Motivation

  For some reason I have been lacking in motivation lately.  My brain has been coming up with newer or better things to make, but getting to making them is oddly difficult for me right now.  Tonight, for example, I had planned to sit down and try and making a beaded bangle cover for the forms I bought a while ago.  The internet and BluRay players were not getting along and Netflix kept having to load, play at low quality, and sometimes didn't have sound.  I got annoyed after restarting it a few times and having the same problems.  Instead of just putting on a regular movie or using my tablet to watch things I got onto the computer and just watched YouTube instead of doing anything.
  I'm hoping once I get a good night's sleep tonight and finish with work tomorrow I will be able to focus more.  I have had these bracelets planned for a while now, and no one will notice them until I have them made and ready to show off.

Kitties Fur a Cause.

  Does it count as a collaboration if I am working with myself?  I am combining my love of helping charities with the fact that I wanted to make something limited edition on my Etsy shop.  I had thought of making some cute buttons back in December, but I didn't know what I wanted to make.  I thought it would be fun if they all had the same thing on them, but were slightly different versions.
  I then thought that I wanted to make something cute, like a cat, with different patterns on it.  This was early January.  I didn't know how to make them stand out and unique.  Why would someone want to buy them if they are just okay looking?  It wasn't until recently that I thought to combine my charity blog and my Etsy shop.
  My plans are to make button/badges with cute cats on them and to determine the pattern I will make a design based on the charity that is usually associated with the given month.  Some months have more than others, but I can just make a new design for when I will repeat a cause.  One of the problems I might run into are that some awareness groups don't have a signature color or pattern to use.  I will have quite a few to run through before I have to worry about that though.  I will also be putting the name of the cause on them since a few are very similar.

Halloween

  I have been going back and forth on what I want to make for my shop since I seem to have problems making things before the season is over.  For example, I always want to make cute Halloween things on November 1st.  It's a little late at that point.

  I have a cute idea for some hair flowers that are Halloween themed.  My only problem now is trying to find the right button for them.  I can find cabochons, but no good looking buttons.

   Here is a little preview.  The cotton fabric is drying right now and though I will have to re-do the small poof, I like how the large patch of lace turned out.

More larger sized earrings.

  I finally found the earring finds that I like with these.  The shape is kind of unusual, but I like how it looks with the dangles.
  It seems, however, that all I can make these days are large dangle earrings.  Is there some sort of group I can go to for this?  I do still like them, though I have plans for some smaller earrings in the near future.

Needle containers.

I mentioned last post about making some of my earring styles into necklaces.  I have a good picture of them now and the listing is now up.
I also have been collecting my earring crochet cottons so I will be able to make more.

I was at my day job and found this weird tube.  Since I was in the middle of doing something I just grabbed it to look at later.  It was a Singer brand sewing needle recycle tube.

Well, I have similar containers, only the ones I have come in fun colors and are less expensive.  I also give the option of having a fun little stripe of pretty tape in case they are too plain.

Matching necklaces.

  I had a vision that I would list my crochet flower earrings and that they would just fly off the "shelf."  This has not happened.  As of right now I've only sold one pair of earrings.  I don't think it is because of how they look, I get lots of compliments when I wear the pair I made for myself.  I think the size is the problem.  Not everyone likes big earrings.

 

   I already made one pair of rainbow flower earrings, but I also wanted to make a pair with my blue gold-stone beads.  I couldn't tell which I would like better, so I decided to make a pair of each.

  When I went to go put them on the hoops I realized that I had no idea where I had put the two new bags I had purchased when they were on sale.  I was able to find one of the older ones that I hadn't put rubber bands on yet.  As I was looking at the single earring it occurred to me that they would also make very pretty necklaces.  This will let people who like the look of the items, but who don't like big earrings, enjoy them too.  It is also a good excuse to find more thread/bead combos I like.

Knitting designer problems.

  I also finally got my cascading leaves and vines shawl blocked.  I had a lot of fun with the other test of a pattern, so I am excited to get another going.  It helps people to have a picture to know if they want to test it or not.
  I'm also having some designer issues in my head.  I thought of a fun shawl idea, but it was so easy I figured someone else had already done it.  Then I thought about it more and thought of a variation on it.  I have been checking to see about the original on Ravelry, but so far I have not seen it.  I tried "block shawl" and found nothing.  I have been browsing through "stripe shawl" but there are over 100 pages of patterns to look at.  I'm on page 51 and so far I have not found the original idea I had.
  So now I'm wondering if I should make two patterns, one pattern, or a two-in-one pattern.  I also need to get my hands on some yarn in the weight I want before I can do any of this.  It will give me some more time to think it over. 

My first knitting pattern is live!

I'm so excited right now.  The pattern test went really well, only a few things needed to be changed. Ribbed Owl Mitts is now listed on my Ravelry page for sale.  I'm debating if I should list it on Etsy as well or not.  I haven't fully decided yet.

Back in the button game.

I forgot how much I like making pin-back buttons and playing with different materials to make them with.

I love the look of x-rays.  The way the light makes the pictures glow is kind of magical looking to me.  I took some lightly colored images of flower x-rays and made them into buttons.  I like the metallic effect lets it look like they are back-lit.

Hopefully there will be more buttons in the future.

I think I also forgot to mention that I made more flower earrings.  Spring brings out my love of flowers.  The rainbow also makes me super happy.

Some things have been falling through the cracks.

  I know I am horrible at time management.  Lately some things have been falling through the cracks.  One of the things that have been lacking lately has been real blogging.  I have been trying to keep the Facebook page updated, but often I have been choosing to work on items over talking about them.  It doesn't help that they have been giving me more hours at my day job.

  Owl stitch markers seem to be the most popular things in my shop this year.  So I decided to use the multi-colored ones and my black cotton cord to make some more.

  I have not listed these before, but this style of stitch marker were the first ones I have ever made.  I thought it would be fun to bring them back.


  I saw someone on YouTube make some super cute glass pebbles where they colored the back with nail polish.  The only problem is that then she didn't show what to do with them.  Most people make them into magnets, bit that idea didn't appeal to me.  Some more searching showed that a lot of people glued ring backs or flat-back bails to them, but I am a super paranoid person when it comes to trusting just glue on non-porous items.
  I had considered using a bezel, but the ones I have are from the craft store for floral decor, so they are all kinds of different sizes and shapes.  I even tried to make my own bezel out of polymer clay, but I ended up covering more of the front than I wanted to before I felt like they would really be safe in there.

  I then though of how I love making beaded netting, but how it usually takes too long to easily make something.  I combined that with the idea of a bezel and these are what I came up with.

Pink and Yellow Beaded Pebble Pendant

Pink, Green, and Yellow Dot Beaded Pebble Pendant

Blue, White, and Black Dot with Purple Beaded Pebble Pendant

Blue and Gold Beaded Pebble Pendant

I'm tired of winter!

I am tired of it being too cold out.  I like having the option to just decide to run around outside.  To combat the cold I have made some nice and cheery bracelets.

I think though I used black cording for the knots that they are all so happy and cheery.  We got about six more inches of snow yesterday.  While it was fun to watch while drinking hot chocolate, I'm excited for the flowers to come back.

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.

Back home.

I'm back home again.  This means that the shop is back out of vacation mode.
I was hoping to find some cool things to work with while I was in Germany, but that didn't happen.  I saw a few things but ran into some problems: 1) It was tourist trap stuff, so not materials to work with, and not cheap; 2) All the craft shops we found were closed when we would have been able to go to them.

Oh well, I had fun.

Slowly filling up the store.

While I have not met my goal of adding some things every few days, I am still adding new items to the store.  The one problem I seem to be running into now is finding things to list.  I made a ton of those earrings and listed a lot of them, but I don't want to have my shop be 90% very similar earrings, 10% random other things.  I want some sort of balance.  Right now I have about 4 card holders, 4 tissue covers, and 5 pairs of earrings.  I think that is pretty good and I should start adding new things.  I have made two sets of stitch markers and I have plans for more.

Yellow Owls with green beads.

Yellow Owls with blue beads.

Good news time!  Though the button thing I mention late last year seems to be on a hold, she is still interested.  I will have all the supply to make them once we both can get everything in order.  Not sure when this will be, but it is good to stay positive.  I also sold a pair of my cherry blossom earrings!  I am super happy about that.