life lately

 

 

What's been going on your way lately?

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?

in the works / life lately

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

The whole world has looked like this. For over a month straight. Over it.

I know that snowflakes on the windows aren't anything unusual, but they only happen at this house when we reach negative temperatures outside.

I didn't get all of the Christmas decorations put away until the middle of the month. Jake and I hosted a final holiday party on January 11 so I had a little bit of an excuse to wait so long.

Between all of the holiday happenings and then getting a ton of leftovers from the previously mentioned holiday party, I haven't been doing a ton of cooking this month. I recently got motivated to roast some sweet and white potatoes for skillets and soups, though.

 Just trying to keep things colorful when the outside world is so white and gray.

During November and December, I made so many rainbow and Christmas designs that I had a hard time clearing my beading space and working with any other palettes. I'm finally doing some much needed re-stocking of blue designs, including ombre blue button charm bracelets.

Seeing as I haven't done a real outdoor photo excursion in over a month (so ridiculous, I know), there is no reason that I shouldn't be up to date with my product photography. But when has that ever really happened?

When I do have my camera out to work on said product photography, I always seem to end up taking a lot just a few pictures of the boys, too.

What's been going on in your life lately?

Christmas decorations / life lately

Now that my brother's wedding is over, I'm done with craft shows for 2013, and my freelance load has let up a little bit (temporarily at least), I'm starting to get my life back. It's been nice to have time to enjoy the Christmas season.

I love my miniature trees! I want to get some more paper straws so I can switch them out for different seasons and holidays.

I've had this Playmobile advent calendar since high school. As we don't have any kids, typically I set the whole thing up at the beginning of December.

Do you remember my clothespin photo display? I finally got some new pictures up there this fall.

Generally I don't get crazy excited about seasonal food/drink items, but there are a few exceptions. Chocolate oranges are one of them.

I had to make a star filter for photographing the Christmas tree.

There is nothing like the smell of a real Christmas tree in the house.

Of course it wouldn't be a "life lately" post without a few SLR kitty pictures.

 The water bed continues to be a popular hang out spot.

This time of year is especially exciting for kitties because I order a lot of presents online, which means lots of new boxes.

We have had...a lot of snow here already. And it's stuck around. Not cool. Good thing it's pretty.

What have you been up to lately?