busy week!

well, a very busy week this week (is march really almost over already?) means that not much crafting has been going on. my husband and i decided we would combine his study and my studio together in the third bedroom in order to make the second bedroom a more welcoming guest room (and probably eventually a nursery). so for now i write from the comfort of our newly reorganized study-o as we like to call it.aside from the changing spaces, this week my new nephew was born, my husband had a birthday, and i survived the first week of my this-time-i'm-really-going-to-do-it diet. i really don't like getting older knowing that i'm just wasting my own time by having been "on a diet" for the past ten years and never losing a significant amount of weight.

the one productive thing i did get done was to start updating new necklaces into my etsy shop. i've decided to test out the advice i keep hearing that if you post something every day (or at least spaced out instead of all in one sitting) you have the possibility to increase the traffic to your site and hopefully, as a result, increase the sales as well. i probably could be doing more to advertise, but i'm trying to get my shop really full and welcoming, which basically means getting the rest of the jewelry i have sitting around finished up for shopping, and then adding some of the "gifts & etc." part.

i've refurbished some of my older jewelry, as i tend to make things rather experimentally as i go along. when it's "finished" it still needs a bit of tweaking to get it completely presentable for selling. i did that with this black onyx necklace that has seen about 4 renovations, but i think i'm finally satisfied with the outcome.

this is what it looked like in one of its former lives...

... which i didn't love because of the scratched-looking wire wrapped bail. i think it looks much better now. that's my favorite part of creating, if you don't like how something looks you can just take it apart and alter it or start completely over. this one will be up for sale sometime later in the week.

my next move really should be to take stock of my supplies and try to get several things i need for finishing projects in one trip to the store... gold earwires, gold toggles or lobster clasps, and some chain in several different finishes to name a few. i also found out recently that my best childhood friend is getting married at the beach in about six months. she already asked me to sing at the wedding (scary!) and i'm hoping i'll also be commissioned to make bridesmaids' jewelry.

for now it's time to put this week to bed and start a new one...

current inspiration

inspiration struck this weekend to create... i had a whole weekend to myself while my husband was working, and it was a much-needed relief just not to have to be anywhere by any certain time for two days. i spent all day yesterday photographing new necklaces to go in the shop, and then worked a little bit today on an altered book i started months and months ago about paris. we just bought our tickets this weekend for our trip that we will finally be taking in october for our third anniversary! i keep getting more and more excited the more i think about it. paris again... it feels crazy to think it's only been three years since we were there last, when i moved home from studying abroad. it also feels crazy to think of all the pictures we will have between the two of us when we get home...i'm having a hard time focusing creatively of late. i have so many projects started and so many ideas it feels sometimes like there will never be enough time/energy/resources to make something of all of them. i feel like my supplies are too spread out, my working surface too small... i start working on one project and get distracted by another. it really is my goal to teach myself to be one of those people that not only buys things that are needed for a specific project (not anything and everything i like) but also that actually sits down and finishes that specific project. it seems like that would take some of the creativity out of it, but really i think it would just help me get things done.

here are some things that inspire me right now:

• deliciously wrinkly old books



• a perfectly sunny and cheerful studio



• a blue box full of treasures



• pretty much all of these photos



• but especially this one



• soldered eiffel tower earrings



• teensy weensy pumpkin cupcakes



• a fabulous article about approaching stores for wholesale inquiries (maybe i don't really want to do this)



• and summertime coming soon.

for now i'm off to sweet dreams of my favorite place...