Getting ready!

My first craft bazaar is this Saturday! Tonight will be the last minute putting everything together and finishing things up. Tomorrow evening will be pre-set up, then Saturday is the big event!! Well it's not really a BIG event, the craft bazaar if a fairly small one in town, but it will be a big day for me!! Here's the earrings I made last night to add to my stash :)

Busy, busy, busy

I've been super busy lately with getting my Halloween costume made and also getting ready for my first ever craft bazaar! The bazaar is on Nov 3 so I've been busy getting more items made. Here are some phone pics of the pieces I've done recently. :)

Stop and Smell the Roses

With all the hectiveness of the last week, I still managed to get three more chainmaille necklaces made.  All three are the same design, just different colors.  Behold!

Red and pink

Purple and lavender

Royal blue and sky blue

 My dad and his wife came to visit last week and it was her first time coming to Alaska.  We went on a halibut charter (and got seasick).  I took them to Hatcher's Pass as well as a few other touristy places.  It was a lot of fun and put some miles on my new car. :)

After they left, we had a kayaking/rafting trip with my mom and her boyfriend in Talkeetna.  That was a lot of fun and a lot of work!

Denali

My kayak

As much fun as everything was, I'm glad to be home so I can get some crafting time and some time to relax!

More Steampunk Necklaces and A Cake

I finished two more necklaces last week, both Steampunk in nature.

The first is silver and purple and I love how it turned out!

The second is silver and orange.  I thought about going with red, but my husband said I should try orange instead, so I did!

Let me know what you think of them!  As always, check out my etsy page to see everything I have for sale!

The only 'craft' type thing I have done this week was a child's birthday cake.  My wrist was not happy by the time I finished this, but it turned out pretty darn good!

We went on a fishing trip, so I didn't have much time for crafts this week.  We have another trip next week, so I don't know how much crafting time I will have next week either!  I do have some ideas for more necklaces, I just need to create them now!  Craft on fellow crafters!!

Steampunk jewelry and fishing!

I added some more chainmaille earrings to my etsy page, so go check 'em out!!

The biggest piece I finished last week has a steampunk theme to it...I love it so much I will probably keep it for myself instead of selling it! :P  I think it will be a great piece to go with my Halloween costume...which is still just an idea in my head.  And here it is!

I ran out of the smaller gold links, so once I get more I will be able to make a matching bracelet as well.

My next project is a new pattern for me and I'm really liking how it's turning out!  I love the colors I chose and I found the perfect embellishment to add to the piece when it's done.  Here's a close up on the weave.

And now on a personal note: My Everything Hurts!  We went dip netting on Saturday and managed to get our entire household limit IN ONE DAY!!!  My husband caught all the fish and I gutted them so he could get back in the water faster.  At one point he was catching them faster than I could clean them!  It was an intense day.  And here's our 45 fishes!

Cherries and Chainmaille

We bought a bunch of fruit yesterday and I've been eating a ton of cherries!  It's fantastic when we actually get our month of decent fruit, too bad it's such a short time.

I've managed to get two more chainmaille necklaces done and up on etsy.

The first is black ice with black accents and a purple heart pendant.  It was a lot of fun to make and a new design for me.

The second is a double layer of royal blue and sky blue with sky blue accents and blue hearts.  This was also a new design for me.

Here's a close up.

The next necklace I'm going to work on will be bronze and gold with a bit of a steampunk theme.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Back and crafting

My husband and I went to Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July weekend for his sister's wedding.  The fireworks on the lake on the 4th were amazing!  The wedding was beautiful.  I got a massive sunburn - after applying sunblock.  The kitties were very happy when we got home, and we were happy to be home as well.

I finally managed to host my first craft night since our big move.  I finally finished a necklace I had started several months ago.

Here it is again with the earrings.  Now I just need to make the matching bracelet and the set will be complete!

I was bad though and didn't start the bracelet...I started a new necklace instead!

I still have a lot of work to do on this one, but I really like the color combinations.  I'm excited to see how the finished product will look.  :)  I went through all my beads during my craft night and I have a lot of ideas for combining beads with chainmaille.  Now to just find the time to actually put some of these ideas into reality!

I've added new items to my etsy site, so make sure you go check it out!  I also added a few of the same items to eBay for some extra exposure.  I am always open for custom orders!

Organization

I know I missed doing a post last week.  I fully intended to, and before I knew it the week was over!  I didn't really do any crafting last week, but I did work on getting my 'craft room' (aka the diningroom) set up.  Behold my new storage unit:

Since we just moved into another rental and I still don't get to have my craft room, I did go through all my craft supplies and willing put some of them into storage.  Our plan is to live here for a year before hopefully being able to buy our own house.  At that point I will have my very own craft room to do with as I please!  So I had to have an honest heart to heart with myself and ask the hard question of 'Am I really going to use that in the next year?'  So the sewing machine and my plastic canvas books and accessories for both all ended up in storage.  I also figured that having easy access only to the craft supplies for the items I intend to sell might be a good idea so I don't get distracted with wanting to make more and more things.  I need to focus on building up an inventory for myself!

Speaking of inventory, that is my project for the night.  I started with my perler bead earrings.

Now I just need to get the rest of my products organized, bagged, and marked for inventory.  Then I need to make more stuffs!

Don't forget to check out my shop!!

Welcome!

Welcome fellow crafters!  Let's see if I can actually manage to keep up with doing a blog for longer than 2 weeks!  :)

I am working on starting a new side business for myself by selling my crafts.  I have been doing some kind of crafts for about as long as I can remember.  My most recent endeavor, which has lead me to the idea that maybe I can make some money, is chainmaille.  I started late last year and I'm loving it so far!  I gifted chainmaille earrings to most of my female friends for Christmas and everyone loved them.  For my mom and sister's birthdays I gave them chainmaille jewelry sets consisting of earrings, necklace, and bracelet.  They both love them.  Now if I can just manage to actually SELL something! :)

A friend and I have plans to do a craft fair this upcoming holiday season, so for now I'm primarily working on building up a good supply of sell-able items.  It would be a shame to run out of something when it actually comes time to start doing some selling!  My hope is that after doing a craft fair, I will get some ideas of how these things go so I can plan accordingly for the future as well as begin to grow an online clientele.

I don't have much up on my etsy site yet, but if you would like to take a look, please feel free and pass it on to your friends!

I moved a couple weeks ago, so my crafting has been temporarily halted.  I am anxious to get my new crafting area set up so I can get some pictures taken and get back to work!  My goal is to blog at least once a week to give updates (with pictures) of my accomplishments for the week.  Unfortunately I am not on my main computer as I type this, so I am limited on my access to pictures.  Here is one to tide you over and if you really want to see more, go check out my etsy page!

And one more picutre for a pair of earrings I had a lot of fun making and always make me think happy thoughts when I see them!