Etsy Sale!

Today until tomorrow morning, Sunday 5/22, I am offering a 15% Discount on all items in my shop!  Have you seen my shop lately?  Why don't you go ahead and take a peek?  Is there something you've been wanting?  Today is a great time to take advantage of a great sale!  Use coupon code SNS05212011.  Thank you for visiting!

What a Fantabulous Day!!!

I had a really great day today.  Jeff got up early this morning to go down to the union hall to try to get one of the seven jobs going out today.  He was #106 on the list.  The way it works is that you have to show up to get one of the jobs.  So he needed 99 people in front of him to not show up.  Miracle of miracles...HE GOT ONE OF THE JOBS!!!!!  He starts on Monday.  We'll find out then what type of project it is and how long the job will last, but I am ever so grateful for each and every day he is employed.  This is also his first job in his new role as a Journeyman Electrician.  He had been going to school and getting training for 4 or so years and was an apprentice.  This past winter he passed his final exam and collected all his required hours, so now he's a Journeyman.  This is a very good thing.  Now he'll be supervising and training apprentices himself and could get on as a foreman or something if they like his work.  And Jeff always impresses his bosses...he does impeccable work, he shows up on time, he's never drunk or on drugs (a big problem in the construction world), etc. etc.  He's VERY good at what he does.  I'm so proud of him.  *beaming smile :D*

Next, today is my 17th wedding anniversary!  Jeff and I went through two years of total, complete and pure hell and were one month away from our divorce date when we got back together again.  Ever since getting back together, we have been happier than ever and stronger than ever.  During our time apart we both learned and grew a lot, and now we are better for each other than we ever were before.  I love my husband.  He is the most perfect man in the world to me, and I am one lucky lady to have him as my husband and father of my children.

Then, I got a package in the mail today.  Do you know Mandy over at Beads for Brains: 365?  You should go check her out.  She is determined to learn, practice and blog about a new stitch every day for a year.  Pretty amazing.  She had a giveaway, and I was the winner!  This was a fun project because it was a trash to treasure piece.  The bright blue you see being woven throughout the bracelet is plastic bags.  Here are a couple pics...

Thank you Mandy!

AND on top of all that...I sold TWO items in the last day!  I sold a Swarovski square button wire wrapped ring...

and my Greenman in Springtime necklace!

Do you know what that means?  BEAD SHOPPING!!!!!  woohoo!!!  Thank you so much, Beth A.  I've got a deal with Beth that she will wear my pieces when she goes out and about, because she is out A LOT and knows so many more people than I do, so hopefully she'll enjoy wearing some of my work and I might get a customer or two in the process.  But she decided she wanted the Greenman for keeps.  So now it has a happy new home.  Matthew is sad.  That was his favorite. 

Also had fun at the baseball game tonight.  The kids played the Yankees, which is the team that is stacked with all the really good players.  Our team put up quite a fight and made a great ball game.  When it was all said and done we were only down by 1 run.  Way to go Bulls!  We play the Yankees 2 more times this year...they better watch out next time!!!

Yes, it was a very good day.  I can go to sleep with a happy smile on my face.

Go Team!

Guess what!  I am on a team!  I am so out of shape and unathletic it's a real good thing that it's not a sports team.  No, definitely not one of those!  I joined a team on Etsy called Saturday Night Sellers.  This team does sales in their shops from 5 p.m. EST on Saturdays until 6:00 a.m. EST the next morning.  Fun, huh?  I love sales!  I will tell you all that my sale this week will be 15% off anything in my store...even the bead embroidered bracelet that is already marked down.  So that item is a double sale.  The coupon code will be sns032611.  If you've been looking at something in my shop, tomorrow night just may be the day you would want to get it.  Also, if you want to see other sales in other shops, just click on "community" at the top of the Etsy page and do a team search for Saturday Night Sellers.  There will be posts of sales there for you to look at.  Also, I probably won't run a sale every Saturday night, so come now while the gittin's good!

We are just a couple more posts away from my giveaway!  Keep coming back, and tell your friends to come keep an eye out to see what's up for grabs.  I think it's a pretty good one, if I do say so myself!

A Couple of Firsts

Here is the cuff for my first sale.  I'm very happy with it!  I have to give a great big shout out to Bobbi at Beading at the Beach for giving some awesome advice on making my peyote better.  I think her tip worked, because my peyote around my cab is nice and even with no strings showing. 

Jennifer (the lady that ordered the cuff) only said that she liked the colors in my mom's cuff and that she wanted gold beads in it.  I think I have filled her requests with this one.  My husband is not too interested in my beading, but even he said this one was really good.  That made me feel spectacular!

I wish you could see it in person.  My picot edging was really nice and even too, although you can't really tell in the pics.  Rather than looking at the top edge, because I think the front side and back side overlap and make the edging in the pic look messy, look at the picot on the bottom edge.  It's my best yet.

I for sure undersold myself on this one.  I gave her a price, but after looking on Etsy and stuff later, I could have at least doubled what I asked.  But it was my first sale, and I was just happy about it.  I can always go up a little in the future.

AND it was confirmed yesterday that I am going to teach my very first class!  It will be on improvisational bead embroidery.  I specifically asked for the class to be small...not more than 5 people...because I have a lot of problems with nerves and anxiety.  I don't want to get overwhelmed my first go around.  It wasn't that long ago that I was agoraphobic and wouldn't even step out, let alone be in front of people.  I wrote up my handouts last night and either today or tomorrow I will be going to the bead shop to pick out beads for the kits.  We haven't set a date yet, but it will be in the next couple weeks.  I'll take my camera and see if anyone minds if I take their picture to write about it and post on my blog after it happens.