Its About Time!

So, last year when I changed webhosts for my website I couldn't figure out how to link over my blog to my email accounts and I haven't been able to log in to update in EONS.  I don't know what possessed me to attempt to figure out how to get back into my blog....but...I'm here.  *grin*

So much has changed in the last 9-12 months, I'm not sure if I can even write a quick synopsis, so I'll just stick to recent events.  The last month has been atrocious, frankly.  All three of my girlie-girls came down with the flu at the same time on Christmas...and that was after a week with one of my girls with a high fever virus.  Poor thing was soooo sick.  We are still struggling to get completely healthy, but, we're almost there.  Hopefully, Lord willing, my last sickie will be fever free today and then we're home free.  *grin*

It has been weeks since I have even truly had the desire to create jewelry, though I am *finally* starting to putz around in my studio again.  The first thing that I need to do is to CLEAN!!!  Oh my word my studio is a wreck.  Its embarrassing.  It needs a complete overhaul.  (Anyone want to come clean it for me??!! HAHA!)  I even need to pack up some of my tools that I no longer use, or haven't touched in years.  Mainly my soldering goodies.  One of these days when the girls are older and I have more time in the studio (HA!) I'll haul all my soldering stuff back out and get back into soldering.  I do miss it...but not enough to keep it all out.  *grin* 

Over the last year I have slowly been adding more of my gemstone overstock into my Gems shop and I'm thrilled that ya'll have been taking advantage of my listings and have been helping to clear out my overstock!  THANK YOU to all my awesome Gems customers!! I will continue to add more and more as time permits.

Not only does my studio need a complete overhaul, ha, but my Etsy shop has needed an overhaul badly.  So I have retired some pieces and put quite a few older pieces on CLEARANCE with prices slashed up to 40% to 50% off.  My website has also been updated accordingly.  Now if I can just remember how to update the picture on my home page.....HA!  I'll figure it out eventually.  *grin*

And now my writing time has come to an end.  HA  Now that I can get back into my blog, hopefully I'll write more often! *grin*

In Gemstone Cluster Heaven

Ok, it has been so long since I've posted that blogger has changed the entire back end of the blog and I have no clue what I'm doing.  HA!

What have I been doing since my last post?  Oh my word.  It has been crazy.  One of the biggest changes has been a complete redo to my website.  Quick history...when I used to sell on my website I used...well, let's call it Option A, as my website host and shopping cart.  Back then it was totally adequate for my needs.  A couple of years ago I decided to consolidate all my selling to just my Etsy shop.  That worked well for years, but, with all the updates and changes Etsy has been making, I have been itching to get my website rolling again.  So I finally logged back into my Option A account to update my website from my old green dominated logo to my new stark white minimalist logo.  Uhm.  I ran into problems immediately.  One, I really have no clue what I'm doing with HTML, etc., which is why my blog looks the way it does.  LOL  Very simple, not much to it.  *grin*  I totally know where my skills are deficient. HA!  So I started looking into hiring someone to update my website.  All the while my friend, fellow jewelry designer, and business owner extraordinaire Rhonda of Prolifique Jewelry and I have been debating reopening our websites and discussing all the details (actually, we've been talking about this for over a year).  We started looking into other webhosts/shopping cart packages and within hours of starting our search it became overwhelmingly apparent that I would be changing web hosts/shopping cart. While Option A was completely adequate, it was not going to work for what we wanted.  I wanted MUCH more for my website than what Option A was offering.  After weeks/months of research in our spare time (*pause for hysterical laughter* what spare time??!!!) we decided on Big Commerce.  I love it.  I really do.  So I have been spending any spare second building my website using one of their templates which I have since figured out how to modify slightly.  The website look is not perfect, but, compared with what I had....I'm very happy.  Over time I will figure out how to continue modifying things behind the scenes to conform with the image I have in my head...but until then, I'm so happy with the update.  And I'm happy that I was able to do it myself and not have to hire a MUCH more experienced person/company to do it for me.  *grin*  All that money I saved went into buying new gemstones of course!!  hahahaha....

While I haven't made the "official, official" announcement to my newsletter subscribers yet, my website is live and yes I'm taking orders.  Uhm, I wasn't QUITE ready to take orders yet, but ah, if you build it, obviously they will come as I've already had an order unexpectedly after I went live.  HA So I guess things work!  *grin*  I'm finishing up some of the last little details (changing merchant accounts, etc.) this week and then I'll be sending out my newsletter, etc., to "officially" open.  *grin*

So that is one of the biggest things that has been going on...there is sooo much going on right now.  I am not a person who does busy well, HA...I actually dislike being insanely busy.  I really like quite time and chaos-free time, but, that is far and few between lately.  I'm thinking it will be another 16 or so years until things really settle down into some semblance of relaxing peace.  *grin* 

My favorite thing to do when it gets this busy, especially the weekends hubby is not working, is to sit and make gemstone clusters.  And I have been the gemstone cluster queen lately.  HA!  I have been listing quite a few new Gemstone Cluster Earrings over the past week, and several have already sold.  My favorites:

The only pair from the above which has not sold (yet! LOL) is the bottom, Crystal Quartz and Black Tourmalinated Quartz.  They are located on my website.  The rest have been sold.

Ok, I keep getting distracted by little monkeys....LOL  More soon! 

New Gemstones Listed

Yesterday I made it my mission to add more gemstones to my Gems Shop. And oh boy....did I! LOL I have some personal favorites that I listed. Here is some eye candy to tempt you! *grin*

Moss Aquamarine Rondelles, available HERE

Multi-Color Quartz faceted round beads, available HERE

Pink Mystic Quartz Onions, available HERE

Green Fluorite Briolettes, available HERE

Pink, Green and Blue Tourmaline faceted rondelles *YUM!!*, available HERE

I have also listed Tundra Sapphire rondelles, 2 lots of Labradorite briolettes, Black Tourmalinated Quartz rondelles, and more. I also have soooo many more to list its just not funny. I have a feeling the task of listing my overstock is going to take me months. LOL!

Long, Lost Neglected Gems Shop

LOL! Morning ya'll! I can't believe it has been two months since I posted. Seriously I need to have flashing neon lights around my computer reminding me that I have a blog!

Anyhoo....so many new pieces have been posted in the last two months. Many different Shimmer Layers Necklaces with gemstone in Oxidized Sterling Silver, tons of Duets Necklaces, oodles of gemstone earrings and my latest enjoyment has been diving back into gold. Right now I am mostly working in 14K Gold Fill, but, I will more than likely bring back my Solid Gold pieces at some point in the next couple of months. I am recreating many of my Silver PMC pendant shapes with the Gold Fill and sawing them out of 14k Gold Fill sheet metal. I haven't used my jewelry saw in so long I forgot about how soothing it is to just sit and create with it! LOL Quite a few basic shape pendants and earrings have already been posted...with many more to come and also tons of pieces that combine gemstone with the Gold Fill.

My Sale Section. I haven't been updating it as often as I'd like, but, people are enjoying what I put on sale. I will continue to leave it for a couple of months, but, at some point I will more than likely go back to newsletters and coupon codes. I'm undecided right now....what are your thoughts?

The REAL reason for this post. *cheesy grin* Thankfully my jewelry shop has been slower this month and it has given me time to gather together the hoards and hoards of gemstones that are just laying around waiting for new homes. Yes, I am FINALLY updating my Gems Shop. I feel like I have an endless supply of gemstones to list. Many of them I will be listing at or below my purchase price, most of which I purchased wholesale and/or for discounted prices. Why am I letting them go for such a low price? Because I just want them GONE!! They are gems I will never use again and they truly need new homes. I'm not looking for a profit...I just want them out of my studio. The other thing I am doing behind the scenes is a serious reorganization of my studio....decluttering, throwing away tons of paper, boxing up tools I haven't used in eons (uh, pretty much my entire soldering station....LOL) and just trying to clear a path in my jam-packed studio. With this reorganization comes the offloading of pounds and pounds of gems. I know I've been talking about it for years, but, it is finally happening....I'm going to be a listing machine over the next few months photographing, editing and getting those gems out there for ya'll to buy. So PLEASE. I BEG YOU.... LOLOL! Help me clean out my studio!!

Ok, the littlest cutie patootie is making the entire house know she is awake and ready to eat and play.....Have fun shopping ya'll!!!!

New SALE Section

Ok, so I'm going to try something new and see how well it goes. Typically, I send out newsletters each month with a coupon code with a nice discount for my newsletter subscribers and I also post the coupons on my Facebook page. Instead, I am going to try a SALE section in my shop and each week on Sunday or Monday (whichever day I have more time, LOL!) I will update the SALE section with new pieces that have been discounted up to 50%. Every week the SALE section will change, so just because you see a certain pair of earrings or a certain necklace in there now, does NOT mean it will be there the following week. I will also *NOT* be sending newsletters with coupon codes for several months so I can see how well this SALE section goes. I have had several favorable comments from my customers already who were excited about this new change.

So.....no newsletters, no coupon codes for several months. *grin* YES, I will take suggestions from customers as to what pieces they would like to see in the sale section. YES, there will be times when new items will be posted directly into the SALE section. Will I ever send out another newsletter? Of course! But I am not sure when that will be....could be quite a while, *grin*, so make sure you check out my shop every week to see what's new! YES, I will still post my new pieces to my Facebook page as soon as they are listed so ya'll see them first.

So....go check it out!!! ----> SALE SECTION

Let me know what ya'll think! I love hearing from my customers!!

And they all fall down....

Yep. All three girlie girls are now sick. I suppose it is better they are all sick at the same time for 2 weeks than one at a time for 6 weeks of sickie time. Ah well. It'll be Spring soon enough...hopefully sooner rather than later. *grin* Though I do miss hubby once the season starts and he gets back into his insane schedule, I'd much rather have no sickies, open windows and play time OUTSIDE. hahaha

So I haven't had much time in the studio lately, but I was able to create the custom earrings for one of my brides and yippee! She loves them. While I was working on her earrings my fingers and pliers could NOT stop wrapping *grin* and I made several other pairs of earrings in a very simple, yet elegant style. So, here we go:

Tracey Earrings No. 1 ~ Champagne Citrine, Rhodolite Garnet and Sterling Silver


Tracey Earrings No. 2 ~ Peach Quartz, Aquamarine and Sterling Silver


Tracey Earrings No. 3 ~ Fuchsia Quartz, Chrome Diopside and Sterling Silver

Oops, I think I forgot to post several other pairs of earrings I posted this past week....I'll have to post those soon for ya'll.

Well, back to the land of sickies....Enjoy your Sunday, ya'll!

Sickie, Blech.

Duets Necklace No. 63 (Moss Aquamarine, Peach Quartz, Fine and Sterling Silver (oooooo...my new favorite)

Soooo, the littlest cutie patootie is sick. Ugh. I really hate when she is sick...she gets sooo miserable at night as its so hard for her to breathe...thankfully she has such a happy heart and this is a cold that, praise the Lord, isn't hideous...just gross. She's happily pushing her handmade horsie around the rooms making her way around and around just a happy as a clam as I'm sitting here typing and watching her. She loves to see the tracks she makes in the carpet. Ahhh...the life of a 2 year old. *grin*

One of my beautiful brides and I have been collaborating on matching earrings for her wedding Captive Heart Necklace. She decided on one of my older styles of earrings, the Cascade Earrings. I haven't made these earrings in soooo long that now we've been discussing it and I have the pile of gemstones sparkling like mad here on my desk I'm dying to get my hands on my pliers and make several different pairs. The gems are sitting here mocking me....tempting me to wire wrap them into something purty. *gaaaaaah* Torture, I tell you...this is torture!! LOL Instead of wire wrapping, my hands are instead chasing after my over-exuberant almost-2-year-old wiping her dripping nose. Where do kids get all this energy from?!?!! Oh my word.

Anyhoo...I have been able to add a couple of new pretties to my Etsy shop, and I actually have several pairs of earrings waiting to be photographed. Three pairs of Chainmail Flower Earrings in Fushia Quartz, Swiss Blue Quartz, Crystal Quartz and then a goooooorgeous pair of long, smooth London Blue Quartz Minimalist Earrings. I want to make myself a charm necklace with one of those London Blue Quartz smooth brios....they are just gorgeous. Ok, yes, right...I'm getting distracted....here are the last two new necklaces...the first one is posted above.

My Heart Necklace No. 9 (Pink Opal, Fine and Sterling Silver)


Duets Necklace No. 64 (Pink Amethyst, Champagne Citrine, Fine and Sterling Silver)

Ok, now where did that tissue box go???