Midnight Iris

I have several things on my bench right now that I am in the process of putting the final touches on. It just seems that every day life always cuts into my working time.... I did manage to get this fleur de lis design finished up. Irises are my favorite flowers, and I have always loved the stylized fleur de lis. When I got this piece of labradorite with the most beautiful blue flash, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I hope to re visit this design again in the future. I'm offering it as a custom sized ring, and it is already listed in the shop.

In other business related news, I dropped my pro status at ArtFire for AmyNicole. I try my hardest not to put any negativity or drama out into the world, especially when it is associated with my business. So, all I will say is that I couldn't justify keeping the shop. I've been there since September of 2009. No sales at all... ArtFire tries really hard. They are great about helping their sellers in any way they can. They are on top of everything it seems...answer questions uber quick, keeping the resellers out. You know all the things that people complain that Etsy doesn't do..... But if they aren't drawing the buyer traffic, all that other stuff doesn't really seem to matter as much. It makes me a little sad, I really wanted it to work out. I am going to keep RubyMtnBeads there for the time being though.

I guess I have more business news than I thought! I just remembered I need to tell you guys how I'm all official and stuff now. Which also means that I have to collect sales tax on sales I make in Texas. I had been putting this off (as usual), thinking it was going to be a real pain in the butt to get it handled. I even looked into LegalZoom at one point to get them to handle it. But it was going to be $ 200. $200?? I can buy a lot of goodies to play with for that!!! I mentioned this to a friend who has a business in the arts, and she told me that I was crazy. I could do all that stuff myself for free. And she was right. All it cost me was the stamp to mail in the signature forms. And it took less than 30 minutes to fill out all the forms on line. Sweet...

Is it just me? Or is summer the perfect time of year to strap leather and beads to your wrist, wear it day in and day out, removing it only to shower, or jump in the pool? The feel of leather on my wrist takes me back to summers of my youth when I did just that. Actually, I don't think I took them off even in water. Just wore it until it was worn out.

I started playing with leather, I guess about a month ago. Seeing if I still remembered how to knot it, tie it. I was digging around in one of my old buckets of junk, and I found the center part of this bracelet that I had made at least 10 years ago. Hematite and Red Poppy Jasper. I decided that it needed a little something, so I Lashed it to black greek leather, and then I made a little hammered fine silver button for the closure. Since the woven beads were already made, it determined the size of the bracelet for me. It is a size large, and already listed in the shop as well... I definitely have more plans to play with leather, I'm really having fun with it!

Well, I guess I better get on with my day! Hope yours is wonderful! :)

TGIF!

These purply blossoms bloom in our front yard every year. They are my absolute favorites, they attract every butterfly from miles around. Or perhaps it just seems that way. I don't know what kind of butterfly this is, but we get these visitors every year as well. I love the dots of blue and orange against black wings.

TGIF!! I love Friday. It always has such a good feeling for me. I always try to cut myself a little slack on Fridays when we don't have anything that we have to do. Since I like to run errands on Friday, it is also the perfect excuse to do a little shopping as well. Nothing big slated for today. I've bribed the girls into cleaning their play room, so that will involve a little trip to the toy store. They want some little animals that move around like the Zhou Zhou hamsters. It really is a rare treat for them to get to go to the toy store for themselves. I'm usually more likely to talk them into getting books or art and craft stuff.

I need to hit Target for some essentials, and Central Market since I'm out of my very favorite Brown Cow blueberry yogurt. Probably should get ribs for the 4th of July cook out. Nothing too exciting today, but it does feel good to get out and about....

I'm working on a fleur de lis ring. At least I think it will be a ring. Or perhaps a pendant. We shall see. I also ordered some lovely greek leather that came in yesterday. The first time I saw "Greek Leather" being advertised like it was something really great, I thought "What, Greek cows are better than American cows or what?" And then I bought some leather cord from Tandy Leather.

Now mind you, Tandy has some great products. The store I went to in Ft. Worth didn't have the best selection, and they only had the 1 mm leather cord. I found out later that the reason everyone loves the Greek Leather is because it is stronger. Yeah, I kinda found that out the hard way....and, that 1 mm cord is just too thin. But, live and learn. So, anyway, this Greek Leather is wonderful. I'm hoping to get a chance to work with it this weekend. I have bracelet and necklace designs floating around in my head.

Well, I hope you all enjoy this lovely Friday, I sure plan to!