I made it to Tucson! Etsy ROADTRIP update

Well, it took me forever...14 hours to be exact (I travel with a Bulldog puppy, which always adds a couple hours to the trip for potty breaks and runs through rest areas). I have the word out to a few Etsy shops that I like from El Paso and Tucson, AZ. Of course, I would always prefer not to post anyones items until I receive permission from them first so I might be a day behind or so in my "online travels".

The trip was lovely. I have driven back and forth from Eastern KY to Des Moines, IA several times (many more than I care to admit) and that drive is TERRIBLE... but I have to admit that I love the desert. I like having mountains in the far away distance, like you have a goal that you are working towards all day. I took some really crappy - from the car pictures that I will have to post when I haven't spent 14 hours on the road. The best ones, I have to admit, are of my dog in the back seat looking pitiful and bored.

I should be in Bakersfield earlier tomorrow so I will have time to post more.

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio Final Installment

Etsy Creative CeramicaBotanica:

Ok, For our third and final seller of the evening, I came across CeramicaBotanica, a wonderul Etsy shop full of handmade ceramic pieces. CeramicaBotanica uses only food safe glazes to decorate her work, so all of that fashion is also chock full of function. Susan, proprieter of CeramicaBotanica has been creating with clay for 20 years, and most all of her work is a one of a kind piece of totally use-able art! I was attracted to the color and patterns, as she mentions that these are what inspire her awesome pieces.

The moment you have all been waiting for:

I am drooling over the green bowl. I decided (pre Rachel Ray) that I would do my kitchen in all green shades a little over 2 years ago. Of course at this time there were no green cookwares out there. I gave up and since I have been on the road the last year, now that Green is everywhere, I cant justify buying pots and pans when all I have is a very full car to lug them around in. I am so "hearting" this green bowl, and will have to check out this shop when I am stationary.

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio part 2

San Antonio Seller cbtscloset:

For my second Featured Seller, I would like to introduce you to cbtscloset. CBT lives in San Antonio, and operates through Etsy as well as her own personal website. CBT creates funky and awesome works of wearable art using laser cut acrylic. I couldnt resist this seller when I saw the Rib Caged Heart Necklace. I am a fool for anatomy. You will also find pages and pages of retro (is 80's retro now... felling old) casette tape and keytar charms, unicorns, brass knuckles and too much more to list! Anyway, I am dying to show you my favorites so here goes:

cbtscloset also gives a shout out to her BF's shop in her Etsy profile, and I, being all about promotion, will take this opportunity to link up to that shop as well. (I must admit, in my search for Featured Seller, I also came across his shop by mistake and noticed that they were BF / GF Etsians! I must just have good taste! So go here too for cool stuff: nbscloset!!!

Etsy ROADTRIP - San Antonio

For the first installment of my Etsy Roadtrip I am going to start with where I am... San Antonio, Texas! I have found some great Etsy sellers from San Antonio that I am excited to feature. Take a moment to browse their amazing shops!

Etsy artisan - ElSol

My first featured seller is ElSol. ElSol is a husband and wife team that owns an Art Gallery in San Antonio. Their Etsy shop is filled with jewelry, ornaments, masks, and many other items that reflect a very cool Latino Folk Art feel. I fell in love instantly with the Dia de los Muertos masks and ornaments, and couldnt help but search through the rest of the store.

Here are a few of my favorites from ElSol:

Keeping it a family affair, ElSol not only is a husband and wife team, but they have Mom and Sister involved in our Etsy community too! Take a gander at these other shops too!!

Mom: manosmias.etsy.com and Sis: yemayadesigns.etsy.com

New Paintings

I have a couple of my old school style portraits done. I have painted them on wooden beveled plaques. I painted the wood black, then accented the bevel divots in brown, and flecked them in black. I then painted my characters onto a setting - style background and viola! I plan to varnish them and crackle the finish a bit to give it that old tin-type look, but being in a hotel I haven't found the opportunity to get to Lowe's and find a secret spot to apply the varnish coat. Once I put a clear coat on in Walnut or Honey... these puppies will look awesome. (They are a bit bright now, but will dull down just fine.)

Etsy Featured Sellers ROADTRIP!!

So as many thoughts and ideas of mine do, I had a brain buster in the shower this morning. Since I am traveling across the country, and dont know when I will stop or how long I will be gone, or when I will be able to retreive my belongings... why not make it all Etsy related?

So, I have decided to feature fellow Etsy sellers by location, as I pass through their lovely towns. Of course I will start with San Antonio, as that is where this leg of the journey begins. I have a few convos out there, making sure that I have permission before just throwing awesome items and amazing pictures up on my blog...but once I have the good go - ahead, your eyes will sparkle and your wallets will open for sure!

I want to feature at least 3 sellers from each locale, if possible. So here goes! Enjoy, and feel free to visit their awesome Etsy shops and spread the love whenever it moves you to do so. PS: My car is not yellow. This will be my E- Car.

Visual Trip Plan

I have mentioned many times that I have been traveling this year, but I dont think that I have drawn the picture of where we have been. So I drew it up for you (and me). The Dark red is where we ave been already since August of 2008. The Bright red is where we are heading between tomorrow and the end of March. Yellow dots are extended stays (over a month) and green dots are overnights and short trips.

Seems a bit overwhelming now that I have it all mapped out. Man this is gonna be intersting. I am a bit worried about traveling through the Rockies in March. I hope that the weather is good. It is shorter than traveling down through Oklahoma and then back north through Kansas (not to mention a much more scenic drive)

Item Sold!

Well, I have to admit that the changes I have made seem to have paid off. Within 48 hours of said tweaks, I made a sale! I sold my lovely Tree Branch necklace. Sigh of relief. I am waiting on combining my shops as of now...due to the visual differences in the two shops. My NovembersMelon shop is just so fun and colorful and I cant see how to mesh that in with my jewelry unless I can get a whole lot of new product pictures and I just dont have any nice, colorful props for the jewlery, nor do I want to disctract from the necklaces themselves. Tough, I know.

Also, I might add some bracelets and earrings in the mix soon. It just depends on how long it takes me to get to California from Texas. YAY Sale!!! I was just so tickled I took forever decorating the envelope with tiny birds and colorful words.

Well, off to the post office for some speedy shipping. Always have to have that follow through!

California Bound

Well, as many things do in my life, things have changed quite abruptly. I am going to California. I will head that way Friday or Saturday and be there for at least a month. So I guess I have to postpone getting my belongings from Iowa for a month or two... which means postponing building my painting website as well.

Wow, what a strange year. Luckily for me, I found this out before shipping my brooches and things home to KY so I can still sell from my Etsy store.

GIVEAWAY!

Why not? As I said previously in a post, I would like to further structure this humble blog. I would like to do at least a monthly giveaway, and at least one tutorial per month to get the ball rolling. I need to boost my view power a bit too though. That is why I think that I am going to do my first giveaway as a referral format. (shameless self promotion...yes.)


The winner will receive their pick of any of my brooches or keychains from my Etsy Shop. Once I get a larger fan base, of course, I can afford to give away jewelry and art... I'm working up to it folks! Anyway, here are some of the brooches available if you are click - hesitant.

How to win: Refer friends to follow my blog! That easy. As I would like to get the most benefit from this idea of mine, I will allow several winners. For every TWO followers you refer, You can take your pick of my brooches or keychains and I will send em on out to you! This will go on from Today until Friday, March 6th. To collect your referral points (so I can keep track of them) just send me an email with the name of the newbie you sent my way.

Of course, if you are like myself, you might not be a huge fan of spamming your friends. If you just don't have any online friends that would be interested in my daily rambles, hang in there! I will run another giveaway in March!

Facebook update / New project

Well, I don't know what happened but over the weekend I had a stroke of luck. My clicks from Facebook doubled. I had 15, 16, and 13 on Sun, Mon and Tues, respectively. I still plan on canceling the ad, due to very low Clicks and very high cost per click... (not to mention zero sales) but it was nice to see a bit of a jump in interest.

I think that I am going to formalize a plan for combining my etsy shops. Novembers Melon just gets no love. There is a LARGE problem with the storefront consistency but I will have to deal with that, and re-arrange a few things... Including adapting the Banner and avatar. My Novembers Melon banner is just so fun and colorful, and the MyLittleHands banner is slightly more reserved. Unfortunately for professionalism, I am notoriously more fun than professional so guess which one gets the boot.

I am doing a new project, although I am afraid that there will not be the same turnaround that I usually have as for posting completed works on the site. I am attempting to make some old school portrait style versions of my ninjas and robots characters. I no doubt will update later on today with any changes that I went through in my shops. (there is a 25% chance I will be driving to California, rather than KY on Friday so I might be out of commission for a couple days due to road ramblin.)

Girl Mullet

PS: I am considering growing a girl mullet. I have been without haircut for over a month and the back is getting a bit long. I just cant fit a pricey trip to a salon into the budget right now and am letting it grow. (The last time I did the SuperCuts thing I looked like I cut it myself) I am sure once I am home in KY I will cut it, or try to find my familiar hairstylist, but for now, what do you think about this as my next hairstyle? Fantastic is what I say.

Of course this version is poorly photoshopped, and mine will be glorious so please keep that in mind when thinking about how fabulous I am going to be cruising the streets looking for crafting supplies in my new hairdo.

My Plan to Boost Etsy sales

So I was looking at the old Etsy shop last night, wondering what else I could do to turn those few clicks I get daily into sales. I am a bit frustrated lately, but still trying new things. I know that I need to revamp the pictures a bot, and get in closer and add some better focal images and all that...but it is very hard to stage a good picture when all I have to work with is this hotel room. Not a lot to set up a picture with in a hotel room.

I have tried a few spots outside the room, in the walkways and such but still cant get it right. I have some cool props that I can use in storage, but 1000 miles away is a challenge. I will just have to let that part of my store rework wait.

So... in the past week I have completed the following:

• I have offered free US Shipping on everything in my shop (with the cookie sets as exceptions).


• I took the advice listed in one forum where the seller had sold 400 items in 9 months, and changed my even prices down 1 penny to the .99 cent mark.


• I renewed all jewelry items so they are grouped together in my store.


• I updated my banner and avatar to be more eye catching.


• I shortened my welcome message, and cleaned up my policies.


• I opened my Facebook Ad account, and have run that for almost a week... (not worth it in my opinion)


• I have been using Project Wonderful, and managing my bids to the best of my ability.


• I have my Blog linked up in a few places, with my Etsy button, Etsy Mini, etc. (as well as updating daily and trying to increase traffic the best way that I know how)


• I maintain a Facebook Business page, Myspace page, etc. featuring my Etsy items


• I contribute my items once a week to IndieSpotting.com

I just don't know what I am missing. I have a plan for next week though. I will begin to distribute my business cards. I will add photos of my shipping materials and packaging. I will plan out which photos need redone, and what I will use in them. I will redo the Welcome message and profile info to include a little more about me and my personality, rather than the more professional matter in there now. I will use MySpace and Facebook networking tools to broaden my friends base, and set up a schedule for updates using those tools. I will better structure my postings here in the old blog, including tutorials and giveaways. I have a lot to offer, but don't think that I am capitalizing on that as much as I should.

I am a bit handicapped this week, as I am preparing for the drive to KY, but once there, I will be on a farm in the woods, 10 miles from the city, and with nothing better to do than to improve my business.

10 things I will miss about Texas

As this is my last week here, I guess that I will post about some of the things I will miss. Only 4 more days!!!

1. Big Red on tap. - I love Big Red soda, and Texans are crazy for it! Not only can you find it everywhere, but it is at most Fast Food restaraunts on the fountain machine.

2. Weather - Always sunny, and mild even on its bad days

3. Beer is in abundance - All the gas stations have a large bin full of ice - and Fresh cold 20 oz cans of beer. Weird, as Gas stations usually sell to travelers...

4. Speed limit changes day and night - I was pulled over in Austin for going 67 after dusk. The Patrolman said, "Speed limit is 65 at night in Texas, Ma'am."

5. People are jsut as friendly as back home - you will get in many conversations while waiting in line, and will always have someone holding the door for you

6. H.E.B - Best grocery chain that I have ever been to... I go there every day, and sometimes spend too much time there.

7. Whataburger - We dont have these back east, but I LOVE them.

8. Jack in the Box - closest one is in Tennessee. I like eating Tacos,Cheese Sticks, and french fries at 2am.

9. You can get lost, but every road runs either N - S or E- W. You are always able to head back the other direction and find home.

10. Stacked highways - Sometimes the city looks like a science fiction comic. I often feel like a pinball when coming back into the North part of San Antonio after being near Houston.

I guess that is all I have for now. I would post why I miss / Love KY so much but I think that would go on longer than 10 posts.

Going Home!!

Finally! After 3 long months in Texas, I am cleared to go home for a week or so. After that week of rest, I will hopefully be going to Iowa to get my stuff (and my car) out of storage, then maybe ((crosses fingers)) I can settle into a house or apartment or something. Whew. I am definitely excited about that. Now all I have to do is a million things to prepare for the two day trip up there.

Although I do love Texas, and still wouldnt mind relocating here, I was watching TV the other day and do miss KY. The ironic thing is that I was watching a show on the KY state Prison. I still liked the scenery there better... and it was scenery surrounding a JAIL! Anyway, I miss all the green and am ready to be at least close to home so I can do the Lake thing, play on the old boat, hang out on the Tree Farm, all those rednecky things that I never in a million years tought that I would miss.

Anyway, as far a business is concerned, I am cancelling my Facebook Ad account today most likely, and need some serious revamping on my project Wonderful account as well. Advice to anyone that is using or might use Project Wonderful: Do your research! Dont always go for the cheaper pages, or the ones that have the most views... I have tried both and those are my newbie mistakes. I am switching out for some nice Middle - pages with median visits per day, and with a little heftier Ad price. (over 3 cents). I guess I am too cheap for my own good :)

Finished Tryptich

Aha. Complete. Problem I have now, is getting accurate pictures onto Etsy that show the piece, with minimal cropping. I am quite proud of how it turned out. I decided to go with $40, which is $5 cheaper than if I listed each canvas at $15. I still think this is under selling from a fine art point of view.. but as my crafty things cant really be considered fine art be any stretch of the word, I am comfortable with underselling for now. When I get my paintings out of storage, I will have a much beefier NovembersMelon site.

The close - up shots are of the binary code that I inked on there, to help fill up dead space. Dork, much? Yes, I concede.

Day 3 Facebook Ad..Facebook in general

So, in keeping with my schedule, today was Facebook day. I am now paying about 84 cents per click... Isnt it weird that 3 days in a row I have received only 9 clicks, (according to updated Facebook data) but I am not paying per click... I am paying per 1,000 images.


If anyone else wants to give it a go, here is the link.


I read about this from Alloverart's blog...and if you would like to check that out and read her experience, here is her blog: http://alloverart-nc.blogspot.com/ Thanks again to her for sharing the Facebook info.


Other Facebook stuff for you:
If you have an account, check this out. This young lady is taking turns interviewing, featuring, and displaying Etsy Shop owners work!

Triptych in progress

I have started a triptych. It will be done by the end of the weekend, hopefully. It is on small canvases that I got slightly after Christmas. The center piece is a little cowboy with two super soaker guns. He is killing two attacking robots (the other two canvases). Anyway, I hope that it turns out ok. Any ideas on how much I should list it for?

This would be for my NovembersMelon Etsy store, not the MyLittleHands one... but to be honest, I am very new at putting a value on my work. I have done a little research and it seems that the small canvases, as well as Art Cards that are originals, not prints go for $10 - $15, and up to $100, depending on the caliber and popularity of the artist. So that would mean that a small Triptych piece could go for $45... Does that seem fair? Free shipping of course.

Each canvas is about 5" X 5", and is actual stretched canvas that will sit about 1/2" from the wall. Either way, I should be able to update with photos tomorrow.

Facebook Update

I just dont see how this could be worth it. What a great opportunity, and a way to save money in trying something new...but I am NOT getting any where near the bang for the buck. Perhaps it is my Ad, I dont know. I am simply too little a seller in this big business world to get anything from Facebook yet. If you have had many many sales, and generate enough money monthly from your Etsy store to pay for Facebook Ads, then perhaps it is better for you.

I have had a whopping 4 sales since December and am in no way a member of this elite category. Alas, I will keep on trucking and trying to boost my sales any way that I know how. Another problem is arising, however... I have these new paintings that I wantt o display but I am losing coherency in my store. I have a huge section of felt items, a growing section of jewlery, and now goofy paintings?? Not gonna work. I thought that putting them in my bigger store (I also have a store with a few paintings in them) would be better for exposure... but I am now rethinking this decision.

I think I will delete them and re - post them in my other store (http://www.novembersmelon.etsy.com/) and then re-do my profile and banner and all that on that end. Then I can feature both shops here and hope for the best. SIGH. Lots of work for such little payoff at the moment. I hope things pick up soon.

Freaky Bird that hates me

On a completely unrelated to everything note, I was taking pictures of this bird that was mocking me when I was taking pictures of my tiny paintings today. He was making "car starting" noises at me the whole time, and seemed really agitated. I played with the color a bit in photoshop, to get the branches more seperate from the freaky bird, and to ensure that you can see his freaky eye. Weird. Anyway, I will post more pics after I play with them a bit. I hope he comes back tomorrow and becomes my friend.

Newest Stuff!!

Ok, so I am about jewelried out for a few days. I am going to work on those little paintings that I have been cooking up in my acrylic coated brain for some time. I have perfected my Pirates, Ninjas, Cowboys and Robots images finally. I had the robot and the ninja, but have been struggling with the cowboy and pirate for some time...trying to get them simple enough so that I can duplicate them in various positions and situations. Finally - Success! Anyway, I had tons of fun working on these so I hope they do well.

I am also VERY proud of myself for using ALL 14 Etsy tags when listing them. Whoohoo. I always struggle with that. Well, Here they are! Oddly enough, as much as Robots are NOT my favorite of the four, I think that the robot is my favorite of these pics. He just fits on that pink background for some reason.

Anyway, on to more business - related business... I have some more stats from my Facebook Ad. Today I had 27,000 images so far. I have spent about $7 today on those images, which means that the cost per image was a bit higher for whatever reason than it was yesterday. I got 9 clicks today so far. So, all in all a tad bit better than yesterday, averaging 79 cents per click. Hell, I could pass out business cards and pay people $1 to go to my website if that was all it got me.

Which reminds me... I will start handing out the old business cards soon. I have a otn of them that I got for 5.95 from Vistaprint.com You should check it out, I think that for starters, it is a good deal for 250 cards. Anyway, I will update tomorrow with some data form my ProjectWonderful page. I had only 1 click from that as of the 2nd day, but I am staying hopeful.

ETSY Treasury!

I finally got one!!! Check her out folks! Note that I am not yet featured in one...but I tried like hell to get newer sellers in there to give the little guys a chance! It is my own personal tribute to the White Stripes. Whoohoo. I hope that it gets a lot of views and comments and all that lot. I have waited for so long I hope it is successful. Tomorrow I will post the link up in a forum or two to see if I can promote it a bit more.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=40825

WOW! Facebook Ad Day 1 over already

Well, The ad ran for a whole hour. I got 47,000 image spots...seemingly over with in a flas, and only 8 clicks out of it. The terruble thing is that I had an $8 per day spending limit so that My whole $100 credit wont be gone in one day. Perhaps I should have done the Payper clicks route but I had read that other Etsians got more bang from their buck on the images option. So I am getting about one click per 5875 images.

Which means that today, I paid $1 per click. Ugh. Maybe I will switch it out after a day or so. Anyway, I looked more into the coupon thing and you will see your credit balance under billing and funding. When it runs out, you gotsta pay. So I will be out of ads in about 12 days, which means that I should cancel within 10 days jsut in case they keep on charging me :)

Calendar, IndieSpotting

I made it onto Indie Spotting again! YAY! http://www.myshoppingconnection.com/indiespotting/2009/index.php. I plan to submit every Monday, to keep it up a bit, as I noticed about 50 more clicks a day to the old Etsy shop. Also, I am placing my self on a regular weekly schedule.

Here goes:

Monday: Renew Etsy Items over $10; Submit photo to Indie Spotting; Overhaul, edit, tweak and update MyLittleHands blog

Tuesday: Retouch photos for Etsy site; Participate in Etsy forums and chat; spend a moment on personal blogs

Wednesday: Review Project Wonderful statistics and Bids; Make MySpace updates if needed; Update MyLittleHands Blog

Thursday: Play on Craftster; Spend a few on Etsy Forums; personal blog

Friday: Make Facebook Updates; Make Flikr Updates; MyLittleHands Blog

Saturday: Review Project Wonderful data; Make MySpace Updates; MyLittleHands Blog

Sunday: Crafster; Etsy Forums and Chat; MyLittleHands Blog

Of course this doesnt include creating and adding new items to Etsy, I just cant plan that all out yet. I hope to one day build up the old blog enough to have some themed days, giveaways, etc. But as I only have 2 followers, not many daily hits and only about 15 posts, I am not gonna jump the gun on that.

Facebook Ads, Project Wonderful

Well, I have decided to try the $100 coupon for Facebook adspace. I am extremely skeptical, however, and feel that I will end up paying cash out of pocket. I just dont trust anything asking for a credit card. I have read other blogs about their exoerience with Facebook ad coupons, and they seem to check out so far. I did read the terms and conditions with a fine toothed comb though, and Buyers Beware:

It stated that Facebook reserved the right to continue to run your ad, at your expense, for up to 7 days after the cancellation request. So I will be watching carefully and will not let my budget go to the last few dollars. I will cancel out before the $100 is up. Sorry the Ad is so small, I custom made it to the Facebook specifications and did not make a grown up version of it :)

Anyway, I will update after a day or so and list any helpful data that I might have on hand. Now, for Project Wonderful: I have 4 active bids right now. I only started out with $5 in my account, just to see if I got any traffic. I am bidding a maximum of 3cents right now, so I am not on very high trafficked blogs... but I am in there, and trying my best to advertise on other Etsy related sites. It has been 2 days, I have spent a large FOUR CENTS and have one click. whoohoo.

Anyway, I will update later on today with some more necklace pics, and maybe I will have some more Facebook data by then too.

Small Victories

I got a bit of networking completed today. A couple days ago, I was featured on the front page of Indie Spotting. I am now on page 4 but ah well. I am going to try to do this once a week, as suggested as a limit by the site (to give others a chance). Check me out! Its the bird nest necklace: http://www.myshoppingconnection.com/indiespotting/2009/index4.php. I rather like this site also. Great stuff, and a lot of it I recognize from Etsy.

Also, I bought a few ads through Project Wonderful today. I am gonna give it a good $5 try each month, and consider it an investment. I also have an Etsy showcase purchased for March...7th I think, the first Saturday of the month. We will check the old Google Analytics page to see if that increased any traffic. I am averaging a very low 50 hits a day on Etsy... and one a day on the old blog :( Something to work on for sure.

And last but definitely not least, one of the blogs that I have a PW ad through, has been kind enough to post about my necklace "YAY!" You can check that wonderfully colorful blog out here: http://doodlebirdblog.blogspot.com/ where you will find all kinds of great stuff from etailers!!

I will update tomorrow with any data that I can find, although I should give it a good 24 hours so we might have to wait until Wednesday, as well as maybe some fresh pics from two new necklaces and 2 new pendants. Woohoo!

Pendants for Thought...

Ok. I am thinking again about making just the birds nests and then selling them as pendants in my etsy shop. Thoughts? That would help me to create a price point, and to make an in - between priced item for the shop. I have $5 items, and then $18 items in there now... would this help out at all? I am also trying to only use funds that are in my paypal account for etsy sales, listings and advertising to I am keeping to a very modest budget.

I made a sale over the weekend! I am a bit frustrated that everything is going so slow, (only 4 sales this year) but I am relieved that I am finding networking and marketing a bit easier each day. I have been posting in forums and chats and even started a project wonderful account today to advertise on a fellow Etsian's blog. (if you want to check it out, and my ad, http://moonofglass.blogspot.com/) You will find some wonderful glasswork there!

Here is the little felt item that I sold! I am excited about sending it, and decorated the little envelope with cute little evil penguins.

Another Necklace

Not much more to add about technique, but here is another necklace. I did some wire wrapping research today but for Rings...not much to learn from for necklaces. Here she is... I just cant figure out what I want to do with that pendant that I made in the last post. I think that I will have to do a bunch of bead gatherings and see what I can come up with. I guess I will take a few days. I am considering suede or fiber or something instead of beads or metal. Maybe I need to make another one and check out which one I like best.

Finally, Asymetry!

Ok, so here is my first attempt at both an asymetrical and a drop necklace. I call it, "Bird Droppings". It is made of a shell circular bead and some hematite beads that I got for another necklace. It works great as a choker, and I will definitely be keeping this one if it does not sell. I didnt get any head pins when I was out though, so I have had to get creative with finishing and dropping my pieces. I also need some new hardware and tools. I splurged on a mini tool set to get me going, but they are really cheap quality (What can you expect for $6..)

I am getting into this bird theme. I have got all kinds of bird charms to get me inspired and have even put off a trip to the store this weekend to try to focus on completing some pieces for next week sales opportunities. I would like to try to come up with a wire wrapped cage scenario to hold in this little flat bird charm that I found too. I will do some reading and tutorial searching soon to see what I can come up with.

Lapidary visit

I finally made it out to the lapidary yesterday. I was impressed and disappointed all at the same time. They had an interesting organizational technique, and some great product, but it was all very high quantity. Price per unit was definitely acceptable, and something that I would be very willing to pay but you have to buy so many.

I purchased a strand of pendant sized grey and creme colored beads that I fell in love with because it looked like there was tree branches in them, but you could only buy them in a strand of 17. The strand was 15.99, and after the Texas sales tax of 8.12% I had spent quite enough on only one selection of beads. I did want them so much that I had to buy them, but did not have enough in my budget to splurge on matching items or something that I could use to put together an entire piece.

I would have gone on an all out spree if each piece wasn't so much money. There were strands ranging from $3.99 - 17.99, depending on the composition of the bead. There were about 5 or 6 types that I wanted, but $50 was not in the cards for me. I will have to continue my search for another shop, and stick to Beading to Go for my pendant needs. I will update with a picture of the beads that I got there later in the day...or maybe the pendant that I created from one using wire wrapping and an accent bead I got from Michael's.

New Necklaces

I have been bitten by the bird theme. I am getting back into the jewelry thing, and lucky for me making jewelry is more travel - friendly than my other crap I have been doing. Now I wish that I could get rid of my felt stuff and pick up on the jewelry stuff again. Maybe I should send the felt and stuff home and pick up the necklaces for a while. My mom can babysit a box of my stuff until I get home. (If I get home) Anyway, I cant get the Birds nest out of my head. I keep thinking how cool all of these different bird necklaces can get. Obviously, the nests are cool by themself, but what kind of doors can I open if I go to that lapidary that I found and get some cool pendants going?

My next goal is to make an asymetrical necklace. I tried my hand at it last night but found that the charm I wanted to dangle from the right was too ehavy and after 6 re - works, gave up on the charm and the necklace was incredibly simple and far from what I wanted. Perhaps I will do a little research first and see what I come up with.

Bird on a Wire

Here is a necklace that I completed today for myself. I might also put it on my etsy site, just to see if there are any bites. I have 2 more nests done, for more of that style, as well as a small one that I might use as a ring, after I beef up my wire wrapping skills. I will see if the jewelry thing will end up as lucritive or not. Who knows? Plus, I found a lapidary here that I might check out later in the week. I am a bit sick this week, and not much in the shopping mood.

Nestlace

Here it is! I finished it today. I will get some more photos up soon of the entire necklace, as I made it for someone and dont want this post to spoil the fun. I will post again next week with the final piece. I liked it so much that I have started making one for myself out of slightly different colors. I am more of a red and brown kind of girl. So this was way more fun than I had anticipated. I miss my jewelry stuff a lot right now. I had quite a nice colletion back in Iowa and couldnt use any of it today. That and it has been a few years since I bought beads and am quite amazed at how expensive they have gotten. I am going to have to try to find a lapidary here in San Antonio to see if I can scope out some better deals.

Flower # 2

Just wanted to quickly update with another flower. I will be posting all of them as I finish them so if you have any feedback feel free to share. I am struggling with color themes, as well as which way to shoot them. I need the images square as possible for my Etsy page, so I can get it all in there with minimal cropping but as you can see they are half again as tall as they are wide. I try, I try. I will be using different flower patterns on the next two.

Maybe shades of blue for today. I am in a blue mood. Also, I am done with the 1st pendant for the bird necklace, but need to see if I can venture out to the craft store for some beads. The old man is napping so we will see if there is a late afternoon trip in the cards for me today or not. May have to venture out on my own.

Spring Idea

I am working up a new Springy batch of flower brooches. I will have 2 compelted (and hopefully uploaded tonight) and others each day to come. I should make good progress over the weekend. My goal is to have 6 compelted by Monday. I am planning to put them in cute little flower pots and ship them out that way. I hope they turn out nicely.

I am also working on making some bird - inspired necklaces. I cant get too crafty with them, as I left all of my jewelry stuff in KY and am not looking to duplicate items that I will have to travel with and pack along. I plan on only purchasing what I need to make them. I dont know when I will be making it to the craft store next, so I dont have an ETA on those. I will try to get some in - process pics up of them though this weekend. Check back later today or tomorrow for pics of the completed flower pots.

UPDATE: Here are the finished products - As promised. I couldnt get a good shot of the items outside today, as it is overcast in San Antonio and there are people all over and I couldnt find a good spot to shoot. I have a few ideas though, and when I get all 6 completed (only 2 done so far) I will have a mini photo shoot outside.

New ideas

I would like desperately to start painting again. I know that is is not the best idea (unless I keep up the smaller ones) until I get settled into a house...but my idea wall is getting packed. I am gaining quite a to do list. I am excited about being in the out of the box sampler. That is cool. I hope that it gains some traffic to my site.

I feel a little scrambled and transplanted right now too. I want to start so many things but there is no clear delineation for me to use for a game plan. It all kind of blurs together. Basically, my craft bin gets fuller and my picture files on my computer get fuller but nothing seems to get completed. I might be a bit burnt out from the last 25 creations for the Valentines day Box Sampler. I am felted out for now.

I am terribly tempted to go buy a canvas. A nice sized one. It is definitely not a possibility to make one (ideal) as I am still in a small hotel room and cant go out and buy staple gun, paint and stuff to make Gesso, cut lumber, etc. *sigh* Hopefully I will have some news next Friday about Mexico and I can make plans on moving. - 6 months of all my belongings in a storage unit is beginning to get a bit old.

Here are the things that I put in the Out of the Box Sampler this month: