Etch A Puke

I haven't blogged much because nothing all that exciting or interesting has been happening. Life is good and going well and that's just too boring to share. The market has been overwhelmingly lucrative and I am pleased as punch. A sweet red juicy sugar laden punch.
The new earring design that I blogged about in my last post have been selling really
well on Etsy. I seem to have found an appreciative audience for my crazy aluminum scheme. The dragonfly wirework earrings are doing quite well too. Who knew people are crazy for dragonflies? I DID!
Well here's something exciting that just happened as I sat here blogging. My disgusting fat annoying cat is throwing up all over the Etch A Sketch on our couch. The Etch A Sketch caught practically all of it. Hooray! One extra layer of filthy nastiness that won't reach my already filthy nasty couch. I tell you, life is just too good these days. Which of course is a scary statement to make out loud because then you have to knock on wood or do some other sort of anti bad luck voodoo dance before the good luck disappears and something horrible happens.
I guess I better go clean up that mess. Or maybe I'll just leave it for Nick to discover when he thinks he can sit down and relax on the couch.
Oh, the picture above is of our Sterling Silver Stamped Lizard Earrings. I carved the die for that many years ago before we had kids and I had time for reverse carving in steel. We just listed it today for the first time on Etsy.
Uggg- I hear the sounds of cat puking going on in the other room. Somehow I don't think there are any other lucky toys to catch the puke on this time. I guess the good luck is over.

Aluminum Market Debut

Well I finally managed to get my butt and all my stuff to the market this past Saturday. Once again the weather forecasters were mistaken in their predictions but it was good enough. No, it was not warm and sunny for most of the day, but overcast and chilly. It took me forever to set up as I discovered all the little things that I could have done earlier to make things go more smoothly. Luckily I had little pieces of scrap aluminum wire to keep together some of the hanging displays that were missing crucial screws that got lost somewhere along the way.

And that's not all that aluminum is good for. My new line of big bold aluminum earrings were a hit! I sold about 8 pairs once I figured out that I needed to have a little sign next to them saying " Light Weight Aluminum Earrings". The light weight factor is the key since they kind of have a big heavy industrial look to them that could scare you away.

As I lay awake at 5:30 am this morning after the annoying cat woke me up for no good reason other than he couldn't get outside because the screen door was closed and covered up his cat door, I thought of some new earring ideas and came up with these:


I call them "Ebb and Flow Swinging Spiral Aluminum Earrings".

Today the allergies officially began for me. The itchy eyes, face,nose,sniffly snorty coughing scratchy annoying allergies that can make me irritable. I usually don't get this way until June but it has come early this year for many people and I knew my turn was coming. Oh well.
The other spring related news is that Nick finally got our trusty old DR Mower running. We knew we were getting behind in the mowing when we were losing the children in the grass in the front yard.
I'm off to snort and sniffle now and dream of aluminum spirals.

Wimped out

Well that's what I get for publicly stating that I am committed to something. Now that whole world or at least the 3 people that read my blog can know that when I say I am committed,it really does depend if it is actually raining and cold at the time.
It is 7:28 am and I am still at home. It is raining and 42degrees. My hardcore committed friend and fellow lifelong marketeer ,Nome, called at 7am to say she is bailing out. It shattereed my confidence. I called the market and the lovely friendly Beth the market manager said yes, it is indeed raining. I said Is it cold? and she said "I have a chill in me like I did not have last weekened." I told her I wasn't coming and she said I was the 3rd vendor to call her to cancel out.
Well it's a good thing I don't have to live on the streets (yet). A few more crazy weekends of indecisive weather related rapid decision fluctuations and who knows where I will be blogging from. The mental hospital?
We used to do the market every single saturday no matter what for over 10 years. Then we had kids and Nick developed his Taig business. It's still a big part of our income but we don't need to depend on it solely. And that's my story for today...

UPDATE:
Wow, I'm so glad I did not go today. It rained all day long and was cold and miserable. Here is a big thanks to Nome who figured out not to go and gave me the early morning call. This is her website-Blessedbeads.
She does amazing work!

Food Fun, Dragonflies and Inspiration

So what is this happy boy eating?


Pizza with Mac n' Cheese embedded on top of it! Another testament to my fine parenting skills. It was Henry's idea. It isn't his usual favorite Spongebob Mac n' Cheese but the Safeway brand well designed Organic Mac n' Cheese with White Chedder instead of the usual neon orange we're used to. The Safeway Organic was actually cheaper than the Spongebob by Kraft so what the heck. My kids deserve the best in crappy food.



These are my newly revamped dragonfly wirework earrings. The older version had only one set of wings. It was a little too minimal . Also I admit that I never really realized that they generally have two sets of wings. I haven't researched it to see if there are dragonfly species with only one set of wings. But once I started looking at dragonfly stuff it became apparent that they usually are shown with 2 sets of wings. So two it is.
The weather forecast calls for light showers in the afternoon or rain for tomorrow (Saturday). This is the same sort of forecast I heard the last two Saturdays that convinced me to stay home and not go sell at the Saturday Market. But they were completely wrong. So I figure if I go it will rain and if I stay home it won't. So I'm going, even if it's hailing when I wake up. I'm committed!
Last satuday we watched "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith. It was a moving and inspiring story of a single Dad in San Fransisco in 1981 who struggles to make it, spends some rough times homeless but perseveres and eventually becomes a very successful stockbroker. The guy would study at night while riding public transportation because he had no place to stay and worked his ass off all day in a non paying internship. It's a true story.I felt like such a weak little boob not going to the market because it might rain and be a little cold. So I'm motivated for now. We'll see how it goes.

Smashing

This is the hammer and anvil that I use to smash ,I mean delicately forge,my wire with.

This is the part of my thumb that I also recurrently smash. It's always the same spot. It gets better and then a month or two later ,perhaps when a child is screaming for my attention and I am trying to get something done quickly, or just when my mind is wandering off in one of it's millions of directions thinking about all the things that need to get done , I inadvertantly smash the side of my thumb again. There's some sort of lesson here that apparently I am not learning.
It is also what I would like to do to the weather forecasters who told me that today would be cold and rainy. After bailing out on last weeks Saturday Market I was once again freaking out trying to decide whether or not to go again today. All the forecasts called for cooler,colder,rainy showers. I made Nick do the data research and decide for me. He is the most logical person I know who operates generally without emotions getting in the way. His analysis after studying the various weather sites and our financial situation was that it did not make sense to go today. It rained all night and then when I woke up at 8:15am (or rather when Henry woke me up) it was not raining. It hasn't rained a drop all day. It has been partly cloudy which means the other part has been SUNNY. It has been warmish and a little breezy. I curse those weather bastards and if I had a hammer and anvil near their thumbs or other appendages , well,... I think you know where I'm going with this.
Well I have been trying to put up a picture of a new pair of earrings but Blogger is having some sort of technical difficulties and won't let me so you'll just have to be left with that blood clotted image on your mind instead of a lovely pair of earrings.

More rituals

The hunt....

It was perfect egg hunting weather. The grass was appropriately overgrown (unintentionally).The boys were equipped with the Luftschein/Carter official all purpose candy gathering equipment.We even had our friend Ethan join us .

The boys had built a little nest for themselves out in our field and were gorging themselves on their well filled eggs.

Ethen looks a little quesy .... Henry looks a little giddy from his sugar rush...

It was a fun holiday which was made even more pleasant by a surge in sales. This aluminum swirls and spirals medium barrette has been a big hit this week. It looks heavier than it is but due to the miracle of aluminum it is actually quite light.

I intended to go to the Saturday Market this past Saturday for the opening day. I actually got up at 6:30am, drank my coffee and drove down almost all the way but the rain kept pounding harder and harder. The sky got darker the closer I got to Eugene and panic started to set in. I couldn't face setting up in the pouring rain and spending 12 hours down there being miserable. So I turned around, called Nick at the first turn I take towards Cheshire and acted like a crazy woman. I really hate making decisions. Especially about the weather and what my potential profit would be for the day. I drove a little further towards home and then the market gods mocked me by making the rain stop. But by then it was too late to turn around again . But I still called Nick just to try and force him to make the decision for me. He told me that the online weather site said there was a 100% chance of rain. I came home and went to our little 4 year old friend's Princess themed birthday party and had a lovely time but of course the sun came out and it was a glorious warm,yet windy day. So annoying...

I later spoke to a friend who told me she saw other marketeers turn around on the way down to market and that it did rain again in the afternoon. It was a tough call. But Etsy has been awesome this week.So I guess it all evens out. Or something...

No more chocolate for a few days, maybe...

Festivities

Happy Birthday Max!. He turned 2 on Tuesday April 3rd. His big brother has been saving the "4" candle from his birthday cake in November and insisted we use it on Max's. He intends to use it on every birthday for the rest of his life until he is a "man".


The official mauling of the cake using the candles as implements of destruction and occasionally as a fork.


In order to meet the requirements as a good mother I purchased once again the official Paas egg dying kit. I stuck to the basic simple kit instead of all the fancy new ones they've come up with with different themes like motor vehicles. Call me a traditionalist.

Here's the set up with the over excited boy who was whining for days to do this project.

I curse you lame egg holder that either squeezes the egg too tight that it cracks or else the sucker flies out of it. Of course as a wire worker I could have come up with some sort of ingenuous device to hold the egg properly while dipping. But I was too lazy to take this any further. I'll curse instead.

Now that's a good egg.

Henry thought all the cracked ones were perfect for eatting right away. Of course my picky eater removed the yellow yummy yolk of each one and ate only the whites. Note to self: that's how you stay so thin.

Here is the festive final product.

There may be a special place in hell for me for this all inclusive misappropriation of ritual or else I have all my bases covered. But it looks so pretty.

Twenty years ago today...

Today, April Fool's Day, is our 20th Anniversary. We dug through our photo albums and Nick scanned a couple of pictures of us from that first year together. He has a more flattering one of me in his blog. I look like I have some sort of weird blotchy tumour growing on my nose which I think I would remember if I really did have a weird blotchy tumour on my nose at some point in my life.
Ahhh so young a fresh (and blotchy) we were back then. We seem to have matching khaki's and I believe that is a tie dye headband in my hair that inadvertantly matches Nick's groovy tie dye. All I can say is thank god for the advances in the past 20 years in hair products for girls with Jewish frizzy hair. And thank you Clairol for helping me to maintain the illusion that 40 is the new 30.

In honour of this special day we went to the coast and went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.The kids were well behaved and Max didn't have a single tantrum or meltdown. Maneuvering the cheapo Kolcraft double stroller was a challenge. The wheels seem to prefer to run perpendicular to the direction one is intending to go.

This picture was taken after Max peed on me while I was trying to do a stealth stand up diaper change.

Max was entranced by the fish in the very cool walk through giant tunnel aquarium.

There was a girl on her cell phone in the middle of it saying, "Can you hear me now?"

They had a little kids play area with stuff like this to play on.

We were done in only 2 hours and the day was sunny and lovely so we headed off to the beach. As we descended down the cliff walkway to the beach , the icey wind ripped into my ears and reminded me of why I'm really not a fan of the Oregon Beach outside the comfort of my car. The views are lovely, the wind is brutal. But of course the kids had fun and we'll have to return for a better prepared extended visit with lots of pails and shovels for proper sand castle building. And a big warm hat and parka for me.

I couldn't do a blog post without hawking at least one item. I randomly relisted a hanging vase yesterday and within an hour we got two large orders for assorted hanging vases. One was from Kansas and the other was from Oklahoma. Some sort of weird Middle America vortex found my vases and felt compelled to purchase simultaneously making a happy afternoon for me.

This Wide Flat With Purple Accents Hanging Vase was one of the ones purchased and now relisted.

They make unusual Mother's Day gifts for the right Mom.

Happy Anniversary Nick! I love you more than ever!

Focusing

I have started focusing more on getting ready for the Eugene Saturday Market to start up again. It starts the first weekend in April. We paid our membership fees and reserved our same old reserve booth space on the corner of 8th and Park West across from the Farmer's Market. It's always a great break to get away from there after the holidays and have my weekends free. Etsy has really improved our income during those off months but it's not enough to keep me away from the market for good.
So I have started listed some stuff on Etsy that I have in stock that I won't be selling at the market like this 12k Gold Filled Double Spiral Necklace. The gold filled stuff never really did that well at the market. It's more of a silver crowd I guess. But it works really well in this design, one of our oldest.






I also started listing some of our big glass simple pendants. They look great as chokers on the hip young girls. The regular ladies can pull it off too but usually on a longer cord. Someday I'll get it together to provide a cord with a clasp or a chain. But todays not that day.

Henry has been quite the little helper these days. He helped me drill abalone the other day. We held the drill press handle together and pulled it down to drill the holes. We'll have him drilling those things on his own in no time. Maybe when he's 5.

He also went under the house with me to help me jack up the parts where the posts were just swinging freely, unattached to the ground. He handed me the wood I needed to slip into the space and went back and forth getting me drill bits etc. He told me he was my butler. You see, having kids really does pay off.

Here are some pictures of my little butlers. Apparently rowing with brooms doesn't get you very far in cousin Peter's canoe.

This picture is before Max but the paint brush up his nose .

My Love Affair With Aluminum

I am somewhat obsessed with Aluminum. It is the poor relative of the precious metals . She has been overlooked by the rest of the jewelry world and I am here to show her some love and attention. You don't have to be valued at $14 an ounce or more like the ever popular silver in order to be worn on women's ears. Perhaps I am over anthropomorphizing this simple metal. I just hate pretentiousness which is what so much of the craft, art and jewelry world is about. Aluminum is the unpretentious metal. She is soft and squishy- which is perhaps why I relate to her so well. She is maleable, yet strong and oh so light and airy.
She is the metal that made flight possible. And she makes some lovely big hoop earrings.
So open yourself up to the possibility of aluminum. I'll stop now before this becomes too creepy. But you'll be seeing more aluminum stuff from me in the future as I hammer away in the dining room in between parenting, much to my family's dismay. Henry has told me "Too loud! I need peace and quiet!"
You may notice a fancy bit of 'puter graphics on the side bar. The Etsy site provided this handy piece of code so that you can see more of what's for sale on our Etsy shop. You can click on the photo to go directly to that item in our "store".


Here is my favorite airplane lover, Max, showing his favorite plane and here he is kissing Daddy.

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.