The rock tumbler is still in limbo. Right now I'm trying backing soda and tiny plastic beads, with small pieces of sandpaper glued together. Last cycle I tried toothpaste because I figured it was mostly baking soda and would foam more. We'll see!
On another note, my sister ran across a link for a website grader in the etsy forums. http://websitegrader.com
I have little idea what it means, but nevertheless I'm sure I will be checking it constantly! Comment with your scores or insight if you want. I would love to have a better idea of what to do with this info
It's been a long time! Christmas happened, most exciting-- I got a rock tumbler! I wanted to tumble everything, but some of the sites that discuss tumbling polymer beads say that you should stick to polymer. I may try a few other things too though. I don't know how well it'll work, but hopefully I'll have necklace ready beads in just a few hours. I also read somewhere that reheating the beads after polishing them also makes them shinier. I'm ready to try whatever. We'll see, hopefully I'll be posting some new necklaces soon, with very shiny handmade beads.
I went to see Bowerbirds tonight. It was cool because it was right on campus and free for students. It was really pretty and sounded so huge because it was in Gerrard Hall, which is supposed to be an intimate performance space, I think. I'm going to be honest though-- and it might be because I don't know their music well and we were sitting, but I got a tad bored. Don't get me wrong though, it was beautiful. I'm crap at pictoral documentation of life, so no picture. I'll see if CUAB- the group who put it on- has one later!
On another note, my hands, elbows, and shoulders have been hurting for weeks. I'm really afraid that it's my daily knitting (I'm working on three scarves right now). I don't want to kill my nerves! It might be my book-bag, at least that's what I'm hoping since my shoulders hurt too. I feel like I can stop being studious, but I'm not going to quit knitting. And that's final!
I'm working on a great new treasury, that was inspired by one of the great blogs that I follow. This article is about a great new etsy artist called softboiled. I love all of her hand painted pillows, but my favorite is this Jackalope pillow------------------------------------->>>>>
Be sure to check out the interview on looksgoodfromthefront's blog, and stay tuned for my treasury!
I put a new widgit on my blog and I'm super excited about it. I put some great music on, and I'm planning on changing it pretty frequently. Hope you enjoy!
I promise that this isn't becoming a music blog, but just a few notes on the songs in my playlist
Jens Lekman- for a long time I thought it was with a "J" sound--it's not, apparently in Sweden they say it with a "y" sound. Also, harpsichord? Awesome.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes- Love it, thank you KEXP song of the day
Yeah Yeah Yeahs- I love this band, in new and old incarnation. They would be high up on my want to see live list. I like that they did something different with this new album. Also, I like to make up a harmony response part in this song, not great but fun.
Republic Tigers- I don't know anything about them, but I like to sing along with the ghostly voice in the background. Too fun!
The Kills- I feel bad that it's taken me so long to listen to them. I love her voice, and they have such great variety!
Accidental- Another song about wolves? What makes a wolf so indie? Also listen to how he says butterfly!
The Airborne Toxic Event- This song makes me cry, I don't know why I keep torturing myself with it!
The White Rabbits- guess who produced their album... Britt Daniel of Spoon. It's a little ridiculously similar once you know, but I really like the song, because I really like Spoon!
The Avett Brothers- I'm honestly surprised to have a song by them on here. I know most people loved their old stuff but I found myself in like, not in love. The new album on the other hand has some new and interesting types of songs, and I LOVE this song, or should I say: dear song, I and love and you
The first weekend of holiday shopping is almost over, and we are quite pleased! Although I think Rachel may be a little overwhelmed with all of the packaging and mailing. We were really excited about Black Friday, but we expected sales to go down instead of up for the rest of the weekend. I'm thinking that Sunday really deserves its own shopping name because we got a surprising number of orders.
Also, we passed 100 sales this weekend, I wanted to have some kind of celebration, but it's already the big shopping weekend. Oh well, maybe at 200!
Here are some cake and cookies though,
All that being said, it's Cyber Monday today, so our sale continues on. We're hoping for some more great buyers today. All of our jewelry ships free and comes with a free lip balm. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ajoeynamedroo
Two sales so far today. I was a little afraid that despite all of the hype we wouldn't have any, so we're quite relieved. Both items were also black, so obviously the sale has been effective.
Here's hoping that the rest of the weekend matches Black Friday's success!!
For tomorrow's black friday extravaganza we thought it would be fun to have a sale on everything that's black in our store. That means plenty of lip balm, necklaces and earrings as well as a soap and bracelet. Stay tuned all weekend for more new and interesting discounts.
Free shipping on any black item, and a free lip balm of your choice!
So, Rachel and I went to our first craft show a few weeks ago. We started out a little late, unorganized and stressed, but we got our act together pretty quickly. For a good (or not so good) hour we had literally sold to one person, and she is my boyfriend's mother! We totally appreciated her purchase, but then after a while, we started to worry about our inability to attract customers.
Finally some strangers showed up at our table, the key however, was the samples. Once we started giving out samples people stopped and looked, and we ended up with a pretty good amount of sales.
One of the best things about the show was that I got a better idea of what real life people are attracted to, even if they didn't decide to purchase. I think that knowledge gained will be uber beneficial.
It was actually really funny because we were set up beside another set of sisters, who had awesome stuff and were pretty awesome themselves. The woman behind us also had beautiful stuff and Rachel got a purse from her.
This body butter is scrumptious. It's super thick, so it's perfect for the coming winter months.
I LOVE the scent too. I was afraid that it would be too sweet. The kind of thing where the smell of your own skin can give you a headache. It is not that way at all though.
Instead of being that really high almost shallow smell of icing, this birthday cake smells like the entire cake. There's also a slight scent of cocoa butter which is what gives the smell its depth. Because of the warm deep smell of cocoa butter it makes me think of a chocolate birthday cake, then the sugar and vanilla combine to smell just like the vanilla icing.
And there you have it. I made you a birthday cake out of words. Enjoy!
I have to give this little craft advertising site some credit, and some business (a little self gratifying as well since I have my link there, hehe).
Anyway, I totally feel invested with the site, since I was one of the first 25, and therefore get free advertising for life. Jackpot! Also, I gave them a few tips on link referral, and they're kind of local, about an hour away from where I live. What's not to love!
I had my doubts about the site at first (it has cartoon moving graphics), but they have really deliverer. I am always excited to see them as one of my top referring sites on google analytics. I am very impressed!
Here is the first of the lip scrubs that I described yesterday. REMEMBER: Do not eat, simply taste! Hehe, or I guess you could eat them, but they wouldn't last nearly as long!
They're made with organic and fair trade sugar, but you don't have to pay out the wazoo for them! (apparently that's how you spell wazoo, I didn't know, but for some reason spell check did)
This flavor is sweet peppermint, stay tuned for chocolate and dark brown sugar
While I was home for the craft fair Rachel and I made some great scrubs, for your lips AND your body. I had never heard of a lip scrub, but they feel really nice, and let me tell you a secret...they also taste really good! Rachel kept accusing me of eating them, I wasn't though, you can't help but get a little in your mouth!
Right now we just have the body scrubs up on etsy though, but the others are soon to make an appearance. We have cotton candy sugar scrub, which is really sweet and wonderful, and mint and ivy salt scrub, which has a nice clean scent, and finer crystals. The cotton candy is pink. I had to stop Rachel from trying to make it look like a highlighter! I said "everyone doesn't want to put super bright colors on their skin!" So now it's a pale pink as you can see. The salt scrub has no color, which I also had to insist on, so it's a nice pure white, LOVELY.
It's been a while since I posted. I promised a picture of my Halloween costume, and I'm going to kind of deliver. My camera was dead, so there's only one picture and it does not actually show my costume.
It kind of stinks, I worked pretty hard on my black widow spider costume and now I have no documentation. Oh well. I'm with Wayne and Garth from Wayne's world if you didn't know.
I'll post some pictures and such of the craft show soon. They're on my mom's camera, so I'll get them over Thanksgiving break.
I made another new treasury! Once I make one, I always just get really excited and want to make more.
My increased crafting focus could also have to do with the fact that I have a 20 page paper due at the end of the semester, and it's beginning to look even more overwhelming.
I just keep having to remind myself that first- I will finish it because I have to, and I've never just not written a final paper, and second- ignoring it does not make it go away, a little at a time will make me way less stressed!
Anyway, I promised a treasury, and then I bored you with school talk. How rude!
This treasury is inspired by my mom, since I'm trying to figure out what to give her for Christmas. These are her favorite colors!
I'm so excited! We're featured in two treasuries! This has never happened! Here they are, so go and do some clicking!
Aren't treasuries wonderful!
I love looking through them, and making them!
Treasuries really are such a treat! Can you believe it?
On one of the treasury guides, it says not to contact the
people you feature, etsy considers that spam. If that's
spam, then I love spam---Bring it on!
Bright Pink and Electric Blue Mosaic Necklace
recently listed this pretty and interesting necklace. I made each bead have progressively more color as you reach the middle. It's hard to do something new and interesting sometimes with polymer clay, but I think this design adds some interest! I'm trying to step up production in time for a holiday fair that the sis and I are going to in Asheville.
In case you're in the area, it's at TC Roberson on Saturday, the 14th. I'll try to make sure I take lots of pictures. It'll be my first craft show, so I'm pretty excited!
I grabbed the moment and created a treasury to finish up my gift guide series. The new items are food, drink, home decor, and an awesome journal. It was easier than I thought to find classy and whimsical handmade stuff for guys. So, for the holidays, etsy has some great stuff for everyone! Sorry etsy, I promise never to doubt you again.
Monday, November 2, 2009
This belt is really clever. It's called a wikipedia belt, and the words are sized by how many times they appear on the "belt" page. How very self-referential! I think it's an awesome idea, and who doesn't love wiki. It's only $15, so it's quite a steal. This makes a great gift because, as I think most guys would agree, you can't have too many belts. I know Mitchell needs a brown one because he wears his green one with everything!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
I love the simple color and shape of this soap. There are also a wide variety of choices, with many scents that sound great for manly men: Stroke me, Blue, Velvet Pleasures, and Romp through the woods look especially yummy.
I love masculine smells, so this present would be a perfect present for me too, since I'm the one who would get to smell it every day!
It seems like I was just being a lazy bum, laying out for so long. Really, I was sick all but one day of it! I went home for fall break with a bad cold, rested my break away, and came back feeling a lot better. Then...duh duh duh it hit. I caught my dad's stomach virus. Stupid fall break. So I've been in bed for literally 3 days. Gross. Anyway, I went to classes, and I feel way better. It's almost Halloween, and once again I need to do my last minute full costume construction. I want to be a black widow spider, but we'll see how that works out!
I know I said that I would be adding handmade and manly things daily, but I'm taking sick leave for a few days. I do not have swine flu, as you likely suspected, but I do feel bad. I'll be back soon!
Hilarious! This "Stashe pillow" also has a cute pocket in the back to stash stuff, which would be the perfect place to put a loving little gift card.
My experience is that guys love facial hair, especially the kind that makes them look silly. Mitchell and I have been having the "stashe" battle for years. I think it's time to live and let live with this pillow!
I love this one. It's perfect jewelry for men, which is pretty hard to come by. My boyfriend has mentioned a number of times how much he loved his shark tooth necklace when he was younger. This necklace is a little more sophisticated than the original shark tooth necklace. To me it's also whimsical and reminiscent of childhood.
This one's a keeper. I think the lines and color of this painting make it very appropriate to gift for a man. Any art would be a great present, but this one seems especially appropriate! Also, it's reasonably priced, only $20! Incredible!!
I like this tie a lot, but I love the picture even more! Great presentation baconneckwear. This reminds me more of my manly man than the picture yesterday of popeye, not that Mitchell doesn't like spinach.
Anyway, a tie could be boring, but I think this skinny one would be a cool present, and it could really make an outfit.
So, my boyfriend's birthday is coming up pretty soon, and so I am once again on a quest to find male appropriate gifts that are handmade. This year, I'm inviting you on my journey too!
My first item is a bit of a cheat, but since I have yet to start my search, what do you expect? Anyway, lip balm from my very own etsy store: The Woods and Caught without a Stitch are great flavors of lip balm for any manly man... or a regular man too (they are really better in my opinion!)
I have been gone from blogger for a very long time. I will tell you why: first of all, I'm a bit of a lazy bum, second I was in Peru for a month, third I've been somewhat sick for the three weeks I've been back. Bleh. I have medecine now though, and although I have yet to make it out of bed today, I think I'm feeling better. I went to Peru on an Archaeology Field School. I am officially not going to be an archaeologist, but it was interesting stuff anyway. I found a gold bead there, and it was the only gold found (I told you my life is crafty)! I'll post some pictures. Now, my overall impressions of Peru----dogs live on roofs, doors are very short, mountains are obviously very high, grey skies along the coast, and in the highlands one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, although immensely difficult to walk around in because of the altitude, plus everywhere you go seems to be up a mountain, so every step was gasping for air. Oh yeah, also sometimes roofs in Peru stretch over the sidewalk and jump out and punch you in the eye. So, I'm sure there are lots of other impressions I could tell you, but that's all for now. I'll post pictures soon. For your information, I lived in Huanchaco which is a little outside of Trujillo, and visited Cajamarca, which is in the highlands.
Somehow my sister and I got two wholesale orders within like two days! So today we made 127 tubes of lip balm. We've never made that much at one time so we felt like it was pretty intense! Since we had to make so much we needed more supplies, so we just ended up spending all the money we made on supplies anyway. We have yet to figure out if we actually make any money. It's fun anyway. I like to make new flavors. I'm thinking a citrus with lemon, orange, and we're going to buy some lime. We also ordered root beer. YUMMY! I also think that we should start a line for men, so we'll probably do that soon. I know, from trying to buy handmade gifts for my boyfriend, that etsy items for guys are in far too short supply, so I think some "manly" scents are needed. Now I'm picturing a very buff muscle man putting on lip balm...hehe
I was about to start working on my new "can" bracelets this morning while my boyfriend was still asleep, but to no avail- I have no scissors. We're at the beach, and I packed all my supplies but scissors. Ugh. You will see the result of my can bracelet work soon. I'm almost done, and if I can find some scissors I'll be a lot closer!
I'm not sure whether I should open up a separate etsy shop for each of my crafts or whether it's desirable to have them all in one place. I think other people are unsure as well. I know one shop is easier, but I'd be ok with the extra work if it would make the shops more manageable and organized. I'm afraid that the real answer is to focus myself on one. I'm anti-focus though :( Focus is boring and it's not my friend. I think craft is focused enough on its own! What thinkist you? (I'm afraid I may have included some bias, so please ignore my rant!)
So today, instead of crafting I had to proctor at the EOG test at the middle school where my dad teaches. If you don't know what proctoring is, I'll describe. Go to teacher's room, wait for test to start (forever), help pass out tests, sit, watch students test... for 2 1/2 hours! Really I was supposed to walk around the room, but instead I read a book for about half the time (they're 8th graders, they have taken this test at least 6 or 7 times). Somehow even with a book, I was still bored. I have to go again tomorrow and I'm going to walk around the room this time, like I was supposed to. Oops. I shouldn't complain, I don't have a job, like I really should, so I feel like a drain on my parents. Also, I'm going to Peru-which is like a whirlpool of a drain (not sure that makes sense, but I wanted an adequate comparison). Ick. I really shouldn't be so hard on myself, I don't think. They depend on me a lot, and I have made supper just about every night since I've been home. I'm just feeling down on myself, and without hopes and goals... ICK... that's what I have to say about that.
I forgot, I wanted to tell you on mother's day I went to world market to buy my mom a present (I know, a big handmade no-no, usually I make her a present, but I feel like she must be sick of it (also, the reason I was going on mother's day was that my boyfriend was supposed to get something from Chapel Hill with my $20 coupon (ok, I guess that doesn't make it any better, it just makes me cheap))). Anyway, on with the story, I was going to buy a basket to stuff with goodies, and guess what I found on the basket isle...A LIVE DINOSAUR...not really, I just wanted to prolong the suspense and make the real thing seem way less exciting and emphasize the fact that I know how unexciting my anecdotes are. Really, there were baskets woven out of newspaper and phonebooks and magazines. HEY, worldmarket, how did we have the same idea at vaguely the same time. Obviously you thought of it first because it's already on the shelves, but I didn't see it, I didn't sit in on your meetings. I guess the only thing this story means is that neither one of us are very original. (I knew you weren't and I had my suspicions about me)
I'm making a fat monster that is blue and brown. I'm trying to decide what sort of hair, eyes, nose, and mouth he should have. I'll post a picture of him as soon as I get a little farther. I know what you're thinking- what happened to the notebooks? I know. I need to learn some follow through, but it's all so exciting!! Last night I finally baked some polymer that had been waiting around, fully formed for at least a month! I think I craftily spread myself too thin.
I really enjoy this weaving paper thing. It's really fun to look at an ad, then see how it turns out. It's all about color! I enjoy it too much though. I've cut out way too many paper strips because I'm like "this ad has such interesting colors." I'm never going to be able to actually weave them AND make them into blank journals. Anyway, I'm going to put mod podge over them to make them stay together, then hopefully use them as binding for new journals. Stay tuned to see if that actually happens!
My new crafty obsession is with weaving together strips of magazine, newspaper, text, whatever. I want to put it as the binding on a handmade notebook. It is bad, however, because what I really need to be doing is packing to move out of my apartment TOMORROW MORNING. Yes, I need to move out tomorrow, but yet I'm cutting up tiny pieces of magazines and newspaper. I'm telling myself that I'm doing it so I know what I need to recycle (self delusion anyone?) . I'll post some pictures soon, but hopefully after I've gotten myself moved out :P
I just renewed my little Lima monster. He really wants to be bought. He's been waiting on a new home for a while. He was a great solution for extra fuzzy yarn!
He is approximately 8in tall (excluding his tuft of hair) and 4in wide at his widest point. Lima monster is knit and crocheted from a variety of wool, acrylic and cotton yarns with acrylic stuffing.
I'm thinking of making some more monsters. Does anyone have any ideas for some funny qualities for a monster? I'm thinking a spring would be a fun way to get around, and dreads would be great for monster hair. Let me know what you think!
