More Adventurine and Recycled Button Earrings

Thought I would share a few new pieces that I have been hoarding to myself this week. There hasn't been time to do laundry, pack, make pieces and post pictures this week. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything that we need to travel.

I have continued working with Adventurine this week and I sorted all my buttons for a few new Recycled Button pairs of earrings.

Faceted and Heishi Adventurine Set

Faceted and Heishi Adventurine Necklace

Closeup Faceted and Heishi Adventurine Necklace

Faceted and Heishi Adventurine Dangles

Red and Teal Button Earrings

Gray Speckled Button Earrings

White Button Earrings

I will be out of town for the holiday weekend and will not be back until June 1st. Look forward to some new pieces after that. :)

New Background....crummy day

I have quite a few new pieces finished that I will take pictures of tomorrow morning and share. I have been busy trying to get ready for our trip and today has been one of those days you just want to crawl back in bed and hide. So all I am sharing is a new and improved blog background and that I am spending the evening punching holes in earring cards. All of my new business cards, invites and labels arrived this afternoon. :) Hope everyone has had a decent week, the long holiday weekend is almost here.

The laundry is calling my name to finish it.....:( I hate laundry!

Adventurine down....adventure here we come

Camera Battery charged up and ready to go....so am I! Here are a few new pieces that I have just finished up as well as some wedding pieces all wrapped up and ready to go.

Adventurine and Graduated Sterling Necklace

Gorgeous Closeup on Clasp

Adventurine Earrings to match

Olive Jade and Sterling Drop Necklace

Pink Rhodonite Bridesmaid and Flower Girl Set

Wedding Set all wrapped up with Stone meaning cards

Batteries Dead and Very Red

I really would like to post some new pieces today but my camera is dead from taking photos all day yesterday at the lake. I could charge it up for you but since I am burnt I am taking an off day and working on pricing junk for our garage sale in June when we get back from vacation. Hope everyone else is having a good Monday! Tomorrow I promise I will be back up and running.

P.S.-I also have an awful strange farmers tan, its a good thing I bought I shrug to go with my dress to wear to the wedding. You can laugh at me now, as I know I am translucent and should have been wearing long sleeves.

I love Earrings!

Today I have solely made earrings. A few random pairs and a few to coordinate with other pieces. I have had quite a few requests for red pieces and staying true to form I am using natural stones. I do not like to use glass beads unless they are hand blown, I do use Czech glass and Swarovski when needed. Anyways I stuck mostly with Coral today and mixed in one Rose Quartz pair. I wish I could get my hands on some more chunky pieces of Coral that are not weird shapes, we work with what we have though. So anything in red is fairly simple and smaller in size than a lot of my pieces. Have a great weekend!

Floral Coral and Sterling Bunch Earrings

Coral Pearl Combo Earrings

Rose Quartz and Sterling DropsCoral and Sterling Moon Loops

Savings Goals

On a totally off topic I am ready to move again, I think we have moved so many times I am ready for a new adventure. Don't get me wrong I love the weather, our yard, the people, I am just ready and I know Colin is. We are ready to go somewhere and stay, its awful when you aren't completely enjoying your surroundings because you know ultimately you are leaving again. We both are ready for something that is ours that we want to be motivated about, spending large chunks of our savings just to go home for a week sucks! That does not motivate us or excite us to go home, it ruins the fun of it purely because its hard to let go of our savings (even if it was saved for that reason). Colin has been a mixture of cranky this last week and I know him well enough to know that's the issue. It makes me sad because I know how much he wants to go home and see his family.

This started a seed in my head about Colin and my savings goals. We have an awesome savings spreadsheet I created that is linked to our budget sheet, and used to be linked to our credit card sheet before we paid them off. Credit cards and student loans were our first goal and once finished this is our current and never ending goal.

Here are the basic things in our spreadsheet:
-Base Emergency Fund $1,000
-Emergency Fund $10,000
-Save at least $15,000 for a house, our goal Denver is expensive so we most likely need more :(
-Car Insurance (for every 6 months) $800
-Renters Insurance (1 year term) $75
-Vacation Fund $5,000
-Recreation Fund $1,000

Then we have a decent list of things we would like that we are saving for slowly such as, Lasik Eye surgery for Colin, a welder/helmet, a new couch and chair, a Rubicon (jeep for Colin), a new family room rug, paint for walls when we get a house, etc. We determined amounts that we think we will need for each and then work slowly towards them. For me I need small goals to stay motivated such as my table in the basement, Colin works better towards the long term goals. That is why they are all together. Anyways each category turns green when it is full and is red when it needs more funds. We always keep the insurance categories full and each paycheck always put some in the emergency fund, house fund and if we have some anywhere else. Sadly because we know how much it costs for trips we put more than most people would put in their traveling budget when we should be saving just for a house. Our family's are more important than that though, I think I will remind Colin that tonight to maybe cheer him up. I know that is weird but his family and not spending money motivate him more than anything.

Since this is more common for most people these days, what are your financial goals?

FYI we paid off over $15,000 last year in student loans and credit card debt. These goals are VERY important. If anyone would like this spreadsheet let me know and I will send you a blank one to add your own goals.

Broken Bulb :(

No new jewelry pictures today :( I knocked off one of my lamps for my photo box and broke the bulb. I didn't even finish my homework of photos that Cheryl will need for setting up the website.

I did get some great Amy Butler fabrics in the mail that I ordered to start a few early birthday and Christmas gifts. I am trying to be thrifty and creative with my gifts so they wont kill us when Christmas comes. Hopefully that works out, as I want more personable gifts this year. Colin has to work this coming Christmas and none of the guys on this job (he is based out of Denver and is working on building a hotel here is Spokane) can leave since it is supposed to be completed December 30th. :( Everyone he works with has been temporarily relocated here and has the same issue. I really wish we could move closer to home. Hopefully after this job is done!

I am thinking about making some boxers as a gift for Colin but I don't think he would like these fabrics. Well I better get back to my list since there are a ton of things I need to get done.

Gemstone Rainbow

Thought I would share this before tomorrow morning since I am working on several other new pieces that I will share later. This necklace, bracelet, and earring set is composed of various colors of Natural Pearls, Aragonite, Amethyst, Adventurine, Peridot, Amber, Crystal Quartz, Carnelian, and Turquoise. Enjoy!

Recycled Button Earrings

Well I decided to try something new out with a few of those extra small non shank buttons I am accumulating. Here it is! A pair of shell button earrings. Since most of my super small buttons are white pearl I probably will be mixing several sizes and some colorful beads with them. A new form of recycling for me. I have been trying to cut down on anything that uses packaging and normally is thrown away. Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

Pink and Brown Speckled Shell Earrings

P.S. -Cheryl has gotten quite far on my website remake. YEAH! She also updated my logo (I could have done that but I am outsourcing, I cant do everything) and I spent yesterday incorporating that into new business cards, earring cards, gift tags, and party invites. Not too long before I can start adding all of my "creations" into the website! She has kept my original logo and updated the color scheme and is creating a new layout for selling items. :) More user friendly! Right now the changes will not show up until she has finished if anyone is wondering.

Some Sewing Fun Finally Finished

So Far this week has been very unproductive other than getting organized mentally and physically. This morning I took Gunther for a walk to check out some garage sales. Not much that I could use but I did buy lots of old stamps and a small orange 1937 almanac. I think they both will work great for some cheap artwork. Then I dropped off some wedding jewelry and did a little grocery shopping. But best of all I got 2 small pkgs in the mail so I could finish my laptop bag and test out the gift I sent Colin's mom (the seller AbbeyJames on Etsy sent me free samples).

FRONT OF BAG

BACK OF BAG-With leather dots

OUTER POCKETS UNDER FLAP-Also with leather dots

LARGE INTERIOR POCKET-There is a smaller one for my computer.

My 5 FREE samples that smell delish and are paraben free. These are from AbbeyJames on etsy.

Have a Good Weekend! Monday I promise I will have some new Jewelry! Cheryl is also going to start working on updating my logo and my website template this weekend. Yeah!

Packages Galore

Today was not highly productive as I spent a huge chunk of the day creating a skateboard bag for my friend. She and her husband are traveling back to Houston for Mother's day and her husbands long board was too large for most bags so I took a few seams out of his Northface backpack and added a few removable straps to hold the board. I have to gloat, I was very impressed with myself that you cant tell it didn't come that way.

On related jewelry issues my recycled packaging and new displays both showed up today. :) I got 4 HUGE boxes! The UPS man left one at the back door, the FedEx man brought 3 to the front door and the same time the regular USPS mail man came with some checks. I love getting mail, well as long as its not bills.

Thought I would share a couple pictures. Two of a Coral, Natural Pearl, and Sterling necklace. One of the new displays and one of some wedding jewelry I just boxed up in the new "tiny" earring boxes (Usually I just use black ribbon but I bought a spool to match the wedding colors).Now I just need to put it all away :( What a mess!

Dandelion Inspiration

Well this is what came out of those dandelions running through my head today. It is a Aragonite and sterling piece featuring a carved bird pendant. I wore it today with a simple white tee and my fuchsia coat since it has been raining. I normally don't look good in yellow but this color combo was great together. :)
I was in the mood to clean today so I took the day off work other than that, I guess Friday isn't a free day. Tomorrow my list says I need to make some coral pieces and some garnet. I just got some cool pearls in the mail, maybe I will mix those in.

Wanted: Inspiration

Last night I was laying awake in bed thinking about 2 colors, normally I have a ton running through my head. I think this was inspired my all the dandelions in our yard, but I am choosing to think it is from a tulip instead. And of course my spring coat.


I need some new inspiration, some new color combos. I used to go window shopping a lot and my Mamo (she is my grandmother) used to send me wonderful magazines and ideas she cut out while I was in college. She single handedly supplied all of my pictures for sample boards. I miss that, I never put anything together anymore.


No more whining though, I am on a mission! I can search out things not just in books but everyday. First I need to be better about ALWAYS having my camera with me for inspiration. Why not, you don't waste film and it can remember everything great you see. I am going to get another cork board for ideas, I used to have a huge one and that's all I used it for. I am not sure where it went during our numerous moves. These are such little changes that can make a huge difference in ideas. Later today I will post some new jewelry, I am still upstairs on my old computer and I haven't gone to work yet.





P.S.-I think that color combo may also be from this. Its a Royal Gramma saltwater fish, we had 2 of them in a tank with lots of other fish growing up. But these were nicknamed after my sisters. This image is from http://fishatlas.org/ which while looking for the photo I found some great info. :)

New Gems!

I am working on a few chunky pieces since most of my items are on a smaller scale. This is a three strand faceted teardrop Kambaba Jasper set. I wish I wore heavier pieces since I love this! I have a few ideas laid out that I also will be creating later today.
Yesterday I also painted my earring stand to coordinate with my other stands (they are all black). It turned out great, click here for a before picture. I loved the natural wood look but I want everything to be more uniform now that I am investing in my overall display concept.

By the end of the week I will have my new necklace busts to add to my display collection. I am a firm believer that presentation is every bit as important as the product. As soon as I find some clear shallow glass bowls I will be set except for paper products. Look forward to some pictures later this week of my new packaging (minus the stickers) and a few other new pieces in new stones.

:) Sunny Monday

So I have been slacking on posting the last few days. I wish I could say that I have been super productive and that's why. Big fat lie! My family room looks terrible since Colin decided he wanted to pull out all his receipts from the dark ages (he saves them all). I was slightly productive Friday working on a few pieces and Saturday we worked outside. I planted some new grass seed and we bought a new lawnmower. I forgot to take a picture while it was clean before I mowed the lawn so until I hose it off I am not sharing it (the dirty version makes it look sad).

I did get new packaging ordered for all my jewelry. It is recycled brown boxes (instead of the white) and I ordered teal and purple tissue paper as well as black ribbon and more padded envelopes for shipping.

This photo isn't very exciting but the final effect will be much better! Plus the bonus is they were cheaper and the box is 100% recycled with the inside being 80% which is great.

I also spent a little time looking into ordering my business cards, me stamping my logo and embossing each and every card takes up too much of my time. While looking into that I checked out having stickers, invite postcards, window cling (for my car), and earring cards made up. So as soon as Cheryl digitalizes my logo I should be ordering a few items which will save me time down the road. This by the way was Colin's idea because he thinks I am wasting my time doing things that I can pay a nominal fee to someone else while working on jewelry and be more cost effective. He is right but I have been trying to not spend any additional money if I can do it myself. Unfortunately there is only one me so this will lessen my load a lot.

I had the great fortune to go to a great jewelry party on Friday as well with a friend and I got some easy cheap ideas for displaying my items, unfortunately they wont work well flying. The lady that had all the beautiful pieces had a mobile credit card machine. It doesn't need to be plugged into a phone line and you don't have to pay a monthly fee. You just pay a fee per transaction, kind of like paypal. You do have to buy the unit which from what I can find is about $200. Unless I call I wont have an idea of the cost per transaction, but it looks like a promising thing to check into. Colin again thinks that is a great idea. Weird how he is not so tight with money when he feels that it is a smart idea for sales. He always weighs the pros and cons where I tend to think more emotional, I am so glad he balances me out. He is a great business partner in this, but more so a great support of just me. I couldn't ask for a better husband!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday!