PICTURES!!!!

So my Winston Churchill quote today said, "The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all."  I like that.  I think my favorite old phrase (or maybe it's just British) is "hey, presto!"  Pretty much the equivalent of
"Voila!"  I'm ignoring the fact that I haven't updated in eons and still haven't put pix up....okay, I'll do that now....

 The somewhat troublesome howlite necklace

Coral Earrings--I've got about 3 pair of them, I was trying to use up all my chips

Black Pearl swirly earrings--made in a fit of creativity.  I'm quite lucky I had all these stashed away from a very productive day as I had some earrings featured in a Piercings category.

Pearl and Jade earrings, very elegant.  Discovered a second pair and decided to keep those!



And...a Christmas-y looking bracelet!  Well, the colors are, at least!  I think I have enough to make one more, possibly!

There! I posted pictures! I've got some more necklaces I whipped up this past weekend, but I'll tell you about those later! :)

Black Friday Sale!!!!!!!!

Black Friday sale on my Etsy shop!  Use coupon code BF2CAH20 when you checkout to get 20% off of your order!!!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tocatchahummingbird

Quick Update

Just a quick update because I'm tired and want to go to sleep.  I made a necklace with some howlite dyed to look like turquoise-- and there's a really funny story in that, but I'll save it for tomorrow :).  I finally got my shipping rates all figured out-- hallelujah!--so I can stop stressing about that.  I've got tomorrow off to make stuff and I'm really trying to get a bunch of stuff made to start selling for the year's biggest shopping season....but I'll get very busy at work also.  Busy at work=tired at home, but I'll make it work.  Somehow.  Now I need to go to sleep, 'cause it's been a looong weekend....!

Update

Okay, so no pix tonight....my bad.  It's been a long day.  Hope everyone had or wished a member of the military a Happy Veteran's Day!  And yesterday was the 235th birthday of the Marine Corps, Semper Fi!

Now that that's out of the way, time to get down to business.  I bought a TON of stuff today at Michael's (20% coupon!) and already made a Chrstmasy-looking red bracelet with green dangles, and a dyed howlite necklace on leather cord.  It's my first time using leather cord, so that was a bit of an interesting experience! 

I got down to this one bit of howlite and the cord just stopped partway through.  Rather disconcerting.  So I finally peered through the hole and discovered it was uneven.  So I went downstairs to see if my dad had a drill tip small enough to straighten the hole out.  He did, looked at the stone and said it looked straight to him.  But he gave it to my brother, since his eyes are younger and therefore better.  So I followed my brother, threatening him that if he broke it, he was buying me a whole new strand.  He looked at the bead and proclaimed it to be "not straight."  I said something along the lines of, "I'll alert the media!"  Case in point, he did straighten the hole--without breaking anything--and now I owe him a chocolate milkshake.  The necklace is complete, and all is slightly better with the world.  Now I just need to get my act together with my shop!

*snooze*

Yes, yes, yes, I know it's been awhile.  I haven't updated in ages and I haven't posted anything new on etsy in ages.  Right now I am dragging!  I have the next two days off so I will TRY to give a longer update then.  But until then, GOODNIGHT.

Twice in One Day Will NOT Tear A Hole in the Universe

Soooo, the earrings are not listed on the shop yet because the pictures are just horrendous.  I'm fighting the urge to go back to my old camera since it's familiar.  I MUST learn how to use my new one!!  Now that that's out of my system....it's not that the pictures are blurry, it's just getting the hang of having to adjust for lighting.  I'm trying to make it slightly easier on myself by shooting in Program Auto, but between window light at 10 in the am to bright overhead lights on wood, the pictures vary greatly in lighting.  I wish our photography teacher had done that class on shooting jewelry.... I'll figure it out sooner or later.

I'm getting really nervous about the necklace I made for my mom.  And the earrings.  It's a set.  My dad had asked me to make something for their anniversary, which is tomorrow.  The beads are not classic beauties, more exotic flavors.  I know she'll say she likes it and wear it a couple of times, but will she really like it???  And I have to close tomorrow, too....

In other news, I bought a bunch of stuff from FusionBeads and FireMountainGems last night, along with a necklace (pure spontenaity) from Lorelei Eurto this morning.  And I listed two of the bracelets in the pictures as well, so go check them out here!

Pictures!

Okay, here's the pictures I was going to put up yesterday, but with all the bloghopping I didn't want to make it any harder for people to find the challenge piece.  So here they are!  Enjoy!  Oh, and the last two bracelets, along with some earrings that match the last one, are up for sale on my etsy shop!

Challenge Reveal

Here it is!  The challenge necklace that  took me eons to finally get the way I wanted!  I ended up not using any of the additional beads that I wanted to use.  The white chain was definitely a big challenge part.  I loved the white cinnabar with the jade so much that I went and bought more to use by themselves!  Anyway, I bounced back and forth between the focal I had gotten and the beads I had, first dangling the focal from the chain and then putting the chain at the ends for the clasp.  I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to use the light and dark beads together and they looked so wrong separated.  I finally took it all apart earlier this week and came up with what you see here.  I used a clasp I had also gotten from Michael's along with extra crimp covers because I truly loathe crimp beads and had extra space to fill.  Hope you like it!

Okay, update:  I forgot to post the list on here, and for some reason it won't post the whole thing, so I'm just posting the blog that was right after mine.  Enjoy!

http://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/

I'm Back! *crickets*

I have no excuse for why it's taken me this long to update, especially since I've been on "vacation" this week....! But I HAVE been making jewelry and of course I haven't posted any of it because I haven't taken pictures because I'm lazy like that. But let's not beat that dead horse into the ground anymore.

So my mom says the other day that I should wear more of my jewelry so when people ask me, I can tell them I made it and direct them to my shop or comission a piece for them. But I said that most of the jewelry I make doesn't go with anything I have. So I decided to make some. But before I get to that.... Tuesday, I believe, my dad came up to me and asked if I'd make a necklace and earrings set for my mom, because their anniversary is in a week. AND he'd pay me....so of course I said yes and went to Michael's the next day and got a bunch of stuff, none of which I ended up using. I DID however, use the goldstone/blue goldstone swirly beads with blue goldstone rounds between them to make a very respectable-looking necklace, and then a pair of earrings with the leftover swirly beads. I'll post pictures tomorrow, because the light in my room is very green. I was kind of nervous, though, because the beads aren't traditionally "pretty." But my dad didn't say anything (aside from the fact my mom was 20 ft away), so I suppose it'll be all right. She does like goldstone. I even had some organza bags to put them in, although you can see right through them.

But anyway, I had a half-formed idea to do something with these purple glass and amethyst beads and silver rose chain connectors for my mom, but that kind of fell through in favor of the goldstone, because my mom tends to go for a more traditional look versus an artsy look....unless she REALLY likes it. So I decided to make a necklace for myself. Without stringing, because I hate crimp beads with a hot and fiery passion. Though it is faster. So I started laying out my necklace while watching the end of PotC 3, which I had started when I made my mom's. I was sitting on some pillows on the floor with my bead tray/mat in my lap. I made about a 20" necklace (again, I'll post pictures tomorrow)and had some beads left over. So I made a bracelet in the same style. and then I had a couple rose connectors left, so I used those in a pair of earrings. All of which I wore today. It was a little after 10 when I came into my room. I unfolded myself from my position on the floor, looked at the clock....and....12:37am?! Stringing is much faster, but using eyepins and findings is much prettier. Although my thumb hurts because I was bending the wire up against it for lack of another solid surface.

I also restrung my challenge necklace for perhaps the fourth or fifth time and was FINALLY satisfied. I made a couple of bracelets yesterday....or maybe it ws just the one.... And today I made some necklaces and a bracelet and restrung a bracelet that was just a smidge too tight. I will put pictures up tomorrow, along with the challenge pictures!

Arg....!!

And no, I did not miss "talk like a pirate day"....I'm just a bit frustrated at, well, everything. Work is driving me up the wall, to say the least. Got my etsy shop up and I'm itching to start selling all the stuff I made Thursday but I can't because I want to replace the earwires and clasps with the good ones that are in my firemountaingems order and I AM JUST SO STRESSED OUT!!!! Breathe....the order will get here when it gets here, there's no rush.... Actually it's not jewelry making that's stressing me out so I need to go to my other blog if I really want to get it out of my system....! I just thought it would be polite to keep up this one, too....

Etsy Shop Up & Running!....Kinda

So, I got my etsy seller's part up today....finally! I was super excited until I remembered that I wasn't going to list any of that new jewelry I made Thursday until I changed the clasps and earwires, which I can't do until my order gets here. Then I was a bit let down. And then I remembered my Gothic style Halloween necklace that I was going to sell anyway, took some pictures, did some cropping and now I have my first listing up! It's going to be a bit of a rough patch here in the beginning since I don't really know my way around selling online, but you have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run....!

There Goes My Paycheck!

So, I got paid today and that is a very good thing because I am about to go spend it all this weekend!!!! With all the rain we've gotten I haven't gone much of anywhere. I was off on Monday but I spent the time I was out at the post office and running errands on that end of town. And it POURED, so I wasn't going anywhere that wasn't necessary. Parts of the base flooded, and our church flooded, and today was the first "dry" day in about 5 days, maybe. Yesterday was the worst. My manager sent me home around 2 because we were so slow, so I ran through the McD's drive-thru. I've recently gotten hooked on the mocha frappes so I bought a medium sized one and by the time I got home, I was wired. So I grabbed my beading stuff.

There were several lengthy interruptions, but from around 3 to around 8 I made two necklaces, three bracelets and nine pairs of earrings! And I finally used up all of my lingering coral chips. I have a really pretty coral necklace, bracelet and earrings that I'm thinking of just selling as a set. I think I'll just add up the cost of what they would be individually and then take maybe $5 dollars off that since it's a set, yes?

I also ordered a bunch of stuff from FireMountainGems, but I forgot the boxes....so, when I go to Michael's tomorrow I think I'll buy some of the little gifty bags I looked at the last time I was there.

I also finally sent my friend her necklace and she got it and loves it! BUT I forgot to take pictures, so hopefully she'll post some on facebook. Now my contacts are driving me nuts so I'll get off of here and update later....!

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!