My Etsy Shop is Open for Business!

A week or so ago, I hinted that something new and exciting was about to happen.  (By the way, congrats to those who knew that the title of my last blog post was a reference to West Side Story.  You're my favorite followers!  ;)  Have I ever mentioned that I love musicals?)  Today, I am happy to share with you that I have officially opened a shop on Etsy and I couldn't possibly be more excited! 

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been very busy designing, researching, making jewelry, and setting up my website.  I'm thankful to have a forum such as Etsy on which to launch my site.  The fact that there is already a shop format and built-in customer base certainly makes things a lot easier for a newbie.  I worked with a fellow Etsian to design a banner/logo and business cards.  You may have noticed the new banner at the top of my blog -- didn't she do a great job?!  She was so great to work with, and she's a great example of why the Etsy community rocks.

Even with all these great resources, it's amazing how much time it takes to work out the details of a shop launch.  Perhaps I'm just a perfectionist, but I wanted to decide exactly how to package an item before listing it for sale, and of course, find the best deal on those supplies, and it's time-consuming to research those things.  Then there's the matter of researching and determining how to price my pieces.  This should have been the easiest part for me, since pricing is what I do for a living, but I found it to be extremely difficult to put a price on my time.  And don't get me started on the time I've spent doing photo shoots.  With an online shop, the photography is so important, as the potential buyer isn't able to touch and feel the jewelry, so I sincerely think it is time well spent.  . 

It has all been very fun and exciting, and I'm happy that the shop is up and running.  I have just a few items listed so far, but I will be adding more in the upcoming weeks.  You can visit my shop here or use the links at the right-hand side of my blog.  I also set up a facebook page so please visit and "like" my page, if you haven't done so already. 

Many thanks to those who have been encouraging me to do this for quite some time.  I truly appreciate your support.

Requirements for November photo shoot in New England

I am committed to doing my photo shoots in natural light, even when it's 20 degrees out.  And windy.  Though this poses some challenges with jewelry (e.g. Earrings keep swinging in the wind, making it difficult to focus.  Eyes fill up with tears, also making it difficult to focus.), I have discovered one thing that makes the blustery photo shoots a bit more tolerable -- these gloves!

I can tuck my chilly fingers into the mittens between shots, and remove the mitten part when I need to change settings on my camera or adjust jewelry.  I guess my thumb is always cold though.  In addition to my jewelry shoot today, I tried to get a few pics of my son to use on our Christmas cards.  We had to do this very quickly because a) It was cold, and b) I didn't put a coat on him.  I know, I'm a bad mom...but I did let him wear his mittens.  Don't worry, he ran around the whole time and worked up a sweat, so I think he was warm enough.  I can't decide if it's more difficult to photograph jewelry and correctly capture the color of the stones/metals, or to photograph a toddler who just wants to run and look everywhere except at the camera. 

He's pretty cute though, so I guess we'll keep him.  By the way, he's crafty too.  This is a cool bird feeder that he made at preschool.  Doesn't it look yummy?

So, back to jewelry.  What do the following items all have in common?

They were all used as props in today's photo shoot.  I think I'm finally discovering ways to take better pictures of my jewelry, although it is still really challenging and requires a lot of patience.  It certainly helps to have a good camera again!  I probably throw away 10-20 pictures for every one that I keep.  Ah, the beauty and luxury of digital photography.  Of course, there is still room for improvement, but I'll share a few favorites from today. 

I'd love some feedback.  What do you think of these photos?  What kind of feel do they have?  What do you think of the jewelry? 

I have been a very busy girl, and I will have a lot more to share with you soon.

Something's coming, something good

Bonus points to anyone who knows the song I referenced in the title of this post. 

I have been a jewelry-making fool this week.  Given the demands of my full-time job and family, I really only have nights and weekends to work on my projects.  So, I'm not getting a lot of sleep these days, but that's OK.  I have a bunch of new beads and fun chains, and I'm having so much fun designing new pieces.  It certainly helps to have semi-permanent workspace set up.  I'm working on a combination of Christmas presents and a few other surprises to be revealed...very soon.

I have completed several new pieces, but I won't be able to photograph them until the weekend.  Again, the weekday job and daylight issues, but I won't go into detail because I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that before.

The necklace below was a gift for a crafty friend who had given me a bunch of beads.  I figured the least I could do was make her a necklace using some of those beads.  This was kind of an interesting challenge for me.  Usually, I have a vision, and then I select beads/metals to work with that vision.  With this piece, I was given the beads first, and tried to create something with what I was given.  Just a different design challenge, I suppose.  These pictures were taken a few weeks ago (yes, with my old camera) but I had to wait until she received it before I could share the pictures.

Stay tuned to learn what's coming.  ;)

They're crafty (and they're just my type)

A while back, some friends and I were commiserating about how we never have enough time for our crafting hobbies.  Someone came up with the great idea to get together for a "craft night" wherein we would each bring our respective crafting projects and we would be able to socialize while we worked on them.  I excitedly told my husband about this plan.  Unfortunately, he has been witness to our "book" club meetups where we rarely discuss the book, so he thought "craft" night would pan out to be much the same.

Undaunted, I packed up some supplies and a necklace that I had been working on for a few weeks, and went off to join my friends for craft night.  Yes, I admit that we gabbed for a good hour before we sat down at the craft table.  BUT, I did finish that necklace and was able to start another one.  So there, hubby.  My crafy friends all scrapbooked, and they are all quite talented.  Someday, I may pay one of them to organize my photos in a scrapbook.

The necklace was a gift for a special cousin, and I can share the pictures with you now that she has (finally) received it. (Please ignore fuzzies in second pic.)

We don't yet have another craft night on the calendar, but I hope we can do it again soon.  In a completely unrelated project, I decided to make some earrings inspired by fall.  I think they're kind of fun.  The earrings in this picture were made with a silver crafting wire, just so I could test out the design.  Sterling silver wire is very expensive, and I have learned the hard way that I should practice on (less expensive) crafting wire. 

Case in point, this was my first attempt.  Although I didn't have an exact shape in mind, this definitely is not what I was going for.

The final result was a bit better. Keep in mind that this is my "prototype" and the finished earrings would be in sterling, so they will have a much nicer shine to them.  I bent the wire into the leaf-like shape, and then hammered them to give a textured appearance, but I don't think this shows up well in either picture. 

In other wonderful news, I am excited to share that I have a working camera again!  I have missed my camera terribly, so I am super excited about this. However, the above pictures in this post were all taken with my crappy camera before I got the new one, so please don't judge me. 

I have one last item to share with you today.  I initially made this necklace close to a year ago, and I just wasn't thrilled with the result.  I reworked it a bit the other day, and the final piece is much better.  I love the mix of wooden and glass beads, different shades of blue/turquoise, with a few silver pieces thrown in. 

I was going to share a few other things with you, but that's probably sufficient for this post.  I have to keep all thirteen of my followers coming back for more, you know.  And now, I'm off to work on some jewelry while my son is resting. 

The (nearly) final kitchen redo pics

I sincerely apologize for my delay in posting the (nearly) final pictures of the kitchen.  The backsplash was just completed last week, and I had been holding out hope that I'd be able to get my camera fixed before the kitchen was finished.  No such luck.  It turns out that the nearest Nikon repair shop is an hour away from me (with no traffic) so I just haven't made it there yet.  The other option is to send it out to Nikon and be without a camera for 6-8 weeks.  So, for now, you're just getting more crappy pictures taken with my crappy old camera. 

Granite and sink installed (obviously, backsplash not yet installed)

View of the island

View of the sink

 Backsplash going in (travertine subway tile)

 Almost finished

The flash on my crappy camera really washes everything out, so I don't feel like this gives a good color representation, but I can't do anything about that.  So now we just need to do some minor finishing touches...change the switch plates on the backsplash, purchase bar stools for the island, repair the wall (above the sink) and ceiling, and paint.  We haven't chosen a paint color yet. Any suggestions?

Kitchen Redo: Days 3 & 4

I have to say that the project is moving much faster than I anticipated, and I am so pleased with the way it's coming out. 

Day 3 Accomplishments:  Trim and crown molding added, flooring installed, appliances returned to kitchen, island light fixture installed

I love how the crown molding completes the look.

Cork floors being installed

I am loving these floors!  They are so warm, quiet, and comfortable underfoot.

A shot of the new pendant

End of day 3

Day 4 accomplishments:  Toe-kick added to bottom of cabinets, panel and trim added to back of island, hardware installed, floor transition piece (from kitchen to living room) added, granite measurements taken

A nearly final shot of today's work. 

I didn't take a picture after the hardware was installed. I'll do that tomorrow in the daylight.

My kitchen is almost fully functional now.  I won't have a sink or dishwasher until the granite is installed (a week from today), but the oven, microwave, and fridge have been returned to their rightful homes.  So now we just need to paint, install a backsplash, do some minor ceiling repair and install the pendant over the sink.  Of course, I need to clean the cabinets and begin moving everything out of the dining room and into its new home in the cabinets, but that will be fun.  I took some advice from a very wise woman and assigned all of our basic kitchenware and pantry items to cabinets/drawers while we were doing the kitchen design, so hopefully, that part will go quickly.  (Thanks, Jenn!)  I can't wait to see what this will look like with the granite installed!

Kitchen Redo: Days 1 and 2

If you were hoping to see pictures of jewelry today, I'm sorry to disappoint you.  I am 95% finished with the piece I started on Sunday, but I haven't gone back to it yet because I'm too busy watching my kitchen renovation unfold.  I figured this was a good place to chronicle the redo.

Day 1 accomplishments:  Old cabinets removed, old flooring removed, old (linoleum?) backsplash removed, soffit removed, recessed lighting installed, and new subfloor installed.

This is the lovely linoleum that was under our hardwood floors

This was taken right after the soffit was removed.  There was so much dust/insulation in the air, that the autofocus wouldn't work on my camera, but I had to share this scary picture anyway.

Insulation cleaned-up.  New subfloor installed.

New recessed lighting

Day 2 Accomplishments:  Ceiling patched, All cabinets installed

 The lazy susan and pantry go in

More wall cabinets

Island added

End of Day 2

This may be obvious to most people, but man, kitchen renovations are messy!  I obviously realized that I would not have a functioning kitchen for a week or so.  But I guess I didn't really think everything through.  If I had, I would have realized that I would be without a kitchen, dining room (you saw pictures in this post), living room,

and deck (yes, that's my dishwasher on the right hand side).

It is really interesting trying to keep a toddler out of all the action!