Living Large

Big Light Weight Snakey Squigly Aluminum Earrings

Loopy Bliss Cross Aluminum Earrings
I've been having a lot of fun lately smashing aluminum wire with my hammer. I had a vision of these big funky urban yet primitive earrings and I just sort of went with it. I really love them and think they look great but they don't really work with my semi rural Oregon Mom lifestyle. It just seemed like aluminum was the perfect medium for doing the big funky statement earring because it is so light weight. I made the earwires out of 20 gauge sterling silver which is a little thicker than the earwires I normally purchase from Abeada. Those little wires didn't fit around the 9 gauge aluminum and they needed something more substantial to fit their proportions.

They haven't sold yet but I keep listing them on Etsy in the hope that someone else will get my vision. Of course that's always the hope of the jeweler isn't it? We had very good sales in February which fed our fragile egos but March is having the opposite effect.
Here is the link for the Big Spiral Swirl Aluminum Light Weight Earrings.

I think I'll smash some more aluminum now...

More Reasons Why I Live Here

While known for our rainy days, the overcast days when it isn't actually raining are perfect for photographing jewelry outdoors. I took this picture a few days ago on one of those perfect days. It was warm enough to just wear a long sleeve shirt. The sun was completely blocked out by the thick clouds and the rain held off all day giving me some great pictures. These are our Cobalt Blue Millefiore and Triangle Glass Earrings.
The other reason I love living here is the little known incredible weather in February. In between the rains we get beautiful warm sunny days that have that West Coast California feel to them. Yesterday was one of those days. Nick took out the Air Pump Rocket that he had just purchased at the thrift store and the boys had big fun making the rocket fly up into the air. Unfortunately one of the rockets will probably be a permanent fixture on the roof of our carport. Henry decided to start calling his brother his "Butler" because Max happily retrieved the rockets and put them back on the launcher while Henry got the pleasure of pumping. Team work!

Why I Live Here

These Hint of Lilac Irridescent Earrings were the big seller of the past week. They are a classic example of our simple glass earrings line in which we cut a groove around the edge of the glass cabachon and then wirewrap using the groove to provide a secure grip on the slippery buggers.
The overall health in our household has been improving. Max is over his blister filled mouth disease. We had a pink eye scare on Valentine's Day but it turned out to just be a scratch on his lower eyelid. I continue to cough but not quite as often and it doesn't wake me up at night. Nick is seeing an improvement in his cough as well. So things are looking up.
We had a grand life affirming experience today. Although still feeling exhausted but more like the general exhaustion of being 40 something parents of two active young boys, we dragged ourselves out of the house to do some errands. We were able to go to the Post Office, pick up a prescription and get my drivers license renewed at the local DMV all in 40 minutes. I can only imagine the ordeal the DMV alone would have been if I still lived in Brooklyn.
We have disturbing memories of our visit top the DMV in Brooklyn about 18 years ago when we lived in my parents basement (like Gloria and Meathead). It involved a Kafka -esque journey through the rings of hell with a serpentine line up of hundreds of people crammed into a dingy warehouse officebuilding. I seem to remember one of us having to leave repeatedly to keep feeding the parking meter. We were met by an indifferent zombie servant when we finally made it to the appropriate window who I was glad did not eat us or send us on to a different line.
In contrast the Corvallis DMV was on a quiet little side street built just for the DMV. It had a roomy empty parking lot. Both children had conveniently fallen asleep so Nick got to take a nap in the car too. (Another thing I probably wouldn't attempt in downtown Brooklyn). I entered the building at 2PM and took a number (17) . They were on 13 when I arrived. I was quickly called, paid the fee, said yes I am still the same height and weight as I was in 1991 (one of which was a small lie) and was out the building by 2:12PM with a new hideous photo of myself on my new drivers license.
And that's why I live in Philomath Oregon.

A Valentine Virus

It's been quite a while since I last blogged because we have been constantly busy and completely fatigued due to an evil virus that has invaded our household. Poor little Max has been stricken with a virus that has created horrible bloody open blistery sores in his mouth. There is nothing quite so unnerving, stressful and sad as to see your sweet happy little toddler screaming in pain every few minutes as he obsessively chews down on the wounds in his mouth. He has literally fallen to the floor in pain. But he's such a good natured guy that after the moment passes he gets back up and continues playing happily until the next burst of pain occurs. The only cure is time and pain killers to help relieve some of the suffering. Nick and I have our own versions of this virus in our throats. I have been coughing for what seems like every few minutes for over a week now. This is after I had finally gotten over my 2 month cough. My doctor told me "now that you are older -no offense- it takes longer to get over these things." Thanks.
Henry hasn't caught it yet and has been annoyed at how lame we all are. He said he wishes he had another Mommy, Daddy and Baby who aren't sick.
Yet we have been quite productive and have had good sales on Etsy and elsewhere. Nick has been working on all sorts of cool stuff that you see on his blog.
One of our best sellers this week has predictably been these Red Millefiore Hearts with Fresh Water Pearls Earrings:



The other dragonfly earrings were a creative burst I had recently. They haven't sold yet but I still like them.
Here's a picture of the happy loving brothers. They get along well most if the time, when they aren't pounding on each other.
Now I shall return to my hacking cough and phlegm production.
Happy Valentine's Day! (wanna kiss?)

Etsy fame, still looking for fortune...

This has been an exciting week for me on Etsy.com . We were featured in 4 treasury lists which are lists created by individual etsy members of their favorite items for sale on etsy. Usually there is a theme involved in the choices picked. Our Light Blue Spirals and Swirls barrette was put in 3 treasury lists and today's list got chosen to be the front page list for the day on the Etsy homepage. It's a great rush to see your stuff right there on the front page large and in the spotlight. We got over 550 views on it today. 16 people marked it as one of their favorites. Yet with all that love and attention it still hasn't sold. I can feel the love, just not the money. I'm not complaining. We can live on love.

One of my other accomplishments this week was finally figuring out a somewhat successful way to take pictures of our earrings. These stamped spirograph geometric sterling silver disc earrings have been a real challenge. I set up a spot in the shade ouside and something about that spot and the set up has worked. It's very exciting to not be wasting endless hours of my life taking useless blurry messed up pictures like I used to do.

These abalone freeform buttons are another product we just listed on Etsy. They are a tedious boring hassle to make and remind us why we don't want to work in a factory.Press down drill, lift it up, move piece over a little bit, press down drill, lift it up, remove piece, put new one in ,repeat. Break every third or fourth one. Start over again.

Here are my computer nerds. The elder bee brother is teaching his younger already fully obsessed brother the fine points of mouse manipulation.

This is Henry's picture of Mommy.The breasts play a prominent role in the portrait which is actually quite true to reality for anyone who knows me in real life.

Well it was a few days ago that I started this post but nothing all that exciting has happened since then so I'll just leave it at this.

Barrettes,Floam and Shoes

Now that the Holiday Market is over I've been able to list new things on Etsy. This week I started listing some of our Aluminum Barrettes. There will be more to come in other sizes and colors. They are made possible through the miracle of E 6000, the perfect glue for the job.They haven't sold yet but I did have an astounding amount of sales this morning of other things which put me in glorious mood.
I have also had time to indulge Henry in "projects".He has been bugging me to buy him Floam ever since he saw the ad on Nick Jr. For those of you who don't taint your children with the evils of television and Nick Jr.and have no idea what I am talking about, it is this bubbly gooey colorful sticky stuff that they show attaching to all sorts of objects from doll house furniture to dinosaur models.You can let it dry or keep it in it's container. Basically like play doh but with styrofoam bubbles in it. I had read somewhere that you can make your own floam so I googled it and sure enough there it was:
Make your own Imitation Floam
Even more miraculously we had all the ingredients on hand for instant gratification. It involved breaking down some styrofoam into it's individual tiny little balls of foam. That was a tedious and messy job in which I ended up doing most of it and Henry got bored quickly. Half way through I re read instructions and saw they recommended grating it. Much to Nick's chagrin,I used our cheese grater. After mixing the elmers glue and borax and water and the foam pellets and then readjusting the recipe to make it the right consisitency we ended up with a cottage cheese looking pile of floamy goo that i tried to make into a snowman.

Later we bought some bright and nasty food coloring which Henry enjoyed adding to the floam.It made our hands blue/green but eventually washed off. I am still mesmerized by the squishy, lumpy stuff that we keep in a zip lock bag but Henry has pretty much lost all interest. I'm glad I didn't give into the allure of the $20 plus shipping and handling advertised floam.

The other highlight in the past week of my life is the awesome Christmas present my wonderful mother-in-law gave me- a very generous amount in gift certificate to www.Zappos.com . It is an online large shoe store with free shipping including for all returns. After wasting hours and hours of my precious time looking through possibly thousands of pictures of shoes I ordered 3 pairs. I spent one evening looking at 179 pages of just wide shoes. Two out three pairs fit which is pretty good for my freakish wide short fred flinstone feet with an unusually low placed ankle that tends to blister on most shoes. I was able to print out the return mailing label easily and so far it all seems to be working out smoothly.But now I have more money to spend and even more precious hours of my life to be spent in a shoe haze while ignoring my children and husband.

Storms, Sales and Candy

It's been a hectic few weeks of selling at the Holiday Market in Eugene, wholesaling our jewelry to the First Alternative Food Co-op in Corvallis and a great run of sales on Etsy. The big pile of money built from the obligatory holiday gift buying frenzy has been temporarily accumulated and will soon be dispersed to all the utilities who keep us going each month. This includes the power company that sadly did not keep us going with power for almost 3 days after the "big storm" in the midst of this holiday maddness. We had just returned from a big food shopping trip when the power went out. Who knew it would stay out for 3 days? (Nick the realist did.)It was fun for about 1 hour and then we had enough of "camping". Henry was sobbing the next morning when the power was still out. But it could have been worse. We could have had a tree fall through our house like our neighbors did.
We had a great run of sales on Etsy the week before Christmas. We got really lucky and were featured on the front page in the hand picked items on one of those great shopping days and had 4 sales that day. This was the pair of earrings that was featured:
The Cobalt Blue long and dangly glass earrings

Besides trying to take advantage of the season's money making potential we have also been trying to create the "best childhood ever" for our kids . In an attempt to make Chanuka just as awesome as Christmas the kids got presents for 8 days straight and really got into lighting the candles. (Which came in handy during a power outage.) Here is Max enjoying the Chanuka gelt ( chocolate money):



















But somehow that never compares to the pure bliss of the candy cane first thing Christmas morning. He just laid down on the couch and really got into it. Then he ate his entire chocolate Santa.
Now onto New Years...

Party Hats for Mice

Henry's 4th Birthday Party. This is one of Max's rare happy moments that day. He was sick and tantruming on and off all day long.Henry and the others had fun. You can see lots more pictures on Nick's Blog

This is Henry's new get rich craft scheme. He cut out tiny little party hat's for mice out of the tips of the party hats left over for his party.

We put them on the book shelf so that the mice can come and look at them and pick out which ones they want to buy.He plans to sell them so that he can have money to buy more toys,preferably Thomas trains. He say that this is his job. Now if we can just find some mice with some money in need of some nice party hats. He says they cost $1 each. The mice will say "Oh! Party Hats! We love party hats!"

I am slowly returning to the world of the living after being stricken by a nasty cold that started in the throat. I no longer have a coughing fit every 2 minutes. (That really helped the sales this weekend... NOT.) I paid a young girl to watch my booth for an hour on sunday morning while I took the best pathetic nap ever in the car.

Dayquil buzz and Etsy high

Riding the Dayquil buzz and an Etsy high from selling 3 hanging vases yesterday to one customer. While laying awake at around 4am this morning trying to stifle the little scratchy itch tickling the back of my throat, having almost choked on the Halls (I always worry I'll fall asleep with it in my mouth and suffocate) I thought about how few guys really "get" the Hanging Vase thing.
The couple comes up to my booth and the woman gushes- "I love those! Aren't they neat?" and the guy says "huh? What are they? What are they for?" And she says"You put flowers in them or just put them on the wall as decoration. Or wouldn't they look cute in the spot in the bathroom or in the kitchen." And he has that blank confused look still and says "oh" and starts looking around for something more interesting to look at. Then there's the guy who told his girlfriend they were "too loopy".
Luckily there was no downer guy looking over the shoulder of my customer yesterday when she purchases 3 (yes 3!) online yesterday from our Etsy site. The Blue Bubblestack Hanging Vase with Blue Accents pictured above is one of the items sold and still available.
Then while still awake at 5am I thought about how to make a menorah ornament out of wire. That got me to sleep until the 7:10 awakening of the cries of Max for mamamama.
And here I am awaiting the awakening of Henry this morning who will turn 4 years old today. I am so excited to see his face when he sees the table full of presents. Here he comes....

Abalone and gingerbread

The Abalone Barrette

This is one of my latest listings on Etsy.I sell a ton of them at the market.We've been making them for many many years now. We bought the tumbled shell by the pound from a wholesaler over 3 years ago which has enabled us to keep them at a very inexpensive price ($7 with free shipping) and we still have plenty left.

Haven't sold any yet on Etsy but I have had some compliments. I'll take those to the bank. I will try not to fall into a pathetic whiney craft vendor but this weekend really took on a toll on my self esteem. Those old "what the hell am I doing with my life ?" feelings started surfacing along with the "God I hate the Holidays" depression loop. But I have pushed them deep down under my feet and I am standing on them, to paraphrase Marge Simpson, and my happy face is back on.

This picture gives me a happy face too. $10 well spent at Safeway on the DIY Gingerbread House complete with all the pre made walls ,chimney,people, icing and bags of candy. As far as I can recall I have never made a gingerbread house before. The thought of making my own gingerbread house from scratch gives me anxiety hives. But it was something I always thought would be one of the perks of parenthood. So the week before Thanksgiving I saw it at the store and it just seemed like the right thing to do. The whole event took about 45 minutes.Of course there was lots of snacking on icing and candy as you can see from the picture. Now the thing sits high up on top of the refrigerator so that the cat and dog don't get into it and it really isn't getting the full pedestal it deserves.

Tomorrow we relax and eat pie and try and watch the last season of The Sopranos and the Strangers With Candy movie. I am probably deluding myself if I think we can really get that much quality TV time in with our two little ones around demanding that we get up every 5 minutes from the couch to actually parent them. I'll be driving down to the Eugene Holiday Market friday, saturday and sunday hoping to bring home a big pile of money so we can buy more gingerbread houses.

Happy Thanksgiving!

deep thoughts

Well Etsy continues to have problems with it's new site so it is down another day. I am in a forced standstill, unable to ride the wave of puny success I started last week. I have made all the jewelry I can possibly make without completely losing my mind.
So I have a deep thought for today unrelated to jewelry that came up while having a rare moment of relaxing and sitting on the couch watching TV. I was going back and forth between the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The 20 Sexiest Male Country Music Stars.
John Edwards reminds me of Tom Cruise. Jon Stewart was interviewing John Edwards about his new fluff book called "Home: A Blueprint for Our Lives." Apparently all the money goes to some good cause in Uganda so don't let me stop you from buying it. I obviously haven't read it. Perhaps it really rocks with fascinating tidbits. But really, the dude looks like Tom Cruise. Even his persona and crazy uncomfortable freaky laugh.
I haven't seen the end of the Sexiest Country Dude yet but my vote is with Keith Urban. Mmmmm. Of course I like Jon Stewart too.
Wow this has really degraded into a pathetic " who I think is hot" post.
Needless to say but say it I must since I have already gone down too far now, Nick is the hottest.
Check out the cool train layout I made today for the boys. Not one but FOUR loops. I'm so proud.

















Here are my goofball kids enjoying my hard work. The teletubbie is kissing Murdoch.

Bright Thingy in Sky

There was something bright and shiny up in the sky yesterday. It's gone now but I think they call it the "sun". I actually thought that I had mistakenly left a light on in the kid's room and then realized it was natural light from that bright thingy in the sky. Of course I still only left the house for a short period of time anyway to mail a package at Fed Ex. Henry and I returned home and did the briefest of house cleanings before some friends came over for the afternoon. No point in really cleaning your house when another kid is coming over to help tear it apart again. Indeed all the sheets and blankets were off the beds within minutes of arrival as they made a tent for camping and created a trampoline out of the bed. We rationalized that it wasn't so dangerous for them to be jumping off the window sill onto the bed ending with a grand somersault and barely missing landing on the baby brother. More importantly exercise was actually being achieved during this long stretch of very rainy days with little outside play. Of course my lunatic yet brilliant son still was unable to fall asleep before 11pm despite all that exercise that is supposed to tire him out and make him sleep well.
But I am not complaining. I still adOregon. Really.
The Etsy site is down for the weekend as they upload the new site changes. Last week was very exciting. I sold an ornament on thursday and a bracelet on friday. Clearly, shmoozing it up on the forums helps the sales. It's kind of fun and addictive to check the forums and see what silly thread I can add my 2 cents to. I look forward to the return on monday of the new and improved Etsy V2 on Monday November 13th.
In the meantime we are busy making jewelry for the Holiday Market in Eugene which starts on Saturday. I'm excited to make the big holiday bucks and get feedback on my new stuff but fearful of the impending exhaustion, all the driving to Eugene and back and the likely winter illnesses that are bound to arrive soon. Most of our friends with kids have had some sort of cold thing and it's bound to come our way soon.
Here's a picture of the Yin Yang with malachite and lapis bracelet that we sold on friday. Have no fear, we have more and relisted a new one. It's one of our oldest designs. It's made with 18 gauge sterling silver wire that we bend and then hammer to add stiffness.I have a customer who has worn hers for over 5 years every day. Once in a while she comes in for a "tune up" because over time the links tend to stretch a little. All our jewelry has a lifetime guarantee. We'll repair our stuff if it should ever need it for free for the rest of our lives or until we are too old and arthritic to use our pliers. By then our children will have to take over the task for the rest of their lives. Now that's a scary thought.
Nick just posted some new pictures on his blog of the kids etc for those of you who just can't get enough.

Sign of a cluttered mind?

This is the insanity I call my desk. It's in our dining room and is the place I do large amounts of jewelry making when I have free seconds to escape into this room. We also have a small shop in our converted barn where we store supplies and do more work, as well as Nick's converted garage shop crammed with big machinery.
The stack of files on the left have crap, I mean really important documents, from 2004 that never got filed. It might have something to do with the arrival of our son Max. Then there are the 2 stacks of bead boxes,the trays we put parts in, the yogurt container full of aluminum wire scraps, the 2 rolls of aluminum wire, the black cord for pendant necklaces and of course let's not forget the sacred change chicken (the plastic chicken that occasionally says "cock- a -doodle- doo" when the right connection randomly happens while opening the chicken to put change in).The hammer and anvil are also an essential part of what I am loosely calling my "work station".
These are the pliers I have been using forever. I know it seems like I should probably buy a new pair but I have small hands and I haven't found any others I really like. I kind of just stopped looking for replacements and I am waiting for the perfect pliers to just drop from the sky into my hands. This may be a long wait.


This is Henry using the hand drill for the first time. He's really good at drilling holes. We are trying to impress upon him that he should only drill in the things we say it's OK to drill in. This means it is not OK to drill a hole in his brother, dog, cat, table or any other object that we deem unacceptable. It was also supposed to include the big package of new expensive tools that was sitting unopened on the floor of the dining room. Luckily they were well packed.

comment setting change

Hear ye, Hear ye. Let it be known that I have changed the comment setting on my blog so that now anyone can make a comment. That means that yes Mom, you can tell the whole world how great I am and I shouldn't put myself down so much, without worrying about signing up for something on the internet that take all your money or break your computer.
We had it set for blogger members only to comment after Nick inadvertantly insulted a whole group of people who then overwhelmed his blog with nasty, potty mouthed comments. (Gee , can you imagine Nick inadvertantly insulting anyone?)
So now insult away , on my blog at least. I crave the attention, even if it's negative.

Post Halloween Post

We were on our way out the door to downtown daytime trick or treating in Corvallis and this was the best picture we got. Can't you just feel the excitement in the air?
The children were perfect except for the prodding of Thank You's out of Henry. Max remained happily in a daze in his stroller the whole time clutching his candy. I later realized that he was sucking on a tiny Hersheys bar and was on the verge of sucking it all down with the wrapper too.
Henry asked at one of the first stops what was the name of the candy she was giving him. She said "Sweet Tarts". He said, "Oh, I like Pop Tarts. Have any of those?" He soon learned he liked sweet tarts too.
This is the post trick or treating post nap picture. Notice the chocolate beard and mustache. That was mostly due to the free ice cream cones at Dairy Queen. There are a few other layers of chocolate on top of it though giving it some actually depth. We're so proud. We are still digging in to the deep plastic pumpkin bucket and actually finding some good stuff. But soon we will be at the boring hard candy bottom layer.
I didn't do the Saturday Market last weekend and won't be again until it goes indoors November 18th and becomes the Holiday Market. (I think I already wrote about this in a previous post.) So I am working on building up stock and resupplying some local consignment shops. One local shop I have discovered has been selling my earrings but not paying me. Needless to say they won't be getting resupplied and I will be pulling my stuff completely out of there. I am done with selling on consignment anywhere new.
I haven't put much energy into Etsy this week. The site will be down this weekend as they upgrade to Version 2 or V2 as it is affectionately called. The new upgrades will include a shopping cart system and and easier way to set international shipping rates.
In the mean time we are in the midst of our first real big rain jag. It has been raining for 2 days straight and they say it could go on for a week. So far we are handling it. We are Oregonians after all. I can see it getting old soon though. Don't get me wrong. I adOregon! I've always wanted to write that.
We just learned that one of our old friends that we sort of lost touch with over the last few years died this week.
R. I.P. Lowell Rose. You really knew how to relax. I guess it was OK in the end that you didn't bother saving for your retirement. Party on dude...

Etsy Update: It seems that it will be upgrading to V2 next weekend not this weekend. So keep on shopping ... please....

pre Halloween blogging...

No more miracles today. We can partly blame daylight savings but I knew all along it was to good to be a true lifestyle change. So I am up at 6:30am brewing some strong coffee and working on my haggard old Mom having a bad hair day complete with a chin full of zits costume for today. The big day. We have lots of funfilled plans for a Happy Halloween. Hopefully there will be enough coffee and bathrooms to make this whole day possible without Mommy losing her mind. We are meeting friends in downtown Corvallis at 1 for trick or treating with the little ones. Most of the stores downtown give out candy and it's a wild scene with hordes of children and strollers cramming into the doorways of every store trying to grab their handful while their parents say "remember to say Thank You." Of course my perfect children always say thank you. In fact , not to brag, but Max said his first "Thank you" yesterday. It sounded more like "dat doo" but the point was well made.
I did put up one new Etsy listing this week but sales have slowed down again so my enthusiasm has too. Here is our Wide Flat Hanging Vase.

And here's a picture from the corn maze at the pumpkin patch just to give this more of a halloween feel.

Happy Halloween!

Miracles

A miracle occured this morning. Max (our 1 1/2 year old) slept in until 8:30. His brother Henry did too (never mind him waking up 3 times in the night.) That meant that I actually got to sleep until 8:30 this morning. I know it doesn't sound like much but Max normally wakes up between 7 and 7:30. This was an unbelievable and glorious experience. When Henry woke us up at 8:30 and I realized that Max wasn't awake yet I panicked and pictured him strangled in his bed . But I walked into his room and there he was just sitting there in his crib. He looked up at me and said "Jew".
Relieved that he was alive, I acknowledged that yes, I am a jew. But it's the juice you want of course. And so we began our well rested day.
The other miracle was that I sold a hanging vase AND a mirror last night on Etsy. This wonderful customer was our very first Etsy customer and she is back for more.
I finally took pictures of one of our bigger hanging vases. Here is the large swirl hanging vase with purple accents:

Autumn themes and more beads

Keeping with the autumn colors and Halloween orange theme this is my latest Etsy listing. The orange bubblestack hanging vase.The sun really lit up that orange glow as it hung on our rustic fence in the autumn light. I also posted this on the www.etsythemeshop.blogspot.com in hopes of more exposure.

Nothing much new here. I just received my order of earwires and new beads from one of my favorite wholesalers Abeada. They send out a simple updated catalogue every 5 weeks with hand drawn pictures. They have been my best source so far for sterling silver earwires which I have given up making myself due to lack of time and the complete mind numbing tedium which I can no longer bare.They also have some great bead prices. I took a risk and ordered sight unseen some stone and glass beads and they are awesome. I can't wait to use them. Now to get to work...

Hobo Henry the Cheerleader

This is my son Henry showing off one of my most pathetic half fast crafty Mom moments .(Nick is astounded that I used the words "half -fast" instead of "half -assed".I never knew that everyone was saying "ass" all the time. Apparently I'm not the only one.It's as if I've been singing the wrong lyrics to a song all this time and never knew it. Or perhaps I just had a shoddy education.)I refer to him as Hobo Henry the Cheerleader in this picture. The chocolate stain on his chin adds to the hobo effect. The paperbag vest will take you far in this life my boy. I must admit that I got these ideas from a book I recently ordered called "The Little Hands Art Book-Exploring Arts and Crafts with 2-6 Year Olds" by Judy Press. It has some great simple ideas and some awful failures. It did have this old newspaper tree "project" that turned out like hobo cheerleader pompoms that I remember my father making for me when I was a child.Perhaps it was one of my first crafting moments that is responsible for making me what I am today.
What I am today is a mediocre success in the the little world of Etsy.com where I managed to sell 2 pairs of earrings in one day. We won't be buying that new mini van anytime soon but it's encouraging.
Keeping with the holiday theme I listed these Orange Marble-y Frosted like Beach Glass earrings 2 days ago. They aren't what sold but perhaps they led my buyers to our etsy shop. Somewhat interesting is that I sold the very first pair of earrings I ever listed on Etsy .I guess people really do look at all the pages. I had given up on selling those.
The days go by with every second filled with endless tasks and needs to be filled, from sippy cups requiring more juice, to earrings needing to be made, with a poop change in between. Thank God for SpongeBob who gives me 12 minute intervals of free time between ads and some great laughs when I stop and sit down for a moment.

The Ornaments

The Spirals and Swirls Ornament

The Treble Clef Ornament

These are my 2 latest listing on Etsy. The Ornaments. Ta Da! I'm just like a big chain store gearing up for the holidays and pushing the holiday crap even before Halloween has come and gone. But really you could use these anywhere, anytime. Really.

They are made out of our lovely 9 gauge aluminum wire and hammered into perfection after the twisting is done. I have already had one inquiry about the treble clef from a perspective Canadian customer. Sadly I am such an idiot these days (which I mostly blame on lack of good sleep due to parenting) that I misspelled "clef" when I initially listed the ornament.I spelled it "cleff". Although it looked odd to me when I wrote it, rather than looking it up I put it into the search function of the Etsy site to see what other treble "cleff" items were out there. Sadly there were a few other morons like me that had it misspelled as well so I just assumed it was correct. Nick has now bookmarked dictionary.com for me so I have no more excuses. Maybe.

One of the reasons we are in the classic "who is more tired" contest today is that last night Henry fell asleep on the couch as 6:45pm. Now a "normal" almost 4 year old that falls asleep at that time who has had a full day of activities and no nap would probably stay asleep the whole night.I foolishly had hoped that Henry would do just that and Nick and I could have a glorious evening of quiet adult time relishing in our new reason for living -the new season of "Lost".So I put Henry in his big boy bed with the new Bob the Builder sheets and comforter that I scored earlier that day for $10 at the local thrift store. I even got the pull up on him without waking him up. Nick had his doubts about how successful this would all be. Once again he proved himself right.(Damn his ability to always be right.)At 9:30, right in the middle of "Lost", Henry woke up and could not be cajoled back to sleep. He was wide awake,refreshed and happy from his long late nap and ready for some good times. At least he was cooperative and in a good mood.We finally got to sleep at 12:30am without too much trauma. At least I made a bunch of jewelry while hanging out late at night while Nick entertained Henry some of the time with Legos.

Enough whining about tiredness.

Smoke and Mirrors

This is my latest listing on our Etsy "shop". It's called Whimsical Swirly Mirror. I really suck at naming these things. It's why Nick and I have always stuck to "Nicholas and Felice" for our business name. We just couldn't come up with some clever play on words that wasn't sappy or annoying.

Anyway, I like the way the picture came out with our rustic fence and hint of a rural barn scene in the mirror. It took a while to figure out how to angle it so that I didn't get the geeky shot of me holding the camera in the mirror. It was a great creative breakthrough for us to figure out how to mount the mirrors in an attractive yet secure way. I get a lot of compliments on them but the sales are slim. Some day our genius will be recognized.

This past saturday was unusually profitable at the market. The weather was perfect and most importantly it was the Narcotics Anonymous convention weekend in Eugene. There were lots of outgoing people who I guess have some extra disposable income these days now that they aren't spending it on narcotics. I did get my fair share of second hand smoke inhalation but it was worth it. It also helped that the U of O football team had an away game that wasn't put on TV until 5pm. Nothing like an early home game to kill the sales in October.

As I write this Nick has taken Henry out to buy more lego equipment and go food shopping and Max is asleep. I am overwhelmed by the quiet and activity options. The biggest question is do I do more work or take a luxurious nap? First things first. Eat chocolate.

Beads and Bottles

These are a pair from our dangly cloisonne "line" of earrings. This is the Etsy link for them.
I fell in love with the cloisonne beads when we first started making jewelry and they haven't let me down yet. I'm always finding new things to pair them with. Last night I wasted hours and hours of my life in between watching the kids play and take baths studying the Shipwreck Beads catalogue. We kind of fell into their shop in Olympia way back about 18 years ago when we first started traveling around the country making jewelry and wholesaling it to stores in between being young silly Deadheads and selling our stuff at Grateful Dead shows too. They have since grown tremendously and have an awesome NY telephone book size catalogue. They charge you $10 when you order it but they give you $15 credit off your next order. They also give your free shipping on orders over $50 on the first 10 pounds. They have become my main source for the cloisonne and most of my faceted glass beads. I decided to take a plunge and buy a whole bunch of other glass beads that I think I can whip up some sweet inexpensive colorful earrings for the Holiday Market that I'll be selling at in Eugene.
It has become apparent to me that I don't have time for making the more expensive, time consuming and somewhat less profitable wire bracelets, anklets and necklaces that have a prominent space in our display. I am an earring lady! I really enjoy making earrings and I make them quickly. So I will be taking the wire bracelets, anklets and necklaces out of our booth and just selling them on Etsy.
On the family front, Max had his 18 month check up today. He now weighs 26 pounds and is just about 3 pounds heavier than his almost 4 year old peanut sized yet big in personality brother which explains all of our various back and neck pains from hefting the cute monkeyboy around. The doctor also told me it was time to break Max of his beloved "Baba". That is a bottle for those of you who don't speak baby talk. So we went cold turkey today and he seems to be handling it OK for the most part. I'm the one sad to see my baby grow up into a toddler although I do look forward to his acquisition of social skills, particularly the ability to eat a meal without throwing it at everyone and using it as hair product.
My hand is now back to it's normal wrinkly, stubby size and is just a little itchy around the scarred sting wounds that the evil beast left on my finger. It was freaky fun using the play dough plastic shape cutters to imprint ducks into my swollen, fluid filled hand .
I also discovered that I am not cuckoo for Coco Puffs. I realized that I am over the oatmeal every morning phase that lasted a few years. But yesterday I just couldn't face it anymore. Something had changed. It was me, not you, you healthy sticky chocked full of vitamins and fiber breakfast food. When I saw the Coco Puffs my eyes lit up. I ate a handful and thought "mmmm. This is good." But then I realized it wasn't good enough. I need more. Maybe it's the protein that's missing. So I am looking for love in the morning. I need something new and exciting. I need breakfast passion. Or maybe just a muffin.

Blue Skies

Sometimes it's the little things that can really make your day. I arrived late to the gym today with both kids in tow and had the once again humiliating experience of informing them that I still hadn't found my member card so could they please check me in without it. I won't go into how I find it totally annoying that they charge $5 for a new laminated card like it's some sort of huge hassle and cost to whip one up for a customer that has paid a gazillion dollars to join their fine establishment. And that I had already shelled out the $5 a few months ago for being a frazzled space head. Well as I was leaving the very pleasant receptionist told me they found my card! Yeah I know this is about as minimal as you can go in the great moments in life but it was like a giant annoying hole in my life was filled with the missing card. Somebody probably found it lying on the floor somewhere between the gym and my car when Ithought I shoved it into my back pocket in another harried Mom moment. Cross that pain in the butt off my list. The icing on the cake of perfection was a perfect episode of All My Children today while I was suffering on the treadmill. All the answers revealed. Tad was purposely lying all along in a clever plan that even I did not see to save Dixie. Zach revealed how he got the disc. These are important things people! Unfortunately I had to miss the last 10 minutes of the show but don't worry, I'll catch up on the episode update site. As if life couldn't be more perfect I dragged the kids to the yuppie food co-op in town that just started carrying my jewelry last month after 20 years of me waiting for them to make room for my non essential non food items. They were half sold out and ordered a ton more.
But don't hate me because I am an annoying upbeat happy person with a perfect life. I did get to have an annoying conversation with someone at the park. In case you haven't seen the pictures of my family or know us yet, our kids are adopted from Korea and Nick and I don't look anything like them. I expect people to notice our family and be curious. I like talking about my kids and adoption. But is it really socially acceptable to ask within 5 minutes of meeting me if my kids are "real" ,"natural" or in today's awkward phrase, "blood brothers"? Is it OK if I ask you if your kids all have the same daddy and if there is a personal and private experience that they had early in their life that you would like to share with me right now? Oh , what's your name again? I mean if it is OK then I guess I'm just an oversensitive, uptight freak and I'll get with the program. Since this experience occurs only about once a month I am willing to believe that it may just be me and that the entire world is not made up of weirdos, but then again...
Well in the honor of my almost perfect day I posted my blue sky, shiny, happy, cheery and bright glass earrings.
Here is the link to them on our Etsy shop if you should feel the need to share in the joy and own them.

Damn %#$! bees! I would love to swear in full words here but it seems somewhat inappropriate so I'll stick to the lame and whimpy symbols of cursing that we now acknowledge as acceptable on the web. Anyway... Damn MF bees. I got stung this morning on my hand through my gloves while cleaning out the stupid cat litter. It really hurts and has blown up my hand to a deformed yet disturbingly wrinkle free freak show. So in honor of the yellow jacket which I am assuming it was I have just listed my awesome bright yellow glass earrings on Etsy. How's that for a lead in?
Here's a delightful picture and link.

Nick has posted some of the latest cute pictures of our boys on his blog The Mechanical Philosopher.

The market yesterday was quiet and boring and uneventful. The minimum adequate amount of money was made and I was able to make a lot of jewelry while I was there which always makes me feel like the day wasn't a complete waste.

I will now go back to whining about my painful, warm, swollen bee stung hand.I hate bees.