Life in your face

I haven't posted in a while, haven't had 5 minutes to do anything so I thought I would catch up just a bit. A bit over a month ago I decided I had to make one more attempt at a part time job and took a position as a cashier at my local market. Just a few hours, a few day's a week running groceries through a scanner. Then my old boss who also happens to be my landlord called out of the blue and asked if I was free for the weekend to help with sidewalk sales during our last weekend celebration of the summer. By the end of the weekend she has asked me if I wanted some part time hours and I said yes because I want to stay in my house. My daughter has finished moving out so I am alone and just not ready to leave here. The same weekend that my boss asked me to work the outside sales, my ex-husband had a very serious ATV accident and suffered some very major brain injuries. Since we are divorced and he never married his girlfriend my son was the only one with the authority to make life and death decisions. At 26 years old that is not something any kid is ready for and it has been a tough haul. 3 weeks later the ex is stable but mentally in some serious trouble. So between trying to keep up with 2 jobs, finish packing odds and ends for my daughter, take care of all the animals in the house , help support my son while he takes care of dad and still babysit my grandkids...........I have not had 2 minutes to rest, to pick up my beadwork, play on the computer. But I am working on it and hope to be more scheduled to find some me time soon!

That's what I call Housecleaning!

I have lived in my house for 10 years. During this time my grown kids have kind of taken turns moving in and out depending on their life circumstances. The result of this is my little blue cottage has been bursting at the seams for most of this 10 years. Broken furniture, worn out or grown out clothes. Broken toy's , abandoned collections. You name it , you could find it in my cellar or my attic, or my backroom or my back yard. Overflowing bedrooms. Yeah you get the idea. Last month my daughter, who has been back home since 2008 told me she and my grandson had found a place and were moving. What better time to clean out and pack. The problem was how. I struggled with this realizing alot of what was in the house was not useful to us. Either my home or hers. My son had stuff in the attic that he probably doesn't even remember. Anything recyclable we could take around the corner. We have a center there that gives these items to those in need. The problem was so much of it was just plain garbage and we still had it because we couldn't just put it out to the trash and borrowing someone's truck for a dump run would mean 40 dump runs and a lot of money. So in the end I decided the only course of action would be to rent a dumpster. The idea was a bit scary but I would spend the money any way. So here it is. My dumpster for 10 day's. I almost single handedly have filled this dumpster to the brim in this 10 day's. The money aside. I am feeling very happy with myself. Garbage gone, spot's empty. Yard cleaned up and once my daughter gets her self moved into her new apartment.......room to move in this tiny house!

Morning Glory

Yes they are growing! This is the first we have had a good strong sun in a few day's and not alot of the flowers opened but there are lot's on the vines. I love the way it is growing up the side of the house. When they all bloom I have a great group of flowers right at the roof level!

These are growing a bit unevenly but they are filling in. I think I may have to get some twine out there because there is lot of vines that are just really heavy. I think If I tied them up to the porch rail and spread them out a bit it would encourage them to fill in across the front of the railing better.

New Baby in the House!

Our new 9 week old baby boy is here. I shouldn't say our's because he was my grandson's birthday gift and he and his mom will be moving into their own apartment in 10 day's. So "Tex" will only be here for 10 day's while I try not to get too attached. We have had a house full of animals for as long as I can remember. My daughter was alway's rescuing and now my granddaughter is doing it. She found this little guy on the side of a road and several of it's sibling were dead in the road obviously having been hit by cars. She brought him home without a thought and fast thinking girl that she is, she walked in the door , stuck her hands out with the kitten in them and said "Happy Birthday Josh!" What could I or Tori's mom say at that point?
Oh well, he's tiny, he's beautiful, doesn't eat much yet and won't be here long sadly, not only is he already very comfy on my couch,.......I'm already in love.

Excitement for me today!

I am not very normal when it comes to shopping. I know shoe shopping excites many people, new clothes for others, Not me. I hate shopping, I hate wandering through stores, I hate dealing with crowds of people. My mom is a shopper. My sister and my daughter are shoppers. But not me. The only time I get excited is when one of them say "Let's go bead shopping". Now that's a whole different ball game and I am so there!.
I bulk order most of my seedbeads,needles and threads from Fire Mountain. Getting that package in the mail excites me. Those other things like accent beads, crystal's, pearls, the things I buy in smaller quantities, I have been making a point of exploring supply shop's on Etsy. I don't get to buy often and don't spend alot of money at one time but oh it is such fun. Any way, I happened to be going through some forum threads and found a shop that I just had to browse through and I am so glad I did. This is a newer seller but her shop is just full of great supplies and her prices are wonderfully reasonable. That's important because you know yourself, it's hard to charge a reasonable price for your own work if you spending big dollars and supplies but at the same time you want to use good materials. Any way, I decided to do a small purchase to check her out and it came in today's mail. I was excited to find the package in my mail box and when I opened it up and examined everything I was so excited and happy I had to take a picture and share it with you. If your looking for this type of jewelry supply, you should take a peek at:
www.stonesforcozumel.etsy.com
Myself, I will be going back to visit her as soon as I can spend a few more dollars.

Feeling a bit bad.

Today I wanted to follow a blog that I fell in love with. I have very honestly said I follow alot of blogs. I enjoy spending hours reading what everyone has to say. To my surprise I got a message that said I was at my limit of blogs I could follow. For real? I guess it should not surprise me, I don't keep track, I just sign in and read whatever catches my eye of new post's on the reading list. I spent a bit of time thinking about what I could do because as I said, I really, really like the blog I just discovered. Then I decided I could weed out some that are really not about what interests me. But how do I do that. Of course I follow alot of beading blogs because there in lies my passion, But the others I follow , I do because they have posted something I enjoyed reading or I have had some type of communication with them, oh a multitude of excuses. Then I thought maybe there was a way I could see if any blogs I follow are no longer active but not closed accounts. Well I found no easy way so started just going through my list, clicking on them one at a time and I did find there are many, many blogs that the owner has not posted in in months. There is my answer! It will be very time consuming but I am going through the whole list and any one that hasn't posted for months I will unfollow. Great thinking, I will free up space and be more selective in the future. What I didn't count on is how bad I would feel every time I clicked the unfollow button. Will they notice? Do they stop in to check?
Can they see that debsparkles left? LOL, yeah, that's pretty sad but I felt terrible and guilty for doing this like I was actually going to hurt someone's feelings. Whats really sad , I have only made it through a few alphabets in my list. Ouch!

I'm found

I know I have been missing a bit, was dealing with some issues, had to shut down a bunch of stuff I was doing and lost some things. I decided I really didn't want to lose my blog even though I seldom have anything earthshaking to share so I have spent this evening clicking things to find it and restore it. So here I am and up top is a picture of the cuff I just posted in my Etsy shop tonight. I really love making these darn things!
Alot of things going on right now, for starter's I am getting ready to attempt a job once more. I know, I tried, I failed, I gave up. Sorry that's just not who I am so I am going to try again and see what happens. Mean time, I have shut down my zibbet shop. Concentrating on building my Etsy shop takes alot of my time and lets face it, when your on a site for 1 year and 3 weeks without a single sale what's the point? I have struggled for years trying to get 100 items listed in Etsy and haven't made it , of course each time I reach 50 something I have a few sales and that number drops again but maybe if I reallly concentrate and work on it I can get 100 items before Christmas shopping season. See you later ;o)

Day dreaming with beads

One of my favorite things to do! Grab some piles of beads and thread a needle and just let them dictate where to go from there. My mom got several of these great Cherry Quartz Donuts on a special sale, gave me one to see what I would do with it. It's really large so I knew I didn't want fringe but needed a good focal point in the front. So I pulled out the glass and the freshwater pearls and here's what we have! Can't wait to see what mom does with hers.

My Green Thumb

I admit it. I don't have one. Give me a plant and I promise I can kill it in one week. But I am so very excited about what's happening in front of my house. I live in the city and have no front yard. Just the few inches before the side walk and a little 3 ft by 3 ft square next to the porch.
I used to spend a fortune buying flowers everyspring and planting them in this spot. A few years ago I noticed in my backyard (small jungle) I had a lot of wild morning glories growing. Little by little I started digging up the little sprouts and transplanting them in the front. They were very small and straggly and for a while they looked like they were going to die. But then they took hold. What you see here has happened just over the last few weeks and even though they are not out today because it's a truly gloomy , rainy day, I have lot's of buds ready to flower when the sun peeps out. I can't wait to show you how much they grow in the next few weeks.

Catching my breath

The day's are just flying by, I feel like I have been crazy busy ad I don't really know why!

So first off, let me ask...anyone having any success with Christmas in July? I sure haven't. I have put almost all my items at about 1/2 price. I have renewed something at least twice a day.......nothinggggggg! Oh well it was worth a shot. Hope someone out there has had better luck.

This brings me to something else. July 18th was my one year anniversary on Zibbet. Have never had a sale in that shop. I will admit I don't put anywhere near the same amount of work into it but is it worth hanging on or just stay concentrated on my Etsy shop?

I am truly thinking I will be wiser to close it and just chanel that time and work into Etsy. Course there is so much controversial stuff going on in the Etsy forums that has me a bit concerned but I don't get involved in that so maybe it's best to ignore and continue to cultivate my little corner ;o)

Well I have some really good new's to share, I have talked to you about my cousin Amy. Her time in Iraq has ended for now and she returned to American soil 2 day's ago. This of course is truly wonderful for my family.

The downfall being, she was to be there 12 months and they for whatever reason finished early so the possibility that she could yet be attached to another unit and go back to Iraq for a third

tour is very possible. We can only wait and see.

My sister got home yesterday for a visit yesterday. She and her husband live in Dubai, UAE, or as she calls it "the land of sand" Can't wait to see her, she's only here for a week and it will still be a few years before she can move home.

Just about the time she leaves, my brother who lives in California will be home for the yearly visit. Hmmmmm I guess I do have a few reason's to be busy right now, so I am going to leave you with this "Happy,happy weekend everyone!

Just a quick catch up

Just thought I would stop in very quickly to see how everyone is doing! I posted a picture of Prince Alex on top just because I think he is the cutest thing , I may a bit partial though.
I have spent this past week, any time I can get on line just editing Etsy listings with my sale prices for the Christmas in July sale. I have my fingers crossed that this sale brings me some visits ;o) The high heat and humidity has not let up. I don't think I have ever used my air conditioning as much as I have the last few weeks but I am trying not to complain, before you know it Fall will be here and our winter is soooo very long. I am hoping to post some pictures of new work here very soon. In the mean time, happy Friday, hope your looking forward to a great weekend.

Almost Back!

I am happy, I just got the computer my brother offered me and as soon as my daughter has some time off she will get me hooked up! Then maybe things can get back to normal here ;o)

In the meantime, how many of you are participating in the Christmas in July sale on Etsy? I have had an Etsy shop since October 2007 but so far have not done the CIJ sale. As an added way of working on my new mission I decided that I will try it this year. Add that to the fact that there are alot of peices that I would like to move out of the shop so over the next few day's I will be editing and pricing just about everything in the shop. Most items will be up to 50% off.
I don't know if most people feel this way but when I list an item and it sit's and sit's through several renewal's I am happy to put it on sale and give it a home. I guess I just don't like work to "sit" for a long time even though it is never been used, worn, played with since I made it.
I used to be the same way when I did craft show's, if I took the same necklace to every show for a year I felt like it was old and either sale priced it, gave it a way or took it apart to reuse the beads for something else.

Hope everyone is enjoying life , I am staying in the house with the AC on because the heat has been killer for the last week. Have a great day and I will see you on a more regular basis soon.
D

Got Bugs?

Yes I do! More accurately, my computer has a baad virus which is why I haven't posted anything in several weeks. I do apologize and I hope not to be missing too much longer but whatever I got into my computer is a tough little bug and is giving us quite a time. My brother just offered me a computer, say's it's old and slow as heck but if it let's me keep an eye on things while mine is hospitalized I'll take it. Bear with me and I will be back soon.
Deb

Educate me Please

I am on a mission and I have spent my entire day thinking how to approach things and plan it out and all that good stuff. Then I decided to tell you about it here and maybe get some feedback that will help . My sister and I want to move my parents. My dad is an amputee, very poor health with very little motivation to do much for himself. This leaves it up to my mom to wait on him hand and foot. My mom who is an amazing person is having a large amount of problems with her own health and it is getting harder and harder for her to do everything she needs to do on her own. I am the only child living right here in the same city as my parents. My siblings are spread far and wide. The problem is, even though we are in the same city, I am not allowed to drive, don't have any one I can count on for a ride and I just get really frustrated knowing that my mom needs help, even if it to help her clean house once a week and I have a problem getting to her.
Okay, now that we have the idea, get them into town near me so that I can be available when needed but this costs money. I have to figure out a way to help and you all know the situation I live with , coming up with money for something like this is just a bit funny. But I am determined to do my best. I have decided all sales from my online stores, and my daughter is throwing in all the profit's from her Etsy shop, will go towards my mission.

Here is the problem, it has alway's been the thing that held me back from doing well in sales. I cannot market myself. I do not know how to use the words that draw customers. I do facebook and twitter but well, facebook is mostly staying in touch with family and friends, I do have many "friends" and regularly post my new listings but I feel like 95% of my friends list are other Etsy shops and we are in non stop competition. I guess I feel the same way about twitter, we are all there for the same reason. I only post listing's a few times a week and don't really push myself onto people. If I come up with a good advertising statement I look at it and think, OMG aren't I a bit full of myself, or I feel like I'm begging for people to come see me.

I have a feeling alot of other online sellers have this same problem. So tell me, how do you advertise yourself? How do you find the right words that work up interest without seeming to brag about yourself? I am needing some ideas.

What I am going to do......I am going to post something in promotions. I am going to be diligent in having a different "Tonights Special" that changes every night and I will keep posting the sale in the promotion thread to keep having it appear, at least once every night ;o)
I will stay on top of it.

If you know people who like beadweaving or hand sewn sequined ornaments will you share out addresses? http://www.debsparkles.etsy.com
http://www.heathersparkles.etsy.com


Okay, let me have it...I need your thoughts, advice,ideas and know how!
Thanks, Debbie




http://www.heathersparkles.etsy.com

Something Strange is Going on!

I don't know how long I can stay on so let me explain and then we will see how long this works. I don't post alot of new blogs because I am basically a very quite person and really don't have a whole lot to say. But I do log into blogger everyday because I truly enjoy reading everyone else's blog. That said this past week I am having a real problem. I log in, go to the list of new blog posts and just as I begin reading I get kicked off. I am curious if it happens while writing my own post. It is truly annoying because I have missed out on alot of stuff I want to read. GRRRRR. That said, I am still here. Why? I just want to read your new posts!!!

I have been trying to get work done this week. I am on a mission to start filling both my shops and have at least 3 Ebay auctions a month up. My daughter made it through her oral surgery and is putting everything else on hold til summer is over. She went back to bartending (which she is great at) and this is the time of year (June through Labor day) when she brings home big money in tips. After she made the decision to do that , it was a natural next decision that my summer will be revolving around babysitting my grandkids. It is the only way to do this, she works all night so must be able to sleep during the day so hiring a babysitter would get us no where. So I really have to find the way to get my sales up so I can start having the money to take care of my own stuff. I did list this bag in Ebay yesterday, yes I am still on the white and grey kick but this was the last one ;o)

So now blogger has let me stay on to post this so I am going back to my dashboard to see if it will let me read anything.

Staying focused

That's what I have been doing this week. Staying focused on producing work. I find that often, when I am working with a certain color bead I like to make up several items before I put that color away and switch over. This necklace and bracelet are not a set. But I had out my favorite pearly white seedbeads and I had made several of the polymer clay cabs. That's the extent of the similarity in the items but they are two majorly time consuming items.

Have also been working on alot of little items. I am going to take part in the Christmas in July sale on Etsy. The weather has been wonderful so I have spent many hours a day on the front porch enjoying the air, watching the world go by and making keyrings, bracelets, bookmarks and keyring lariets for the summer sale.

Hope you are doing well today, have a happy weekend.

R & R Even in Iraq

I was happy to learn that my cousin does get some time to kick back and relax with her fellow soldiers. She posted some pictures on her facebook and I thought it would be fun to share. Please keep all our soldiers in your everyday thoughts.

Time is getting away

It's seems like the day's are passing quickly, I alway's am in the middle of something but at the same time feel like I'm spinning my wheels. There is so much drama going on in my house with my grown kids and as hard as I try, I can't get away from it. I also can't seem to stay online more than a few minutes at a time so getting very little accomplished. I did get to post this cuff today though. Put it in my Zibbet shop. Went out with some friends last week, haven't done that in such a long, long time. It was great fun! I love catching up with friends when I can so seldom see them. I can tell this machine is getting ready to kick me offline so everyone have a great weekend!

It's done !!!

I just a few day's ago noticed I had 5 different projects in the works sitting all over my desk. I hate when I start doing that because I feel like someone with ADD, which my kids and grandkids have but didn't think I did. Any way I made up my mind these all had to be finished up before I started anything else. The business card holder has taken forever. I lined the inside with black suede and when the case is closed all you see either on the front or the back is one rose. I have tried 2x to upload some pictures. I am going to try again before I post this but if it does not work again, I will just add them in later.

Here we go again!

I am very conciencous ? about recycling. I empty my food containers, through them in the sink, wash them, sort them into the right bins. A few years ago I found out that after all that work I have done to recycle my empty's, the garbage truck was throwing them into the same bucket as the trash, when they got to the landfill most of the recycling got dumped into the same hole as the trash. It made me wonder why I was doing all this work to keep them out of the landfill when the trash people I paid good money to was not!
So I started thinking about what I could do to change that. Since I have raised my family with a regular craft nights their whole lives any way, we started coming up with ideas. We made cookie containers out of plastic coffee cans, painted Santa and Elf faces on them with little felt hats to cover the lid and used them for Christmas one year. This was a hit until the glitter started falling off them!

When I am not beading, I love to play with polymer clay, I also love to paint. I used to teach ceramics and miss it. Any way I started playing with the clay and started turning glass jelly jars, tin soup cans, etc. into pencil /paintbrush holders, little coin banks, odds and ends jar's.
At this point I am overloaded. One can only need just so many clay covered soup can's!

Then I got to thinking, My jewelry is selling really slowly, I need more money coming in and just know I can't go out and find a job. Tried that, broke my heart when I had to leave.
Then I thought, maybe I should try making some of these to post in my Etsy shop. I have seen some very strange things being sold on Etsy. I know, I know. I gave the sequined ornaments over to my daughter because I wanted my Etsy store to stay on track with my beadwork. But it's not going any where so what can it hurt if I diversify. Maybe start adding more of my jewelry on my Zibbett site and start putting my claywork on my Etsy site for a bit just to see what happens. Yup..........here we go again!

Mother's Day

I just wanted to take a moment and say Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's and mom's to be today. Find something to make your day special. Even if it just something little like a half an hour to do something you love that's not about your craft. I know I will.
Enjoy!

I'm slacking

I just realized I hadn't posted in a week. I do try to do it each weekend but it seems like I have had a great deal of stuff going on this week. Not sure exactly what but just constantly doing something! I did spend some time going through my "stock tub" and decided to relist this wall hanging on Etsy again. Sometimes when I think stuff has been on there too long I retire it for a bit when the listing expires.
My "stock tub" is a plastic storage tote that I try to add finished peices too so that if a craft show comes up or any chance to show my work, I have a handful of finished work. I have a goal of someday having the tote completely full but that's not easy. Between listing in my shops and daily life it just doesn't happen.

My Jewelry group is still waiting for an answer from City hall on whether or not we will get out sidewalk vender permit. Waiting makes me crazy!!

I finished lining the bead embroidered case and I am in the process of sewing it together so hopefully will be able to show you a picture of the completed peice in a few day's.
Also working on a handful of the Butterfly necklaces.
That's about all that is going on right now so I hope your enjoying beautiful weather this week. I am loving being able to be outside.

Bead embroidery done

Please excuse my Butterfly, I uploaded it by accident and can't figure out how to take it off. That's okay though, she's a pretty one. The Butterfly has been my business logo since 1989 and I am alway's looking for pretty ones to use.

I finished the bead embroidery on my experiment today. Since then I have been giggling my butt off. The embroidery work has taken me 37 hours. So if I charged minimum wage for my labor alone I already have the price up to $271.00. MMMMMM I don't think that would work out well for sales but you never know. Any way at this point , I have changed my mind about the end product. This piece has some weight to it. If I add lining, fringing, and a neckchain it would not be easy to wear. So this piece will be just a Credit Card/Business Card holder to tuck in my purse. The size is perfect! So now I am getting ready to line it and stitch it together so the next picture I post will be the finished product. Hope your having a great week.

A New Project

I love beaded embroidery. I seldom do much with it because it is very time consuming and uses ton's of beads. I was curious though, never really did enough to know how long a peice would take, exactly how much materials it would take, would there be any real interest in finished peices. So I am conducting a study. When finished this will be an Amulet necklace, about 2" wide by 3" tall. It will have to be fully lined so the stitching is all hidden, I am recording the amounts of seedbeads and the amount of work hours, start to finish. Then I will figure out what something of this nature would retail for. This summer, I might, be selling my work as a sidewalk vender and it will be fun to have some peices like this just to gauge peoples reaction. Not only to the work but to the price. LOL. I will show you a picture from time to time as this progresses.

Your thoughts please

As you know a few months back, I handed over the sequined ornament department to my daughter so she could open an Etsy shop. This weekend I realized I was suffering from withdrawel. I love sewing sequins onto shapes and making things glitter. So I took a break from my work and spent some time playing in the sequins. After I finished a Butterfly for the project that's still being worked on , I was curious about what it would look like in a necklace so played a bit longer. When I was finished my granddaughter who will be 14 next week and a bit more mature than I would like said that teenagers would love wearing these , it was truly awesome.
So I am pondering this. Personally, I love it, I love sequins, I love the sparkle and the sort of fantasy effect. But the question is, would normal people be interested in buying sequin jewelry? I know there alot of new fads out there so I don't truly trust my own opinion.

So I am asking you. Please give me your thoughts.....if you have a teenaged daughter would you purchase this item? What would be an agreeable price? Any and all thoughts welcome here while I decide whether or not to try it.

Milo

Good morning everyone, I would like you to meet Milo, our cat. Milo said he was tired of the dogs getting all the glory and he want's his moment in the limelight. Truth be know, the only time he is around is for meals and naps so we seldom get to take pictures and right now he has a cold so we are constantly wiping his eyes and my granddaughter has actually figured out how to blow his nose. Since when does a cat catch a cold in April?

Sunday catch up

I just looooove this amulet necklace. Love the color's love the branch fringing , heheh love the fact that I made it and listed in my Etsy shop Today!

This week has gone by very , very quickly. The weather has been awesome. A few day's of gloomy rain but for the most part that gorgeous sunshine was out there. 2 day's midweek it was actually warm enough to sit out side and I literally spent 2 full day's sitting on the front porch, doing my beading and watching the world go by. I love it, my time of year. outside , still accomplishing my work, staying away from the computer until almost bedtime. Heaven. That made me feel very good, now I look forward to feeling better because sitting on my porch working is what I will do until next September when the warm day's start to fade away.

Lot's of drama and tears going on in my house, daughter and her boyfriend having some serious issues, I am ignoring all of it. I actually have gotten alot of work done, put up several listing's in my Etsy and Zibbett shops and did some listing's for my daughter in her Etsy shop. We haven't really had time to sit down together so I can teach her how to run her shop as in the posting and listing, etc.
Any way, I have a maybe an hour before we lose the sunshine so I am going to take a very slow walk, Just wanted to see if your all having a great weekend. I truly hope so!

Greetings

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a lovely Easter. Mine was rather quiet. It was good though, we had a nice dinner, My son and his girlfriend were with us and my daughters boyfriend. I missed coloring Easter Eggs. Alway's a big tradition, my grandson was with his father and my granddaughter was with a friend on a week end sleep over so, we passed this year. I did not realize how just not right it would feel to me to not have everybody making a huge mess in my kitchen!
I have gotten caught up on some work, I love working with pastel seedbeads so I am definately feeling like "spring" is here and using the colors. I listed these today, one on Ebay, one on Zibbett and one on Etsy.

I realized today, you have probably noticed at the very bottom of this page is a paypal badge and blogger special note but I never explained it to you. Here it is. You know I make sequined ornaments and have taught my daughter to make them. She recently opened an Etsy shop and now has taken over making the ornaments and we pulled them out of my shop.
An anytime offer for my blog readers: If you would like a sample of her ornaments you can purchase for a special price of $1.50. That just covers the padded envelope and first class postage. You won't get a choice, what ever we have enough of done we will pick one. Any way just make a paypal payment to me at : deb913@gmail.com
In the message to seller area write blogger special. We will send you out an ornament. That simple, a way for me to say thank you for reading my blog. Every once in a while I will put up a reminder notice but this will always be here.

Time for bed, have a wonderful week.

Spring Colors

Another attempt

Looks like this is going to work this time. I got to thinking today while I was cleaning some old stuff out of the computer. When things get really bad and I get to the point that I am blatantly stressing and telling why I'm stressing, it's time to refocus. That's what I am doing today, just refocusing myself. I have spent years battling to keep things together and with as many problems and tough spot's I have been through, I am still here and when I look around I have so many, many things good in my life. I am so lucky to have a large family. We are all very different, we are spread to all corners of the world but the love is there and we all find a way to connect, even if one of us is having a difficult time the rest are there to pat on the back and reassure that all will be well. I have great kids and I am a very lucky person to have my grandchildren right here in my house where I can see, love, and interact with them everyday. And my two best friends who are by my side day and night with the greatest unconditional love any one could ask for. Yeah those two critters at the top of this post. That's what got me thinking this morning as I sat having my coffee my little guy alex was up on my shoulder kissing my cheek and my big girl morgan sitting right at my feet with her face on my lap , her eyes just asking for a little stroking. That's it, that's enough to make me wake up and realize what ever I do without materially, I have sooo much love in my life I can get through anything. Have a wonderful evening.

Remembering what's important

A Special

I am not exactly sure how to start this post without leaving the wrong impression. I need some serious help and need to tell you what I am doing without seeming to be a whiner or want to give a "poor poor me" impression so I am going to first of all just give you the facts. I have alway's sold my work basically to replace supplies. When my illness hit the worst I started on Ebay and then on to Etsy to sell but I think I do it more for the social aspect and involvement in something besides myself more than making money. Sales have never been wonderful but enough to keep me moving forward. Now a big issue.........
If you have been following my blog for a while you know I struggle financially on an everday basis. My self, my daughter and her 2 children have been trying to live on my disability check and it truly has not been easy but we have been doing what we needed to do to get by.
2 weeks ago , my daughter was finally diagnosed after over a year of being unable to work but none of the Dr.s being able to find out what was wrong with her. A new neurologist has read all her films and bloodwork etc. She has my disease (chiari malformation) plus a few added complications . She has hydrocephilitis so badly it is crushing the nerves which is why her hands and feet are not working. So we have a long uphill battle of surgeries and therapy ahead and will not know until it's all done if they were able to help her enough for her to return to a job or will she be like me and so disabled as to be unable to work. That all remains to be seen while this play's out.
Now the facts. We have been losing things for a while. We lost tv last December, not the end of the world but tought to be without. I because I have such a small disability check was receiving food stamps for my grandkids, because I attempted to work a few hours a day for a few months, they took most of them away from me. I am struggling to keep my grandkids fed. I lost my health insurance because I made $12.00 a month too much at my 2 hour a day job, the sad part about that is I had to leave the job after a few months because my physical disabilites impaired my ability to do the work.
Now here I sit, not enough food in the house ever, no tv for the grandkids, no way to pay for my prescriptions, and the latest, they are turning my electricity off in 2 day's. There are no options, no where to go, no money to move, no one to help us so It is on my head to figure it out.

Now why am I telling you all this if I am not just whining about poor me? Because I am going to ask for your help. I am going to ask you to help me spread the word about a sale I am going to have in my Etsy shop. Not quite sure how to advertise other than starting a promo thread and putting something in my announcement but here it is:

Starting now.....I am having a make me an offer sale. See something you like but not the price... send me a convo....make me an offer.....any reasonable offer accepted. I will go in and make a special reserved listing of that item with your price.

So there it is. I am plain and simple asking you to help spread the work about my sale. Obviously people who make their own jewelry aren't going to be interested but I know there
are alot of people out there who don't and these are the people I want to reach, by blog, by twitter, by any means, a handful of sales will help me fight to keep the power on so I will feel I am making my best attempt to rise above this. And then pray I never have to post something like this again! Thank you for helping me spread the word.
www.debsparkles.etsy.com

Spring Baby!

For the last few years we have had a huge red-headed woodpecker hanging around my house. This has excited me each time I saw it because first of all, it is not a creature that you usually find right in my area and second of all he/she was huge. Even without a way to actually measure it I can tell you without hesitation that it was a good 14" tip to tail. Today has been a beautiful day and we have been in and out of the house and look what we spied in the tree across the street. No , that is not the big one, this is a baby. Has to be from the one that has been coming to visit because it looks exactly like it only much smaller. Just one of those little things that excite me.

My 2nd one done with improvements

Greetings to you, I have had so much going on, by the time I think to stop in here and post it's either the wee hours of the morning or I have to run an errand. I just finished the second "Flag Bag". The first one that I made for Amy made it to Iraq this past week and is gracing her wall. My sister Donna chimed in she needed some. That makes me a little worried, that means my sister is going to take orders from her friends. Donna's husband is lifetime military and they have been in the United Arabic Emerit since 2008, hard to picture my sister living in the land of sand and camels after growing up in NorthEast , NY. I have been sending her care packages of beading supplies, she is also very crafty and the funny thing is, where she is living there are huge amounts of goods being sold that are beaded, wall hangings to scarves. Yet....she can't buy beading supplies! Any way this is her bag, made some changes so it is better than the first, but still have some more changes for the next one. In the mean time this one is on the way to Dubai this week.
Other than that I have been putting belongings that I need to clean out up on Ebay all week. I do need to make one of these bags for my Etsy shop , and I just this past week agreed to make 10 mini amulet bags for consignment for a shop in another state. I am a bit hesitant but I will try it and see how it works. The lady owns a shop that sells jewelry made by her and a few others and she thinks my bags will go very well. We shall see. Hope you all are enjoying a beautiful, sunny day like I am here, I should be out playing in it rather than sitting in this studio.

I had to laugh so I'm sharing

I have been on a mission today. I have spent the last few day's stressing about the fact that I can't pay any of my bills then stressing about whether or not I am going to have a roof over my head soon and I got to thinking........If I lose my home what the hell do I do with all my stuff? That got me thinking even harder......I have an attic full of stuff, I have a cellar full of stuff, I have a spare bedroom full of stuff. Nothing great, just stuff we have collected, different crafts I have tried my hand at, outgrown clothes , you know exactly what I mean. Collections of life.
Then I got to thinking if I used any of this stuff, it wouldn't be stored in the attic or the cellar.
So I have spent the entire day starting to do a clean out, one box or bag at a time, either toss it, donate it or put it up on ebay. My old craft supplies especially on ebay. During this process I came across this purse pin. When I first started playing with polymer clay I made a bunch of these, the face basically all the same but different hairdo's some even had leaves for hair, some had strands of beads hanging from their hair. Each one had a big brooch pin in the back plus a top to hang it from a necklace. Any way it was a really good time for me playing with these, I don't know where they all went but I found this one in a box and it gave me a really good chuckle. Back to work now.

Heading for Houston

I know I have talked about this before but need to do a recap for some friends who are wondering why I want all their old, broken, junk jewelry. Why in the world would I want something they are ready to throw in the trash? Here it is!

Scheduled to open in Spring of 2012, the Holocaust museum is unveiling a new display called the Butterfly Project. The display will be created of 1.5 million handcrafted butterflies in almost any artist medium. These butterflies will represent the some 1.5 million children lost during the Holocaust. They put out a call last year for donations of handcrafted butterflies and I can't help but want to be a part of this. So in my free time I have been working on them since last November. Here is my process:
#1 I start by using a rubber stamp on a peice of felt and cut the butterfly out.

#2 This is where I use the old jewelry. Each butterfly has anywhere from 2 to 4 beads of sometime from someones broken, unloved items. Hey Noelle if your reading this the butterfly number 2 is wearing the black faceted beads you gave me! Sorry about that :) anyway, if I can get 2 usable beads out of a peice it has value here and how cool to know that something that at one time was yours will spend it's final day's in the museum!
I add however large beads I have for that peice deciding where they will go and stitch into place.

#3 Step three is to stitch some seedbeads around the large beads. Whatever pattern that strikes me and I do use a embroidery hoop to help stabilize it a bit while I am working.

#4 Add some sequins so that the butterfly sparkles when the light hits it and add a little beaded loop.

Last but not least a back each butterfly with another layer of felt. This makes the butterfly stronger and keeps it laying flat not to mention hiding all the stitches because by the time I am done, there are alot of them.

Now they just get added to the cardboard box just waiting for the day I decide to ship them out.
I started with a goal of 100 butterflies, not sure I will make it , each butterfly takes a minimum of 4 hours to make and I am rather slow these day's but I have until November 2010 to send them. Have a great day!

Staying busy

I have been keeping busy this week. Trying to list something new each night on one of my sites. I listed this necklace in my Etsy shop tonight. While most of the time I am not a big fan of stringing, this necklace is an exception and it is the best way I know of to use up beads that just are not up to my standards. Every once in a while I try to save a little money on beads, I think all of us beaders pull this stunt and purchase lesser quality seedbeads only to be very sorry because they are so un-uniform that they just don't create a nice even, smooth peice when they have been woven. So a big box of turqouise seedbeads turned into a 10 strand necklace. My granddaughter modeled and she say's she would wear it so it will appeal to someone .

Hope your enjoying your first week of March, I have seen a definate weather change this week and I am happy about that .. hope it continues

Thinking out loud

Happy March 1st everybody. Gives me hope that we may see spring in a few weeks. More like 6 to 8 but at least we are through February. I have alot of things going on right now and have a lot of thinking and planning to do.
First up, last week, I had to give up my part time job at the Cafe. It is truly breaking my heart but it was a choice I had to make. I was only working 2 or 3 hours a day and it truly took it's toll on my health which was pretty lousy to begin with. The fact's that I must face and deal with are that mentally I needed that job very badly. I have alway's worked and worked hard with no complaints and the time I have had to just sit home dealing with the disabilities I have was so difficult. But now I am dealing with worse physical problems just because of the few limited hours of outside work and have hurt myself .
So, I spent last week pretty angry at myself and hurt and not wanting to be home 7 day's a week again but it is now time to get past that. It is now, once again, time to put that energy and need to work into my jewelry and learn how to make my shops grow, and study everything I can put my hands on to start getting regular sales.

That both frightens and motivates me at the same time. I love being able to pull out my beads and create at any time of the day or night that I want without any other interruption.
Knowing that if I can't figure out how to grow my business means losing everything , and by everything I just mean the basics. Lights, phone, maybe having to move, just frightens me, I went through so many years of not having any answers. So I am going to block out all the negative worries for a while and just put that energy into figuring out how to make my online shops make ends meet for me. Course I haven't had tv in over 2 months already and if I don't get to see a television show soon I may blow the house up any way. Kidding!

Then I have to make a decision about my Avon business. I love selling Avon. Selling Avon costs me money. I only have a few customers. By the time I pay for my books each campaign, samples of new products, pay for my website if no one orders off it that month. Yeah, it costs me more than I collect in payments. So I am trying to tell myself that this is rather counterproductive to what I am trying to accomplish. Yet, I am so hesitant to give it up just because I enjoy it and someday I may see the fruits of my labor. More deep thinking.
Any way these are just a few things that I am dealing with and have gotten in the way of the new work. I have several new peices started , just not moving too quickly while my head is full of this other stuff.

Sometimes it is just so difficult to make the right decisions, even when you know the right answers , just because you are somehow emotionally connected to what ever it is and don't want to feel lousy for making the right choice.

Will give you an update soon and maybe show you something finished for one of my shops!

The Finish

It's finished. It's not perfect but it is truly good enough to send to Amy. I have made mental notes as I weaved and fringed along and know exactly what I would do differently next time and it's a good thing. My sister say's all their military friends in the UAE will want one. hmmmm
These colors are not at the top of my ordering list but maybe I better put them there :)

A Present for myself

I was so excited when my postman came today and there was this large envelope for me. I just knew it was this beautiful butterfly. I have been in love with DZFantasy's Etsy shop forever. She makes the most fascinating fairy's, mermaids, butterflies and necklaces. I have been trying to spare some money to buy myself a birthday present since 1 year ago January. Just could not pull it off last year but this year I made up my mind that I deserved it! Went to her shop intent on buying a fairy to decorate my room with but had to look through all her new listings and spotted this! I am doing a little redecorating soon and I just knew she would be perfect in a certain spot in my living room so this is what I gave myself for my birthday. I will go back for a fairy when I can, one step at a time, I very , very seldom buy myself something just because I want it. If I spend money on anything besides bills it is for supplies so I can keep working. If you haven't seen Donna's work before you really need to just take a visit to her shop.....
www.dzfantasy.etsy.com

Donna also has the best blog! It is alway's full of great colors, pictures of her new work and she features many, many wonderful shops not to mention is alway's having a great giveaway. If your not familiar with her blog check it out....
http://dzfantasy.blogspot.com

That's all I have , just needed to share my joy over this little gift!

One more step

I have been having a bit of a bad time so decided to do some more work on this bag. Sorry my picture came out lousy but as you can see the flap is done with the blue field flowing off one corner. I used larger gold beads to represent stars, Not all, some are off the edge of the flag that flowed off :) Now I have to pull out the graph paper. I think I know how I want my fringe to look so I need to graph it out with counts so it comes out right. So I will give it a shot and show you another picture in a few day's.

A new Challenge

A few nights ago I was showing off my new bag, Pink Ice, on facebook. (This bag sold that night!)

Any way my cousin Amy who I have blogged about doing her 2nd tour in Iraq has internet access and chimes in every once in a while. She told me I should do a bag in red, white, and blue in honor of all service people. Ohhhh boy! A challenge. I can not resist a challenge so here we go. I am flying by the seat of my pants and have no clue how I am going to do this. So we start at square one and learn as we go. I decided first, I did not want just straight stripes across a bag so I decided to alternate the red and white in a circular pattern to kind of represent the flow of a flag waving in the breeze. Here is what I have so far. I will update you as I go along. The next thought process will be how to incorporate the blue field when I get to the flap on the bag.....you will have to wait till I get that far for the next picture

Pink Ice

I've had this amulet bag sitting around half done for a while. I just did not like anything I had for my accent beads. So it has sat on my desk and sat and sat. I came up with an idea how to sell a long necklace with the ability to make it shorter. I made a tiny ring of beads with a clasp that fits right through the loops of the neckchain. Perfect! That elimates a job I find I often do. Some one loves the necklace but it is to long or to short. So by making the necklace longer and making the little loop it becomes adjustable so I am not tearing them apart to resize the neck. Yeah!
Any way back to the bag sitting on my desk. I decided a long time ago when I had a bit of money to spend on supplies I was going to try as often as possible to find people on Etsy. I found another sweet supply seller on the forums and when I sold the custom order for the lanyards I decided some of that money had to go to supplies. The heck with the light bill!
Any way, I put in a small order to this seller one of the items being clear quartz chips. I knew by the picture they were a bit larger than what I normally work with but when I received them I just thought wow! these are really big "chips". Then it came to me. The bright pink seedbeads in this bag was the problem that I was having matching an accent bead to the bag. Problem solved. These BIG quartz chips were perfect. Big , Bright and Bold! I am a happy camper.
So I have not yet figured out how to link to different Etsy shops here when I find something I like so all I can do is share the persons etsy address. Here it is, please check her out:)
www.beads4yourneeds.etsy.com

Thanks for being here!

Episodes

I don't have anything new to show you today. Haven't accomplished much at all over the last few day's because I am having one of my "episodes". Dealing with the aftermath of my illness my day's fall in 2 categories. I alway's live with a great deal of pain. Between the nerve damage in the back of head, my neck and into my shoulder blades and the constant aggravation of the tumor in my spine. Pain is a part of my day that will never go away. But!!!!!! At this point, I have learned alot of mind over matter techniques that help keep most of my day's where I am in control of the pain, it's there but I can do everything I want or have to do without it stopping me. It just kind of lurks in the background. Then just about the time where maybe I am getting a bit too confident because I have been doing well.......The 2nd category kicks up. The pain is in control. I have no will power to fight it, I accomplish just about nothing because I am just exhausted from dealing with the pain. These day's are my episode day's, usually they only last 2 or 3 day's and then I climb on top. The good news is that I go longer and longer between these episode's and I am very grateful for that. Sometimes I think they are happening when I have done a bit tooo much and telling me to slow down but that's not happening (big grin) stubborness is also a character trait.

So what I have done this week is first of all, I joined the Createability Team on Etsy , looking for something more to keep myself involved in the outside world. I think it may be fun. Now I am hoping to get back to some beadwork here.....soon as I have the energy to pick up this darn needle and thread it!
Hope your having a great day

It's finally Finished

I have finally finished this custom order and boy am I glad. You would never believe how hard it is to make 30 of the same item, the same size, basically the same style and pick a different color or bead type for each one.

This was truly a big learning experiance for me. I am glad that I did accept it, I am very glad it is finished and heading for the post office first thing tomorrow. Now cross your fingers she is happy with it. Yes I know you only see 28 here, I am giving her 2 as a thank you gift and don't want to spoil it ;)

So excited I had to share!

My Birthday was last Sunday but today my grandson gave me a gift. I am so excited. Saratoga Beads is the only independantly owned bead shop in my town. I want to go use this right now, sadly it is night time and they are closed but it won't take me long to get there and enjoy this gift. Just had to do a happy dance and share this with someone :)

Wednesday peek in

Just popped in to read up on the blogs I follow. One of my favorite pastimes and since I am here I decided to ramble a minute. I am now a bit older , on Sunday I turned 54. OMG! I am just this side of being a legal senior citizen! I posted this lip balm bag in my Etsy shop tonight. On my birthday I worked a double shift and really sent my kids plans into a tail spin. They tried to surprise me with a cake and were walking in the door as I was walking out to go do my 2nd shift. Oh well, that will teach them to surprise me, we had the cake Monday night.

I also wanted to give a very public than you to an Etsy supply seller. I have been working on this large custom order of beaded lanyards. I sent out the first bunch to my customer. She loved them but had to send them back to me because the magnetic clasps were not strong enough and this is an area that I have never worked in and did not know better. Any way she was really good about it and I went on a hunt for better clasps. I was flabbergasted at the prices I was finding and just didn't know what to do so I pleaded for help in the forums and someone gave me a list. I found one that I sent a convo too asking for guidance. She had just what I needed and convoed me back right away, went out of her way to do a reserved listing for exactly what I needed and the amount I needed. I bought the listing and had my magnetic clasps in 4 days so I could redo the lanyards. She really bent over backwards for me and I am very appreciative. So when your searching for supplies be sure to check out her shop to see if she has what you need:
mysuppliessource.etsy.com

Opinions Please....

Okay, we all know that I like things a bit different. I enjoy pushing the envelope and I am in my element when I am making something that isn't just like everyone elses. I happen to love embellished cuff bracelets. I am looking for way's to add some interest using materials I have. I love working with semi precious chips. All kinds of chips. I spent a good number of hours on this bracelet, creating first a thin peyote stitched cuff. Then started adding chips using fiber optics in orange, yellow and green. Some clear glass chips. Then just to fill in between all those chips I used some tiny glass pearls just meandering along the bracelet in no special order. This is stuff I truly enjoy. My daughter say's it's downright ugly. Okay so here is what I want to know and be truthful....Do you like this kind of work? Do you hate this kind of work? I truly want to know just to get an idea of what people are thinking if I list them in my shop. Just for fun, beleive me it's ok if you say you don't like it. Thanks for helping!

Saturday night thoughts

Happy Saturday night all! Just some thoughts going through my head and decided to post them here . I just loooove this picture. My granddaughter has formed a habit, when I am at work she sneaks up to my studio and changes my screen saver on a regular basis. When I come home and turn on the computer I never know what is going to pop up and usually it gives me a good laugh. I asked her to leave this one a while. We are a family of animal lovers, all kinds of animals and alway's have cats and dogs and mice and so on and so on. But this little guy has to be the cutest baby I have ever seen!

My week has ended well, I have actually worked at the Cafe the last three day's in a row and am working tomorrow. First week I will have more than 2 day's pay since a week before Christmas. Yeah! My custom order customer bought the two groups of lanyards I finished today, I had a small ebay sale today. Small groups of happiness all together. Tonight I posted another ornament in Heather's shop just to grow it a bit at a time. Excited too about some new original designs coming up for all the Holiday's in 2010. Getting my daughter into this makes me happy.

Something is really funky in Etsy tonight. Sloooooooow as all get out, it took me almost 20 minutes to get through the listing process on Heathers ornament, then I listed in my shop and that took another 20, things that are usually a 5 minute process.

Any way I listed a beaded bookmark back into my shop tonight, I decided I want to keep them in because I really do like them and don't mind making them so here we go again:)

Enjoy your weekend everyone.