Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Julie from Newberry!

Click here to visit her kitchen tools shop!

Here's Julie making a dotted rolling pin!

Here are 9 Fierce Facts about Julie and one line is completely fictional.  Get involved by guessing which one of the 10 items listed below is the impostor. Put your comments below to test your sleuthing skills!  The fictional statement about Julie will be posted next Tuesday when I feature the next CN Teammie. See below for the false fact about last week's featured teammie, Melinda.

1. I am fiercely shy, I am convinced a person can die from embarrassment so I do improv with an extroverted LA actor... agonizing fun and cheaper than therapy.

2. One part of my business is developing serving pieces for restaurants, green ones particularly seek out Newberry Furniture and Kitchen Accessories, or Newberry FaKA, just trying out a new acronym.  Our most popular online item: pizza peel and pizza knife.

3. A documentary was made about building our house (we physically built much of it ourselves and it’s green). It’s called Styrofoam House on YouTube. Basically we built it out of giant Legos later filled with concrete, it’s LEED certified and energy efficient.

4. As a frustrated foodie, I wrote a cookbook about friendship and northern Italian cooking about Stella Cinque, her name means Five Star. She would always say, "Because I am the best!"

5. I thirst for knowledge, so I attend beer school. I didn’t get enough credits to graduate this Spring. I'm going back in the Fall, at least the homework is no burden.

6. In the 80s, I was a pop star, Julie Sparkles and sang in shopping malls with my big hair, shoulder pads and pushed up sleeves. Alas, a one hit wonder. 

7. I was an associate producer of a movie two years ago, probably a concession because my house was the movie set, 80 hours of filming, 4 cast members, 40 crew members, plus the making of the movie staff. It was 2 weeks crammed into 5 days.

8. Completely landlocked, I live within one hour from the geographic center of the country, St Louis (at least that's what National Geographic reported). According to the FBI, it’s the most dangerous city in the nation, which makes no sense to me. Someone is lying about my city, when I find out who your are, I’ll cut you.

9. Bill and I won an award for having a sustainable business and we didn’t know green was a thing. We didn’t want to waste wood. We are really tree career counselors, example: storm felled tree, you get up and be a chair, now get to work. 

10. I have used power tool for 13 years. Power tools and marriage requires healthy communication. I am still boy crazy for Bill. We started our business and got married the same year. Love is like that, goofy.

*******Last week's false fact about Melinda from Melindamilkshake was this one: #6 Melinda does not study psychology and anthropology.  She studies comparative religion and anthropology, the rest of the statement is true. ***

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Home Sweet Home

Darling Girl's Shirred Summer Dress from CN teammie's shop SuchAPrettyDress

Memorial weekend is here and it's traditionally known as the first weekend of summer!  Woo hoo! The kids are out of school, it's time to hit the outdoor flea markets, fire up the grill for some backyard gatherings and catching candy at your local hometown parades!  For the Treasury Challenge show us what being home for summer means to you.  To see the entire Etsy post, click here for the 'Folk Heroes' Finds

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.

The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members. 
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation" 
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.

4.  Tag the treasury "home sweet home".

5  Tag the treasury "June trends" 

6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge.  

7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter. 

8. Please follow our blog. 

9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, June, 1. 

10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!

Wednesday Item Challenge - EcoPrint

Holy Hannah you guys made it hard on me this week! I've only been back a few days...you couldn't take it easy on me? haha. Seriously you all made some amazing T's this week. It was very hard to choose!

I am pleased as punch to announce that this weeks Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge winner is EcoPrint with the treasury "the day began with me kissing you..." (love the dot dot dot). Congratulations Steven, Olesya and Irina! (please note that the entire treasury is made up of CN team members including the one that is now missing. Fantastic!)



This screen shot is a live, clickable version of EcoPrint's "the day began with me kissing you..." Treasury. You can click on any of the images above to be taken to each individual shop!

So this week for the Wednesday Item Challenge we'll be featuring EcoPrint's "enjoy the rain quote print in sky blue and black". We've been experiencing a lot of grey skies and drizzly weather lately here where I live so I was inspired! I'm a huge fan of ran and think this print would brighten up anyone's blustery day! I'm so excited to see what awesome treasuries the team comes up with!

Enjoy the Rain Quote Print in Sky Blue and Black

The Rules:

You must include at least 8 Curation Nation team members - use the sidebar on the blog for a list of team shops.

1. Please follow our blog.
2. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of your treasury. This helps other people find the challenge and enter.
3. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury.
4. Tag the treasury "curationnation"
5. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury"
6. Tag the treasury "rain"
7. If you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury
8. Include the featured item in the first three rows of your treasury.
9. DUE DATE: Wednesday June, 1.
10. Have fun!


Wednesday Item Treasury Challenges feature one item from a shop - the item must be included in your treasury. The featured Wednesday item is picked from the winning shop of the Saturday challenge. If the winner doesn't have a shop on Etsy, they will get to pick an item of their choice! Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all. These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members.

Talkin' Tuesday - Meet Melinda from MelindaMilkshake!

Click here to visit Melinda's Vintage Fashion from All Eras!

1.  At 20 I left the state with a group of people I had met two weeks before.  I travelled the country selling magazine subscriptions door to door for one year.  We went all over the country living in hotel rooms and having interesting encounters with strangers.  It was a great learning experience in my life. 

2.  I come from Amish heritage.  My great grandmother was born Amish and became Mennonite when her mother died and she was sent to live with a new family.  My grandmother was raised Mennonite and left the church when she was 18.  She cut off all her hair and promptly became an airplane pilot.  She was one of the first women stunt pilots and airplane racers, she was also the first women helicopter pilot in Michigan and one of the first women to race cars.  She rocks!  She had three sons and taught them to fly at very young ages. My father had a reputation for flying upside down more than right side up and he had me steering planes and co-piloting starting at the age of 9.  They lived on a farm with a runway between the cornfields and the Cessnas stored in the barn.  Much of my family is still Mennonite and Amish, although I was raised "English". 

3.  I was a goth cheerleader, in fact I was captain of the cheerleading squad.  We did competitive cheer and I loved it! 

4.  I once travelled around the country for several months with a boyfriend living at campgrounds and out of a Bronco.  My favorite memory of that time is sitting on the beach in Bodega Bay at full tide watching the surfers swim out and picnicking on french bread and brie.   

5.  I spent one year working on an all natural animal farm.  It's a cooperative community that was started in the 70's as an experiment in behavioral psychology.  I wanted to get in touch with where my food came from and reassess if meat eating was the right thing for me.  It turns out that I'm not as squeamish as I thought!  I participated in butchering a chicken and castrating a goat and I still eat meat!  While working there I was trained in all that goes into raising and farming dairy goats.  I hadn't thought about goats at all before that experience, but I quickly fell in love with them!  I now plan to have some goats of my own one day. 

6.  I spent ten years studying art, literature, creative writing and photography.  At one time I wanted to be a writer and even spent some time writing editorials for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Eventually I decided to be an anthropologist.  I started my Etsy shop so that I could work part time while earning my degree.  Now I'm earning a degree in both psychology and anthropology and I want nothing more than to work for myself and continue to expand my business!  I can't wait to be finished with school so that I can work full time for myself!

7.  Last spring my fiance and I took a trip together to Spain and Morocco.  We spent a month away from home and he proposed to me on the balcony of the apartment we rented in Barcelona.  It was the most beautiful time!  We will be married this August 27th on Lake Michigan and I will wear a sage green dress with a skirt I designed from fabric dating to the 1800's.  

8.  I have taken two solo trips to Europe.  Once I hitchhiked to Berlin from Dresden and took a road trip to Italy from Germany.  My German friend and I neither spoke or read Italian, so driving was quite an adventure!  We saw Florence, Pisa and some amazing medieval towns in the northern mountains.  We waded in ice cold glacial lakes of green and blue and slept without a tent on top of a small mountain over looking a farm village.  We were also yelled at by police men toting machine guns and followed by groups of young men attracted by my friend's blonde hair and blue eyes.  Another time I traveled alone to France and Spain from Germany.  I spoke no French and no Spanish.  My ATM card neglected to work when I arrived and I had to travel without money seven hours away to find my American credit union on a military base in Heidelberg.  I then befriended a military man outside of the base and convinced him of the importance of me getting to the credit union.  He took me into an office where he questioned me about terrorism before escorting me to the credit union.  I was so relieved to get my money!   

9.  The first time I travelled to Germany alone I almost missed my flight due to security at the Kalamazoo airport.  After searching, questioning, and scanning my hands for explosive residue, they finally revealed that they had detected bomb residue on my backpack.  The backpack was from WWII and still had residue (I even washed it) ! After some deliberation they put a special note on my passport and sent me on my airplane.  I still have that backpack but I won't be taking it on anymore long trips!    

10.  I have been hostess to The Black Lips, King Khan, The Fatals and Jay Reatard.  (These are musicians).  I wasn't going to include this tidbit, but a Black Lips song came on the radio just as I thought of the memory!  Synchronicity.  The Black Lips, King Khan and I played dress up and had a photo shoot.  I love playing dress up!  The guys wore my black tutus, 1970's nightgowns and sparkly eyeshadow which I applied to their lids.  Entirely too much fun for one evening.  However, I don't recommend lending out your favorite black tutu and bottle of fake blood to fledgling rock stars, they'll surely forget you. ; )  If you're reading this post the black tutu via Priority Mail asap!

*******Last week's false fact about Stephanie from LaCocoRouge was this one: #5. When I lived in Australia our school had a program called Extreme Adventures!  We traveled to Antarctica for a week to study penguins.  My favourite penguin was Louie because he liked to play fetch and a loose version of soccer which was really passing the ball back and forth.

Saturday Theme Treasury Challenge - Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam, not just a band that was huge in the '90's.  
And, not something you spread on toast.  

This week's treasury challenge is all about June's birthstone, the pearl, and we are going to jam with it! 

"Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles."  ~Sonja Henie

Carnation Pink Shell Pearl Beads from CN Teammie's shop BeadFrenZ

There is always a photo used to express the theme but this item does not have to be included in your treasury.

The Rules:

1. Include at least 8 Curation Nation team members. 
2. Tag the treasury "curationnation" 
3. Tag the treasury "etsyteamtreasury" - if you tweet, tweet your treasury using the hashtag #EtsyTeamTreasury.

4.  Tag the treasury "pearl".

5  Tag the treasury "June trends" 

6. Post a comment here on the blog with a link to your treasury - your treasury will not be judged unless you have posted it below in the comments. Your shop could be chosen as the winner to be featured on our Wednesday Item Treasury Challenge.  

7. Put a link to this blog post in the comments of the treasury - this helps others find the challenge and enter. 

8. Please follow our blog. 

9. DUE DATE: Wednesday, May 25.

10. Saturday Treasury Challenges are the only challenges that get judged.

Everyone is invited to play - these challenges are open to all! These challenges are also voluntary - never mandatory for team members. Remember to try to include team mates you haven't used before.  These challenges are meant to build your treasury making skills, promote the team and make Etsy connections.  If you deal in vintage it's a great time to promote your vintage goods by making the old new again!