Stuff, Stuff and More Stuff

I am looking forward to the three day weekend coming up. We have no major plans, but regardless I'm intent on enjoying that extra day. This weekend I worked a little bit on everything. I decided on a quilt block design and started cutting the pieces out. Did a pendant out of the apatite stone I got in recently and put it up on my etsy site as well as worked on some knitting patterns as well as start another project. Yeah, I know, I need help. I think I have something like 7 projects going on right now dealing with knitting.

The pattern I ended up choosing for my quilt/wall hanging is called Bouncing Betty and I found the block off of the Quilter's Cache site. I found the site several years ago and the amount of information and patterns are amazing. Right now I have some of the pieces cut out but haven't sewn any of them together yet.

Last week I sent in some of my silver scrap to the place I usually buy from and opted for a store credit. I'm running low on wire anyway, so I figure that would be the best way to use it. More wire and also a bracelet mandrel. I really liked how that labradorite one turned out and want to make some more but the method I was using to sculpt the bracelet was taking too much time. Better to invest a little and get a tool that can help with that process. I'm anxious to get it in because I have the one smaller moonstone that I posted about earlier and I wrapped this large round moonstone this weekned for a bracelet that is going to be absolutely amazing when it's all put together. I also found some time to wrap up this apatite stone.

Procrastination

I haven't posted in forever it seems and the sad part about it is I've had stuff to post about and things going on but just keep putting it off.

Spring is finally officially here in Florida. As by my allergies every plant, tree, flower or whatever must be in full bloom with all the pollen in the air. Luckily we've had a couple of nice rain storms roll through to hopefully keep some of it out of the air. There for a while every day when I came out from work my car was yellow with pollen from the oak trees. Ick.

I have been keeping myself busy though. Picked up a couple more test knitting projects. I did a color work beret that turned out beautiful and I'm doing a very open work meshy poncho right now. I'll post pictures of the hat and what I have so far for the poncho in another post ( promise it won't be almost 2 weeks). It's so sad that it takes having a deadline to make me actually finish a project.

Speaking of knitting my yarn FINALLY came in for the hoodie I want to do for this fall. I think I won't be starting it until June though. My date to finish the poncho is mid May, which I need to finish next week because in May I'm doing a KAL (knit-a-long). So hopefully by June my board of knitting projects will cleared and I can start on that.

On the jewelry front I have been slow to create. Although, I have had a good month this month selling pendants. Moonstone and Labradorite seem to be the big sellers right now. Not that I'm really surprised. A couple of the newer creations have sold but this one is still around and it's a really nice large statement piece too.

The gem show is coming up next Friday. I stocked up fairly well the last time but I'm planning on going to see if there's anything that just WOWs me that I have to have.

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.

Treasuries, wrapping and classes....oh my!

I have had a busy evening. First I received a moonstone that I bought in the mail today. I'm a sucker for those flashy stones. This one is really nice too and a beautiful blue, greenish flash in it. I just HAD to wrap it immediately and gave it a garnet drop. It's growing on me and I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would when I originally started it. I've never sold anything I've absolutely hated or wasn't happy with but there are some pieces that you do that you're just "Wow" about and there are some that you like but they're just not your favorites. Here's a quick picture of it. I'm listing it some time tomorrow with better pictures.


Secondly I got a treasury on etsy that I did with a bright rainbow theme going from one corner to the other. I'm really happy with how it turned out. So check it out and leave a comment. :)

And lastly tomorrow is my entrelec class at the knit shop which means I need to brush up on it tonight. I haven't looked at the pattern I'm using in a while and have to refresh myself on how many stitches I'm using.

New stones

I'm starting to get over whatever illness I've been fighting so now I'm in the mood to start working on some projects. Today I received 3 stones that I purchased in the mail. They are very nice and I am really anxious to wrap them.

I figured I'd wrap the smaller of the stones I got in first which is a nice, light, blue-green, kind of aqua piece of chrysophrase. I figured it would make a great pendant for spring. Typically I never wind the same type design on a stone twice but I might make an exception....when I started this piece I had no intention of actually "sculpting" something, so to speak. I hope I can reproduce the results because I am quite proud of my butterfly. It's 8:30 at night so I had to take the pictures in my kitchen which is really crap-tastic lighting but I just HAD to blog about this piece.
I haven't decided if I'll post this one on my shop yet. Tomorrow I'll take better pictures and just sort of decide from there.

3-day weekend...

It's finally the weekend and I get Monday off for President's Day. Work has been beyond busy this past week as I'm trying to finish up two of my maps as well as coordinate the work out of our unit for an Atlas. So, a three day weekend is more than welcome.

After being sick I've been kind of in a "crafting funk". I make jewelry and do a lot of knitting and the past couple of weeks I just haven't had the motivation, inspiration...something.

Yesterday I got three stones in the mail so I decided to start working on a new pendant for my etsy shop. I work on a lot of my jewelry at our kitchen table and I have a bad habit of while I'm wrapping a stone I'll lean back in the chair. Well, last night I paid the price because I dropped the stone which fell on the tile floor and broke. I was so mad at myself. The only good thing of it was that this stone was the same size of this really nice and flashy labradorite that I have so I was still able to use the wire. It really turned out nice. When I add the drop and get pictures I'll post it.

Also, this morning I went up to my local knit shop. I usually go almost every Saturday for a couple of hours but here recently I just haven't been making my usual trip. I have no ongoing projects I'm really interested in so I took a pattern I have for a head kercheif that I've done probably 4 times and just haven't found the right yarn for. I also just finished a totally awesome blanket for my son two weeks ago and I'm going to do a smaller version in a bright rainbow out of Cascade 220 wool. So, now I'm out of my "crafting funk" and it couldn't come at a better time wth the extra day off.

Oh and I made myself a new heading yesterday. I need to pull the color number of my background so it's not white but it's better than that generic one that I had.