A little bit of France

One of my inspirations to become a shop owner are the ladies behind French General. I learned of their small shop in Manhattan a few years ago while researching women in business "doing what they love". I loved the aesthetic of their store and the way they used vintage notions and jewelry mixed with new gift items. It was, I'm sure, my biggest inspiration to start my shop Eye Candy. French General has since moved to Hollywood, CA and the owners have published a couple of books, one of which I received in the mail yesterday. I love this book! The pictures are beautiful and the instructions on jewelry making is detailed. Not to mention that it has many examples of one of my current obsessions... the charm bracelet (with vintage charms of course!)! Can't wait to try making a piece of my own.... all I need to do is get my collected beads, bits & pieces of old jewelry and various other crafty notions that are all dumped together in boxes out of my basement cleaned and ready to go! First things first, right?