Saturday, August 30, 2008

Sometimes Colors are just too Yummy!


I just finished this little wallet. I decided to put an iridescent red sheen over the caramel colored leather for the base and wow! did it turn out cool. It only slightly tinted the caramel color adding a distressed quality to it. In the light it glows this wonderful warm pink. I decided that the metallic olive green and brown suede would look awesome together and they do! The olive green has a little iridescence to it to so it just adds a little more pizazz to it. I love little successes! It makes all the problem solving and puzzling worth it.

Today is one of those super foggy days and I am hanging out inside drinking way too much coffee and working on my latest custom order. My first computer sleeve/case thingy. It will be a really cool project. Lots of colorful applique work. It is just getting the motivation to jump in and just do it. Ciaran helped me pick out some bright orange cotton to line the case with. For 18 months old, that little boy sure has an eye for color. So now I have to figure out exactly how the whole thing will work together and then get to business with the applique design. It should be a fun project for such a blah day.

Later we eat burgers, fries, and Mark is going to make us a lemon meringue pie. I can't wait! Hopefully it will all agree with all the coffee I've been drinking.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Nightmares About Shipping

So this week has been pretty busy. I am juggling mommy-ness with custom orders, getting my shop stuffed with stuff, and getting ready for a trunk show week after next. In between all of this I am packaging up orders and shipping them off which is usually o.k. but this week I had to do all of my shipping on one day so I got confused. I know everything is going to the proper place but I woke up from a little nap with my heart pounding because I dreamed I shipped everything to different addresses and nothing got to where it supposed to go. Eek! I remember a while back when I worked at a local jewelry manufacturer and part of my job was to help with shipping. The job was ridiculously overwhelming to begin with, I spent most days not taking any breaks and usually left feeling like I had gotten nothing done, and they had the most confusing shipping system I had ever seen. As a result I almost lost my job for mixing up shipping costs for different packages. Now I am extra sensitive about my shipping so I don't have the same sort of problems with confusion. Who knows, maybe I did screw up but at least I can fire myself, not some other ding-bat that gets comfort from pushing too much work on other people. Hmmmm, I sound a little bitter there, I need to get over that.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

An Early Start


I was up before dawn finishing a couple of these for a custom order. Battling a sinus headache and a scary, stressful dream hangover. It was so peaceful and the sunrise was so lovely! I love getting up early, it is the only time I truly get to myself. Late nights belong to Mark, that is when he unwinds by hanging out in the bike forums and drinking his fancy beers, I usually fall asleep well before midnight and snore up a storm on the couch next to him.

I usually try to sleep in if I can so I have the energy to work after Ciaran has gone to bed. I usually get three to four hours of work time when the little guy is snoozing. I tried working yesterday but my unruly sinus condition wasn't having it. I spent most of the day lying on the floor watching Ciaran do laps around my body. He seems to enjoy this game. He runs a few laps, jumps on my stomach, pokes me in the eye or the nose, and then runs off again, squealing with delight the whole time.

So my big custom order is just about done and ready to go. Yay! I look forward to my next custom order and making many goodies for my shops. I just hope my sinus stuff lets me work.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Where's The Glue?


So, among the wonderous birthday gifts I got this year, I received a lovely portable tray that I use as a work station. I wanted something of the sort so I could still work on my projects while hanging out with the kid. It is fantabulous!!!! I can pile all sorts of stuff on it and plop down on the floor or the couch and work away without having to get up to grab something every two seconds. I wish Ciaran saw it that way. He keeps coming over and taking little pieces of leather, pencils, paintbrushes, and finally my glue! I happened to find the rest of the items but not the glue. He has been hiding things behind the stereo lately but it's not there. It is also not on the couch, under the couch, behind the couch, behind the curtains, or in the baby wipes container. ARRRGGHHH! HE IS SUCH A STINKER! My glue is missing and I need it! Maybe it's his subtle way of telling me I need a break, perhaps a walk to the coffee shop for cookie and coffee, then a peaceful chat in the park. So I guess I am finished for the meanwhile, until the glue reappears. I guess it's a good thing I was heading downtown anyways to get another pot of glue.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Just A Quick Hello


I am a blogger slacker! I haven't written in a couple of days and now I feel out of sorts. It's just been a bit busy around these parts. I apologize for not writing and I hope that the picture of Yui eating bigfoot will make you all smile. (Bigfoot is actually a orangutan named "Dexter" but he looks more like Bigfoot to me) I get to run off and do some shipping and shopping today, and then back home to work on a big custom order. Once that is all done, I can concentrate on my shops and getting them all stocked up with marvelous creations. I promise I will write again soon. Have a good day all:)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Happy Birthday To Me!

Here is a picture of my new baby! I had a hard time getting a clear photo because of my caffeine buzz this morning. What a lovely birthday so far! I have had no sleep due to Ciaran's teething and when I changed him this morning he threw a huge fit and yanked out a handful of my hair. I was sad......... then I realized my new friend was waiting to make me some coffee, so then I was happy! Then I got on the computer to check all my usual, email, my shops, etc. then I saw that little Etsy "Happy Birthday nicaeli!" right next to all my shop info. Awww, someone remembered! Thanks Etsy! Now it's on to more coffee, finishing up a couple custom orders, more coffee, pizza, beer, and lemon meringue pie, oooh, that sounds like a stomach ache waiting to happen! I am not sure if my dinner and celebration will be in that order and then hopefully I will be able to catch Ghost Hunters International and then some much needed sleep.





I received this lovely piece in the mail yesterday from my Namaste Art Swap buddy. The photo doesn't do it justice, but I just wanted to share. It was made by Dina Miller who also has an Etsy shop called fairyfelts. I love this set of felted bowls and the little pin is so lovely. They are gorgeous! Thank you Dina:) What a great experience this art swap has been. I have to give a big Thank you to Tameka for getting this all started!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Mmmmmmmmmmm Coffee!

I just got the bestest ever birthday present from Mark! I got an espresso maker! Now I can make all sorts of crazy coffee drinks! AND THEY WILL ALL BE MINE! Really, it was a lovely surprise and I am so happy. Coffee is a life saver for me, especially this week! Hello little espresso maker, you are my new best friend!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Besides Professional Toast Burning.........


I finished a couple of other little projects that I wanted to share. I finished my piece for the Namaste Art Swap and which turned out amazing! I hope it's new owner will love it. It is a mash up of different pieces that I had been figuring out how to put together for years. I finally came up with this. The amethyst is amazing because it has so much going on in it. Lots of streaks and striations which I think make it beautiful.

Then I finished this little black and red purse. I really appreciate how easy it was to put together. It took a while to design and play around with but once I started working on it, it went together like a dream. Now I get to work on a few custom orders. Including another heart shaped wristlet, a snappy wallet, and four pouch/wallets. I am gonna be a busy girl! All this and my 39th birthday coming up this week wow! I think I'll go celebrate by burning more toast!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Professional Toast Burner

My new profession. I am really good at it, I think I might make millions. I burn toast like no other. Only I can fill a whole apartment complex full of smoke with my artistic burning capabilities. I am the expert. That is all I have to say about that.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Happy Friday!

Here are some beautiful swans from our trip to Ireland a while back, I was amazed at how many were in one spot!

All my custom orders are done, I have good coffee, my little jewelry project is done, and my son decided to sleep in this morning(as well as spending the whole night in his bed!). It is Friday and I feel like a whole new person.......a dizzy new person. Yes, still little dizzy from my head bump but getting better by the day.

So today is a little bit of work, a little bit of play, and an evening of pizza and applewine. Then I start plugging away for my Trunk show in September that my mom so graciously signed us up for. I have to come up with lots of leather cuffs and collars for this one. I have been itching to make some more cuffs and things but I just got sidetracked with wallet and bag making. I have to make lots of wallets and bags too! Eek! got to get to work! Have a great weekend everyone.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Potato Named Kim

My son made a new friend the other day. As you can see by the photos, It's not your average friend. It's a potato, a potato that was meant for our dinner but now has been named Kim in honor of Kim Novak. (We were watching Vertigo the evening he and miss potato made friends and my young son seemed to be quite enchanted with Kim Novak, so miss potato became Kim). It seems Ciaran was just bored with all of his other friends and needed someone to new to spice up his life. So when one of the potatoes that were meant for our dinner went missing I searched high and low only to find my son cuddling Kim next to his cheek and whispering sweet nothings to her. It has been two days now and Kim has made herself quite comfortable. I have found her napping on our couch under Ciaran's blankie, Playing hide and seek in the stereo's cassette player, and just hanging out in the baby wipes box. She is just one of the family now. We all love her. I will be very sad on the day she disappears and is made into french fries. I hope it doesn't break my son's heart.

I have been out of it for a few days. Dealing with the very end of an illness and recovering from a blow to the head which caused a small amount of confusion and dizziness. Better now and back to work. I just finished this lovely custom order. It was such a challenge but I am so happy to have done it. I had such a difficult time trying to figure out an attractive but functional heart shape how and where to exactly place the zipper. I came up with this, and I like it! Yay! now I must move on to something new.


Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Lots of Peace and Love Around Here




Well lots of wallets with peace and love themes. These are my newest custom pieces I just finished. I really like the colors in the billfold. I will have to experiment further with those. So I haven't been around for a few days mostly because I got a few custom orders and I was sick at the same time. One of those tricky illnesses that make you think your better one second and the next second you feel like crap. I am still a little wobbly, but ready to join the living once again. Today will be another day of custom order fun. I have a wristlet to make and a jewelry piece to finish. I love it when I am busy! A little overwhelming but much better than sitting around wondering what to start next.

Tomorrow, Ciaran and I are having lunch with friends and searching out some fresh leather pieces. I am finding myself in need of some bright colors again. My supplies are starting to diminish a bit. Eek! I love my lime green suede and my salmon orange suede and they are almost gone! So I will go searching for some more fabulous colors to call my own. That's my plan and I will hopefully be able to stick to it, sickness or not.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Sleepy, Sleepy, Yawn, Yawn

I am dragging today! Mr. Ciaran was up late and woke up in the middle of night crying, so he came to bed with us. I have been dragging all week so a night of a tossing, turning, kicking, and crying toddler didn't help very much. I feel like my eyeballs are going to drop right through the bottoms of my feet. They are HEAVY!!!!

I got to hang out at the mall yesterday. It was crazy! The college students are heading back to school, so they are stocking up on goodies for their apartments and dorm rooms. The little ones also start school in the next couple weeks, so lots of new school outfits and the grouchiness that goes with shopping for such things between parents and their children. I actually witnessed an argument about a frying pan between a mother and her son. She wanted him to have the frying pan and he he told her he didn't need anything like that for his apartment. He wasn't planning on cooking. I would have loved to hear the whole argument but there was a better one that had just erupted about a backpack happening in the next isle. I used to really want to go out and shop for clothes when I was little. My mom made our new school outfits when I was a kid. Of course I didn't appreciate it back then but after years of witnessing the hysterics of back to school parent/child snarliness about what top/pants/skirt/shoes he or she should get.....I am now ever so appreciative of my mom's efforts.

I wrote my first Etsy pen pal letter yesterday! I hope my new pen pal enjoys reading it. I love pen pals, I love writing letters but often I run out of anything interesting to say. I don't want to ramble, I want to ask meaningful questions and genuinely get to know my new friend. The trouble is that I am a babbling idiot by nature. I get started on something and I can't stop talking about it. Same darn thing with writing. I have a really hard time cutting myself off. I am trying but I have a ways to go. So for now I will stick to short and sweet. Not my entire life's story all smushed into one little envelope.

Oh well, off to mangle some more sweaters and dismantle some leather clothing, I have lots of work to do.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

I Love Custom Orders


I just got a couple of custom orders and I have to say I get really excited about doing custom orders. I find it challenging. It is nice to take a break from the daily to do list for my business and work strictly on a custom order. A few years back, I don't think I could have done a custom order for the life of me. Too much insecurity I guess. Now I just like the challenge of putting another person's idea or design into one of my products and still having it look good when it's done. My favorite custom order was for my sister, who just wanted an interesting copper necklace with an ammonite set into it somewhere. It took me a while to figure out what to do with it but when it was done I was really proud of it. I love that "I did it!" feeling. I have also failed at a lot of my attempts to pull designs together for other people, so the little successes that I do have are so appreciated. As much as I love being in my own creative world and hanging out with my own ideas, it sure is nice to visit someone else's world for a while.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

I am Not Sure What To Title This

I don't really have a theme today. I was awful sickly yesterday and again today, I am not feeling that great. Oh bother! No one really wants to hear about all that stuff anyways. Sorry, I will ramble on about something else.

I finished a new little wallet as shown above. My first creation out of the gorgeous pumpkin orange suede I got a couple of weeks ago. I am really liking the flower appliques. I am not really the biggest fan of flowery things but I am liking how these pieces work together.

Now I am back on my quest for white or off white leather. I bought myself some iridescent red pigment the other day to try out and man does it look neato! I am thinking that I would like to try a cuff or a neck piece with that color. That would be wonderful! I have a few Etsy related projects to finish first. I want to keep them top secret until the persons that are receiving them can see them first. I love surprises....but only when I get to surprise other people........well, sometimes I like to be surprised too, but only nice surprises. Nice surprises make me happy, scary or mean surprises make me want to poke the surpriser ( I don't know if that is even a word but I am going to use it anyway)in the eye really hard. Well with that note, I am off to do more sewing. Have a great day all!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Park of My Dreams!

I wish I was in this park today. It looks so peaceful. Not that I am stressed out or anything. It is funny when I see a photo of a beautiful place I can just imagine how it feels and smells. This was a park Mark and I visited while we were in Ireland. We stayed overnight in Tralee. Our B&B was a bit of a walk from the bus station so we decided to leave extra early to make sure we could catch our bus without having to rush with our huge backpacks on. We both had to pee before we hopped on our next bus so we stopped at this park's restrooms. Then we wandered around the park for a bit and took a few photos. It really was beautiful. I wanna go back! Hopefully someday soon.

I had a busy, busy day yesterday. I didn't plan it that way, it just crashed down on me at the last minute. I procrastinated around the house all morning doing little things here and there and then when it came down to making it downtown for errands I suddenly remembered why I wanted to leave earlier. It seems that I forgot about a couple of errands. OOPS! I got everything done, but I hate rushing around at the last minute.

Today I will be working on a small custom order and a couple other little items for my shops. I am hoping for productivity. We will see what happens. I woke up feeling like I could sleep all day, I tried going back to sleep but I kept waking up to Ciaran poking me in the nose and eye with his little slobbery fingers. Best way to wake up ever. Nothing like a slobbery eye or nose to get your day going!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

O.K. Old Bike Dude, You Are Trying My Niceness

The newest wallet is done! Yay! I decided to try to bulk up my icraft shop, so I listed it there. Black and red with polka dots, the best color combination ever!

So you may wonder why I titled this post the way I did. I will tell you because I have been fussing about it for the last day or so. So Ciaran and I are pedestrians, well, I am the pedestrian, he gets to cruise around in the stroller. Anyways, being a pedestrian and a responsible mama, I am super careful when I cross the street. I can't even count on my fingers and toes anymore the number of times we have almost been hit by a driver not paying attention while driving. Just the other day a man made a left turn into the intersection Ciaran and I were in the middle of. He just kept going, luckily I pulled Ciaran out of the way. I don't know what happened other than he just wasn't paying attention. Every other car in that intersection was stopped for us, but this guy just kept going.

A few days later, Ciaran and I were headed home from downtown and were getting ready to cross the street at a very busy intersection. Both lanes of cars saw us and stopped for us. There was a line of about four cars on each side, all of which waited patiently for us to cross. There was a guy on bike coming down the way quite a bit and I figured he had plenty of room to stop for us as well. So I push Ciaran into the street and then I see the guy on the bike coming up on us at full speed, then struggling to brake and cussing me out at the same time. Dude! come on, you had to see us from way back there, all of these cars did. Luckily Ciaran and I were able to get out of his way so he could pass us up at top speed and cuss me out some more. I muttered a few things about bikes being vehicles too and that the rules of the road apply to bike riders too. I did spice it up with a few very colorful words which I will not repeat for you here, I will let you imagine. It's more fun that way anyways. Anyways, I was so angry I wanted to chase the guy down and scream in his face and break his bike, but I didn't.

I did see him the next day, still riding at top speed, not paying attention to anybody or anything around him. I hope if anyone gets hurt from his recklessness, it will be him, not some innocent bystander.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Another Beautiful Sunny Day!

......But no coffee! How did that happen? AWW NUTS!!! I really need some this morning too. I spent the night with stinker on the couch. I guess he had a bad baby dream, he woke up screaming at about 1 am. Poor little guy couldn't quite calm back down either. So I didn't get very much sleep. So there goes my energy for a day's work. I don't quite have it today. I need to finish up a few projects to get them ready to put them up for sale. Then I need to get back to work on my newest sweater project. Other than that, I just need to get my work space cleaned up and usable again for sun catcher making. First, I must get Yui his medication. I guess the plan is to now, get dressed and get out of the house and get a big ol' coffee for our walk downtown. I always feel a little better if I can get outside and get some exercise and fresh air. Ciaran just has a blast no matter what we are doing. Maybe we will go have lunch with Mark too.