Feeling disconnected

I am now so disconnected from the etsy community. I would like to get back in so to speak, but I just don't have the time to commit to it like I used to. Blogging about my jewelry when I do have the time would seem to be a good way to get back in, but as you can see I only have seven followers, and I don't know how many of you are not followers in name only. I used to be on a few etsy teams, and that was fun but so time consuming. I did rejoin etsy for charity, mainly because I would like to eventually give a big portion of my sales to charity, as I did when I had my store up and running the first time. It really is a great team. Another way that I connected with other sellers was through the promotions forums, but I recently discovered that they did away with this, which many etsy sellers seem to be unhappy about. It just means that I will have to get creative in connecting with other sellers. I do hope to find a way because it is partly what makes this craft so much fun.
Anyway, if anyone would like to share some social networking sites for beaders, I'd love to take a look. Thanks in advance for leading me in the right direction.
But now, I want to share some pictures from my daughter's first experience making a necklace. She was a pro! She actually made a necklace and bracelet set. She is three and will be four in May. This got me thinking about possibly sharing some free make your own necklace sets, with little girls in mind. I would only charge a little for shipping, maybe $2. Would anyone be interested? I figure this is something I can afford to do with just a small group of subscribers, and it would be fun. I'd love to send out the sets and see photos of your own child's creations. Just let me know if you're interested. See how much fun my daughter and I had, and it's great for honing fine motor control.

She's following in my footsteps

So my daughter made her first beaded creation today. It was a bracelet. She actually went on to make a second as well. I wanted her to string a bracelet so that she could get some good practice with a fine motor tuning skill. She did wonderfully, if I do say so myself. Ok, I realize I'm bragging about my kid, but she's only three, and she was a natural. I'm adding the pictures of her bracelets here, even though they aren't great photos. I took them at night, so I'll try to update later. I gave her a limited variety of beads to choose from. At the time, I was mostly focused on how large the holes were, but she created her design and strung them herself. Who knows, maybe I'll end up showing off her creations again, if she persists.
I always imagined that she would share my love of beading one day. I just didn't know that day would be today.
Anyway, there are many more important things I would like to pass down to here, and I realize that in the scheme of things, this is pretty trivial, but there is satisfaction in seeing yourself in your child. I am proud of who she is, and seeing myself in her reminds me that this wonderful little person is a part of me. That is what is satisfying. In fact, I know that even my daughter knew how grateful I was. After I gave it to her, she kept saying, "you're welcome mommy," even when I wasn't saying thank you. Thanks for looking.

On a separate note, I just reopened my etsy shop for the first time after a two year break. You can see my new items in my etsy mini. There aren't very many yet, but I will keep at it. Today I'm sharing my beachy spring tone beach glass, turquiose and coral necklace. I guess I was ready for spring when I made this one, and I made this back in December. Oh well, it reminds me that there are sunnier days ahead.

And here is my shophandmade shop. I considered just removing all the listings, but instead I think I will mark them all half off. I did put a lot of work into creating those listings after all. I have only sold a couple of items on shop handmade, so I did consider closing my shop, but there is so much that I love about the site. Even if I don't sell, I am happy to know that I have contributed to preserving a small amount of rainforest with each item I list. Even more is preserved with each sale. Items are easy to list, and the only thing I risk is lost time, since all the listings are sponsored. I think I'll give it another shot once I get fully back into the swing. So please, if you get a chance, take a look at my listings. I'll try to add more soon.
My shophandmade shop

Back at Beading

I am finally thinking about getting back into beading. I know that it will be a long time til I commit the kind of time to beading that I was able to before I had my children, probably not til my children are fully grown, but I do think I can start spending a little time to pick up my hobby. I was invited to sell on one evening at our local park district. I don't expect that to bring in a ton of revenue, but I will sell everything at a discounted price in order to move my old inventory. I will probably list all my stuff on etsy at a discounted price as well. That might help me get a jump start, and I'll feel better about making new stuff. I don't have a storage room that I can committ to jewelry alone. If I did then maybe I wouldn't be so eager to move it.
I can't actually begin my etsy site until I get my camera hooked up. When that will be, I'm not sure, but I really wanted to add a new post to my blog anyway since it's been a very long time since it's been updated. I will continue to keep current, at least that's my plan. My interests in beading do vary regularly. As you can see from my last posts, I was interested in beach glass at the time. I still am; in fact, I recently purchased even more. I made a couple of pieces after getting the beads in the mail, so I maybe I can post some pictures of those. But it's difficult for me to get a hold of the real deal, natural beach glass. I will probably continue to look for it anytime I go home for a visit, just because it's so much fun, like finding treasure on a beautiful sandy playground. But in the meantime, I have a lot of beautiful gemstones and furnace glass, crystal and metal, wood and shell beads I can use. There are so many to choose from in my many bead boxes.
I will try to post pictures of some of my favorite creations and announce any new forum I have found for selling. Speaking of which, I am interested in selling at the Evanston Care Fair. I'll have to see if I'm organized enough to pull this off. It mostly depends on if my family can handle an afternoon without me, and I'm still not certain they can.
Thanks for following me. Sorry about the delay, and as I said, I'll try to make up for it from here on.

I just want to make everyone aware of this great site. You can use this link to lead you to the website. Once here you can click to earn food for animals in shelters. It's free to click!

These days most of my jewelry seems to go to charity auctions for animal fundraising. I am a member of etsy for animals, and etsy for charity. Both groups are great if you are interested in using your craft for charity fundraising. If you have an etsy shop and would like to get involved with either of these groups, see below.

You can go directly to the etsy for charity team store and send a convo if you want to be a part of etsy for charity. The site is http://etsyforcharity.etsy.com

If you would like to get involved with the etys for animals street team, send a convo to elephantdance.etsy.com

Surprises in the mail

If you're a beader, you know that it can be seriously addicting. I have had my highs and lows in my attempts to sell online. The etsy market is completely saturated with beaders, and now that etsy has become more popular over the last couple of years, it is even more difficult to get the views, hearts and sales that I want. I've tried branching out to other places such as hyenacart.com, shophandmade.com and dawanda.com, but no other site has brought in the sales, few as they may be, that etsy has. So, as you may imagine, I've considered whether or not I want to continue such a hobby. After all I have to do something with these creations, and there are only so many friends and family members to give them away to. The bottom line, is that I never could part myself from the hobby that I love so dearly. Part of the appeal is the many varieties of beads that are available. Shopping for beads, and better yet, opening the beads when they arrive in the mail, is such a pleasure..."kid in a candy store" is what comes to mind, an oldie but a goodie, and the perfect cliche to capture the feeling that bead shopping elicits in me. So my short term solution is to give my creations away to various charities that sell or auction off handmade items in their fundraising projects. I have sent a couple of full flat rate boxes to Every Dog's Delight in Alaska, and I'm working on putting together a third one. If you would like to contribute your handmade goods, you can contact everydogsdelight.etsy.com. They sell items in their thrift store/boutique in Anchorage. You may also want to get involved with the etsyforcharity or etsyforanimals street teams. Both teams raise money for charities and animal charities. Etsyforcharity has an etsy store at etsyforcharity.etsy.com.
So getting to the point, I continue to buy beads when I have the pay pal money to do so. I love gemstones the most, but I recently found some lampwork beads on ebay that I found intriguing. I liked the speckled appearance. They looked like a lot of fun. Once I got them home, I wondered if maybe they looked a little too fun. Now "serious" is not a word I would use to describe my jewelry. It is big, bold and colorful, however these beads are so flashy that they seem to be more suitable for children's jewelry, which is something I don't generally do. However, if I pair them appropriately with the right beads, I may be able to make them work. I have already used the green lampwork beads in a toggle bracelet that uses chocolate jasper, and I am very satisfied with the final outcome.

And here is my third necklace, which I just created last night. It is the final piece of beach glass I have, but I plan on collecting some when I walk the beaches in Santa Cruz with my mom and daughter this March, at least I hope to.
My mom told me today that she likes the smaller pieces, so she sometimes passes up the larger pieces if she sees them. I wish I could have those pieces! Pieces like that sell for $15 or so on craft sites. Not that I would sell them. I think I would have to use them. This is way too much fun. I'm really enjoying wire wrapping sea glass. The wire I used for the last necklace was a larger gauge than I expected, but it seems to have worked out all right. I'm also including the links to the first two necklaces in this post. I haven't listed the third one yet. Thanks for looking.

copper wire wrapped sea glass necklace

multi sea glass and purple coral necklace