Finds: Lindentree Boutique & Stella and Dot

My cousin Laura, who is ever savvy and cool, linked this website on her facebook a while back, and I wanted to share it with you. It features pretty nifty items for men, women, and kids. Two confessions: 1) I was a little disappointed with their selection. 2) Their pricing is a little steep for me--I'm pretty stinkin' cheap--but I think I may keep them in mind for gift-giving.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Metal Lunch Boxes

I Heart Tee for Men

And while I'm talking about Laura, you should visit her Stella and Dot website and become a fan on facebook to view a really beautiful, unique selection of jewelry and accessories. I love this stuff!

Here are some of my favorites:

Garden Party Necklace

Stackable Deco Rings

I hope you enjoy looking at these pretty things as much as I do! I'll have more for your viewing pleasure on Friday with a new Etsy Treasury, created by yours truly.

Oh! And I'm still plowing my way through the blogs shared by Jill. I'll keep you posted on the ones I like as I discover them.

My First Etsy Treasury.

I spent the better part of the morning creating this treasury on Etsy. I intentionally chose autumny items from little-known or recently opened shops. It seems like well-known shops are featured quite a bit on Etsy's front page, and I think it would be nice to see some new sellers every once in a while. There's plenty of room for everybody!

Here is one of my favorites:

Handmade soap with shea butter and avocado - Pumpkin Pie Spice. This soap looks good enough to eat!

You'll have to visit the treasury to see more! WARNING: Once you start looking through treasuries, you better count the clock, Cassius--because hours have been known to march silently by as one admires beautiful handmade goods and works of art. Enjoy!

New Toy.

Another reason to heart the USPS: They bring me fun new toys. My ears are now trained to hear the mail truck as it revvvvvvs and then stops! with a slight squeak at each mailbox along our street. To save my pride, I make myself stay inside until he's turned off our street. It's not like I'm waiting around for this stuff, right?

A few days ago, the mailman (I really should learn his name) brought my Lortone tumbler. I am ready for some polishing! :)

I'll try to shoot some before and afters so you can see how much easier this is going to make my job. Up until now, I've been hand-polishing every single piece. Perhaps now I won't be so arthritic when I grow old!

Behind the Scenes: Getting Items Ready to Ship

My daughter, Laila, and I had to stay home sick from church today. While I wasn't watching Elmo's Potty Time or streaming our service online, I took advantage of the unexpected time at home by getting orders ready to ship on Monday. I took a few pictures so you can see what I'm up to about 1/4 of the time. **I put captions BELOW each picture.

In my husband's Dr. Pepper t-shirt (did I mention we are home sick?) at the kitchen table. This is my favorite part: attaching polished pieces to their respective chains, adding birthstones, boxing gift items. Very fun.

I still believe in old-fashioned, handwritten thank-you notes. :) I write one to each customer.

In the computer hutch/cave, logging on so I can print out mailing labels from my Paypal account. I've just recently started doing this rather than going to the local USPS. Though I'm sure Mr. Nik will miss seeing Laila a few times each week, I do like the fact that I only have to go to the Post Office when I have an international order. Which reminds me: I get to ship to Athens, Greece this week! I'm excited.

My girl awoke from her nap just in time to watch our service online. We sat together at the computer whilst I finished affixing labels to envelopes, being especially careful to make sure the right jewelry was packed into each envelope. One of my worst business fears is sending a piece to the wrong place. Yikes.

Packages, ready to mail and loaded into one of my favorite bags--a green canvas one with ribbon embellishments on the side pockets, purchased at a garage sale when I was about 17 years old. I love it!!

And there you have it, folks: a glimpse of what I do when I'm mailing you some jewelry. :)

Lost in Blog World.

I've been reading other people's blogs all afternoon, and I'm amazed by their creativity and voice. Sometimes I feel like I have no voice of my own. I feel like George, Steve Zahn's character from You've Got Mail, who isn't "online" because he simply views it as another place to be rejected by women. Except I'm not a man, and I'm not interested in women.

I am, however, afraid of being rejected.

Or worse--unnoticed.

BUT. I will plow ahead, endeavoring to follow the Pioneer Woman's advice and "Consider your blog a precious bloom that requires daily nurturing."

Here are the blogs I've been exploring today:

320 Sycamore - This one has a lot of traffic--and for good reason. Great ideas and fun links for everyone.

The Pink Peony of Le Jardin - Found this one via 320 Sycamore. It's a new one, with less traffic, which I like because I'm a little blog right now too. :)

Bless Our Nest - Very cool crafty ideas in all kinds of categories. In addition, she's a fellow Arky. (Holla.)

Team Lashlee - Fun to read, and you won't believe this chick's pregnancy photos. She's gorgeous and carried twins to term. The photos of her boys' nursery show how beautifully she can put together a room. I can't wait to explore deeper into this one.

That should give you enough to do for now. :)

My thanks to Jill for sending me links to some of the fabulous blogs listed above--and more! I haven't had time yet to scour them all, but I promise to share the ones I like as I read them.

And by the way--this post was really really NOT intended to elicit sympathy from anyone, so don't feel obligated to leave sympathetic comments (though if you have some in your heart, you may share them by clicking the "comment" link below--haha!).

A few finished pieces

Here are some things I finished today!

1. ESMTG Pendant--Next time the texturing will be lighter so that you can see the text better, and I think I may stamp the text horizontally instead. Haven't made up my mind.

2. Brag tag for a friend. Name on front, DOB on back.

Alchemy perhaps not so fictional after all.

I spent the morning playing with PMC, and these are the products (from left to right, beginning at the top):

1. A brag tag for a friend of mine. Her daughter's name is on the front and her birthdate is on the back.

2. A long-awaited ESMTG pendant. (The Christ followers with whom I am delighted to serve do our best to live by several guiding principles, one of which is "A soul is a soul is a soul, and every soul matters to God." We shorten it to ESMTG because life is always made brighter by cryptic acronyms.) I'm planning to sell this and give all profits to Assemblies of God World Missions. You can find another piece of mine that benefits world missions on this listing in my Etsy shop. I'm a little afraid that the edges of the pendant will be too fragile, but we'll see how it goes after firing.

3. The heart cut from the ESMTG pendant. I think I'm going to use a steel design stamp to impress a cross in it and then use it on a bracelet, which will pair nicely with the necklace IMO.

4 & 5: Charm-sized versions of the pendant pictured in my previous post. One is for an order, and one is for ME. :) ...how I do love making jewelry.

Hard to believe that these little pieces of putty will be .999 fine silver by tomorrow afternoon. That is, after they are fired at some insanely high temperature, courtesy of my tricked out Coleman camp stove (don't worry--I didn't do the mods myself, so the chances of it turning into a bomb are, I have been assured, minimal). Then, a vigorous round of sanding and polishing, and voila! This muted grey pieces of clay will turn into silvery, shiny, beautiful pieces of fine jewelry. It is a process that totally blows my mind. I'll be sure to post pictures of the results.

Though I hate to leave you in such suspense, I must retire. Word to the wise: Be sure to follow me on Twitter for some sweet deals and promotions, especially throughout the holidays.

Here's my blog.

Hi guys, and thanks for stopping by. I plan to use this little piece of Internet as a catch-all for those miscellaneous thoughts that go through and through my head when I'd rather be doing something else--like sleeping. Ha!

You can, of course, expect to find updates about what I've been up to in my "workshop" (aka the 2x2 corner of the music room in our house), but I also hope to bring you some bonus features (!!!) like my favorite recipes; fun things I have found in the supermarket, online, or at the B&M Emporium--my favorite local flea market and general trash heap; and neat ideas for exploiting your own craftiness.

Tonight I can't quit thinking of the pieces I plan to make with my PMC (precious metal clay--see link here or here if you have no idea what I mean) that is in the mail AS I TYPE. The photo you are seeing at left is of my favorite PMC piece so far. It's incredibly simple...and that's what I love about it.

That's all for now... I'm off to swim in my thoughts until sleep takes me.