It's here!

My daughter called me at work today - left a message in my voicemail saying "giant boxes of food have arrived!" Nutrisystem is here. We opened the boxes and started sorting. I don't think my daughter really needs to lose any weight, but this is pretty healthy and balanced so when she wanted to do it I thought it would be nice to do it together.

Oh my gosh - we pulled out dinners, lunches, breakfasts and desserts in all their cardboard and foil packet goodness! It appears that a lot of my lunches are cylindrical - and most of my breakfasts are flat. :) Interesting. I'm finding out that besides what is in all those packages, I can also have a few servings of fruit and vegetables and or salad a day, as well as dessert. Mmmm, yogu-u-u-r-r-t! Does cherry jell-o count as fruit?

So - this promises to be quite interesting. I keep looking at these portion sizes saying - have I gotten that far away from eating in a healthy way? One thing I can have is my tea, I have 2 mugs every morning. I said to Dani that I was going to have to fudge those a bit, yes I can use artificial sweetener but I NEED some real sugar as well. Dani proceeded to tell me that this is supposed to be about changing habits - starting new - and man - how come a 21 year old is right????

I guess we will be going through the fridge and cabinets and purging some things from the house. Andy will be happy because we drink all the pop he buys - that will have to stop. :( I think more than anything it will be the portion sizes that will be hard to get used to. I have been so used to just eating what I want - when I want lately - that sticking to these portion sizes may be hard. I'm not a big fruit eater, definitely not a big vegetable or salad eater, but since those are some things I am allowed and encouraged to eat every day - I need to make the effort. Heck - this is way too expensive to NOT follow it the way I'm supposed to.

A half a banana is one fruit portion, but then - so is TWO plums! I'm going for the plums! Oh - must go - Dani has started the grocery list and I need to contribute to that. Well - here we go! I will be taking my "before" pictures - but I'll be darned if I will post them here, at least - not until I don't look like that anymore!!! Vanity. It's terrible, isn't it? :)

Productive

I love it when I get some things done! I made 2 ankle bracelets, 1 bracelet, 1 necklace, and 1 pair of earrings tonight. And I sold a bracelet - got that all packaged up and ready to go out.

I'm learning - I would like to be busy enough that I get it down to a routine, but now when I sell something I'm pulling tissue paper out of a drawer here, bubble wrap from there - envelopes from somewhere else. Almost forgot to put the label paper in the printer before I printed out the mailing label. Sigh-h-h. At least I sell things every now and then.

The bracelet I sold tonight was all Swarovski crystals and tiny sterling beads. I made a pair of earrings to go with it and sent it along as a freebie. I would SO like to develop some repeat customers and I know, as a buyer, I LOVE getting extras with my order. I won't be doing that with every order, but sometimes ...

I love this necklace - but for the life of me I cannot remember what stone the flat ovals are! There are tiger eye, goldstone, and copper plated beads. Love it. This is one I might keep for myself.

No problems!

I listed 5 items in my Etsy shop tonight. Uploaded my pictures - went through the process without a hitch. Unless of course you count my inability to type or choose which order to upload the pictures in! I am getting views - no trouble at all. Only looked in the forums early today, did not post.

AccentsByDave added me to another of his Treasuries - what a guy! He has been absolutely wonderful to the people who have hearted his shop - and I was the first one. But seeing the first necklace he listed - I knew he would do well - he's got a great eye for jewelry and combining stones in just the right way. Plus he has a tendency to use big focal beads which of course, I love! You can find his shop by clicking on the link in the right sidebar. Great stuff!

That's his necklace in the upper right - where did he find that picture jasper heart? It's beautiful! And the stones he used to make up the rest of the necklace are just gorgeous too. I hope you check out his shop! Oh! Dave just opened a second store called Bling 4 Less. Check out that shop too - great quality jewelry for less!

So. On a completely different note - I ordered my food from NutriSystem today. Since I have started spending so much time on this computer, and at my beading table, I have gained a lot of weight. Probably 25 pounds in the last 2 years. WAY more than my 5'4" frame can hold gracefully. And so far - I simply have not been able to get a handle on things. I have been looking for a way to get some discipline and organization into my meals - but have been totally unsuccessful on my own.

So in looking at all the different options I decided on something that just takes the decisions out of my hands for a while so I can get jump started. I need to get used to eating smaller portions and to eating the right foods. I was really good at this a while back, but I have have gotten so far away from it - it isn't funny.

Thought about Slim Fast and those types of things, but I can't do meal replacement stuff, I need to eat real food or I will have a huge rebound when I go off this program. I plan on doing it for about 2 months, can't really afford to do it much longer anyway. There is a work out plan which for me will be key, I need to make some time for that. Kind of excited about it - so of course I had a chocolate concrete with M&M's from Culvers last night!! That last treat kind of thing. I just have to try not to eat that way the whole time while waiting for the food to arrive! Search for women's issues like menopause, peri-menopause, osteoporosis, feminism, complexion, shoes, hair, makeup, manicure, motherhood, pregnancy, breastfeeding, hormones, daycare, health, and everyday concerns.

Is it me??

I suppose I should never ask a question like that, but I meant it to be rhetorical. I posted on Etsy a few times today (in forums) - and then ran away. Why? Because I just get so aggravated! I did not want to say something I would be sorry for later.

Why is it that some people think Etsy owes them SO much??? How much would they be paying if they were running their own website with a merchant account and shopping cart? In THAT case I could accept some anger about technical problems.

I'm thinking that this has more to do with our society's need for instant gratification and the feeling of entitlement that pervades a lot of the more recent generations. Sure - I'm being age-ist. Oh well. The people who were whining and complaining were mostly - fairly young.

I went into my favorites and UNhearted someone tonight. That's how annoyed I am. I will not say who it was, it really doesn't matter to anyone but me. It made me feel better - I already know I will not shop with that seller anyway.

I suppose this is MY way of whining and complaining. But as I have said previously, young or old, I still believe that the majority of sellers feel closer to what I do - than to the sellers who are wringing their hands and pointing fingers tonight. I have to have more faith in people than that.

Kind of sad to be so cynical I think. Tired. Another early night for me. I'm calming myself with pretty pictures.

Always tired. Always.

It's been a good day!
But .... I would like to feel like other people. If I get enough sleep - I'm tired. If I don't get enough sleep - I'm tired. Gaining weight - and it continues. The doc says it's not my thyroid - but he hasn't done all the tests. Going to get a bit of education and then tell HIM what I want. Tired of being tired.
BUT - even with Etsy experiencing technical difficulties, I was able to list those items last night, and then sold 3 today. Yay! Been experiencing a dry patch - just need to keep pushing on.
Going to try to make it an early night - did want to post about selling. I am still new enough to still get excited about every sale. Forums were starting to get a bit nasty today - people getting impatient with the problems. I couldn't bear the attitude so I signed off. Still - I think the people who get impatient and nasty are the minority. I truly believe that the majority understands how fast Etsy is growing and how hard admin works to keep things going. Personally - I think admin rocks!
Sigh-h-h-h. It's all supposed to be about the journey, right? Or am I mistaken?

Listed

Well I finally listed a few things tonight. Problem is, once you start listing you just want to keep going and list whatever you have. I listed 4 pieces, I had about 10 sitting there waiting to go. It makes sense, because of the way Etsy works, to list things a few at a time, not all at once. So I will wait to list more.

I'm also in a creating mood - ran into the bead room tonight to make an ankle bracelet with bells on it. My daughter came home from the Cubs game (Cubs won!) this evening and picked it up and said "oh that's cute! When did you buy that?" I took that as a compliment that she didn't know I made it. I think. So that will be one more piece to list as well. It doesn't photograph very well tho, and my ankles are not attractive enough to model anything on!

Had an enjoyable day at work today. There were a couple of people out so the workload was heavier for me and I like that a lot better. Mostly it was just Ysabel and I, and it was like it used to be when it was just her and I and we held down the fort damn well all by ourselves. We work well together, always have. Joan was there too but she doesn't really do the same things we do, so really - it was the 2 of us. I enjoy that pace, and there is a lot more sense of accomplishment attached.

Right now we feel like we are waiting to see who will be 'let go' - there have been a lot of people across the company let go since we lost a huge insurance contract. Our business unit has been hit hard, probably because we aren't standard and never have been. We have always been the red-headed step child who did things their own way and other business units don't really like that. Sigh-h-h-h. I would hope 20 years would count for something but when it comes down to the bottom line, it may not. Today was good though.

So - I feel like I'm reaching a new creative phase, trying different things. I have some wire work tools ordered and am looking forward to learning how to make some of my own findings, etc. Tamara from McFarland Designs put a tutorial on her blog not too long ago, on how to make earwires. Very cool - and very nice of her to do that. This picture is from her site, her finished earwires from the tutorial. I like these - have never used this round type before but I would like to try making and using some. The link to her blog is on the left under 'blogs & things'.

That's something I really like about this community, the handcrafted community. People are so willing to share how they do things and help other people out. There are a few people who guard their supply sources closely, I suppose I can't blame them for that. But for the most part - if you ask for help lots of people offer it - and using the tutorial I have been talking about as an example - people put information out there for the taking. Very very nice.

I'm thinking I need to shut down and get some sleep. I am a champion sleeper but I never seem to get to bed before midnight these days - and more often than not - I'm up past 1:30am. Not happy in the morning! :) Nite!!

Exciting!

I'm still sick, but I got a few things done that I wanted to - not that I needed to. I mentioned to someone earlier that I am SO undisciplined - I am really bad with time management. There was silent agreement to that statement. :)

I made my first ankle bracelets today, I'm excited about that. I know this post says Sunday - but to me it's still Saturday night. Anyway, I made a few of them, as well as a necklace and a couple bracelets. I have an idea for a necklace in my head but no explanation as to why I didn't do that!

Anyway, wanted to post a couple pictures and I will be done for the day. For Saturday. I did finish getting all my earrings on cards and into baggies today, took pictures of earrings on Roberta that I needed to and updated listings with the new pictures. So I got some stuff done today, just not the stuff I was planning on, and not the stuff that needs doing around here.

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Work must be done!

I absolutely MUST get some things done today. Somehow I manage to sit at this computer for hours and hours and while I am learning a lot about selling and beading and wire working, I still need to actually DO that stuff. I also need to clean my house.

Today I was checking out blogs - looking at blogs I normally do - and clicking on blogs they like - and I ran across a blog called ND Homekeeper. It is written by a lady whose family is homesteading in North Dakota, her husband, 4 boys, and herself. I was facinated! And also somewhat embarrassed that I cannot seem to get normal every day stuff done when people like that are doing almost everything the hard way. I need a better work ethic.

I don't feel very good - have a splitting headache, feel nauseated and shaky. I'm hoping a little food will settle me down.

I finally found my weapon of choice to put holes in my earring cards - the pointy end of a seam ripper! After posting a question in Etsy forums asking what other people use - (thanks everyone!!) and finding out most do not use hole punches - I went on a search of the house to find my best tool. I am pretty sure I will find something better but in the meantime - the seam ripper wins!

Started poking holes and putting earrings on cards, putting the rubber stoppers on the backs, and putting them in baggies last night. I have plenty more to do - but I want to at least get one picture of each on Roberta before I get them packaged up. So - I have a lot to do today, most of it not jewelry or Etsy related. Need to start with food.

Okay, I give. Pouting.

I have to admit that I have been getting carried away with my bells and whistles. I LOVE slide shows - before I found beaded jewelry I was obsessed with creating slide shows to use as screen savers. So when I found all the options on the Internet to create moving colorful displays of pretty stuff - I couldn't resist! But.

I realize it was getting a bit extreme. Too bad - I found another slide show thing today. So - I actually still have the pics but I moved them down to the bottom so you actually have to look for them, as opposed to them assaulting you while you are trying to read. See me pouting still.

I also removed a pic from yesterday's post and made the others smaller. I'm trying. Really. I just like bright and pretty things - and if they move - so much the better! But like Ysabel at work says - those kinds of things make some people's eyes go all twirly. Oh well. I don't think I'll stop messing with pictures, I will just try to keep the amount to a minimum and instead of adding more - I can just swap out the ones I have. Big sigh-h-h though. Wonder if there is a 12 step program ... ?

Still gonna close with a nice picture though. Don't want to stop that. Can't make me. (can you sense the pouting?)

Don't know where this is, but in looking back at the other landscape pictures I've posted, I really like blue. Really really like it.

A couple things

Another late night for BetteJo. I am just proving that I'm not very bright, aren't I? Hmm. But I had fun tonight, messing around on the Internet on a site I found called Freeweb - or is it Freewebs? Anyway, has anyone heard of it?

I am too tired to remember how I even found it tonight but I DO know that I found it and said to myself - ooooh - another place to put pictures and get my name out there! And I started to play with it. Didn't research it - have no idea what kind or how large a community it has - I just created a site.

VERY much in it's infancy, hell - I'm not even sure I'll keep it. I might trash it and start all over. But I'm curious if anyone else has seen it - used it - any word about it at all? Here is the link to my baby-site - http://www.freewebs.com/bettejosbeads/ . Please let me know if I am last to the party on this one or not. :)

The OTHER thing. Driving home from work tonight I had a random thought - for some reason I cannot explain I was thinking about shopping on ebay - and that I hardly do it anymore - I shop way more on Etsy now of course. But for some reason I remembered something I saw on ebay that if nothing else made me laugh and that you will never see on Etsy! One reason it made me laugh was because I WANTED IT!!!!!!

Someone listed a huge Ziploc bag full of Lucky Charms - charms! They had pics of themselves - about 3 guys and 1 gal I think - probably college age - all sitting around a table with rubber gloves on and bowls in front of them for sorting the charms out from the cereal. Now I have a sweet tooth unlike anyone else I know - so that really appealed to me! Forget the fact that I would experience severe gastrointestinal problems for DAYS after eating even an 8th of the amount pictured - it still looked like a whole bunch of marshmallow goodness to me!!

Of course I didn't buy it, the idea that a bunch of college students were sifting through cereal (even though pictured using the correct universal precautions) gave me a case of the heebie jeebies. I imagined them drinking beer and taking off the gloves when the camera was put away, probably randomly petting a pet sitting in their lap. Gack!!

Still ... Lucky Cha-a-r-r-r-m-m-m-s-s-s ... with NO cereal!! I can only dream about it because I don't trust college students to get me an unadulterated sampling. Just sounds SO good.

Now if someone were to ask me - what is your blog about - what could I tell them? There is no good answer. :) That's okay, I like it.

..and .........they know me here. :)

Wonderful new toy!

I found a wonderful new place to create slideshows, I am afraid I like them just a bit too much! It's really really really late and I need to get to bed. Still I am going to bed happy with my new picture book of jewelry right here on top - and a slide show of my babies at the bottom of this page. Babies! Ha! They haven't been babies for a very long time, it just goes by so incredibly fast. Always be MY babies though. :)
Nite!

Sorry

A nice gal who has offered me encouragement and advice is going through a hard time right now. Boy if I could even begin to explain some of my emotional ups and downs, relationships on and relationship off, well, it would take a long time to even start. Suffice it to say - I've had my share of heart aches - and caused some too. You don't get to this point in your life without experiencing or causing any pain. But whatever has happened - I've learned from it and moved on and in a lot of ways I am stronger now than at any other time of my life. This gal is younger than me and most likely has a lot more to go through before she gets here - but she will. She'll learn from every good emotion as well as bad - and she will keep moving - getting better and stronger with each step. I wish her well ...

On another note entirely - I just visited the Etsy forums and I must admit I am astonished. People are so nice and so helpful - but God help the newbie who asks a question out of a lack of knowledge about how things work - and they can be beaten to a pulp. Sadly tonight a brand new seller set up her shop yesterday, listed her items today, then had the audacity to ask in a forum thread if it was possible to have a heart removed from her shop. She was jumped on - poor lady. Not everyone was mean, but there were quite a few people who were unmerciful and it was really disgraceful. Someone posted and said that some of their artist friends laugh at them for having a shop on Etsy because of the "middle school" atmosphere. That atmosphere turned into a stench tonight.

Turns out the poor lady mistook someone's avatar as spam - thought it was someone playing a joke - didn't know what calling out was - much less that she was doing it. At about PAGE 20 of the thread giving her a pounding and poking all kinds of fun at her expense - she emptied her shop, posted one more time with an explanation of why she had asked the question - and took her toys and went home.

Is this what we want Etsy to be? I am SO new compared to a lot of people but I recognize certain people already who are all too willing to jump on top of the pile if there is someone being crushed at the bottom. I won't buy from those people. They can say - well they don't need people who can't take a joke etc. Well - that's their choice. But I don't want to push people away (especially customers) and I certainly don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. It is really naive to think that people WON'T judge your shop by the personality they see exhibited in the forums.

Amazing. Amazing and sad. We don't know what that seller could have brought to Etsy. Could have brought some established customers of her own who might have looked around and become all around Etsy customers. Could have brought some good ideas, a fresh outlook - could have been someone who would have featured people on her blog all the time- or been great at promoting Etsy as a whole.

And she just might have been a really nice person besides. But now we'll never know. Sad.

How do they do it?

I need to ask - how do people do it? I see shops on Etsy where people are listing things every day, with beautiful detail and variety, gorgeous photos and great descriptions.

I just spent a good 2 - 3 hours - just working on pictures for 9 items I will be listing soon. First there is the picture taking - some on the piece of ceramic tile, some hanging on that cup - some on the other cup - oh - that vase would work good - and maybe a few on a book, let me find one. Tonight I used 2 books, a pottery mug, a carnival glass mug, a piece of ceramic tile, a blue luster vase, a large fairy figurine, a rice bowl, I hung some earrings from ribbon on the front of an antique chest and I took pictures of Roberta (our mannequin gal) modeling earrings and necklaces. And don't doubt I may have left something out because I am sure I have.

After taking the pictures there is the deciding which pictures to use, resizing and cropping them, etc. Thank GOD for digital cameras! I pop out the little memory card and pop it IN to my computer, moving all the new pics into a folder. I go through all the pictures, narrowing them down to 5 photos per piece. Mind you - tonight that means a total of 45 pictures. I crop them, re size them, cut out any stupid things I didn't see like the stray cat hair - (which makes me crazy because I am SO careful about that) - and them review them all again. Inevitably there are a few I decide I don't like, I delete them, go get the camera off it's little charging dock - and shoot a few more pictures. Then comes the transfer, the cropping, resizing, etc.

Now, for 45 pictures being the end result - I spent 2 to 3 hours - and that was constant. A potty break here and there but that's about it. Actually - it was probably longer than 3 hours - I totally lose track of time when I am doing this stuff.

Of course the whole thing starts with making the jewelry. That involves the design aspect which a lot of the time takes more time than the physical act of putting the piece together, but the assembling and crafting of the jewelry takes a good amount of time too.

So, after making the jewelry there is the photographing. After the process I went through tonight, there is the listing. Listing alone takes a while, one problem for me is remembering what all the stones are that I have used, and remembering to measure things BEFORE I list it. Pricing everything. Going through the step by step process of listing items - describing them, making sure all the details are there, making up tags, uploading pictures. There are those pictures again! Deciding which one is going to be the first picture is important because it is the one that goes to the front page and a lot of time determines whether or not someone comes to the shop to see the other 4 pictures of that item.

I am not complaining about the process at all, just explaining it. And wondering aloud how other people do it - AND keep their houses clean, do their laundry, I'm sure a lot of them cook, work full time jobs, and have a bit of a life with their families and friends besides. Something has to suffer! I know there are several artists who are able to support themselves with selling what they create - so that eliminates the full time job part. But I tell you what - even if I did not have the full time job - I'm not sure I would be disciplined enough to keep everything going at the pace it needs to - in order to keep things competitive and fresh with new listings at least 5 days a week.

I have spent a lot of time lately working on promotion, designing postcards and business cards and ahem - blogging - how DO people do it??? I am sitting here right now enjoying an infomercial for Time/Life's soft music collection. Wow - taking me back with every single song - ' oh-h- Daniel my brother - he was - older than me ..' 'baby I'ma want you - baby I'ma need you .. ' . But I digress. :) The point is - it's Saturday night and I'm up late enough to have hit the infomercial hour!! Tired.

I will keep on keeping on - making my jewelry, promoting, doing what I need to do. I know that jewelry sellers make up the biggest group of sellers on Etsy so there is a ton of competition. I just have to work harder. I believe in myself - probably more now than at any other time in my life - but that story is one for another day. :) Haven't sold anything for a while - but that will change. I'm learning and getting better every day. Yay me! Okay I'm a dork. A tired dork.

'Saturday - in the park - I think it musta been the 4th of July ..'
I believe this is Oregon - a wild and rocky coastline. Nite!

Blogging makes me happy!

If you look on the right sidebar towards the bottom you will see "Modified by Blogcrowds". That is where I got the 3-column template, when I embarked on the HTML hell post. Since I did that - I have been posting on their forum with the bits and pieces I still needed to fix. Stavanger, the guy who the site belongs to - has answered all my posts and been most helpful! Tonight he gave me the code to fix the last problem I was having where the color on the right side wasn't reaching the edge - and it worked! I mean - I was able to exchange the old code for the new - and it worked! And believe me - I don't know anything about HTML!! So I wanted to say THANKS to Stavanger for being out there and being available for assistance with his templates - and for creating templates that give people the layouts and options they want for their blogs! If you have your own blog, you might want to check out his site for new templates and or help!

I realized today, that blogging makes me happy. Not because I'm touting my shop, selling my jewelry, not because it's a good online business decision - but because I love to write! I write like I breathe - it is effortless for me. I don't necessarily mean I write well like I breathe, just that I can write the way I speak and sometimes better. I enjoy it. So picture a little girl stepping onto a stage, onto a small raised platform all dressed in dance clothes and quivering with anticipation! There is a spotlight and it's ONLY on her - she is the STAR - no one else exists on her little platform. The light from the spotlight is in her eyes so while she believes there is an audience out there - she can't see them - so she imagines them all watching her dance and loving every bit of her performance. And in the end - it doesn't really matter if there is an audience to her, it is the performance that means the most.

Me, and my blog. :)

Also today, in Etsy forums, there was a thread posted about a guy named Mike who has his own website, kind of like Craigs list - and he is accepting free ad submissions. Woo hoo! I love that all the people (most) on Etsy are so encouraging and helpful to each other! Of course giving out Mike's website helps HIM too - I think he's just getting started - but we all need new places to get our names out there so I am happy to give his site a plug! It is called Tuningin.com - and I will put a link under "shops, sites, etc". Not only is the ad free - but you can load up to 5 very good quality and fairly large images along with your ad. For the life of me I can't locate the thread or I would mention the Etsian (sp?) who posted it! Good thing though, it all helps! Every place you can get your name, shop name - or even Etsy.com. Ads are good! Take a look at my ad! http://www.tuningin.com/?view=showad&adid=1337&cityid=16&lang=en
SWEET!
Loading these pictures on here that have nothing to do with anything is a total indulgence for me - but like I titled the flower pics - upper right - you can never have too much beauty. Enjoy!

I thought last night was fast!

Tonight - just a pretty picture from Hawaii. Kauai actually, really beautiful there. Just incredibly sleepy tonight. Going to get my tea ready for the morning, take my makeup off and the like. Early night for me. Very early. :) Sigh-h-h-h .....

Quick post

Just a quick post tonight - wanted to post pics of 2 things I made last night. The first is a bracelet made with green aventurine and smoky quartz. Yay! Makes me happy!! Worked on connecting beads together by making loops - this bracelet was not "strung" so to speak. :)

Next is a necklace, made with pink quartz, blue glass, and smokey quartz. Made the same way as the bracelet - just different beads. Again - makes me happy!

Not ready to list these - haven't taken real photos yet or anything, but hey - this is a start towards the direction I'd like to go. Need a whole lot of practice which I plan to get. I want to feel that what I am asking people to pay money for is unique and strong and all my own.

I need to go and do some other stuff with the rest of my evening, so I will pick a nice landscape pic to close with. It's a good day!
Ah - I found a nice one. Talk about water like glass - so nice.

Need to improve!

Anything is possible. That's what this picture says.

Seems I am not happy enough with my beading. Beading. Hmmm. I don't want to just string beads on wire and try to make pretty patterns. I enjoy what I do - but I really need to do more. I feel a bit like a fraud - I need to try something more. I'm repeating myself. Well - I'm going into my bead room. Maybe I should lock the door and not come out until I have accomplished something new!! :)

I'm not unhappy - just feel something is lacking in my jewelry - I need to make it more my own. Maybe that's it. I feel a bit like anyone can do what I do. I need to develop my talent. It's funny cause one of the big discussions on Etsy has been about underpricing. I tried to get it across that I am an amateur - and I cannot price the things that I make - like someone who wire wraps their stones, makes their own earwires or clasps.

There didn't seem to be any getting it across to some people - that they should be able to charge more because they are better than some of us who have just started. I would really feel like a fraud if I charged more than I do. Even tried to tell them that it was a compliment to them that some of us don't charge as much as they do.

So much concern about driving the market down - seems to have blinded some people to who they are comparing themselves to.

Do not misunderstand, I am not hopeless. LOL! Not by any means! There is a plan in my head to continue to move forward and keep getting better until I know about the different gauges of wire and how to use them. Till I know what a tumbler is for or what a burr is!!! Progress. I must make some. :)

Mostly I think I'm saying - I know I have a long way to go. What I make appeals to some people and I am very happy about that. But I want to make pieces that I am totally internally pleased with. Something that reflects the ability I hope to develop. There, THAT'S what I mean.

I always use more words than I need to get a thought across. Always.

Almost there!

I think I finally got this template as wide as I want it. Now I have an edge line going down the middle of the right side - it's the coloring at the edge of the template. If anybody knows how to adjust it and it's remedial - please let me know. If it's beyond remedial - I'll live with it!!

Took a couple pictures of Dani modeling her necklace today. She is so adorable! She doesn't remember but when she was little I used to tell her she was special and very very lucky. I told her she was really smart, smarter than most, she was lucky because as a bonus - she was pretty too - but most importantly - she had a great big heart and was a good person too! I tried to de-emphasize the pretty part - in the context of it being an important part of her makeup. I wanted her to know she WAS pretty - but that certainly wasn't the most important thing about her. I think she understands that better than a lot of people do. But then again, it's still true - she IS smarter than most! Straight A's her junior year of college. OMG I can't believe she's that old. On the other hand - Andy is 23 now, boy does that make me feel old!! He really shares very few details - but I will have to ask him what kind of grades HE just got! He's a good kid (kid?) though, I don't worry about his grades.

So I managed to make a necklace, 2 bracelets, and I think 3 pairs of earrings last night. I love this bracelet, I actually dreamed about those 3 green stones across the front. No lie. I know that's a bit weird but it's true. The stones on either side of the green jade - are lavender, I know the picture doesn't refect that really well. I just love the green with lavender and then with the yellow. Great stuff. Another one of those chunky stone bracelets I like. Don't know if anyone else likes them - no one has bought one yet!! :) I'm trying to be patient. See my fingers drumming on the table ... ! I'm waiting ... come and get it!!

Haven't visited the Etsy forums much the last couple of days - I've been obsessing about this blog and trying to make it cool. But I obsess too much and it takes me forever! I saw a comment by jessprkle from Unique Expressions - her Etsy shop - and I went to her blog and saw this WIST thing I liked. Rotating pics from other Etsy sellers - I could do my own stuff I suppose, but anyway - I wanted it. So I clicked on it from her site and went off into an exploration of WIST and how to make it work. I still don't understand it entirely, like how to make ALL the choices I picked show up in that sidebar, but other than that I'm happy with what I did. Just don't ask me to explain it because I don't think I can! I get in trouble when I start to explore because I find things I need to figure out.

Haven't figured out Html a whole bunch, but did figure out I could alter numbers and look at what I did - and change it back if I needed to. Messed with that a lot too. Don't understand it much, but messed with it enough to get most of what I want.

Now though, I need to get a bit of jewelry made while I still have some evening left. Gonna pick out a purty picture to close with, and then head to the bead room. Woo hoo!!

Don't remember where this picture is from but I was struck by the contrast between the blue and the yellow. Pretty. Pretty and tranquil.

HTML Hell!!

,So the results are in. I need to find someone who knows something about HTML to tweak my blog. I got the 3rd column but apparently people with smaller screens see it as rather squished. SO - I went in there and tried to adjust the width and padding and stuff I probably shouldn't touch, and I didn't help at all.

I'm thinking that on Monday I will ask one of the guys at work to look at it for me and see if he can make some minor adjustments to align things properly. Nobody wants to read a blog that's all over the place and unattractive. We'll see.

It's all rainy and ugly here in Illinois today, well, NW Illinois anyway. Wait, I live in the NE part of Illinois! I forget - because I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago so that's what sticks in my mind. What a dork. The pictures are the bowed heads of the peonies on the edge of my driveway, a bit dark but I took them at 8:00 o'clock at night.

I did manage to get one bracelet listed today, I think I will try to get a pair of earrings listed and then closet myself in my bead room and get something done. Looking forward to it actually. See what I can do. ..... After Flip This House is over. :)

Guess I'm not that smart. Monday? I'm not going to work on Monday! AND I have Tuesday off as well! How could I forget a 4 day weekend?

Done For Today

Well I have done all I can for today. My memory being what it is anymore - I am not sure I put everything back or not - but I will figure it out eventually. I am just glad I was able to get that 3rd column, I am pretty proud of myself for doing even that. Knowing nothing about Html I am lucky I managed.

Very tired now, and I really need to make some jewelry this weekend. I think I only have 2 bracelets and a pair of earrings to post right now and I'd really like to get going and build up some inventory. Need to start posting things on a regular basis, not every couple of weeks!!!

Here is a lovely pic - I believe it's Macchu Picchu - looks like a wonderful place to sit, looking out over the world it looks like, and contemplate. Away from everything. Peacefulness, then bed!!