The Monocle & Moustache

Meet the newest addition to our team at Tophatter, Cassandra. She’s hilariously goofy, fantastic at organizing partner auctions & all around awesome. 

• Name: Cassandra
• What is your title/position? Answer: Partner Manager is my actual title - I manage partner auctions on Tophatter.
• Do you have any pets? Answer: No pets; I have allergies to dogs, cats and I just can’t cuddle with a lizard! I am becoming fond of our little dog Mika here at work.
• Who is your favorite Tophatter auctioneer? Why? Answer: The one with no pants! An auction must be more fun when you’re not wearing pants.
• If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? Answer: Girl powa! A la Spice Girls but without the chunky platform shoes.
• What are your top 3 favorite non-Tophatter blogs/websites? Answer: I like to listen to Ted Talks on YouTube, NPR so I can get the latest news and I also like looking up vegetarian recipes on Pinterest, and my friend has a blog called: www.theforestfeast.com, which makes me want to eat local and fresh. I guess that’s four. Deal with it! 
• When you DO have spare time, what are your hobbies? Answer: I volunteer a lot and I’m always in some kind of education program. Right now, I’m studying Gemology & Sustainable Leadership…so…I guess I don’t have spare time for hobbies. I live vicariously through our crafty Tophatter community. But I do like to sew…
• What is your dream vacation? Answer: I’ve been to many places around the world, but I’ve never been do India. I feel like a trip to India can change you. The Beatles, Alanis Morissette and my friend Beth are good examples.
• Who is your favorite guilty pleasure musician/band? Answer: I’m not sure I feel guilty about it but I do get an urgent and insatiable desire to listen to ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac. Sometimes it comes on so strong I NEED to listen to it. I think it’s because my Dad bought the album the day I was born and maybe Stevie Nicks’ voice has had a primal effect on my brain. Oh! And I can’t miss an opportunity to give a shout out to Canada’s best kept secret, The Tragically Hip! I’m a (proud) ‘Hipaholic’ which I think our Canadian Tophatters will appreciate.
• Could you go an entire week without phones, TV, and computers? Answer: Where do I sign up? I’ll go meditate in the forest and look for banana slugs…I’ve already forgotten the question.

Bahaha, Cassandra is a hoot & had me lol’ing the entire time I wrote this post! Wouldn’t you agree? 

Have more questions for her? Ask below!

Beth & Chad, the minds behind Of Matter, are hosting their first Tophatter auction on May 6 @ 5PM PT. 

Of Matter is an independent jewelry label designed and produced by husband and wife team, Beth Coller & Chad Sell.  Referencing strong backgrounds in graphic design and media, OM jewelry has a sharp-cut personality, featuring bold geometric shapes and straightforward minimalism. With timeless colors, OM jewelry is carefully designed to transition with trends and seasons, the type of pieces that are essential to every jewelry collection. OM is often featured on the top design blogs and popular online flash sale sites as a leading edge, modern design brand. 

Of Matter is a familiar face across the platform, stemming all the way back to Heartsy. Samantha, of urban aviary, who has also been an amazing partner on Tophatter, suggested that Beth get involved with our Partners program too. And, we’re so happy she did!

Check out Of Matter’s auction on May 6 @ 5PM PT & for more designs, you can find them on their site & on Facebook.

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Partners are amazing individuals, brands or stores that bring their wonderful collections to the Tophatter marketplace. Partner Profiles are a great way to get to know them far beyond the items they sell.

Jenn Woolf exclaims she’s a happy hooker (aka. crocheter)!  All of her items on Baby Itz You are crocheted by hand. Her first Partner Auction on Tophatter is scheduled for May 4 @ 3PM PT. 

What inspired Jenn to start crocheting? Jenn explains that her grandmother taught her when she was little & that she has many special memories with her. They used to spend the weekends together & crochet. Jenn feels comfort in knowing that, even though her grandmother may be gone, she’s is still a large part of what Jenn does.

Shopping for the perfect yarn is what takes the most time, Jenn explains. The yarn needs to be just right - high quality, luxurious & perfect. She visits her local yarn shops and big craft stores to get inspired. Her items are all done free hand, making each piece one-of-a-kind.

Jenn’s business started in 2008. After having her fourth son in 2007, Jenn left her job in property management so that she could spend time with her family. Her husband had a construction business and her plan was to stay home, take care of the kids & help the business. When the recession hit, she says it hit hard & they needed her to help supplement their income even more, but Jenn really wanted to be home for her children.

Jenn had always been a crafter & with the encouragement from friends and family, she decided to sell some of her creations. She initially started on the ground, with shops & shows, but soon started looking for a website to help grow. Jenn explains how fortunate she feels that she’s been able to help provide for the family by doing something that she loves. 

Come share Jenn’s passion & excitement in her Baby Itz You auction on May 4th @ 3PM PT. Click here to browse the auction & set reminders for items that you like! 

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Partners are amazing individuals, brands or stores that bring their wonderful collections to the Tophatter marketplace. Partner Profiles are a great way to get to know them far beyond the items they sell.

Samantha & Caelen Bird, of Urban Aviary, are featuring their stunning nature-inspired jewelry in their second Tophatter Partner Auction on April 30th. They’ll be featuring new one-of-a-kind pieces exclusively on Tophatter.

Urban Aviary, a husband and wife team, offers amazingly beautiful nature-inspired, eco-friendly & conflict-free jewelry. They approach their design with inspiration from minimalist trends but the pieces are also energized for every day wear. In their feature on Fab.com’s blog, Samantha explains that she loves collecting natural gems and materials, and that the stones are a starting point for inspiration. 

Samantha’s story begins with what she refers to as the ‘ice cream bandits’ - her family had just moved to a new neighborhood and were burglarized while at church one evening. They lost a lot, including computers, her favorite ice cream & many photographs of her first child.

To make up for the cost of a new computer, Samantha started designing again (after a period of time where she had no longer been inspired or passionate about the products she was making). After contacting Fab.com, Samantha couldn’t believe that she had been offered a feature. Since then, Urban Aviary has become a regular on Fab.com & now an amazing partner on Tophatter!

For a more detailed story of how Urban Aviary became a success, read Samantha’s personal blog post here. 

Join Tophatter & The Birds for their upcoming auction, featuring new & unique one-of-a-kind pieces, on April 30th. Love Urban Aviary & want more after the auction? This coupon code will go live after their Tophatter auction: Tophatter25 for 25% off your next purchase on their site. Offer expires a week after it’s activated.

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Partners are amazing individuals, brands or stores that bring their wonderful collections to the Tophatter marketplace. Partner Profiles are a great way to get to know them far beyond the items they sell.

Lulu is hosting her Lulu Luxuries auction on April 26 @ 11AM PT!

Lulu says, “You know those women who look so put together so effortlessly……well it takes a lot of thought and consideration. Let us do all the work. We create collections of jewelry, accessories and fashion to make it easy for you. We follow all the trends to find great pieces that will update your wardrobe and give it that little pop! You can be hip and trendy without breaking the bank or looking like a teenager! We want to help you feel and look great!”

And we have to say, “that sounds great to us!”

Before we dive into Lulu’s story, let’s put a name behind this trendy & colorful brand. Erin started Lulu as a Facebook page in an effort to connect with her website clients & interact with them on a more social and personal level. It was an absolute success & has grown exponentially from there, now boasting more than 20K likes (& starting off at 1500 likes during August of 2012)! 

Erin runs 3 sales a week on her Facebook page where she puts up jewelry, accessories & fashion items with fixed prices & limited quantities. 

The mind behind Lulu shares that she really wanted to connect with 32-50 female demographic. She’s a hoot too, saying “I felt like there was a disconnect for women at this age who want to be hip but don’t want to look like their high school daughters.” 

“It’s been so much fun”, Erin says. “I really try to get these women to try to look outside their box just a little with fresh new color combinations.”

Lulu absolutely delivers this pop of excitement with her collection of items! Browse her auction scheduled for Friday, April 26 @ 11AM PT. 

You can also join the Lulu Luxuries community on Facebook here! 

Dear Katie,

I am SO confused. I try to schedule during the Priority period, and it tells me I can’t. I try to schedule in the Showcase auctions, and I can’t. I don’t know where to check or how I know if I can schedule in those auctions. It’s just so confusing! Can you PLEASE let me know how I can tell if I have Priority status or can schedule in a Showcase auction? All of this not being sure is making me crazy!

Lost in Lampasas

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Dear Lost,

I’m sorry that these statuses have been confusing you. Let me see if I can lay it out for you in a way that will make sense:

Scheduling in Showcase Auctions:

Whether or not you can schedule in these auctions is determined by your lifetime Quality Expectations number. This information can be tracked down on your Seller Statistics page. At the bottom of the page, there’s a section titled “Expectations.” The first set of numbers is Average Quality. That is the number that determines your eligibility for Early Bird Bazaars and Showcase auctions. If the Total number at the bottom of the column is 2.4 or higher, you are eligible to schedule in those auctions. Well, except for the first five minutes of the first Add-in period; that’s reserved for sellers with Priority scheduling.

Priority Scheduling:

Priority scheduling will allow you to schedule in the first 5 minutes of the first add-in period of the auctions with direct in-auction scheduling. So, how do you know if you have it or not? The Scheduling Priority page will tell you. The page can look daunting at first, but let me break it down for you. There are 5 bullet points in a list at the top of the page: if you meet those 5 requirements, then you have Priority Status.

• Do you have at least 1 positive feedback?

• Have you attempted to sell a lot in the past 14 days?

• Have you been in attendance for 75% of your lots that went on the block in the past 14 days?

• Have all of your items shipped on time? And have no outstanding late shipments?

• Are you on one of the priority lists below?

If you can answer yes to each of the bullet points, then you have Priority Status. That is confirmed by a statement at the bottom of the bullet points that tells you whether or not you have it.

What about those lists? There are twelve of them…and you only need to be on one to qualify for that last bullet point of requirements for priority scheduling. They may look daunting, and they may look like math is involved (eek!), but we have given you information to help you figure things out. The top 5 Sellers are listed for each list, and, below that is a link that says “+ 25 more…” If you click on that line, you will be redirected to the list of the top 30 people on that list. The top right corner of the page tells you how numbers on the list are calculated.

Please remember that even with these “special” statuses, there is a lot of competition to get into the auctions. Priority Status and the Showcase requirements make it easier, but it’s not a guarantee. Good luck in the auctions!

Jennifer Jangles is hosting her Happy Things by Jangles.net auction April 19 @ 4PM PT!

Jennifer’s first craft project was a valentine for her Dad when she was just a wee 2-year old. She hasn’t stopped crafting since!

With plans to become a fashion designer in bustling New York City, she was quickly derailed when she discovered her love for clay during her senior year of high school. Jennifer received her BFA in Ceramics at Indiana University just four years later. She worked in a fabric store throughout college and then as a corporate floral designer for a year, after which she set her mind to being self-employed. 

15 years later, Jennifer has gotten her hands into tiles, ceramic beads, buttons & jewelry. Each piece is made by hand! Jennifer’s process for her ceramics: each piece is slowly dried and then fired in an electric kiln to 2000 degrees. They are individually glazed with tiny brushes, after which Jennifer applies colors and two additional coats of clear glaze. Then the pieces are put back into the kiln for a second firing, this time on a special bead holder.

We had the opportunity to pick Jennifer’s brain on where she finds inspiration & how she’s built her brand.

Jennifer: I’m always overflowing with ideas, but most of them come from “thinking in clay”. I’ll try a new technique or see something popular & I’ll think, can I make this in ceramics? After which, I go from there.

TH: Tell us a little bit more about how the Happy Things branding came about…

Jennifer: Happy Things is pretty recent! I’ve been making beads for 14 years now, and everyone associated my store and image with the name Jennifer Jangles and beads. In the past 5 years, I’ve been designing more fabrics & products, along with painting pottery & making jewelry. I had been feeling scattered with my work, but then I started listening to Smart Creative Women interviews with Monica Lee. I realized then that I’m a typical artist and sometimes to make a living, you have to be doing a lot of different things. That’s when I decided I needed something to bring it all together and for years and year, the first word out of anyone’s mouth was ‘happy’. Oh, you make happy stuff; oh, your work is so happy. So that’s when I started the Happy Things branding!

Join Jennifer Jangles and come check out many of her Happy Things in Friday’s afternoon auction, April 19 starting at 4PM PT. Room opens at 3PM PT. 

Find more of Jennifer on her site, Jangles.net; you’ll find everything you could possibly want to know about this fabulous artisan, including some great crafting tutorials for you to follow along! 

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Many of the sellers who we partner with are amazing individuals, brands or stores that bring their wonderful collections to the Tophatter marketplace. We plan to provide Partner Profiles so that you can get to know our partners far beyond the items they sell. 

Grandis Jewelry is hosting a Partner Auction on Wed, April 17 @ 5PM PT.

Grandis Jewelry was established in 1895 in Petrolia, Canada. Grandis has maintained the romantic Victorian atmosphere in their beautifully restored heritage building; a perfect environment in which to properly showcase their jewelry. 

Grandis Jewelry is a member of the Canadian Jewellers Association, the Independent Jewellers Organization, the Sarnia Chamber of Commerce and the elite American Gem Society. Among their many services, Grandis has one of only 13 accredited gem laboratories in Canada.

Grandis has received numerous awards and acclaim for what they do, including being named Canadian Jeweler of the Year. They’ve also received the Sarnia Chamber of Commerce award for outstanding business excellence.

We’re looking forward to this new partner who has brought their collection of fine and custom made jewelry to the Tophatter marketplace.

Browse their auction & set alerts for items you want!

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Many of the sellers who we partner with are amazing individuals, brands or stores that bring their wonderful collections to the Tophatter marketplace. We plan to provide Partner Profiles so that you can get to know our partners beyond the items they sell.