I Won the Versitile Blogger Award!

I'm so happy to have been awarded this from God's Growing Garden!   Thank you so much and make sure to check out her blog about gardening and baking as well!

This is how it works:

1. Thank the person that nominated you, and give a shout out to them on your blog with a link to theirs. 

2. Share 7 random facts about yourself. 

3. Send the blog award to 15 other bloggers whose blogs you love and appreciate, and let them know they won the award.

7 Facts About Me:

1. My favorite color is green
2. As a kid I always had a bad habit of bringing home critters like frogs and snakes and not much has changed... my toddler does it now.
3. I detest bacon
4. I want to retire to Copper Harbor MI someday
5. I'm a total geek and I love watching nature documentaries with my daughter
6. I'm a nut for DIY crafty stuff and would so much rather make it than buy it
7. I am more afraid of ants than of spiders

Now for the 15 blogs I awarded this to in no particular order:

Megan's Creative Blog

Bubby & Bean

Keeping it Indie

Katrina Alana

Sher's Creative Space

King Mtn Treasures

Random Creative Art

The Whimsical Blossom

My Inspired Reality

Sandi Holland Mixed Media

Free Time Crafts

Barnyard Chic

The Hot Glue Hangover

Vivia Revival

Little Nostalgia

Thank you again to Angie from God's Growing Garden!

The 365 Project: Week Three

You could say that this week's theme was a piece of cake!  Sorry for the bad pun, Picaboo's theme was food and challenge was to better understand your cell's camera.  I got my new Droid Bionic just a few weeks ago so this was a perfect opportunity for me to play around with the camera which was surprisingly one of the few things I hadn't played with much yet!  The camera is a generous 8mp but it is not my Canon, plain and simple.  It does however have some pretty awesome special effects and I downloaded a photo app that lets you apply other effects and edit as well.  Hooray for smartphones!

My 26th birthday was on Jan 15th so we went to my favorite Chinese buffet for sushi and other wonderfully terrible for you food loaded with MSG.  It took me a bit to realize that the wide mode that my camera was defaulted to is only 6mp and not the 8 it boasts on the outside of the phone.  However as I became more accustomed to my phone's settings, my pictures became better, clearer and brighter without having to edit the contrast and brightness.  I also had a lot of fun playing with the effects in the app I downloaded!  I especially liked the color process I did on the photo of the Mike's Hard Winter Blackberry and the watercolor effect on the jalapeno poppers.  I used an antique filter on the sushi photo and oil paint effect on the orange.  The other two photos are of a tiny felted kitty and a paper crane mobile I recently made for my daughter.

And last but not least here's the last few treasuries I've been featured in! 

Horray For Potty Training

Just when I thought that my daughter was going to be 5 before she finally gave up diapers she has decided that she's actually going to USE the potty!  Now don't get me wrong, my 3yr old has known what its for and even how to use it since she was 2, but she hasn't actually done anything in it (well she has at my mom's inconsistently but not at our house) till this week!  Now, the last time I mentioned potty training in my blog I was determined to have it done by her 3rd birthday, HAHAHAHAHA!  Ok now that I've picked myself off the floor, I am happy to say that she will most likely be out of diapers by her 4th birthday.  I have not pushed her in any way despite numerous people telling me it's the only way to go.  She will do it when she's ready and I'm not turning it into a power struggle or having her pee all over my furniture either.  Thank God my patience has paid off!

So far she's been using it somewhat consistently for a few days now that she's learned how to tell she has to go before she goes.  I do however wish that she could have timed this before I bought a gigantic super mega jumbo pack of diapers when I could have gotten the gigantic super mega jumbo pack of pull ups but oh well, I'm just glad she's figured it all out!  That and hearing her say "bye bye poopy" and waving as she flushes the big toilet just melts my heart :)

The 365 Project: Week Two

I've been keeping pace with taking a photo a day so far.  This week's Picaboo theme was transportation and the challenge was to use manual settings.  I'm not one who ever has her camera in the blah and boring auto setting but I haven't messed too much with the full out manual mode either.  I usually prefer Program mode on my Canon so I can adjust the ISO, color, and macro settings.  For the challenge I played with the aperture priority (Av) and shutter speed settings and got a cool shot with the ceramic owl beads.  They basically let you play with the lighting and focus of your subject.  I picked a medium value that put the most focus on the first bead without completely blurring out the rest and had generous lighting.  I'm glad I played around with it since knowing how to mess with it can land me some cool shots for my Etsy photos!

Ok enough camera talk!  It was cold and snowy so I didn't get too many "transportation" shots like I wanted.  I had this whole plan of going some old train tracks I know of and getting a cool black and white shot of the snow just barely covering the tracks.  However with my husband's truck in the shop and him using the Jeep for work (and he works 13 hours a day) and getting dumped with snow it just didn't happen!  Perhaps when hubby's truck is back from the shop I can get my shot :)

I did however get some interesting pictures for this week!  I was irritating our tail-less cat Sasha with some close ups and got this great stoic pose moments before she decided enough was enough.  Then Kaylie and I were watching the cardinals outside when this very pretty male pheasant popped out under the trees for a quick meal under the bird feeders!  I was afraid I'd scare him away so I took the shot through the dirty window but he's pretty nonetheless!   Then I got a nice shot of a bright red cardinal and had fun giving the photo a retro look just for the heck of it!

I'm excited to see what they will announce next week's theme to be tomorrow!  If you're interested in starting The 365 Project yourself, it's not too late!  Check out Picaboo's blog if you want to follow their themes and challenges, it really is fun!  You can also see my photos from last week if you missed them!

Projects in Progress!

Happy Friday the 13th!  I wanted to share with you a few of the things I've got going on now.  I'm pretty much snowed in from the storm that dumped all the snow on us that we've been missing for the past month so I've been working on new jewelry designs!  I suppose not being able to go anywhere has been good since there's not so much to distract me including my little girl who is stranded at Grandma's (I'm sure she thinks it's cool being able to stay there for three days instead of the usual two, lol!).

Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner it seemed fitting to add some new heart designs to the collection in my shop.  I've had the design scribbled out on paper for a while but other projects buried it.  Once I've finished oxidizing and shining these will eventually become a pair of cute earrings and a necklace!

The other project I don't want to give away just yet but I bought these adorable little ceramic owl beads and I've been dying to use them!  I can tell you it will be a multi-strand necklace with the cutie owl as a focal ;)

I should have these finished and listed next week since I don't usually list over the weekend.  That and between shoveling and my birthday on Sunday, I'll be too busy anyway! 

Of course I need to share some Treasuries with you!  The one on top is the latest one I made for the NNN Team and EHB Team!

Crafty Moments: The Start of My Visual Art Journal

Inspiration, I've got it

Creative block.  It sucks.  I get it almost every year around this time.  The holidays are over, the weather sucks, it's cold, and all I want to do is sit on my butt and watch Bones (Booth is hot, isn't he?) all day with Netflix instant streaming on the big screen.  However this year isn't so bad.  I totally admit I've been procrastinating something fierce about listing new jewelry.  Lets face it clicking renew on listings coming due is soooo much easier than taking a million photos, thinking of a great description to make you all drool, and racking my brain for tags to make sure you can all find it when searching Etsy!  Doing that won't have me swimming in dollars (as if I was ever lol!) though so create I must!

The agate beach on Hunter's Point in Copper Harbor MI

Hiking in Copper Harbor

Since I am one of those overly fussy (and stubborn) artists who blatantly refuses to lift a finger unless I'm in the mood for it, it sometimes takes a little motivation if you will.  Over the past years, my Canon and I have amassed quite the stunning collection of photography from my many trips here and there throughout Michigan's Upper Peninsula and it's about freaking time I do something with it!  Staring at hundreds of photos on the computer hunting for one to pique my interest has grown rather dull so I decided to make my own visual art journal comprised of my favorite shots.

Page one, there's the apple tree that graces much of my work!

I made a little pocket for the matching palettes so I can take them out

I came up with the idea when I stumbled across this awesome blog about Smash Books.  What is that you may ask?  Basically it's a scrapbook style journal instead of a written one.  It's not a journal and it's not a scrapbook either, it's a little of both.  That sounded like a perfect idea!  I cannot for the life of me keep a consistent written journal and scrapbooking is sooooooo time consuming!  So now I have a reason to use all those super cute little rubber stamps I've been hoarding and I can use scrapbooking papers for something other than handmade cards!  I can have a spot for all my doodles of past wire designs, thoughts for new projects, and someplace to put oodles of pretty pictures!  Yay!

Isn't that just cool?

This journal I've started is meant to help give me ideas for new jewelry, paintings etc when my brain feels tapped out.  To make it more visually appealing I will be basing each page on color coordinated swatches I've downloaded and stuffed in little corner pockets from my favorite color palette site Design Seeds.  I love how they come up with each carefully designed color palette based on a real photo.  Their site is wonderful when I want help picking out just the right color combo for new beaded treasures!  You can search by color themes or color value so if I want to find colors inspired by nature or a particular season it's a cinch to find something I love!  I also know where to go when I get bored with the color scheme in my house :) My first two pages that I've shown in here are based on woodland tones, my favorite!  I adore mossy greens, olive, and woody browns.  Go figure, lol!

I love my mini alphabet stamps, so cute!

Now I have actually been working on new jewelry and got a few new earrings up in my Etsy Shop for you to take a peek at!  They are Bronzed Champagne Vintage Luster Earrings, Amethyst Crystal Vintage Luster Earrings, Angel Wings Earrings, and Lock and Key Earrings.  I've got more that I should have listed soon once I get photos taken as well.

Vintage Luster Earrings in Amethyst Crystal

I can't forget about all these awesome Treasuries!  Take a peek!

Project 365 Week One

I'm actually surprised I haven't participated in this before to be honest but I wanna give this a whirl!  For those of you who haven't heard of it before it's basically taking a photo of something every day for one year.  If you miss a day or more you just take extra photos to make up for the missing days.  The pictures can be of anything, something fun you did, something you love, something mundane in a new light, playing with your camera's settings, whatever you want!  I personally am following the Project 365 prompts and themes from Picaboo's Blog with photos to start on the 2nd of Jan (I guess everyone is too hung over from New Year's to start on the first lol).  The first week's theme is supposed to be goodbye holiday with a challenge of taking a bokeh (a fancy photography term essentially meaning fuzzy photo of light).  Now I already took down my tree on New Year's Day so I missed my opportunity to take an awesome bokeh photo, oh well I'm not hauling to dumb thing back out nor digging Christmas lights from the shed.  There's always Christmas this year right?  I admit I totally ignored this week's theme on account that I pack up Christmas crap on the first of the year, every year and I didn't actually start my project till today.  The photos in this post are this week's work (well all done today, but so what).  I'm not a professional photographer and I don't claim to be so some of photos are bound to suck, deal with it ;)

Lastly a few great T's for you to check out!

I Was On Etsy's Front Page!

Well yes and no, but I'm SUPER stoked!  I was in a treasury that made it to the front page but I was listed on the bottom row therefore not one of the 12 items actually shown on the front page, BUT I got a TON of traffic since it's easy enough to see the entire T that is featured!  I was checking my shop stats since I hadn't for a few days and apparently on the 3rd it was featured!  It took me awhile to figure out why my Winter Maple Necklace had over 200 views and nearly 50 hearts in one day!  Now if I sold it that would have been super but I did get a sale that day anyway so that's great too! ;)

Ringing in 2012!

Another year has flown by already!  I'm not one of those "resolution" types since we all know how determined we are about that new diet or exercise plan until oh end of January or maybe even February if you're really good about it!  I'm not being cynical, really I'm not, I just don't believe in forcing myself to adhere to something I'm going to find to be preposterous a month later and end up gorging on chocolate anyway.  Does that make any sense or am I alone in my crazy maniacal mindset?

Instead I prefer to set goals that don't entail strictness and allow for some wiggle room (and maybe even some cheating now and again).  Now I haven't taken a look at my goals from last year so lets see how I did (gulp).

From Eskymo Craft Show

Shop Goals 2011:

• List more often and on a regular basis (eh I did "so so", I got lazy over the summer)
• Promote myself more (been doing decent on that and I'm more active on FB)
• Do a larger scale craft show (Check!)
• More jewelry parties (Did 2 and they bombed because attendance was poor, oh well)
• Sell more on Etsy (Yes!)
• Be more involved in my Etsy Teams (I've ditched some of the teams I'm not active in and joined some I love!  I also lead one and captain another)

Personal Goals 2011:

Someday....

• Don't stress so much over the little things (hmmm, no comment)
• Exercise more and eat better, not necessarily to lose weight but to just be healthier (Hit or miss)
• Get Kaylie potty trained (nope)
• Get Kaylie used to her big girl bed when she figures out how to escape her crib (she's still in her crib and she stays in it, why change?)
• Get out of debt (I've gotten 2 loans paid off, just have Tyler's student loan left)
• Fix our roof once and for all (the main leak is gone but the storage room needs re-roofing)
• Save $$$$ (Check)
• Convince the kitten that house plants are not for chewing (well she doesn't annihilate them anymore)
• Knock down the "hunny to do list" by half, at last (HAHAHAHAHA! no)

Ok I'm done laughing at that last goal, I think the list is even longer than it was last year when I wrote that blog post!  For this year I'll modify some of the goals that weren't reached and of course set a few new ones!

Shop Goals 2012:

Ok maybe not Lindstrom, lol!

• Reach 100 sales in my shop. I'm at 47 now, 53 to go!
• Grow my Etsy Hearts Beads Team into a larger and engaging team
• Try something new such as incorporating fiber, metal stamping or embossing
• Be more outgoing and charismatic at craft shows to help sell more
• Get a Square card reader now that I have a Droid (DONE, just ordered it!)
• Buy some really nice jewelry tools since mine basically suck
• Grow my Blog following

Personal Goals 2012:

• Continue to eat better, be more active yadda yadda
• Get Kaylie potty trained, seriously
• Read more and expand my horizons beyond Koontz, I paid good money for that Kindle Fire!
• Pay down hubby's student loan at least by half, totally do-able
• Save $$$ for a brand new shiny Subaru, I want it in 4 years and to pay most in CASH :D
• Start saving for a bigger house, even if just a little bit
• Cross off at least the major things on "Hunny to do" list, for real
• Stop racking up the Visa 
• Get out more this summer (without racking up the Visa)
• Preschool Kaylie at home (seriously preschool costs are outrageous!)

In a few years this pretty girl will be mine :)

So far I've been good.  I already ordered my new Square reader and I'm reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on my Kindle.  I've only read a few chapters so far but I'm totally engrossed by it.  I will for sure be reading the entire series!  I've got some big goals ahead of me especially with my savings goals but with Tyler's new Job at Schwan's it should be much easier.  As far as doing Kaylie's preschooling, I need to learn to be more patient and I know my mom will help out.  She's been doing very well and knows all her letters, numbers, colors and so on.  I'm trying to get her to write so we can pave the way to reading!  Pretty good for her only being three!  The potty training is really up to her, she's not quite ready and there's no point in pushing the issue till she is.

As far as shop goals, I've got confidence in completing at least most of them since my shop has improved by leaps and bounds compared to last January.  heck I didn't even sell anything last year till February and this year I sold a kitty charm bracelet on New Year's Day!

Sold!!

Last of all here's a few recent and awesome treasuries!