peek at the next ebook in the works

Last month I mentioned that I'm working on my next ebook, and I shared my first peek from it. Over the past few weeks I've made a lot of progress on the samples for it and wanted to share of them. I am really happy with my work so far and am looking forward to finishing up the samples and moving forward with final shots for the book.

I always use an acrylic spray for my sheet music pages that I'll be gluing so that the ink doesn't run. On a whim, I decided to paint some of my clothespin samples. I absolutely love the textured look of watercolors over acrylic spray.

Finally, I can't seem to stop making paper flowers. Many of you know that I have been a huge Alisa Burke fan for several years now, and you can definitely see her influence in these flowers. In addition to the influence in the designs themselves, I also took a page from her book and used cheap supplies - Crayola watercolor paints and a Bic white out pen - to make this come together.

What have you been working on lately?

holiday inventory stocking in the works

You can check out my current Christmas online inventory right here. I'll be adding more over the coming month.

What are you working on for the upcoming holidays?

working with rainbows

I have a handful of rainbow designs that do quite well, especially around the holidays. It's hard to believe that we're already getting to that time of year again, but it'll be here before we know it. As I restock some best selling items, I'm trying to get enough stocked to keep me set through at least my first few holidays shows and online orders.

After I'd pulled several rainbow palettes for varying pieces, I had a little fun photographing them.

This first set is part of a full spectrum from red to pink, but I really love the lime green, turquoise blue, purple, and pink palette.

What have you been working on lately?

in the works lately

Just a few things that I've been working on lately...

Remember how last month I mentioned that I was finally finishing this piece that I started months and months ago? It's done! I need to take more photos and get it listed, but I'm making progress. It also feels good to finally use some of my ceramic buttons.

I don't use a lot of beading patterns, but I bought Carol Dean Sharpe's bargello ribbon pattern years ago. I've never gotten sick of it. I pulled these colors out months ago without any specific plan for them and this pattern just seemed to be calling them. It has so much color that I decided to pair it with a neutral button. (Edi has these custom buttons in her shop now. Go check them out.)

I finished a red and white striped version recently, too. You can also see it over here. I'll have more pictures of it soon. The green one is a personal piece that I pulled out again to use as a reference for the pattern. I have a 2" version of the pattern that Carol Dean very kindly sent me for free for a custom order a couple years ago. Working on bargello lately is making me itch to try it again.

I've been playing around with some possible color combinations for said 2" cuff, one of which was an all purple cuff. I simply don't have anything in my current stash that works. After multiple false starts with varying colors, I finally settled on this color combination and then decided that it would work better for a skinny herringbone wrap piece.

Originally I was thinking about purple so that I could use another one of my ceramic buttons. I don't think that either of these buttons really works with this piece, though. We'll see if anything else in particular speaks to me as I keep working on it.

I've had an idea for a yellow cuff for several years now. I've picked out beads, not liked what I picked, used them for other projects, and forgotten about it. A couple times. It's way past time to make this happen. Also, this time of year makes me want to work with all of the green beads in my stash. I have beads pulled for a floral / leafy green piece. Getting all of these greens pulled makes me want to create something with yellow and lime, too.

 Finally, whenever Oriental Trading has a free shipping on any order coupon, I check out their current bulk button offerings. This month they had a brand new black and white button stash. Aren't they amazing? This set here is just a small sampling. I also picked up some more wooden buttons.

What have you been creating this month?

in the works / life lately

Just a few of the things that have been going on the past month or so...

I never did put together a craft fair prep post like I'd planned so I'm sharing those pictures here today. I had my first 2014 craft fair at the beginning of the month.

I'm well stocked on button magnets, music magnets, and other small show items again. I have an abundance of bottle caps saved so that I'd like to use for magnets as well, but otherwise I'm in pretty good shape for the next show.

Since the 2013 holiday season, I've been restocking all of my best selling blue and rainbow items. I always save price tagging new items until the week before the show.

I organize all of my show inventory in Tupperware containers with labels on the tops. By the end of the 2013 holiday season, the containers were not very organized. Before the first 2014 show, I went through every single piece of jewelry and made sure that it was in good shape and had an up to date price tag before getting it into the proper container.

I picked up a bulk stash of wooden buttons at some point near the end of 2013, and I've been having a blast creating new pieces with them.

I'm super excited about these new wooden button embellished rainbow bracelets. They'll be heading into the jewelry shop soon.

Edi gifted me some custom buttons for my birthday last year (yep, almost a year ago), and I'm so happy to be putting them to good use at last.

One of the things that falls to the wayside during the holidays is listing new items on Etsy. I try to keep re-listing the best sellers that are likely to sell online, but I don't feel like spending my little free time photographing brand new items that I may turn around and sell at a show the next weekend. As such, I just pack them up and end up listing them later. These pairs of earrings are still on the list.

One of the first photos that I ever shared on Instagram was of this piece in progress. That was back in August. Clearly this is another project that I put to the side for a ridiculously long time. I want to get it finished, photographed, and listed in the near future.

As the weather has been very winter-like most of the month, I'm still making a lot of slow cooker and cold weather foods. I recently made pulled pork for the first time. I make pulled chicken pretty often and would like to get pulled pork into the regular rotation, too.

  

Finally, I couldn't put together a life lately post without a few of my recent SLR kitty pictures. On the cold weather note, they like this spot because it's right by a heating vent.

Everyone loves Michaels.

Ares, my ever present photography helper. I still had the daylight bulbs on in the lightbox, which is why he has a slightly washed out appearance.

What have you been up to lately?

in the works / life lately

Just a few of the things that have been going on around here lately...

...Aside from a whole lot more cold and snow that is. And crazy dry air.

 After being sick off and on for several weeks, I broke down and bought a humidifier. Jake and the kitties have been feeling it as well, and we've been running it nonstop ever since I got it. The tank on this humidifier is supposed to hold enough water to last 36 hours, but we haven't made it 12 yet without a refill. Not a great sign. Please tell me that we're getting to the end of this ridiculousness.

It's been tough to stay motivated to take pictures with so much time indoors so I'm going with whatever inspires me. Lately I've taken a number of food pictures.

I've made so much hot food this winter, especially for lunch. Hot dinners are one thing. I don't normally crave hot lunch food. Except this winter.

I've also been eating a lot of breakfast food for lunch, but that's not really anything new. I've been on a big breakfast food kick for a couple years now.

At the end of last month, a friend and I wandered some of the antique stores in Milwaukee. I took a ton of pictures and will be going through them for quite a while. These three are a few of my initial favorites.

I've always done well with my Valentine's Day articles on HubPages, and I put together a bunch of new ones this year. Onto St. Patrick's Day and Easter now.

I've been keeping my life colorful in every way that I can.

I've finally caught up from the holidays and restocked four popular blue pieces, three bracelets and one pair of earrings, just in time for my next show (more on that next week).

You can check all of these pieces out in the jewelry shop. Of course as always if you have any questions about anything, let me know.

The Wisconsin Humane Society includes the cat dancer in their cat adoption packages so it's one of the first toys that the little guys ever had with us. It's always been a favorite, especially for Ares who goes through periods where he drags it all through the house on a daily basis.

He dragged it down a flight and a half of stairs the night I shot the above product shots so after I finished with those shots, we had a play / photo session.

Of course the best photo in the set is of Apollo, not Ares, and it doesn't include the toy.

These two kitties are such amazing play buddies.

What have you been up to lately?