An Etsy First

I'll admit I have been a little blog-shy since I first started writing at the beginning of the month. I was having difficulty deciding what I wanted my blog to be about, and also feeling a little unsure about whether or not I actually had anything to say! I know that what I appreciate about looking at other artists' blogs is getting to have a little window into their worlds -- I like to see their creative process, what things inspire them, and how they produce what they do. For me there is nothing as inspiring as being around other artists, and so the art-blogging world offers a (not so) little virtual community of artists.

Since joining Etsy, I have enjoyed some sweet and unexpected interactions with new people. One of my first experiences was when my friend Elaine, who I had met when she was taking one of my beading classes the past year at Dava Bead and Trade in Portland, reconnected with me when she found me and my shop randomly when she was browsing a forum! Since then we have exchanged frequent convos over Etsy and also met up for a museum talk at the Oregon Museum of Contemporary Craft followed by lunch where Elaine introduced me to two of her other friends, Julie and Kara. Julie and Kara also have Etsy shops, HandmadeJulz and OctavineIllustration, respectively.

Another Etsy contact was with Ristowlk, who was kind enough to both include me in her beautiful treasury, and to let me know that she had done so! Recently her boyfriend purchased a necklace from my shop to surprise her with on her birthday. Kate makes beautiful jewelry herself, so I took it as a great compliment that she enjoys my jewelry too! And finally, I returned home from work the other day to find a message from RecycledIdeas. She is an evolutionary psychologist and I have been reading her blog for a couple of years, (I was a psychology major, but hers is a great blog for anyone interested in learning about evolutionary psychology). Recently I was on the Etsy forums and clicked on a link to someone's blog, and it turned out to be hers! I sent her a message then to introduce myself and say hi and to tell her that I'd been a fan of her blog for a while. Anyway, the message she sent me today was to tell me that my Art Deco Earrings had been featured in a treasury by GigglingGoldfish on Etsy's front page! She was even sweet enough to take a screen shot of the treasury in case I had missed it (which I did). I'm including a picture of the treasury for you to see. Didn't GigglingGoldfish do a great job with the items she selected?

Pumpkin everything, please

Last fall my roommates and I capitalized on all things pumpkin. In the span of about two weeks, we tried pumpkin milkshakes, pumpkin scones, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin icecream, pumpkin cookies, and my new favorite, pumpkin beer*.

*Note: I just did a search on the pumpkin ale that I drank the most of last fall, and it only earned a C+ on the beer raters' scale! I guess I don't have very refined beer taste... but I did love this beer!

Tonight my pumpkin craving resurfaced, and I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins! I found the recipe at allrecipes.com. The recipe is actually for pumpkin chocolate chip bread, but I adapted it to making muffins, baking them at 24 minutes a batch instead of 60. They turned out sooooo good. Thank goodness I live with four other girls who will help me eat them!

You can find the recipe for the pumpkin chocolate chip bread here. I noticed after baking them that many people had commented that they would use less nutmeg next time, and more chocolate chips. I already used twice the amount of chocolate chips called for in my batch, but I agree with the comments about using less nutmeg. That is, if you want to go for total perfection.


All of the recipes I've used so far from allrecipes.com have been really good. Last summer my roommates and I made these Oatmeal and Wheat Flour Blueberry Pancakes quite a bit.

Beginnning stages

I've been working on an assortment of projects this weekend.

I have some earrings and necklaces that need to be antiqued, polished, tumbled, and photographed before they can go in the shop:


And, I'm in the very early stages of a painting! Can you guess what it is going to be?

I also managed to persuade three of my friends to play night-owl Bingo with me last night. If you haven't had the chance to experience Bingo at an actual Bingo hall, trust me, you need to go! It is quite the experience. Our games started at 11:15PM, and we finally left at about 2AM. However, we could've stayed until 4 in the morning!

The best part of late night Bingo is the varied collection of Bingo players you meet there. These people are SERIOUS about their Bingo, and come equipped with multiple daubers (the stamps you use to mark your cards) fancy dauber pouches, and plenty of coffee. You can tell that someone is a regular when they yell "Bingo!" with about as much enthusiasm as someone whose number has just been called at the DMV. On the other hand, my Bingo-novice friends and I could hardly contain ourselves when one of us finally got a Bingo, winning a whopping $25.

Astoria Coffee House

I was so inspired by this photograph of the Astoria Coffee House that I came across yesterday in the gallery of Liquid Sky Arts' blog. Isn't it beautiful?! I love everything about it, from the vintage globes lining the top of the doorway, to the sage blue walls to the doily patterned tile to the Buddha bust on the back cabinet.

Now I want to make a trip out to Astoria! Maybe when the lovely and talented Jodi Mclaren gets back from London I can convince her to schedule a show there! I will have to write more about Jodi on some other day, but she is an amazing singer/songwriter. Look her up on itunes!

Story of a bracelet

When I travel, I like to take a beading project with me. Usually, I'll make a certain kind of bracelet because I can pack all of my materials in this sweet little tin:
Also, it's much easier to find creative ways to cut thread (for example, dental floss dispensers!) than to find creative ways to cut wire, and I would hate to have my precious tools confiscated by security! Seed bead projects are also easier to plan for (since I know ahead of time what the pattern will be) and take a lot of time to make. Lastly, these bracelets are an excellent exercise in color (even though I choose my colors ahead of time, I never know exactly how the colors will look together until they are stitched into the bracelet) and allow me to use the gorgeous selection of size 14 seed beads that we carry at Beads and Beyond. So, peyote embellished bracelets are my travel project of choice.

Usually when I'm working on a bracelet, some curious person will ask me what I'm making. Of course I will try to show them, but since there are so many steps to this project and the bracelet evolves a lot from start to finish, I always feel bad that the person asking about the bracelet might never see the finished product. So while I was working on my most recent bracelet (done at home, not while traveling) I took pictures of all of the steps!

1. Basic peyote strip
2. Square stitch on top of peyote strip


3. Picot embellishments on both layers


4. Final layer

5. Voila!

Scent-track

While working in my cave/studio/room over the past few weeks, I have listened to a variety of music and podcasts, but one thing about my working conditions has been held constant -- the smell. I've been burning a Capri Blue Volcano Candle from Anthropologie. It's one of those little things that makes me happy. Unlike many candles, this one smells good the whole time, and even though it is pretty sweet, it never gives me a headache or becomes too overpowering.

For those of you who are starstruck, when I worked at Anthro in DC my managers told me during training that The Rolling Stones like to burn Volcano Candles, along with Demi Moore. I made myself buy the little one at first, in case I lit the candle once or twice and then never again, but now I have almost used the whole candle. Now I think I can justify the $25 for this pretty one, or maybe this one. We'll call it a business expense...

Accepted

I'm feeling my way through this online crafting world as I go, and a lot of what I learn is from the Etsy forums. Recently, I was introduced to the website Trunkt. It's a website designed to link boutiques, collectors, and gallery owners with indie artists. Unlike Etsy, you can't buy directly from Trunkt; instead you can browse through the portfolios of the artists and then link to their webpages for more information.

Trunkt has a quality standard, so before creating a portfolio one must apply and be approved by a Trunkt editor. I recently applied on a whim, and was so excited to learn this morning that I was accepted! Here are the images that I submitted for judging:


Now I'll just have to see if my portfolio brings me any more exposure on Etsy! One thing I did notice right away about Trunkt is that they were sure to inform me that now that I have been "accepted" I have the option of upgrading my "standard account" to a "premium account." In other words, I can give them $50 to for a few more benefits. Kind of reminds me of when I was a little girl and my friend and I convinced our dads to take us to modeling auditions... they took our polaroids and had us practice on the runway before telling us that we had what it takes, we just needed a few "classes." (I'm embarrassed to even admit that I went to one of these!) I think that for now I will stick to my basic account...

Welcome!

Well here I go, starting a blog...

To be honest this first post feels entirely overwhelming. I feel like I need to lay out what this blog is all about, what I am all about, both things which I don't really know. I can tell you why I am starting a blog though. Last month I finally started to sell things on Etsy, and since then the whole thing has become a wonderful obsession of mine. I love the whole process of creating, photographing, and posting my jewelry, but even more I like being part of a community of artists. I hope that this blog can be another way to connect with fellow artists and appreciators alike.

More to come later! Thanks for stopping by...