Happy Fall!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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! :)