Sale

These rings will be re-entering my shop this morning.

I am going to post some pictures later of my Thanksgiving holiday, but today's post will be short and sweet. The sale I am having starts today on Black Friday and ends on Cyber Monday.

The details:

- All jewelry orders in my shop are 15% off (refund through paypal)

- All jewelry orders over $100 USD are 20% off (refund through paypal)

- Plus, free domestic shipping & $2.00 International shipping

- This sale does not include gift certificates

- This sale can not be combined with any other sales, promotions or coupons

- The orders from this sale will ship out December 1st - 5th.

I am off to my shop to change the announcement there and to re-open the rest of my listings.

See you later in the weekend! :)

Holiday season

I don't want to bore you too much with what my days have been like since I last posted....yes it has been awhile!! I've really just been putting my nose to the grindstone and trying to keep up with the holiday rush and preparing for the Fine Art Market in Denver. Absolutely no complaints here! Especially since I am about to head down to my parents' house in New Mexico for a few days of vegging, eating and flat-out hibernating. We leave tomorrow after dinner and we should be back on Friday or so. And then I'll be back with all of that recouped energy to throw myself into work again.

Last time we visited my family we headed out in the evening as well and it really was the best travel experience we have had with the boys. Why? Well because they slept 90% of the trip! That is always the best way to travel with little ones ;) So we are doing it again and we'll be getting there around 1 a.m. I also already told my mom that I am very excited for her and my dad to take over and entertain my monkeys while we're there! I don't think it will be much of a problem either :)

So a few bits of business before I go: First of all, I received my shipment of amber today!!! I am big-time excited because I ordered more of a variety of Baltic amber than I had bought when I was in Poland. For all of you new to my blog, all of the amber that I carry in my shop I purchased while we were on vacation this summer. I happily made a contact in Poland and I'll continue to order amber supplies from them (I am very, very impressed with their quality of amber). So when I get back on Friday I will relist my petite amber rings. I also got more of the green-hued amber too.

Secondly, I will be having a promotion this weekend that will lead up to Cyber-Monday and I will give you more details in a few days. But I definitely will post the information here first! Cyber-Monday (for all of scratching your heads at that term!) is the 'Black Friday' of the online world. Black Friday (for all of you still scratching your heads!!) is the day after Thanksgiving when people rush the stores in swarms and mobs to catch all of the marvelous deals and sales. So basically I am going to participate, along with many, many Etsians, in this weekend hoopla :)

So I'm off to finish up some work and packing and I'll see you all later from NM.....bye!

p.s. I forgot to mention that I will have an abbreviated shop over the next three days while I am in New Mexico. So basically only 'in stock' jewelry pieces will be in my Etsy shop. All of my 'made to order' items will resume on Friday, November 27th.

New pieces

These will be up in my shop soon. I just have to crop the photographs and then list. I am especially excited about listing my amber necklace. The design kept me up a couple of nights ago and I immediately began work on it the following morning. I am very, very pleased with the results. I think the oxidized silver really brings out the pale yellow of the amber quite nicely.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my new cabochons....now I'm off to list.

p.s. I was belting this song out on the way home from the post office today.... ;)

Super tired...

I've worked really hard this week....I'm exhausted, but I had so much fun in the process. Today was a long day. I've been in my shop pretty much all day. I was hoping to get my new jewelry listed before we left tomorrow....but no such luck :(. It's after 11 p.m. and we're getting up early to go to the rock and gem show so I'm hitting the sack. I'll post it all on Saturday.

I wanted to mention really quick that I am going to sell some of my amber cabochons in my etsy shop.

And a quick reminder that I am having a sale in my shop starting tomorrow and ending on Sunday. All of my jewelry pieces are 15% off!

Goodnight ;)

Not so lazy Sunday...

We spent the morning riding our bikes around the gazillion paths of Louisville. We have a bike trailer for the kiddies and because of the abundance of parks along these paths we stopped at three of them during our ride. We have had so much rain here that there is still so many wildflowers in bloom. This makes for beautiful scenery.

We got home and after lunch I sat down to do some work. I decided against putting this amber on a beaded chain because it seemed to need its own spotlight. I am going to list it after this post.

This was my workspace this afternoon. I am all over the house when I work. I work mainly of course in my workshop, but when it comes to computer work and beading, I end up setting down in multiple areas.

My husband meanwhile is working in the garage, setting up my new canopy for the fair in September. We put it up so that we could decide on sign sizes for our setup. There is so much more than I realized that goes into setting up a booth at a fair. Luckily my husband is helping with the bulk of this...I need as much time as possible for making enough wares to fill those tables!

So for energy we downed these:

I consume many, many of these a week. Don't be turned off by its green color thanks to a heaping amount of spinach...this smoothie is actually delicious!!

I also am working on a lot of new designs that I can't wait to get started on this week. I was sketching in my notebook much of this afternoon in between everything else.

Okay I am off to list and get in some etsy-inspiration!

Multi-tasking

I am in the middle of listing a couple more pieces, posting in this blog, drinking coffee and playing scrabble :) This week, while my parents have been here, we have instated ritual coffee and scrabble afternoons. It works well while the boys are having their naptime. I have also been handwrapping beads and making necklaces during these sessions. I have been a multi-tasking fiend!

I need to start including items that are in the 'favorites' section of my shop. I am always coming across AMAZING items on Etsy....

Click on the images to go straight to each listing. I am especially enthralled with the last picture, because not only do I really like the shirt, but I also love the photography.

Below are the remaining pieces that I am in the middle of listing. I ran out of some sterling silver wire so I have two necklaces that will have to wait a few days to make it to my shop.

The necklace below is one that I just adore....for a couple of reasons. I love the freeform shape, the color and also the uniqueness of the amber. It has a milky white/yellow/brown coloring that I had yet to see in amber...until I traveled to eastern Europe that is. Even there, though, I see more of the 'cognac' colored amber in jewelry. I love.love.love it!

I am going to finish listing the last two pieces and then it's dinnertime. My mom and dad are making green chile/chicken enchiladas and beans, while (another thing that I am doing right now!) I am making some Spanish rice.

Yum :)

Going a bit gray...but otherwise well :)

The flight was not too bad. We were all able to sleep a little bit on the plane, which really is key to decreasing the effects of jet lag. Definitely not cake though...entertaining little ones for hours in a confined space requires having a lot of tricks up one's sleeves ;)

We were picked up in Copenhagen by our good friend and stayed at his house for the night. We had some wonderful, wonderful food and slept as much as possible My husband did the EXACT opposite, though, and payed for it dearly the next day...heeheehee. The next day we headed out right away towards Germany with my husband's mother, who flew in that morning to take the road trip with us. We then spent the night in Berlin and did some sightseeing the next day.

This is a picture of one of the remaining city gates into Berlin...in fact I think it is the last one. There used to be, I believe, 18 of them at one time. I'll have to double check that fact.


This next picture is of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. The blocks signify headstones in a graveyard, which are unmarked. It was eerily beautiful....


Next we drove into Poland and stayed one night on the border then drove to the port city of Gdansk. This place is wonderful. All of the gothic and renaissance architecture is beautifully preserved. I am in love with history....so it is always such an exciting experience for me to be in these places that are the backdrops to these stories. When I first came to Europe I took soo many pictures of the cobblestone streets....I know, I know, I'm sure I looked like such a nerd :)


I look irritated....I may have been. My boys were such monkeys today!!!

So here is one of the main reasons we came to this city. Gdansk is known for its amber. After searching high and low, it looks like we have found a connection. There are hundreds of shops that sell beautiful amber jewelry and luckily one of the shop owners shared their contact. Below is a sample of some of the amber I bought.

We will look for some more in some of the smaller seaside towns here in Poland as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Below are a few more pics of the city....

You can see some of those amber shops along the streets below.

Baltic amber here seems to be what turquoise is to where I am from in the southwest.

Well we head out to Lithuania tomorrow....I'll post again soon!

See you in a few days....

Incredible!

I had the most wonderful surprise yesterday...I started following a very cool blog recently because I loved the items she featured. I LOVE blogs on design! Well, she decided to include me in the 'shopping and treats' section of her site! That is such a HUGE compliment....I was on cloud nine the whole evening. Thank you so much Ennui!

I took a screenshot of her blog so it is hard to see my name fourth one down, but it's there :) Swing by her site when you have time....it is lovely!

In other news, I have not yet mentioned here that I will be going on a huge trip in 9 days. My husband is Estonian and we will be visiting his family and friends there. For all of you who do not know where Estonia is, it is here:

My husband was born and raised in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. We met in college and now we are probably the first in history to have created Mexican-American/Estonian children! hahaha...probably not, but I'm sure there are not very many in the world!!

So we will be flying into Denmark first and stay with one of my husband's very good friends and his family (All of my husband's family is there). After that we will drive (thanks for the borrowed car Indrek and Signe!!) into Germany, through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and then end up in Estonia. The drive should take just over a week and then we will be in Estonia for a week and a half. From Estonia we will fly back into Denmark and spend four days with our friends again to look around there more, as well as visit southern Sweden. Overall we will be gone for just under four weeks.

Here is our route:

One of the reasons we wanted to make the drive through these countries was not only because we wanted to visit (we love, LOVE to travel), but also to buy amber in the baltic countries (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). They have the most AMAZING amber there. They come in the traditional amber color as well as a lighter yellow and also green.

So I will be buying stones while out there and I will introduce it into my shop when we get back at the beginning of next month. I will also be snapping a gazillion pictures for our personal albums as well as to sell. My shop will be closed during this duration, but I will be posting in my blog throughout my travels.

Here is an OLD picture of my husband and I in the old town of Tallinn, Estonia. This was six years ago...pre-children.


You'll hear this many times....I love Estonia. I am sooo excited to go back :)