Confession...

When I first started this business venture I was full of anxiety and fear.....but also extreme excitement. I was terrified that this wouldn't work, that I wouldn't have the skills, the imagination, the list goes on. But nothing, outside of my personal life that is, had ever held such a grip on my heart and mind like creating does. To create and surround myself with what I think is beautiful is a pure gift.

I honestly don't remember the exact time when I had that 'aha' moment, but it was definitely a combination of things....sayings even, that inspired me. This is one of them:

“There are people who put their dreams in a little box and say, "Yes, I've got dreams, of course I've got dreams." Then they put the box away and bring it out once in awhile to look in it, and yep, they're still there. These are great dreams, but they never even get out of the box. It takes an uncommon amount of guts to put your dreams on the line, to hold them up and say, "How good or how bad am I?" That's where courage comes in.” Erma Bombeck

I didn't want my dreams in a box...seriously. I have come to wholeheartedly believe that I have control over whether things are accomplished in my life or not. I do not want to sit around and only hope for them. Now, I do not regret most of the decisions I have made in the past. I really do value a lot of them. They have made me who I am. I have two degrees that I am proud of under my belt....but I have moved on....to find my passion and to run the gamut of emotions if need be....but at least I am following my heart.

All of these thoughts have been flitting through my mind this evening. I think it started with the amazing feature that Mrs. French wrote about me today in her blog. It was so, so incredibly kind and wonderful of her to write what she did. I danced around my house a little bit, to be honest ;) I am sending a thousand more thank you's your way Traci!!!

I do want to share a few pictures with you of the pieces I have made over the last few days. Yep, it took me three days to make five pieces, but that is only because I have been working on so many other things that have needed my attention!

I wanted to show a few more 'process' pictures again. Here is a pic of the base plates and bezel walls that I am about to solder together. There are definitely multiple steps that take place before this, but I do not have pictures of those.

After this round of soldering:

I threw these in the pickle and then I set to work filing and preparing them for their bails and connections. The process is quite long and I should take pictures of each phase someday so you can see how a piece of jewelry evolves from silver sheet and stone to this:

I just realized how dirty that table is! That's a little embarrassing....

Okay I'll list them hopefully tomorrow. I need to focus on making lots of earrings tomorrow.

10 more days!!

goodnight :)