Wire Mom

Snow day!

2012-01-15T11:34:00.001-08:00

It doesn’t happen often here in the Willamette Valley.

I’m not a snow person. I’m not a skier or skater. I’ve always been terrible at making and throwing snowballs.

I become paralyzed with fear when driving in snow.

But it is pretty – for a short amount of time.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-04T16:14:00.001-08:00

Well it’s back to work time, getting the kids and me used to waking up early and back to school. Coffee has been my good friend.

And here’s the New Years gratuitous cute kitty picture. She loves my chair.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-24T17:36:00.001-08:00

These were the best pictures we could get out of the kids.

It’s been a wonderful and amazing holiday selling season for us and we are grateful to all our wonderful customers. We will take the weekend off and get right back to work (well maybe a more relaxed schedule) after the holidays.

Henry’s 9th birthday party

2011-12-05T20:57:00.001-08:00

Wednesday November 30th was Henry’s 9th birthday. We had a great good time at the Wacky Bounce in Corvallis. Once again Safeway saved our butts with their birthday cakes. His birthday comes during our busiest time of year. Our house sinks to new levels of filthiness that make it unfit for anyone “normal” to enter.The Wacky Bounce has become a tradition for us. The kids had a great time running around and sweating, eating cake and opening presents.

He’s a happy boy.

Now back to work….

Coming up for air

2011-12-01T19:03:00.001-08:00

We have been very lucky to be crazy busy with our Etsy sales this holiday season. (Knock on wood and every other good luck mojo that causes a reverse hex by publicly proclaiming current success.)

I’ve been selling at the Eugene Holiday Market every weekend which hasn’t been quite as successful as we’d like but still can’t complain given the current economic conditions.

My laryngitis is mostly gone although I still have somewhat of a husky Brenda Vacarro type voice going on which I’m thinking might just end up being my permanent voice.

I took this picture on Thanksgiving morning and then forgot it was on my camera.

Our friendly neighborhood deer decided to just sit right down and make themselves at home and “occupy” our yard.I guess they know we are vegetarians.

This is our old man cat Fidel who decided to occupy my boxes of shipping supplies under my desk that I work at all day. He just pushed everything over,crushed part of the side and made himself at home. I’m just hoping he doesn’t decide to make it his litter box too. Although generally he prefers the hard floor in our dining room and bathroom to pathetically relieve himself which is why he is mostly banned to the laundry room.

OK now back to work ….

Last weekend

2011-11-23T22:30:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was the first weekend of the Eugene Saturday Market’s Holiday Market. As the sign says- “I have laryngitis.” It was a cold gone awry that settled in my throat and left me unable to speak above a whisper and now has improved to a gravelly ,froggy Brenda Vacarro impersonation.

I attempted to give our shoddy booth somewhat of a makeover this year. After 20 years of doing the market and using variations on duct tape and plastic pull ties it dawned on me that I have all this awesome malleable aluminum wire that I can make into useful and pretty spiral swirls that can hold up the electrical cords,the pretty curtains I picked up at Goodwill and the special canvas sides to our revamped booth.

I was overwhelmed by the generosity and help of my two dear long time marketeer girlfriends Nome aka Blessed Beads and Heather aka Ellie of Earnest Efforts.

Here is Nome in front of her gorgeous jewelry booth. She provided the canvas material for the sides.

Check out Nomes awesome boots. She and I share a love of shoes and the goodness of Zappos. She wears them so well.

This is Heather in her perfect woodsy booth. She sewed the sides together and hemmed them for me and put in the grommets.

Check out their amazing boxes they make from found wood.They even make their own knobs.

And so I give thanks to my home girls for getting my booth spiffed up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yay! I found my lost favorite pliers…

2011-11-08T16:53:00.001-08:00

About 3 months ago I dropped my favorite pliers and they disappeared into a hole in the universe.I’ve had these pliers for about 20 years and I can’t explain why but they just fit perfectly in my hands and don’t mar aluminum wire the way all my other pliers do. I’ve lost them before and always found them in a reasonable amount of time in a typically weird place like in a bag of jewelry supplies under something. I had searched all the typical places. I pulled all the crap out from around my desk. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a slob.I knew eventually they would show up in some other messy place I hadn’t thought of. Well that day came on Sunday. I realized I needed to reclaim the shelves next to my desk so I could put our bubble mailers and tissue paper I use for shipping.

So I reorganized and purged the shelf crammed with games the kids never play.Then I pulled out the big tote on the bottom full of massive amounts of kids crafting supplies like stickers and paint and watercolors and brushes and googley eyes and glue and low and behold the hole in the universe reopened and spat out my precious pliers. I can now cross off that one irritation from my massive irrational psychological list of unfinished business.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T13:56:00.001-07:00

The manly way to carve a pumpkin.

We had the kids draw the face they wanted and then Nick carved it out with his little power saw.

Family Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-26T17:54:00.001-07:00

We took a fun family and friends trip last Sunday to a Airlie Hills Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Patch.

This was the patch of super large pumpkins.

We took the classic haybale tracter ride.

They had fun activities like the potato sack slide.

Max is sitting at the bottom of the hay bale pyramid that has a fast slide from the top to the bottom.

Big tricycles.

Max found his perfect pumpkin.

It was a good day except for the “Dark Maze” that was a hay bale maze made in a green house and had dark plastic over the top so that it was very very dark and hot. The kids convinced me to go in with them after they had already been in by themselves earlier. I had a full on panic attack when it was completely dark and I couldn’t find our way out and then I banged my nose into Henry’s head. 2 days later and my nose is still sore. Luckily a kind older child sensed my panic -perhaps it was my shrill yelling- and led us out of that hell hole maze. Totally embarrassing…

Big Menorah Ornament

2011-10-22T16:41:00.001-07:00

This time of year our sales for the “Menornament” start to pick up.

This morning we got a request from a customer to see if we could make one extra big to hang on a wall or over a door.

This was the biggest I could make it and not have it too flimsy.

For a size reference I had the kids hold it.

So what’s new in the shop you may ask…

2011-10-13T21:41:00.001-07:00

With both kids in school all day for the first time ever and a little slow down in Etsy sales I had time to get a few ideas made into new products in our shop.

Hanging Vase -Clear Recycled Glass Pyramid Celtic Spirals - for flowers or rooting cuttings or just looking pretty

This is my new Celtic Embraced Heart design as an aluminum ornament.

As a brass pendant…

The Celtic Embraced Heart Copper Pendant

The Celtic Embraced Heart Sterling Silver Pendant

I had been wanting to make this Madonna Swirl design as an ornament and jewelry for a long time.

Big Madonna Swirl Aluminum Earrings

and Aluminum pendant

And now we have the dragonfly design in a brass pendant.

Dragonfly Copper Earrings

The Dragonfly Copper Pendant

Almost forgot the sterling silver Madonna Swirl Pendant

And the Celtic Knot Cross Copper Pendant - Celtic Knot Infinity Swirl

I also had time to take some new improved pictures of some of the things that just weren’t looking good enough like these:

Henry’s 3rd grade trip to the Newport Aquarium

2011-10-06T21:25:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went with Henry’s class and one other 3rd grade class on the big trip to the Newport Aquarium.We had lots of room on the bus.Henry and Ethan sat together.

Emmit was used as volunteer to show the features of the Oystercatcher bird.

They had fun goofing around in the tank that you get to crawl under and into.

More hijinx.

Goofy pictures of Henry's class

The day went well. I was able to be fully caffeinated thanks to the Aquarium coffee shop and the best part- I got to take a nap on the way back on the bus. Any day with a nap is a good day.

October Harvest

2011-10-03T19:24:00.001-07:00

These are the fruits of my non labor. We have 2 different types of delicious seedless grapes that grow on my makeshift trellis’ without any help from me. No watering or pruning.

Blackberries are everywhere in Western Oregon. We have one particularly delicious wild variety that grows on my sad butterfly bush. This year the berries came on late. They were delicious today but all the heavy rain will probably make them moldy and yucky in a day or 2.

The property came with an old lovely King apple tree. It really could use some love and care. But with no help from me we get some great big apples.

The gratuitous cute kitty picture. Mrs.CuteKitty sleeping on our porch.

I added the copper version of this design to our shop today.

Celtic Knot Cross Copper Pendant - Celtic Knot Infinity Swirl

A miracle occurred…

2011-09-16T17:39:00.001-07:00

Ever since we bought our house about 18 years ago my wonderful creative husband has been cleverly ~~hoarding~~ collecting large amounts of “useful” metal things. And many of those things have indeed been useful. But as our lives have changed and the brambles have grown I have been patiently awaiting the day he would get rid of some of the excess. Well yesterday that day came in shape of 2 industrious rednecks with a truck and large trailer in search of metal to take to the scrap yard.

Those friendly yokels hit the mother lode. The scrap metal dudes later told me that when they first arrived Nick was only willing to part with 2 items. Then I got home from picking up the kids at school and as I realized what was occurring a huge smile came across my face. Nick then told them they could take whatever they wanted except for some select things.

They even brought their weedwacker and cleared large chunks of land. They are coming back again tomorrow for more.I love those guys!

And I love my husband.

New Tiny Little Shawl Pins for Lace Shawls

2011-09-08T19:00:00.001-07:00

We’ve been getting lots of requests for more of our designs in the smaller gauge light weight wire in brass, copper and aluminum. These pins are perfect for fingering weight lacey knits.I’m hoping our wonderful customers will start sending us pictures of their special lace knit shawls with our pins being used.

The little one above is

Little Brass Shawl Pin or Brooch - Circle With a Twist

Little Celtic Shawl Pin or Brooch - Brass Celtic Double Swirls and Curls

I’ve included my stubby weathered hands in the photos to give a sense of scale. At least they were somewhat clean.

Little Copper Shawl Pin or Brooch - Celtic Tree

Little Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch - Celtic Infinity Loops

Little Brass Shawl Pin or Brooch - Celtic Infinity Loops

Little Celtic Shawl Pin or Brooch - Brass Double Crossed Loops

I plan to make lots more and add them to the shop as soon as I can. It’s really fun to play around with different scales of the same design. Not all of them lend themselves as well to the thinner gauge wire. If there’s a design of ours you would like as one of our “Littles” that I haven’t made yet just let me know.

On the personal note both our boys started school this week. This is the first time that they both are in school all day. Max is in 1st grade and Henry is in 3rd. It’s pretty weird to have such a long stretch of uninterrupted time. We plan to get lots of work done and even take a few much needed naps.

New Geekery in the shop

2011-08-31T20:37:00.001-07:00

We’ve been adding new things to our shop in the past week. Nick has been working on new geeky stuff.This is the

Arduino Logo Sterling Silver Pendant - Totally Geeky

We also have the matching earrings the Geeky / Science Jewelry section of our shop.

NPN Transistor Symbol Sterling Silver Pendant

Shebang Sterling Silver Earrings -Programmer Geek Jewelry

We have the matching pendant for the Shebang in our shop too

The case of the cracking microwave

2011-08-21T11:29:00.001-07:00

So the other night around 9pm I was just standing in the kitchen gazing at counter, thinking, hmmmm now what can I eat?

And then without any provocation the glass door to the microwave started crackling and over a period of about 5 minutes the entire door became a web of broken crackled glass. I wasn’t cooking anything- really ! But it was quite a dramatic event.

The next 12 hours were torturous as I had to make use of my pathetic culinary skills without the help of my dear friend the microwave. In the morning my poor son had to wait a whole 30 minutes for his Pizza Hot Pocket to heat up instead of the more desirable 2 minutes plus 2 to cool down. I had to even pull out the trusty saucepan, find the correct lid that fits it, stand next to the stove and cook the popcorn and MOVE my arms. And then it dawned on me that I would even have to heat up the butter in a separate pan. The suffering was immeasurable as I then realized I would have to put all these pans in the dishwasher too! Luckily Nick,my brave hunter husband and provider took on the responsibility of heading out into the cruel world and bringing home a new microwave.

So far the replacement seems to be working and we are back to our luxurious lifestyle to which we had become accustomed. May this never happen to any of you.

Our busy weekend at the Steam Up and the Oregon Coast

2011-08-07T18:32:00.001-07:00

Every year we take the kids to the Great Oregon Steam Up in Brooks Oregon. Here is $23 spent on a “healthy” meal of kettle corn,curlyfries and bubble gum flavored shaved ice.

We have a tradition of taking a picture of Nick with the boys in front of this giant excavator.

And we always take a nice relaxing ride on the little train.

Then on Sunday we went to visit our friends who have a cute little “shabin” near Yachats on the Oregon coast. The boys just can’t let go of the idea that when you are at the beach you are supposed to wear bathing suits and swim.While lovely to look at,it is a cold,wild and dangerous ocean for this helicopter Mom.

Nick and Alec

Me. One nice thing about the Oregon coast is that you don’t have to worry about what you look like in a bathing suit.

Max

digging

Mom stuff

2011-08-05T13:15:00.001-07:00

Not much happening these days. Just doing summer hanging around stuff like this walk in a local park.

Max lost his first big front tooth. It really makes him look extra goofy.

AND I got picked as one of Etsy’s top 50 Mom’s by Babble.com. Here’s the link:

http://www.babble.com/mom/work-family/best-mom-etsy-shop-handmade-jewelry-nicholas-and-felice/

Bigggggg News!

2011-07-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

Yup, that’s our pin on page 8 of the new September 2011 Creative Knitting Magazine!

They contacted us a few months ago to send them our Celtic Double Swirls and Curls Aluminum Shawl Pin / Hair Pin to be included in their article on closures. I said, hell yeah!- well, in a more business like way. So far it has just been sent out to subscribers and I don’t think it is in the newstands and stores yet. But we are getting LOTS of orders.

Fourth of July fun

2011-07-05T18:22:00.001-07:00

It’s become a tradition to drag the kids down to the 4th of July parade in Corvallis every year.Unfortunately I got the time wrong. I thought it started at 10 which I swear is what the local paper’s website said but it actually started at 10:30. So when we arrived there were very few people and I was appalled at the lack of enthusiasm in this town. We had an extra half hour to bore the kids.

Here is some of the entertainment the kids came up with.

Finally the parade arrived.

Henry is pensive.

The main draw for Max is gathering the gutter candy that they throw to the kids.

They had inflatable bouncy entertainment for the kids. Max’s approach to the wrecking ball game is to hunker down.

Where’s Nick? Hiding in the shade.Can you find him?

Later in the evening we joined our friends Jeremy and Jillian and their kids Ethan and Olivia for some good ol’ lame Oregon fireworks.

This is the moving flaming tank before it shot under our car and got stuck shooting flames towards the gas tank. It was a terrifying moment as we wondered if the car would blow up with us stupidly standing next to it. It burned out and all was fine.

Good times!

Summer begins….

2011-06-26T16:51:00.001-07:00

School has been out for 2 weeks. T Ball Mom continues for a couple of more weeks..

We’ve started swimming lessons again. Max finally overcame his fear to jump off the diving platform without a foam noodle.

My honeysuckle is blooming on the trellis I built many years ago back before kids when I had time for stuff like that and no money to just buy one.It is right outside the window I work at in the dining room and the smell is heavenly. Pay no attention to the pile of kids toys as you look through the gate.

Honeysuckle

The daylillies have started blooming.

The cherries are getting closer to ripening.

Just opened a fresh new roll of brass wire.

Oh and how could I forget the most important happening so far of the summer. We just took the kids to the park with their bikes and Henry rode for the first time without training wheels. It is the sad life of the country kid that lives on the steep gravel rode that he is the last of his friends to learn how to ride a 2 wheeler. Max will need at least one more try but is close. Nick and I are the exhausted old parents in their mid forties trying to hold off the heart attack while running alongside the kids trying to ride. Mission partly accomplished.

Another little silver pin…

2011-06-15T16:14:00.001-07:00

I just added a new little sterling silver pin to our shop to add to the tiny lace pins available.

Little Celtic Loops and Spirals Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

I love that they are so small and light weight that I don’t need to charge a lot for them even though they are made of silver.

I also had a little time to take new pictures of these old earrings.

Super Big and Long Light Weight Double Teardrop Loop Aluminum Earrings

My very old and quirky Sony Cybershot camera is starting to give me a hard time so experimented using our Nikon Coolpix. I think they came out just as good as the old camera. I had my favorite weather conditions to work with- overcast.

We are having a slow cool start to summer- and I like it!

Just life

2011-06-09T15:59:00.001-07:00

The kids had their last day of school this week. Max’s class had the end of year Kindergarten picnic at the park.

He also started T Ball

Posing for the team pictures. It’s pretty hilarious watching a bunch of 5 and 6 year old swarm after the ball in the field, occasionally breaking down in tears fighting over it. Then standing around confused not knowing what to do once they get the ball and randomly throwing it to another kid who is usually not even paying attention while the runner runs in the wrong direction. My hats off to the awesome team coach Candy who has 5 kids of her own and took this process of herding cats on.

One of my favorite random flowers that pops up in my unmanaged front yard.The Foxglove.

This boring photo of our road in front of our driveway is of interest only because today they came and oiled it. It is a gravel unpaved road that despite our taxes the county has decided isn’t worthy of paving or managing much so we have to pay to get it oiled. If we don’t like we didn’t last year then we have to inhale dust all summer long.

On a personal note I have been weepy with joy today (which has nothing to do with my typical perimenopausal hormone fluctuations) because I got the amazing news this morning that a dear friend who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this past Christmas is in full remission with no detectable cancer in her. She is completing a new chemo treatment and has been doing dietary, exercise, qigong and meditation as well. Her doctor said he had never had a patient respond completely like this. The recent study of the drug had only 1 patient out of 171 have a complete response like this (.6%). She is the second.

I have to admit,in case you haven’t noticed, I am prone towards cynicism and was not optimistic about my friend’s future given the statistics on pancreatic cancer. But she has blown me away. I’m going to stop here before I put some sort of crazy jinx on things inadvertently according to the whims of the universe. I’m just saying something especially really good happened. Yay!

Wings of Wonder Kindergarten trip

2011-05-31T21:29:00.001-07:00

I got to be a chaperone on Max’s kindergarten trip to “Wings of Wonder “ on Independence Oregon.

The display greenhouse was aflutter with tons of beautiful butterflies. It kind of freaked one of the kids out to have these creatures flying around all over and landing on them sometimes but most of them loved it.

They did a great teaching the kids about butterflies although some of it went way over their little twitchy kindergarten heads.

The kids were great and adorable. One of the little boys in my group was very affectionate and clingy and insisted on holding my hand and petting me most of the time. He whispered to me “I want to marry you.” Max told him I was already married. He said he didn’t care. I was flattered until the teacher’s assistant told me he’s just like that.

It’s our 5 year Etsy-versary!

2011-05-27T17:18:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to believe it’s been 5 years since we first opened our shop on Etsy!

Nick says he already knew about Etsy and had been thinking about it but his cousin–in-law Aimee of Pancake and Lulu was the first person I can recall telling me about it and how she had just opened up her shop and we should too. We had a website that never really got much traffic. We actually still have the site as our Nicholas and Felice homepage that has links to our blogs and other stuff but it links to our Etsy shop for our jewelry.

To think that I didn’t even know what a shawl pin was back then! Things started out slowly but picked up a lot by the week before Christmas that first year on Etsy. It’s been a wonderful ride so far. According to the Craft Count top seller list we are the 8th top seller on Etsy for jewelry! Of course our numbers are so high partly because we have been doing this for 5 years and have been able to accumulate all those sales numbers.We are about to reach our 12,000th sale on Etsy very soon- knock on wood and every other good luck charm and juju totem necessary to keep the good luck going! Of course I never take any of our success for granted and am convinced each day that this could be the end and I’ll need to start applying for jobs at McDonalds any day. Every sale still makes me happy and temporarily relieved.

So THANK YOU ETSY and all our wonderful customers and friends!

New Tiny Little Pins

2011-05-16T20:39:00.001-07:00

Well so far just one but there will be more coming. I got a special request from a customer for little sterling silver pins that would work well for lacy fingering weight shawls. I already make the Little Dragonfly pin.

This is the Little Double Crossed Loops Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

Stay tuned for more….

Happy Mother’s Day!

2011-05-06T19:42:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday Henry’s second grade class had a special Mother’s Day Tea . They all painted self portraits to share. This is Henry’s.

Their teacher got a grant to buy guitars for the class and she has been teaching them how to play. As you can imagine it was super adorable.

They sang songs and memorized poems. I thought I was the only sap tearing up and holding back the sobs. Turns out I wasn’t.

Henry and me.

Max lost his first baby tooth yesterday. He lost the one right next to it a couple of hours later. He now speaks really funny.

Here’s my attempt to imbed a video of the kids singing that had me all verklempt.

More jewelry for music lovers

2011-04-27T17:14:00.001-07:00

We got a special request from a customer to make the Coda Symbol as a pendant. She has a very musical family and they named their son “Coda”. She was very excited when we said we could do it and now she has the perfect Father’s Day present for her husband.

Coda Symbol Sterling Silver Stamped Pendant - Keepsake for Musician

The coda symbol is used in musical notation as a navigation marker.

We also made the Dal Segno Music Symbol Sterling Silver Stamped Pendant - Keepsake for Musicians

It is used in musical notation as a navigation marker.
From Italian for "from the sign," D.S. appears in sheet music and instructs a musician to repeat a passage starting from the sign shown at right, sometimes called the "segno" in English.

And of course you have to have the earrings-

Coda Music Symbol Sterling Silver Earrings

Dal Segno Music Symbol Sterling Silver Earrings

and

Dal Segno and Coda Music Symbol Sterling Silver Earrings

Back at Saturday Market and egg mess

2011-04-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today was my first day back to selling at the Eugene Saturday Market this selling season. I had been trying to come up with a good design for a banner to have printed for our booth for years now but just never had the computer skills or a good idea of what to put on it. And then it hit me-make it out of wire! Nick was doubtful at first but after I made the lettering out of aluminum he did an excellent job sanding and painting the wooden board and painstakingly drilled tiny holes and thread thin gauge aluminum wire around the letters to attach the words to the sign. He then super glued the little tied wire bits in the back and had to admit in the end that it looked pretty good.

The weather was perfect and sales were respectable for a long hard days work.

Yesterday I pulled off the supermom egg dying evening. That Star Wars egg dying kit was somewhat of a let down .The “tattoos” for the eggs sucked. After looking it up online I found a slew of pissed off parents who had a new reason to hate Lucas for allowing the “Star Wars” franchise to be associated with this piece of crap product.But the kids still had fun.

And Max made a most excellent mess. Yes, he is pouring egg dye. Yes, it did spill all over him, the table, the floor and and the chair.

He did come up with some nifty effects.

This is Nick having a special moment giving Mrs.Cute Kitty a nice kitty massage on a beautiful sunny spring day.

Happy Passover!

2011-04-19T13:34:00.001-07:00

While Nick was home sick with a nasty cold I took the kids last night to our friends Sarah and Mark’s lovely home for a vegetarian passover seder.

I’ve always loved Manischevitz wine.

The kids had lots of fun.

Our friend Judy did a great job organizing with the help of “A Children’s Haggadah” so that we could move through the seder quickly and get the basics in there. We’re still doing lots of explaining . Max keeps calling the Egyptians the “magicians”.I think I have successfully confused my children with another holiday.

Good times!

School Trip to Greengable Gardens

2011-04-13T16:28:00.001-07:00

One of the best things about being self employed is that I can usually make the time to go on school trips with the kids. I almost forgot that it was under my control and thought I should work instead today but then I realized I was being an idiot. I’m glad I came to my senses and went with Henry’s second grade class to Greengables Farm which is just down the road from us to learn about tulips. (That’s Mary’s Peak in the background.)

The peony tulip.

The best 2nd grade teacher EVER Mrs. Elaine Hall in the yellow jacket!

Tulips galore!

Henry and his friends goofing around.

Demitri from Greengables with Mrs. Hall.

The kids got to pick a bunch of tulips to bring home.

And of course how could I not put in a plug for our jewelry? This is our

Tiny Tulip with Amethyst Sterling Silver Stamped Pendant

Spring Pins (and learning from failures)

2011-03-31T19:07:00.001-07:00

I added these two new pin designs to our shop. I put this pretty Aluminum Bow Shawl Pin or Brooch into the shop yesterday and sold 3 already! I love that! Such a simple idea that I’ve seen lots of people do as jewelry but then it dawned on me that it would make a perfect pin design. I chose a simpler stick design instead of the spiral one I usually do on the end of the pins because I didn’t want to distract from the simplicity of the bow tie and it kind of reminds me of a needle sewing through it.

This is the new revamped Butterfly Aluminum Shawl Pin or Brooch.

The old design looked like this":

It was OK but I have to admit, the wings weren’t really all that convincing. And over time , making it over and over again I kind of lost the idea of what a butterfly actually looks like (if that makes any sense?)Then a few days ago I got an email from an unhappy customer who had ordered the butterfly pin. I had made the bottom wings larger than the top ones. Part of our business philosophy is to give over the top great customer service. The kind of service we would like to get when we buy something. So I apologized and sent her a refund. Then I made her a new one that looked more like the photos and then decided to take some time and figure out a new improved design with bigger top wings. I like this design a lot better. I sent her this design too. I haven’t heard back from her yet. This was the first time in a very long time that we had an unhappy customer. It’s a terrible feeling. But it spurred me on to make a better product and hopefully gain a happy returning customer.

Super nice blog feature

2011-03-28T08:36:00.001-07:00

Thanks Robin!

Check out her blog to read a lovely wrap up of our shop and work:

http://mypinkyfinger.blogspot.com/2011/03/awesome-team-artisans.html

Spring break

2011-03-24T10:03:00.001-07:00

It’s spring break here in Philomath Oregon.In between the rain we get some lovely sun or “not rain” breaks.

We have a bunny visitor for the week. We are bunny sitting “Phoenix”. I consented in order to alleviate my clearly irrational guilt that I was not giving my kids a super awesome and special spring break. While very cute, she is not really the kind of pet you pick up and cuddle with, unless you enjoy scratch marks and bites. As Henry said, “She is cute on the outside and evil on the inside.”

The snowbells are in full bloom.

The daffodils are on.

The first tulip has bloomed.

And those lovely purple things are up and out. I love my early spring perennials that require ZERO maintenance.

Coppery goodness with a little brass thrown in

2011-03-20T15:53:00.001-07:00

I’ve been starting to add more copper and brass into our Etsy shop and will hopefully have a bunch on display when the Saturday Market starts again in April. I even made a whole new Copper and Brass Jewelry section to our shop. Because we frustratingly only get to have 10 sections in our Etsy shop I had to combine the Ornaments and Hanging Vases into one section to make room for this new one.Etsy has been adding lots of new features to make selling easier lately. I really hope expanding the sections ability is high on their “to do” list.

This is a new design-Celtic Infinity Spirals Copper Earrings

The copper version of the Celtic Loops design.

Big Copper Simple Hoop Earrings

I’ll be adding more brass versions of my designs. This is the

Celtic Budding Spiral Brass Earrings

Yin Yang Harmony Copper Shawl Pin / Hair Pin

I also finally got around to making this popular pin design in copper and brass too.

Yin Yang Harmony Brass Shawl Pin / Hair Pin

So much to do,so many ideas. It’s spring break this week so I’m planning lots of playdates and trying to keep things fun for the kids while trying to get stuff done too.We are in the midst of a typical Oregon spring rainy spell. The grass keeps growing but it’s too wet to get much mowing in. Happy Spring!

Sterling Silver Fancy Schmancy

2011-03-16T18:00:00.001-07:00

I’ve been slowly adding sterling silver versions of my pin designs to the shop.This is the newest addition:

Celtic Double Swirls and Curls Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

I started out making them in 12 gauge sterling silver wire but they were a little heavy and the wire is not as soft and easy to manipulate as my lovely aluminum. And now the price of silver has skyrocketed. So for many of the designs I’ve gone up a gauge to 14 gauge which keeps the price reasonable and the pin lighter and easier to make.

Stamping Helper Update

2011-03-11T18:26:00.001-08:00

My son Henry the delegator figured out he could get his little brother to close the boxes after he stamps them.

And I have agreed to take him on as a minion worker

New Stamp and a New Worker

2011-03-07T19:12:00.001-08:00

We finally ordered a custom stamp to stamp the top of the little jewelry boxes we send out jewelry in . It takes a little practice to get it right so I was hesitant when our 8 year old son Henry said he wanted to stamp boxes for me.

But he actually did a great job!

Last night he said he didn’t want to get paid for it. Today he changed his tune when we were at the video game store and he remembered all the things he wanted. We’re working out a deal.

Our Family Vacation to Albuquerque

2011-02-25T18:59:00.001-08:00

We took our first big family vacation this past week to visit my parents who live in Albuquerque New Mexico. My brother and his family met us there too.

It was Max’s first time on a an airplane.Unfortunately the turbulence was extreme the entire flight. It got even worse as we landed in Albuquerque during hurricane force winds.The kids started goofing around yelling “We’re going down! The wing is falling off!” Funny yet not so funny.The plane was rocking from the wind even after we landed and were disembarking.

This is Nick in full on flying anxiety mode. He is chomping on gum while trying not to whimper like a baby in front of his new friend Fred from Southie who was entertained by Nick’s constant chatting.

Albuquerque has an excellent aquarium.

Mom and Dad aka Fran and Joe at the zoo.

My family watching the chimpanzees. The chimps came right up to the window and plopped themselves down right next to us. We were maybe a foot away from them on just the other side of the plexi glass.

She then began to work on popping her man’s zit while their baby played. Then they gave each other a big hug.

We took the train through the Bio Park from the Aquarium to the Zoo.

The next day my Mom and I took the 4 kids on the Sandia Tram. The weather was perfect, calm and clear.

Henry and Max enjoying the view on the tram.

The next day we went to the Petroglyphs National Monument.

It was hard to tell which were the real petroglyphs and which were the graffiti made by the stupid morons who thought they should deface them for all posterity.

Cousins

The guys

Nick took this picture of all of us in Old Town.

Now we are home and catching up on work. Both of us have colds and are exhausted while the kids continue to run around like maniacs.

Happy Valentine’s Day

2011-02-14T17:22:00.001-08:00

My sweet little Max wanted to get dressed up for his kindergarten class Valentine’s day Party.We got this perfect little suit at Goodwill for $8 a couple of weeks ago that he really liked.

Nick is on the way out to do errands. He has our packages to bring to the post office, checks in his front pocket to deposit at the bank AND our change chicken. What’s that you may ask? Doesn’t everyone have a change chicken? My lovely mother–in-law gave us the chicken that is actually supposed to be a cookie jar. It says “cock a doodle doo” randomly when you lift it’s head to open it. We use it as a change jar. Well it was filled to the brim so it was time to cash that sucker in. Hilarity always ensues when we bring it in to the bank. Our small town bank still uses a change counting machine.Sometimes you can hear the chicken singing “cock a doodle doo” in the back room as the change is being poured into the machine. Good times.

Three Lilac Light Purple Flowers

2011-02-12T15:55:00.001-08:00

Recently my glass bead supplier stopped carrying the dark purple version of these lovely Czech glass flower beads that I use. So I bought a bunch in the lighter color that they had. This meant I had to take all new pictures. So that’s what I did.

Little Lilac Purple Czech Glass Flower and Leaves Earrings

Single Stem Lilac Purple Glass Flower with Peridot Glass Leaves and Swirls Earrings

Vining Light Lilac Purple Flowers and Tendrils Sterling Silver Earrings

Feeling Spring yet?

New Brass and Copper Pins

2011-02-08T09:46:00.001-08:00

I’ve been working on my plan to make all or most of our designs in copper and brass and add them to our Etsy shop.I added these yesterday.

Spiraling Full Circle Brass Shawl Pin or Brooch

Madonna Swirl Brass Shawl Pin or Brooch

Unfurling Tulip Lyre Brass Shawl Pin

Spiraling Full Circle Copper Shawl Pin or Brooch

Dancing Waves and Swirls Copper Shawl Pin / Hair pin or Brooch

I was experimenting with some new books to use as props for the photos. Nick was sick in bed that day with a cold and I didn’t want to wake him up and get the usual books I use that I keep in the bedroom. Luckily our house is overrun with books as anyone who has seen it will attest to. So I was able to come up with some new variations on my theme.And once again it was a perfect overcast day for taking photographs with my particular camera too.

Hearts Galore

2011-02-03T17:27:00.001-08:00

I’ve been a busy little beaver adding lots of copper and brass into the shop. This week in keeping with the Valentines day theme I added these Spiral Love Heart Pins and the Pendant.

Spiral Love Heart Brass Shawl Pin or Brooch

Spiral Love Heart Copper Shawl Pin or Brooch

Celtic Heart and Spirals Copper Pendant

It’s been a whole new learning experience working with copper and brass. They are significantly harder than silver and aluminum which makes the noise louder when I hammer the wire. I’m kind of a weirdo and like hammer with my little anvil on my thigh. I realized that after a few months of doing this with the copper and brass that my thigh was feeling sore. I am probably slowly chipping away little fractures into my thigh bone. So I now put a bunched up sweater on my thigh under the anvil to buff the blows of the hammering. Nick tells me that jewelers in India traditionally use their legs to work metal with so I’m probably not all that weird.It just feels like a natural more controlled way to manipulate the wire than hammering on a bench. And less noisy.

This is a picture from 2008.

Kitty Love

2011-01-30T16:07:00.001-08:00

I promise not to make this one of those sappy kitty blogs but Valentine’s Day is approaching and love is in the air.

Mrs.CuteKitty (named by the kids of course) arrived on our porch last year. She came in through the cat door, started pooping in the litter box in the laundry room and declared her love for Fidel.

They are banned to the laundry room and great outdoors because Fidel thinks our house is his personal litter box. I did acquire a new found respect for Fidel the other day when I saw him actually in the litter box attempting to use it. Unfortunately his body is in it while his butt is out of it and he misses completely. But at least now I know he’s giving it a good try. He still can’t come in the house though.

Brass, Copper Sterling Silver

2011-01-27T08:44:00.001-08:00

Now the Trinity Clover Simple Hair Sticks or Shawl Pins depending on your needs are available in our shop in:

Brass

Copper

Sterling Silver

Last year I started playing more with brass and copper and I’m so glad I did. I’m now in the process of adding every shawl pin design and lots of our our jewelry designs into the shop in brass and copper. With the extreme rise in sterling silver prices it’s great to have other less expensive options to work with. And new colors too!I still haven’t quite figured out how to get my photos of copper to get that deep orange look without the glare. Photography is always a challenge eh?

Keeping it simple

2011-01-25T21:46:00.001-08:00

I had a customer request this design as a simple stick pin before the holidays. It’s really such a simple idea and that’s what I love about it.

Trinity Clover Loops Aluminum Hair Stick / Shawl Pin

It works great as a shawl pin or a hair stick

It’s super light weight aluminum but I’ll be adding the copper, brass and sterling silver versions into the shop very soon.

Sometimes simple is best eh?

A long overdue blog post

2010-12-29T16:37:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! Happy Chanuka! and of course…

Happy New Year!

We did eventually get a Christmas tree so the boys don’t still have to stand there.

Right now our Etsy shop is missing a lot of things. We are enjoying a short vacation and will get back to work again soon refilling our shop. I’ve got lots of new ideas too to work on…

New pretty long stem Czech glass flower earrings in the shop

2010-08-16T17:35:00.001-07:00

I came up with this design a while ago and then ran out of the lovely Czech pressed glass beads. So I reordered a bunch and took new pictures and they are

now available in our shop.

All the lovely bright colors make me happy and really brighten up the tone in our Etsy shop.

They have become one of my personal favorite everyday earrings.

They are made with 18 gauge sterling silver wire which makes them a little thicker than the typical earwire so they may not work well for everyone.

You can find them all in the Glass Earrings/ Pendants section of our Etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nicholasandfelice?section_id=5029954

Technorati Tags: glass flowers,earrings,jewelry,Czech glass

New beads!

2010-08-08T21:52:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago my favorite crazy bead salesman and friend Peter came through and set up my own personal bead show in my driveway for a few hours. Peter travels to Asia half the year and buys beads in Hong Kong and other places and then travels in the US the other half of the year selling his special handpicked goodies. I always spend more than I intend to and get filled with good stories from his wild traveling experiences.

These are some yummy gemmy British Columbian nephrite jade beads that I couldn’t resist. I’m a sucker for green stones.

Oh I have so much work to do now that I spent all that money on new beads!

Mid Valley Adoptive Families Picnic Potluck

2010-07-27T18:44:00.001-07:00

I somehow started channeling my Mother’s volunteerism genes and became the organizer of this years summer Mid Valley Adoptive Families picnic this past Sunday. It was actually pretty easy and didn’t require much to do on my part other than securing the reservation for the nifty barn structure at the park and bringing stuff. It would have been nice if I had read the fine print about needing to get a key for the gate that lets you park your cars right next to it. Instead we had to carry all our coolers and stuff up a hot hill.

My crazy eyes Max spent a lot of time with his fellow Spiderman enthusiast Lauren.

Bringing a big box of Legos was a stroke of genius if I say so myself.

Trying to get a group of kids to all stand still and look in the same direction is pretty much impossible.

It went really well and a good time was had by all.

The lazy flower garden

2010-07-20T12:37:00.001-07:00

When we first bought our place about 16 years ago I had grand ambitions and lots more free time.And I knew nothing about gardening. I took mostly free or cheap plants from friends and neighbors.And now years later when I am too lazy and busy to put any effort into it these hardy perennials keep coming back without any help from me.

Little did I know how disgustingly stinky daisies are.

I love these daylillies! I seriously never water them or do anything but weed a little early in the spring.

I can’t remember what these are called . Some sort of hardy bluebell?

The reseeding foxgloves that always surprise me every couple of years by reappearing just when I thought I wouldn’t see them again.

I can’t remember what this lovely purple stuff is but as long it requires nothing from me I’m happy to have it.

These I could do without. The Canadian Thistle. Ouch!

Thisi s my non lazy super hero husband putting in our new vinyl floor.What a difference!

Philomath Frolic and Rodeo-one week later

2010-07-18T21:09:00.001-07:00

Well it was over a week ago that I too the kids to the Philomath Frolic and Rodeo but I finally got the time to post this. As a Brooklyn girl the rodeo fascinates me. It’s so different from where I grew up to see guys wearing cowboy hats because they are actual cowboys and not gay men. Of course they could be gay. Not that there’s anything

wrong with that.

The boys took their mandatory pony rides.

They had been begging me to do the carnival rides. The first ride they chose was the roller coaster. I was kind of surprised that Max really wanted to do it because he’s not much of a ride daredevil. He looked like he was pooping in his pants the whole time. When he got off he said in his serious voice-“That was kind of scary.” He then declined to go on any other rides for the rest of the night.

Henry won this giant blue bear that made him very happy. We also ran into his best friend Emmit

And then there was the actual rodeo. This is the rodeo clown wearing a silly fat suit and doing a whole dance schtick. While somewhat amusing at times I couldn’t help but feel bad for the overweight folks in the audience. But the kids told me he wasn’t making fun of fat people he “just wanted to dance in a fat suit to be goofy.” OK then.

Real cowboys roping a cow. Yee haw!

The mandatory shaved ices.

Aleaha and Max really getting into their ices.

Relaxing at home with Dad.

Successful photos of new Kanji jewelry

2010-07-11T21:21:00.001-07:00

We often get requests for specific words in Japanese Kanji and other languages to be made into our stamped jewelry. This is Nick’s end of our jewelry line. He makes the dies and perfects the tumbling techniques. I get the fun part of photographing the jewelry. I used to hate it back in the olden days before digital cameras. I’d waste hours and hours of my life and tons of money on film, wait to get it printed and then be horribly disappointed and start all over again and repeat the process. My simple Sony Cyber-shot 5.1 megapixels changed all that. And the miracle of Photoshop.

These pictures were taken outdoors on a cloudy overcast day. I found a Japanese kanji book of ours and an art history book and had some fun.

Light - Japanese Kanji and Chinese Character and for Light Sterling Silver Pendant

Light - Japanese Kanji and Chinese Character for Light Sterling Silver Stamped Earrings

In the same photo shoot I played around with some rough obsidian we bought at the Tuscon Gem Show many many years ago and this new Snow Flake Obsidian Ball Pendant.These didn’t come out quite as crisp and photoshop helped with the contrast quite a bit. The silver Kanji jewelry above didn’t really need much photoshopping at all other than cropping.

My boys

2010-07-09T13:30:00.001-07:00

Henry and Max and our new to us mini van modeling the cute summer clothes that Grandma Fran sent.

New Amethyst Earrings and New Sterling Silver Pins

2010-06-21T19:36:00.001-07:00

Today I took these pictures and added these Tiny Amethyst Sterling Silver Wirewrapped Bead Earrings.

I also these two new Sterling Silver shawl pins.

Circle With A Twist Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

Double Crossed Loops Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

I also decided to add a photo of my small chubby man hand (a “Sienfeld” reference to those who know what I mean by “man hand”) holding the pin to get more of a sense of scale with these sweet little pins. These two pins used a little less silver wire than the others and take a little less time to make so they are a little less expensive than the first 5 ones I put in our shop.

New Sterling Silver Shawl Pins

2010-06-15T19:33:00.000-07:00

Celtic Infinity Loops Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
Well I finally took the plunge and invested in 12 gauge sterling silver so I could start making my shawl pins in sterling silver along with super awesome aluminum. It's dramatically more expensive than aluminum. The 9 gauge aluminum costs about $.15 a foot and 12 gauge sterling silver costs about $7 a foot. That doesn't leave a lot of room for mistakes.Hence the significantly higher price for them.The silver is also a lot harder and more difficult to bend and hammer.

Looping Celtic Crossed Knots Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
So I've started out by making the most popular aluminum shawl pin designs.

Celtic Heart and Swirls Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
They've been tricky to photograph too.I think it's because they are shinier than the aluminum.

Celtic Budding Spiral Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

Fleur De Lis Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch

Celtic Knot Infinite Swirl Cross Sterling Silver Shawl Pin or Brooch
This is one of my most difficult and complex designs and uses a little more wire than the others.Although not uncomfortably heavy, it is amazing the weight difference between aluminum and sterling silver. The silver has a different look and feel than the aluminum that I hope will appeal to some knitters looking for something a little special. But I really appreciate and love my aluminum.

First Grade trip to the Portland Zoo

2010-06-08T19:19:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I chaperoned Henry's First Grade class trip to the zoo. It was a crazy 2 hour bus ride. Luckily we had lots and lots of parents who came on the trip to help.About a half hour before we arrived Henry started to feel sick and it started raining.I was not in the best of moods. But once we got off the bus he felt better. Must have been car sickness.And miraculously the rain stopped after a little while.We spent the day with his 3 best friends and another set of parents.

We all brought our own lunch and found a great spot inside the lion viewing area. And then suddenly from cross the field this large and lovely lioness spotted us and came trotting intensely over to the window like she was ready to eat us for lunch.

It was pretty exciting and terrifying. I'm so glad that glass was strong.
This polar bear was hilarious. He was really enjoying himself and showing off for us while the one in the background was having some sort of OCD weird caged animal moment. He kept walking backwards about 3 steps and then forwards 3 steps like he was doing the cha cha cha. The picture below the video of the bears is of Max and his super awesome preschool teacher Sara Melahnik.(I couldn't figure out how to move the picture below on blogger. Anyway...) It was the next to last day of preschool for him. We'll really miss her and I can't believe my baby will be starting kindergarten in the Fall.

Time for new pictures and things

2010-05-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Things have slowed down a little in our Etsy shop. Rather than freak out and panic which is my usual response to the fluctuations of self employment income I've tried to use this extra time to add some products I've been meaning to add for a long time and improve some pictures.
Like the long overdue Treble Clef G Clef Sterling Silver Stamped Pendant.

Pretty Little Rose Quartz and Amethyst Swirl Sterling Silver Pendant

Black Stone and Fresh Water Pearl Swirl Stone Sterling Silver Pendant

Green Aventurine and Amethyst Swirl Stone Sterling Silver Pendant

These three stone pendants all have matching earrings in our shop. Figured it was time to make a nice set.They are also very inexpensive ($8.50).

Rainbow Eye Aluminum Bar Shawl Pin or Brooch

This is a new bar pin design. It works kind of like a safety pin.

I just ordered some thick gauge sterling silver wire so that I can start making the shawl pins in sterling silver. I'm excited to try them in silver but a little nervous about the overhead costs. Silver is significantly more expensive than aluminum.

Steaming Cup O Joe with Garnet Sterling Silver Pendant

I have been meaning to get more creative and take some better pictures of our Cup O Joe stampings. Here are the new pictures.

Steaming Cup O Joe Coffee Cup Sterling Silver Earrings

I'm back!

2010-05-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a ridiculously long time since I blogged. Just busy and not that into it. Facebook just seems so much easier.(Give in to it all you reluctant facebookers. Join the herd. It's fun and easy and everyones doing it.)
I just got back from spending 4 days in Albuquerque with my parents while my Mom was going through surgery for Colon cancer. It went very well. They were able to do it all laparoscopically. She is strong tough lady and was just released from the hospital today. The surgery was on Monday!. She is expected to fully recover.
It was hard to leave my family. I had never been away from Henry before and he was initially very upset. But he resigned himself to it and bribery helped .Nothing like a bunch of new legos and wii games to get over Mom being away. Max took it like a man. Nick was super dad.
I may be a freak but I love airports and airplane travel. Yeah there are some scary, high anxiety moments but I still find it so amazing and exciting.I think the picture above is Mt Hood outside of Portland.

The Desert.

Approaching Albuquerque.

Mom and dad in their backyard (pre surgery).

Me and Mom squinting in the harsh bright sun.

The guest room/office I stayed in.Note the ancient PC with windows 98 on dial up and the half broken roller ball mouse they insist on using that drove me insane and tv with converter box. I was satellite dish deprived but did get to see 5 different religious channels and mexican soap operas.

My Dad is an arteest. That is one of my favorite paintings of his.

One of his statues in the back yard.

His sculpture garden on the side of their home.

I think it looks like he's giving the finger. He says it's just pointing.

Circus and pin

2010-03-25T19:20:00.000-07:00

Life and the business have been busy which is great.I took the kids to the circus last week with our friends. They come to town once a year (the circus that is- not our friends)and the kids love it. It's quite the show.

And of course you have to have cotton candy.

This is my newest shawl / hair pin design.

Celtic Open Eye Aluminum Shawl Pin / Hair Pin or Brooch
I sold the first one today. Hooray!
We are also now selling our geeky nerdy jewelry at The Makers Market.

Henry's Apple Jewelry

2010-03-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

Our son Henry saw our red glass marble pendants and said "You should put a leaf on it and make it an apple pendant." I poo pooed him but did it anyway just to please him and put it on our display and the Holiday Market last December. Well it sold! Then he begged me to make more and put them on Etsy. So I finally had time and the perfect photography weather and did it. These are Ruby Red Cherry Apple Glass Marble Earrings .

This is the Ruby Red Cherry Apple Glass Pendant.
I was thinking of Snow White's apple when I took the picture. So I posted about them on our facebook fanpage and we sold TWO in a day!
I hadn't even thought of the brilliant teacher's gift idea for them that our lovely and clever customers told us about. So now Henry get's a cut on very one that sells. He's quickly supplementing his allowance income.

New Shawl Pin

2010-03-01T20:45:00.001-08:00

Just added this new design to our shop.

Circle With A Twist Aluminum Shawl Pin

New pictures of Kitty Pendant

2010-03-01T11:38:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I had some time and the weather was perfect for taking pictures. So I finally took a couple of better photos of the Cute Kitty with Sterling Silver Ball of Yarn Pendant.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

We took a hike with our friends today.It was a lovely mild day,cloudy but no rain in a place we've never been before.

A nice view of our town-Philomath.

Clouds are low.

Max running.

Lauren and Max study the big worm.

More low clouds.

Aidan, Henry and Max

New in our shop -Biohazard Sterling Silver Pendant

Groucho Max

2010-02-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

Of all the toys he could chose from at the dollar store this was what he picked. He's quite the entertainer. He is also the most stubborn boy ever when it comes to pooping in the potty.He says even when he is a man he will not poop in the potty. Good thing he is so darn cute.

Yay- new widget and a new look!

2010-02-03T19:16:00.001-08:00

Do things look a little different here? Just a little. I am on a great team -Full Time Etsy Crafters-
Check out our team blog
One of our teamies (Ileaiye) showed us the neat widget on the right here that let's you see all the cool stuff in our shop and buy from it.
Then Celeste of Crickets Creations made a step by step tutorial to make it even easier.
In order to put in that little widget I had to update my template so I hastily chose one from their choices and ta da- here I am with a new looking blog.
To me it is exciting. It's the little things.

New Design -Single piece pin

2010-01-27T12:54:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to come up with original ideas for shawl or brooch pins that are one piece rather than the main piece with the second stick that goes through it. I've had a couple of customers ask about it because it is so easy to loose the stick pin part.

This is the new design -Celtic Twist Aluminum Bar Shawl Pin or Brooch

See how it works?

Motivated anyone?

2010-01-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been feeling motivated to blog. I've been on an exercise strike too. Perhaps the two are related.Probably not. I thought I'd try and come up with something a little valentine's-y so I reworked this heart design as a shawl pin. The photos just didn't really make it "pop" but here it is anyway. The
Spiral Love Heart Light Weight Aluminum Shawl Pin

By popular request Nick reworked the HTML head Super nerdy and geeky earrings to be lower case which is the more commonly used code these days. So of course I had to take new pictures too. Again, I'm not really thrilled with them but they will do. Somehow our stuff still seems to sell well on Etsy despite the mediocre pictures.
One of our favorite mottos is "the perfect is the enemy of the good enough." I'm sure I just mangled the exact quote but you get what I mean. Which is a perfect self referential example of the meaning of it. Wow- so deep this morning!
I have a new shawl pin design I'm working on with the stick integrated into the piece as a more tradional type brooch that I'm excited about and hope to get in the shop and show off here soon.
In the meantime I'm still working on restocking the shop of all the sold out items from Christmas. It's nice to have a long break until the Saturday Market starts again.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-12-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

My demented kids

Max acting goofy

Max digging into his stocking.

Henry was begging us for the Lego Power Miners Thunder Driller. He was a happy boy.

Holiday stuff

2009-12-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy busy holiday selling season for us. We are feeling very lucky and overwhelmingly busy. We finally got caught up with all the orders and packaging and things are starting to wind down a little. Tomorrow will be my last day selling at the Eugene Holiday Market.
We did manage to do some of the holiday stuff with the kids so that they don't just remember their parents working all the time during the holidays. We've been basically spoiling them everyday with whatever they want. Celebrating both Chanukah and Christmas kind of feeds into that.

Here is a sort of freaky picture of Max and Henry lighting the Chanukah candles.

Nick and Henry cut down one of our many spindly trees on our property for our Christmas tree.

Pathetic Plea

2009-11-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

Our Celtic Loops Spiral Cross Ornament has been nominated in Etsy's Vote for your favorite ornament contest. I am so excited and happy to be nominated! So if you have a chance scoot on over to the site and vote for me! Pretty please with sugar on top?

This should be the link to the voting part of the site:

http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=80

2 new shawl pins

2009-11-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

I had gotten a couple of requests for a Fle ur-De Lis design and I finally got around to coming up with a good one. It was tricky. This one has some more hammering involved. I also thought I needed to add more color to our photos so I have been playing around with different colored books to use as backgrounds in my pictures.

Spiraling Full Circle Aluminum Shawl Pin/ Hair Pin

This is another new shawl pin although it is a take off on a simple design I have used for pendants and earrings. It suddenly dawned on me that it would make a good shawl pin too.

I have a couple of other new additons to our shop that I'll show y'all later.

Things have been busy here. We had our Chanukah Menorah Ornament mentioned in the Etsy Finds mass email on October 19th that brought tons of visitors to our shop. I discovered that that ornament is a pain to make and is underpriced. But I made about 25 of them in 24 hours and we are still getting orders for them.

I am no longer selling outdoors at the Eugene Saturday Market but we are gearing up to start selling at the indoor Holiday Market in Eugene starting November 21st. It's going to be hectic!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

Henry,Aidan Lauren and Max

More fun with wire

2009-10-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

I had a customer contact us with a picure of a design she loved and wanted to know if I could make it into a hair fork.
I loved the design and became obsessed with it over that weekend.
Here's what I came up with. It's now a regular item in our shop .
Celtic Double Entwined Heart Aluminum Double Hair Sticks/Hair Fork Pin

I also made it into a shawl pin.
Entwined Hearts Celtic Knot Aluminum Shawl Pin/ Hair Pin
I'm planning to work it into a pendant design too and see what I can come up with in Sterling Silver. I'm also toying around with the idea of making all of our shawl pins in Sterling Silver
but the cost of silver is quite high now and I'm not sure I can get away with selling a more expensive pin.
But it's a thought...

Here's another design recently added to the shop-Celtic Looping Crossed Knots Light Weight Aluminum Earrings

And after numerous requests we now have the Groovy Flower Power Big Light Weight Aluminum Earrings in our shop too.
So that's what's new and exciting here. I have to admit that I find it easier to add new items and info on our facebook fanpage than on the blog. So come on over and be a fan if you aren't already http://www.facebook.com/NicholasandFelice
But I intend to keep up with the blog and realize there is a whole lot of people who don't waste their precious time on facebook. Hard to imagine :)

Good times....

2009-09-25T20:21:00.000-07:00

My parents came to visit two weeks ago. The weather was typically terrible and my Dad caught a cold on the plane (theoretically) and it got passed along to Nick.We still had a good time.

My Mom (Fran) Max and me.

Henry and Grandma Fran enjoying some cookies

It was an opportunity to get a rare family portrait taken at an odd angle so that Nick looks like he is a giant and his head is touching the ceiling.

My crazy kids pulled out the ironing board the other day and started giving each other massages.I don't wear they got that from. I'm assuming it was on some cartoon previously .

Good times....

Getting ornamental

2009-09-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've been adding new ornametns to our shop in the past couple of weeks. I had a custoemr request a Chanukah Menorah Ornament. I thought it was a great idea and it was quite a challenge. here's what i came up with . She loved it and so do I. Either for your Chanukah Bush or on your Christmas tree if you celebrate both holidays like we do. Or just hanging around.

Yin Yang Harmony Ornament

Celtic Unfurling Tulip Ornament

Celtic Infinity Cross Ornament

I have a few more on their way just in time for the holidays.

Henry's First Day of First Grade

2009-08-31T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today was Henry's first day of First Grade.

He is relaxed and said "this is so cool!"

Showing off his new lunch box filled with his usual fare of Ramen in a thermos and salami and a juice box. He hardly ate anything. He rarely does.

In front of the school before we go in with Nick and Max hiding behind them.

The excitement of using his new pencil case.

The excitement wears off.

Here is some of our summer fun. The boys both took swimming classess all summer long. Max got to acheive his dream of catching fish at our friend's creek in Harlan in the coast range.

New from the mind of Nick

2009-08-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

Stating the Obvious Sterling Silver Arrow Earrings

State the obvious with these arrows pointing to your ear earrings.Uh-This is my ear.Here.

They are made from 24 gauge sterling silver sheet and measure about 1/4"(.6cm) wide at the bottom and 7/16"(1.1cm)wide at the widest part of the arrow and about 12/16"(2.5cm) tall. They measure a total length of 1 7/16" (3.7cm) from the top of the earwire to the bottom of the earring.

$20

New Hair Toys

2009-08-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy busy summer!
We had a lovely customer request that we make some more designs in the double hair fork style. It was a great idea. The most successful one has been this Celtic Heart Double Fork.

Here it is my hair.

Celtic Loopy Bliss Cross Light Weight Aluminum Double Hair Sticks/Hair Fork Pin

Infinity Loops Aluminum Double Hair Sticks/Hair Fork Pin

Our Saturday Market booth and life

2009-07-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Most Saturdays for the past 18 years or so we have sold at the Eugene Saturday Market. We have had our excellent reserved corner booth space on the corner of 8th and W Park Street across from the Farmers Marker for many years now that we earned by doing all those markets and getting the points. And being there when the very old couple finally decided to retire from their spot who had it previously. I imagine Nick and I will be hobbling on our canes too when we finally retire from that corner spot.Luckily Etsy has come along and changed our lives so that we don't have to be there every weekend, especially the ones that are brutally cold or hot.
Now that we have Henry and Max, Nick stays home with the boys while I go to market by myself. (Until they are at least old enough to be somewhat helpful and not poop in their pants.That goes for Nick too.-just joking hun)It's a lovely hour long scenic drive on mostly back roads through the Willamette Valley from our home to Eugene.
I start most Saturday mornings with my old timer marketeer vendor girlfriends and coffee. It is usually the highlight of my day.

This year we revamped our Saturday Market booth display. We had been using the same display for more years than I can even remember.It is still basicly the same but we took off a whole top row of earrings so that I can now see over the top of the display and not be boxed in. We got rid of dud earrings that weren't really moving. We also got one of those new fangled light weight plastic folding tables instead of the super heavy plywood one we made back when we were young.

Those are hanging vases across the front top of the booth and we also have some on a display hanging on the other side of the booth. We love our EZ Up booth although I really think they should be called EZ Down as the process of getting those little metal buttons pushed into the top can require heroic efforts and leave me panting wiht exhaustion first thing in the morning.Taking them down is a breeze though.

I replaced the old ratty purple background on the boards with a crisper off white muslin. It's really improved the visibility of the colored stone and glass jewelry. We still continue to use the method of having lace sewn on the bords in rows that the earrings hang off of. I can't take credit for the idea as we saw it in a store display in Santa Rosa about 20 years ago. But it works really well for us and we get lots of compliments on it from customers.

The is the Aluminum earrings display board. Notice the signs above it say "Light Weight! REALLY! Pick them up!" "Light Weight Aluminum" "With Sterling Silver Earwires".

Perhaps the signs aren't large enough or bright enough but all day long I have customers say- "Wow those look really heavy . I couldn't wear those." And I say- "But they aren't. They are aluminum- pick them up and see."(with a pleasant smile of course.) "Oh my god they ARE light." and then they hand them to their disbelieving friend who says- "Wow, they are" as if I was lying when I made the sign or told them. Silly humans!

The boards all slide off the display and fit into a suitcase. The display is made in two halves that clamp together in the back.

These are Henry's Lego pendants. He came up with the idea about a year ago. He told us where to drill the holes and then told me how to put the wire on it. We have Lego earrings too. They are a huge hit at the Saturday Market where so far no one else sells them. There are tons of people selling similar lego jewelry on Etsy though so we haven't added them to our shop. We have an ongoing debate about it.Someday when Etsy allows us extra shop sections we might add them.

Nick made the folding pendant displays out of aluminum. They also fold up nicely into a suitcase.He's so good like that!

One of our ornamental mirror displays.

There is another one on the other side of the booth. The shawl pins/hair pins hang on that scarf next to it. It's funny how online they sell really well as shawl pins but in Eugene they are clearly hair pins.(And don't sell quite as well.)

We have price signs on the end of each row with an arrow pointing to the row under the price. After 20 something years selling at the market and craft shows we know customers want to see the price easily without asking.

Assorted stone pendants. We don't sell most of these on Etsy because they are each so different due to the nature of stone and would require new photos for each one.That would mean raising the prices on them and more time which I don't have a lot of.
All this stuff packs up in about a half hour into our trusty 95' Taurus wagon. Then I drive the hour home exhausted and get ready to keep up with my little hellions ( I mean sweet high energy boys) who still stay up way to late and get up much too early for any over 40 parent to endure.

Pretty things revamped

2009-07-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the time because of slow sales and the perfect overcast weather to revamp our Hanging Vases and take new pictures.I decided to stop making them with the glass cabochon glued to the front spiral for a variety of reasons. It takes more time to glue them on and requires me leaving the house and going to the studio away from the kids and using nasty E-6000 glue which stinks and isn't safe to inhale.Yuck.This means I can make them more quickly and lower the price a little. So that's what I did.

I also added some of the colorful glass that I have to our Hanging Vase selection. Like this Teal Pyramid Celtic Spirals and Swirls Hanging Vase.

And I finally found just the right rustic spot to take the photos on our front yard fence gate.

I experimented with hanging them from our cherry tree too.

I also had to readjust shipping prices. They require a lot of bubble wrap and then I wrap them in cardboard for extra protection and then we use recycled stryofoam popcorn. The cost of priority shipping went up this past spring so it was time to raise the price to cover the cost of shipping. I hate raising prices. But I figure lowering the price on the vases makes up for it.

Tomorrow I am off to sell at the Eugene Saturday Market. I'm hoping sales are good which will make up for suffering in the heat.

Up the Yin Yang

2009-07-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Things have slowed down at bit probably due to most people going on vacation and not spending time glued to their computers shopping. This has given me the opportunity to work on new ideas and photography. This past week I've added some new things to our Etsy shop.
This Yin Yang design came to me one evening and I made a nice shawl/hair pin with it. then I realized it could be earrings, pendants and an ornament too.

Yin Yang Harmony Sterling Silver Pendant
$10

Yin Yang Harmony Sterling Silver Earrings
$15

And the larger version in super light weight aluminum...

Big Yin Yang Harmony Light Weight Aluminum Pendant
$10

Big Yin Yang Harmony Light Weight Aluminum Wirework Earrings
$15
I'll be blogging more soon about all the other new things I've been working on.

new super geeky nerdy earrings

2009-07-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

We had a customer contact us recently asking if we could make these earrings. They were a great idea which will probably appeal to a limited audience but they are bound to speak to someone else out there.

Pilcrow Paragraph Sign Typographical Sterling Silver Stamped Earrings-
The pilcrow also called the paragraph sign or alinea is a typographical character commonly used to denote individual paragraphs.We stamp these sterling silver earrings from our own die.
The earrings are 5/8" diameter (15.87mm) and measure about 1-1/8" long (28.57mm) from the top of the sterling silver earwires to the bottom of the earrings. They are stamped from 30 ga. sterling silver.
Thin, light weight, elegant and totally geeky.
$15

Section Sign Typography Character Geeky Sterling Silver Earrings
The section sign also called the "section symbol" or "squiggly", is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section of a document.
$15

It must be summer

2009-07-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

because the cherries are here!

Max loves cherries . We picked these from the tree we planted in our front yard when we first bought our place about 16 years ago. They are Royal Annes.

Yesterday we went to the Philomath Antique Car Show. I usually miss it and Nick takes the boys while I am selling at the Saturday Market. But since the 4th fell on a saturday this year I decided to take the day off from selling at the market and got to go too. I figured sales would be slow with so many other things going on around town and it would also be brutally hot later in the day which would kill me.

Eating corn and hot dogs.

We fell in love with this little car and think it would make a great going to town car.

I gave Henry my camera and he took a bunch of pictures. This was one of them.

I think this would make a nice replacement for one of our Taurus station wagons.

The kids played in the park for a while too. That's Henry on top of the rickety old slide. It must be about 30 years old at least if not older and is ridiculously dangerous with it's thin sides and large spaces on the ladder. Henry fell off of it from the top when he was about 3 and I relive that every time he goes on it. He was fine and just cryed a little but watching your baby fall off the top of a slide is a traumatic. Obviously he was not traumatized at all.

Besides the cherries we have a few other successful perenials in our front yard that require no maintainance which is the only kind of gardening I do these days.

The honeysuckle.

Daylily- some extra red type.

Some purple thing I planted many years ago that the hummingbirds love.

gratuitous cute cats picture

2009-07-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

The other evening I stepped outside onto our back porch and saw this cute scene. Fidel our big old snarky cat and his trophy wife Mrs.CuteKittyMittens having a cuddling private moment on the lounge chair.
Awwww!

New Celtic Knot Cross earrings in our shop

2009-06-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've added 2 new earrings to our Etsy shop. Once again they are based on older designs and really just needed to be made in sterling silver as earrings.

Loopy Bliss Cross Sterling Silver Wire Earrings
$15

Celtic Knot Infinity Swirl Cross Sterling Silver Earrings
$22.50
I needed to charge more than I usually do for our sterling silver wire earrings for these because they are really tricky to make match and they actually use a lot of wire. I don't expect them to sell quite as well because of the price but I've got to be realistic about my time and cost of materials for my products if I want to make a living.
Yesterday was a decent day at Saturday Market. It was very busy with the Eugene Track and Field competition and the beginning of the Bach Festival in town and the weather was lovely warm and sunny. For a while it seemed like customers were mostly looking and shopping around before making their decisions but in the end it added up to a good enough day.
This week the kids start their swimming classes and our full on summer of long days of sibling fighting and boredom sets in.
I'm rethinking the camp thing...

Felice and Henry's Big Adventure in New York

2009-06-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

Last week I took our 6 year old son on a trip to Long Island, New York to visit my brother Steve and his family and celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary.
We had a little journey through United Airlines circles of hell in which our first flight from Eugene was delayed due to "weather conditions" in San Francisco that looked sunny and delightful when we finally arrived with 5 minutes to spare to make our next flight. Apparently those 5 mintues where not enough to keep them holding their own flight and so they gave away our seats. We then stood on the customer "Service" line for about an hour and half with about 75 other disgruntled passengers with their own tales of airline woe while watching the plane we should have been on sit on the runway delayed for an hour. Henry behaved impeccably (I must be a great parent) the whole time on line. We managed to get stand by on the next flight and screw the next slightly late passengers out of their seats. I assume this process goes on infinitely as each flight takes seats away from those slightly late in a sort of Pay It Backward process of airline karma.We arrived at 1:30am in the morning at JFK and my loving brother and mom and dad were there to greet us.
The next day began with this lovely NY breakfast-the bagel and cream cheese with lox.

It had been about 6 years since I last saw my brother and 12 years since I was last In NY.

Now that's a pizza! Finally the pizza you just can't get in Oregon. It has the light thin crust and the oil dripping down your hand.

Sibling love

It was so great to meet my wonderful niece Jamie!

The next night was my nephew Matt's 12th birthday party that he shared with his good friend Jason. It involved 50 12 year olds and a large lovely swimming pool with a hot tub. There was an air brush artist making t shirts and hats and a movie screen set up outside and the grand finale of the Mr Softee truck in the driveway with free ice cream cones for all.Henry got to go in the truck with his cousin and play ice cream man. Unfortunately my little 6 year old thinks he can actually swim. So there he was on his little floaty noodle thing kicking out to the deep end constantly to join in with the all the big kids. I was left with the only reponsible parenting option of putting on my bathing suit and going in there too. So I was the only adult at the party baring it all in a bathing suit amongst all the kids.

Here I am in the hot tub with a bunch of 12 year old boys. Need I say more?

The next day we drove into NY and went to the Museum of Natural History.

Henry , Matt and Jamie taking it all in.

While sitting in traffic this just cracked me up for some reason. I guess I am just easily amused.

Henry and Jamie

The next day was my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. My brilliant sister-in-law came up with the plan of stealing Mom's photo album and having this board made for everyone to sign.

I got to see my Great Aunt Phylis. So this is Felice, Phyliss and Fran. Try saying that 5 times fast.We had lots of old family friends show up and a good time was had by all.

We all went out to dinner at Mario's for excellent Italian food the last night we were there.

Aunt Michelle getting some good hugging in with Henry.

Henry fell asleep on the last plane ride home. He never napped on any of the other plane rides. He later woke up screaming as we were landing with a bad dream and a headache but quickly recovered upon landing.

It was a great trip.

Old new things and new old things

2009-06-07T17:12:00.001-07:00

I've added some new items to our shop in the past week or so. This is a really old design I made back when I had time to sit and carve by hand in reverse our steel dies. We call this one:
Fertility Goddess Woman and Pearl Sterling Silver Pendant

and the matching earrings:

Fertility Goddess Woman Sterling Silver Stamped Earrings

This is another old design that has been made smaller and in sterling silver and just added to our Etsy shop:
Celtic Knot Infinity Swirl Sterling Silver Cross Pendant

And this is another old design that I reworked:
Celtic Loops Sterling Silver Earrings
I make this large and bold in aluminum and tiny and sweet with a little iolite bead in sterling silver. A customer asked for it to be larger but in sterling silver. Duh! why didn't I think of that?

On the home front our old friends,the neighbors goats and Mama Llama are back visiting with us for the summer to eat all our nasties.Welcome back girls! (or are they boys? I can't remember.)

We ordered caterpillars again for our butterfly tent this spring. They quickly made their cocoons and emerged as butterflys. Henry hates to say goodbye to them.

Here's another quick and silly barely crafty easy toy Max came up with for me to make. He says it's the terminator guy.Cardbaord, pipe cleaners and scissors and you too can have a quick crappy toy for your 4 year old little dude.

Henry and I are going on a short trip to Long Island NY next week to visit my brother and his family and celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. I haven't been back east in about 10 years. I can't wait to eat some good NY pizza, bagels and chinese food and see family I haven't seen in a very very long time.I'm hoping Max and Nick are not scarred for life.

Big Shroom

2009-05-29T19:36:00.001-07:00

We've been living here for about 15 years (I think?) and have never seen these giant mushrooms here before under the tree right next to our house.

I told Max not to touch them so he went and got out his latex gloves, one our favorite play items.

the mushroom goblin boy

Nice mushroom!

Gogo and Yin Yang

2009-05-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Nephrite Green Jade Gogo and Black Onyx Swirl Earrings
Here's another new addition to our Etsy shop made from British Columbian Nephrite Jade beads I bought earlier this year. They call this shape "Gogo".
$14 in the Stone Earrings/Pendants section of our shop.

This is a brand spankin' new design I came up with a couple of nights ago, listed in our shop yesterday and sold today. Woo hoo! I love that! It's simple yet so balanced hence the name:
Yin Yang Harmony Aluminum Shawl Pin/ Hair Pin
$18

I was especially motivated to come up with a new design because we just discovered someone copying 3 of my shawl pins and selling them in their Etsy shop. While somewhat flattering to be "discovered' as successful and worth copying it was pretty shocking to stumble upon exact copies of my designs that I worked pretty hard to come up with. The titles were even strikingly similar. I normally don't believe most people when they say someone is copying them when the designs are pretty common with commonly used beads. But these are complex wire work designs that are clearly being ripped off.
So in an effort to stay ahead of the copycat, I'll keep creating (and give her some more ideas
to steal).
And so a lovely holiday weekend winds down with chocolate chip cookies and some playdates.

Presenting Mrs.CuteKitty

2009-05-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition to our family. This is Mrs. CuteKitty, named by Henry of course.She is our big old snarky cat Fidel's new trophy wife. She started hanging around here a month or so ago. We thought she was our neighbors cat but then discovered she was not the same cat. We always thought we'd have to wait until Fidel died to get another cat because he is such a mean bastard to other cats. But this little girl won his heart. She started coming in through the cat door and he let her. The next thing we know she is sleeping in his special box and eating his food. When she took a crap in the litter box we had a feeling this kitty was not leaving. I tried hard to be mean to her because I didn't really want to have another cat while dealing with Fidel and all his medical issues and financial draining. But it's hard to be mean to such a cute sweet thing and the kids loved her. So we gave in . I took her to the vet and as soon as she saw her clipped right ear she knew she was neutered by the mobile local feral cat clinic which I never even heard of before. They go around and do cheap fixings of feral cats and then set them loose again to make it on their own. She's a survivor and made it here. Probably only about 1 year old.Fidel must have told her we're suckers and will spend ridiculous amounts of money on our pets.
Good thing she's so cute.

New Red Tiger Eye!

2009-05-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

Little Diamond Red Tiger Eye and Garnet Sterling Silver Swirl Earrings

$12.50

New little earrings in the Stone earrings/pendants section of our Etsy shop.

We also just recently added the Exclamation Mark Sterling Silver Pendant to our Geeky /Science jewelry section of our shop.

$10.50

Happy post Mother's Day!

2009-05-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wolverine claws update:

Max updated his wolverine claws idea by moving on to pens and pencils jammed into his fist.We've been trying to impress upon him to at least keep the pointy parts pointed into his hand. Safety first after all! He fell asleep holding onto his claws tightly.

Max's preschool had a sweet Mother's Day Tea the Friday before Mother's Day.
Max threw up all over himself and even had a bloody nose right at the very end.

They had some adorable songs prepared. This is "I'm a little teapot".

We've been really busy doing all sorts of stuff. Last week was Henry's Taekwondo Yellow belt test.

We also took a trip to the Alsea Fish Hatchery last week (or was that two weeks ago?) with our friends Aidan, Lauren, Amy and Bethie.

Follow me guys!

The last few weeks have been crazy with lots of Etsy pre- Mother's Day sales. Yay Mother's Day! I sold at the Eugene Saturday Market this past Saturday too and it was also quite busy. Our Hanging Vases make especially good Mother's Day presents.

The cheapest sort of crafty Wolverine claws boy toy ever

2009-05-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

Max is obsessed with Wolverine these days. (Not that he doesn't still love all things Spiderman too.)He asked me to make him wolverine claws. He's been seeing the ad for them on TV. So he told me to make them out of paper and cut them out and use tape. Okey dokey then.

Here he is vogueing with his claws. Pay no attention to Wolverines pee soaked pants. He's still working on his potty training issues. I suppose it is sort of wolfy to be covered in pee.

Then he told me to upgrade them by making them with card board. he was right. It makes a much sturdier product. Henry wanted some too.

Henry lost his first two teeth this week. They are the bottom front two. The new ones were already coming in behind them so he didn't get the classic gap toothed 6 year old look we were going for.

New-Shimmering Moonstone and Fresh Water Pearl Swirl Earrings

2009-04-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

I've been slowly adding new stone earrings to our Etsy shop from the beads I recently I bought.

These are lovely Moonstone beads that I swirled together with Fresh Water Pearl.
The name Moonstone is derived from a visual effect, or sheen, caused by light reflecting internally in the moonstone from layer inclusion of different feldspars.When light falls between these thin, flat layers, it scatters in many directions producing the phenomenon called adularescence.

The Moonstone beads measure about 7/16" (1.2cm) long and wide. The entire earring measures about 1 3/8" (3.5cm) from the top of the sterling silver earwire to the bottom of the earring. All the wire including the earwire is sterling silver.
$14

New Stone Earrings

2009-04-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Tiny British Columbian Nephrite Jade and Amethyst Sterling Silver Swirl Earrings

These are gorgeous deep green translucent British Columbian nephrite jade beads that we swirled together with 6mm amethyst.The jade beads measure about 3/8" (1cm) in diameter.The entire earring measures about 1 5/16" (3.4cm) from the top of the sterling silver earwire to the bottom of the earring. All the wire including the earwire is sterling silver.
$12.50

I had fun experimenting with photographing stone earrings on a crystal cluster

These are new too from the new stone beads I bought from my bead guy.
Tiger Eye and Garnet Sterling Silver Swirl Earrings

These are lovely Tiger Eye beads that we swirled together with 5mm garnet.Tiger eye is quartz that contains oriented fibres of crocidolite that have been replaced by silica. Tiger eye often displays chatoyancy (a vertical luminescent band like that of a cat's eye).The Tiger Eye beads measure about 3/4" (1.9cm) long and 5/8" (1.6cm) wide. The entire earring measures about 1 5/8" (4.2cm) from the top of the sterling silver earwire to the bottom of the earring. All the wire including the earwire is sterling silver.
$15

I sold yesterday at the Eugene Saturday Market. Brrrrrrrr - it was really cold and miserable with on and off rain. Sales were barely adequate and my toes were numb all day. Ah the life of the outdoor craft vendor. So glamorous.

Ahhh Spring- It's killing me...

2009-04-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well not really perhaps.I'm being a little over dramatic.

The weather has been warm and sunny and wonderful here. (Don't believe the lies about it raining all the time in Oregon.) But this means that the trees and flowers have burst out with tons of pollen covering everything triggering an early allergy season for me. Today has been a little better and I just got my prescription filled for Flonase to take along with my generic Allegra (fexofenidine) so I should be a functioning human being again soon and not a snot covered, sniffing and snorting eye rubbing miserable wreck.

I have sold the past two weekends now at the Eugene Saturday Market. The first one was slow but last weekend was pretty good. We changed our display and made new display boards that have a white background instead of the same purple we had been using for the past 10 or more years. The white background seems to have helped make the colorful glass earrings really show up well and pop out of the display. I have finally been selling these cute glass flower earrings at the market that just never seemed to do well there before.

Max was sad to find out that he is too young to play T Ball on a team this summer. So we used some of Grandma's gift certificate for his birthday to get a T Ball set of his own to play with.He's going to be really good at it come next summer.

After stressing myself out trying to come up with camps and things for the kids to do this summer I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to relax and enjoy spending time with the kids while they are so young and not book them up with activities. Max is too young to be in most programs available and Henry is a home body/mama's boy. So we'll be taking swimming classes and whatever convenient things come our way and make playdates and take it easy. Henry starts first gade in the Fall and will be gone all day at school. So I am going to try and remember to enjoy these special long days together.( Remind me of that when we are going crazy on one of those long days.)

New stuff and Max's 4th Birthday

2009-04-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

I finally took some new extra geeky pictures of our ever popluar HTML Head earrings.

We also added the Alto Clef pendant to our shop. We had it as earrings and had been meaning to make a pendant too for a long time. The day finally came.

We also added the "Pi" pendant to our shop. Again, we had it as earrings but it was time to get the pendant in the shop too.

This is a new smaller version of our "Romantic Industrial Big Aluminum Cross" as earrings. Nick made them from aluminum extrusion that he tumbled and sliced .

I also added the "Mogan David' pendant to our shop that we have as earrings too.(Just in time for Passover.)

And now on to the cute kids...

Henry and Fidel.

Fidel looks like he had a stroke in this picture. He is actually doing pretty well for an old 15 year old cat although he was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I have now become one of those crazy cat owners that injects her cat with insulin twice a day and spends ridiculous amounts of money on fancy cat food and vet visits.I never thought I'd end up doing all this for the cat and sort of secretly mocked those that did but when the time came I just couldn't let the old guy suffer or be "put down" when he is basically fine and the kids love him. We are hoping it will teach the boys some compassion and to not put us down when we are old and in need of some special care.

Friday April 3rd was Max's 4th birthday. We had a small party with a couple of friends. I wasn't up for a whole big event so my apologies to our friends who were not invited and may be reading this.

Aidan is excitedly showing Max the very big and awesome birthday present he got him while Lauren watches with anticipation too.

The big gross Spiderman cake. No one seemed to really like it much. It was chocolate with strawberry jam like filling and a thick Safeway nasty frosting of spiderwebs. Large amounts of it are still in our fridge haunting me. I have a cake problem, especially when it's chocolate. It calls to me every time I open the fridge door. Felice!- come have a slice-no one else will. But you love me. You love moist cheap chocolatey cake. You will eat me.

And I do. I am throwing out the rest of it tomorrow!(maybe)

After the cake everyone went outside to play in the wet sandy yard. Ethan has on his creepy scarey army guy face mask.

Max loved his black spiderman costume I bought him for his birthday.

Look out Henry and Isaac!

New Stuff and Big Remote Love

2009-03-27T12:40:00.000-07:00

I started making jewelry with my new stone beads. This is the Little Lapis and Fresh Water Pearl Swirl Pendant

and the matching earrings.
The price was so good on these beads that I can sell the earrings for only $14 and the pendant for $10.

This is actually an older bead purchase that I finally got around to. The Unikite Sphere with Hematite Pendant that matches perfectly with our Tiny Unikite Sphere Earrings.

Long Nephrite Jade and Garnet Sterling Silver Swirl Earrings

This week we bought a new universal remote control for our TV entertainment conglomerate of VCR,satellite,DVD etc. Henry fell in love with the giant remote and it seemed like a reasonable idea since we are always losing it in the couch or somewhere else.

When I say "fell in love" I mean it.

He really loves the thing. Here he is giving it a big kiss.

He even made a special "holiday hat" for it out of pipe cleaners.

Good times with the boys!