Tangible Tidbits 2010 #49: The Holidays Are Upon Us!

Hey, everyone! :D

Well, I baked Christmas cookies today with my nieces, and then we went to their house for dinner. Santa is driven down streets in their town accompanied by a firetruck, and he made his visit after dinner. We each got a candy cane. The Christmas Season is officially here! LOL :D

I've been working on my coworker's grandmother's necklace this week. I finished with the pendant part, so I now just have to reinforce the chain section. I want to get it to her before Thursday, since it will be a half-day in the office and people will be going nuts. The office is closed on Friday, as Christmas Day falls on Saturday. :)

Just a little while ago, I submitted six photos of original pieces to the Bead Society of New Jersey. A three-judge panel of Board members are selecting pieces to represent the group at the Tucson Expo Center next month. The J.O.G.S. Gem & Jewelry Show and Art Bead Circle LLC is looking for superior, high quality, completely original work to be exhibited there January 28 through February 9, 2011. I sent some metalwork pieces, wire work, an embroidered pendant, and my Steampunk Box. They will select 15 pieces to represent us, so wish me luck! ;)

My final critique for the semester at MSU was on Monday night. The professor said to my friend (a teaching assistant) afterward, "That was not easy." LOL My friend replied, "She should have been a lawyer." That made my night! :D I wasn't disrespectful or trying to challenge him, but when he talked about aesthetics as opposed to techniques, I justified my choices. A few reasons were admittedly lame, but they were the truth and I stood by my choices. :) I think it rattled him a bit that I would not be intimidated by him and I could really care less about my grade. I didn't even ask him about the grade, to the shock of my friends! It didn't matter to me, because I knew the grade was based on his own taste. :\ I just checked and grades have not been posted yet. I should know by January 4 at the latest. ;)

I posted a new Factoid this weekend: If You Can Tie a Knot, You Can Macramé Your Way To Handcrafted Jewelry! That's eight articles in all now. Two more and I move up from Factoidz Writer to Staff Writer! And thanks to a new Buzz It Up! process at Factoidz, all of my older articles rank high or very high in search engine optimization (SEO) for their categories! :D

One other small business coup...I applied and was accepted to attend a special seminar during the first weekend in February in San Diego, CA. It's professional and personal development, and only 25 or so people will invited/allowed to attend, so that everyone can get to know each other on a first-name basis. A lot of work will be completed at the event, as opposed to them giving us tools to take away and work with on our own. I think attending this event will force me to take some steps I've been putting off because of a lack of time or other resources. I have 70,000 Continental Airlines OnePass miles racked up, so I will at least have that part of the trip covered. ;)

As for my Virtual Garage Sale, the last official week ended on Friday night. I am leaving the unclaimed items on the board until the New Year, as a few people have asked about them. So far, I've raised $624.16 for Fondation MIRA and $2.50 for Donate Life America. As I mentioned last week, I did make a personal donation of $25, and I made Donate Life America the recipient of My Birthday Wish on Facebook, as my birthday is conveniently next Friday. Hopefully, that will make up a bit for the lack of interest in "Moonlight" items. :)

The next time I post will be on December 26. So, best wishes to those who celebrate Christmas! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #48: As Grandpa Always Said, Slow And Steady Wins the Race!

Hey, all! It's rainy but warm in New Jersey on this December Sunday evening.

Just got back from picking up my pieces at the 1978 Maplewood Arts Center's Buy Art Now Guys! (BANG) 5 art show. I sold a bracelet -- to another one of the vendors, as it turns out! -- and a cell phone charm there. The coordinator of the event spoke with me when I picked up my stuff, and told me "Your stuff is perfect and perfectly priced for this show." That was nice to hear! :D She also said that they had foot traffic, but sales were down this year for all the vendors, even those who have historically done well. She said I'm on the mailing list, so I will definitely be put on the posters and postcards next year and I should definitely come back! She also recommended two other local craft shows -- one at the Baird Center and another at GAS Studio and Gallery, which is the one owned by my high school classmate. As this was my year "showing" my work, I will definitely have to keep an eye out for those two next year! :)

In addition, I spent about seven hours at Salon Sung in Millburn yesterday for their holiday celebration. I sold two more bracelets and three pairs of earrings there! :D I'm happy that my pieces are selling, even if not a lot of them or the more expensive pieces. It's incentive to keep going...even if my progress is slow, at least it is steady! ;)

We had our "opening" at Montclair State on Wednesday night. At least one piece was selected from each student to show in the display case until next week. Mine is a bronze and sterling silver pendant that I created into a necklace. I wasn't surprised they chose that piece...it's pretty artistic, if I do say so myself. LOL

The fall semester's final one-on-one critique with the professor is coming up tomorrow night...then I'm free until sometime in January, at least from school obligations. ;)

On the personal side, I'm winding down with the Virtual Garage Sale. I think this will be the final week. :D To date, we've raised $589.16 for Fondation MIRA and $2.50 for Donate Life America. I will most likely send a check for $25.00 to Donate Life America out of my own pocket, as I would be embarrassed to send them a check for only $2.50. :\

Heading into the "holiday frenzy" period, I have my shopping pretty much done. However, I still have wrapping to do, packages to mail, and cookies to bake. I usually manage to get everything done on time, although some years I have no idea how I'd done it! LOL

Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday evening, and have a great week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #43: Tired With A Capital "T"

Hey all! I am worn out after traveling out to Hunterdon County on Saturday and then down to South Jersey on Sunday for the back-to-back craft shows. As I told one lady yesterday, my goal is not to have to do that long-term! LOL It's a lot of work and payback is not assured, by any means. Overall, I cleared just under $300 for both shows. I sold one watch, a bookmark, two necklaces, a bracelet, and five pairs of earrings. I did also connect with a lot of nice people, some of whom signed up for the mailing list and others who requested custom orders. All in all, it was a valuable learning experience for me, but one I would not like to have to repeat regularly. ;) I can see doing a few at holiday time each year -- it's silly not to take advantage of the opportunities -- but I don't want to be one of those people who travel from place to place every weekend all during the year. I know some people love it, but it's not for me. :p

I forgot to mention last week that I started posting the Virtual Mall discounts and deals directly to the Virtual Mall's Facebook Fan Page, just to see if it worked better because the links don't show up in the Discussions section when I copy and paste the mailed version. I'm also reaching a wider audience, with 400+ "people who like this" there. ;) It seems to be going fine...I've gotten an occasional thumbs-up for an item posted or a comment. As long as no one feels like it is a constant stream of spam, I guess I will keep it up. It's still time-consuming...I can't decide if it is more or less so than doing it the other way. I'm still mailing it out for now, but down the line, I may have to cut that part out, since it is duplication of effort to some degree. :\

Being out for the entire weekend has put me behind the 8-ball with my Virtual Garage Sale, but I seem to be making progress in that endeavor, too. I will be happy when that's complete, so I can get my personal life back! :p

I have a big decision to make that I will tell you about next week. It will change a few things around here for a couple of months, but I'm not entirely sure how yet. In a way, it will contradict what I said last week about accepting offers not in my Hedgehog Concept...but in another way it indirectly supports it. We shall see...

Gotta run! Have a good week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #37: Fifteen Minutes of Fame

First off, I want to thank those who reached out to me after reading last week's message. I didn't intend for it to come across so morose...but I guess in the state of mind I was in, it was inevitable. Actually, I thought the tone was pretty middle-of-the-road, but I guess my perception was off. :o Anyway, I apologize for that. I've been feeling much better since the moon left Pisces...Pisces is a water sign and the moon was in Pisces when I was born, so I can be overly sensitive and sentimental at times. :\ I'm basically fine as long as I'm keeping busy and focusing on what I'm doing at the moment. It's the quiet times that I can get into trouble, because I get stuck inside my head, and I often hear negative stuff when that happens. Most of us do. So, I guess I'm better off just keeping busy for now, and I'll have to hope I can keep my stamina up without relying on quiet time to help me recharge. :p

I got home in time from my MSU casting class (we're learning to make wax casts for metal pieces -- I have a second degree burn blister on the middle finger of my right hand already!) on Monday night to watch Alex O'Loughlin's new "Hawaii Five-0" series premiere on CBS. I liked it a lot! It came across as a big budget mini action movie, IMHO. I liked the chemistry between the characters...and seeing Alex without a shirt never hurts, either! LOL

My Virtual Garage Sale auction is taking up a lot of time, but it will hopefully be worth it when all is said and done. An LFN fan friend told me about an opportunity for it to reach a wider audience via a mention on Lisa Steven's radio program for "Moonlight" fans. Lisa is one of my Facebook friends, but I didn't even know she had a radio show! LOL

On the business side of things, we posted the new Focal Piece of the Month this week, and the updates to the Virtual Mall are almost finished for this month. ;)

I've also been increasing the company publicity efforts by posting my 1978 Maplewood Arts Center workshops on three local website calendars: the Maplewood Patch online newspaper, Maplewood Navigator (affiliated with the local weekly newspaper The News-Record of Maplewood & South Orange), and Maplewood Online. The announcement ran in the print edition of The News-Record this week, but there was a minor snafu. They made it appear as though I am the contact person for ALL of the classes and workshops at 1978. I found out about the article when the president of the 1978 board copied me on an email to the paper regarding the error. Mom had already read and recycled the paper, and she missed it on page 3! Luckily, the recycling hadn't been picked up yet, so I salvaged the paper and cut the article out. ;)

In addition, I submitted Something Tangible to be included on Artbeads.com's Friends, Fans & Followers page, as well as created a profile for myself on Art Jewelry magazine's website. I've also been expanding my reach via various social media sites. :)

Both personally and professionally, it looks like my fifteen minutes of fame has begun! ;)

Have a great week and Happy Autumn all! ;)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #36: A Business Plan & Dreams

I'm doing this today instead of tomorrow because I have a lot of thoughts running around in my head right now and I want to get them out. Sometimes, writing helps. ;)

First, the business stuff. I attended a workshop hosted by SCORE, a group of retired business people who volunteer to counsel entrepreneurs, on "Starting and Managing Your Own Business" at the local library earlier in the week. I am registered for three more workshops with them this fall. The main thing I got out of this one is that I need to write up a business plan. Apparently, they are required if you want to obtain a business loan from a bank. My chiropractor suggested I get a template program from Staples (think "Business Plans for Dummies") and just fill in the blanks. That will be my next big project after I finish with the database, I guess. :\

On the personal front, I raised $104+ for Fondation MIRA in the first round of my Virtual Garage Sale auction. Not too bad, considering there were only half a dozen people bidding. I'm hoping that word will spread over the coming weeks, so that it will attract more bidders. I sold half of the items I listed, so I'm happy to get that much out of my house! LOL

Here's where I will get a little deep, so if you're not interested in that, feel free to disregard the rest of this message. ;) I don't often dream when I sleep, or if I do, I don't usually remember them. Lately, I've been having very clear, detailed dreams. I think I've had four or five this week. The overall theme seems to be loss, isolation, and loneliness. Given everything I've gone through so far this year, it's not really surprising that's where my subconscious goes. What bothers me is that most of the dreams seem to end with a dramatic sad or tragic ending. If the Universe is trying to tell me something, I don't think I want to know what it is! :o Many years ago as a teen, I had a dream that I was an old woman sitting in a rocking chair and I felt myself die. That scared the crap out of me, but the feeling that I will die old and alone has never really left me. In the past few years, I thought I'd made significant progress in dealing with my long-time emotional issues and healing from them. I guess that was just an illusion, because right now, I feel like I'm starting all over at the beginning again, and that I'm still damaged. It's very disconcerting to think that all of the progress I thought I'd made wasn't real. I went off of one of my anti-depressants at the beginning of the summer (with the consent of my psychiatrist), but I guess maybe it's time to go back on it again. :( Most of my life, I've kind of subscribed to the "fake it 'til you make it" philosophy. I guess my "act" fooled even me for a while. My question is, if you fake it over a long period of time, at what point does it stop being fake and start being who you truly are? :p

Well, enough of that! Off to get my oil changed and figure out what I'm putting up in next week's auction, which starts on Tuesday night.

Enjoy the weekend and have a good week! :)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #32: Rain, Rain & More Rain!

I don't know about you...but when it is dark, rainy, and gloomy outside, I have virtually NO energy. I just want to hibernate and stay in bed all day, which I did for much of today! Unfortunately, we're not supposed to see much sunshine before Thursday. I have hopefully gotten out of my "hibernation mode" -- thankfully, today is Sunday and I could get away with it! -- since I have stuff to do during the week. ;)

I played around a bit this week and came up with some new pairs of earrings, a key chain, a crystal puffed heart pendant -- a lovely person from the Bead Society of NJ graciously sent me the instructions -- and a nickel & Chinese Turquoise ring. The ring was a complete experiment, but I think it turned out rather well. I'll post pics later on tonight. :)

I spent a lot of time this week working on a personal project, so I don't have a lot of business news to report today. :\ I decided last weekend to hold a Virtual Garage Sale of my television memorabilia from five years in the "La Femme Nikita" (LFN)(USA Network 1997-2001) and a year or so in the "Moonlight" (ML)(CBS 2007-2008) fandoms. I still have to go through my ML stuff, but I have acquired a massive amount of LFN stuff over the years, so I tackled that one first. Everything from wardrobe pieces to scripts to charity event photos to fan art. I even have a director's cut and other footage from a number of episodes on VHS and DVD. Cataloging everything and then typing up the 11-page list took up a ridiculous amount of time, but it will be time well spent if I make money from effort. I posted my announcement on Facebook, and received quite a positive response almost immediately, so I'm hopeful this will be a good experience. I forgot to mention that half of the funds received will go to charity: the ML proceeds will go to Donate Life America, as Alex O'Loughlin is an ambassador for this organization, and the LFN stuff will go to Fondation MIRA in memory of a good friend and the former fan liaison between the fandom and MIRA. :)

I did post a "shameless plug" thread in the auction forum on Five Light Years Farther (5LYF) -- I am an administrator of this former LFN board -- for Something Tangible. I don't spend much time there anymore, so I figured I'd let the folks know what I've been doing lately. ;)

Anyway, I will go through the ML stuff in the next week or so, since I have to start taking pictures of everything and creating descriptions before the first auction starts on Tuesday, September 14. I've decided to have multiple auctions of maybe 10 items/packages lasting three days each (I think a full week is too long on eBay, as people tend to forget things over a longer period of time), one a week until everything is gone. Wish me luck! :)

Keep dry and sane over the next few days. And if you happen to be somewhere bright and sunny, I'm jealous! LOL :)