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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Beads and Bread: Got my Buttons!!!

Beads and Bread: Got my Buttons!!!: "Oh wow! Just got the coolest buttons from my Button Swap partner, Krista at FrenchElegantJewelry. This is a challenge created by Miche..."

Shirley finally got the buttons I sent her so now I can show you them. For more pictures click over to Shirley's blog.

La Bella Joya: Celebration Giveaway!

La Bella Joya: Celebration Giveaway!  head on over and put in your name to win this very beautiful bracelet

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Coastal Charm

Coastal Charm Apron Giveaway  check it out and win this beautiful apron

Monday, March 28, 2011

Button Soup Party - Got my buttons

I got my buttons in the mail this week and finally sent out some too.  I am doing a button swap blog party and each of us needed to exchange at least 3 buttons and one of them had to have special meaning. Michelle Mach is heading up the party and you can find out more at her blog button swap party Here is want I received - 5 very cute buttons. Shirley is my partner.  She said that the two hearts were made by her 10 year old daughter just for the swap.  They are my favorites you can't tell in the picture but they have some sparkly swirls in them.  So now I need to get to work to turn them into something really cute.  Don't you just love how the card she sent me (the background) matches all the colors in the buttons.  Now that is not easy to do with that aray of colors which tells me she put some thought into this.  Thanks for the beautiful buttons.  Check out Shirley's blog at shirley Moore's blog for the buttons I sent her.  I didn't get very good pictures before I sent them.  After she receives her buttons I will blog about them.  :)

Sunday, March 27, 2011

In another treasury


Jewelry Making Classes Online at Beaducation: The Blog: National Craft Month Contest Week 4

Jewelry Making Classes Online at Beaducation: The Blog: National Craft Month Contest Week 4: "Our shipping department got their heads together and chose the giveaway for this week. When Danelle came into my office and presented me wit..."

Here is a great giveaway from beaducation.com  click on their link to check it out.  drawing is 8 am Monday.

Things I have been working on

It has been a long week.  I have not been feeling very good my fibromyalgia symptoms have flaired up and are making life a little more difficult.  Tired has been my first name all week.  It is hard to get motivated to do anything creative when I just want to sleep.  My hubby  has been gone in China so that never helps.  I did manage to make a few things and started to put everything back in my office.  It is still a mess but I have made a little progress.





   Here are a few things I have made this week.  These are 6 inch x 12 inch magnet boards with 1 inch glass marble magnets and the last picture is a little pill box with a sliding top.  I am still trying to decide if I want to list these in my shop or just sell them locally.  I picked up a few of these daisys when I went out they are going to be my decorations in my booth this year going bright pastel and fun.

New mother's day treasury



I have two items featured in this treasury top left and bottom right.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Adventures of a Tourist lost in San Jose

Last weekend I went down and met my husband in San Jose, CA. He was there for business. The first day I just relaxed at the hotel. The second day I tried to get a map of the bus and train system but the hotel didn't have any. So I wrote down some directions from map quest for how to get to the train from the different sites.

Then I checked out of the hotel dragging my hubby and my suitcases along as we were changing hotels for the weekend.
I got a ride from the hotel in their shuttle to the train stop close by. Here the fun began there were no maps- nothing to tell me which way to go. I had a guide book for a small part of downtown but nothing else. So the train took me downtown and then turned around. I finally got up where I thought I would be near the Egyptian Museum where I wanted to go. ... But I didn't reconize any of the streets. I wandered in the direction I thought I should be headed and was asked several time for a buck from a few guys. There was no one else around so it was not a comfortable experience. Then I ended up at the train station I searched for a map but it was the amtrac station and grayhound station so there were no local transportation maps. So I gave in and took one of the many taxi's waiting there. Thank goodness. So I paid $9 to go 2 miles and after a few blocks I could see the streets I should take but I took the taxi anyways didn't really want to be asked for change while wandering around alone in a big city. At least I wasn't too lost. Only a few blocks off.

So I went to the Egyptian Museum. After studying Egyptian art with the kids at school last month I was more interested in Egyptian things than I had been before. I got some great pictures of the outside but inside no flash photography was allowed.






It was a beautiful museum with lots of interesting things. I was surprised to see that the Egyptian painting was very simple. Very simular to what my kids painted at school. primary colors used in simple strokes no mixed colors or depth. But still beautiful and detailed. Got to see a bunch of mummies it was actually not as creepy as seeing them on tv. Maybe because I'd seen them already on tv it wasn't a surprise.

All and all a good choice of how to spend my day.

So when I was done I was off to walk to the train stop I had my directions from mapquest and followed them without a problem. What always surprises me is each time I travel people ask me for directions even in Isreal people asked me for directions. I try to blend in and not look like a tourist and I guess I do a good job. So I got on the train and quickly figured out it was not going back through downtown so I got off and got on a train going the other direction. But it did not go back through where I had come from. So when they announced a connecting bus to the airport I jumped off. I knew my hubby would be picking up the rental car at the airport so I just decided to play it safe a go there. Ah finally I reached the airport.

Next time I will insist on taking the GPS my hubby took it because he was going to pick up the car and then come pick me up from the hotel. Somehow he always ends up with the GPS and I end up without even a good map.

Tommorow I will tell you about our adventure together on Saturday.

S

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Accepted at Meridian Urban Market

I am so excited I've done a few shows, some real bombs, and one decent 4th of july show last summer I applied to the local farmers markets and weekly markets but was put on the waiting list because they all had too many jewelry vendors. I started making some magnets for fun and tried selling some at my christmas show. It was my biggest seller. With these tight times sometimes people will only buy a $3 item. So I added it to my items to sell that and cell phone charms and bookmarks. I sold one piece of jewelry and $100 worth of magnets, cell phone charms and bookmarks so I decided to expand those products. Then Lately I added Magnet boards and different magnets and I keep getting more ideas in that area. the latest is adding magnetic pegs to my magnet boards to make a jewelry organizer, and adding tin containers to store stuff. So Even though I won't be selling jewelry at least at first until they have room for more jewelry i will have a booth full of new items I've made. I teach jewelry classes in meridian and if nothing else I might get a few new students for my local classes. I am so glad I have been getting a lot of rejections lately and I know it is beacause there is way to many people selling jewelry right now so I will take what I can get and I can still use those beads for things other than jewelry. And I still have classes to sell them at. I'm not giving up just expanding my horizons. The best thing about the market is it is on Thursday Evenings. So I don't have to give up all my Saturday mornings to sell. My hubby will be very glad about this I hope because Saturday is really the only day I have to spend with him that we can do something. I will still do some other shows this year but now that big pressure to find something is off my back. whew. Now I just hope that it all goes well and my stuff sells well. I teach classes in the same area on Tuesday Nights and it is totally dead so I hope this brings people back downtown or I might be groaning about this whole thing in a few months.

Take our design challenge! « Rings and Things

Take our design challenge! « Rings and Things


Go check out this challenge at rings and things 15 lucky people win beads to create with.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

New Stuff I have made

I finally pulled out the camera and took some pictures. It has been one of those weeks where the Fibromyalgia took over and it was all I could do to get up and get the kids taken care of. But things are looking up took the dog out and went on a 2 mile walk with my daughter. My dog loves me, my daughter loves me and my body loves me. But back to what I have been making.

There are so many jewelry designers locally and jewelry is just not selling at shows so I made a ton of magnets and made some really cute tins and magnetized them too and then made some cute magnet boards for all those magnets. Here are a few pictures.


Some purity magnets with scrabble pieces, covered with resin and a nobium magnet


These are my ispirational word magnets




Some bigger glass magnets


Some tins with the same images


A cute little magnet board with matching magnets


Another cute one


Another matching pill box