Happy Week: Happy Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat

I know, I know. I slacked on happy week. :( That makes me...not happy, haha. But I will make up for the four days I've missed, and today, all in one post.
Also, I'm glad you all enjoyed my musical selections! And also that some of you got to hear some music you've not heard before. That makes me happy! heehee

#1 My doggies make me very very happy. :) And since I've been away at Mary's, making things and house sitting, I've missed them lots.

Zazz



Soup



#2 The piano makes me very veeery happy. I'm pretty good at learning music on my own, but I really want lessons some day. I love that Mary has a piano. I've been pecking at it for like two weeks now. I'm too afraid to play on it like I'd like though, for fear of the neighbors hearing me, haha. (she lives in an apartment)

LukeRoberts

#3 Uploading new things to my Etsy makes me happy. :) This is something I just uploaded. It may be new to you, but it's been waiting to be listed for months now, haha. :9

Carnival II - Three strand polymer clay necklace

Disclaimer: I know it doesn't match that shirt, but I didn't feel like changing at the time of this photo.

#4- Completed to-do lists!

Carissa GoodNCrazy

If only that one were mine!! Except maybe the math. ;D But nonetheless, this blog post concludes my to-do list for the day. And that's a feeling I don't get all too often. It most definitely makes me oh so happy. :)

Giving the job hunt a break, giving Etsy and my mental well being a kick in the ass.

Sorry if I've not replied to your comments much recently. I've been in a self loathing funk and haven't been being as productive as I should be. (am I ever?)
My job hunting has taken a zillion different directions just over the past week, but I think I have it settled. At least for now. My frazzled brain noise went as follows:
Relying on the fact that the owner of the local Chinese restaurant is interested in hiring me as soon as the kids that currently work there head back to school. There are pro's and con's to this that I won't get into.
I then had an overwhelming feeling that I need to get out of this town already, and searched online for jobs up by campus where I graduated. Then I could keep working in the studio (cause the teachers are awesome and let us grads use the facilities) and get and early start on my recently acquired 5 year plan. But the job I found (which was art related!) is only part time and I wouldn't be making enough to even split rent with Mary, who I would be moving in with. Other job options I racked my brain over ended up not being good ideas either. Bummer. :(
Then I started getting pretty miserable that all this job hunting made me feel like I was giving up on Etsy. And that was not a good feeling. I decided that taking time out to stay with Mary and work in the campus studio for a couple of weeks would be a good idea. The boy also made me feel better by reminding me that I could really use that studio time to make things for the pottery festival next month, and holy crap is he right. Then two weeks turned into three since Mary will be heading off to Penland later this month (lucky her! :D ) and could really use me to house sit and feed her kitties for her again.
I think this will be a really good thing for me to really focus hard on not only getting things made for the pottery festival, but giving my Etsy a good kick in the bum, and try to get my sales back off the ground. I really want to give it all I have for the next three weeks (and beyond of course). No procrastinating. I look forward to it being refreshing, and helping me get my positive attitude back. And hopefully after the festival in September, I can finally afford that small kiln I so disparately need.

In unrelated news, my dreadies have been looking wonderful lately. They are long enough for me to tuck under my head bands and wraps now (well, most of them,haha). It looks rather nice. :)




Oh hey :)

Just some things I like

All of these Flickr-ers have shops on Etsy. :)

1. HUGE, Soft, Thick, Earthy, Bohemian Fringe-O-Rama - Ready for a Forest Walk in the Woodlands with Eclectic Mix of Every Color, Plus Neutrals - Twice as Thick as Usual , 2. Envy , 3. woodland sprite, 4. Fortune Teller Necklace, 5. Enchantment of the Pixies patchwork Dress, 6. Kijana, 7. Rainbow Hippie, 8. arab bell , 9. Little red riding hood

I've neglected you lately.

So sorry for not posting regularly. I don't have much of an excuse. I hope you forgive me! I have some new things though. :) More pics and details at the links.

Polymer Pod Necklace #1

Polymer Pod Necklace #2




Ceramic Pod bracelet

Fleetwood Mac, and unsuccessfully crashing a festival

Yay, I'm back! Overall, last week was great. The Fleetwood Mac concert was amazing and the trip to and from Columbus with Chandra to see them went smoothly. Here are some pics I took. Some make it look like it was much closer than we were, but that's just because they had two large screens above the audience to show the on-stage action better to those who were not close. So sometimes I just took a pic of the screen, haha. I have way more photo's of the concert than this but I figure this probably doesn't interest most of my readers, so here are just a few. :9








Then I stayed in Richmond (Ky) for the week and got to go back to the studio at EKU and work in my old studio space all week and see my art friends. That was super awesome, and I made some great beads (ceramic and glass) and more pod pendants. I'll post about the things I made later. I wish I had taken pics through the week, but I didn't. Boooo on me!

Then there was the Mushroom Festival in Irvine Ky which I was originally excited about, but ended up being extremely disappointed with. It's not that the festival itself was bad, there were a lot of nice booths, and it was much larger than I thought it was going to be. However, when Chandra called them a few weeks ago to see about us getting a booth, they told us there was still space and that they would call us back. That didn't happen, so she called them back and was told "Oh, no, we've been full since March." Gee, thanks. A similar thing happened to another good friend of mine who called even before March and was told they would send him an application for a booth, and he never received it. The all around vibe from them just seemed unprofessional.
But despite that news, Chandra is a bit of a rebel sometimes and thought maybe we can set up somewhere nearby the festival and still make some much needed money. I was all for that. Seemed like a harmless shot. Lets crash this festival! ...sort of. It was so hot out this past weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and we only had three hours of sleep the night before, but that Saturday we set up our table around the corner from the festival in the only spot we could find. We were too cranky and tired to bother with our tent, so we looked a little understated. No one bothered us or questioned why we were there. No one told us to take our "booth" down. There was actually some people with a sort of yard sale set up in the parking lot next to us. "Excellent!" we though. But then we only sold two things allllll day. Luckily for me they were my items. But regardless, that still sucks. But on the bright side, our spot was free, and there was always tomorrow. And we would have our tent up then, and look so much nicer!
So that Sunday we get to our spot and set up the tent, which was way easier than we thought it was going to be. We had our batiked scarves hanging from the side, and the purses Chandra's mom makes, and some things I had crocheted. Our jewelry was displayed on the table with the boxes Chandra's roommate paints here and there. It looked so nice! And as soon as we got it all set up and could sit down to relax, a man walks over to us and asks "Who gave you girls permission to set up here?" *blank stares, fast thinking* We explained our situation to him but of course we still had to tear down. We were so freakin' mad. A cop even drove by and told us the mayor had called us in. At least the officer was nice enough to tell us if we set up on the other side of the Irvine bridge we didn't have to have permission from anyone. But regarless, give me a break. The mayor? Really? Nothing better to do? That's small town Kentucky for ya. Not to mention that Chandra was told by the festival people that if any booths became available they would call her. Yet when I went hunting for a bathroom, I myslef spotted an empty booth space. And the guy that originally approached us told us himslef that threre were three! He got our number down to have someone call us if we could fill one of those spaces, but after all that crap, and it being sooooo hot out, we didn't feel like fooling with it any more. There were only about 5 hours left in the festival anyway. So theres the story of the mushroom festival. I tried to make it short. :p And I didn't even get any pictures! I was putting it off for Sunday since we were so tired and hot Saturday, and then that mess happened, so it just didn't happen. ugh. whatever, over all my week was still great. And while I was away, I was on he front page of Etsy and got featured on a popular website, and someones bog! But I'll talk about that tomorrow. I have things to make!

Do all of these need titles?

New listing I love and would just keep if I didn't need money:


More pics and details in my shop, right here.

I have some artists to feature soon too, starting tomorrow. :)

Finally used my felt

I finally got around to completing a project with the roving I purchased from Copperpot on Etsy.
I also used the rest of the ceramics beads I had made late last year.

You can find this in my shop

It was tempting to just keep it! But I still have plenty of that roving left so its all good. :) I also priced this a bit cheaper than what it probably should be because I know a lot of people are feeling the economy, so it's a pretty darn good deal.
Off to finish another necklace! :D

Staying busy

I've not been online as much lately because I've been trying to get my commission finished to make 10 of my flora and botany necklaces for the Elmhurst Art Museum gift shop.

Letting the varnish dry on some of the beads a few days ago. i like to stick them on copper wires and jab'em into a block of polymer to dry.
A lot of people like to post their work space which is usually a nice desk area with lots of shelves and drawers and a tool rack, etc.. Maybe even in its own special room. But my work space is just the coffee table in between the couch and the television. So that's pretty much it. I'd like to move it to where my computer is now, but then I'd have to move my computer and stereo somewhere and there's just nowhere decent to reassign everything. Ahhh, post college life!



Beads: check, original necklace for reference: check, wireless mouse to change the songs on my pandora radio station from the couch: check, coffee: super check! ....


Mmmm, bag o' finished beads. :)

Little helper by my side: check!


I've mentioned this before but I like to roll out a strip of polymer clay to hold my beads on before I string them. This holds odd shaped beads in the position they will be when strung to give you a more accurate idea of what your piece will look like. And it doesn't leave any kind of residue on your beads.
You know all of my ceramic pod pendants that aren't in my shop anymore? This is why. I'm using the ones I had left for these necklaces. But in a couple of weeks I will be back by campus for a week and in the studio where I will be whipping out as many as possible, so if you've always wanted one don't fret.
I'll be going with one of my bestest friends to see Fleetwood Mac in Columbus on the 17th, and then staying with her up by campus for a week because the following weekend is the Kentucky morel mushroom festival, and we are getting a booth. :D I'm so excited! I have so much stuff to make for it. Gotta get busy!

So much newness!

I am so proud that I finally finished the necklace I talked about a short while back. Since graduating, I've not had any big 'projects' to work on really, so I gave myself one. And finishing it feels really good. Not worrying about it being graded feels pretty good too. ;D



Details about this necklace are right here in my shop.

And now that I've bombarded your computer with all those photos, I have a few more. I've added a ton of new photo's to my photography shop on Etsy TheUnderstory, but I'll just post a couple of my favorites and if you want you can go check out the others. :)

Resting Petals



Dandelions Are Flowers Too dandelion study n. 4

I hope everyone's week is going lovely! :)

A cold frosty morning

The dogs woke me up at about 7am this morning to go out, and when I stepped outside I was surprised at how frosty the ground was. It was cold! But it was soooo pretty out. Since it may have been the last frosty morning of the year where I live, I wanted to take some pictures. I got one print out of it all. :)

Morning Chill

Some other pics I took:

More pendants, and a focal bead

I'm having fun making these! I also made some earrings I loooove but they still need ear hooks. They aren't quite up to par to be sold, but I will make a pair that is, and keep this pair for me, stretched ears be damned, haha. i'll post them later as I've not gotten pics of them yet, and my sunlight is gone.
On with the lovelies!

Forest leaves hand sculpted polymer clay pendant




Spring Pod hand sculpted polymer clay pendant

And my favorite...

Spring Leaves hand sculpted polymer clay focal bead