announce the moment you have all been waiting for is FINALLY here! The EPIC hobbit.town jewelry facebook giveaway has begun!

One very lucky winner will receive a mystery goodie bag jam packed with some of my very favorite creepy cute creations!! Items will be made and compiled by me specifically for this goodie bag and will not be available elsewhere.

What you need to do to win:
1. "Like" my facebook page (facebook.com/hobbittown.jewelry)
2. "Like" the original post (tagged here & below)
3. "Tag" & "Share" the original post on your facebook wall
4. Leave a comment on the original post stating your favorite fashion style or trend.

Just remember you MUST follow ALL of the rules to qualify!! Best of luck everybody!


Follow this link to be taken directly to the giveaway: hobbit.town jewelry giveaway

Monday, March 24, 2014

I survived Anime Matsuri and all I got was a lousy t-shirt.



As some of you may have already guessed 2014 show season is now in full effect. And I started off this year's schedule with the "biggest" show on the list: Anime Matsuri. I had never attended this event before, but had heard great things about it and that it was the biggest anime convention in Texas so I went in feeling under prepared and kind of expecting to sell out of everything which is a scary thought in and of itself. So what happened? Well... let's just say it's time to strap on your seat belts and crack open a beer because this is one stressful roller coaster romp I'm not sure I want to repeat.

Let's start at the beginning shall we? On Thursday (April 13th) Elizabeth and I set off to Houston with high hopes and great expectations. For over a month before this I had worked my butt off to achieve my largest inventory count yet around my normal work schedule and while also working on online orders and custom requests. Needless to say I sacrificed my social life for awhile. I wasn't too worried though because I knew Anime Matsuri would be worth it. What a laugh!

So what went wrong? Well, first off when we arrived we had to argue with the staff because they "forgot" we had 2 tables in our booth somehow and kinda just shrugged us off like "sorry"? So we ended up just stealing one because we weren't going to get anywhere with their unhelpful staff and we needed to set up! Things weren't off to a great start, but morale was still high! We set up our tables and I was quite pleased with how my new sign looked and how several off my new displays really helped my items pop.

My new sign!


My table display!


After we were all set up we went out for a few much needed beers and then hit the hay a little early so we could be ready for tomorrow's show. We awoke to another surprise. Anime Matsuri didn't get the vendor hall cleared by the fire department! So instead of opening at 12pm it opened at 2pm! Loosing those 2 hours definitely hurt business for us and we soon realized our "prime vendor" spot was not as it claimed to be. We paid almost $200 extra to be in a high traffic spot, but we were literally 3-4 spots up from the back in the far corner. We were also a little hidden because our neighbor on the right had an amazingly large poster display. We weren't happy and sales were not what we thought they'd be ALL weekend as a result of all these issues. Not to mention the fact that their staff was extremely rude to us and it's other guests. I'm still in shock that they didn't have a PA system installed properly so announcements were given by the rude staff themselves in person instead. The worst example of this was on the last day when one of the staff came up to our booth and said "If you aren't buying anything then you need to get out" to the customers at our booth 30 mins prior to close. HOW RUDE!!

Anyways, enough hating. While we had our fair share of ups and downs I still managed to have some fun. We went out at night, ate a LOT of delicious but extremely greasy food, went to an Asian rave!, paid $18 for ONE drink???, wore costumes, made sales, bought pretty things, had a crazy silly elevator exploration party, watched Scott Pilgrim, made hotel jewelry, drank LOTS of coffee, kinda got some sleep, tried some yummy IPA's, gave away a crap ton of cards, met some cool artists, argued with a drunk guy about how it's ok for guys to like ponies too and took a TON of photos! haha. Was that too much for you?


Some highlights from our trip...

The event was held in a boat building!


I got to wear my mostly finished JEM costume!

I captured Vaporeon in my Chi costume!


We had a lot of drinks!


THE END

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Long time no see!

Hey everybody! Sorry for not posting more often. I've been a very busy lady! Since the year began I have pretty much been non stop making things in preparation for my outrageously packed art show season this year! I gotta admit I am both excited and terrified at the same time. I have never scheduled this many shows before, especially not ones so close together, and fear I might not be able to keep up with everything. You see I will also be working my normal job, doing online sales and accepting custom orders too! So yeah. Kind of overwhelming! Things will definitely get interesting.

Outside of crafts.... other exciting things I've done this year include getting my own consignment spot at the awesome anime shop Nine Tails, watching Brazil in theaters, catching the premiere of the new Troma movie "Return to Nuke 'Em High", meeting Lloyd Kaufman again, buying a truly outrageous JEM costume which I can't wait to wear!, watching lots and lots of anime, hanging with my kitty babies, finally organizing my crafts and toys and so much more! Gotta say it's been a pretty freakin' good year so far. :)

Anyways... without further ado here is what my art show schedule looks like so far. I will definitely be adding a lot more dates for summer and fall soon as well. Yay!

March 14-16 - Anime Matsuri - Houston, TX
March 22-23 - Lost in Wonderland - San Antonio, TX
April 5-6 - Starving Artists Art Show - San Antonio, TX
April 11-13-  Lonestar Comic Con - Schertz, TX
April 26 - Alamo Toy Show - San Antonio, TX
May 17 - Granbury Ghosts Paranormal Expo - Granbury, TX
June 20-22 - Texas Comic Con - San Antonio, TX
September 26-28 - Alamo City Comic Con - San Antonio, TX

Pretty crazy, huh?


Saturday, February 8, 2014

hobbit.town jewelry's 1st EVER Facebook Giveaway!!

You heard that right! I'm having my very 1st giveaway EVER on facebook right now! Enter below for your chance to win these BEYOND adorable puppy dog earrings!


Aren't they cute!?! One lucky winner will be chosen on Tuesday 2/11/14 so there's only a few days left to enter! Hurry up and stop on by my facebook page to get involved. You MUST follow all the rules! It's super easy though. All you have to do is:

1. "Like" my facebook page
2. "Like" this post
3. Share this post on your wall
4. Tell me one random thing about yourself! (i.e. Favorite color, band, movie etc.)

Also, you MUST share/comment on the original link for your vote to count which can be found here:


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151882839912001&set=a.487921442000.261663.65710682000&type=1&theater

Best of luck to everybody!! Thanks for your love and support. ;)

Monday, January 20, 2014

Exclusive hobbit.town jewelry items for sale @ Nine Tails!


Yup! You heard that right! Exclusive hobbit.town jewelry merch is now available for sale at Nine Tails in San Antonio, TX. If you haven't heard of them they are a darling little anime store located in the Wonderland of the Americas mall off I-35.

Live in the area? Then you gotta come by and check out my super cute display! I know this isn't the BEST photo... but my items are shown on the bottom row here behind glass.


I made a cute sign and everything!


When making items for Nine Tails I tried to stick with the themes of "anime" and "Hello Kitty" as those are two of their best selling items. I made all new items from hair bows to earrings for my display that I haven't ever made before and really had a blast! Now, I know not all of you live in Texas and can't come out to the store... but don't worry! If you ever have a request or see something you just HAVE to have featured in my Nine Tails photo album on facebook please feel free to message me! I'd be happy to create something cute and unique just for you. :)

Here's a few of my favorite items now available at Nine Tails!

Ouran High School Host Club Hair Bow:


Chibi Zelda Ring:


Pokemon Psyduck Necklace:


 Hope you all come out and say hello! Oh and don't miss out on the upcoming Soda Pop Culture 2 event that Nine Tails will be hosting on February 1st! I'm going to have a booth set up there with all kinds of goodies and there's also going to be live music, gaming and so many more fun things! Hope you see you all there. ;)



Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Upcoming Art Shows


Well the year has just begun, but I've already started filling up my schedule with exciting art shows and events. My goal is to do one big art show a month (or as many as I can afford to/keep up with) for the year. I had a lot of fun getting into the art show community last year and can't wait to participate in 2014's fabulous shows! Since I was still learning where all the "cool" shows were last year I'm going after the big ones this time. Which is both exciting and scary honestly. At least I'll have an awesome booth buddy to share my joy & sadness with. I don't know what I'd do without Elizabeth of ZombiesGoRawr. ;)

Anyways here's a sneak peek at my current art show schedule. I know many more dates will be announced later on, but just writing this list now made me nervous. I hope I can keep up! Guess I better start making stuff right now.

2014 Art Show Schedule:

February 1st - Soda Pop Culture 2 - San Antonio, TX
March 14-16 - Anime Matsuri - Houston, TX
March 22 - Mizuumi Con - San Antonio, TX
April 5-6 - Starving Artist's - San Antonio, TX
April 11-13 - Lonestar Comic Con - Schertz, TX
June 20-22 - Texas Comic Con - San Antonio, TX

Friday, January 3, 2014

2014 Here I Come!!






Holy crap! It's 2014!! Can you believe it? I sure can't. Last year went by WAAY too fast. I hope you all had fun celebrating New Years. I had a nice time celebrating with close friends. I just wish I hadn't gotten sick.. :(

Oh well! Ringing in the New Year sick was still fun. Plus I got to eat some really good food! I just hope this darn cold goes away soon. I don't like it!

Anyways... so now seems about as good a time as any to lay out my New Year's goals and resolutions. Here we go!

By the end of 2014 I hope to be a successful independent business woman! That has been my dream for years now and I think this year it might happen as long as I stay dedicated and can endure the workload.

For hobbit.town jewelry:

1. I hope to keep up with listing ALL new items as they are created. It has not been good for me to continuously make product without putting it in the store to sell. That just clutters up the closet and makes me miss out on opportunities to sell! Sure, when I'm prepping for big shows it's a good idea (and so I will do it in those instances only) but once the show is finished I need to get right back to listing again!

2. I also want to continue creating and expanding my shop to include items outside of jewelry & hair accessories. It has been a long time goal of mine to create clutch bags, aprons and clothing. And the only way to get that done is to just DO IT!

3. I also aim to participate in as many art shows/conventions as possible this year! That way when I'm not selling online I can make enough to live traveling around within my area and continuing to build my fan base. :)

4. I also REALLY want to get a sign to display in my booth when I go to shows.

5. AND I want to finally invest in a freaking printer so I can print out my labels and conveniently work on custom image items from my home. I'm tired of standing in long lines and going to the library!

For Sinsperations:

1. My goal is to list as many things as possible so I can clear out the clutter in my closet. I also plan to go through the pile again and decide if some of the currently unlisted items are really even worth the time and if not donating them.

For me!

1. Well that's tough. I guess to find job stability preferably within my own craft. I want to create things 24/7 and not have to worry about $$ or going to work as a waitress or anything else that ultimately isn't fulfilling to me at the end of the work day.

2. And I want to take a vacation!

And there you have it! Her's hoping that all these things are accomplished by 2015! ;)