If you fear change...

The Cavern bar/resto at the HI-Toronto youth hostel where I stayed this past weekend. I really, really like it there!

See you all at the Woodstock Farmers Market this Saturday with all my Toronto Gem Show goodies. I got lots of new beads to make chakra bracelets, as well as earrings and pendants!

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday Morning Woodstock Farmers Market Setup...

Sometimes there'll be no teardown at the end of the market, the food vendors leave their shelves and coolers in situ and the rest of us non-food vendors leave our tables as is with cloths draped over everything.

I found out the hard way that I am located in front of double storage room doors and came back one Saturday morning to find at least two of my tables moved all over the place, the cloths and surfaces every which way, which means I now have to consolidate all my stuff onto the one table that is rarely moved.

What hides under the tablecloth. Any empty bins have to be stacked on top of the table, as well, for when the floors are washed.

Everything back in place. Takes me about half an hour to do this.

Ready to go. Yes, all that was hiding under the sheet! I'm off now to get coffee, visit and buy the week's groceries, and it's barely 6 a.m.

Unfortunately, this Saturday it was a full teardown. Next week I'll show you how I pack my bins.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Busy Weekend With Lots of Sales!!!

Wheeeee, finally a great Saturday at the market for everyone, which is so gratifying. I sold several brand new items including a couple that I didn't get a chance to photograph. The blue picasso bracelet with the pewter bird, turtle, horse and feather (I call it the "Four Corners") sold right away, right out of the gate. Lady came by, picked it up, examined it... "Uh, where's the clasp?" "It rolls on." Sold.

Definitely must make more of these.

I also sold the aqua terra and crab agate necklace on the right (the necklace on the left sold quite a while ago) yesterday, matched perfectly with sterling, turquoise and sponge coral earrings. They accompanied my customer and her brand new dress to a girls' night out Beatles tribute show last night.

I went to an estate sale this morning and here are a few of my treasures. We're doing a Nostalgia show at the fairgrounds on September 13th, I think it is, so I'm buying with that in mind. Some pieces will go to our booth at the Antique Mall (Booth 800/847 if you're planning a trip our way).

Aaaaand it's jam-making season. The first strawberries are starting to come in from the fields. There were mountains of them at the market yesterday. For some reason the local grocery store has decided not to carry my favourite low-sugar no-cook gelling powder this year, so my pal George brought me 20 packages from the big city on Tuesday, which I swap for jam. 

What's the name of that Pinterest site? Pinterest Fails -- or similar, anyway. Here's my latest entry in the Pinterest Fail... well, it was a success but SO SLOW! Give me my paring knife any day.

My handy-dandy strawberry hulling setup. The mosquitoes arrived shortly after and settled in to feast on me. 

Putting the straw in strawberries...

Poke the straw through from the bottom...

Pull the core out of the straw...

And you have a neat little hole to fill with chocolate...

This doesn't show how full the bowl was, but it was ten 250ml jars' worth of strawberries mounded up.

Unfortunately, the monsoon rains we had early in the week made this batch of strawberries awfully watery, but a titch extra sugar and lots and lots of lemon juice brings out the flavour nicely. Peaches will be coming along soon. I can hardly wait. There's a type of early peach that is soooooo good as jam. Summer in a jar, especially in the dead of winter.

Thanks for looking!

Earrings...

Finally finished a month-long typing marathon at 9:40 on Thursday morning. Deadline was at 10 a.m. I like to cut it very fine. All I've done since is sleep. Finally, this afternoon I started making earrings... I'm trying for more colour. Sigh. Not especially good at putting colours together I must say, but V-Day is quickly approaching and I always end up surprised on the Friday to figure that the next day will be the last market before the big day. Ditto Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas Day... You get the picture.

Thanks for looking!

Nephrite Jade, Carnelian & Black Cinnabar Necklace & Earrings...

Hah -- with reference to a discussion with Lisa Yang two posts ago, I had to take apart old jewellery to get one more carnelian bead for the necklace and then, while I was at it, tore apart an unsold bracelet to get two 6mm beads for the earrings. I figured I should make earrings now because the long bicone shape of the jade will be difficult to ever find again and typical customers in my mind's eye do like earrings.

'Scuse also the bad colour -- these really are a dark and dullish jade on the yellow side of the spectrum and the carnelian is a deep orange: not this Christmassy. I will try rephotographing tomorrow.

Necklace is 25.5" long. $125 for the necklace and earrings. I take PayPal and Square. Shipping and handling extra. Please email me for availability.

The inspiration to make this necklace was pure procrastination -- a highly underrated tool, at least in my creative arsenal -- and which came about as I was restringing and pricing bead strands for The Gem Expo. Hard to believe, in seven days I will be packing my truck for the show, and one week tomorrow, unless the forecast changes, I will be driving through snow and whatnot to get to Toronto. I'm really looking forward to being in Toronto. The drive? Mmmm, not so much.

Thanks for looking!

Which Earrings Look Better???

The original design, hammered tinned-copper dangles with a copper ring...

...or with a silver-plated ring...

These are the exact same dangles in each picture. They look so different, don't they? If nothing else, you can see how the light catches them. Definitely will be making more of these when I get back from The Gem Expo happening this weekend. I'm so impatient to get away that I've already started loading up the truck -- and I have a checklist this time. Hope to see some of you at the show.

Thanks for looking!

Bali Silver Butterfly Earrings...

These Bali silver butterflies are exquisite. I wish I'd bought more. Here is the first pair, made with 2.5mm and 4mm Swarovski bicones, and sterling wires. Nothing fancy about these, but they are beautiful -- they quiver suspended from the earwires. I think whoever buys these will be very, very happy. $45, email me for shipping -- and availability!

Now to go away and make two more pair for the market tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

Hallowe'en Display, Skull Sales To Date & The 2nd Annual Bridal Bonanza Coming Up...

This is my Hallowe'en market table display -- picture taken at home. I had hung my good bud Skully (Dollarama bargoon two years ago) from a small black earring stand with my red and black feather and pewter skull earrings. It certainly attracted a lot of attention. Almost sold the blue skull earrings, but in the end the customer went for a skull bracelet and a chakra skull choker.

Here is another plug for Nelson Jewelry & Gemstones: speaking from a business point of view, in skull jewellery sales alone I have more than made back my investment in two bead orders. Joanne went out of her way to bring in more howlite skulls in different sizes and colours just for me. All the other semi-precious stones I ordered at the same time are gravy now thanks to the skull sales. Thanks, Joanne!

People laugh out loud at all my skull stuff -- I do also realise they're laughing at ME. Whatev. Seriously, a chakra skull choker? However, in the past month or two I've sold at least 40 of just the howlite skull bracelets, chokers and earrings alone to both guys and girls (and their mothers and grandmothers -- pssst... I know what you're getting for Christmaaaasssss) and I've completely lost track of the number of bone, semi-precious, turquoise, pewter and sterling skull items I've sold in the past year or so. It really is unreal.

While at the market (such a slooooow day today, no exaggeration), and on a more serious front, I put together a dozen or so pairs of Swarovski earrings for the 2nd Annual Bridal Bonanza at the Quality Hotel & Suites in Woodstock, Ontario, 6-9 pm, Wednesday, October 25, 2012. I'll be at the Let's Eat Cake table with Rene Hoelscher and crew 'cause I make all of Rene's cake jewellery. In fact, TODAY my cake jewellery is on two happy brides' wedding cakes. Rene had everything under control when I was in the bakery earlier this afternoon around 2 p.m. -- one cake finished and delivered and she was putting the finishing touches on the second cake.

Now to get working on those long-promised TURQUOISE PICTURES. Yummmmm.

Thanks for stopping by.

New Kingman Turquoise... almost

Here, to whet your appetite, are just some of the stunning Kingman turquoise strings I've been pricing and splitting up into more palatably-priced half, third or quarter strings. Those rounds you see are 8mm bronzed turquoise. Just gorgeous. In some lights the bronze looks gold, in other lights copper. I'll post detailed pix of all the strings tomorrow with pricing.

Part of my shipment of colourful skulls from Joanne at Nelson Gemstones -- turned into a haul of dyed howlite skull bracelets and chokers for tomorrow's market...

And dyed howlite earrings...


In one short week from now I will be at the venue setting up for the Grand River Bead Society show in Guelph (October 27th & 28th, 10:00-5:00). See you there! But now to bed -- 3:30 a.m. will come far too early as always, then off to the Woodstock Farmer's Market -- yes! we have a Facebook page! I sure hope it's stopped raining by then.

Thanks for looking!

Pewter Koi Earrings...

...and a couple of really cool websites.

Some of you may be aware that I'm looking for a new vehicle -- of course I'm looking now that the ancient Blazer is finally running well and I could derive some benefit from the six grand I put into it last year. I suppose it might be worth something to sell or as a trade-in. For now, I am reading everything RV I can find and watching videos about stealthy living; as well, the teensification of interior design is of great interest at the moment. Check this out...
www.tinyhouselistings.com

It doesn't escape me, the irony around stealth camping and how everyone blabs about it nonstop, including details of their current location.

And for eye candy, there's this...
http://maisonboheme.blogspot.ca/2012/06/easy-breezy-boho-day.html My latest discovery -- there are beautiful photos here throughout the blog. Check out the jewellery layering and those crocheted slippers in today's listing. Drool. I just may get back into crocheting this winter. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about rolling back the clock far too many years and looking like any of the models here, but I can definitely get the jewellery look.

After a morning spent typing and downloading files in preparation for a Sunday typing marathon, I've finally finished these earrings. I spent far too much time fiddling with them, but I guess they sorta kinda look interesting...

Pewter koi (from The Bead Boutique in Kitchener), blue silver-lined seed beads, silver-plated earwires. $35. The s/p earwires can be swapped out for sterling silver for an extra $5. Shipping and handling on request.

Thanks for looking!

Getting hammered again...

Dontcha just love hammering stuff? I sure do. No typing again this week, so far anyway. Got the laundry done in town, bought Max some dog food on sale(!), so he won't starve for the next month. Also noticed my favourite Lavazza Crema e Gusto is on sale, too. Must remember to go back for that. Talked to the HST lady and I'm good for another quarter. In fact, they owe me money. Yay! Now to make lunch and then spend the rest of the day hammering and figuring out a better way to do this wrapping stuff.

Also got a commission to make a set of twirly silver Christmas ornament holders. On Saturday someone asked if I would consider putting my stuff in their store. Haven't heard from the manager, yet. Will give them a call today or tomorrow.

I'm trying to come up with a catchy way to market my copper earrings. Something to do with "Clean Me With Ketchup!"... or just that.

This pendant took waaaaay too long to make. No idea what I could/should charge for it

I think the loose twirls need to be tighter. Off now to work on that. Then I'll add the Argentium sterling earwires, with which I am still experimenting.

Uh oh........ "Clean Up with Ketchup"........ is that bad or what? hahahaha