Busy, busy...

I've had my nose to the grindstone of late, cranking out all kinds of pink earrings.

But now my kiddos are on Winter Break, so we're off to the Jelly Belly Warehouse.  I'm not actually a fan of jelly beans, but I love factory-tour type thingies, so this should be fun.  Pics forthcoming...

A Pair of Maxims

In this house, we have a saying.  He who fries the latkes eats the broken ones.  Oy.  Not a whole lot of them made it to the table tonight.

Another saying: She who makes the earrings doesn't get to keep them all.  Dang it.

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The Comeback Kid?

I had things going for a while, there.  New stuff in the shop bi-weekly, selling all over the place, featured on Handmadeology...and then I went to camp.  And then we moved.  And then the kids went back to school.  And then it was Yom Tov.  Nothing sold, nothing listed.  My biggest accomplishments were of the laundry and dishes variety, and I was starting to feel a little like an ex-jewelry-artist.  But the sukkah came down today, and I managed to squeeze in a chunk of time at the workbench.  The sleepover guests have driven off into the sunset, and the kiddos head back to school in the morning.  So tomorrow, all being well, should be a pretty good day in the shop.  I've got a bunch of new goodies to list, and I'm fairly chuffed about the whole rigamarole.  Want a sneaky-peeky?  Here's what I got before the camera batteries bailed on me.

Still here.

Cool porch, no?  And the kids are terrifying the dog-walkers and joggers alike as they careen down the ramp on their bikes...

The new house is a marvel of freshly-finished floors and just-painted (or just-about-to-be-painted) rooms.  The basement makes the Labyrinth look like child's play and the garage is chock-a-block with the vast majority of our possessions,  but the overall impression is favorable.  The laundry chutes work, the studio is coming along, and the bathrooms are intact, though terrifying.  (Seriously---who paints over the shower tile?  Wait!  It must be the same people who---I kid you not---wallpapered the entire kitchen with Contac paper.)

The kids' rooms are set up, for the most part, but Jess and I are shacked up in the basement until he can harness some manpower to help move our beds upstairs.  The paint colors we chose (long-distance) are fine, for the most part, although the creamy yellow in the living and dining rooms is a little more washed out than I'd hoped for, and the Honeydew that the little girls decided on at the last minute has kind of a neon subtext that borders on being less than soothing.  The kitchen---aqua walls, red accents, and black and white checkered floors---is a glorious sight to behold, although I'm in a snit about the flooring.  Pattern, fab!  Texture, FAIL.  Grainy.  Who makes grainy kitchen flooring?  Suffice it to say that the floor-maintenance department is unimpressed.  Pics forthcoming.

I'm mid-dresser-rehab, in the midst of the madness, and am making a slapdash job of it.  The girls are entranced, though, and can't wait to have the finished product in their psychedelic digs.  Just add princess crowns, and they're happy, thank goodness...

Akiva's 12th birthday came in a frenzy of chocolate-cake-making.  Given the fat that we'd been in the new house for a whopping three days and I'd yet to locate the majority of the Finer Things---like Shani's shoes, the damned baking powder, and all of our hangers---I felt justified in patting myself on the back for
a) unearthing the KitchenAid and
b) producing--- and serving!--- anything even remotely palatable.

Card art by Esti---she blows my mind.

The munchkins sally forth to school this week, and we're all looking forward with varying degrees of enthusiasm.   I'm hoping to have my act a bit more together in time to tackle the carpool-lunches-homework show with my usual aplomb, but have already accepted the fact that we may have to fake it for the first couple-few weeks.  No use being all Pollyanna-ish at my own expense...

No excuses.

The fact that I can't get internet in my bungalow shouldn't have stopped me from blogging.  Neither should the general busy-ness of camp.  Truth be told, I haven't been doing a lot of the "shoulds" on my list---my Etsy shop is languishing, my twitter account is near silent, and there's a list of calls as long as my arm that should have been made a month ago.  So, everything's going according to plan.

The art room is coming along nicely, though,  Check out the door to my supply room:

It makes me laugh every time I see it, which is a good thing, I think.  I'll paint my front door the same way when we get home.

There's been a bit of jewelry-making going on as well---mostly in fits and spurts in the wee small hours of the morning.

I'm a little in love with them, but they'll be in the shop tonight nonetheless.  assuming I get my act together, and get around to posting them.  (Having a bit of a motivational slump, you see?  Working on it...) 

Busy, busy.

I always pretend that going to camp is a vacation.  I don't do laundry or dishes and I don't do much in the way of cooking, but otherwise, I'm a slave to the art room.  (And I love it.  Don't get me wrong...) Between brainstorming for project ideas, making samples, setting up, cleaning up, and actually teaching, the day passes in a blissful blur.  Then there are the countless of requests for lanyard or bracelet string, the "I broke my ring/headband/shoe, can you fix it" queries, and the oft-heard need for posterboard for birthday signs.  This year, since I have a new space to jazz up, I've been painting the walls whenever there's a stretch of unfilled time, as well. 

Evenings and early mornings, I hang out with my own kidlets and make goodies for the shop.  These are my new favorites---the Benadryl earrings.  With those colors, I couldn't have called them anything else.

These are called Paint the Town Red--I'm gaga over the little vintage bead-buttons I found for the dangles.

 So I've been hitting the button box pretty hard, but take heart!  There are melted marble pendants on the horizon.  What can I say?  I have a kiln, and I'm going to use it!

The moment you've all been waiting for?

We reached into the hat and pulled out a winner...

...and her name is...

Denise, let me know what pair of words you'd like on your Dictionary Sacrifice earrings, and I'll get them out to you posthaste. 

Thanks to all of you who commented,  liked always greener on Facebook, followed littlegreenbums,  and joined in the fun...lots of good ideas out there!  

(Lots of obsessive-compulsive word gamers, too, it seems.  My peeps!)

Feel like a Winner?

With all of the prep for Pesach, the novelty of running the Etsy shop, and the usual thrills, chills and excitement that are part and parcel of my daily grind, I've decided to chuck another log on the fire and have a little giveaway. The lucky winner will get a pair of uber-cool Dictionary Sacrifice Earrings similar to these:

I say "similar" because I've only got one big dictionary to chop up, and the ones in the photo are headed out to their new home (hi, Katie!) in the morning.   So I'll whip up a custom pair for my giveaway winner (it could be you!) and send them out in one of my fancy-schmancy, handmade, eco-friendly, upcycled, origami boxes.  Here's the deal:  all you have to do to be entered in the drawing is leave a comment on this post with a "________ &__________" combination.  (Twist & Shout, Pickles & Ice Cream, Mutt & Jeff...you get the picture, right?)  For a second entry, you can choose to become a follower of my blog or "like" Always Greener on Facebook.  Easy-peasy, right?  I'll draw the winning name on Thursday, April 21st.  Good luck!

Is it wrong to swoon over something you've made with your own two hands?

I hope not.  Because these make me positively giddy each and every time I look at them.

And these are having a similar effect.

My Creative Space: Etsy!

It's done.  For all of you who've been listening to me whine and moan about the rigors of Etsy-shop-creation, here is the fruit of our labor!  My teeny little shop, always greener, opened its virtual doors very quietly last week, and made its first sale while its keyboard-ravaged proprietress slumbered last night.  (Thanks, Nic!)

I hope your creative space has been as exhilarating as mine has this week...

(And on a more humble note, check out my gap-toothed daughter!)

Out like a lamb, my eye...

Still freezing here, although there's no more snow on the ground.  The days are longer, the crocuses are emerging, and I'm still sleeping under three blankets.  When I'm sleeping, that is.  I seem to be doing less and less of that, as Pesach approaches, as camp approaches, and as the Etsy shop slowly, slowly takes shape.  The light box has been banished to a dark corner of the basement in favor of a mildly sunny window, and my goal for this week is to crank out an item each day. To photograph and write a listing for one item, each day, as well.  Oh, yeah---and to feed and clothe the kidlets each day, and make sure that they get their daily recommended allotments of both shampoo and Quality Time.

 

My Creative Space: Messy

My space this week is a mess, both physically and psychologically. The actual earring-production is humming along nicely, but the Etsy shop stuff has sent me into something of a tizzy. I've been messing around with my camera/ DIY lightbox setup all week, and this is about the best I've managed:

 Not bad, I guess, but the earrings are silver, and here they look kind of gold-ish to me.

I'm assuming my photos will improve with practice. (Don't tell me otherwise, okay?)  This brings us to my final three Areas Of Significant Concern.  

1.  Packaging:  Should be fairly inexpensive, reasonably attractive, eco-friendly and sturdy.  Anyone?

2.  Capital.  Who knew it would be so pricey to set up shop? The Etsy fees, PayPal fees, and materials costs aren't the worst of it---it's the legal paperwork that needs to be filed that's going to do me in...

3.  The price of silver:  When I went to the bead shop yesterday, they wanted $40 for for five feet  of sterling silver wire.  I offered to trade them a small child, but no dice.  (Actually, bearing this little nugget of information in mind, maybe the materials costs are the worst of it.)

Check out some spaces in less dire need of Concerta and Valium over at Kirsty's.

Step by step, inch by inch...

I'm getting closer to opening Ye Olde Etsy Shoppe.  My business cards have arrived,

I've finished building the lightbox which will magically transform my dreadful photos into marketing marvels, and I went for broke at Harbor Freight today.  There was a rock tumbler on clearance, and it was about $80 less than the ones I've been pricing out.  Needless to say, it came home with me, and will soon be busily tumbling my more delicate pieces to strengthen the wire.  (Note:  I've been wanting one of these suckers since fourth grade.   You can bet your bottom dollar it'll also be tumbling pebbles and my poly-clay beads, once I get around to making poly-clay beads again.  "Maybe during the summer," she said hopefully...)

I made a couple of pairs of earrings this week in new and thrilling styles, and if my camera batteries weren't in the charger you can be certain I'd have posted pics of them, too.  As it is, though, you'll have to be content to admire my business cards till the light on the charger goes green.

Hope your Monday--or your Tuesday, friends in Oz--is full of good stuff...

My Creative Space: It's official.

I'm officially in business, although I'm still in the (molasses-slow) process of setting up my Etsy shop.  I've ordered my business cards and registered with the State Department of Revenue.  I frittered away a ridiculous amount of time attempting to come up with a logo, but evidently my creative talents aren't quite that far-reaching.  (If anybody knows of a graphic artist who's willing to work for jewelry, send them my way, please...)

Meanwhile, Purim preparations are underway chez nous.  A tiny Snow White has my attention at the moment---as does my ever-steady sewing machine, which decided last night to buck tradition and fluke out on me.  Therefore, Shani's costume will have been sewn entirely without benefit of the presser foot.  Nothing like a little drama to liven things up, hey?

All out of lobes.

It's official.  I have more earrings than I can possibly wear. 

I figured my teenaged daughter could pick up the slack, but between us, we're still outnumbered. 

So I'm thinking I may give selling them a go, but where do I begin?  Etsy?  Artfire?  Alongside the road?

And what about photos?  (Clearly, this is an area where I need some work.)

  What on earth would I call my shop?  Surely littlegreenbums" would be inappropriate...

How does one price these things?  

And what in the world shall I do with this bevy of buttons?

Tell all, Gentle Readers, tell all!