hey ya'alllll

gotta love sunday night tv. I'm canceling HBO first thing tomorrow morning ($20 more each month in my pocket!) since Girls is over for a while. And now I'm freaking myself out watching Walking Dead, which is a really silly silly show, that I don't think I even enjoy watching.

In other news, me and my two gal pals bought matching rompers at Target, which is what you do on a nice Sunday. 

My on the left, julia in the middle, emily on the right.

I also am developing an ice cream design! Heyoooo! how cute? 

So far the one on the left is by far the best, don't you think?

anyhoo. gotta go stress out about Walking Dead. Bye now! 

A little gilmore girls

it starting my morning off strong. it's one of those days where i definitely have things to do, orders to put together, large quantities of triangle studs to make. but instead i'm on the couch drinking a half full bottle of water from last night which i squirted a lemon in, and watching gilmore girls. also , i was about to take a shower and do ALL SORTS of productive water-based activities, but the water in the building appears to be off! which is strange, because usually we get a letter of some kind warning us of that. so i can't shower, or do the dishes, and tumble jewelry, or...brush my teeth. so i'm watching gilmore girls instead, ok? is that so horrible?

My other main atctivity today is to journey to georgetown to get my prescription sunglasses from See. (they had a great groupon deal!). but its COLD out. and every day this week i've been looking at the forecast and saying ehh it's warmer tomorrow. And then tomorrow became today. Twice. And now it's supposed to be 53 tomorrow!! and it's super cold today! what do i do!! do i go?? should i make coffee here now??? i'm paralyzed with options. seriously. this is one of the problems with working from home AND having a ton of things to do. I just end up sitting on the couch with a warm lemon water bottle instead.

ok. ok. at noon i'll take a bus to a bus to Georgetown. Maybe walk to the second bus. maybe. i also need to go to the post office, but also make 45 pairs of triangle studs, which i should do now. but those aren't due until the end of the month, and I have another wholesale order that is more pressing, but involves more work, and I'm just not into that right now.

is this whiny post fun yet?

HEYOO sister of the traveling pants 1 and 2 are on saturday night on abc family!! remember when ABC family was Fox Family? And when fox family was the family channel? and they just played the waltons and lassie?

ok.

i also made this the other day:

and this:

Anyway! That's it! Good bye! I'm going to make coffee! And triangle studs! And get my sunglasses! 

facebook fab ad!

Fun fact! the current Earrings on Fab facebook add showcases by brass fish dangles! 

Let me tell you a secret...

....the little kid's department in Target has amazing clothes, if you get the XL sizes.  Just take a peek at the two fabulous dresses Emily and I picked up...

We sort of look like weird miniature people with giant heads, and maybe that's because we are wearing children's clothing, but I love them so much!! 

anyway. this is what blogging is, right? sometimes i forget how to do it.

i just watched a particularly scary SVU and it freaked me out big time. and i'm eating too many annie's graham bunnies and I need juice but i just have milk and water.

spring!!!

Did anyone else freak out when they realized today is the last day of Feb? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN. WHY IS THIS MONTH SO SHORT AND DUMB.

so dumb. I'm already stressing out about march.

In about 20 minutes I'm going to the Washington Middle School for Girls to talk to an 8th grade math class about starting a business. I'm kind of terrified.

UPDATE:

I just realized I never posted this. well, i went, i spoke, i played the stitchtagram video. I was informed by a sassy 7th grader that I'm  a hipster (i was dressed VERY much like a hipster). and then i came home! Done and done. They were great girls with really good questions. Most of which I didn't have good answers for.

In jewelry news, I made these:

The Cobalto Calcite Claw Ring

Steely Blue Drusy Dangles

Opalescent Drusy Ring

And I took this photo for a collaboration with an Australian company coming up, which I like:

And need to list these funky guys, that remind me of phoenix's rising from the drusy ashes. 

New Things

Guess what!! I made my own gemstones shapes in sterling silver and brass and now have necklaces! And that's just the start!!

All the things I need to say

yes yes i still exist (does every one of my blog posts start with this?)

I'm drinking this wine:

(the label is glittery! i cannot stop drinking it. so delicious and sweet. like juice. wine juice. juice wine. yum)

while catching up on this:

And thinking about these shoes that I just bought online:

And waiting for this ring to oxidize:

And thinking about how fun this photo is from a wonderful friends' wedding i was at in October (that's my mom on the side!)

What are you doing??

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Yeah yeah, i'm a little late.

Let's see.

What's happened.

I now monogram these rings:

I'm also going a little crazy with making an order of 165 honeycombs necklaces for Fab, which I *need* to ship on Tuesday. I'm sort of almost done soldering the bees, but have quite a bit to go. I should probably be doing that instead of this right now. WHAT AM I DOING.

A heart wrenching/warming jewelry shipping story

 vs.

The last couple of days leading up to Christmas are some of the most excruciating for those in the e-commmerce field. Emails start flooding in about orders that haven't been delivered (check your mail box! look at the delivery confirmation!) Most of these honest mistakes result in the package being somewhere safe, and everyone is happy. A funny thing happened yesterday, that caused me to almost have an ulcer from stress, and then laugh a lot.

A customer wanted a pair of small silver drusy stones, and I was plumb out. It took about a week to get the right stones in, and she was very nice and patient about the whole thing.

I finally got the stones, ground them down to fit correctly, and made the perfect pair for her! Off they went, to get to her before christmas.

Then yesterday I got an email.

"You sent me an anchor necklace?" was all it said. I obviously threw myself into a tizzy, panicking about how if I sent her an anchor necklace by accident, that meant I must have sent the studs to someone who had ordered an anchor! But who?? Who?? Was it the customer whom I Express Fedex'd an anchor (or so I thought) to get to them in CA by the 25th?? No, it couldn't be. I had remembered packing that one and racing it over to the Fedex place.

There was one other anchor order that was placed around the same time that I shipped the earrings. I emailed the customer, warning him that he might be getting drusy studs instead of a necklace, and to please let me know right away so I could ship him the anchor in time!

LONG STORY SHORT. (already long, sorry!) The customer I emailed about the anchor was actually the husband of the drusy stud customer!! He had ordered her an anchor necklace as a surprise gift, and she opened it thinking it was the studs! And then the original earrings came, and they let me know what happened.

Funny, right? 

Year in Review

I know. I'm not a very good blogger. And to make up for it (to who? i don't know) i am going to write a lot of things in list form.

I was walking to the post office past the McDonald's, and everything was gravy. I leave the post office, and the sheet is blocked by cop cars. Assuming there was a shooting, I scurry behind buildings like the prepared, aware-of-her-surrounds-girl that I am, and approach from a different angle (why? i don't know). Anyway. A car drove into the front. The end.

I saw this dog, and ached with want.

It has been a very busy holiday season! Just a glimpse at the many packages. 

I got red glasses!

I had some good bonding time with the family dog Kirby over Thanksgiving. Such a floppy flopper.

I *almost* got really horrible glassses (shown above). Ben loses his sunglasses on plane.

I got yoko ono sun glasses which I'm usually too scared to wear.

I went to my best friend's brother's wedding with the family- note how husband ben (left) maintains same face in all photos.

I had the displeasure of finding this guy on my wall. 

I made a million billion honeycomb necklaces, along with other things, for a FAB.com holiday sale.

That should be enough to satiate your needs for now. 

- 

eeeeeep

sorry for the silence, ya'all!

I'm still recovering from Crafty Bastards, which was a wild ride.

And now I'm just excited for thanksgiving, and ready to not sleep for a few weeks until after dec. 25th!! 

That's all I got!

OH I'm on Fab for a while for the holidays, so if you've been meaning to buy one of my signature pieces, head on over there for a deal!

http://fab.com/sale/9355/product/213146/

New Sparklies

I was busy today, I tell ya.

Also, am still in shock about everything destroyed and lost from the storm. i feel so awful for everyone effected. too too sad.

Torching

Fun shot of soldering a pendant- excited to see how the finished product looks!

SALE

GOOD UNTIL TOMORROW. 

Round Up

So yesterday i went to a garden party at the vacation home of David Bradley, who owns the Atlantic Media Group, which includes Ben's magazine. One of his co-workers won a contest at work and the price was a garden party at the house (he wasn't there). So I went! It was on the Eastern Shore, and it's claim to fame is that it was the big house where the Wedding Crashers took place. Fancy.

I kind of want to get this photo blown up and framed.

I also made these:

And these:

Oh my stars! 

Teal!

A Snow Queen Ring

Some more gems of wisdom

When you work from home by yourself most of the day, you start to genuinely enjoy watching Amanda Bynes' What I Like About You on ABC Family, and fantasize about being friends with her in real life. I wonder what she's up to these days..

You get so tired from walking back and forth to the post office all day, and don't understand why you don't just make a schedule so you only go once a day or, gasp, maybe every other day? Or maybe just have the mail man pick up the packages in the lobby....? No, too easy.

You are so so hungry but haven't gone grocery shopping in days because you can survive on frozen yogurt and popcorn (see previous post), and have settled for eating a "healthier" version of cinnamon toast crunch, even though you pretty much are positive that you are lactose intolerant. Listed. I tried almond milk. It's slimy and tastes funny and i DON'T LIKE IT. I LIKE MILK. I'LL TAKE THE TUMMY ACHE. (see previous post).

                                                 

This is what you look like all day even when you venture into the world, because you forget to wash your hair sometimes (and by forget i mean consciously don't wash it). So you forget to look presentable for the world when you venture to the post office with a bag-lady push cart full of pillows and jewelry.

You also never smile when you are walking by yourself because WHO SMILES WHEN THEY ARE WALKING ALONE, and as a result, ever crazy man in the city tells you to smile. 

So, sometimes you pretend to tell yourself a joke, or pretend to remember something funny, and then you smile because of the ridiculousness of what is going on in your head. Remember, you don't actually think of a joke or of something funny that happened, you just pretend you are remembering. 

Check in tomorrow for more advice on running  a business!

Being your own boss

I always read such interesting and smart things about people running their own businesses, and countless times through out the day I think of interesting and smart things for an imaginary blog post. So I'm going to just start peppering them in here. Maybe. This might be the only time. As I type this I have absolutely nothing to write, so I'm hoping that by the end of this sentence I will remember what I wanted to write.

Ok.

Here it is.

Sometimes when you work by yourself all day, you start talking out loud, just to make sounds.

Sometimes when you eat lunch by yourself in the window at the Cava Meze by Target, at first you feel silly and get scared you are going to spill tzatziki on the sleeve of your leather jacket, then you feel empowered, like, "look at me. I'm so busy running around town, buying padded envelopes and dropping things off at UPS. I'm just grabbing a few minutes of...more quiet...by myself with my chicken pita and free lemon water."

On the same topic of food, when you are left alone (i.e husband leaves for business for 2 two days), all you eat over the course of 24 hours is ben and jerry's frozen yogurt and popcorn. then you will get a tummy ache. Then you think how you run your own business, you can handle a tummy ache.

You also watch lots of random daytime t.v in the background while soldering and packing things. Lots.

You day dream about owning a Vespa, and then scare yourself out of it.

All you want are sweaters with sequined elbow pads.

Sometimes when you are thirsty and there isn't any juice or iced tea (blech, water), you might open up a beer and nurse it over the course of 5 hours, until there's only a little warm bit left in the bottle, which you try to finish while watching nighttime t.v with the hubs and realize it's old and gross.

In conclusion, this is the best nail polish.

RINGS

I JUST MADE SO MANY THINGS.

Hoochie Mama

Ahoy there, cowboys.

Want to know what I ate today?

Egg and Cheese Sandwich

Big Bag of Popcorn

Pint, I repeat, Pint, of Ben and Jerry's Greek Frozen Yogurt. Raspberry and Fudge flavor. Delicious.

And nauseating. I just want to eat handfulls of salt now. And then more frozen yogurt.

Anyway. What is new with you kiddos? please tell me a story! I just went on a mental shopping spree at one Nastygal.com (which I hate saying AND typing.)

And while most of their clothing is totally ridiculous and no one in the world can wear any of it, I found a few cheap gems.

Just a warning, I'm craving yellow, peter pan collars, and sequins.

So what do we think? Are these necessary? Stupid? Too trendy? HELP i want everything.