Popular!

Black Spiral Hemp Choker

One of my more popular items has been my hemp creations - especially this month! So it's the perfect time to relist this necklace with all new photos. It's 15 inches and only $15! I didn't do that on purpose - I promise! The bead in the center is a lovely pink lampwork bead that I picked up in my local bead shop - and fell in love with! Is this lovely piece going to be yours?

I also happen to have a hemp necklace in line to make for myself right now - I'll show you pictures when I get to it! Whenever that is...

The Ball is Rolling!

White Spiral Hemp Bracelet

I sold this bracelet today! Fortunately for you - this is one that I can make more of - so it's still listed! I haven't remade it yet - but I will in the next day or two :) If you order it, it'll still be out very soon!

I've gotten going again on my shop, and things are happening, which makes me very happy! I had this order today from someone I don't know, and I have a couple more friend-orders in progress right now. Hey, it's not much, but I'll take whatever I can get! 

My goal, while I'm working on building traffic again, is 5 sales a month. Since this is my first paid-for sale this month (the others are currently unpaid because they are incomplete right now) I'm at 1/5 for my sales goal! If everything goes through with the others I'll be at 4/5. Here's hoping it all works out!

Any one want to help me reach my goal? You know where to find me!

Catching Up Once Again :)

Well everything has been a little sporadic from me lately do to the medication withdrawals and the migraines from 'em...but here are my latest listings from etsy and artfire! Tell me which one is your fav and I'll give you an extra entry into my top commentators contest!

Laughing At Myself....

Why am I laughing? Because this latest collection on my latest promoted items CLEARLY shows the difference between items I've recently renewed - and items I've taken new photos with my light box! Ah well.

So here's my plan. I have a lot of inventory (a lot) between my two shops. For Etsy I'm going to slowly replace the photos by rephotographing items whenever they come up for relisting. For Artfire, since items don't expire, I'm going to alternate between one new listed item, and retaking the photos for two old items. It'll probably take me a few months, but hey, at least this way I won't get stressed out! That's really important with the way my lungs have been misbehaving lately.

Anyway, you know the drill, tell me which piece(s) are your favorite(s) and why and I'll give you an extra entry into my Top Commentators Contest!

On a Friday Afternoon...

I'm starting a new series called "Coins around the World!" I'm really excited about it - and it's definitely going to be challenging. This is the first time I've tried to "capture" an item with beads, and it was a lot of work! I'm actually going to tear this first attempt out and re-do it (multiple reasons) but that's ok, I learned a lot!

I also wanted to show some of my recently promoted items - you know the drill - tell me your favorites and get an extra entry into my top commentators contest!

It's that Time Again :)

Time to show off some of my latest listings and relistings :) I always love seeing these mosaics put together, seeing what I've put up recently. Ok, sometimes I feel a little sick of them from promoting them over and over, but usually I enjoy it! You know the drill - you get an extra entry into my Top Commentators contest if you tell me which item is your favorite and why :)

Hemp Bracelet Club - Only Available Until February 12th

Did you like the idea of my earring club that I did last month? Well this month its a new club! I'm just a wee bit late at getting it started cuz *cough* life got in the way! It's up and running now though! Just $55 for 6 bracelets over the next 6 months! What a deal eh? You can find it here in my Artfire shop or here in my Etsy shop. I'd love to brighten up your mail box for the next 6 months with lovely bracelets!

Only a Few Days Left!

Only 6 days left to buy into my Earring Club! If you love earrings - this is for you! $35 will get you a pair of earrings in the mail, every month, for the next 6 months! Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun? I'd love to add you to my list! So come check it out :)

Life's been a little crazy lately, but I've being renewing items and such lately, so I wanted to show them off! Tell me your favorite, and get an extra entry into my Top Commentators contest!

One Day at a Time...

It's been an interesting couple of weeks - but I'm getting there - one day and one hour at a time! I've managed to do some promoting and listing recently - and here's what I've done! Tell me what's YOUR favorite and get an extra entry into my Top Commentators contest :).

FREE SHIPPING for the Holiday's!

*Phew* It's been a LONG day! Yesterday we pretty much a wipe out because I had a migraine and I ended up sleeping for about 19 out of 24 hours. Yikes! So of course nothing got done. And this week has been a bit rough on the "getting things" done because of my sprained ankle anyway. Which in many ways has just felt not fair because it's the holiday season and I have so many ideas going through my mind! I mean I always have a million ideas going through my mind, but it's WORSE this time of year! You know what I mean? The good news is...like I said...it was a long day today and I got a lot done!

Among the many things I got done is I got all three of my shops set up for free shipping for the holiday season! So go check it out: Kindred Spirit Treasures, Rose Works on Etsy, and Rose Works on Artfire are all Free Shipping! Now through the end of December! Sweet huh? AND I have more surprises in store...just wait!

Despite the "fun" of this week, I've also managed to get some stuff listed or relisted this week! You know the drill...leave me a comment on your fav piece and get an extra entry into my top commentators contest! Woohoo! I love giving stuff away :D

My Work in the Real World

As an artist it's always fun to see my art work out there in the real world! I always love it when I see one of my family or friends wearing a piece I made them. Every once in awhile I get pictures from my customers too!

I met Selana a few months ago. I'm not sure if we met through some one on plurk, but that's where we've gotten to know each other! Our first transaction was a trade where I got some awesome yarn from her shop and she got a hemp necklace.

Then Selana asked me to make her a custom set of hemp jewelry. It was a lot of fun to come up with! We ended up with 5 pieces, a necklace, two bracelets, and and two arm bands. The goal was for her to use them with a shawl for a costume so that the shawl would attach to her arms like wings. It worked out perfectly! This is the Selana and her lovely outfit - and my hemp work!

Getting stronger means...

I've been getting stronger! I haven't had an asthma attack in 3 days. Now that might not seem long to you, but the fact of the matter is that for most of the last year and a half I've had at least a minor asthma attack every single day. Which, as you can imagine, has been massively frustrating! I've had a few good periods where I temporarily got stronger, but I've always crashed again. Right now I'm trying to be hopefully that this good period is going to last! I've been gradually getting stronger over the last few weeks and I'm trying act as if its going to last. I still have bad days, but that's to be expected.

So what am I doing? Good question.

Well, don't worry, I AM trying to pace myself. I'll work for awhile and then stop and read a chapter or two in whatever book I'm on because it's just about the most relaxed I can possibly get :P

Other than that...

There are a lot of business things that kept getting put off because I just didn't have the energy. I need to catch up on entering receipts and invoices for one thing. I'm also working on doing an overhaul on my inventory. I'm going through piece by piece, checking the listings for typos, and marking which pieces I need to take more photos of. I'm also going to be re-evaluating prices on a few pieces.

Monday I got through one bag of earrings. I'm not sure how many that is (I didn't count) but I have four bags of earrings to go through! I'm glad I started this project because I found quite a few minor typos to fix!

As for crafting, I'm focusing on the baby blanket for my cousin, but I'm also working on other things from time to time. I have two custom orders to work on in the next two days, but neither of them should take me very long. I'm mostly doing the crafty stuff at night right now because I'm being all "business like" during the day :P

Oh, I'm also looking into doing more bazaars! My last one was a flop, but I have a different one (maybe two) that I'm going to try next month. At this point I'm going to try to do one or two a month and keep building up my strength and stamina.

And of course I'm still listing and promoting items on-line! In fact I have a whole bunch to show off. Tell me what your favorite pieces are (and why) to get an extra entry into my top commentators contest!

Just a few things...

The last few days I haven't really felt like I've been all that crafty, but I've got lots of promoting done in the last week! What's your favorite out of these 9 items? Tell me and get an extra entry into my top commentators contest!

Lots of Goodies to Show Off!

I told my friends on plurk last night that I'd gotten goodies in the mail, and I promised to show them off! Don't worry, I would have shown them off anyway :P

First up are these goodies I got in a trade with Creative Supplies. I have several ideas for these, but I'm WAY behind on my product photography so it might be awhile before you see it even if I make it today :P

I got two packages in the mail yesterday. The one with the beady goodies was expected, the other one was a surprise! Since I'm staying with my parents while the paint airs out at my apartment, my hubby brought it over in his backpack. First he dolled out the regular mail, one piece at a time. Then he asked me what was in the packages. Since I didn't know what was in the second package he had to taunt me! First he gave me the supplies... then he threatened to open my surprise...and finally I got to unwrap my lovely present!

I had signed up for a "Craft It Forward" awhile ago, and this was my beautiful present! It's from my friend Sharla. She said it's for keeping track of all my jewelry ideas. So I took her at her word and titled the notebook appropriately.

Then I made a sketch of the idea that was running through my head the night before! I'm hoping to make a broach. Don't worry - when I actually outline it I'll be much more precise and pretty looking than my quick free hand sketch :P I'm not much at drawing...

Last of all...I wanted to show off my custom order I've been working on! I really enjoyed working on it - and she said she really likes it! It went out in the mail today :) It's two matching bracelets, a matching necklce, and two arm ties that she is going to use to tie her shawl to her upper arms.

Crafty ADD Update #8 and Health Update

Hey guys! Sorry I've been quiet the last few days. My migraines got REALLY bad, and we figured out that I've been reacting to them painting my apartment complex. I figured this out on Friday, but was determined to just stick it out. Then Saturday was horrible, and when I woke up on Sunday just as bad... Well that's when Mo and I made the decision to have me move back in with my parents temporarily. Hopefully it's just for a week or two until the paint fumes settle. The whole process has been exhausting, but I do seem to be doing some better now that it's been a few days so it looks like it's working!

Have no fear - I packed up my crafty stuff and brought it with me! So I'll still be hard at work creating fun crafty things :D And now that I'm starting to feel a little bit better that means I'll get more done again :P Unlike this last week... Here's where I'm at though!

Crochet

Didn't get as much done on this, this week. I'm going to have to step it up so it gets done in time for next months baby shower!

Fun piece of news - I just found out yesterday that my "brother" and his wife are having another baby! I won't need to start on that baby blanket until after Christmas though. Plenty of time to figure out what I want to do. I might do another crochet project...or I might do a quilting project :D

Cross-Stitch

I still have a lot of ideas floating around my head for the next cross-stitch project, but I havan't had the brains to do the actual planning. So I've worked more on putting thread on bobbins! Going for a bit of raibow type pattern since these threads don't have numbers like the DMC thread that I have in my other storage box.

Jewelry

I love doing custom orders! This piece is the first piece in 5 piece set I'm making for a gal in Germany. The piece shown above is an arm band that's designed to be able to be tied with one hand to secure a shawl to the upper arm. I'll be making a matching one like this, two bracelets in the same color but w/ beads, and a choker, also with beads

Treasury Loving!

I found myelf in two more treasury's done by team mates - Isn't that cool? Thank you so much to AngelqueCreations and Gr8tJewellery!

You can see one of my hemp bracelets in this one!

Second row, first column.

Go here to comment on the treasury!

You can my "I Love Etsy" bracelet in this one!

Last row, second column.

Go here to comment on the treasury!

I Just Can't Decide!

The current BlogFire assignment is to blog about our favorite crafting technique, but the problem is I just can't decide! I will say that I'm a jewelry artist first and foremost, but I also really enjoy crocheting, knitting, cross-stitch, hand quilting, and I'd love to learn more things!

Even in the jewelry world I enjoy many different techniques. I love bead weave, but I also love knotting hemp, stringing pretty patterns, doing wire work, and there are even more things I'd love to learn how to do! You can see this reflected in my shops and here on my blog.

So how do I pick a favorite among all of those?

I suppose I'll just have to say that my favorite craft technique is whatever I happen to most engrossed in at the time! I've spent a lot of time working on my bead weaving projects today, so I could say that's my favorite today, except for the fact that I've been working on them so focusedly because I want to finish them before I start some other projects!

Yes, I'm a little crazy.

Bead Weaving and some New Stuff :)

Ok, so I actually made this about two weeks ago, but I couldn't show it off because it was a surprise present and she reads this blog! I got the darling pattern out of a book, so it's not something I can sell in my shop, but I had a lot of fun making it anyway :D It's my first 3-D beaded project :D

Oh wait, I did some cubes once, but those barely count :P

Also wanted to show off the newest items promoted in my three shops from this last week :) Leave a comment about your favorite and get an extra point in the Top Commentators contest - and remember that this month there's an extra prize!

"Past all thought of 'if' or 'when' - no use resisting"

To spice things up today - I'm offering you an opportunity for TWO extra entries into my top commentators contest today! The first is the one your used too, just tell me which item below is your favorite and why :) The second... The title of this blog post is a quote from a musical - can you tell me what musical?

48 for Larry, CIJS, and New stuff :)

48 for Larry

It seems like my Monday posts are getting to be quite the smorgasboard! I want to start off by reminding you about 48 for Larry - the radioathon and silent auction coming up July 24th -26th. Check out the all the info on the Block Head Radio Page, and you can start viewing the auction items now!

CIJS

I'm not going to change up my weekly special this week - so check it out on the right hand side - you have another week to get the sale price! I do want to remind you about my Christmas in July Sales though :) Everything is 20% at Kindred Spirit Treasures and Rose Works on Artfire. And I have a sale section at Rose Works on Etsy!

Promoting...Me!

I've continued to be a busy little beaver. I think my new planner that I created for myself is really helping me to stay focused on getting a certain number of things done each day. Which means I'm getting lots of listing done! Check out these 9 new or relisted items, tell me which is your favorite, and get an extra entry into my Top Commentators Contest!