Happy Mother’s Day!

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

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

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!

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

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)

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

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

 

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

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

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

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