First Etsy sale of the year!

I have been a bit slower than I had planned on listing things, but I made my first Etsy sale of the year.  I shipped it out yesterday.  It was the yellow owl snag free stitch markers with green beads.
I celebrated by making myself some fancy tea.

Some new wintery items are up.

I am so excited that these are looking as cute as they are.  I know cold weather makes me excited to see all of the bright red poinsettias around.

 These are nice and puffy and to me look more like a poinsettia.

I was showing someone the two of them and though I personally like the wider earring more, she really liked the thinner one more.  I like giving people a lot of options.

There are some snowflakes in the works, so make sure to stay tuned for those!

It doesn't hurt so much when you just sit down and do it.

I kept putting off so many things that last night I just made something.  I didn't think about it too much to worry about that people might like or not like, I just made something and timed it.  I think I needed this because I tried to make a sample for the crochet bracelet and the beads are not taking up as much space as I had assumed.
This means that I can hold my arm to the side and drop the bracelet onto my wrist.  It usually twirls and falls right back off right after that.  I am hoping that it will fit someone's wrist since it have to push it halfway up my forearm to get it to stay on.  If I need to label some as 'large' and some as 'small' I think I will be alright with that.  I was really hoping for a more 'one size fits most' thing, but that isn't working out for me right now. 

Making knotted bracelets like this feel like they take longer than they really do.  I'm feeling there will be more of these made.  Once the awkward beginning part is done then it becomes pretty portable.

I am still on the hunt for good beads for the Poinsettia earrings and I still need to try out the fabric flower pattern to make some Poinsettia hair clips.  I mentioned that I'm not good working on things to match the season, right?  I think because it is cold out that I just want to head somewhere warm.

Not Enough Hours in the Day!

I know a lot of people say that, but I'm really feeling it lately.  I have so many things I want to make to list, but I don't seem to be able to find the time for some of them.  I also sometimes have a problem making things that are seasonally appropriate.  It seems all I want to make things for is the holiday or season that has just passed.  That is not very helpful.

I have a lot of things planned for my Etsy shop, but what I really need to do is to sit down and get some stuff done.  One of the problems is that when I make something new is that I also need to keep track of time when I am working on them.  That is helpful so I will know how much to charge for time.  I know that there is a great debate when it comes to charging for time but I won't go into all of that here.
It makes it take longer for me to make some of those new things because I also like to keep notes of how long each step takes me. This is something I do in case I don't need to do one of the steps or in case I find something else to use that cuts down on the time.  I've also had timers reset themselves before when I would keep stopping and starting them.  Some of the things I have planned will also take a while to create.
I am not sure if I want to crochet or do some hand weaving when I am making my beaded bracelets.  I got some blank C shaped bracelet bases that I plan on covering.  It was interesting trying to find something to use for these.  A lot of people just join the ends of their beaded tubes to make them into bangles.  This would work fine if someone could try it on and make sure it fits, but it is a bit more tricky when dealing with people on the internet and not being able to easily fix a problem.  I tried asking people to measure their hand for me but that doesn't always work out.
I'm also going to be trying different ways of finishing the ends of the tubes I will be making.  The plan had to be to use bead caps to cover any parts that might be showing that aren't the best, but the ones I purchased don't fit onto the bracelet blank.  Another idea for the bracelets was to use Memory wire in the center, but that would just make making each on take that much longer.

Though speaking of memory wire, I do have some plans involving that.  As I posted a few months ago, I want to make some more Kukui nut bracelets.  I still have to time myself though.  I also have to go back and try and calculate the price of materials.  This will be interesting since I can't just go to the store to get some more, but it seems kind of ridiculous to try and factor in the price of a ticket to Hawai'i.  As much as I would love to be able to take a trip over "just to buy supplies" I'm sure no one out there wants to fund that for me.

I am also on the lookout for some beads I can use to make some crochet Poinsettia earrings.  They will be similar to the cherry blossom ones I had made in the spring.  The original plan had been to get the gold hoops and gold earring finds, but I can't find the gold hoops.  All the silver beads I have seen in the store look very cheap to me, so it wasn't so easy as to just make everything I had planned to be gold into silver.
There are also plans on messing around with thinner thread and the clear beads to make some snowflakes.  That will take a bit longer to test out different stitches and bead combinations.

So many words, so little production.  I really need to work on that.

My head is filled with flowers!

I have been having an interesting predicament lately.  I have been thinking that I should be working on some more bracelets and some fall or winter crochet earrings.  However the things that have been catching my eye are fabrics that would make fabric flowers.  While I do love making them, there are about a billion on Etsy.  There are also a good chunk of them that are listed below what I would be selling them for.
This is getting in the way of me making other things.  So instead of trying to just ignore that I want to make some fabric flowers, I am trying to figure out how to make mine more exciting.  I'm feeling some bead dangles on some very skinny chains.  I just have to figure out how to attach it in a way that will let it hang in either direction.

After I get that out of my system I am going to be making two beaded bracelets in two ways.  I will then be putting a poll on the FaceBook fan page to see if there is one people like better.  Though knowing me I will want to make more of both.

Stay tuned to see those!

Some not so new ideas.

I've decided to revisit the idea of these Kukui nut bracelets.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to make them to order or try for some sort of resizeable version.  I tried the kind where you pull the strings and it either tightens or loosens it, but I felt like that was putting more wear and tear on the string than was worth it.  I couldn't seem to get the ends of the made to order version with either a toggle clasp or a magnetic clasp either.

This is what I have liked best so far.  The future ones will not have as much of an overlap as this one.  Though it is a little big on wrists like mine, on most it should work very well.

I also have some new stitch markers listed as of today.

This is never a good sign.

I finally got beads to make the stitch markers I have been wanting to make for a while.
Though I even measured the inner circle, the 5mm beads I got were still too big.  I decided to go with some of the ones I already owned.

(sorry for the large image)

As you can see in the image above, all of the shiny golden colored finish has completely come off of the decorative head pin.  While it is a small thing and most people wouldn't notice, I think I would feel guilty for selling this the way it is.  I also would not want to sell it at a discount rate, so I'm not sure what to do.  Though the fact that they won't really come in contact with someone's skin for very long doesn't worry me, but the fact that they will get bumped around a lot and more of the coating might come off does.

I've sent an e-mail to the company, but who knows what they are going to say.  I don't have the receipt from when I bought them, since I was pretty sure I was not going to be taking them back.