Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Crafty ADD Update #21

Lots of pictures this week! I would have put this up yesterday - but I had a really bad migraine - so no computer time and no pictures!

Paper Craft

I took these plain brown paper bags from the craft store - and added snow flakes to them! We were having a game night and it was the perfect time to hand out some of the Christmas presents I've made over the last few months. My dear hubby thought I was CRAZY for making the snowflakes to put on bags that they will probably throw away, but I don't care. Paper is cheap and I love snowflakes!

Knitting

I finished the green scarf in time! I know it's longer than what I had last shown on here - but I have no idea how much longer. I think I added about 8 more inches? I should have written myself a note when I measured it huh?

I started this scarf on Christmas day - and then did a lot of work on it during my road trip to visit Granny! It's been interesting, a very different experience than any I've had before. I've never used eyelash yarn before and I've never used the circular knitting needles before. I was a little nervous about trying the eyelash yarn, and while I would never want to crochet with it, it actually works up really easily once you get it started! It also is going much faster than anything I've done before because it's much narrower and on larger needles.

Crochet

Mom showed me how to do the next steps in my project! And I got 5 rows added along the top. Hard to see how that's going to be a hat when I'm done isn't it? I guess I just have to have faith in the pattern. And I know I'll stitch it up the back when I'm done :P

Jewelry


I made this charm/shawl pin for the green scarf - and Bu liked it!


I actually made this pin awhile ago -
but I finally put a back on it and gave it to its intended recipient :P

This is the last of the presents I made for my friends at the Game Night - and I made it in the last hour before we left! Talk about overbooking myself with projects... She loved it though!

Now your probably thinking, "What on earth does this have to do with jewelry?" Well...the answer is that's my new project pan! I took a cheap tinfoil pie dish, spread tacky glue around it, and glued down some beading fabric. This gives me something I can put in my lap when I'm doing bead work away from my house. I tried it out on the trip - and it worked really well until my back started hurting and I had to sit in a different position in the car.


Christmas isn't over with! This one is going to be late - but that's ok - I know the girl I'm making it for loves me to death :)

I had a lot of fun doing a largely handmade Christmas this year...and I'm already starting to think ahead towards the next year of birthdays, weddings, and Christmas! Am I crazy? Naw...just crafty :P

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Back to Normal?

Can anyone truly say what's normal and what's not? It's an intriguing question... Anyway, life these last few weeks has been pretty crazy, but I think I'm going to be able to start getting back to something at least resembling my "normal" routine now. My ribs have healed up quite a bit so the pain is no longer interfering with my ability to get things done (at least not as much), I'm adjusting emotionally to the reality of my Granny having cancer, and the holiday craziness has calmed down a little!

Our holiday's aren't over yet though. My brother has been out of the country for the last two years and he comes home tomorrow night! I'm so excited! Since he's coming home right after Christmas, we put off celebrating our family Christmas until he could be with us, so that will be Thursday night. Saturday we have a big welcome home party too.

Despite that I should be able to get at least most of my normal stuff done! So hopefully you'll start seeing me around the forums and visiting your blogs more again :)

Monday, December 28, 2009

I've Learned...

I've learned that long car rides with messed up rib muscles can be painful, and that it makes it very difficult to bead while you drive! (note: brother drove, I was the passenger, not beading and doing the driving myself) I did a little bit yesterday, but I needed to be able to stretch my legs at a different angle to help relieve the stress on my ribs, so beading didn't last for long. Good news is I can still knit! I can sit in whatever position I want to while I knit so I have a feeling that I'll make good progress (or finish) the scarf I'm making myself when we drive home this afternoon!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Only a Few Days Left!

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

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


Friday, December 25, 2009

A Hand Made Christmas

Before I say anything else - I want to say Merry Christmas to you and yours!

This year at least half (maybe more) of the presents I gave were hand made, and it was so much fun! I still have a few more to give (and finish making lol), but the one's I've given at a party earlier this week, and at my in laws today, made people's faces light up! Its fun when you can see that when you buy them the right present, it's even better when it's something that you've invested your time and energy into!

I don't think I'll ever go totally handmade, some times making people's faces light up requires a visit to the store, but I'm definitely encouraged and excited to do the same thing next year! Ok...with different presents though :P

Did you give any hand made gifts this year? Was it a lot of fun?

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Places I've Shipped

Have you ever wondered what a map of all the places you've shipped to would look like? I have! When one of my friends (Meri of Elfling Creations) mentioned she'd made one I jumped on the idea! And since my other projects for the night kept failing... I made my own! Interested in making one for yourself? Just go to google maps, look up the different sites you've shipped too, and save them to your own customized map :) You have to zoom out for it to show anything...


View Places I've Shipped in a larger map

Monday, December 21, 2009

Crafty ADD Update #20

Can you believe this is already my 20th ADD post? That's just crazy! That means I need to do another slide show post sometime this week :) We'll see how things develop :P I still have a bunch of Christmas stuff to finish!

Crochet

I FINALLY finished the cuff/band on the hat! It's ready for the next step...but I'm probably going to need Mom to show me how to do that (almost definitely) so I'm stuck for a day or two :P That's ok - at this point I don't think I'm going to see them until after Christmas anyway and I think once Mom gets me going on the next part I should be good to go on my own. :)

Knitting

The scarf is 61 inches! I'd say it's a good length, but I'm not gifting it until Wednesday night, so we'll see if I'm in a knitting mood between now and then and it might just end up growing anyway :P
Paper Craft

I made another star! This one's for my in-laws :) I think we're taking it over there tomorrow... I was planning on having this done earlier but just kept not getting around too it. I was going to make one for my house too - but that's not happening at this point. Ah well - life goes one and plans change!

Jewelry

I'm officially insane - in case you didn't already know that! Friday night I was getting ready for my bazaar the next day by tagging and pricing new items right? Well that got me inspired, and I couldn't quit until after I'd made the above 5 pairs of hoops! (and tagged/priced them of course). Now if I could just get my ribs to heal up enough that I can take pics to put new items up in the shops....



I also finished up this bracelet this week. It's going in my consignment shop! My bead woven bracelets haven't really sold there up until now, so I'm rotating in some different styles to see what happens.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Last Bazaar of the Season

Yesterday was my last bazaar of the Christmas season! I didn't think I was going to get to go because of my sprained ribs, but my wonderful Mother in law offered to come along and help out with carrying and setting up, so we went for it! For some strange reason I didn't get a picture of her though :(

La also came with us this week - and she was sitting there writing when bored :) Oh yeah...um... we were bored a lot. There were hardly any customers!

This was La's table. She's one of the people who really inspired me to start following my dreams and start selling my jewelry. She's a great friend/sister and we have a lot of fun!

This adorable little fairy that you see on my table is named Lira - and she's my crafty muse :) My dear friend Meri over at Elbit Enterprises made her for me as a Christmas present :D During the normal week she sits on my desk next to my laptop (Jack) where she watches over my work. And then she went with me to the bazaar - and she'll be doing that in the future too!


I also FINALLY remembered to put a sign up sheet for my newsletter this time! Hopefully that will be a regular feature from now on. I only got one sign up - but hey - that's one more reader!

I really need to learn to sit down and let other people help when I'm hurting! Even though my mother in law was there to help I still did too much yesterday - so my ribs are rather mad at me today. Oh well. At least we all had fun (and a couple of sales) and I got a bunch of crafting done :P

Friday, December 18, 2009

My Favorite Colors

This weeks Etsy Bloggers Carnival asks "What is your favorite color combination and what do you amke with it?" Well, I LOVE color in general, so I love making bright things, but my top four favorite colors are PURPLE, BLACK, SILVER, and BLUE. You'll see all of these colors show up in my work, but you also see a wide variety of other colors. I've worked hard to expand my color pallette so that I will appeal to more customers hopefully :)


Despite purple being my all time favorite color - I think my love of silver is actually what influences my work the most. I've never been much of a girl for gold, and while I do use gold tones and gold colored findings on occasion, I'd estimate that 90% of my work is done in silver colored findings and accents. I try to diversefy like I mentioned earlier, which is while you'll occasionally see other metals used, but working with silver colors is much more natural for me.
I think my color explodes bracelet best shows off my love of the colors purple, blue, and black. I had a lot of fun working with this piece! It's a free form peyote stitch bracelet that was inspired by the center cabochon. This is one I've been very tempted to keep for myself - and one of the pieces I get the most comments on at the craft fairs!

So what about you? What are your favorite colors to use when creating?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Crafty ADD Update #19

It's been a long week - lots of ups and downs emotionally and physically - but I still got some done! Despite the fact that my hubby got me addicted to a video game and I fell HARD for my new addiction because it was a good escape from all the emotional drama :P

Knitting


I only added a couple of inches to the scarf this week. I spent most of my yarn crafty time working on crocheting this week. But knitting a scarf doesn't take me very long any more so I'm still pretty confident this will be done on time :)

Crochet


While technically this part of the pattern is really easy - I'm having a hard time with the stitch. Not that I'm messing it up really or anything (although I have had to pull out a few rows a few times when I missed a stitch), it's just that I'm VERY slow at it! Will this be done by Christmas? I don't know. At least I know the recipient is a 2 year old girl - and she'll be excited whenever she gets to unwrap it - late or not!

Jewelry

I've been at a quandary on how I present my jewelry on the crafty ADD posts. Because some days I work on bead woven pieces and have no finished product, some days I don't do anything, and other days I do a whole TON of small things. So I decided that every day I do jewelry work that's completed - I'll take a picture - and if I have a partially finished beadweaving piece I'll take a picture of it on Monday when I take my crocheting and knitting pictures :)


Wednesday night I made these up. The bracelet is a Christmas present - and I made the other two as I put away a whole bunch of supplies I'd bought and found myself inspired! I had picked up a baby food jar full of randomly strung beads, and Wednesday night I finally sorted them!

Friday night I finally put away a tube of large seed beads I had bought a couple weeks ago - well - put it away after making a memory wire bracelet! Which was my plans for the beads, so that's perfect. The earrings were a custom order for my mother-in-law that she's going to send to a friend for Christmas.


I just couldn't get in the bead weaving groove last week - but I finally pulled out my beads and started this bracelet! It's for my consignment store :)

I don't know when I'll be able to get new things on-line - I have a TON of stuff to put on-line but taking pictures is going to be hard because I have a sprained rib. Fun stuff yo!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

At Last!

I was planning on putting up this post...with the snow flakes I made last week that I talked about in my last Crafty ADD post....a couple of days ago. But, well, you know my life. It tends to go wonky. And this week has been no exception! If you want to know what's going on feel free to visit my personal blog, A Jedi's Musings.

Anywho - here are the snow flakes I decorated the doors in my house with! The last picture is the front entrance - I put a tinsel garland there as well :)







I also wanted to shop off my latest promoted items.
Tell me which is your favorite and get an extra entry
into my Top Commentators contest!


And don't forget, everything in Kindred Spirit Treasures is 25% off!
AND - have you checked out my earring club yet?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

One Day at a Time...

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

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Crafty ADD Update #18

Well this is the shortest ADD update I've had in a long time! But that's ok - I can't take over the owrld every week *wink* And I had some sick days last week (and this week too for that matter). All these pics go back to Monday...but that's not saying much cuz Tuesday was a total sick day with no crafting.

Knitting


Oh yay baby! I'm rocking the knitting the scarves :D Last week - 13 1/2. This week? 38 1/2 inches! Woot! I'm think I'll probably go a little over 5 feet (this one's for a girl and doesn't need to be as long) but we'll see what I end up with :P

Crochet

I started my niece's Christmas present! It's going to be a hat. This is take three on doing what they call the cuff.... As you may be able to tell from the picture I need to pull it out part way because, yet again, I lost a stitch somewhere so it got smaller part way along and I didn't notice... Oh well, I can do it! That's the nice thing about crochet - it's not hard to pull out and start over part way through :P

Jewelry

I keep having little mini-crazy-jewelry making parties. I did these....Sunday evening I think? I sooooo need to get some pictures to load new items on-line! I also made a Christmas present that night - but I can't show that because it was for someone who might see the blog :P


Paper Craft

Take my word for it - I made some snowflakes :P I forgot to take pictures earlier when I was taking pics for this post - maybe I'll get picks and put 'em up tomorrow?


Voting for Peace

This month's Etsy Bead Weavers Challenge is based on peace and the Winter Olympics. There are soooo many incredible pieces in this month's challenge! I mean, there usually are, but I'm truly impressed by these entries. I highly recommend that you visit each piece individually andread the story behind it, because you'll be blown away by the inspiration! Head over to the team blog for the links and to vote between now and the 15th :)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Quiet Sunday...

It's a quiet Sunday for me. I don't really have anything I want to blog about (I know! Me?). I've just been trying to relax. I've had a rough weekend with lots of bad news about my dear friends going through hard times. So you know how I jokingly comment that crafting is my therapy? Well sometimes it's not so much of joke, sometime it really IS my therapy! That's what it's been this weekend. I love being able to turn on a movie or a tv show and just lose myself in creating something beautiful. I ignore my e-mail and all the chatty things, and just create. I don't do that very often... usually my computer and chatty things are constant interruptions...so this is special. I only really do this when I'm on a deadline and need to get things DONE or when I'm really emotional and need to process. It works though. I get a lot done and I feel very peaceful after awhile. I call it my zen crafting state.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Learning from a Defunct Challenge Piece

I originally wasn't planning on entering this months EBW challenge. There has just been so much going on this month and I didn't have any good ideas! Then I came up with a bead weaving idea while I was falling asleep and decided to go for it. I showed a picture of it from Monday in yesterdays post.

I've since decided that this piece is destined to be one of the unfinished ones. I'm not sure if I'll pull it apart to salvage the seed beads or not, but either way it's getting junked. Why? Well, I made the piece by printing up a peace sign and then tracing it onto a piece of fabric. I had a hard time tracing it and knew my tracing was slightly lopsided but I thought I could fix it as I beaded. Um. No.

As I filled in the sides at first I was happy. One side turned out great. I couldn't make the other side look right though. I thought it was still going to work until I started doing the outside circle, and then I knew for certain that it wasn't going to work out!

I'm sad, but I've thought about it and I showed my hubby and we talked about it, and I realized that while this project failed, I've learned from it, and that's a good thing.

On my own I realized that, while I thought this was going to be a relatively simple project, it was a lot more challenging than I initially expected. It was my hubby who pointed out what the problem was/is. It's a geometric shape. I should NOT be trying to do a geometric shape in bead embroidery. Brick stitch, peyote, sure. Embroidery, no. Maybe someday I'll have enough talent and experience, but not now! It's much trickier than it looks.

Lesson learned - moving on! And I'm looking forward to showing you all the wonderful pieces my team mates made, I don't know how I'm going to choose one!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Crafty ADD Update #17 (totally late)

Ok - so normally I do my crafty ADD posts earlier in the week - but I kinda got eaten by the migraine monsters earlier this week - so these pictures are from the previous week up until Monday night. I've made stuff since then! LOL

Paper Craft

Say what??? Paper craft? Ruthie? (Edi are you proud?) That's right - there are a few paper crafts that I occasionally do! Despite the fact that I can barely cut in a straight line... Any way... I learned how to make these stars while I was a day care teacher (that feels like another life time) and I made this one to take over to my parents house for Thanksgiving Dinner :)

Ok - so this one is no big deal - but I've kinda gotten in the habit of taking pictures of anything I create! Paul is Mo's older brother and his b-day is the day after Thanksgiving. We got together at their parents house on Monday for a bday party for the two of us (mine was last week too) and Mo and I bought a bunch of coffee for Paul. I didn't want to give him just a plain brown bag - so I decorated it!

Oh yes, and I have a fresh batch of construction paper from last week - be afraid, be very afraid.

Cross Stitch

I thought I'd get a shot of the three book marks all cut out and finished :D I need to get them listed... No good being done if not listed eh?

Knitting

Ok - the way I laid that out makes it look like a pair of pants - but the black scarf is done! It ended up 6ft 2 inches. Just a wee bit over my planned length. I got a little too into it the last time I sat down to knit :P

And on the next scarf! Yes, I'm crazy, but I'm getting faster! Can you tell? The first 13 inches were accomplised at the bazaar and then at the bday party. Wait until you see the next update...I've come a long way since Monday :D

Jewelry


Here's a few random things I made up last Saturday/Sunday. I had an insomniac night and I did a whole bunch of stuff, including the above collection. Bracelet, 3 pairs of earrings, and a charm. Which is kinda funny cuz I sat down planning on making several bracelets and only made one and a bunch of other small stuff!


This is my current bead embroidery project. It's a peace sign! It'll be for the current Etsy Bead Weavers challenge assuming I finish it in time. Again, these pictures are from Monday - so I've made progress since then and it's looking good :)



This is the back of the peace sign. It amused me. Looks kinda like a rustic broom design...

Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Big Unveiling!!!

Ready for the big unveiling of my surprise??? Are you sure??? Are you sitting down???


I'm doing a.....



EARRING OF THE MONTH CLUB
FOR $5 EARRINGS!!!!!!

What does that mean??? Well....ask your self, do you love earrings? Now here's the next big question, do you love MY earrings? OR do you know somebody who would love my earrings (because this would make a great present too!)? Then here's how it works:

I have listings in both my Artfire and Etsy Stores so you can purchase from whichever your more comfortable with (I prefer you go to Artfire - but do what your comfortable with!). The subscription for the club is a one time $35 fee. That's it, there's no further obligations on your part, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy getting your earrings in the mail each month! That $35 includes:

~ 6 pairs of earrings (1 pair per month)
~ The shipping cost has already been factored in!
~ A free gift valued $5 with your first pair of earrings.

Each month's earrings will be shipped out by the 5th of the month with the first pair coming in January. The spirals you see in the picture above are what I'll be sending out in January - but after that it's a surprise! You can look here on Artfire or here on Etsy to get an idea of what types of earrings you will be getting.

Each month your earrings will arrive in a pretty organza bag or cloth bag - so if you chose to give your lovely's away for some reason - they will be good to go! And if not, isn't always nice to get a present in a cute bag? My goal is to move towards cloth bags that I personally sew instead of the mass produced organza bags to give things a more personal touch, but I'm not sure when I'll get to implement that. Probably not before February's mailing.

Over all it's a $7 saving - AND you get a free gift! How sweet is that?

***ONLY AVAILABLE FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER***
(So strike while the irons hot and stay tuned for next months special item club!)

Do you have any more questions? Something I didn't cover? Let me know! You can leave a comment here or reach me at: roseworksjewelry@gmail.com

Congrats to Novembers Winners!!!

Sorry I'm so late in announcing last months winners! The beginning of my week got eating up by the migraine monsters. I wrote about here if you want to know more about what's been going on. Now here's the fun part - our winners!

Just a reminder of how this works: I track every comment that I receive on my blog. Then, at the end of the month, the top three commentators win prizes! Whoever wins one month is not eligible the next month to win, so sometimes it's not actually the top commentator who wins that month, because I want to give everyone a chance!

Whenever I put up a collection of my latest works promoted I give people a chance to earn extra entry's towards my commentators contest. Those extra entries are in parenthesis. And now for our winners!

Tilt Creations 7 (2)

The Eclectic Element 7

Splendid Little Stars 6

Now to show off some of their lovely art work :)






And now for the geeky numbers!

Top Commentator: This Month - 26 Last Month - 29
Total Commentators: This Month 42 - Last Month - 62
Total Comments: This Month 120 - Last Month - 217

I'm really not surprised to see my numbers down. Between migraine fighting - and being just plain busy when I wasn't fighting migraines - I didn't blog as much this last month! I wonder what crazy December will hold?

AND for all of you who have been waiting for me to unveil my surprise...I hope to have that up in a couple hours :D