new jewelry!

so sunday was our practice set-up ... and i came home & made more jewelry. i love making jewelry. it's fun for me.


two necklaces.



and a bunch of earrings.

i thought i came up with a fairly clever way to photograph the earrings, but the photos still aren't the best. better than i was getting before, but it needs some tweaking. the lighting isn't quite right or something. the colors look pretty consistent on my monitor - the pink swirls aren't quite as prominent in person, but the rest are good representations.

i printed our business cards tonight. got my sales tax certificate. got our banner.

80 hours 'til we start selling!

preparing for the festival

tonight i stretched the screen for our earring display. we'll have to keep tabs on how many sets of earrings we make - we may need another frame. my goal, however, is to finish everything i currently have started before i start anything new. i don't have a lot that's in progress ... four calendars need covers & binding and then all the preparation stuff (making tablecloths, business cards, researching sales tax, painting a mirror, pricing items ...). once all of that is finished/collected/ready to walk out the door - THEN i'll make more earrings and bracelets. otherwise i know i'll keep making jewelry & then the night before we do our dry run, i'll be going crazy trying to get it all together. and there's just no need for that. :)



these are the five photos i'll have at the booth. i have two boxes of these 8.5" square frames - free of charge. so i figured i'd use those for the booth ... but cropping photos down to squares isn't as easy as i thought it would be. so i found these five flower photos & stopped there.

and yes, julie, i'd be happy to take some inspiration from your favorite earrings. :)

craft-a-thon, day 3

i spent a good chunk of today working on my t-shirt quilt. i'm pretty sure i'll be making another trip to jo-ann to get more fusible interfacing & sashing fabric ... but i gotta say that cutting up t-shirts is pretty fun. i've got three done so far, twelve more to go.


kathy & april came over tonight to craft. i worked up a set of marble magnets. i wasn't planning to make any of these for the festival, but then i found all the supplies i'd need to make 'em ... so i figured i might as well. i've decided that super glue works better than everything else i've tried on these.


when i found the supplies for the marble magnets, i also found some larger magnets. so i made some pop cap magnets, too. i originally bought the pop caps for necklaces & bracelets ... but i haven't found the motivation to do that, yet. so i may use them for magnets instead.


and then i made a quick bracelet while i was watching will & grace. i do love that show. :)

craft-a-thon, day 2

today did not consist of much crafting. instead, i spent the afternoon at the fair with holly & alicia. a very good use of the time! :) we had a lot of fun. and i think i'm now thoroughly convinced that fried fair food is not good for me. no matter how good it sounds/smells/tastes ... after 2 minutes it's just a lump in my stomach. that's a good thing to learn, right?

i did squeak out a couple pieces of jewelery after we got back tonight. but mostly i spent time trying to decide how to make my t-shirt quilt. keep in mind, this quilt has NOTHING to do with the popcorn fest ... but i'm suddenly very intent on making it. it shouldn't take more than two or three evenings to complete, but i probably shouldn't be doing that with the popcorn fest so close. regardless, i've made a shopping list & plan to go out tomorrow to pick up some supplies. first i need to decide if i want to sash the squares (i think i do), if i want all big squares or some small squares as a border (if i border it i can use the sleeves, some of which are pretty cool), what size the squares should be ... you know, all the important stuff. i'll keep you posted if i start hacking things up & sewing 'em together. :)

and check this out: i decided to unplug the router & plug it back in ... i've gotten a great wireless internet signal ever since. crazy, huh?

craft-a-thon, day 1

i'm taking vacation days monday-wednesday of this week and having a craft-a-thon. yesterday becca came over to craft with me. she worked on a set of invitations (she makes beautiful cards) and i made some li'l plush monsters.

the guy on the right was pretty frustrating. his construction is simple, but i kept making stupid mistakes. he does, however, has posable arms - and that's pretty cool. the guy on the left is my favorite. i call him "running bunny".

here's a side shot of them so you can see the backs of their ears & bodies. the bunnies have felt arms/legs - it was the best way to make them small & not have to turn anything that small inside out.

there are some bracelets i did last monday at craft night. i like the one on the left, i think it looks like candy. :)

and these are the pieces i did while i watching "the breakfast club" at 1 o'clock this morning. i was totally set on going to bed when i got home from the fair - but i've never seen "the breakfast club" in its entirety ... so i stayed up & made jewelery. the bracelet on the left looks really nice when it's being worn. it looks a little weird just piled on a table - and trust me, i tried to get a photo of me wearing it - but this is all i could do. you'll just have to stop by the booth & try it on. :)

in other news: my internet connection is still slow & flaky. i'll be at the fair again this afternoon - hopefully it stops raining. i need to take a shower.

slow internet

i turned in some of my entries for the county fair today. from the top: a soda bottle cap choker (entered in recycling, metal), a necklace/bracelet set (jewelry, glass bead) and a handmade bead (misc., glass beadwork). i also got my five photos matted today, so they're ready to turn in on tuesday. and then wednesday i'll be baking my cookies. yay.

can anyone tell me why my internet is slow enough i have to fight to get an e-mail sent, but it doesn't have a problem retrieving e-mails telling me how to enhance my love life?

this weekend is the pierogi fest. if you haven't gone - i recommend it. we were there friday for the parade, which was fun. it's a fairly short route, but there are a LOT of people. after the parade i was quite pleased to find someone selling both mushroom and spinach pierogi. yumm-o. i'm tempted to go back up there tomorrow afternoon for some more.

the weekend

friday was a beautiful day for a yard sale! we didn't rake in a ton of money ... but we sold the big stuff (sofa, big recliner, desk), which was good. almost everyone who came bought something, traffic was just slow.

saturday was greg's wedding. it was beautiful. the flowers were gorgeous! some were set in a semi-circle at the front of the stage with the flowers standing a good 18 inches tall - so as they stood behind them to say their vows, they looked like they were in an english garden. very cute. and the fellow who officiated the ceremony was obviously invested in greg & kim's relationship - i could tell he really knew them & cared for them. it's not often that the pastor tears up as he's giving the bride words to say during the ceremony. i love weddings. :)

my ten-year high school reunion was also on saturday. i missed the official event, but got back in town to attend a small "after party" of sorts. it was a lot of fun. mostly a group of people i wasn't very close with in high school, but it was a good time.

i spent most of today crafting with the gals for the popcorn fest. we do these day-long crafting marathons, and i always feel like i should have gotten a LOT more accomplished than i did. today i managed to trim down some photos for framing & make the four bracelets in that picture. i don't think the green one on top is actually done - i need to pick up some more jump rings & add a few more beads to fill in. but at least i did something. being crafty is good.

i'm taking a few days off at the beginning of august to craft. if anyone would be interested in joining me, let me know. you can bring along whatever kind of craft it is that you enjoy or just come to socialize. i wouldn't recommend bringing kids since i'll have sharp objects & small pieces all over the place, but adults are more than welcome. :)

bead night

i've decided to cut myself some slack about not taking good jewelry photos. i mean, i'm using glass beads - and a flash. how can i expect it to not be a little crappy? for example, the front right piece of jewelry is made of these white & orange swirled beads that i LOVE, but they just look shiny in the photo. you'll have to trust me that it's cute.

i'm trying round two of the bottle cap necklaces tonight. the first set is doing well - but the resin isn't completely set up yet. so this time i actually measured the two parts & i'll see if it sets up faster. funny how things can come out differently when you follow directions. :) i also learned, thanks to measuring, that i can get 7 bottlecaps filled with each ounce of resin. there's 16 ounces of resin in the bottle - so 112 caps per bottle. at $14/bottle - that's about 13 cents per cap. not bad at all. here's hoping it sets up properly. then i'm off to buy bulk bottle caps. and maybe some ball chain. you know that chain dog tags are usually on? the same stuff used for pull cords on basement lights? that's what i've seen these necklaces strung on. i'm not a huge fan of ball chains ... but it does seem to work well. so unless i find something i like better, that's probably what i'll use. although i really want to make some chokers that are just rings of caps - and bracelets, too. maybe some ball chain in the back to make them adjustable. yeah ... that could be good. or i could have the bottle caps individually - and let people choose which ones they wanted for a choker or bracelet. they're string together pretty easily. charge per cap. and then use a basic necklace extender on the end for the clasp. it'd be more work to customize them as people bought them ... but it might be a nice feature. hmmm.

i love thinking crafty.

beads, beads, beads

this is the bracelet i made this past monday at bead night. i bead with three other gals - april, kathy and becca. so when i say things fit becca better than they fit me, it's because becca (the other becca) is smaller than i am. so no, i'm not crazy & talking about myself in the third person - there are two of us. although, we actually think we might be a little bit of the same person because we knew a lot of the same people in high school. we didn't meet each other though until she started working with me.



this is a bracelet i made awhile ago, but i don't think i ever shared. it's a three strand bracelet that i'm really tempted to keep. :)



and this is a set i made a few weeks ago. also temped to keep it, just because i love the green beads. they might be jasper? or a variety of jade? or ... something? i should probably pay more attention to what i'm buying at the bead store.

bead night

i also bought a length of silver chain at jo-anns (when i bought the big bird pelt). i've had these beads for awhile now and haven't been able to make them work. so i did a little wire wrapping, added in some chain links, and poof! a bracelet i think is cute. yay! it looks impossibly small, but it does fit around my wrist. it fits becca better than it fits me, so i figure that's a good sign. becca's smaller than i am, so she's good about trying on my jewelry & giving me that perspective.

i made a necklace, too. using the chain & some of the beads left over from my blue/green cube necklace. it's got a dangly glass pendant with green & blue streaks. it's very pretty, but i can't get a decent photo of it. so you'll just have to use your imagination.

running down the battery

i like to run my camera battery completely dead before i recharge it. normally that means just leaving the camera on, but this time i decided to just keep taking pictures - mostly with the flash on to speed up the process. here are the results.


stan & pete hanging out together. you can see pete's nubs better in this photo. also well illustrated is stan's patience with pete's silly antics.


here's a fuzzy one attempting to show off more of my hair color. the red highlights are completely throughout. i still love them, even if marji called them punk and clint asked if i did it because of valentine's day.


me modeling my newest necklace. i made it to go with this fabulous new chartreuse top i bought. of course, i'm not wearing that shirt because it was in the laundry. but trust me, it's fabulous. it has little cap sleeves (so unlike me, i know) and some pleating in the back with a little sash. scoop neck, lots of little buttons down the front. shimmery all over. looks great with my white tank & postively dashing under my brown corduroy jacket. it will be worn for our first bunco night.


i recently read about this gal who throws her camera to take photos. the results are quite fun, but i'm not about to throw my camera. so i played with the zoom instead. i set the exposure for 6 seconds & used the flash. i started with my lense set at 80mm, and once the flash fired i opened it up 28mm. it was fun. and it took some experimentation to get the exposure time correct so the whole image wasn't just white ... so it helped run out the battery pretty quick.

i also shot some photos of a quilting project i'm working on, but those can't be shared yet. i just like to mention them to make people curious. :)