Another Shoelace Project

 

About the time I think I'm done tinkering with my shoelace offerings, I come up with another project. This time I'd like to setup some of my wholesale-only laces for retail sale at my HueLaces site. Per Etsy rules, I can't duplicate what I sell at my Lost in Lace site, so it will only be what I don't already offer there. That should take some time...a minimum of 42 listings. That's a lot of stuff I'm not selling at Lost in Lace -ha!

Situation Normal - A Little Behind

So per my earlier post on scarves, I am not surprisingly a little behind getting everything listed to my ALStudio shop considering I wanted to have it all out there a couple weeks ago. I tend to crochet in front of the fireplace on cold weekends, but sorting through all of these scarves (#scarves) for Etsy has me wanting to sit down and crochet something now! In the meantime I have garden produce (tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, squash, etc.) piling up in the kitchen, so I guess that's been higher on the priority list lately.

I was given some advice that I liked a few years ago. When several of us were talking about endless to do lists and feeling guilty that you just never get around to so many things, a friend told us that's what priority lists are for. You make time for the important things one way or the other, and if some things never get done, maybe they just weren't that important to begin with. It's OK to put something on the list, and it's OK to decide it's not going to happen after all. Just trying to remind myself...

Golf and Rain

Well so much for getting anything accomplished this weekend. All of my creative energies have been focused on adding a little distance to my fairway shots or gauging how far left to aim my drives to compensate for my slice. Unfortunately the tournament today is taking place in a drizzling rain, and I've never played in the rain before. This will be a whole new set of challenges, but even if I can't dial things in, I'll be out there with a great group of people, and we'll have fun anyway!

(And a post tournament note - It was indeed a lot of fun, and I definitely need more practice playing in rain...not my best performance.☻)

Glass vs. Epoxy Resin

And more impatience...  You can take the time to mix epoxy resin to dome over your bezels, or you can even buy epoxy resin stickers in standard sizes to simply adhere to the artwork in your bezels. Unless you need something to be lightweight or are concerned about breakage, nothing looks better in those bezels than standard sized glass cabochons. I don't embellish on my jewelry listing photos (I want folks to really see what they are buying!), so the glow in this photo is all due to the way the light reflects in the glass. The artwork underneath is black lines on a white background...no ombre gray in there; it's all the glow. This is another piece destined for my ALStudio shop in a few days.

Mustard Seed

Finally I am managing to get some new pieces added into my "Drafts" folders at my Novapsis and ALStudio Etsy shops. It's nice to take a bit of a break after the Christmas rush, so with the 4 month listing timeframe on Etsy, I'm waiting to actually publish my drafts until the 17th of this month. Anything that isn't purchased by December 17th risks arriving after Christmas, so I can just let those items expire and catch the break I expect I'll need. I'm getting a little impatient though. The necklace above is a simple design with lots of filigree pieces and a little mustard seed floating in a blown glass sphere. This one will be listed in my ALStudio store when the time comes.

Recipe Book WIP

Work in progress...my latest personal project...  After watching way too many YouTube videos about journal craft projects from recycled items (Jennibellie has tons of them!), I was just looking for an excuse to make one of my own. When my file folder of loose recipe clippings fell all over the floor, I had my excuse; a new recipe book. I've got a long way to go on this one since it clearly doesn't look much like a recipe book at this stage, but it does look much better than the cereal box I started with. Hopefully the finished project with lots of little nooks and crannies for sliding in recipe clippings will be worth sharing.

Fringy Fringe

August is the beginning of winter scarf season at Etsy for those of us in the northern hemisphere. It's the time when back to school shopping starts, and it also aligns nicely with Etsy's listing timeframe of 4 months (i.e. it doesn't make much sense to have winter scarves for sale during May). So this week I'm trying to find time to take photos and do the write ups for everything I crocheted over the winter. This scarf (#scarves) is probably my favorite this year with the dark purple and muted orange color combination. Plus I like my design idea on this one...an infinity scarf with fringe. I managed to make this design in another color combination as well, and I'm about 75% through a third color combination. That one might still be listed in May at the rate I'm going. ;)

Dryer Sheets

Using items that are sitting around or items that would be tossed is always a fun challenge. Today's project involved some alterations to a spent dryer sheet with acrylics and metallic powders. The glass cabochons magnify the dimensions of the fibers and make the metallic accents glow. These are definitely a OOAK pair of earrings destined for my Novapsis site on Etsy.