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!

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...

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 :)

Tilt Creations

Wristlet Pouch in Patchy Print

The Eclectic Element

Pretty in Pink Handbag Necklace

Splendid Little Stars

Snow Man T-shirt

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

On a Roll!

I've been on a roll lately with listing and renewing items - but not so much with blogging. Funny how the two seem to switch places from time to time eh? Well part of the problem was that I couldn't seem to log into byhand.me, which is where I create the spotlights that I use in my treasury blog and when I show of my latest listings on this blog. I finally thought to try clearing my browsing history and that let me access the site again! Woohoo! So your going to get TWO spotlights of my latest listings and such :D

Don't forget this is the last day to earn entries in my Top Commentators Contest for this month. How does that work? Simple, just read my posts and leave me comments! So if your behind on your reading, today's the day to catch up! I'll be announcing the winners tomorrow! Also, leave in your comment today which of the listings I'm showing is your favorite and you'll get an extra entry into the contest!

Oh yes - and don't forget - all my shops have free shipping through the end of December - worldwide!

Middle of the Night Ramblings

Good morning! Erm. Middle of the night? (and yes I did TRY to sleep) Or how about whatever time it happens to be there? *giggles* Ok, it's just after 1am so I'm a wee bit silly right now, so this post might also be a wee bit silly, but I'm WIDE awake for some unknown reason so what else is there for me to do other than blog all about bazaar and the rambling thoughts running through my head?

I did a bazaar today (well technically yesterday since it's now early Sunday), and I had a blast! Sales weren't stellar, but I had a lot of fun! I remembered my camera - but I forgot to take any pictures. Bad Ruthie, I know.

Mom went with me on this bazaar and she sold a couple of her items and even got a custom order! That was really exciting for her :) She's decided that crafting to sell isn't for her, so after the holiday's we're going to be closing down Kindred Spirit Treasures. You may notice I'll be moving my charms into my jewelry shops on Etsy and Artfire, and you'll be seeing a huge sale in KST as we get closer to Christmas! I'll keep you posted - don't worry!

One thing I loved about this bazaar, even though I could have asked for more sales, was that there was definitely plenty of foot traffic. I got to have lots and lots of great conversations, both with other vendors, and with the people walking through. I'm a people person, and I thrive off of interactions like that!

Plus I heard a lot of people saying they weren't quite ready to shop for Christmas yet, which is weird to me, but I guess that's a reflection on the current economic situation. I don't really think that the lack of sales I had were a reflection on my art, it was reflection of the economy in general. Most of the people today were looky-loos. The others I got comfortable enough to ask said that their sales we're about the same as mine.

I did get several people who said that they were really excited that I'd be back because they were planning on shopping more next month! I take that as a very promising sign. I also had a gal who will hopefully be sending me information so I can do a custom order for her. To top it all off, I was originally only going back one weekend next month and it now looks like I'm almost definitely going to be able to do 2 weekends next month at this venue! Woohoo!

What else am I excited about? Well I can't precisely tell you, because it's a surprise, but I can tell you that assuming all goes well I'll be doing the big reveal on the 1st! I've been doing a lot of talking with some people I trust (gotta love Mom's and friends who are willing to listen to you hammering out your ideas) and I'm really excited!

I'm also happy because my health has been showing signs of slow but steady improvement and if this trend continues (Lord willing) I have a lot of ideas that I'm working on developing. I'm dreaming big I'm hoping to find ways to continue building my business through a variety of venues. So far, so good! I'm seeing slow but steady progress there too.

Friday's Featured Artist - Yarrow1

I've been hanging out with some new gals (Bittersweets Daily Challenge) lately - and they are delightful! I met them because of a team mate of mine on Team

Big Damn Crafters and so I decided to feature her! I'd like you all to meet Karen...

1. What type of art work do you do?

I have done and am doing a lot of things in art. I have a piece in bronze. I just did a mural on a winery. I have done them both on inside walls and outside on homes. In addition I am always involved working with pen and ink, acrylics, watercolors and other media doing cards and ACEOs and paintings. I paint tiles, t-shirts and quilting blocks. There have been a lot of wine bottles painted with enamel and donated to charity. I have even had those bottles stolen; that gives me a troubled sense of "arriving" in the art world. lol

2. How did you get started doing art work?

I was influenced by sitting on my uncle's knee and watching him draw. My learning crochet; when I was 7 and had Rhuematic Fever, was taught by a kindly neighbor. My sculpting was at the same time, given clay be a home teacher. I have never stopped since then, but gotten "off track" by jobs.

3. Do you do any other crafts?

I occasionally do ceramics, soaps, lotions, and salts because of jobs I learned them in.

4. Is there a story behind your shop name?

The name is a healing herb. I am a healer using massage, energy and herbs for healing my animals.

5. What's your favorite piece in your shop right now?

The gourd using my horses mane and wood burning. My horse was 33 years of age.

bird gourd Native American

6. Where do you sell your work?

I sell my work at the winery, Vista Del Rey. The owners are very supportive of artists.

I'm also on etsy as Yarrow1.

7. Do you blog?

No.

8. Are you on any social networks you'd like to share?

http://twitter.com/yarrow1

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29162281@N08/

9. Do you watch or listen to anything while you

work? If so, what?

Public radio, it gives me both news and music of all kinds. I also listen to books gotten from the library.

10. Tell us one random fact about your self *wink*

I hate housework!

I do too! It soooo gets in the way of creating! LOL