New Earrings

There's just all sorts of new stuff going on over here. I just made and posted, tonight, these great swarovski cube earrings. They have kind of a channel look to them. I have some other colors I can't wait to try out but I need to get some more wire.



This weekend I'm determined to get some wire wrapping done. I have a design drawn up for my blue chalcedony that I'm anxious to do and yesterday I got in the most gorgeous blue larimar pieces. They are going to make stunning pendants.

New Website!

The new website is up and running! Yay me!

Here is the address for any interested

http://www.wiredreamsdesign.com

New stuff

Today I finally posted some new things to etsy. One was the pendant I made up last week. The other was a necklace that I've had the majority of done for at least a month. It's the one I've redone the dangles for like, 3 times I think. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out. I also had a main showcase today on etsy and put that into the line up this evening and it's done well with views and hearts for the short amount of time it's been up.


I have spent a good portion of today working on my website. I'm actually making headway and really think I might have enough done to feel comfortable publishing it tomorrow. Still a couple of things to work out and do but it's getting there.

Today we started some serious potty training with Little G. So far I feel totally lost. There seems to be so much conflicting info out there on how to go about it. The biggest problem we have with him is that he has never had a problem with being wet. So not only does he not tell us when he needs to go he doesn't even tell us when he's wet because it doesn't bother him.

We started off this morning putting him in big boy underpants. Of course some of the things i read said to try putting him in the underpants and take him every 30 minutes or so to the potty. He was okay with that at the beginning but by mid-day he was totally fighting us on sitting on the potty so in some ways I feel like he's regressed some today. Tomorrow we are keeping him in the underpants and just going to ask if he wants to try to, if he says yes, great off to the bathroom if no then we're going to just let him be. At least when he does have an "accident" he is quick to tell us that he went potty, so I guess that's a plus and step in the right direction.

New Stones

Wednesday I found some great stones that I ordered online. I was really surprised to see that they arrived in the mail today. All the way from Oregon to Florida via first class mail. How awesome is that? I was thinking that they might would show up tomorrow but I'll take a day early any day.


The picture of them is eh, but they really are beautiful stones. The blue chalcedony is absolutely beautiful in person. I think it will be the first one I wrap but I haven't decided if it will be done length wise with some extra dangle or wire design along the flat side or if I will do it width wise and make a wider pendant out of it. I'm also quite intrigued with the Rhodonite piece because of it's hexagonal shape, that one should be interesting to wrap.

Circle Update

Last night I did the deed and took my work off the needles to make sure my increases weren't too much. I was quite pleased with the results because everything looked fine and I didn't have to tear back any rows to re-do anything. Right now I'm alternating some purl rows into my work to give some nice little ledges going around. I'm about done with that and have to figure out what the next stitch pattern will be. Tonight I'll dig through some of my pattern books and try to find something interesting yet simple for in the round and increasing.

On the jewelry front I haven't done much. A couple of days ago I wrapped two stones, one completely and the other just to the point that I need to figure out what the design will be with the remaining wire. I also have two dried flower pendants I need to finish with resin. I experimented briefly with the torch last night and made a couple of beads so I've been active, just haven't put the finishing touches on a lot of things. All in good time I guess.

Circle

Okay, so I'm a day late with this post. Here is the picture of the center circle of the vest I'm working on. It's going along quite quickly and I've already picked up the stitches and started the knitting part which I fear will be the part that bogs down for me. Figuring out how many increases or where on something I'm "knitting as I go" as never been my forte so I forsee many episodes of pulling the stitches of the needle on to scrap yarn so I can make sure I'm doing the right amount the right amount of rows inbetween.

I don't mind pulling the work off the needles or dropping sttiches because that's an easy fix. It's just threading scrap yarn on to 180+ stitches to check and then putting those 180+ stitches back on the needle again is tedious. But, I'm making notes as I go on what I'm doing so I'll have an actual pattern for the next one.

A nice relaxing weekend

A quick update on our furniture mishap, we went back up to World Market yesterday and they gave us the missing hardware for our new patio furniture. Dave was able to put the bench together in no time and we spent the morning enjoying some time on our porch this morning while Little G ran around the back yard.

On my new project front I scrapped using the yarn I got in the other day. It was really too thin of a yarn to use for that. Dave's dad had some stuff going on this morning so instead of me going to the knit shop for a couple of hours and Dave and Little G going to grandpa's house we just made a quick trip to the yarn store to look for some yarn for my project and then to the auto parts store to pick up some tool Dave needed for one of the vehicles.

I really wanted a self striping yarn since this piece is in worked in the round for this middle part and I thought that would really make the design I picked stand out. So I ended up buying 4 skeins of Noro's Taiyo, which is a nice Cotton and Silk blend yarn with a bit of Wool and Nylon mixed in. I wasn't sure about the color as it is very bright but it's turning out absolutely beautiful. I have about 90% of the center circle done and hoping to finish that part tomorrow. I'll take pictures and have those up of how it turned out. I already have a bunch of ideas going through my head on what to do next.

Tomorrow, being Father's Day, were taking Dave's dad out to breakfast and I think grilling hamburgers for dinner and spending some time hanging out by the pool. It should be a nice relaxing day.

Almost the Weekend

It is Friday and I am so ready for it to be the weekend. I have bunch of stuff to do but random stuff to do is better than work any day of the week. Yesterday I got some really cool mugs in from Magnolia Pottery and some yarn that I was really excited about but not so much now that it's in. I guess honestly I haven't totally decided on it. I bought two skiens of a color that I thought was amazing and when it came in the colors weren't really what I was expecting. I've wound up one of the skiens and am using it for my vest to start off with and testing out what pattern I want to use for the center circle. If this goes well I think I'm going to pick out a self striping type yarn or just a solid color and make another one. We'll see.

Today at lunch Dave and I bought a cute outdoor furniture set from World Market. I just got an e-mail from him and he said that there is no hardware to put the bench together. So he's livid right now and calling the store to figure out what the deal is. The set came in two pretty big boxes so returning the one box that included the bench is probably not going to be an option. I fear they're going to give us some manufacture number and say call them to get the replacement parts sent to us which sucks because we bought it for the weekend and grilling out and all that stuff during Father's Day and now it won't be done which will be a bit of a let down. So we'll see. That's all we can do for now.

New Project?

Lately I have been in a knitting/crochet mood. I have multiple projects going on right now and am looking to add another. I saw the current edition of Vogue Knitting at my local yarn store and have been thinking about this pattern for almost a month.
It is knit in the round for part of the way on double pointed needles and then back and forth for the outer edge. I hate knitting on double pointed needles so my thought was to crochet the center part then pick up the stitches and knit the outer edge.

Yesterday I got a yarn catalog from Webs. Lots of cool stuff but this book caught my eye and would be the perfect place to find an interesting center circle.
Luckily it was in stock at the bookstore. I cannot wait to start trying out some of the motifs in this book. There are great instructions for each one and the pictures are absolutely wonderful. Now I just need to find the yarn I want to use...

My latest creation

Today I decided to work some on my jewelry. Unfortunately I wasn't too successful in getting a bunch of stuff done. I finished up two pairs of earrings using some lampwork beads that I had made a couple of days ago and I thought I had finished this one necklace piece that looks absolutely awesome but I realized the swarovski crystals that I used are totally the wrong color when you look at the piece in the light. So, the dangles on this piece have to be re-done AGAIN for like the 3rd or 4th time.

The highlight of the day has been a quartz stone that I have had in my collection for some time. It is a very high dome cabochon so I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it since I knew it would need more wire then other stones that I do which means more wire to wrap and design with to finish off the piece. So I turned it into a dragonfly. I love how it turned out.


The weekend has gone by way too fast but at least Little G is feeling better. He went to daycare on Friday and has been a little pistol all weekend.

Sick Days and Daycare Issues

Little G was home from daycare today with a fever. I'm thinking it might be related to him possibly getting in his last set of molars since the fever seems to be sporadic and he's been chewing towards the back alot on his fingers as well as drooling. I was beyond ticked yesterday though, when Dave went to go and pick him up from daycare. According to them, and by them I really mean the main "teacher" in the Twos room, he woke up with a 101.2 fever after nap time and that all of the numbers she tried on our contact list "weren't valid". Ooooookayyy....I'm calling BS on this one. There are 5 numbers on that list: my work number, my cell phone, Dave's cell phone, my Father in Law's house phone and his cell phone. All of these have missed call notifications and voice mail. You're going to tell me that NONE of those 5 numbers worked? I don't think so. Plus, if my son has a fever why would you send him outside to play in 90+ degree heat which is where he was when Dave picked him up.

For the most part I really do like where we take him for daycare. He's been going there since he was 11 months old and the teachers in the infant and toddler room were absolutely great. The two directors I usually see are really good too but I haven't had a warm fuzzy about the Two's teacher since the first time I picked Little G up. At first I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was having a rough day but her attitude toward this one little girl who wanted her "treat" for going on the potty was downright hateful until she remembered that the little girl HAD gone and then she practically thrust the treat at here and just said, "Here". She's usually hit or miss on what kind of mood she's in when I've picked him up. Sometimes all smiles and talkative other days brooding and radiating negativity. Thank goodness for the helpers that are in that room that are amazing, because if it wasn't for them and their redeeming qualities I'd seriously be looking for a new daycare.

Little G seems to be doing better today. This morning he still had a fever, but not as high and it seems his fever broke during his nap because it hasn't came back since, which is a good thing. So, him and I had a pretty good day of playing with cars and blocks and we watched the CARS movie as well as WALL-E. Today was the first time I had seen WALL-E and I have to say I didn't care for the movie at all. To me it didn't get really all that interesting until the last, maybe, 30 minutes.

Time Off

So, this past week I took Thursday and Friday off. I sooooo needed it. Thursday Dave and I did a bunch of stuff in-between rain storms and had a really nice lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Friday we kept Little G out of day care and took a trip to the beach. It was his first trip to the beach and he had a blast.

We averted certain disaster this weekend as well. Little G's favorite thing in the entire world is his lion. We picked it up at the World Market store almost 6 months ago. I was putting him down for a nap Friday and was giving him his lion to snuggle with when I noticed the stitching on the back of it's head was starting to come undone. The material is knit and one of the stitches came loose and was starting to run. Luckily I was able to fix the stitches just like you do when you drop a stitch when knitting. But, to be on the safe side we made a trip to World Market to get another lion to keep just in case anything ever happens to this one.

On the craft front it's been a great week etsy wise. Since Wednesday I've sold 11 shawl pins a pendant and a necklace. So I have been busy making shawl pins for orders. I also made two new pendants from a beautiful blue peruvian opal and an agate with crystal druzy in it. Then, after our trip to the beach I thought it might be neat to wire wrap a shell and it turned out really neat.