New Pieces

I've made some new pieces that I will be adding to the store over the next few days.



The first one was added last week. It is similar to ones I've done before with the wire wrapping technique on the pendant. I thought the colors were very beautiful.



This piece will be added to the store today. It is a bit of a departure for me. I had been focusing more on pendants rather than beading. But lately I have felt myself drawn to heavier beaded necklaces with richer colors. I am really liking these new pieces.

Drawing



I've also been experimenting with drawing. Well doodling actually, I really can't draw. Its been fun, kind of like art class in grade school. I take pens or pencils and any kind of paper I have lying around and just see what happens.

I don't think I'm creating any works of art but I am really enjoying the process. I took some of the doodles that I thought were best and turned them into pendants. I am still working on what protective coating will be the best before I can list them. Of course I'm using other drawings for he coating experiments so I don't ruin these.

What do you think? Is this something you would like to see in my shop? Or should I just keep this for fun?

Crochet

I've been crocheting alot. It's something I've always done. Usually I crochet with wire to make jewerly. But lately I've rediscovered yarn.

Maybe its the cooler weather or maybe its part of the new me, but I've been making things for my family. I've already made a hat for my daughter. I also made a hat and a scarf for myself.

I find myself drawn to yarn and fiber. I've even been known to skip the bead store in favor of the yarn store. I'm not sure if this is the new direction I'll be taking with my creations or if its just a stop along the way. Either way I am enjoying the process.

Search for Creativity

I've been ignoring ReneeDesigns. Ignoring a part of myself.

For the past few months I have been living at a new home. Blogging about my life with my daughter, my joy. Becoming a stay-at-home mom has been a wonderful experience. But . . .

But, I've let things that I enjoy slide. Maybe its exhaustion that has caused it. For whatever reason I have not felt the spark that lead me to obsessively create. This led me to give up the name of ReneeDesigns. I also considered closing my Etsy store.

But not long after I hit publish on that blog, I began to regret it. I still create on a daily basis. I still make jewelry. I crochet. I paint. I make collages. Maybe its not the direction I saw my life going but it is something. It is creating.

I don't know what direction I am going to take. But I am willing to try new things, to explore new avenues. To find ReneeDesigns again. I want to use this blog as a vehicle in my exploration. I want to detail my new creative endeavors. I want to share the things that are exciting me. I want to profile those who inspire me.

Day 4

Today's piece is from the crochet series I am working on for my original store. It is sterling silver with a gold border. It is a beautiful piece and looks stunning on. However as is the case with many of my items, it does not photograph well. The crochet in the middle tends to blur.

Day 2 and 3

Here are two more ACEOs for my new shop Bunnylu. Both use recycled junk mail, magazine and book text and watercolors.

I love playing around with ACEOs. The small scale really appeals to me. You will probably be seeing more of these this month.

A new piece a day for June - Day 1

I've decided to post a new piece on this blog every day for the month of June.

Now this is a bold pronouncement for me. If you've ever read this blog or looked at my store, you know I am not an overly productive person. I haven't posted here in almost a month and I've only listed 4 new pieces all year in my store. Lately I've been all about ignoring this aspect of my life.

So why do this? Maybe because its 11 pm on a Sunday and I can't sleep. Maybe its because I have all of this free time while staying home with my two year old (no that's not it). Maybe its because I've posted nearly every day on my other blog and want to try the same thing here. Maybe I think this will finally be the kick in the pants I need to get my creative juices flowing. Or maybe I just like making grand pronouncements.

I'm not sure what the reason is but I've gone ahead and made the promise. Now I just have to follow through.

Today's piece is an ACEO (Artist Card Edition Original) I've made for my new store Bunnylu (which is not open yet). I've used watercolor on a recycled magazine subscription insert with text from magazines and books. Let me know what you think.

Another new piece in the crochet series. I originally envisioned these earrings being flat circles but as I went along they started to curve and I really liked the effect.

I am still considering opening the new store for the recycled pieces. There is one day left to vote in my poll. Let me know what you think.

Another day another listing

I am really loving these new bangles I listed. At first I thought about keeping them for myself. But they are so pretty I thought I'd share them with the world.

It seems like spring is actually here in Milwaukee a month or two late. That means more time spent outside, more natural light to take pictures and more inspiration for me. 74 degrees today and a trip to the garden store to get some plants for my window box. This is the life.

New additions

I've finally updated my shop with new jewelry. I added these lovely two tone bracelets.

I took a bunch of photos yesterday so I will be adding more throughout the week. I still don't have my old computer back but I loaded Picasa editing software onto my computer. The combination of outdoor lighting and the new software have resulted in what I think to be some pretty snazzy photos.

Don't forget to take my poll on whether I should streamline by opening a new store for my recycled paper jewelry.

New Shop?

I'm thinking about opening a new shop. I would transfer all of my recycled paper jewelry and other trashion items to the new store. I may also add some of the ACEOs I've been working on. The new store would be called Bunny Foo, recycled jewelry and art by reneedesigns.

The reneedesigns store would then be used for the new crocheted pieces that I have along with some of my existing inventory.

I like the idea of having a streamlined more cohesive look for my main store and the new store would allow me to experiment.

What do you think?

Sales kit

I am still working on a sales kit to take into stores. I have a bunch of inventory but I am not sure how much of it to use. I've been really focusing all of my creative energy on crochet jewlery. I have really liked the results so far. But I also have a bunch of beaded and wire wrapped stuff.

Do I include some of the old stuff in the kit thinking that I may want to go back to it? Or do I just focus on my newer works?

I'd appreciate some opinions.

Ok the computer is still broken and I haven't made a decision about reclaiming the data on the busted hard drive. I think I will but I don't really know.

I've been working on these really cool crocheted bangle bracelets that you can stack. Now I know some of you are saying "Oh sure, I'll believe it when I see it" because you've read this blog before. But I really have been. In fact, here's some proof:




So there. But what good does this do me when I can't edit the photos to get them into listing shape? Well none really. Except it gives me an incentive to go back to my local boutiques and have them carry more of my jewelry. So I'm putting together a sales kit as we speak and hope to hit the stores in the next week or so (depending on babysitting avaliability). I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

Technological Dark Ages

That's where I've been living for the past few days. My beloved Mac's hard drive crashed and I have lost everything on my computer. And of course I haven't backed it up since well since ever.

The only thing I really care about is the pictures. We had all of our pictures from China on it. To lose all of those pictures just kills me every time I think about it. We have a few saved on our blog and I think I can get some from our traveling companions, but we had so many beautiful pictures of our little girl.

The guy at the Apple store said we can pay some firm to retrive the data on the dead hard drive. It might be fairly costly. But at this point it may be worth it. And I need to make this decision soon because the repairs can't start until we've done this or decided not to do it.

We hooked up an old PC laptop with no software on it. The only thing we can do is access the internet. So there will be no new photos on the blog or listings in my Etsy shop until further notice. Sigh.

Academy Awards


In honor of Diablo Cody , who was filmed for her nomination photo wearing a saucy hat with veil while writing, I will be writing this blog while wearing my favorite hats this week. I will start off with this cloche from melissahappystuff's etsy shop. Will it change my writing style? Probably not, but I'll look cooler while writing.

Every year hubs and I watch the Academy Awards together. We get a list of nominees and make our picks. Of course we haven't seen all the movies but that is what makes it fun. The winner usually wins based on foreign language film or sound editing which are complete guesses.

This year was a pathetic showing for me. I had seen two nominated films, Michael Clayton and Sweeny Todd. That's it, only two films. So everything was pretty much a guess for me. But I only got three right. Three. Hubs had a runaway victory with nine correct guesses. And he only saw one film.

So next year either I'll have to see more films or make better guesses to regain my winning ways.

I missed the red carpet so I don't have much to say on the fashion choices. I'll have to wait for the E! Fashion Police recaps.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Well I've slowly started working on my craft room. I'm following Martha's advice and am getting rid of a lot of paper. I have a pile for recycling and a pile for shredding. Hubby convinced me not to spend the money on a shredder since he has free shredding at work. I guess its also a good thing I didn't by a shredder because I found an article given to me by our doctor about baby proofing areas that often get over looked - the article mentioned a toddler who lost an arm in a shredder. Yikes! So that's enough for a paranoid mom not to get a shredder.

I'm not quite ready to take another picture because it actually looks worse than before (with the aforementioned piles). But I know that I am making progress and that's the most important thing.

Above is a new pendant I've finished. Its a basic crocheted circle with a garnet in the middle. I really like the simplicity.

I'm not sure if I'm happy with my new pictures or not. I don't think I have a bright enough light for the light box to be making a difference. I am using two halogen desk lamps aimed right at the box. The pictures are definitely brighter but I am still not getting the definition or contrast I want with the crocheted pieces. I've been playing around with Photoshop and hopefully I will hit on the right combination.

Peace and Quiet

I don't get a lot of peace and quiet in my day to day life. Well I guess I have peace but quiet is hard to find around an active 2 year old chatterbox.

But this morning I couldn't sleep because I was having trouble breathing from my new cold (and I just got over the last one), so I got up at 5:00 am. Now me and 5:00 am are not really good friends. In fact I've only seen it voluntarily when I had a plane to catch or an early meeting.

But there is something so interesting about sitting in a quiet house when even the cats are still asleep. I can hear the heater kick in from time to time and the rain outside my window. I sat on the couch looking out at the rain (thankful that it hadn't turned into snow - yet) drinking my tea. I sketched out some ideas for new designs. Depending on when the wee one wakes up, I may even do some cleaning.

I know I'll pay for this early morning later on and have to take a nap. But for right now, I am grateful for the solitude.

Martha Stewart I think I love you

Now that is a sentence I never thought I'd write, but its true. I was planning on tackling the mess that is my craft room this weekend and wasn't sure where to start. There is a home for all of the craft supplies, so its just a question of putting stuff where it belongs.

The real problem for me was / is paper. I have so much paper - bills, records, miscellaneous info etc that I don't know what to do with it. My filing cabinet is full. I have piles of stuff to be filed. And I'm pretty sure I don't need to keep more than 1/2 of it. But I do.

But then the new issue of Martha Stewart arrived in my mail box. I have been meaning to cancel the subscription for years but its on a credit card so I always forget. Well on a whim I opened it looking for new collage images and there it was, an article on how to organize your office. What to keep and for how long and what you can shred. Just what I needed.

Now I just need a shredder.

Valentines Day or a meditation on love

Love, love, love is the most wonderful thing in the world. If we had more love in the world, there would definitely be less problems and conflict. So why is it that we have only one day to celebrate our love?

Shouldn't everyday be Valentines Day? Now I don't mean every day you have to get chocolate or flowers (although that would be nice - especially the chocolate part). But shouldn't you tell those you love that you love them every day? Shouldn't you want to shout it from the roof tops? Isn't that what love is all about?

Now since I've been waxing poetic you would think Valentines Day would be really special in our house. Not so much this year. Hubby gave me a peck on the cheek (because he has a nasty cold), told me he loved me and wished me a Happy Valentines Day. That's it, short and sweet.

Did I do anything special for hubby? Um well no. Its Thursday and its all I can do to keep my head above water during the week. Tomorrow night we'll have a special dinner after the wee one goes to bed. A nice time to reconnect.

Now as for the wee one, the object of my undying affection, she got a special present, the lovely (ok homley) handmade plush monsters pictured above. It was my first try and I had fun making them. She looked at them, squeezed them, said "Squishy" and then threw them on the floor where they still sit. But I don't mind.

Happy Valentines Day. Tell someone you love them today and every day.

Mom friends

Now that I am a stay at home mom, I am working on developing some mom friends. You see all of my friends who live in town don't have children so they can't really relate to anything that is going on with me. So its time to meet some moms.

The problem is I'm shy, kind of a loner and get nervous when I meet new people. I never know what to say to break the ice. I've been taking the wee one to all sorts of group activities where there are other kids for her to play with and moms for me to meet. But they all seem to know each other and tend to congregate in their own groups while the kids play. Now if I were normal, I'd just walk up and say hi. What are they going to do laugh at me? ignore me? Well maybe but probably not.

Someone describe making mom friends like dating and it is so true. Well I hated dating and was infinitely lucky that the cute boy that is my hubby decided to ask me out. Now I have to wait for a cool mom to ask me out too, until I can work up the courage to do the asking.