my helpers

Today I'm sharing a little peak at my jewelry making helpers and a couple of the pieces that they've been helping me with lately.

I often end up moving everything out of the way so that this can happen.

 

Among other things, I've had this rainbow meets neutral idea in my head for a while, and it's been a lot of fun finally putting it together.

These pieces are part of the same line as this bracelet.

While I've been working with the rainbow mix, I've restocked my best selling rainbow button charm bracelet and earrings. Get them while you can because they don't stick around in the shop for long.

I know that I'm not the only jewelry maker who has some little helpers. Feel free to share your stories and/or links to your helper photos in the comments!

Saturday is Caturday

Are you ready to start your weekend with an amazing round up of kitty pictures?

Same story, different week.

Trying to put away the winter bedding.

Front paw crossed over a back paw. Priceless.

As you can see in the previous photo, usually the cubes are against the wall. The little guys moved them a good 10 feet all by themselves.

Remember the new water routine that I talked about a couple weeks ago? It's still going strong.

Best buddies.

Keeping me from working on jewelry.

Taking a full bath on my lap.

 What have your cats been up to lately?

Happy Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July!

Today I'm keeping it simple with some inspiring patriotic images. Click on the images to check out these photographers' stunning Flickr photostreams.

How are you celebrating the 4th of July this year?

G is for a Great Guy's Birthday

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

The past couple years I've put together a special feature for Jake's birthday. This year his birthday falls on a Thursday so I'm working it into this series. I've put together just a few things that remind me of Jake / that he would want for his birthday.

 Jake has a fairly massive t-shirt collection and is always looking for new additions, particularly those that have funny sayings. Penny Arcade has most of their t-shirts on sale right now, and I picked up a couple of his current favorites for him, including the one above.

 On a similar note, in past years, I have gotten Jake funny TV show offerings, such as posters and mugs. I have discussed our love of Archer before. I know that some of you will appreciate this poster.

Jake spends a significant amount of time at work in areas with limited to no cell coverage. If you can relate, you know that this can drain your smartphone really quickly. I recently got Jake a car charger, but I've thought about getting him something like this portable charger, too.

Jake and I go to a lot of concerts together. I searched "concert tickets" on Pinterest and found several great images of concert ticket pillows. I think that this is such a neat idea for preserving special nights together. I'm Not a Pilot is performing at Summerfest the day before Jake's birthday this year. That night they're releasing a live recording of a collaboration concert with the MYSO from this spring that we attended.

Jake and I got a new grill this summer and are excited to put it through its paces the next few months. We lived through nearly a year of a dying grill, which has meant a lot less grilling than usual. It's so exciting to have grilling dinner options again. I'm determined to branch out a little and try some new grill recipes, including grilled pizza. I had to pick out a pepperoni recipe for this feature.

Jake is adamant about having a funfetti dessert for his birthday. I always buy a mix, and most years I make it as cupcakes or a 9x13 cake with homemade buttercream frosting.

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for the letter G this week right here!

photo outtakes

Welcome to another round up of photo outtakes! It's been a couple months since I posted outtakes, but that doesn't mean that I don't have any new ones. I think that it's really important to discuss the fact that I take a ton of photos to get a few gems. Also, while I keep improving my skills, I still make a lot of mistakes.

 Overexposed background on a shot that wasn't worth saving anyway.

Blurry ducks in direct sunlight.

So boring.

Everything is blurry.

The inevitable auto focus fail for a shot of a little sparrow.

Blurry tour guide at Miller because the shutter speed was way too slow. Her eyes look quite creepy.

First of a set of shots to capture the bee. I did get some much better ones.

The kid walked into the shot at the last second.

First shot of the band at this concert. Thankfully things got better from here.

I was trying to capture the crowd at this outdoor concert. I have several shots that all look exactly like this one. Epic fail.

 

Don't be afraid to share your outtakes every once in a while. It makes everyone feel better.