Gonna Have to Face It...

You know you are addicted to beads - not using them, mind you, just buying them - when you buy them even when you have no time at all for using them, and then they sit in their little plastic bag on your coffee table for over a week because you have no time to even put them away.

I got some cool stuff weekend before last, and I am counting down the days to the end of the Dayjob From Hell so that I can utilize some of them in new jewelry. Among the cool baubles are these neat bone donuts in a dark golden ivory color that have little red cherry blossoms and brown birds etched into them. Unfortunately, the dye is not waterproof (brilliant idea, that :( ), so I will have to laquer those before I can use them.

Gee Jenie, I hear you ask, how did you find out they weren't waterproof?

Funny you should ask. The place I got 'em from uses the worst price tags in the entire world. Whenever you peel one off, it leaves tons of gunk behind. So I used tape to try to lift most of it, and then went to wash/rub the rest off...and next thing I knew, my fingers were a nice bright red and the donuts were etched with nothing to fill the etching. :( Luckily I only ruined one, and that one I can just wear myself because I only ruined one side, but it's a big pain, and I am not looking forward to cleaning the rest of them so they can be laquered, not to mention the act of lacquering, which I am also not looking forward to...it's hard to lacquer something smoothly and without fingerprints. And there are 12 of them.

In addition to the not-quite-so-cool-as-I-had-hoped donuts, I also got some really neat rectangular pendant beads of graphic jasper (potassium feldspar with quartz inclusions) and another stone labelled same, but that is a really beautiful peach color, with different markings. I also got round pendants of pietersite and silverleaf jasper. I think they'll look great with leather cord.

In addition to those, I got some neat shell stations that will look really pretty as center focal points, and one piece each of some gorgeous blue pietersite, flower jade, and an aqua-colored Peruvian (aka Andean) opal that is free form. It has a little gold discoloration, but it's still very pretty (and fairly expensive). I wish I could find more in the same blue shade, because it really is a beautiful stone.

Can't wait to turn them all into something pretty!

If it's Friday, it must be the Friday Finds!

I am so happy the day job from hell is winding down. I can spend some time with Dragonfly while hunting for a new one. I'm seriously thinking about ditching reality television. I hate it. Landscape design is once again looking good. I have some landscaping to do here, anyway.

Speaking of Dragonfly, have you entered the monthly drawing? Free jewelry, no strings attached!

I already made one stab at this, and IE encountered a fatal exception and shut down, causing me to lose an entire entry AND all my links. I really want to say I hate, hate, hate people who do not label their links as pdf's. If you do that, stop it. Because trust me, I am not alone in my ire. You hijack my browser when I click your link, and it really, really hisses me off. All I'm askin' for is a heads up, people.

So, let's see...reconstructing the Finds, I know I had Daily Fashion listed. I like Daily Fashion because it's a fashion site for real girls and offers tips and advice that urge young women to be happy with the body they have, not the one Paris Hilton cultivates with a $300/day habit. It's all about self-esteem for normal girls, not supermodels or other fashion divas, and if I had a 14 year old daughter, I'd be totally comfortable if she hung out there, as the site emphasizes self-esteem.

Man. Now the psychic comes to you. What will they think of next?

Blakely Ink's "Rude Cards" cut to the chase...and crack me up. I have to love anyone with the chutzpah to come up with a greeting card that says "i would love to see you again" on the front and follows it up inside with "but your personality invokes all my negative behavioral tendencies." :)

Okay. Hello? It's a friggin' ribbon with some pearls tied to it. Get over your stupid, pretentious little self.

And in celebration of Easter, in all its candied forms, I give you The Lord of the Peeps. Sheer genius. :)

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody. May your chocolate bunny be solid.

Happy Easter,
Jenie

No Time for Fun

I have had no time to make jewelry for weeks now. Work has continually gotten in the way. It's hard running a business when the only day of the week you have to do so is Saturday. I have some orders for a couple of pieces that I think I can knock out tomorrow, though...along with trips to the bank, bead store, post office, and FedEx. I also need to find a printer for new business cards, since the printer I use has switched to flimsy cardstock. Joy.

In case you're wondering, I've had exactly one person sign up for my monthly giveaway for March. Here's your chance to win a pair of earrings...the odds are totally in your favor. :) While you're at it, join the Dragonfly mailing list. Your details are never, ever provided to anyone else, and every so often I send out emails announcing new products, giveaways, "cash", and coupons. What have you got to lose? :)

So, I haven't done Friday Finds in a while, huh? Let's take care of that now, shall we?

I actually do dream of cake, frankly. I gave up sugary goodies for Lent, and it has been Hell, people. I do not mean figuratively, either, as my new job sucks the wad in a major way and is insanely stressful, and I use chocolate the way other people use cigarettes, alcohol, or valium. Like a junkie uses heroine. I'm not kidding. So to have endured all the Machiavellian nastiness at my day job without benefit of a Hostess cupcake and caffeine fix every day has been sheer torture. When I die, if I go to hell, I will spend eternity stuck in LA traffic, craving Ding Dongs and Diet Coke, listening to Walden on tape.

Dude. Seriously.

Oh. And if those aren't the prettiest cakes you've ever seen in your life, I want to see the ones you'd rank higher.

And because I clearly have sweets on my mind, for those of you who have sworn off other food things because of allergies or whatever, and figured that gluten allergy meant you were non-caking it for the rest of your life, be of good cheer. Cherrybrook Kitchen may just save your sweet tooth from the permafrost of most wheat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free "desserts".

I just like the story behind Abby Jean Press. Anyone who likes to burst into song spontaneously is the kind of person I want to hang out with. You never know when a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical might come out of it...or an episode of Buffy.

If I were, like, a successful Manhattan business woman, I might carry one of these. More specifically, the Reese, in all black and with the blue polka dot interior. :)

What do you give the perfectly pampered woman who seems to have everything? More pampering, of course! (you can never have too much pampering) Give a gift card from giveBeauty, and she can use it for just about any service or product a pampered woman loves, wants, and needs. And best of all, there are never any fees charged for "storage" or the like, and the card never expires. Awesome, no? :)

Jenie