Let Me Blow Off the Dust

Well! It's certainly taken me awhile to update! I finally finished my friend's necklace (BONUS!), now I'm just waiting for her sister to get back to me about where to send it, because I want to surprise her with it....

I've made a bunch more stuff now, and I can definitely see where my weaknesses lie. I. Hate. Crimp beads. They make me want to swear off beading/stringing for good. So we try to avoid them.... I need to find a better way to get a decent 90 degree bend out of wire when there's already another loop and a bead on there. It's just a 'be patient' kind of thing right now. I need to get better gold-looking findings, because I made a necklace and a pair of earrings with these gold findings from Michael's and boy have they gone....well, let's just say I won't be buying them anymore. I'm also struggling with designing something new. I try to get ideas for necklaces and bracelets and stuff but I have a really hard time articulating them into an actual product. Like today,I found a whole new line of stuff at Michael's and went nuts, but when I got it all home, I didn't know where to start. Earrings are SO much easier for me. Which is why I need to work on necklaces and bracelets more.

I'm starting to get stuff together to start selling on Etsy. I need to make a banner, but I have to do that on my desktop, because all my good pictures and graphics are there. I also need to figure out what a good starting amount of stuff is....I'm thinking 5 items, maybe? Which means I need to get those 5 items photographed and ready to go. Which means I need to find the CD for my camera, or just try it without it, or buy a memory card reader, which is generally safer for the camera anyway. I mean, if there's a power surge, it's much cheaper to replace the card reader than the camera.

I also need to get ready to treat this like my second job, especially if by some miracle it takes off. I'm really not setting out for the world record in sales or anything, I just want to be able to make some money back from all that I am spending and make a little extra. Because minimum wage will NOT support me for the rest of my life.

In other news, I somehow managed to do something to my upper back, which causes more than a little discomfort, but not as bad as if it had been my lower back. Unfortunately, I can't really do much about it until next week. It's a good thing and a bad thing that I don't work until late tomorrow. Good because I won't be standing all day. Bad because I'm going in late to help decorate for Christmas. Yes, already. Believe me, we've got plenty of merchandise! I'll just have to mention that I will NOT be doing any heavy lifting. And I'll eat a truffle and grab a mocha frappe to keep me going....along with some Aleve....!

Til next time, try catching a hummingbird--it's not altogether impossible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDE4IUqlCXs

First Post!

Well, this is my first post on my new jewelry-talk only blog! I will try to post pictures of things I've made, but it might be awhile since I am trying to find the setup disc for my new camera (!!). So, this first post is going to be EXTREMELY short. More later!