Still Unemployed- with a Messed up Camera

I'm still unemployed but I gave up trying to post everyday - in case you hadn't noticed.  I've kept myself busy making lots of new pieces for my Esty shop and craft shows and cleaning a little in my spare time.  Unfortunately, my camera seems to be messed up and I can't take good pictures of my jewelry to list them on Etsy or show them off here. 

 

Until I figure out the problem with my camera I will just have to post some older pics.  I entered 2 items in the York Fair at the beginning of September and I won a red ribbon for both.  The necklace was a piece I made for the Etsy Beadweavers February challenge- Nest.  It is beaded Ogalala (or Oglala) lace that I made using a wasp nest as my inspiration for the colors and wavy pattern.  I decided to wear it to a wedding this ummer so I made matching earrings.  The rug is twined which is braiding fabric scraps over a denim warp.

Unemployed- Crafting and Cleaning Day 9 & 10

I did some cleaning today!  I scrubbed everything ( knife block, spice rack, wooden spoon holder, etc) along one side of the kitchen counter.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get motivated and clean the other side.

I listed another skirt on Etsy.  Unfortunately, this is the last skirt I have pics of.  We do not have a big blank wall at home that I can hang the skirts on so I was taking the pics at work on the lunchroom wall.  Since I'm not working I need to come up with another way to take pics.

Unemployed- Crafting and Cleaning Day 8

Two of my guys went off to work today but I had to play chauffeur in the morning since my younger son needed to have his car checked out.  Is that a good enough excuse for not getting much done around the house?  OK- I did wash a load of assorted rags and towels that were collecting themselves by the washer.

And... I cleaned my nightstand!!  I read a blog a long time ago (sorry- I don't remember which one) on cleaning your house.  It said to start small and to start with drawers and closets.  Everyone starts cleaning up the clutter and things sitting around but they find they have no place to put everything since the hiding places are all jammed up.  The trick is to start with the hiding places.  I'm not posting pics of my house but I did clean out all 3 drawers and the top of my nightstand.  We have house gremlins that constantly move things around and I have discovered that my nightstand is one of the few places the gremlins haven't found.  Things stay put on my nightstand- but unfortunately that also means things pile up.

And I tried get a few pics of my lacey bridal necklace.  I don't have enough to list it on Etsy but here's a sneak preview. This isn't the best pic but it has pearl colored beads on one side, matte crystal beads on the other and some silver beads off-center in the middle.

Unemployed- Crafting and Cleaning Day 4-7

I have discovered that having 3 grown males in the house- all with different work, play, eat, and sleep schedules- does not make the cleaning part of my plan easy.  I've basically given up on that until Monday when 2 of them go back to work. I washed the bathroom rugs just so I could say I cleaned something :-)

I did manage to get some beading done.  I made a lacey bridal necklace and matching earrings.  My plan is to take pics of them tomorrow so I can list them in my Etsy shop but lately most of my plans seem to have failed...

I have LOTS of ribbon skirts to list on Etsy but the pics are always the hard part.  I listed this skirt.

Unemployed- Crafting & Cleaning Day 2 & 3

My daily blog posting plan has been messed up from the beginning because I needed to be away from home for 1 1/2 days to pick up my son.  But I did manage to get some beading done in the car.  Here's my trusty travel beading tray that goes everywhere with me.

I have a spot in a craft show next month at the local Navy depot so I decided to make some red, white and blue pieces.  I felt very patriotic since I snapped that pic just as we crossed the Potomac River in Washington, DC.  Here's the pieces I finished while we were away- a wrap bracelet and a pair of earrings.  I didn't get any cleaning done.

Unemployed- Crafting & Cleaning Day 1

Today is my first day of unemployment- so time to dust off my blog and start posting things.  Everyone expects me to spend all my free time crafting but I also need to do other things- like clean my house and look for a job.  I hate to clean.  I saw a quote once that went something like this- a clean house is a sign of a wasted life.  I love that!

I plan on keeping all my friends up-to-date on my crafting and cleaning by posting what I do each day :-)   Day 1 and 2 are off to a bad start since we are leaving this afternoon to pick up my son and we won't get back until late tomorrow night.  But I did need to clean up the craft/guest room for his 3 week stay. He no longer has "his" room so he shares a room with my craft supplies.  This is what the room looked like before I attacked it- ribbon everywhere.

I Love It- I Hate It

It's been ages since I listed anything new in my Etsy shop. But I just listed Turquoise and Copper Striped Cuff.


I actually started making this piece for myself last fall. More important projects kept popping up and I kept putting it aside. When I finally decided to finish it all my troubles started.

I had never made a beaded toggle before but I had been told by several people that they were easy to make. My first toggle had major problems and was extremely crooked. I took it apart and tried again- ending up with with a better looking toggle that would not sit right. I decided to use a button instead. This meant ripping out about 2 inches since I wanted the button shank to sit down in the cuff and not sit on top. After finishing the cuff, with the button attached, I realized I had a 1/2 inch long piece of Fireline that was exposed right under the button. So... I ripped the 2 inches out again. While doing this ripping I had a flash of inspiration and realized what I had been doing wrong with the beaded toggle. I decided to use a toggle but I was so frustrated by then that I couldn't picture myself wearing the cuff. I purposely made it too big for my wrist and I hope it sells fast so I don't have to look at it anymore. I love the colors and maybe if I get some free time I'll try again to make something for myself.

Fabric Flower Pins

I'm still not doing much beading. But I have been keeping busy. I've been trying to finish an embroidery project I started months ago that is to be part of a display in June. I have to get my act together so I can have it framed in time.

Since it looks like Spring around here, I took some time out to make some flower pins. Each flower has 12 layers of recycled fabric. The first batch has scattered seed beads in the centers.

The second batch has buttons and seed beads in the centers.

Crazy Hair Kids

I haven't been in the beading mood lately but I've still kept busy. I was asked to design some pillow toys for The Hodgepodgery, a local shop that specializes in recycled crafts. It sounded easy... but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Once I had the basic design of the toys it took me forever to come up with a simple stitched face. I had friends and family vote and every design I came up with was- too scary, too weird, too sleepy, too old looking, etc. Finally, I came up with a face that most people liked.

Then I had to come up a name for my new toys. This proved harder than the face design. Once again I had voting and I think everyone came up with a different name. I decided on Crazy Hair Kids because they all have crazy hair... and I got tired of thinking of names.

Here's the first group that will head off to the shop.

The girls have a hair bow and a ruffle. The boys have a bow tie. Everything I used is recycled or salvaged except for the poly-fil.

Tea Time! Treasury

I'm in another treasury! Ileana of Enchantedbeas included my Night Waters No. 1 cuff in her beautiful Tea Time! treasury. Thanks Ileana.

I was in another Treasury

I'm a little slow posting this because of the holidays but I was in another treasury. The treasury has expired but it contained beautiful black and white pieces. Thanks Rita (alatsupplies) for including my Crazy Wavy Necklace.

Merry Christmas!

It's almost here- tomorrow is Christmas Day. It's not as much fun these days without little ones to buy toys for. My guys are grown and want big-boy toys. I miss sitting on the floor and playing. I'm taking a break from doing crafty things for a few days. So I will show off some of the Christmas stitching I've done in the past.

Here is a quilted wallhanging I made many years ago. Since I had never done any quilting before, I took a class called Cookie Cutter Quilt. Of course I had to add an embellishment to each square. I think it turned out pretty good for my first try.

Here is a cross stitched piece called Merry Christmas A to Z by Deborah Lambein. I started it in 1999 and finally finished it in 2000. This created a problem since 2000 did not easily fit in the space allowed for the year. I squished some of the zeros together and made it fit. This piece was the beginning of my love-hate relationship with blending filament. I love the sparkly metallic look the filament adds to an embroidered piece but I hate working with it.

15 inches of snow- Look's like I'm crafting today!

The storm that hit eastern USA yesterday is gone but left 15 inches of snow here. I had a husband and 2 grown sons armed with a snow blower and snow shovels so I decided there was really nothing for me to do... but craft. In my defense- I did 3 loads of laundry and made lasagne to make up for not leaving the house all day.

While cleaning up some craft supplies recently I found the plastic loom frame and bag of fabric loops I bought many years ago for Chris (my oldest son) to make potholders for Christmas gifts for both his grandmothers. He made one set and refused to make any more. I got the potholders that year. I love to cook and they have been used daily for MANY years (after a family discussion we came up with between 12-15 years). But they are worn out and I didn't think they would survive another washing.

I decided to spend part of the snowy afternoon making myself another set. I couldn't find the directions but it I figured it couldn't be too hard since this is designed for children. Wrong! My first one took 3 hours. It came with a plastic hook that kept bending and was almost impossible to use. I decided a large crochet hook would work better but by that time Chris was napping in the room where I keep all my craft supplies and the door was locked. I remembered a piece of heavy copper wire with a hook on one end that I retrieved from the garage trash this summer thinking it might be interesting to use sometime. It was a crude crochet hook but it worked. I wove the loops a different way and the second potholder only took 30 minutes. I wasn't planning on spending most of the afternoon making 2 pot holders but I was determined to finish since all 3 guys were making fun of me.

Here are my new potholders as well as the original set. The one on the left is the one that took 3 hours.

This is the equipment I used. It's hard to see the plastic hook but that's OK since it was pretty useless anyway. I have lots of loops left so I've promised both Chris and Eric a set of potholders as a house warming gift when they finally move out of the house :)

December EBW Challenge

December's EBW challenge theme is Peace & Winter Olympics. Last month there was a tie for first place so we have a combined theme. Please go to the EBW blog and vote between Dec 9 and 15 for your favorite entry.

People Pin Party

I managed to finish four People Pins this week! They decided to have a party and I snapped a pic of them doing a line dance.

Things started getting out of hand when the original two Pins I made (and still wear) showed up. They all started screaming for pizza and beer so I had to break up the party before things got out of hand :)

Another Treasury

I haven't had any new items to show off, but I'm in another treasury! MaryTDesigns included my Rebel Bride cuff in this beautiful treasury. Thanks Mary.

Pearly Grey Treasury

I just discovered that my Night Waters No. 1 freeform cuff is featured in a beautiful treasury by windyriver. Here is Pearly Grey treasury.

Lovely Blog Award

Krafty Max Originals has awarded me the Lovely Blog Award. I never seem to have the time to spend on my blog that I had planned when I started it, so I am truly honored.


The rules are- Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now I'm off to find 15 blogs to pass the award on to.

Fall Leaf Walk

It's a beautiful sunny fall day in south central Pennsylvania. Quite a contrast to yesterday which was ugly and cloudy with periods of torrential rain. Bob and I decided to go for a walk since this will probably be the last nice day we can get out to see the beautiful fall leaves. He sprained his knee last weekend but fortunately our favorite leaf walk is a flat path along the edge of a nearby lake. We were shocked when we got to the "lake". It had been drained so repairs could be made on the dam that is at one end and was a huge mudpuddle at one end. But the leaves were pretty and that is what we really wanted to see.









I wanted to walk along the edge of what little water was left so we could pretend we were at the beach. There was only one spot that was low enough so that Bob could climb down with his bad knee. There were a bunch of neat looking tree stumps in that area.




















We did see lots of pretty leaves. And I found some pieces of driftwood I can use for little wall hangings and an unusual piece of rusty metal. I think I can do something interesting with it since it has holes and all the edges are smooth.

EBW October Challenge

The theme for the EBW October challenge is Super Power Jewelry. I didn't come up with an idea but several members of EBW did. Here are their great entries. The voting is from Oct 9-15 on the Beadweavers blog.