Torch Trouble :(

Well, didn't get nearly as many beads made this weekend as I intended to. I was all ready for a long day of beadmaking on Sunday, but as soon as I started I could tell something wasn't quite right. The flame was a lot smaller than usual and there was some liquid seeping out from one of the joints of the torch. It was taking a looooong time to make each bead because the flame was so small. After about an hour, David came downstairs to see how things were going. I complained that I thought there might be a leak in the torch, and he said it smelled totally horrible (really gasy) downstairs (which I didn't really even notice, after being down there for an hour already). So we called it quits, and there was no more beadmaking for the rest of the day. :( I contacted the company that makes the torch to see if they have any info for me about how to fix whatever is wrong, so we'll see what happens. So much for making tons and tons of beads this weekend... :( But that did give me time to catch up on other things, so it wasn't a totally wasted day or anything. Instead of making beads, I worked on reconciling all the financial transactions for the 2004 MYLead conference, which I've been putting off doing for awhile now because it is a lot of work. Saturday I spent the morning running the 8K Crim race in Flint, Michigan, then got together with some friends afterward. I was excited about my time: 8:55 per mile, which isn't bad for me! David of course managed to do a lot better, as usual; his time was 6:54 minutes per mile. But in my age/gender group, I was #14 out of 63 people, so I was excited about that!!

More Beads!

Good afternoon! Last night I listed 2 more bead sets on Ebay: Christmas and Gold/White. I love the encased polka dots with goldstone cores and also the encased Christmas florals! Check them out! :) Over the weekend, I hope to finish my upcoming "autumn colors" bead set, I still need to make a few more beads and then the set will be complete. I also have some sage green glass that I'd like to try using for the first time. Might be yet another nice autumn set coming soon! I want to make as many beads as possible over the next couple weeks and stockpile them, because once classes start up again I'll have pretty much no spare time whatsoever. So the more beads I can get made now, the better!

Yay for New Beads!!

Today I am excited because I've been doing nothing but making beads in the evenings, and I listed two new bead auctions on Ebay last night! It's been 4 days in a row that I have had time for bead-making, which is wonderful. For awhile we were super busy because we were re-painting the entire inside of our house, which was a loooooong process!! So now that that's done, I finally have some spare time again. :) I've been making lots of fun holiday beads, I listed a Halloween set on Ebay. The other Ebay set is a classic black & white set. Both sets include lots of matched pairs. I'm getting much better at making pairs...sometimes it can be hard to make sure 2 beads are exactly the same shape and size, to be used for making earrings potentially. So that is always a challenge, but I'm getting a lot better at it! I'm almost finished with 3 more bead sets...they will be Christmas, gold/white, and autumn colors, so stay tuned for those!! The Christmas set will be particularly neat because I have some GORGEOUS encased Christmas florals I've been working on, and I absolutely LOVE them!!! Here are links to the 2 sets I listed on Ebay last night: Halloween
and
Black & White

Website changes!

Hello! Today I have made a few changes to my website. Mainly, I've decided to keep some "generic" info about Julie's Jewelry on the main page, so that new visitors will have easy access to the basics. Info about my contest for free beads & jewelry will now be along the right side of the main page. Overall, I don't plan to change the main page very often (except to add new pictures, and new contest info). From now on, any other 'chit chat' will be posted here! I figure that will make things a bit cleaner and perhaps a bit more professional. :) The next contest drawing is this weekend......I'm excited! Thank you to everyone for all your votes. :)

My first entry!

Hello everyone!!!! I have been thinking about starting a "blog" for awhile now, just haven't got around to it. I have so much fun reading everyone else's blogs that I figured it's only appropriate for me to start writing one myself! In this journal I will mainly talk about updates to my website, but I'll most likely ramble on about other things as well. So stay tuned to find out the latest info! :) Thank you for stopping by!