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...

red.

color week : day five : redred ballet flats from christmas 2006 (that i still wear!), from back in the early days of my blog.

and... time is running out, only 3 more days to enter!

launch party

after a few weeks of planning and lots of help from my super-crafty mom, it seems i've pulled off a successful launch party for ellebee studio this past weekend. i'm quickly learning that it's hard to get anything done when my perfectionist side starts battling with my let's-just-be-flexible side... for example, i thought i'd whip up some quick postcard invitations. well, forty bucks and an earring stuck in a photocopier at kinko's later, i didn't know what else to do but laugh it off and thank my husband one more time for being wonderful (he came along for moral support... aka keeping me company while cutting at least 120 business cards by hand with the big paper trimmer). i also was excited that i finally put together a display idea that i've had brewing in my head for months... one trip to the flea market for an antique window frame, one afternoon banging the glass out of it, one trip to home depot for a board for the base and some brackets to stabilize it, and one afternoon with power tools later and i had a display background that turned out just how i wanted:
as for the launch, it all came together well, and even though i had food for about 30 people and about 7 showed up (due to the invitations going out about a week later than planned)... it was still fun and nice to know i can put a decent little event together. it's also nice to see all of my handmade items all out in one place (my dining room table) and see that i really do have the makings of a nice little shop! it almost felt like a good trial run for a craft show to get it all spread out and arranged how i wanted it. because of preparations for the launch party i just missed the deadline for the next crafter's flea market that i've previously participated in, but it was nice to know that i would have had everything together and looking nice. there will always be more craft shows! here are the great pictures my husband was thoughtful enough to take while i was rushing around with last-minute details. if not for him, i likely would have completely forgotten to take any at all!

one of my mom's lovely additions to the party were hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberries (i'm telling you- superwoman!), which were definitely the hit of the party.

it's been a heinous week at work with mandatory overtime all week, but i was able to spend almost all day today with my mom while she taught a class on making a greeting card organizer in an album... a very cool finished product (anything that helps organize in my life is a plus). projects with my mom are a really fun change of pace for me because she is much more into planning, measuring and coordinating than i am. it makes for much more finished looking projects, and it's a good stretch of the brain sometimes to go from eyeballing colors and measurements to striking out with a detailed plan. i'll post some pictures of that in the works, and i have fleeting hopes of making a new address book as well... i may just end up indulging in one of these cool hand-stamped journals and writing them in there. i suddenly feel inundated with ideas i want/ have been meaning to do.

1. make cards to go in my card organizer



2. test out more sewing on paper



3. try making some little matchbook-style notepads



4. get some soldering iron tip cleaner so i can do more soldering



5. decorate a small magnetic box i got for keeping business cards intact in my purse

and of course, knowing me, it's 1:30 in the morning when i get all these ideas. i think i'd better go to bed before this list gets any longer!

green.

color week : day four : greenlooks like a tree, but it's actually the ginormous hedge between our driveway and our neighbor's... it's one of those super-proliferate kinds that the more you trim it, the more it grows back with a vengeance. i love pictures with the sun shining like this... i was sitting in my car, and had to see if it would show up at all in a picture (i also used this one for my new blog banner!.

pink.

color week : day three : pinkeven though we said we weren't really going to celebrate valentine's day this year (because we had so much going on) these gorgeous pink roses somehow still magically appeared about the same time that matt came home from work!only four days left to enter the drawing!

white.

color week : day two : white
my collection of all-white dishes is growing! i love how they look in our kitchen cabinets which we painted cream and then glazed (mostly to cover up the lovely old-70's kitchen look).