A jewelry kind of weekend...

Hi, all!!

This past weekend I was either eating, sleeping, or doing jewelry stuff - buying supplies, taking pictures, creating new items... Okay, it wasn't quite THAT intense. We did go to church and I did have some time away from the worktable, but I did accomplish a lot, too. I had no idea that I would have such a hard time taking pictures. One or more of my medications makes my hands shake (or maybe it's just me - it's more fun to blame the meds), so I have the hardest time getting clear pictures. Using a tripod is even a challenge because most of my photos are close-ups and it's hard to get a close-up shot from overhead with a tripod. I have some pictures I have to take over even though I spent the better part of an hour yesterday photographing. By the time I dragged out the tripod, I was just not in a way to do a whole lot of manipulation. Since then, I've been thinking of other ways I might take the pictures I want and utilize the tripod, so we'll see. I've included one of my favorite shots - it's SO clear! These earpins are made with tiger eye beads, and this picture brings out the beauty of the stones (though I'm not thrilled with the background, but that's the best I have for now. That's one area that I could use a little more creativity - and props.






Other than that, I haven't been doing much with my Etsy shop for the time being because I applied for my business license (heaven help me in making a profit three years out of five) and I'm waiting for that to arrive before I go out beating the bushes for more sales... ah, the feeling of legitimacy. (Update - it arrived on Thursday!) I thought I could do this as a hobby, but I didn't want to get into trouble and the license wasn't that much to apply for, so I wait patiently for November 1 when I can start listing things in my store again and know (hope) that I'm not going to get in trouble. If any of you want to keep track of my Etsy shop activities, do a search for Ladybug's Beads and Baubles on Facebook and join my fan page! I've been revamping that, too, to add some bells and whistles, thanks to some great Etsy forum posters. I did manage to make a sale while I haven't been doing any listing or promoting - my first sale to a stranger! My previous sales have been to my friends. Those earpins went in the mail on Friday.

On more personal happenings, things have been busy but good. Bill found he's got enough vacation time for us to spend a week in Minnesota with his family at Christmas, so we're excited about that. Flights are booked - now I just have to book the pet-sitter. I hope she still remembers us. :-)

Work has been going well for both of us... Bill's been really busy and has been working weekends now and then to meet deadlines. My work has been at a slower pace (no OT for me!) but steady. I'm going to be taking on another project here in the next couple of weeks - I'm not sure what all that will entail, but it sounds interesting.

I've been going to the gym (still) three times a week with one exception (I was sick) where I only went two days. Bad Kristin! LOL! I've lost 44 pounds, give or take, and am kind of stuck right now (or losing slower than I want to). I think I need to change my eating pattern a little to jump start my body to losing again, but to be honest, I don't want to. ;-) I'm not ready to do that yet, so I guess I'll be "stuck" a little longer and then decide I'm ready to eat like a rabbit to get my body losing again. The last 14 pounds has made the first 30 pounds seem easy. Bottom line - I've just gotten lazy. Good thing I'm still working out. As much as it's not my favorite thing to do, I know it's working and so I keep on going and hoping for a pound of fat to fall off now and then.

In other personal news, I'm going to be going to a Women's Retreat in November with one of my favorite Christian musicians, Carolyn Arends. I could have just attended the free concert that night, but it's been ages since I've done a retreat and I really need a spiritual jump-start. Maybe this will help. Bill and I are also talking about church shopping again. He likes his church, but it doesn't have what I need (as much as I like the pastor there). So I found a few churches that we may have a look at, or we may just keep going to Bill's church like we've been doing and avoiding the topic altogether. ;-) Church shopping is never fun, but when you have two peoples' needs and wants to take into consideration, it's even more difficult. Neither Bill nor I have church shopped as a couple before, so this will definitely be interesting. Prayers appreciated if we come to mind.

I think that's all the news I have for now... Thanks for reading. :-)

Blessings,
Kristin

Moving weekend and a near miss

Hi, all!

We went down to Puyallup Saturday to help my parents out with the residual items they needed moved, plus a little settling in. We made two trips in the morning, and decided about 2pm (after lunch) to take a break for a couple hours. Are we ever glad we did! We found out in Sunday's paper that there was a high-speed chase with a fatality (the one being chased was shot) while we were all comfy at the new house. This happened on the exact route that we were taking between the two houses (6 miles apart). Here's the news story. It was done with and cleaned up by the time we went by for another trip between houses. Scary stuff. Lord, thank you for keeping us out of that situation!

The most exciting thing that happened to us was a few claps of thunder (with one lightning strike so close I could hear the buzz of the electricity) and some rain. It managed to pour while we were inside and no more than drizzle when we were loading and unloading the cars. As of Saturday about 7pm, we had all the stuff out of the old house except for cleaning supplies, and when Bill and I left Sunday afternoon the kitchen was at about 75% settled, the master bedroom closet was in pretty good shape, and Mom and David had beat us badly at a game of Hand and Foot. :-) It was a nice balance of work and play - Mom and David were ready for some down time since they've been packing the car and carrying loads to the new house all week, and the big stuff was moved on Friday. Mom was really pleased with the movers she had on Friday, so that's greatness!

The new house is a few years newer than the one they moved out of, in a 55+ community, and yardwork is included in the rental price. YAY! They really like the new house (even though there are a few things that aren't as convenient, like the kitchen is a little smaller and there's no hall coat closet - it was converted to a much-needed linen closet). It's VERY nice and is begging to be decorated! :-) It's one of those houses with lots of interesting angles and lines and walls that don't quite make it to the ceilings, if you know what I mean. Mom and I will tackle the decorating one of these days, once the garage gets cleaned out to the point that we can see what decor stuff she has. Right now most of her sewing stuff and a lot of David's office-type stuff is in the garage - that's going to be the fun part for them to get settled. But the nice thing is everything is at the new house (including cable and internet) so if they're looking for it, it's there somewhere. :-) I wanted to help Mom get her sewing room in order, but she's still scheming about how it's going to get set up. She gets two rooms now, so one will have the machines and a couple other things, and then the stash will live in the other bedroom. David has a loft for his area, and I'm sure he'll love it up there.

So that was our weekend, and this week we're all back to normal. Three days at the gym, errands on Tuesday and downtime on Thursday. YAY! Downtime! :-D It's been a while since I've had a down evening that I haven't been feeling so tired that I thought I'd gotten hit by a truck. I hope I feel up to doing some things around the house or some hobby stuff. I've just been so tired - probably the weather. Yeah, we'll blame the weather. ;-)

Thanks for reading, and blessings to you all!
Kristin

A Short Update

I always say that my update will be short, and then I get rambling.

Not too much is new here since my last update, but I did want to fill everyone in on a thing or two. Just because I can. ;-)

I got my first sale on Etsy this week!!! It was a friend of mine, but a sale is a sale! She bought a pair of earpins that I had taken pictures of mine and thought if anyone wanted them I'd make another pair, so the thing that sold got made JUST for her! :-) I hope she enjoys them! I have a few more ideas in the works for earpins since they're something different than regular earrings or other jewelry (and I enjoy making them and wearing them), so we'll see how those turn out. My wine glass charms are getting the most looks of anything out there, so I've been trying to come up with more to try to figure out what people are looking for. Nothing moves really fast on Etsy, so I'm also learning some patience. I started a fan page on Facebook for my Etsy shop, so if you're on FB and didn't get an invite from me, do a search on "Ladybug's Beads" and the Ladybug's Beads and Baubles fan page will come up. Fan me! :-) I'll be letting fans know when new things are up at my shop, and I have a couple opinion questions out there right now for input. For those of you who want to visit my Etsy shop, I'm at www.ladybugkristin.etsy.com.

We've been keeping busy, and somehow the days go by and seem full, but nothing much is "new." Our jobs are going well and our health is good, and everything else is icing on the cake. I just wish I wasn't so tired when I get home from work / working out. I'd get so much more done. But I am still working out 3 times a week (except this week I was sick on Monday and didn't go) and I'm still losing weight, little bit by little bit. I'm getting close to the halfway mark on what I want to lose; it'll be so exciting to have lost more than I have left to lose. I'm trying not to get discouraged because the first 30 pounds seemed really easy to lose, and now things are going much slower. But I'm still losing, and that's what matters.

We have tickets to a Mariners game this Saturday (Bill's only one of the year - my second as I went with my team from work). I hope the weather's not too miserable as we're taking the bus down there and home. That's what people do when they don't want to pay for parking and deal with the downtown traffic - and if they don't want to deal with bus transfers (and I don't), they take the bus to the transit station over half a mile away from the stadium and walk the rest of the way. ;-) Hopefully the weather and bus schedules and game length will all align and it'll be an easy and enjoyable trek. Sunday I'll be scrapbooking with a couple friends, and hopefully inbetween there somewhere I'll be inspired and make the best piece of jewelry I've ever made! :-)

Well, I guess that's all I have for now. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!!

Blessings,
Kristin