Friday Night Etsy Update

This was the view from the conference room where I met with my customer on Wednesday.  Hard to be stressed when surrounded by water, gorgeous trees and long leggity beasties that I saw stalking the edge of any mass of water.

After spending several quality hours in the Orlando airport waiting for clearance from Atlanta to board the airplane, I had a few fleeting moments to stare at this sunset before we turned North.

Now onto the important stuff....Here's what's coming to my beads and jewelry shops tonight!

Two sets of copper headpins and two sets of sterling silver.

 And several new pendant necklaces on copper and sterling ball chains.  Some of these beads are new for the month of October and some have been hoarded upwards of a year.  Or two.  But we're not here to talk about hoarding, are we?

I'll see you all at 8pm EDT when I get these all listed on Etsy!

I hope you have a happy and safe Halloween weekend (if you celebrate it)!  Our weekend will be filled with soccer, tennis, family and friends.  I'm crossing my fingers for torch time.

New Headpins & a Little Trip to St. Louis

Most importantly (because I won't make you scroll through a bunch of vacation pics you're not interested in seeing) are the headpins that are on my desk top.  I will be back on the torch Thursday night and hoping to make more then, but we'll see.  So far, I haven't had any time on the torch since last Tuesday.  These are on sterling silver, but I do have others made on copper.  I just need to get them photographed.  I really like the purple on the sunsetty-coral-ish base.

And now onto pics from our whirlwind trip to St. Louis and back.  We left town last Friday morning and saw beautiful trees turning every shade of autumn from the hills of Tennessee all the way up to the Show Me State.

We also saw many farms and silos.  I love silos.  And red barns.

I took the family to the Magic House in Kirkwood on Saturday morning.  Todd had thought I was scheming to go to St. Louis only for the Magic House and that the wedding was just an excuse (can you tell someone was a little miffed about missing a tennis match?).  But he soon realized how wonderful of a children's museum it really is.  The kids had fun using a rope and pulley to raise this hula hoop around themselves to create a ginormous bubble.

Owen was tall enough to touch the metal ball for static electricity to run through his body and make his hair stand on end.

But Chloe wasn't, so Todd touched the ball and held her hand while she shook her head to get her hair to stand up.

That afternoon we watched my Aunt Judy get married to her high school sweetheart.  It was a touching ceremony and I loved that her husband's son sang and played his guitar throughout the wedding.

Then we drove downtown to eat at Rigazzi's on the Hill.  I loved this green glazed brick on the front of the building.  Can you tell my little snip is more interested in telling her brother what to do in front of the camera than worrying about herself?  She does what she's good at ;)

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early bedtime.  We were all beat.  Although I was up by 5:30am on Sunday, it was another hour before everyone else was up and somehow we didn't get on the road until after 8am.  Where does time go so quickly?

This little lake was behind a rest stop in Tennessee.  I don't think it was Lake Nickajack, but I don't remember for certain.  I just know that it was windy as all get out and the kids had a blast running around like wild things.  :)

We were 15 minutes from home at this point and I was loving the reflection of the sky in my rear-view mirror.  Todd's sister was already at our house and making us home-made pizza.  While that was baking, Chloe took a quick shower and then I cut eight inches off her hair (she has been begging me for two weeks to cut her hair).  She loves the new hair cut, but is still asking me to cut off more!

And if you have read this far, then you should know that I'm out of state again.  I flew to Orlando this morning for customer meetings and won't get home until late tonight.  It will be a long day, but I'm sure fun all around.  I love this customer and couldn't ask for better people to work with on a daily basis.

Hoping to have more pics of new headpins to share with you on Thursday.  And new pendant necklaces to show you on Friday similar to these.  

Don't forget, a shop update is coming Friday night at 8pm!

New Buttons

I have been totally slack this past week (or two) in responding to comments on the blog.  I'd like to take a moment to apologize to you all for that.  Work has been crazy hectic and I'm struggling to find balance right now with personal, professional and bead commitments I have made.  I told one customer last night I should just stop making commitments this week because I am keeping so few.  It makes me feel like crap.  :(  I don't like not following through on promises I have made and I need to better learn how to juggle all the different aspects of my life.

On the flip side, I am still convinced I have the best and most understanding and patient customers ever.  So thank you for that!

Since the custom buttons that were requested a coupla weeks ago have now been chosen and reserved (because I took a coupla weeks to actually make the aforementioned buttons), I have others that are now up for grabs.  I thought I should go ahead and list them since I have the pics all taken and ready to go. 

10,000 Leagues

Hot Mess

and

Blue Belt

All sales made before 8pm EDT tonight will get shipped out on Friday.  Anything purchased after that will be sent out on Monday, October 25th after I return from St. Louis.

I am so excited to go on another roadtrip so soon.  Can you tell?  Normally we wait months after the drive up to Minnesota and back in June/July.  So many good things (and not in any particular order) about this weekend!!!

Gooey Butter Cakes!

Seeing my Aunt Judy get married!

Jack In The Box tacos!

Seeing my Uncle Mike from Arizona!

Photographing my Aunt Judy get married!

Loading up on more Maul's barbecue sauce!

Taking my kids to the Magic House!

Driving for the better part of a day and seeing a vast amount of our countryside and farmland!

Spending time with my husband and kids for three solid days straight!

Getting a three day weekend and not worrying about work!

Are you tired of my exclamation points yet?!

:D

On another note, but equally exciting because I am so. very. thrilled. for my friend....  If you are a jewelry designer and you didn't already know, Lorelei and Erin Siegel landed their own book deal on leather, lace, cord and ribbon projects.  They have started a Flickr group and opened up a contest to decide upon another contributor (or two) to their upcoming book.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!  I am looking forward to sharing pics of MY weekend once I return.

It's My Wednesday

It may be Tuesday like the calendar says, but it feels like my Wednesday since I'll be on vacation on Friday.

I love holding all the headpins together like this.  It makes me happy because it's a little bouquet that won't make me sneeze and they won't limp or turn brown after a week.

 

This set of sterling headpins is made it through the shop update last night without being snatched up.

However, four other sets of headpins were scooped up leaving just these three in the shop.  Although you can't see all the envelopes, I shipped out five packages this morning.  A full mailbox makes me happy because I stupidly grin thinking about the reaction they get when they are delivered. It's the little things that get me.

Our new iMac woke up sick on Sunday and wouldn't start, although not for trying.  It made a loud racket humming and whirring.  I showed up at the Apple store unannounced and without appointment.  They had a technician with me in less than two minutes and spent the following 45 minutes with me booting the computer up in different ways.  Ultimately, no trouble was found and it now starts up without a problem.  I asked my technician Kirk what I owed Apple for his time and he just smiled and told me to "Have a nice day."   I love Apple.  I think their customer service is phenomenal and they make wonderful products (not that I'm bitter about our old PC crashing and losing pictures back through the kids births or our honeymoon.  not bitter atall).  If I was the kind of gal who put bumper stickers on my car, an apple would be the first to go on the bumper or back window.  

The boy child had soccer practice last night.  I got to watch his Dad jump over our girl child like this!

Then we were serenaded with this gorgeous, pink sky.

Did anyone else have such a beautiful sunset?

I will be back on the torch tonight making more headpins and perhaps some beads.  I will probably only get one more set of headpins listed in the shop this week (they will be the sterling set that I showed you the beginnings of yesterday).  Everything else new will wait until next Friday.  A weekly update seems to take me 2-3 hours to get it all in the shop and I think I am liking getting it all done in one go, rather than updates throughout the week.  Do you all think scheduled, weekly updates are the way to go?  Do you think there is a better night of the week than Friday?

Dear FCC-
Apple did not compensate me in anyway to gush about them or their customer service above.  I just love Apple for being Apple.  Apple does not know I exist.
Love,
Kelley

Shop Update Tonight!

Wouldn't you know that I start up the weekly shop update on Fridays the week before I'm going to be out of town on a Friday.  I didn't think it would be fair to make you all wait until next Friday, October 29th....so I'm listing new goodies tonight....because I have new goodies photographed and ready to go!

 I haven't made sea glass beads in quite awhile, so I thought I'd fill up the shop with several sets. :)

The newest made with sterling silver.  I left it bright and shiny but have plans to patina future sets.

These are waiting for more headpins to be made so they can be listed in a bigger set.

 

New items will be appearing in the shop after 8pm EDT tonight!

Friday Night Etsy Update

Thought you'd like to see a sneak peek of what will be appearing in the shop tonight.  

It starts at 8pm EDT!

And the pendant necklaces will all be going here!

Have an excellent weekend, my friends!  I know I am most certainly looking forward to mine :D

Finding Kindness

I don't have any glass pics to show today.  I made 6 headpins last night before I had to shut down the torch when I got a work call.  That kinda stunk (actually, it stunk a lot but I won't complain.  too much) since I had plans to make so much more last night.  But maybe tonight.  I'll have pics to share tomorrow of the headpins and hopefully other beads and buttons that will go into the kiln tonight.

 

(this is the gorgeous sunset I saw flying home from Syracuse on Sunday night!)

Kindness has been a hot topic in our home the past few weeks.  Maybe more like months.  We talk about it, we look for it in others and try to be kind.  To ourselves and to each other.  Little feelings can get hurt easily, but the hurt is BIG and shows in tears.  Sara's post today made me think more about how the lack of kindness in others can drive us to being even kinder.  I hope that that is what we are instilling in our children.

I'm turning the captcha feature back on because I'm tired of receiving/seeing spam comments like this from Anonymous:
This is fifty percent entertaining. But then once more I am extremely high right now 

Months ago, I saw this post and I loved the idea of writing a weekly message, verse or quote to read and memorize.  I was on the hunt for a good chalkboard for weeks/months before I found a steal at the outlet mall.  This was the first phrase that got written on it.  In August.  I'm having a hard time moving on and writing something new because I just love seeing this every day.  I love that my kids see it every day and know what it says.  That smiley face was hard-earned by the girl child after having some serious struggles in Kindergarten.

I purchased this print over a month ago from Studio Mela and it just arrived.  I love it.  I'm not sure where it will be in our home, but definitely in a place that we see each day.

I love to give good.  Surprises and/or random acts of kindness.  It probably stems from the people pleaser in me.  In high school when I waited tables, my manager and his wife had a baby.  I knew where they lived and once a week for months, I would leave a package of diapers on their front porch, knock on the door and then run like heck.  It went on for several moons before I admitted it was me.  I love being able to help others, although I don't always know how my acts affect others.

Which leads me to ask...what is the best random act of kindness that has happened to you?

Headpins - Secrets and Reborn

I've been meaning to share a little secret with you.  

These aren't beads.

 I think that maybe it isn't so obvious to everyone.

Because.  Well.  I was intentionally sneaky when taking these pics and posting them previously.

I apologize for leading you astray.

But these aren't my beads.

These are my headpins! :D

And even more exciting to me is that Lorelei shared sneak peek pics with me last night of how she has used her new headpins!  I must share because I think they are so cool :)  This necklace is named Complimentary Colors.

She didn't add anything to them, just used the wire of the headpin for wire wrapping to make the little dangles.  I'm partial to little dangles because my girl child is a little dangle.  She dangles from anything that will hold her feet off the ground.  Elbows, counters, doorknobs before she is caught, trees, soccer goals, you name it.  That's a Gardanne bead in clear and orange next to mine in this Flight Patterns bracelet.  I love Anne's work!

I can't wait to see pics from others on how they are being used and reborn!!!

I had planned on being on the torch last night (I'm writing this around 2am. boo hiss.), but ended up working.  Late.  Way late.  Not sure what kind of sleep I will get, but if I get enough you better believe I'll be on the torch Wednesday night.  Work permitting, of course.