How to keep value from showing if its empty?

Hi, my function is showing images like I want.

but there always seems to be one image that doesnt show and it says its information is nothing.  I check my database many times to make sure there are no empty fields and there are none.

http://auroriella.com/index.php

I tried this:

if($featured != "") {

and

if(!empty($featured)) {

but its still letting values in that are nothing!  Any ideas?

// Displays the featured products randomly
function featured_products() {
      global $conn;
      /*
      $query = "SELECT * FROM bracelets WHERE featured=1 ";
    $query .= "UNION ALL SELECT * FROM earrings WHERE featured=1 ";
    $query .= "UNION ALL SELECT * FROM necklaces WHERE featured=1 ";
      */
      $query = "SELECT 'bracelets' as theTable,  id, filename FROM bracelets WHERE featured=1 ";
    $query .= " UNION ALL SELECT 'earrings'  as theTable,  id, filename FROM earrings WHERE featured=1 ";
    $query .= " UNION ALL SELECT 'necklaces' as theTable,  id, filename FROM necklaces WHERE featured=1 ";
      $result = mysql_query($query, $conn) ;
      confirm_query($result);

      $output = "";
      // These loops output the subject names with their corresponding pages underneath them
      $featured=array();
      while ($featured[] = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
      {
            //do nothing here
      };

      //"randomize"
      shuffle($featured);
	  if($featured != "") {
		  foreach($featured as $images){
				$output .= "<a href=\"" . substr($images['theTable'], 0, -1) . ".php?item=" . urlencode($images['id']) . "\">";
				$output .= "<img src=\"" . $images['theTable'] .'/'.$images['filename'] . ".png\" />";
		  }
	  }
      return $output;
}

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