New year, a new me?

Its that time of year to make resolutions. And like so many others I have my fair share of things I'd like to change / do in the new year.

But I am a bit lazy and a bit of a procrastinator (ok a huge procrastinator) so my resolutions always fall flat. However, this year may be different. Because of this wonderful blog I can publish my resolutions to the world (or to the 4 people who may actually be reading this) and hopefully you can help me hold my feet to the fire.

So here goes nothing:

1. Create more jewelry. Simple enough to do, right? Its something I love to do so why wouldn't I create more? Well this is were the above mentioned procrastination and laziness come in, I could make jewelry or I could take a nap, or do laundry or well you get the idea.

So this is my resolution: Post 3 new pieces on this blog per week.

2. Lose weight. I'd love to lose 30 pounds but would be estatic with 20 and perfectly content with 10. So how to overcome my laziness and procrastination? I've joined two on-line communities for weight loss so I'll have tons of support to help me avoid eating an entire candy bar or bag of chips because I'm bored. I'll even post updates here from time to time.

I've already made so many changes over the past year that I think I am in the right frame of mind to make these changes too.

Meanwhile what about my plans for New Years Eve you ask? Well they will be exciting - after the wee one goes to bed a dinner of Filet, baked potato and salad along with some great wine. Then maybe some board games or a movie and if we are lucky hubby and I may actually stay up until midnight to ring in the New Year. Or else we'll be in bed by 10.

Ch ch changes

A lot has changed since my last post. I got fired from my job (along with all of my co-workers) and for a while was really bitter about it. But then I got over it and began to see it for what it was - a really great thing.

Getting fired forced me to take stock of my life. It made me make a decision that I had been thinking about for a long time. I am going to stay home with my daughter and work on my jewelry business.

Its going to be hard and we will have to make some sacrifices to make it work. But I truly believe that it is the right thing for me and my family.

So today is my last day of work. I was able to walk in with a spring in my step and a song in my heart, knowing that I have the best of all possible futures lying ahead of me.

Now I raise my cup of coffee and toast to the great unknown challenges that lie in front of me. I know that I will truly enjoy the ride.

Family Day One Year Later

Its hard to belive that it was just one year ago today that we were in China and met our beloved Vivienne Chao, Ivie to those who know and love her, for the first time. If you want to read our original posts on the day they are here and here along with our pictures here




What a difference a year makes. On Family Day, Ivie was this tiny scared little baby.



Today she is a self-confident little girl. She loves to dance, jump, read, run and play. She is speaking in small sentences like "More please hot dog mommy", "No bite people" (we've had a bit of an issue there) and "Get down kitty". She recognizes letters and when she sees writing in books she will start to recite the alphabet song (well as much of it as she can remember). She has also started memorizing some of her favorite books and can recite parts of them along with me when I read.




She loves spending time with our family. She can't wait to see her Amas (grandma) and Bacas (grandpa). In fact when I told her that Ama and Baca G and Ama F were coming over tonight she said "two Amas". She also loves to play with her cousins and will ask about Alex and Arie.



She loves going to the Zoo to see all the animals. Her favorite parts are the playground in the kids area, the Family Farm (with the cows and bunnies) and the Zoo train. She loves yelling "Choo Choo" and "All Aboard" at the top of her lungs.




Another favorite activity is dancing. Well really its more spinning around and hopping up and down. She will be hopping around to No More Monkeys or the Bunny Hop and decide that Scott and I should join her. She will say "Dance Mommy" and "Dance Daddy" and then grab our hands and jump some more.

She has just brought so much joy to our lives. It is hard to remember what our life was like without her. I look forward to many more anniversarys and to experiencing all the joy yet to come.

Crafting For China Charity Challenge Update



Well there are only two weeks remaining in my Crafting for China Charity Challenge to benefit the Half the Sky Foundation (see here for information)

So far I've sold 4 items for a total of $54.40. While that is great, I haven't made any progress since my last update. So for the last two weeks of the Challenge, I am increasing my donations to 75% of the proceeds from the Charity section in my shop and 35% of the proceeds from the remainder of the shop





I am still hoping to reach my goal of $300 to sponsor a child for a year. Hopefully I will reach it.

Pure Joy

Sometimes we can get so caught up in what is going on in our lives that we forget to enjoy ourselves. I know that I am guilty of this very often.

Watching my daughter play reminds me of the pure joy that can be found in life if you open yourself up to it. Nothing makes her happier than dancing, singing, reading her books and playing with her favorite toy of the moment.

She has recently taken up "cooking". Sometimes she is at her kitchen set and sometimes she is at her little "table" which is really a low shelf on the tv stand that she sits on and our speaker which doubles as a table (yes I know she needs a real table which she will get for Christmas). She takes her stacking cups and pretends to mix and measure. She will then come over to me and Scott with a huge smile on her face. She will either hand us the cups or feed us herself. She looks so proud of what she has created, it makes me want to cry with happiness.

This is what is important, not the day to day grind, the little things that give us joy.

Running A Business Part 2

So I looked through my materials on running a business and the first thing I am going to be working on is defining where I fit in the marketplace. My dear friend Sonja will get a big kick out of me using all this "MBA speak" on my little jewelry business. But it is a valid question.

The short answer is I make jewelry. Well so do a million other people. So what makes my jewelry unique so people will actually want to buy from me and not from the other million?

Looking at my Etsy shop I don't really see a cohesive look. I have twisted wire pieces, some beaded pieces and some paper collage pieces. Is this a problem? Should I have one store for my more traditional pieces and one for the more experimental Trashion / collage pieces?

I'd love to have some opinions from you all while I ponder this question. I hope to have some answers next Tuesday.

Running a business

Although I might not always see it as such, my jewelry design has evolved into a business.

When I started out designing it was purely for the love of creating. I saw something that I liked in a store and said, "I can make that better myself." I wandered into bead shops browsing through the strands of beautiful beads seeking inspiration which was easy to come by.

If I wanted to learn a new technique, I would try to figure it out on my own or I would buy a book or magazine with a tutorial. The possibilities were endless. I created for myself, I created what I loved.

That passion for creation lead to an amazing amount of jewelry. I had to do something with it. I gave it to friends and relatives for every conceivable present giving occasion and sometimes just because.

But just like I couldn't possibly wear everything I made, my friends and family were reaching a saturation point as well. I had to start selling to other people. I started out at a local farmer's market. Every Saturday I would set up my tent and eagerly await my customers. I always sold something, at least one thing. But more often than not I sold lots of pieces. It was an amazing feeling, people I didn't know loved my work as much as I did.

After that experience, I ventured into some local boutiques selling pieces on consignment. It was fun to walk into a store and see your jewelry displayed next to professional designers.

But all this time, I never really treated it as a business. It was a fun hobby that I made some money doing. The money went to buy more beads and sometimes it helped me buy something for myself.

When I started selling on Etsy in March of this year it was also a fun little experiment. If I put my stuff on the internet, what would happen. If I opened my shop would people come? The short answer is no, not really. They didn't know I was there.

So I started promoting, promoting, promoting. That helped somewhat. People began to know I was there. They hearted my shop, showing that they liked what I was doing. But the sales didn't necessarily follow. I got frustrated and jewerly was no longer fun for me. This lead to my creative funk that I've detailed here before.

Well I've gotten my creative mojo back and am again creating for the love of creating. But what to do? I now know I need to channell some of this creative energy into running my business. I've been through some training sessions at my day job on how to run a successful business. The lessons I've learned there definitely apply to jewelry. But how to make them fun? This is my challenge.

I'll be posting some of what I've learned on this blog in the next few days to see if I can turn my business from ok to good to great.

Waiting for the mail to come

I did some serious birthday shopping on Etsy last week. Hubby also bought me a few goodies from there. So I've been running home every day to see what prettys have come in the mail.



So far I have received these gorgeous earrings from Foundling



This awesome hat from Melissam4715 with my bobbed hair I look like a real flapper in it. Now if it would only get cold enough to wear.



Finally, I got this beautiful print from YumiYumi

Still waiting on a few more goodies. I feel like a little kid waiting for santa to come.

Lazy Hazy Day

Today is just one of those days I wish I could stay at home with the wee one snuggled under the covers making jewelry. The wee one was feeling a bit punky this morning. Rather than being wound up and raring to go, she let me snuggle her for at least an hour. She started getting back to her normal self after a while so I decided to send her off to day care.

I'm feeling off today as well. I think its the weather. There is such a thick fog over the city that I couldn't see the tallest building in town just two blocks away from my office. Very strange to see one building and then nothing next to it.



I've been working on my charms for the Trashion Street Team charm swap. At first I looked at using some found objects like washers and other random bits I found on the street. It sounded like a good idea but it really wasn't what I do. So then I hit on making some more of my paperdolls and creating little outfits for them. So I have been spending the past few nights designing my paperdoll wardrobe. I'll post pictures of the finished results.

I am exicted for the charm swap because I will be getting 5 charms from other members which I hope to work into a really cool charm bracelet or necklace. I can't wait to see what these crafty people come up with.

Getting older

I turned 38 on Friday and you know what, it was no big deal.




I used to worry about getting older but now I realize it was just a superficial worry. I am at a point in my life that I am happy. I love my husband and my daughter. We are starting the process to adopt a second child. I get to create beautiful jewelry and play around with other fun crafts. Life is good and its not going to change just because there is another candle on the birthday cake.

That being said, there are definitely some things I want to change this year. For one I need to get into shape and to lose about 15 pounds. Lately I've liked eating and drinking wine a bit to much and have not exercised as much as I should.

Second, I need to get my business organized. My work room is finally in shape where I have a place to create. Now I need to get my pieces photoed and posted. I also need to concentrate on promoting my Etsy shop and getting more pieces into the brick and mortar shops that currently carry my designs.

So all in all I think 38 is going to be a good year for me.

Internet Friends

With this blog and running my jewerly business on-line I have met a lot of people that I call "friends".

I have found incredibly creative and supportive people here and on the Etsy Forums. They get the need to obsessively create, the joy one can find in a new strand of beads or a beautiful skein of yarn. They also tend to be very smart, insightful and funny people. Just the kind of people, I'd like to be my friends.

But I haven't met any of them in person, and that seems a bit weird to me.

So I decided to organize a get together for Etsians in Milwaukee. It will be so cool to finally be able to put a face with a shop name and avatar. Today I am having lunch with Barflybling (Laurie) to organize the get together. It was funny to convo eachother with pictures and what we are wearing so we'll know eachother when we meet, even though we've been talking for a while now.

I'm looking forward to meeting them but I also like the anonymity that I have with my other internet friends.

New designs on the horizon

I've got my jewelry mojo back. Its been missing in action for a while now but its back, baby its back. There are so many ideas floating around in my head just waiting to come out.

I've made a few new pendants and just need to photo them so I can post on Etsy. I've also got some earring and bracelet designs waiting to come to life.

I'm still experimenting with other mediums such as collage and painting but jewerly is my first love. I'm glad we've been able to reconnect.

Crafting for China Charity Challenge Update




I am almost one month into my Crafting for China Charity Challenge to benefit the Half the Sky Foundation.

For those of you who don't know, my husband and I adopted our daughter from China last year. In her honor I am donating 50% of the proceeds of sales from items in the charity section of my Etsy shop and 20% of the proceeds from the sale of the other items to Half the Sky to benefit children living in Chinese orphanages.

So far I have sold 4 items and have raised $54.50. My goal is to raise $300 so that the Etsy shop can help sponsor a child for one year. I hope to reach that goal before the end of the Challenge on October 30th.

I'm going on vacation

A real live vacation for the first time in two years, since before we adopted the wee one. I will miss the wee one terribly but I am also really excited.




We are going to the Elk Lake Lodge in the Adirondack Mountains with our friends Matt and Sonja. (Matt was Scott's friend from college and Sonja was my friend from law school, they met at our wedding and are now married. Just had to share that cute aside.) The lodge is made up of rustic cabins which look just beautiful.

There is no television, no cell phones and no internet access. (although I am worried because I won't be able to call my parents to check on the wee one as often as I'd like. Just once a day from the main lodge phone.) It will be total relaxation. Matt and Sonja want to go hiking and I am sure that we will do some but Scott and I are just looking forward to relaxing.

I won't be getting the crisp fall weather that I was promised, its supposed to be in the 70s, so there won't be any fires at night. But the colors are supposed to be changing and it should just be beautiful.

I can't wait. A real live vacation, wow.

My Dad

My dad has been writing me letters every week for the past three years. Real letters sent through the mail. Even though we live only 20 minutes from each other and see each other at least once a week, he still takes the time to write. I can't tell you what it means to me to get these letters, I wait for them every week.

In the letters he shares bits of his life, what he and my mom are doing, how his golf game is going, what he is doing at work. He also shares a poem, article or cartoon. They may be focused on what is going on in my life, lately we've been getting articles regarding raising children to help us navigate the waters with the wee one. Or they may be something that is important to him that he wants to share with me. My dad studies meditation and has found lots of interesting articles and poems related to that inner journey.

A lot of times my life is so busy that I don't share with my dad how much these letters really mean to me. When my parents were out in California recenlty to visit my brother I didn't get my weekly letter. It felt kind of strange. So I went back through my file of letters, rereading them. I realized that so much of what he was saying and sharing was still relevant to me today. He talks a lot about being present in the moment and enjoying what is in front of you.

One of the poems that he has sent a few times really hit home, Ithaca by Constantine Cavafy. The poem talks about taking a journey to Ithaca, but it is about the journey not the destination. It made me think about making jewelry and making art. I shouldn't be so concerned with the output. I should really focus on the creative process. Why am I making this? Am I enjoying it? Does it make me happy? If I am happy with my process, the results won't matter. I will have learned something and expanded my horizions, the result will reflect that growth.

I should also enjoy my time with my hubby and the wee one. The moments we have now are so precious, I shouldn't worry about how we are going to pay for college or those things. That will all come with time. Just enjoy the silliness, the smiles, the hugs and the love.

So today I would like to thank my dad for his inspiration, for sharing his wisdom with me and for being a wonderful dad. Happy Birthday Dad.

Self Portrait Thursdays



There is a group of people on Flickr that take self portraits every Thursday and post them to the group site. I found out about this through Etsy and was immediately intrigued. You see I don't really have that many pictures of myself and I am not sure why. I don't mind having my photo taken and I am not camera shy. But its there, even my blog picture was taken 3 years ago - I couldn't find a new one to replace it.

Maybe its because my dad always was snapping pictures when I was younger. I learned how to pose when I was really young. I think the wee one will be the same.

Maybe its because when we go on vacation, I want to have pictures of the sites I see, not me in front of the sites. I know I was there, I don't need a photo to prove it. This drives my husband nuts.

Maybe its because I am always holding the camera. Its part of the control freak in me, I take better photos, so I'm gonna be the one to take them.

This is slowly starting to change with the wee one, I like having my picture taken with her because she is so darn cute.

So I decided to join this group and take pictures of myself every week. Its been fun and I have been pleased with the results. Who knows maybe you'll see alot more of me in the future.

Fall is almost here.

I for one am completely giddy. Last night I slept with the window open and the wonderful cold air blowing in while snuggling underneath the comforter. This morning I pulled on a pair of tights under my skirt and put on a new sweater practially dancing around the room. The wee one looked at me like I was crazy until I pulled out her fancy new red cords with a coordinating pink top and jean jacket. Her eyes got wide as she murmured "pretty" over and over again. So I think she gets my joy.

Fall in Wisconsin is my favorite season, with the beautiful colors and crisp weather. Summer is too hot and humid. Winter is well winter, they didn't nickname Lambeau Field the Frozen Tundra for nothing. Spring is nice but doesn't hold a candle to fall in my book. This fall will also mark the first Halloween with the wee one (we were in China last year) so I am already making plans to make it special.

I also have my upcoming trip to the Adirondack Mountains next week to keep me excited. We've rented a cabin with friends to go hiking. I have been promised cool weather and leaves turning all sorts of beautiful colors.

Meanwhile, I will continue crocheting my scarf, eyeing new sweaters and tights in the stores, dreaming of hot apple cider and jumping in leaf piles with the wee one.

I was wrong.

I'm not afraid to admit when I am wrong. And it happens a bit more than I would like. I was wrong about organization being the enemy. It can be a really good thing. I organized my desk at work and it does look better but it feels weird to get up to get a file, but I'll deal.




After work, I took the plunge at home. While hubby and the wee one were chasing eachother around the living room, I spent a half hour on my studio desk. I managed to clear off a substantial portion so that was good. I also found some really great things that I completely forgot about.



First, I found a double picture frame that I had used as an earring display at a store I used to work at. When the store closed (almost 3 years ago), I took home my jewelry and display. I thought I had worked all of it into my inventory but apparently not. When I opened the frame, I found 11 pairs of earrings. Score! Some I really don't like and will probably take apart. But some are really cool and once I clean them up they will probably find their way onto Etsy.




Second, when I was putting some of my piles away I opened a drawer and found this yummy yarn. I don't remember when I bought it, probably two or three years ago. I know that I made a scarf for my mom and this was what was left. So what's a girl to do when she finds something so cool? Start crocheting a scarf, that's what. Because there is only one skein, I will have to find a coordinating yarn to finish but that is ok.

So now I am totally excited about organization. Who knows what other treasures await. I may even tackle the "Closet of Doom".

Organization

I admit that organization is not my strong suit. Well I shouldn't say that. I tend to have piles of things but I know where everything is in those piles. So its sort of "organized chaos" but looks like disorganization to the untrained eye.

My co-worker and I share an office and share organized chaos as well. It works for us but drives our boss nuts. We used to blame it on a lack of storage space. Well he went out and bought a work table where we can store all of our pending files. He just wants our desks clear with only what we are currently working on on them.

So I must spend the afternoon going through my "organized chaos" and organize it according to someone else's system. I am not sure how this will affect me and the way that I work. I freaked out last week when I couldn't find a file that should have been in one of my piles. I turned out that he took it off my desk to work on it and put it back in the filing cabinet. So we'll see how this goes.

Now you may ask what does this have to do with my little designing world. Well everything and nothing. My work desk at home is organized in little piles with virtually no space for actually working on it. There are piles and boxes of supplies in my work closet as well. I have also accumulated another pile of supplies on my dining room table.




So I think that it may be time for me to break out of this "organized chaos" mode and embrace change. I would love to have the space to create and work that actually inspired. It would be so much fun to have the table just be for the chaos of the project. I could spread out and work instead of having to find other spaces to do my work.

Tommorow's Studio Shot Tuesday photo will show some progress from the original photo taken on August 14th. It is my goal to progress each week until there is an actual project on that table. I'll need all of you to help hold my feet to the fire.

Collage

For a while now I have been playing around with collage, painting and drawing. My materials, other than the paint, have been sourced entirely from my home using junk mail postcards, newspaper, magazine subscription cards and magazine images. Its been fun to see what I could do using what I already had.




I've had some cool attempts that didn't turn out quite right but I liked the overall effect. I turned one of those attempts into my Night series of earrings and pendants. I used a postcard from a realty company, images from the literary section of the newspaper, want ads from a Chinese language paper from Chicago and some paint. So far I have only listed one in the Etsy shop but I think they are pretty cool. This pendant is another in that series.



I've also been making some little collages for the wee one. I'd like to have an arrangement of art in her room, some of mine and some made by others. So I thought I'd post this for you all to view. It is not a grand artistic statement but I think its simple and sweet.

I think that these are good beginnings or experiments in this new field. But even if no one else likes them I am having a lot of fun creating them and I think that is the most important thing.