Etsy update...

4 bracelets sold on Etsy so far, 3 in the past 4 days. Not as good as I was hoping for, but I am set for the bracelet showcase on Wednesday, hopefully sales will pick up a bit after that. I need to get a few more things made and listed before then. The pieces that sold are:

Plus I've had a few off-site sales recently:

The first one, which you may recall was inspired by the colors on Cara Dillon's Hill of Thieves album cover, actually went to Cara herself...a friend of mine on a Cara message board liked it and bought it to give to Cara when he saw one of her shows last week. Apparently she was quite pleased, which makes me quite pleased. :) The last one there...well, that's the same one shown above. My boss bought one just like it only the small oval beads were blue instead of green, but I don't have a picture.

New stuff!

Yup, I've got some new pieces. I whipped up these 4 bracelets this evening while listening to my favorite band, The Elders. (Yes, I know I've mentioned them a few times, but seriously. They ROCK.) No time to take nice, fancy pics so they won't be listed on Etsy for a few days but I thought I'd give you guys (or girls...or girl as the case may be) a sneak peek.

I'll be honest...the last one? It's my favorite. I know, I know, how can I pick a favorite? It's like picking a favorite child. But seriously, I love that bracelet. So much that I actually made 2. One to list on Etsy, one for...I dunno. Keep? Birthday gift for my BFF? Win-It Wednesday contest prize? Who knows. I don't, and I'm guessing that if I don't know, and it's MY bracelet, then the rest of you don't know either. Guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out.

OK, not jewelry, but it is new stuff! I was in Albany earlier this week, hangin' with my sis, when I saw these on display at Gymboree. My first thought was not "Hmmm, lil' J really needs some new summer clothes," (because I am not her mother, it's not my job to worry about whether or not the kid has summer clothes!) but "Ooooo, those would be super cute for some new summery pics!" So I bought them. And...it rained all week and was flippin' cold. So, no new pics yet. (And yes, that is my unmade bed...I'm just glad you can't see the (totally awesome) polka dotted flat sheet that SO TOTALLY does not match the (equally awesome) striped fitted sheet. And the green pillowcase. Yes, I mix and match my sheet sets. I'm wild like that.

Win It Wednesday

OK, OK, I KNOW today is not Wednesday. It's Thursday. Oops...make that Friday. I'm up late again. Imagine that...

Anyways...the reason I'm talking about Win-It Wednesday? Because, it's a fabulous idea I had for my blog. See, I think it would be fun to have little contests to give stuff away on Wednesdays. Not every Wednesday, mind you, but at least once a month. What kind of stuff, you ask? Who knows. Might be jewelry. Might be a cool CD. Maybe it'll be some beauty product that I think is fantastic. Or a book I love. Could be anything. You all like free stuff, right? So, in exchange for the chance to win something awesome, all I ask is one teeny tiny little favor. Won't even cost you anything. All you have to do is mention MY blog and Win-It Wednesday on YOUR blog (and maybe post a little button, if I can figure out how to make one!), along with your answer to whatever question I have posed for the contest, and you're in it to win it. Sound cool? OK, good. Now...go tell your bloggy friends all about it because Win-It Wednesday can't start til I have AT LEAST 10 followers! Think you can do that?

You're the meaning in my life...

...you're the inspiration.

Oops. Sorry for that little flashback to 1984. (Eh, maybe 1984, maybe not. All I know is that Chicago song came out when I was very, very young so I'm making an educated guess here.) But I've been trying to come up with a (hopefully) interesting post, and I thought, why not blog about where I get my jewelry ideas from? So this is it.

What inspires me? The short answer...color. I love bright colors. One day a few years ago, when I wore a black top and white capri pants to work, my boss's son made the very observant comment that I "never wear black." Funny, coming from a nine-year-old boy, but true. I rarely wear black (unless I have to...like now we have black uniform shirts at work, where we didn't a few years ago when the above comment was made) and if I do, it's not head to toe. It's paired with something bright. And probably something patterned. I love patterns too. Polka dots. Stripes. Plaid. Argyle. Mmmmm...argyle. But, I digress. The point is, colors inspire me.

The long (longer, anyways, as the short answer turned out a bit long) answer is...pretty much anything with bright colors and interesting color combinations inspires me. Sometimes, I just grab beads in colors I like and have a go at it. Other times I'm at a loss for ideas and look elsewhere. Sometimes, I find a bit of inspiration in places where I least expect it. Like...my lunch. The other day I was feeding my face (again...I tend to do that an awful lot). As I noshed on a bowl of cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew I thought, ooo those colors would look nice on a bracelet. So I gave it a whirl, and came up with this:

(not my melon...my camera's batteries died that day, so I googled it instead)

(look! matching earrings! Yep, I do those too!)

I like it. And, apparently, so does someone else. It sold this evening, probably not more than an hour after I posted it in my Etsy store, The Laughing Girl.

Another food-inspired piece, based on the colors of my favorite citrus fruits - pink grapefruit, tangerines, lemons and limes.

(more googled fruit...I don't have the money to blow on that much fruit at once...)

Sometimes, as I've posted before, I find inspiration in album covers. Here's two examples:

Julie Fowlis' Cuilidh

and Jenna Reid's With Silver and All

And let's not forget Mother Nature. I pulled the colors for this piece from my mom's spectacular tulip display this spring.

This one, I made to match my new favorite sundress.

And this one here, made for Lil' J, was inspired by the adorable outfit she was wearing that day, and her love of bright rainbow colors (that's my girl!) and sparkly things in general. (And the heart? Because I love her, of course!)

So, that's it. Basically, I draw on everything around me for ideas. Nothing is safe. Not even lunch.

I guess I should update...

...even though there's not much going on. My life is BORING. No new jewelry, no more Etsy sales, haven't discovered any more must-hear music, can't even think of any cute, creative post or anything.

I did go see Angels and Demons last weekend. It was pretty awesome (even though my friend talked through half of it), though not quite as good as the book. There are a few changes from the book, but nothing too major and nothing vital to the storyline.Obviously the movie is the sequel to The DaVinci Code, even though the Angels and Demons book actually came first, but to be honest it doesn't really affect anything. Tom Hanks is great as usual...I don't believe I've ever mentioned how much I love Tom Hanks. Well, I love him. A lot. He's in my all-time favorite movie...A League of Their Own. I probably would have gone to see the movie even if I hadn't read the book (3+ years ago, so I've been waiting for this movie a long time!) just because he's in it. But Tom aside, it really is a great movie. ALL the actors were absolutely perfectly chosen for their characters. The sets are amazing...I don't know which were filmed on location, which were filmed on a Hollywood set, and which were computer-generated. It all looks amazing. And the music is good too.

What else, what else? I did go out to Crossgates mall on Monday with my sister and her friend. It kinda sucked. We went in the JC Penney entrance and I saw a handbag in there that I wanted but they wanted to eat ASAP so they told me to get it on the way out...well, they dragged their feet so much that by the time we got back to Penneys it was closed! So I didn't get my cute little red, pink and green polka dotted handbag after all. Boo. I did get some yummy treats from Harry and David though...Royal Riviera cinnamon sugar Pear Chips and dark chocolate covered bing cherries. Mmmmmmm. Also got a few cute little shorts sets and hair accessories from Gymboree for lil' J...nice bright colors and patterns, perfect for new pics! Unfortunately it was cold and rainy this week so she didn't get to wear them yet.

And that, in a nutshell, was my life since my last update. I'll leave you with a few previously-unposted (I think) pics from last week taken...where else?...at the playground and ice cream shop, just because lil' J is cute and I like posting pics. Because apparently we don't do anything but play and eat ice cream, which I believe I've covered already. ;)

If I could turn back time...

Clearly I'm feeling nostalgic for days gone by lately. Lil' J is off to Kindergarten this fall and I'm not quite sure how I'm gonna feel about her not needing me any more. It's kind of sad. I've been watching her since she was 6 months old, 5 days a week at first, then 3 days a week the last 2 years so she could go to preschool 2 days a week. Now she's a big girl...5 years old!...and while I'm glad to be able to move on and do something else with my life, sometimes I just wish she wasn't growing up on me, that I could turn her back into a baby and do the past 5 years all over again.

We've had a lot of fun over the years. I've been going through old pics and remembering all the good times, and I noticed something...I tend to take some of the same pics, year after year, especially at the playground. I love looking at them and seeing how she's changed and grown (and how my photography skills have improved!), even if it does make me a little sad at the same time.

top left - 2006, age 2 top right - 2007, age 3

bottom left - 2008, age 4 bottom right - 2009, age 5

top - 2007, center - 2008, bottom - 2009

top - 2006, center - 2008, bottom - 2009

Clearly, lil' J and I are crazy about 2 things...

...the playground...

...and ice cream!