Tangible Tidbits 2012 #1: A New Year And A Clean Slate

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your respective New Year's celebrations. I went to a family-friendly party, complete with children's activities. My nieces were there and they got a kick out of saying "see you later" after midnight, since I had dinner at their house on New Year's Day. :)

First order of business: the new Focal Piece of the Month is up, highlighting a Garnet necklace. I've already ordered and received some Amethyst beads for next month, so I will have to decide what to do with them in the next week or two. I think the majority of the pieces featured in this birthstone series will have to be new ones. Although I have created numerous gemstone pieces in the past 2+ years -- believe it or not, I started this business two years ago this past October (October 26, 2009) and I totally forgot about the anniversary! :o -- I don't think many of them incorporate birthstone gems. :\

I received word this morning that I can pick up my remaining items and a check -- although the email was a general one to all participants, I am being optimistic that there will be a check for me ;) -- from Woolpunk Studios in Jersey City next weekend. The owner of the gallery said the STOCK'N STUFFrz event was a big success, so that's good news. :) In addition, I was invited to participate in a display of pieces by members of the Montclair State University Metalsmith Guild this week. It will be at the The Allwood Branch of the Clifton Public Library, 44 Lyall Road, Clifton, NJ. My participation has not yet been confirmed, as I cannot make it to drop off my pieces tomorrow morning because I'm working. I am hoping they will let me drop them off in the afternoon, between work and the first Bead Society of New Jersey Board meeting of the new year. Wish me luck! ;)

As I mentioned last week, my younger niece made me a woven scarf for Christmas. I wore it to the office on Friday and received A LOT of compliments on it! Unfortunately, though, my bracelet got caught on it and I am afraid it will easily unravel. So, I've decided to add a Picot edge of seed beads all around the edges of the scarf. I'm hoping that will minimize the opportunities for it to unravel, although the center of the scarf may still get caught on something. :\ I started working on it on Saturday, and showed my niece my progress on Sunday. Thankfully, she approved. ;) Luckily, I have seed beads here that almost perfectly match the two colors of the scarf, and I'm also using black ones because that is the base color she used in the scarf. I'll post a picture when it's finished. :)

A number of people at the office want me to make them very large aluminum earrings with dangling chain and accent beads on them. I made one pair for a coworker a while ago, but they were not big enough for her. Another coworker purchased them, and she wore them to the office one day last week. Thanks to that "walking advertisement," I now have orders for three more pairs! LOL Luckily, I have plenty of leftover scrap aluminum from my Chinese take-out box set. In addition, I found a vendor who sells pre-cut aluminum circles in multiple sizes, and I ordered a dozen each in three-inch, four-inch, and five-inch diameters. If the five-inch diameter discs aren't big enough for some people, then I can't help them! LOL One coworker suggested I use squares instead of circles, since cutting the circles is so time-consuming for me. I ended up cutting, filing, and sanding two rectangles, which do look pretty kewl dangling from the ear wires. ;) In any case, I will be working on those requests this week.

I've finished about ninety percent of the projects we started at the Chinese knotting workshop last month. I still have to work on my Double Connection knot, which needs a lot of work! :p I also have to finish the Star Gazer Bracelet from Laura McCabe's November workshop. I stopped working on it because I can't find the crystals used in the center of each flower, and also because it was uncomfortable to work on my bed with my bad knee. I had been working on it while watching television in the evenings, so now that my knee is better (more on that in a minute), I can probably start doing that again. I'll just have to order more crystals in the required size and color. :\

About my knee, the doctor wants me to use a heating pad on it rather than an ice pack, and he also suggested I start some light exercises on my own. I ordered the heating pad from a catalog that people who have been working at Registrar and Transfer Company for five years received. I achieved that milestone in July, but it was announced at a company-wide meeting about a month or so ago, and I was presented with the catalog at that time. Am I practical or what? LOL

Back to the "real world" again tomorrow. Have a great week, one and all! :)


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Tangible Tidbits 2011 #47: Working, Workshops, and "One Life To Live"

Hey, everyone! :)

Okay, so let's start with last weekend. On Saturday, I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. pricing pieces for the Third Annual Jewels of New Jersey show on Sunday. Then, I got up at 7:15 a.m. to shower, dress, load up the car, and drive one hour south of me to the show. Business was not as good as last year, and that was also the general consensus of the other vendors I spoke with that day. There was a lot of work to put into it with not such a great return, but I made more money than I would have staying home and sitting on my butt. :p BTW, I have a few pictures from the event that I will post to Facebook when I get the chance. My sister brought my nieces for the last two hours, which was a nice distraction. However, I might have made a few more sales by focusing on the people browsing my table and chatting with them instead of keeping my nieces occupied. :\ Anyway, next is the BANG VI exhibit at 1978 Maplewood Arts Center. I have to decide what I want to bring and fill out the appropriate forms and labels this week. Luckily, I found pictures from last year (and also posted them to Facebook), so I know what items I had there already. :) No word yet on the events in Jersey City and South Orange. Fingers crossed! ;)

We had our December Bead Society (BSNJ) meeting this week, and I attended a workshop yesterday. At the meeting on Thursday night, Dr. Josephine Yeh gave a presentation on Chinese knotting. She's one of our members and a really sweet lady. There's a picture of the two of us in the Facebook album link I posted above. :) Her presentation was really enjoyable -- she's very funny! -- and she will follow up with a workshop in early December. The workshop I attended on Saturday was to learn how to make a Star Gazer Bracelet with internationally-renowned bead artist Laura McCabe. She's 35, but looks 10 years younger! LOL She's really very nice and patient. ;) We were there for six hours, and I think the most anyone accomplished was one flower our of the eight needed for the piece. :o I'd imagine by the time you get through making all eight flowers, you'd be pretty adept at it! Let's hope so! :)

Also, BSNJ's Autumn newsletter came out this week, and it included my Ten Life Lessons... article! I will paste it up and post it in the clips album on Facebook when I get a chance. :)

I was so wiped out from the past couple of weeks that I slept until NOON today! I guess I really needed the rest. After that, I baked cookies for our family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. That's my assignment every year...bake Crisco cookies! They are basically butter cookies, but made with Crisco instead. The recipe goes back to World War II, when butter was scarce. ;)

Still working a lot this coming week, even with Thanksgiving on Thursday. We have early dismissals on Wednesday and Friday -- we cannot close the day after Thanksgiving, unfortunately. It has something to do with the stock market not being allowed to close for more than three days (meaning no four-day weekends) since 9-11. However, we are open a lot of days the Depository Trust Company (DTC) is closed, so that doesn't really make much sense to me. Anyway, my colleague is out again Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be working more OT this week. :p

I entered into an online discussion about Joe Paterno's firing from Penn State earlier this week. If you're interested, you can find the discussion here on The Maplewood Patch. I was in the minority, and decided to get out before things got nasty. I don't mind sharing opinions with people, but when they start to lecture me on morality I lose interest VERY quickly. :p

Well, I'm off to YouTube to catch Thursday's and Friday's episodes of One Life To Live, another ABC soap opera that's going off the air in a few weeks. I used to watch it in college, but I only really started watching it again when they announced it was being canceled. In actuality, I think it is moving to the internet sometime early next year, but it will be different than it is now, I'm sure. :\

Take care and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! :)

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