gigi

DIY Curator

Ok, it's a record: two posts in one day.

Wanted to share this cool feature of etsy.com: the Treasury.

Anyone (who is quick with the fingers) can get a Treasury and be a curator of their own collection. There are 222 or so at once. Etsy has made it easy sellers to find themselves listed in a Treasury by adding a yellow star at the Treasury listing where the seller's item is featured (one of 12). If there's a gray star, that means you're on the reserve list (one of three spots).

I randomly look to see if I'm featured anywhere. Today I found two!

This one is "Ode to the Farm" -- my item is hair clippies with cows:

The next one is funny... called "Orange you glad..." and my hair clippies are in the top row:

I didn't get a picture of the 4th grader at the bus stop. As predicted, I had a tired and s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g child on my hands. Plus, the teenager's bus was a bit messed up so she was 65 minutes late. Our once decent and now HORRIBLE public transit system launched a complete route overhaul yesterday. Her first bus (3:10 pm) never showed up; her second bus (3:50 pm) was 15 minutes late. Nothing like a long day at school followed by an hour wait for the bus. Harumph.

Halloween is coming!

Since it's the first day of school, that must mean Halloween is around the corner! LOL!

So this weekend I made some Halloween accessories, to be listed on eBay, probably. Etsy just isn't yet too with-it when it comes to a children's "boutique" market. On the other hand, if you are aching to have any of these I could be persuaded to sell them now; set of clippies $5.50; bracelet $15; shipping free!

Artisan-made polymer clay beads adorn these fun alligator clips!

Same artisan made the polymer clay beads in this sweet fringe bracelet, made to fit ages 3-8:

I'll be picking up my 4th grader (OMGosh did I say FOURTH?! Where did the time go?) from the school bus in a few minutes. Mark my words she'll be tired and s-t-a-r-v-i-n-g :)  And since I forgot to bring my camera this morning for "first day of school" pictures, we'll have to settle for "first day after school" pictures. Oughta be pretty darn cute.

My Crafting Partners

As solitary as crafting can be,I do have partners: a crafting buddy and a crafting helper.

PARTNER #1:  My crafting helper is my daughter Kendall Grace. She has a keen sense of organization and design (born with both, of course). Her two roles in my crafting are: sorting and organizing beads, and lending me her design eye. She just turned 9 and has been my official organizer for a couple of years. I am so lucky that she is not only good at those things, but also will help her organizationally-challenged (aka ADD) mama. Um, and I forgot to mention she is also her daddy's daughter, which means she requests payment for her sorting assistance. In a sweet, kind voice.

Here's a fun picture from our vacation this summer -- she's showing off her shell finds from the beach in Naples, Florida.

PARTNER #2:  My crafting buddy is Molly the dog (Chinese Crested Powderpuff). During the school year she is within five feet of me at all times; preferably, though, ON my chair with me (behind). I'm nice and tolerant and all, but sometimes I just need that back support :)  Then I ask her to sit on the other chair.

Funny how dogs aren't terribly interesting until you have one. Here's Molly:

I have a friend in Basel

Switzerland, that is.

And she is keeping a journal, which she emails weekly to her envious friends stuck in the U.S. without a husband daring enough to take a one-year job in a *foreign country*!

Without her permission I am sharing one paragraph from Week Two:

"The Coop store is on two floors connected by an escalator-type moving ramp. The shopping carts are specially designed to have their wheels lock so that there are no runaways. The carts are chained up outside the store and to free one to use you put a coin (one or two francs) in the handle to disengage your chunk of the chain. When you return the cart and plug it back into the chain on the cart in front if it, your coin pops back out. I have never seen a shopping cart derelict in the neighborhood even though it’s a pedestrian area. What I have seen, however, are those cool rolling carts for groceries that old ladies in cities in movies have. I think I’ll get one.  And then I’ll celebrate by buying and carting home a six pack."

Next I'm going to convince her to create a blog and share her escapades with more than just us friends. The world needs more envious folk.

Since a blog entry is MUCH more interesting with a picture and I don't happen to have any of Basel or my friend, here's one of our sweet Molly, Chinese Crested Powerpuff extraordinaire!

Word of the day

One of my very favorite components in jewelry-making: Swarovski crystal components (aka beads). Ooooh the colors, ooooh the shapes! Endless possibilities :)

My favorite place to buy them is inm crystal.

But, how do you SAY Swarovski? Here's the easiest way to remember its "English" pronunciation:

swore off ski

In German, the w is pronounced as a v, and the v as an f. So if you were saying it in German, it'd be:

sva roff ski

Your foreign language lesson for the day!

Briolettes are the bomb

This summer I've been making lots of earrings with briolettes. That's basically a piece of glass or a gemstone that's shaped kinda like a pear.

Made these yesterday:

The first few pair were simpler:

I really like doing the "tornado" wraps... and they are also much easier to do than the perfect ones!

Long Live DOBBY!

I must confess, I am a Harry Potter fan. The night before our big cruise my dd and I went to Books & Books, an independent book store in South Beach Miami, to hang out until midnight so we could purchase our copies of The Deathly Hallows to read onboard.

Isn't it cool to see a bookstore crowded at midnight?!

I SO cried when Dobby died. Right there on the lounge chair, Deck 11, Liberty of the Seas.

This summer I discovered HP Prognostications, an awesome podcast by... big people! adults! Behind the mikes are Penny and Greg, a married couple in Baltimore. They're funny, articulate, and extremely well-versed in all things Potter. Check it out!

Organizing those ribbon spools

A fellow etsyblogger, Carin, has posted her journey through creating an awesome ribbon organizer from an old drawer. I'm going to do this!

I have a thing for words

Certainly I was born with this affliction. Spelling and writing came naturally to me. OTOH, team sports did not. Heh.

Much of what attracts me to a word is its pronunciation. Some words simply are fun to say! Like this one:

ap·o·plec·tic
Pronunciation: "ap-&-'plek-tik
Function: adjective
  1  :  of, relating to, or causing stroke
2  :  affected with, inclined to, or showing symptoms of stroke

Source:

apoplectic. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. Retrieved August 08, 2007,  from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apoplectic

A little birdie...