Julie's Juliery Journal

Happy Fall!

2008-10-04T10:10:00.002-05:00

Hello!!! No, I did not fall off the face of the earth. :) I have a tendency to slack off and relax during the summer when sales are typically slower anyway... But now that fall is here it is time to get into gear again! I've been putting in a lot of torch time and stockpiling beads to sell and to make into jewelry. I'm proud to say I've finally mastered my "new" Minor Burner torch, and I love it!!! I can make beads a lot quicker using that torch, and it is also much quieter, which is neat. I have my first holiday craft show coming up in 2 weeks...I'm excited!! It is at my church, and this will be the 2nd year I've done that show. Sales have been picking up on Etsy for the fall, and I'm thinking about listing on Ebay again, too. Etsy has been a great place to showcase my items, and I'm excited for my first holiday season as an Etsy vendor. I also decided to re-vamp my website a bit - it was time for a change! I hope you like it. :)

I had a good long summer - hard to believe it is October already! This summer, I did a bit of traveling... went back to Michigan for 10 days in July, and also took smaller trips to Annapolis MD, Anaheim CA, and Kansas City MO. I spent my birthday at DisneyLand, which was really fun. They gave me a special "Happy Birthday, Julie" button to wear, so people kept wishing me a happy birthday all day. :)

It has still been in the lower-to-mid 70's here every day, so it really doesn't feel too much like fall yet. But our yard is covered in leaves, there's Halloween decorations everywhere, and football season is in full swing, so I suppose fall is here! :) I'll try my best to post more often this season. :)

New Torch!

2008-04-21T20:37:00.003-05:00

Hello! So I got a new torch a few weeks ago. It is a Minor Bench Burner and it runs off propane and oxygen. My old Hot Head ran off propalyne (Mapp gas). So now I have extra gas tanks in my garage!! Unfortunately, I used the Minor 3 times and got so fed up that I put it away and got out my old torch again. Aaaack!!! How embarrassing. But I kept burning all my beads, even though I didn't think I had the heat turned up very high. Once I get caught up on all my custom orders, I will get the new torch out again and play around with it and hopefully have better luck! It is a really good torch, and I know a lot of people who have that same type of torch. If they can do it, I can do it!!! I think I just need more practice (and more patience, LOL!!!)

This weekend I am doing a craft show which is a benefit for Relay for Life. Their official color is purple, so have been busy making extra purple jewelry! I just ordered some little sterling silver "awareness ribbon" charms. I think I'll charge a few extra dollars if people want an awareness ribbon attached to any piece of jewelry, and then donate that money back to Relay for Life. :) I've also been working on custom bead and jewelry orders. I'm really excited about how things have been going on Etsy. I need to list even more items there, because it seems like a very popular site! Ebay, on the other hand, has been very slow and not many items have been selling. So I probably won't be doing much Ebaying for awhile. But with Etsy, as soon as I get caught up on bead orders, another order will come in, so that's been keeping me busy! I am enjoying it!

The weather here has been getting nicer - it was in the 70's for this entire past weekend, which was really great. Except we'll need to cut our grass for the first time this year really soon, because we've also been getting a lot of rain!

Happy Belated Easter!

2008-03-27T21:02:00.002-05:00

Happy (belated) Easter! We took a short trip back home to Michigan to see our families. It is always great to see everyone. :) I have been keeping very busy with custom orders, which is also great! I am finally caught up on custom bead set orders from Etsy, and I still have a couple more custom jewelry orders involving custom beads that I am still in the process of making. Thank you for keeping me occupied!! I've created several new pairs of earrings as well, and I hope to get those posted to my website this weekend.

A couple weekends ago, we drove 2 hours to Kearney, Nebraska to see the 500,000 sandhill cranes that migrate through there. It was amazing just how many cranes there were!!! They stay for about a month and snack on leftover corn from the farmers' fields. At night they all roost in the Platte River. It was sooo neat to see them!

Next weekend, my sister Joann is flying out to visit us. I am looking forward to showing her around Lincoln!

Etsy store is open!

2008-03-06T17:55:00.003-06:00

Hello! I am excited to announce that my new Etsy store is open for business! I started listing some items on February 29th, and it did not take long for some new customers to find me... Thank you to all who have placed orders so far! :) I am keeping particularly busy with the bead orders, because I am making them once they are ordered. It is a new challenge for me to replicate my previous bead sets, but things are coming along well!! I think this is a great opportunity to refine my techniques and hopefully the new versions of the bead sets will be even nicer than the originals. :)

I decided to "put all my eggs in one basket" (pun intended!) and post all of my Easter jewelry on Etsy as well, so if you are looking for bunnies and Easter eggs, be sure to check out Etsy!! Hopefully it doesn't get too hard to keep track of what I've posted where. Can't really post things in multiple places unless I have multiples of the item, becauase what if they both sell, you know?!! Yikes!! :)

If anyone is in the Detroit area this weekend and is looking for something fun to do, check out the 2008 Detroit Autorama!! My dad is going to have his Family Vette II on display there, which is really exciting. This is one of those times when really wish I could be home in Michigan... It was super exciting when his first Family Vette made an appearance at the 2004 Autorama, and this is going to be just as cool!!

Finally, Happy Birthday to my husband David who turns 28 on Saturday!! :) He is catching up with me, LOL. :) We are planning on taking advantage of as many "free restaurant birthday food" deals as possible.

Have a good weekend!!

Updates!

2008-02-28T18:20:00.005-06:00

Greetings! I had fun making some Easter-themed beads this past weekend. If these don't sell at my craft show this weekend, you'll be seeing them for sale on my site and on Ebay in the near future!! I tried my hand at Easter eggs for the first time, and I also made my very first cross!! Unfortunately it was NOT easy...but I do hope to make more of them eventually. :) Please click for larger pictures.

I also made some jewelry using some of my starfish beads, and I *LOVE* how fun and colorful this jewelry is!!

And finally, some adorable cat and dog jewelry!!

So we'll see what's left after the craft show (always hard to predict what people will be buying!!) It is a big show - all day Saturday AND Sunday, and I really hope it goes well. :)

Also, I have been working on some updates here and there...I have updated my "About Me" page on Ebay, and added a lot of nice new pictures!

I also decided to do what I've seen several other artists do...making it possible to special-order bead sets that I have made in the past and could replicate upon request! I've always had *individual* beads for custom order on my site, but somehow I never did bead *sets* that way!! So now, you can check out my website's "My Beads" section and order all kinds of previously-made bead sets! Please allow 2 weeks for delivery on these, as I will make them when you order them. Right now, I have posted several bead sets, and I have a bunch more that I intend to post in the next week or so. So keep checking back!!

And finally (yes, this is a lot of updates for me!!), I am also going to open up a bead/jewelry shop on Etsy, which is a special website for all things handmade. I know several people who have had a lot of success on Etsy, so I am excited to join as well. I actually signed up for an Etsy account awhile back, but never actually posted anything there. So that is my next project!! I'll be posting a lot of the same items there that I have on my website, but I'm thinking there will be different people shopping there who might not know about my site. So this will be exciting! :)

Sea Beads

2008-02-18T09:01:00.002-06:00

Hello! Saturday I tried my hand at making some sea-themed beads. I made my very first octopus and sand dollars! And also a starfish on a lentil-shaped bead. I can't resist posting a picture:

I am excited to have President's Day off from work, so I am going to see about making even more of these sea beads. :)

More New Beads & Jewelry!

2008-02-02T11:05:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday!! Here is a fun picture of some of the beads I've made over the past couple weekends:

And here's some of the fun earrings I've made with these beads (you can find them for sale in the Earrings--Juliery section of my site):

Today I plan to make some St. Patrick's Day beads so stay tuned for those! I already made a St. Patrick's Day necklace using one of my clover beads:

The weather was soooo nice last weekend - 52 degrees in January is pretty impressive! I went running for half an hour (outside!) and then went shopping and did not even wear a coat. :) Next weekend we are going skiing in Squaw Valley, CA, so we'll get the other extreme! My husband has a conference there, so I am tagging along. Neither of us have EVER skiied before, so this should be interesting!!!

Happy New Year 2008!

2008-01-23T19:54:00.000-06:00

Hello!!!!! Happy 2008! May this new year bring much peace, happiness, prosperity, and other good things to all of you. :) It is time for my annual New Year's Resolution that this year will be my biggest and best beady year ever! After re-locating to Lincoln, Nebraska this summer, I found some good holiday craft shows to do, and I'll be doing a couple more in the spring. And I finally just now got my bead studio set up again, and I have enjoyed making beads for the past 2 weekends. I sure missed it!!!! Luckily, I didn't totally forget how to do it. :) Here are some fun new jewelry items (made with my recently-created beads)...I've posted for sale throughout my site and on Ebay:

I've also made several more beads but I haven't made them into jewelry yet! And I've listed several pairs of Valentine-theme earrings on Ebay, too. Lots of pink and red, just on time for the holiday!!

In non-beady news, I had much fun spending New Year's Eve in NYC's Times Square with my husband and my sister!! It was really neat to see the ball drop, and it really wasn't too cold, so that was good! We stood in Times Square from about 4pm til about 12:15am. No bathrooms...but we survived! :) We also visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Grand Central Station, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, and Ground Zero, shopped on Fifth Avenue, had meals with a couple friends who live in NYC, and saw Avenue Q and the Color Purple. We had a busy but really fun time!

Moving to Nebraska

2007-05-25T11:42:00.000-05:00

Hello! I know it has been a looong time since I have posted. A lot has been going on lately and I haven't had a whole lot of spare time for much of anything!! This August, my husband and I are moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he will be starting a PhD program at the Gallup Leadership Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are in the process of selling our house, and looking for a new house in Lincoln. I am looking for a new job in Lincoln, too. In addition, we have vacation plans in Asia for all of July. Put all of this together, and life is just a bit crazy right now!!!!

Because we are selling our house, I put away my gas tank and disconnected my torch, because prospective homebuyers are a little weird about seeing giant gas tanks sitting around! :) So until September, I will not be accepting any bead orders. I do have a few sets of beads that are already made and available for sale. I may clean out my bead containers and list a few more sets before I move, but we'll see. :)

What else have I been doing lately? My sister Mary got married on April 20th so that kept me busy for awhile (making jewelry, hemming dresses, etc.) Then my sister Barbara surprised us by getting married a week later!! At the end of April, David & I spent a weekend in Chicago, and then we also spent a weekend in Bermuda for our 5-year wedding anniversary (May 18th). :) We ran another successful MYLead leadership conference 2 weekends ago and are tying up lots of loose ends from that event (173 high school students attended the 3-day conference on the campus of Michigan State University, which is a 30% increase from last year!!!) Throw in a few family birthdays and my good friend Linda having her first baby, and you might be able to see why it's taken me nearly 2 months to post anything in my blog! :) But life is good. :)

Have a great long Memorial Day weekend!

New Necklaces, Etc!

2007-04-03T10:21:00.000-05:00

Hello! Now that I am done with spring craft shows, I am working on taking pictures of any leftover items that aren't already up on my site. So far, I've got the crystal necklaces taken care of, and next I will start in on earrings and bracelets (especially crystal ones). So keep an eye out for all of these items to be uploaded! Now that I've finished the "Crystal/Pearl Necklaces" section, there are waaaaay more items to choose from there than ever before. :) The same thing will happen in the "Crystal/Pearl Earrings" and "Crystal/Pearl Bracelets" sections.

I had a great time at the Saline craft show. It was my first time there, and I ended up buying too many items from the other artists (including marshmallow peep soaps from Bearden Soaps and some amazing clay pansies from Suphattra's Clay Flowers. :) Everyone was really nice, and there were definitely a lot of good customers, too. It went very well. :)

I hope you all have a good Easter!

Craft Show Update

2007-03-20T15:38:00.000-05:00

Hello! So I've decided not to do the Waterford craft show after all. My sister is getting married on Friday April 20th, and the craft show was going to be Saturday April 21st. I thought I could probably handle everything, but the more I thought about it the crazier it seemed. So I decided against doing the show. I'll probably be up til 1am (or later) because of the wedding, and I'd have to be up by 5am to get out to Waterford on time to set up. But I'll definitely still be at the holiday show in Waterford! :)

Craft Shows Coming!

2007-03-01T14:49:00.000-06:00

Hello! As you can see from my homepage, I'm busy getting ready for 3 spring craft shows! Pretty exciting!!! :) The first one is this weekend and really snuck up on me. I had been super busy helping with my sister's wedding shower, and once it was over I realized "Eeek! Time to get moving on craft show merchandise!!" So it really snuck up on me, but I think everything will be fine! There's a few more items I want to finish for the show (mainly some snazzy charm bracelets and lampwork necklaces, because those were popular at my holiday shows). I also ordered a bunch more supplies (which won't be here on time for the first show, but will come in handy for the other shows and for some custom orders I'm working on!)

In other news, as I said, I have been busy with my sister's wedding planning, so that has taken a lot of my time lately, but that is fine!! I made some really fun topiary centerpieces for the shower tables, I will have to post a picture soon. :) One of my friends had her first baby at the beginning of February, another friend is due at the end of April, and then I just found out yet another friend is due in September, so that is exciting, too!! Lots of baby excitement!! :)

Tonight I am listing 3 bead sets on Ebay, they are ones from my website (at discounted prices for Ebay!) so now is your chance to get them if you've been eyeing them!!! :)

More Exciting New Beads!!

2007-02-05T19:09:00.000-06:00

Hello! I had much fun and good productivity at the torch this weekend, and I now have 2 new bead sets available in the "bead sets" section of my website, as well as 2 smaller sets coming to Ebay this week! I am quite excited about these, especially the Circus Brights set. It features 5 totally fun lentils in happy bright colors, along with all kinds of little accent beads. All of the beads have a lot of intricate detail and were so much fun to make!! Here they are:

I also really love my new Caribbean Cruise beads, too (these are also available right now on the Bead Sets page!)

The sets coming to Ebay this week are a little set of blue beads, and also a little lemonade/Easter/springtime set. It has a lot of different colors, but isn't quite as bright as the Circus beads!!!

I'm thinking I might have a big "sale" week on Ebay soon, to clear out some of my older jewelry items. I suppose it's a little early for Spring Cleaning, but I just might do it anyway! :) So stay tuned! :)
Oh! One more very exciting piece of "business news"...I have been accepted to be a part of the Saline Middle School craft show this spring!!! Here in my part of Michigan, the Saline Shows are a HUGE HUGE HUGE big deal, and I am super excited about this!!! :) I'm also doing a show in Waterford and possibly also one in Westland and one in Canton. I will post the schedule really soon! They are all in March and April.

St. Patrick's Day Beads!

2007-01-29T12:24:00.000-06:00

Hello! Well, I know it's not even Valentine's Day yet, but I was in the mood to make some St. Patrick's Day beads this past weekend...so I did! Here is a sneak peek. They will be posted on Ebay starting tomorrow (Tuesday) night. I had lots of fun making them!!

In other beady news, I've been listing lots of Valentine's jewelry on Ebay, and I'll probably list a few more pieces on Tuesday or Wednesday this week as well (that way, you'll still have time for them to be won and shipped by February 14th!) I have some fun ideas for red Raku heart earrings and a matching necklace! :-)

In other non-beady news, I'm keeping busy with preparations for my sister Mary's wedding shower. I'm making topiary floral centerpieces for the tables - something new for me!! And I'm learning that they aren't as easy to make as I thought they would be!!!!

Raku Hearts

2007-01-04T13:23:00.000-06:00

Hello!
Woo hoo, 2 posts in one week, I think this is a new record for me! :) Tonight I have 2 Raku heart auctions going up on Ebay - here is a preview!

Many of the colors are also available individually in the "My Beads" section of my website. They would be super cute for Valentine's Day, but are versatile enough to wear year-round!!

Happy New Year 2007!!!

2007-01-02T12:53:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!! It is hard to believe 2007 is here already. I hope all of you had a great holiday season filled with family & friends, fun, and peace. We had a great Christmas running between all of our family's houses as usual. :) Got together with my aunt and uncle for Christmas Eve lunch, then my dad/stepmom that night, then went to my mom's house on Christmas morning, then my in-law's that afternoon. Plus spent time hanging out with other aunts and uncles and cousins in the following days. I did come down with a bad cold right before Christmas, and was not feeling very good at all on the 23rd and 24th, so that was not cool. But other than that, everything was great! My Navy sister Barbara just came back from the Persian Gulf and she was home for 5 days, so everything was a whirlwind while she was here! We also had a lot of good times with friends before and after Christmas, including one major party at our house before Christmas, plus a couple other gatherings between Christmas and New Year's. We also saw Spam-a-Lot in Detroit on New Year's Eve. It was a very fun and wacky show! But now it is January 2nd and back to work!! I love having all the time off between Christmas and New Year's (a wonderful benefit of working at the University of Michigan!!) So now I'm back and work but not totally focusing on work yet (obviously). :)

In 2007 I intend to get back in gear and allocate more time for jewelry and bead-making!! I did 3 holiday craft shows and they went pretty well. I'm sending in applications for 4 spring shows, so stay tuned!! I also resolve to list more regularly on Ebay, keep practicing new & exciting bead-making styles, design a line of wedding/special occasion jewelry, and update my website more often. So if I don't stick to this, someone please call me out on it!!! I really love doing all of this, but I have a tendancy to spread myself too thin, and then I start slacking here and there. But right now I have sooooo many ideas in my head, and I can't wait for 2007 to be the most creative and productive year ever!! :)

I made some fun heart beads on New Year's Day, so I will get those posted on Ebay this week. They are not super Valentinesy, but they are very fun and versatile hearts that you can wear year-round! And I have also been playing around with animal beads so stay tuned for some fun there as well!!! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! :)

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T14:28:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween everyone!!! I will be handing out candy tonight, hopefully we get a lot of trick-or-treaters so I don't have to eat TOO much leftover candy... ;) We usually get about 30 kids and we always hand out the full size candy bars...It is always amusing to see the extremely overjoyed expressions on the kids' faces when they see those, ha ha!! Hope all of you have a great Halloween!

Holiday rush already!

2006-10-18T08:08:00.000-05:00

Hello! The holidays are still a couple months away, but the mad rush for holiday-themed beads is already starting!! I've been having lots of fun making Christmas beads, including a fun set up on Ebay right now. I've also been working on some very adorable reindeer beads, some Christmas trees, and a few other holiday designs. I am planning to list a "Christmas Earring Pairs" auction in the next week or so - I just need to finish a couple more beads. The auction is guaranteed to have some really great beads!!

I am also working on some new bookmarks, featuring lampwork beads and Swarovski crystals. They will be a new addition to my craft shows this holiday season! I've never made beaded bookmarks before, but I am excited about it! There are definitely lots of neat possibilities. Speaking of craft shows, my first one of the season is November 4th!! Just 2 and a half weeks away...Eeeek! I still have a ton of items I want to make before then!! I did get a good chunk of time this past weekend where I was able to sit down and make a lot of bracelets and necklaces, but there is still much more to be done!

Happy October!

2006-10-05T07:50:00.000-05:00

Hello! It is hard to believe it is October already!!! I have lined up 3 craft shows for the holiday season, and I am already filing out applications for spring shows! If you are in the general Detroit area, please feel free to stop in and say hi (and bring a coupon!) :)

What have I been up to for the last couple weeks? After getting a lentil press for my birthday, I've been making tons and tons of lentil-shaped beads, they are so neat and I'm really getting the hang of how to make them just the right shape. My favorites so far have been my Winter Wonderland snowman lentils, they are just too cute!! I also totally love the Chocolate Shimmer auction I have on Ebay right now, these are just beautiful in person!! It is hard to adequately capture the sparkle in the pictures. I need to make a few more beads to finish another Christmas set I am working on, and also more Topaz Raku beads, so stay tuned for those in the next week or so! I need to get in gear for my first holiday craft show, which is less than a month away now so I really need to start going through my inventory and seeing what I need to make yet. Oh! Here is a really pretty necklace I just finished - a custom order for a new customer. It turned out so nice, I just might make more necklaces similar to this one!!

I have also been keeping busy with Reader Training at my church (we get a lot of new readers every September because we are a student parish at UM, and I am one of 3 Reader Coordinators). MYLead is also keeping me busy - we just sent out nomination packets to all the high schools across Michigan, so now it is almost time to start calling the schools and seeing if they have any questions, etc. We also had a Texas Hold-em Poker Tournament last Friday and raised a good amount of money, so that was fun to help with (not that I know how to play the game, I just helped keep an eye on the cash box!!) My good friends Dawn and Dan got married on September 8th, so that was also tons of fun!! I was a bridesmaid, and David was the official wedding photographer, so I've been busy printing proofs and doing lots of photo editing for the past couple weeks!! It would be so much fun to start some type of "one stop wedding shop" business one day - I can already do jewelry, flowers, pictures, invitations, and decorations, and I just love all of it!!! :) Sometime soon I need to create a "wedding jewelry" page on my website, because I love making wedding jewelry!

This weekend is the Huron Township Applefest, the big festival in my hometown of New Boston. It is always fun! Plus this weekend is the MYLead gala, which is a big awards banquet, so that will also be fun! I am hoping to squeeze in some bead-making time, and also clean bathrooms and do some much-needed vacuuming! :)

Wow, I think I might have set a new record for the number of hyperlinks included in this post! :)

Africa Vacation Pictures!!

2006-09-26T08:46:00.000-05:00

I have finally finished posting some pictures online from my trip to Africa this summer!! You can view them here if you are interested! :)

Busy Summer!

2006-08-04T08:40:00.000-05:00

Hello!!! NO, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, thank goodness! :) I'm still here, I've just been super busy with a million things this summer. Seems like there is never any down time anymore. I was on vacation in Egypt and South Africa for 3 weeks, and I got back on July 5th (and ended up with a really awful cold when I got back). But since then, there's been no end to the busyness. We attended one wedding in July, plus we have 2 coming up in August and 1 more in September. I'm in the September wedding, and I helped out with the shower in July, printed all of the wedding invitations last week, and I still need to finish all the jewelry for the wedding party and help make all the bouquets. I'm having lots of fun with all of this!! :) My brother-in-law just graduated high school so there was a party for him and I put together a cool photo collage board. My cousin from California was in town and had her new baby baptized here, so we went to that, and in a couple weeks we have another baptism for my husband's cousin's daughter. Also in July we had a weekend-long MYLead planning retreat, plus my sister Joann's birthday, a Tiger's baseball game (my first ever!), and helping my sister Mary move into her new apartment (yes, in the 95 degree heat!). Once you combine this with general "seeing family and friends" type of activities, and working 40 hours/week, it means we spend about 2 waking hours at home each weekend, and spend most weeknight running around as well. I'm ready for a break and getting quite frazzled! I'm thinking things might slow down in September, now that I won't have any classes to worry about! I'll just watch David worry about classes instead (he'll be starting the 2nd year of his evening MBA program). I don't know how people with kids do it, or how I managed everything while I was in school. I know I've been neglecting my website for the past couple months, and I apologize. I have been getting some listings up on Ebay though, so check those out! Lots of sale items here and there, I'm trying to clean out some of my older stock. I bought a new barstool type of chair from our new Ikea store, which will be perfect to use when I'm sitting at my torch, so I can't wait to try it out!! The chair was only $15. We also got some really cool bookshelves for our basement. It's pretty much time to start making autumn and Halloween beads, maybe even some CHRISTMAS beads!!! I love making holiday beads, so I know I'll have several sets available eventually. Anyway, I just wanted to write, so you would know I am still around. :) This weekend we have a wedding a couple hours away from our house, and then a big family trip to the Toledo Zoo, combined with a birthday celebration for yours truly, so that's what I'll be doing!

Pictures finally!

2006-06-12T10:09:00.001-05:00

Hello! At long last, here are some pictures I kept meaning to post. Here is a picture of the MYLead 2006 gang:

Here is a picture from my graduation - this is me with my sisters Mary and Joann:

My sister Barbara couldn't come to my graduation because she was down in Norfolk getting ready for her deployment to the Persian Gulf. She just got underway on June 6th, here is her ship the Iwo Jima:

And here we have some absolutely ADORABLE pictures of Mouse and Patches (sorry, I couldn't resist!!):

So there you have it! Pictures finally! :) I will definitely have even more pictures to post in mid-July after my vacation. See you then!

Please note that any orders placed from my website between now and early July will be acknowledged and shipped upon my return. :)

April Showers Bring...May Showers!!

2006-05-26T07:52:00.000-05:00

Hello! Ann Arbor has finally been warming up (upper 70s) but it's also been extremely rainy!! We had some storms last night so now it has cooled down a bit, but is really humid. This weekend and next week we should see some temps in the mid 80s!! So what have I been up to since graduating? The MYLead conference, of course! That's kept me completely busy ever since my graduation day, but now things will slow down again (just on time for me to leave for Africa for vacation for 3 and a half weeks). :) There is never any downtime!!! But that is fine, I like to be busy. :) The conference went really well. This was my first time being a Group Facilitator, which was kind of scary, but I had 8 really great kids in my group. None of them gave me any major problems, which was good! I had a lot of fun. So now that the conference is finished, I am just tying up loose ends like printing all the pictures that the kids ordered, taking inventory of all the MYLead merchandise, sending receipts to all of the silent auction donors, etc. Yes, being the official MYLead Treasurer as well as being the wife of the conference chairperson means that I get to do lots and lots of fun stuff!! :) By the time I'm done with that, it will be vacation time! We are spending a week in Egypt, then doing a Safari at the Kruger Wildlife Park in South Africa, hanging out in Cape Town, and visiting Victoria Falls. Should be a wild time! ;) Needless to say, I haven't been able to spend much time on jewelry/beads lately. I haven't even listed anything on Ebay for about a month. :( I may try to list something before I go on vacation, but we'll see. When I get back from vacation, life will finally start slowing down, so I will be able to get into a good routine of bead-making and jewelry-making again. I did donate a couple bracelet/earring sets for the MYLead silent auction and I was quite excited about the high number of bids they got, so that was fun!! :) Let's see, what else is going on...My sister Barbara is headed to the Persian Gulf next month (she's in the Navy), so we are having a little going-away lunch for her next weekend, plus my sister Mary's birthday is next week so we are celebrating that too. My cousin Jennifer, David's cousin Danielle, our friend Leslie, my co-worker Debbie, and our dentist all gave birth to baby girls this month, so that is neat!! Last year around this time, I knew just as many people who were pregnant but they all had boys, so baby genders must come and go in waves! It's interesting! :) Okay, I think that is all that's new with me. Hopefully I will update a few more times before going on vacation (and I really want to post some pictures too, sorry I'm so bad about that!!!)

April Updates

2006-04-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

I finally did something I've been meaning to try for awhile now...I listed 2 bead auctions on the JustBeads website! JustBeads is an auction website for, guess what, just beads! I've bought things there before, but never tried selling. The rates are cheaper than Ebay, which is really nice. And it is a much more targeted (but probably smaller) audience than Ebay, so we'll see what happens!

In other news, I am graduating with my Master's Degree in 8 days!! I am totally excited about it. I have lots of family members coming for the ceremony, and then going out to eat afterward. It should be a lot of fun. Tonight is my very last exam, and then I'm all finished! It's been a long (but fun!) 3 and a half years!

I also got to see a lot of family for Easter last weekend; we had Easter at our house for the first time which turned out really good. We had 12 people, which is the most we've ever had for a sit-down meal at our house before. Everyone helped bring food, so we only had to cook a few things. But I spent all day Saturday cleaning the house for everyone, and we had 3 dishwasher-loads full of dishes to wash afterward.

Also, the craft show in Waterford went well. Sales were a bit slow at some points, but that was fine because my in-laws came and sat with me and kept me company. :) So we had a good time! I will keep you posted if I end up doing any more shows in the near future. I've applied for 4 holiday shows so far, but haven't heard anything back yet.

Enjoy the spring weather (if you have any, that is!) We've been having lots of days in the upper 60's/lower 70's, which is really nice. I love it when I can stop relying on the treadmill and actually go running outside!

Announcements!

2006-03-22T08:39:00.000-06:00

I have some announcements today!

I am doing a craft show at Waterford Kettering High School on April 1st, from 9am to 4pm. Please stop by if you happen to be in the area! I am excited because this is the high school that my husband graduated from, and my brother-in-law is a senior there right now. So it should be fun! The show is sponsored by the Band Boosters, and the address for the school is 2800 Kettering Drive, Waterford, MI 48329.

The next announcements are about Michigan Youth Leadership (MYLead), which is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization that I do a lot of volunteer work with. MYLead is dedicated to inspiring confidence and empowering leadership in Michigan youth. Every spring, each high school from across the state is eligible to nominate one student to attend the annual MYLead conference, a 3-day experience filled with motivational speakers, panel discussions, community service, and positive peer interaction. All of MYLead’s funding comes from donations (the students don’t pay anything to attend the conference), and none of our 75 volunteers are paid.

MYLead is having a “calendar raffle”. Tickets are $20 each, and you have the opportunity to win over $1,000 from just one ticket. How this works is that, on the 3rd Sunday of every month (for the next 12 months), MYLead will hold a drawing where 3 tickets are selected to win $50 each. For the final drawing, one ticket is selected to win $500. All tickets purchased are entered into every upcoming drawing for the next year. This means that a single ticket could get re-drawn every month, and you could win over $1,000! Only 400 tickets are being sold, so the odds of winning are really good! If you are interested in buying a ticket (non-Michigan people can buy them too of course!), just let me know. :)

Second, for those of you who live in the general Michigan area, MYLead is having a Texas Hold’em poker tournament. This will be April 22nd, at the Coyote Golf Club in New Hudson, MI. Entry fee is $55, and the top cash prize is $500. So if you (and/or a group of your friends/family) like to play Texas Hold’em, this is a great opportunity to have some fun and support a great cause. We are also looking for volunteers to be dealers at the tournament. Let me know if you are interested! And for those who are wondering, no, I will not be playing Texas Hold’em, but I will be there helping with logistics!!!

If you would like to know more about MYLead, please visit www.mylead.org. It really is an amazing organization.

Okay, that is all my announcements for now. :) Thank you!

Craft Show Success!

2006-03-08T09:47:00.000-06:00

Hello! I had a great time at my craft show last weekend - who would have thought a springtime show would become my #1 highest-selling show that I've ever done?!? I certainly wasn't expecting that, but it was a really great surprise!! Thank goodness two of my sisters (Joann and Mary) showed up right when it was getting busy. They took care of transactions for me while I spent time re-sizing bracelets and creating custom earrings for people. The same group organizes a holiday show each year, so I am applying for that, along with at least 3 other holiday shows. My plan is that, since I'll be graduating in April, I will be able to do a TON of shows around Christmastime this year! For the past 3 years, I've really only done 1 holiday show each year (except I did 2 the first year), because I'm always dealing with exams right before the holidays too. But this year will be different!! I don't know if I'll get accepted to all the holiday shows or not (all of them are juried, just like all the shows I've been doing lately), but it will be fun to see how many shows I can do! I may end up doing another spring show yet this season, but we'll see. I'll be sure to post it here if I end up doing it. :)

Ebay sales always seem to slow down around the beginning of March for me, so I am listing few items right now than I have been for the last few months. No use paying listing fees if no one is buying very much!!! I did get to make beads over spring break; I am going to use the beads for earrings to sell, rather than selling the beads on their own. Click here to see my current Ebay listings, including one pair of earrings made with my beads, and one of my springtime bead sets!

Upcoming Craft Show!

2006-02-21T11:30:00.000-06:00

Hello! That's right, I am doing a spring craft show! It will be at Lutheran High School in Westland, Michigan, on March 4th. I am excited because I've only been doing holiday craft shows for the past 3 years, and this will be the first springtime show I take my lampwork jewelry to! So we'll see how it goes. :) Feel free to stop by if you are in the area!

Too much is going on lately and life is just hectic right now. I won't get into the details, but between family, work, and school everything is just a bit chaotic these days. Even though I am only taking 2 classes this semester, it is hard to keep up with everything. I have a presentation in one class tonight, and then an exam in my other class on Thursday. So all I've been doing in my free time lately is studying. At least next week is spring break! I'll probably spend a lot of time working on school stuff anyway though. Oh well... I am hoping to get in some torch time during spring break! I think the last time I actually made any beads was very early January, which is really awful. But at that point, I made a TON of beads so that I'd have a decent size stock of beads to sell for the next couple months, because I knew this would happen and I would get busy and not have any torch time. So over spring break I should finally have some free time for bead-making again. :) So stay tuned for new beads to appear on my site next week!

Good Morning!

2006-01-19T07:23:00.000-06:00

Hello! Not too much is going on, but I thought I'd stop in and say "hello" anyway. I've added several new bead sets to my site (including St. Patrick's Day beads and springtime/Easter beads), and also a few new pairs of earrings. For awhile there, I was making beads for 2 hours every day for about a week, which was really great. But I haven't had quite as much time this week. Time to get back in the swing of homework again! This semester shouldn't be *too* crazy, but still. Everything takes time, and unfortunately I don't have quite enough of that!

I need to post a picture of some of the glass critters I've been making... Kitties, koalas, pigs, and bunnies so far!! I think they are turning out really adorably and I can't wait to make even more of them! I might just make myself a whole bracelet of animals. It would be super cute! And I know I still need to post a picture of my kiln, too. I'm totally loving it, it's working out great for me.

Well, like I said, not a whole lot is new with me. Hope you are having a good January! And if you are still in need of some cute Valentine's Day earrings, just check out my "holiday" earring section! :)

Happy New Year!

2006-01-04T07:29:00.000-06:00

Happy 2006!!! It's hard to believe another year is here already. I had a very nice week off from work, so now it's back to the usual routine. Classes start tomorrow, but none of mine are meeting til next week so that is cool. Yesterday was my first day back at work.

Did all of you have a good holiday season? I hope so!! I spent a lot of time cooking, cleaning, hanging out with friends and family, and catching up on all the stuff that doesn't get done around the house because school and work get in the way. :) For Christmas Eve, we went over my aunt and uncle's house for lunch, then my dad's for dinner. Then it was off to Midnight Mass, so we didn't get to sleep until about 2am. Up bright and early to go to my mom's on Christmas Day, then over to David's parents' house in the afternoon. Lots of running around!

I got lots of great books for Christmas - Beak of the Finch, the whole Harry Potter series, the Da Vinci code, Five People You Meet in Heaven, Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Diary of Anne Frank, and lots of other classics that I haven't read yet but really want to! My plan for after I graduate in April is to read, read, read!! I'm really looking forward to it. For Christmas, my dad really splurged and bought me a brand new Arrow Springs AF-99 BEAD KILN!!!!!!! Every beadmaker's dream come true!!! I am soooooo excited about it. No more using a crock pot with vermiculite as a "psuedo-kiln"! Now I can make larger beads without worrying about them breaking! I've already been experimenting with heart focals - something I didn't dare try without a real kiln. With larger beads, there is much more potential for tension to build up inside the glass, which means the beads are not as durable and could break pretty easily. The kiln keeps the beads at 940 degrees Fahrenheit for half an hour after I stop working (plus they sit in the kiln at that temperature while I finish making other beads too). Staying at that temperature for such a long time removes the tension in that builds up in the glass. Then when I turn off the kiln it cools the beads very, very slowly so that the tension in the glass does not return. The crock pot with vermiculite does essentially the same thing as the kiln, but there's no way the crock pot gets anywhere near 940 degrees! So the kiln obviously does a much better job keeping the beads at the right temperature so that the tension is released from the beads. Here is an example of some of the hearts I've made so far:

They will soon be listed on Ebay! I also plan on making a lot more sculptural beads now that I have a kiln...maybe some cute bunnies for Easter! :) I may even experiment with more snowmen, and stash them away for next year. We'll see...the possibilities are endless now! I will try to get a picture of the kiln posted in the next few days.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...!

2005-12-16T07:49:00.000-06:00

Fa, la, la!! We got 8 inches of snow yesterday, just on time to make it look extremely Christmasy for all the holiday parties this weekend! We're having friends over tonight, and going to another friend's house tomorrow night. I love holiday parties because it is so nice to see everyone! :) Last night I did more shopping and wrapping, but there's still a bit more to do. With classes finished for the semester, I can actually go shopping without feeling guilty for neglecting my studies. It is quite nice!!! On a related note, I am looking forward to some bead-making time over the break (classes start again on January 5th). I want to make some Valentine's Day beads, particularly florals and maybe I'll even attempt some hearts!

On the Ebay front, I've been selling lots of holiday jewelry, which is cool. I haven't listed any auctions in the past couple days because I don't want them ending too close to Christmas day because everyone is running around too busy to be looking at Ebay and bidding anyway! So I probably won't list again til next Wednesday perhaps (so that the auctions would end a few days *after* Christmas). But we'll see. I'm hoping to make a ton of new earrings over the break as well, so keep an eye out for those, too!

Sunday is my sister Joann's graduation from the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus! Yay! She actually finished her classes over the summer and started Vet School at Michigan State this fall, but they don't have graduation ceremonies during the summer, so she's "officially" graduating this weekend. So we'll be going to her ceremony on Sunday morning. She is going to be awarded the Chancellor's Medallion. I'm not quite sure what that is, but it must be quite an honor because she gets to sit on a special platform at graduation, with all the "dignitaries"! Woo hoo! Then Sunday night is charity gift-wrapping at Southland Mall for Michigan Youth Leadership. This will be a super busy but super fun weekend! But next week I will have time to start in on some new beads and some new jewelry! :)

Busy December!

2005-12-08T08:02:00.000-06:00

Hello! My craft show last weekend was a huge success! I was soooo excited, because it's always hard to predict how craft shows will go. Sometimes nobody is buying anything, and other times you hardly get a moment of rest because it is so busy. This craft show was my best one since I started making and selling lampwork and Swarovski jewelry. Yippee!!! :) So now that it's over, I can relax a bit. Just kidding! I have one presentation on Monday of next week, and then one exam on Wednesday, so I'll be spending lots of time studying. But after that, I'm free for a few weeks! Then I can finish my Christmas shopping, etc. I'm almost done, but there's a few little things I still need to get.

While my mom & me were at the craft show, David and my dad were busy installing new toilets in both of our bathrooms! They did a great job. We got American Standard Champions, same as what David's parents have - talk about nice toilets!! They are working really great so far! :)

This weekend is dress-shopping for Dawn's wedding, one group meeting for school, and seeing "Little Women" at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. I just read the book a couple years ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing the play!

I have been listing lots of Christmas auctions on Ebay - please check them out! There's still time to stock up on stocking stuffers!

Keeping Busy!

2005-12-01T09:20:00.000-06:00

Hello! I am getting ready for my big jewelry show this weekend...please stop in and say hello if you can! I even have a special coupon for 25% any one item. If you buy multiple items, I'll even let you use the coupon for the most expensive one. :) So right now I have all my tables set up in my basement, with all my jewelry set up on them, so I can see what I have and what still needs to be made! I'll have tons of crystal-only (Swarovski of course) pieces at the show, as well as some great charm bracelets, watches, and more. Lots of holiday-themed items, as well as every other color you can imagine! It should be a lot of fun. This is a new show for me, so I am hoping it goes well. Then afterward, I'll be darting over to my friend Joan's wedding shower, so that should be fun too! I wrapped her presents last night and went to put away my wrapping paper and when I came back Patches had already started chewing on my nice fancy bow. Sorry Joan!!! That cat is a bit nutty sometimes!

I'm also keeping plenty busy with end-of-semester presentations and studying for final exams. Next semester will be my last semester, then I'll be DONE!!!! I love school and I love to learn, but I am totally looking forward to having more spare time for making jewelry & beads, reading, and exploring all the other potential new hobbies that have been on hold for the past few years!

The holiday season is already starting to get busy, and it's only December 1st! This weekend is the craft show and bridal shower, along with a get-together with some of my extended family on Sunday. Then the next weekend, I'm going bridesmaid-dress-shopping with my friend Dawn, who is getting married in September 2006...yippee!! I love weddings. :)

Well, time to get back to work. Bye for now!

Vacation Pix and Holiday Craft Show!

2005-11-17T08:20:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone! At long last, I've finally got some vacation pictures up! You can find them here. Enjoy!! :) I also wanted to let you know about the holiday craft show I'm participating in. It is Saturday December 3rd, at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I believe it runs from 9am-4pm. If you happen to be in the area, please stop in and say hello! I'm in the process of going through all my inventory of jewelry items and figuring out what I need to make more of, how to set up my tables, etc. Lots of fun! I haven't done this particular show before, but I am hoping it will be good!

I hope you have a blessed and very happy Thanksgiving!! We all have so much to be thankful for.

Holidays are Coming

2005-10-27T07:38:00.000-05:00

Hello! I have updated my website to include lots of individual holiday-themed beads for sale. Now is the time to stock up on beads for all your holiday creations!! And for those of you who want to get a head start on your Christmas shopping, I've also updated the "holiday earrings" section of the site with lots and lots of great designs in holiday colors. Stay tuned for even more in the near future!

Great New Beads!

2005-10-06T20:54:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone! Once again, I've been slacking about writing in my blog... :( But I just had to drop in and share some totally awesome new beads with you!! I have been putting in a lot of time at the torch lately, and I am loving all the neat new designs I'm coming up with. On Ebay, I just listed my absolute FAVORITE Christmas beads ever - every bead in the set is accented by sparkling goldstone! GORGEOUS!!!! Here is a pic:

And here is another set I just listed on Ebay - a very classic and versatile set:

And finally, a preview of another set that is coming in the near future...

I absolutely LOVE these!!! The flowers "overlap" so that the petals for one flower are actually the petals for the next flower as well. I am working on making a whole set of burgundy and purple beads, and these will be included in it!

I'm Back From South America!!!

2005-09-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone! I'm back from vacation, and revved up for the autumn beading season! :) I hope to keep a continuous stream of items on Ebay (cleaning out some older "sale" beads this week!), and I also plan to have lots of really neat new beads and jewelry, in fall colors, available soon. So keep checking back on a regular basis! Although I'm taking 2 classes this fall and working 40 hours a week, I am really going to try and keep up with my jewelry and bead-making.

David & I had a really great vacation to Peru and Ecuador. I hope to be posting some pictures very soon! Hiking the Incan Trail was the most physically challenging thing I've ever done. Sometimes we’d be hiking up stone steps for seriously 2 or 3 hours. Then we’d be hiking DOWN for that long. But that’s the mountains for you! We camped in tents for 3 nights along the trail, and it was chilly and sometimes there was chickens and turkeys making funny noises all night. :) Our luggage didn’t arrive til a week into the trip, so that was a bit of an annoyance, but oh well... It was hard to get too upset about lost luggage since the whole area we were in was so poverty-stricken. :( We had never visited a third-world country before, so it was a real eye-opener for us. Most of the buildings were falling apart, and there were wild dogs running everywhere. It was definitely a unique (and sad, sometimes) experience.

When we went to the rainforest, it was SUPER hot, but we got to see a few monkeys, a GIANT tarantula, some sloths, some birds, and pink dolphins, which was a nice treat! They were actually pink! Apparently they are only found in that part of the world. :) And it was neat to sleep in a thatched-roof jungle hut and ride in a motorized canoe up the Amazon River.

The second half of the trip was an 11-day cruise through the Galapagos Islands. There’s really no way to adequately describe how awesome the Galapagos Islands are!!! The animals aren’t afraid of people, so you can totally walk right up to all the birds and sea lions and giant tortoises and iguanas and they don’t run away at all. Unfortunately you aren’t allowed to touch them - it was very hard to resist snuggling the baby sea lions! They were sooooo cute!!! We got to snorkel with sea lions swimming around us, and big turtles and tons of fish as well. We even saw a (harmless) shark in the water, and 2 HUGE manta rays (like 8 feet across!!!) We got to snorkel practically every day, at different islands, and go on nature hikes on all the islands as well. The blue footed boobies were our favorite animal - very adorable birds with bright blue feet. There are also red-footed ones, and some that are called masked boobies that are mostly white with dark brown accents. Many of them had fluffy baby chicks that were just soooooooo cute!!! And the iguanas were just lounging and walking around, sometimes we could see about 60 or 70 of them in the same place. We had to step over them as we walked around. :) And it was so neat to see the marine iguanas swimming around, and some were munching on algae under the water. I got to see one doing that when I was snorkeling. It was seriously just amazing!!!

But now it’s back to work and back to school. Back to reality. All this hurricane damage is absolutely awful... We flew back into Miami, then back home to Michigan, right before the hurricane struck New Orleans. Luckily the hurricane didn’t get in the way of us coming back home. But it was still scary for us, mainly because my sister Barbara graduated from Navy boot camp in Chicago on August 19th (we were still in South America so we couldn’t go to the ceremony), and then they sent her to Biloxi, of all places!!! That’s where she was supposed to do 3 months of training. But she got there, and then the hurricane hit a few days later, so her & all the other military personnel were holed up inside a hurricane-proof building for 4 days. At least everyone was okay. But still...we were quite worried because we didn't know what exactly was happening down there! The military base didn’t evacuate or anything. A couple days ago, they finally sent her & some other people to Pensacola, Florida. That’s where they’ll do her training now. But they probably won’t start til next week, since everything is so disorganized right now. I'm just glad she's safe.

So that is what is new with me! Stay tuned for vacation pictures, and please keep checking back for more jewelry/bead updates as well.

Vacation Time!

2005-08-02T07:44:00.000-05:00

Hello!! I am taking a break from my jewelry business during the month of August, as David & I will be vacationing in South America. We are taking a 10-day cruise through the Galapagos Islands, hiking the Incan Trail to Machu Pichu, and visiting the rainforest (where we will be staying in a thatched-roof jungle lodge complete with exotic spiders...) Orders can still be placed at my website, but no items will be shipped until the beginning of September. I apologize for any inconvenience!!! Come September, I will also resume my usual amount of Ebay auctions.

A HUGE congratulations to Marianna of Star Girl Jewelry in Monroe, Michigan, and her husband Joe - On July 31st, they delivered their first baby, a little boy that they named Noah! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! :)

Well, I'll see you all in September! Enjoy the rest of your summers!!!

Server is Down!

2005-07-19T08:49:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! We are in the messy process of switching internet providers at my house. At this point, it's been a week since we had an internet connection, and it will probably be another week before it's up and running again. Not cool! That means that the server in our basement, where I host my website & Ebay pictures, is down as well. That is why my website is temporarily unavailable, and none of my pictures are showing up right now in my blog!!! So that is that. In the meantime, I'm keeping plenty busy with homework though! Less than 2 more weeks of classes, and I still have 1 huge final project to work on for 1 class, plus a huge final project & 4 more homework assignments for the other class. But I just wanted to post and let everyone know why my website is down!

Summer Fun!

2005-06-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

Hello again! Wow, 2 posts in the same month! I'm improving!! This weekend was our family trip to Mackinac Island, which was tons of fun. We stayed in a condo on the island, and brought our bikes with us. We biked ~40 miles total while we were there, including going around the perimeter of the island. The Lilac Festival was going on, so David & I ran the 10K (6.2 mile) run that was part of the festival. I did it in 57 minutes, 12 seconds, which is the best I've ever done in a 10K! We also did a carriage tour, lots of shopping, went to the new butterfly house, explored Fort Mackinac, ate lots of fudge, and rented the movie "Somewhere in Time" which was actually filmed on Mackinac Island. Here are David, me, my sister Joann, my mom, and my sister Barbara downtown:

In beady news, I did make a few new pairs of earrings this past week, and I've added them to my website, and I've listed a bunch of jewelry on Ebay as well. I hope to keep a steady stream of items on Ebay during the rest of the summer. So definitely stay tuned!

Is it really June already??!!

2005-06-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone! Once again, time has slipped away from me and I haven't posted in a looooong time. I had thought May would be a very relaxing month with plenty of spare time...ha! I should have known better!! :) May was filled with planning & having 2 big birthday parties (my mom's 50th and my father-in-law's 60th), plus planning for & having this year's Michigan Youth Leadership conference. I am pleased to report that all 3 events were a huge success! The conference is always fun because it is great to be helping make a positive difference in the lives of so many students. I mainly do behind-the-scenes work, but next year I am going to attempt to be a Group Facilitator and have my own group of 8 or 9 students to work with and keep track of all weekend. This will be a HUGE step for me, as I am MUCH more comfortable behind the scenes! But I need to step outside of my comfort zone more often. So that is the plan. The birthday parties were both really fun - it is always good to see relatives/friends that I don't get to see very often. My father-in-law's party was a surprise for him, and I don't think he suspected anything until right beforehand. For both parties, my husband & I made the invitations and put together big picture collages, so that was a lot of fun! In a week or so, we are taking my mom to Mackinac Island for a birthday present as well. I've never been there, even though it's only 4 hours away from my house. It's weird to think I've been all over Europe and Australia, yet I've never been to Mackinac Island! It should be a nice and relaxing trip with lots of biking, shopping, eating, and lounging around.

This past month, I've only sat down with my torch a couple of times, and I have been really slacking off with my jewelry-making as well. But I am pleased to report that I feel like I'm making progress on raised floral beads, which were a big challenge for me when I first started making beads. Here is a nice example of what I made last week:

On Monday June 6th, my summer classes will be starting, so that will keep me busy for awhile. I've been trying to list on Ebay whenever I can, and I'm trying to get myself back into the routine of listing on Ebay pretty much every night. Right now I have some lovely patriotic earrings listed, as well as some dangly floral earrings! Please check them out!

Well, I suppose that is all for now. I need to make sure I post more often!!

Yay for May!!

2005-04-28T07:49:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Classes are done for the semester, and I feel sooooo free now! I am totally enjoying it. I actually have time to go shopping and look at things that aren't on my shopping list! I can do things at a leisurely pace, rather than constantly rushing so I can get back to all the schoolwork that needs to be done. I'm going to get spoiled and then I will be very depressed when classes start again in June. Oh well. Just one more year, then I'll be all finished! :)

I wanted to say a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my wonderful friends Jenny & Tim, who got married on April 16 after *9 years* of dating! The entire day was absolutely perfect. Now Jenny & Tim are back from their honeymoon to the Grand Canyon, and are beginning their new life together. I wish them all the happiness in the world! Here is the happy couple:

I am planning to make a page with a lot more wedding pictures, so once it is ready, you will be able to find it here.

Pope John Paul II, rest in peace...

2005-04-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was saddened to hear of the death of Pope John Paul II. When my husband and I visited Europe last year, we were blessed with a private audience with the Holy Father. It was an incredibly moving and powerful experience. We were able to kiss his hand, and he gave us a blessing and two rosaries. It is hard to believe he is gone now... Pope John Paul II, rest in peace...

(All photographs are courtesy of Vatican Photography Services)

Happy Easter!

2005-03-25T07:48:00.000-06:00

Although it is not quite Easter yet, I'm guessing I won't be doing another post until after Easter, so I wanted to go ahead and say "Happy Easter" now! I hope all of you have a blessed and relaxing holiday. Right now I'm consumed with Easter Triduum activities at my church - I'm singing in the Triduum Choir for the first time, and it is a lot of fun. So I sang at Holy Thursday mass last night, and in a couple hours I'll sing at the Good Friday mass, then also at the Easter Vigil tomorrow night. That's a lot of singing! For Easter, we're going to my mom's house and then seeing Phantom of the Opera with my sister and her boyfriend at night (we booked the tickets before we realized it on was Easter Sunday!!). In between all of this, I'll finish 3 homework assignments that are due next week, and do some reading for my classes. I'm hoping to list more auctions on Ebay Saturday as well. Most likely a lot of "sale" auctions, as I still have a lot of stuff I'd like to clear out so I can make some room for new creations! I have a TON of awesome lampwork beads that I'm itching to make new jewelry with, but it is a matter of finding time! I'm looking forward to the end of April, when my classes will be over for the semester! Then I'll have the whole month of May free, before classes start again in June. It will be sooooo nice to have a whole month of free time! I'm hoping I can use that time to launch the wedding jewelry collection I've been dreaming about for a year now, and also to do a lot of my own lampworking and try out some cool new bead-making ideas. So stay tuned to see what happens!! Again, Happy Easter everyone!

Hello again!

2005-03-08T09:54:00.000-06:00

Hello again everyone! Long time no chat!!! I realize it seems I've fallen off the face of the earth...I haven't posted since last year! Eeek! I have been keeping super busy with work and classes. This semester is turning out to be really stressful. All of my classes require a steady (and huge) amount of work. Last semester, I took 3 classes as well, but only one required a ton of work all the time, and for the other 2 the workload varied over the semester. Sometimes I had a ton of stuff to do, but other times I had pretty much nothing to do. So this semester is turning out to be a lot more stressful in terms of the amount of coursework I need to do. Work is also really busy right now. And I joined the Easter Triduum choir at my church, and have been volunteering with Michigan Youth Leadership quite a bit. Plus I'm helping my best friend Jenny with her wedding plans (I printed up 200 wedding invitations this past weekend) so that has been keeping me busy too! Her wedding is April 16th, and it is going to be a lot of fun. :) My husband David & I took a much-needed 6-day vacation down to Port Aransas, Texas last week during my spring break. We got to see the whooping cranes, and tons of other really neat birds. We spent a lot of time lounging around (even though it wasn't as warm as I was hoping it would be), and just relaxing. Usually our vacations consist of us getting up super early and running around all day, seeing and doing as much as we possibly can. So this vacation was a lot more relaxing, which is just what I needed right now. As you've probably noticed due to my lack of posting and updating of my website/Ebay, I have had to put a lot of things on the back burner lately, which I'm not too happy about but I don't have much of a choice right now. Today I added a few new pairs of really neat lampwork earrings. I have plenty more beads just waiting to be made into lovely creations, but there are simply not enough hours in each day for me to get everything done!! I will try to post more often in the future and get back into the swing of things with my website. :)

My Christmas Necklace

2004-12-31T16:29:00.000-06:00

Hello! I just have to post a picture of the adorable necklace I made myself for Christmas. It features a lampwork penguin and snowman, both handmade by myself!

Soooo cute!!

Happy 2005 (very soon!)

2004-12-29T09:41:00.000-06:00

Hello! I hope everyone had a terrific holiday season. I had a really good Christmas, lots of running around, as always, but I don't mind because it is lots of fun to see all my family and friends. Christmas Eve we went over my aunt and uncle's house for lunch, then to my dad's for dinner, then to Midnight Mass. On Christmas Day, it was my mom's house in the morning and my husband's parents' house in the afternoon. Today we're heading out to a friend's house for lunch, yesterday was lunch with my husband's Grandpa and a stop at my dad's house, Monday was a visit to my husband's aunt and uncle's house. This weekend are 2 more parties with friends, and a potential 3rd party is already in the works. I love the holidays!!!!!! :)

It's hard to believe New Year's will be here in just a couple days! I want to thank all of my wonderful customers who have made 2004 a good year for my jewelry business. I totally enjoy this hobby/business so much, and it is always so exciting to hear from any of you. Many of you have become friends of mine, and I really appreciate all the compliments and words of encouragement, both with my jewelry and my bead-making. I couldn't ask for nicer customers, that's for sure!! If you ever have ideas of new pieces you'd like to see me create, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail! :)

I have TONS and TONS of sale items listed on Ebay right now, so please check them out! I am also totally in love with my new Fuchsia Floral Fantasy charm bracelet... it is definitely one of the most gorgeous pieces I've ever designed!!

One more thing...a huge CONGRATULATIONS to my friends Dawn & Dan, who just got engaged on Christmas day!!!! Best wishes you guys!!! :)

Happy Holidays!!

2004-12-20T13:37:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! I hope all of you are having a good holiday season. I really can't believe Christmas is almost here, I don't know where all the time goes! I've been super busy with presentations/exams/papers for school, and my last exam is this afternoon. I've also been getting together with lots of family and friends, and doing lots of Christmas shopping (I think I'm finally done...now I just need to get everything wrapped!!) I also had a craft show earlier this month, which went fairly smoothly, it could have been better, but oh well. So I've had very little time for making new jewelry or beads these past few weeks. I have a week off from work between Christmas and New Year's, so I'm hoping to play with my torch quite a bit during that time. I also plan on having several sales on Ebay after Christmas...Time to clear out a bunch of my older merchandise to make room for some new stuff! I have sooooooo many lampwork beads that have been sitting around waiting for me to make jewelry out of them. At one point, I was totally out-of-control with my bead-buying, so even though I barely bought any beads this past year, I still have a TON of them in stock from before!! Plus, I really want to focus on using my own handmade lampwork beads during this coming year, as well as starting a bridal jewelry collection. I have lots of big ideas, and I just hope I can find enough time for all of them! Once I'm done with school (only 1.5 more years...), it will be so nice to have more free time again. But in the meantime, I'll try and make the best use of my Christmas vacation as possible! :) Hope everyone has a great holiday season, and keep warm!!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2004-11-24T08:15:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, everyone! Hope you have a fabulous day! I'm expecting to have a fun Thanksgiving: My mom and one of my sisters are coming with us to my husband's parents house for dinner, which we haven't tried before. Hopefully things go smoothly and my sister behaves herself. ;) This weekend I'll be busy getting ready for my craft show on December 4th. I did the same show last year, and it went pretty good, so I am excited to do it again. I still have lots of items I want to make! Plus I need to re-stock the salon where I sell my jewelry, so they will have enough jewelry for the holiday rush!! I should probably also make time for homework this weekend, and I may also be getting together with my friend who is getting married in April, since we need to assemble all of her silk bouquets, corsages, etc. So that should be fun! I also have a bit of a cold/cough these days, so hopefully I can squeeze in some extra sleep and relaxation this weekend as well. Here is a funny picture my mom sent me...Have a good holiday everyone!

Hi Everyone!

2004-11-04T13:36:00.000-06:00

Hello! Once again, way too much time has gone by in between my postings...eeek! That is not good. I hope everyone had a good Halloween! We handed out candy but it seems like we get fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters each year. The first year we were in our house, we had close to 100 kids come, but this year we got a whopping 29 kids (well, 31 if you count my wacky 19 and 21-year-old sisters who showed up at the last minute, dressed like they were straight out of the 1980s, looking for leftover goodies...) But we had a good Halloween in general! Other than that, I've been keeping busy with school and work, and squeezing in a few custom bead orders and trying to get more new jewelry made as well. Right now, I'm hoping to clear out some older "sale" items via Ebay and make some room in my jewelry storage containers! Congratulations to Victoria B., who won my latest contest for free beads and jewelry! She selected the red/silver chandelier earrings as her prize, and now she just needs to get her ears pierced! Ha, ha, ha!! :) Also, I got a nice promotion at work last week, so I am definitely excited about that! I even got candy and flowers to go along with it! :) So that has definitely been a highlight of the past week. We also went crane-watching last weekend, which was really neat. Today I just ordered some Raku glass frit, which is tiny little multi-colored pieces of glass that I can roll my lampwork beads in to give them some really fun effects. I am looking forward to trying it! I also attempted to make a couple snowman beads last weekend. They didn't turn out quite as nice as I was hoping for, but I'll keep trying! I'm also working on raised florals, which was one of the main styles of beads that I *really* wanted to make when I first started lampworking. But I was never able to master them, so I gave up. Now I am trying again, so hopefully I'll be able to offer some raised florals for sale soon!

Hello!

2004-09-30T13:13:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I let 3 weeks go by without writing anything here...aaack!!! Now that classes have started, I've just been so busy and haven't had as much time for bead-making/jewelry-making as I would prefer. But I have been doing some big bead orders and custom jewelry, which is always fun! I have a major group project due in my marketing class next week, so that has been consuming a huge amount of my time. At least that will be over soon! And there's a lot of reading for one of my other classes, plus a huge paper to think about for my third class. I'm enjoying my reduced work schedule, it gives me more time for homework. So that is good. I decided to combine 2 of my Christmas bead sets into one jumbo-sized set! I put it up on Ebay earlier this week. I also listed a pink/black/lime charm bracelet set made with my own lampwork beads. I really like how it turned out!!! Aside from all this, I'm also keeping busy with church activities. Half of the membership of my church is student-based, so there is a huge turnover every year. My husband and I are two of the Reader Coordinators, so we've been busy training all the new readers (we have 35 new ones and even more 'returning' ones!!), working on the schedule for fall, answering e-mails, etc. At least we only need to do this once per semester, it is a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun. :) What else is new...hmmm...this weekend is the Huron Township Applefest in New Boston! Yay!!! I get to go "home" and eat soup in a breadbowl, eat caramel apple slices, and see some friends. :) We are also celebrating my sister Barbara's birthday this weekend. Plus I'm sure I'll have a marketing group meeting sometime this weekend, and who knows what other activities will come up. It is supposed to be a really cold weekend, which always seems to happen when Applefest comes. Today it is supposed to get up to 73 degrees, but it feels chillier than that. It's been in the mid-60's for the last couple days. I guess it's almost October, so it makes sense that it is getting colder, but I'm not ready yet!!! :)

The Latest

2004-09-10T08:19:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! I bought a lentil masher this week, so I can't wait to try making some lentil-shaped beads this weekend! I am definitely excited about it. It is really ice tongs, bought at Linens N Things for $4.99, and bent a bit to realign the ends so they meet up in a more parallel fashion. I read about this on a bead-making website and thought it sounded a lot better than paying big bucks for a "real" lentil masher! :) So I'm hoping to make my very first lentils this weekend. I hope it goes smoothly! Saturday (tomorrow) I'm going to the Grosse Ile Home & Garden Tour, which my aunt is the chairperson of. I'm looking forward to it, I just love big fancy houses! :) It is also Welcome Weekend at my church, so I'll be busy with that as well. My sister and her new boyfriend are coming over for dinner tonight, so that will be fun as well. Lots of fun stuff going on this weekend! Hope everyone has a good one!

Labor Day updates

2004-09-07T09:33:00.000-05:00

Hello! Hope everyone had a good Labor Day! We visited with some family, and just sat around the house & relaxed most of the weekend, which is always nice! I got quite a few beads made, look for them on the new "Bead Specials" section of my site! If no one snaps them up, I'll be moving them to Ebay next week. More specials will be posted as soon as I get more of the beads cleaned up & strung. There will be more holiday beads, and also some pink/lime/black. Not much else is new with me, except classes start tomorrow, so hopefully all goes well! Taking 3 master's-level courses, plus working full time (although I'm cutting down to 32 hours instead of 40 per week), plus running my jewelry/bead business, plus all the volunteer work I do at church & with other groups....hopefully I don't have a breakdown by the end of the semester, ha, ha, ha!!! Stay tuned for more beads to be posted hopefully tonight!

Autumn Beads

2004-09-01T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well, before my torch went haywire over the weekend, I was able to finish up my Autumn Beads for Ebay, so check them out! My new torch is in the mail as I write, so I'm hoping for a long Labor Day weekend of bead-making. Other than that, not too much is new with me. Tonight is my friend Kim's Pizza Hut fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, so that's where I'll be tonight!

Torch Trouble :(

2004-08-30T08:05:00.000-05:00

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!

2004-08-27T13:05:00.000-05:00

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!!

2004-08-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

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!

2004-08-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

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!

2004-08-17T15:47:00.000-05:00

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!