We've Been BPeed On

Beach Light by Sweet Eventide

If there is a bright spot in all the trouble BP is causing here on the Alabama Gulf Coast, it is making new Etsy friends. A few weeks ago I made an Etsy Treasury of beach chair art called "Waiting". Today I had a wonderful convo from one of the featured artists - Jessica of Sweet Eventide. She is part of the Craft Hope community and they are involved with Project 8 :: Gulf Coast Oil Spill.

"For Project 8 we will be partnering with The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, the Audubon Nature Institute, and the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge to assist them in their efforts in caring for and cleaning oiled marine mammals, mostly dolphins, other marine mammals, birds, and sea turtles.

--- from Craft Hope blog

Jessica and her craft group are making and collecting handmade towels for cleaning oiled wildlife. Visit the Project 8 blog for info on what, when, where, how many ......

Check out Jessica's Etsy shop

Everyone knows this disaster is taking a huge toll on the Gulf waters, but I'm afraid many aren't aware of the impacts the wildlife are feeling. The pictures we see on the news every day are horrible. If the sight of a pelican (my favorite bird and the one I hope I come back as in my next life) covered in oil doesn't break your heart, then you probably don't have much of a heart to break. WKRG news from Mobile not only gives the weather forecast now, they also give viewers the oil forecast. Part of me doesn't want to see any more and the other part can't stop looking.

The Taller Half is working for a BP sub-contractor cleaning the beach from 6am - 6pm seven days a week. Unfortunately, we are also experiencing the hottest June I can ever recall. The temps on the white sand beach are in the mid to upper 90s with high humidity making the heat index soar over 110°. I don't know how he stands it and I worry when he comes home so exhausted every night. I have never felt prouder of anyone in my life. He doesn't have to do this, but he wants to help the country of which he so recently became a citizen.

Another thing on the good news about the spill is the upcoming benefit concert Jimmy Buffett is giving in Gulf Shores. 

'Bout Time

I finally got up off my patootie last weekend and took some shots of the jewelry I've finished lately. You know, I love making the pieces but I hate like the devil to have to get out all the lights and backgrounds and camera stands and extension cords...... My dream is to have a place where the dog and the cats aren't allowed to be and I can set up the photography crap once and leave it there ready to be used whenever I need it. I tried a different lighting setup this time and a blue paper with a subtle pattern on it for the platform. The shots turned out more shadowed toward the top of the display with the light focus on the jewelry instead of the stand. I like the effect I'm getting with the plexiglass under the jewelry, too. I'd be interested in comments or suggestions on the results. All of these pieces have been listed on Etsy and I'll get more up this weekend hopefully.

It's the "I Need A Sale" Sale

Click banner to visit Sea Jewels Jewelry

Click banner to visit Bead-D-Eyes - Jewelry for Your Glasses

It's time to clear out the shops and make room for new Spring and Summer '09 jewelry!

Crystals

I had a nice convo from a fellow Etsian wanting to know about recharging crystals. The question was which crystals and minerals shouldn't be placed in salt water. Now I must admit, I knew of a couple - opal and pyrite - but wasn't too sure about the others. So, being the librarian that I am, off on a search of the web I went. There is a website from the UK - CrystalGems.co.uk - with good info on it for charging your crystals and cleaning them. They also have a list of gemstone properties, gemstone healing, zodiac crystals and lots more good stuff.

I have been making and wearing crystal and gemstone jewelry for a few years and find that more and more people are becoming interested in the metaphysical properties of these beautiful stones. The photo is of a necklace I currently have listed in my shop. I love the way the colors pop when they are put together - it looks like it is lit from within.

Had to Share This...too Funny

I just found this forum thread on Etsy and about peed my pants laughing. Check it out if you need a good chortle today.

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5908910

and check out these Etsy shops for more Sock Monkeys

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title_description&search_query=sock+monkey

Here's a good instruction site if you want to make your own sock monkey

http://www.supersockmonkey.com/catalog/howtomake.html

I'm declaring Fridays to be Sock Monkey Day!

WhooHoo! (as Mel would say)

Just What I Need...

Well, I'm sunk now. I opened an account on Twitter. It is oddly addicting and highly time consuming. Just another thing to try to limit myself on. Speaking of limits, I went to the bead shop for eye pins and came home with a sack of beads. I swore I wouldn't buy any more until I had sold a bunch more pieces of jewelry and started to whittle down my store of pretties. So much for willpower. Sigh...
semi-precious stone eyeglasses holder
I'm offering Free Shipping in my BeadDEyes shop on Etsy - that's where I sell beaded eyeglasses holders. I've made several sales in a local shop and need to get more listed on Etsy. Maybe I'll get more creative time now that the Taller Half has gone back offshore for a few weeks. I just need to stay away from the bead shops. I don't need new beads-I don't need new beads-I don't need new beads-I don't need new beads...

the old man and the sea

Made It Into A Treasury!

I am so excited -my Orange Popsicle
Flower Lariat Necklace was listed in a Treasury on Etsy. Beth of theladiesann.etsy.com put together a beautiful collection of things orange and called it A l'rorange : from crispy duck to the Etsy logo, everything's better "a l'orange!" It is such an honor and a thrill to have my necklace chosen from the thousands of pieces of jewelry on Etsy and the cherry on the top is that the treasury was featured on the front page! If you're not familiar with Etsy, trust me, this is a big deal. I always love it when I log into my Etsy shop and see the little red number by the Conversations link. It means someone has been visiting my shop and wants to talk about it. For the note to say I'm in a treasury is so totally awesome, as my 15-year-old niece would say. Many thanks also to Beth who got a screenshot of the treasury on the Etsy's Front Page and posted it on Flickr. I'm going to smile all day!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88549784@N00/2789017633/

Long Holiday Weekend Plans

I can't wait for 5 o'clock this evening - I'm off work until Monday morning. Huzzah! Tonight the taller half and I are going to the Tom Waits concert in Mobile. We've both been hoping to see him for years but his sporadic touring schedule never matched up with where we were. Tour info at http://tomwaits.com/

Big plans for tomorrow, too. We bought an invisible fence to put around the yard. Nervous red dog needs more exercise than her rapidly aging mama can provide so we're going to put in the fence and pray she doesn't fry her brains learning where the boundaries are. Working with the taller half to accomplish this may not be a good idea so I plan on strawbossing and providing cool adult beverages along with a running commentary. Should be interesting to say the least.

In our local paper this morning, my favorite food editor had a great column on barbeque. Check it out at blog.al.com/generous-portions/ He has some great tips from Steve Raichlen's Barbeque Bible www.barbecuebible.com/ This is my favorite book for grilling and bbq-ing info. I'm thinking baby back ribs, chicken, maybe some sausages...yum. The 4th of July barbeque was always a big deal at home when my brother and I were kids. Mama would wrap sliced potatoes and onions in tin foil, put in lots of butter and chives and a dash of cayenne. The package would cook alongside the ribs and smell heavenly. I loved the potatoes that would almost stick on the bottom - they were golden brown and crispy. I think those will definitely be on the menu this year. Daddy always made homemade ice cream in an old hand crank freezer. My brother and I would start off the cranking so energetically and tire almost immediately. Daddy wouldn't take over until the handle wouldn't turn even with both of us pulling on it. Watermelon frosty cold from the cooler, ice cream made with a real vanilla bean, ribs so tender you could pull the meat off the bone with your lips...now that was a 4th of July barbeque!

After the feasting, we'll head over to the state park to get a primo view of the city's fireworks show. Every year a barge anchors about 1/4 mile offshore from the public beach and fires a spectacular show out over the gulf. The traffic is horrendous so we try to park on the backroad around the lake so we can scoot out and get home before the rest of the people start playing bumper cars. There really isn't a bad seat anywhere along the beach road and lake road through the park.

Finally Saturday will get here and I can spend the day at my workbench. Hopefully, the taller half will go diving so I'll have the day to myself. I got some beautiful new opalite teardrops from http://gottacraft.etsy.com. I have several ideas for using them - can't wait to get started.

Barbeque, fireworks, crafting time - what more could a girl want or need?!

Happy 4th of July to you!

In these times of recession, over $4 a gallon gas and rising grocery prices, a jewelry crafter's best friends are quite literally her best friends. Without my loyal friends, I would have made no sales at all in June. They not only encourage my crafting, they buy from me - insisting I take payment even though I feel strange doing so.

AM fell in love with a necklace Maria Bello wore in The Jane Austen Book Club and wanted me to make a similar one for her. After scanning through the DVD to find the scene, I sketched out a rough idea and she and I brainstormed to come up with an affordable facsimile. Although sterling silver would have been lovely, the cost was a little higher than either of us wanted so we decided just to go with silver-tone metal for right now. The end result, while not exactly like the one in the movie, was pretty good. Most importantly, AM likes it and she wears it often. This was a case where I refused any money because: a) It was made with bits and pieces I already had in my stash and, b) It is a prototype. I guess you could call AM my jewelry guinea pig :D

LT wears eyeglass chains all the time and is actually the reason I launched Bead-D-Eyes. She not only requests certain colors and styles, she buys from my Etsy shop regularly. I had never realized how many people, ladies especially, wear these chains. Living at the beach provides a year-round market for them to keep sunglasses handy. In the winter, I sell quite a few to our "snowbird" residents.

My sister-in-law has also been quite an active cheerleader for my work by purchasing several pieces and wearing them to work. She asked for a stack of business cards to hand out and it has really been a boost for me.

In the Etsy fora I have seen many posts from artists/crafters who literally sell their work off their necks to folks they meet in line at the store. Although this hasn't happened to me, I can see where wearing your work when you go out could be a valuable advertising tool. For me, however, my friends (and family) will remain my favorite cheerleaders.