Christmas Break.

Happy Holidays to all!

Take some time to enjoy yourself and a moment to think of all the happy things in your life.

<3

Vacation?

I have just closed off my shop by putting it into the vocation mode. Sigh. So ends my Christmas sale period.

It is not, however, a sad occasion. It'll be a lot easier to relax during Christmas while I'm at my folks' and most importantly, I'll be able to take the time to do some re-vamping. I don't know the exact date that I'll be re-opening, but I promise it will be an eventful day full of sales and wonderful new items.

I will most certainly still be around online for anyone who wants to get in touch with me.


Here's a picture of some new earrings that I have been working up for sale and will possibly be online when the store comes back after Christmas:


The design for these earrings isn't quite perfect (I need to make adjustments to the length and the curve of the ear-hook part) but I really do like them. They are long and the plating on the wire is very unique.


Enjoy yourself in whatever holiday you celebrate, I wish you the best of luck!

SALE

I can't wait to make a sale, so what did a decide to do? I'm having a sale!

Everything is on sale, even the new items that are finally coming out.

I know I definitely have some things to do to improve on my store. I expect to be working on some of the pictures that I have as well as the descriptions. But for now this shop will be as it began: a work in progress - the idea of progress being key.

Here are some pictures of some of the new items that I'm bringing out:

Lowered Prices!

To update my shop, and get ready for the coming holiday I've done a bit of price changing!

My prices are lowered and ready for some sales! I'm excited to be getting back into the game a little. (It's also a better excuse to procrastinate in order to update my shop than to do anything else.)

I have posted one new item, but plan on getting more online soon.

Hiatus

It's hard to have so many things that I want to do, but never enough time to do them. I do plan on working much harder on my shop, posting the many things that I have yet to list and getting some better photos.

I have had lots of creativity going on lately, but more with words than with wire. I've been writing a lot, both for my academics and for pleasure, which is good.

I will try to at the very least take and post some pictures of things that I can post either on this blog or on my Flickr.

I heart CBC

Here's something good that I found...

http://green.cbc.ca/

It's a great thing for anybody who wants to encourage or be encouraged to do random acts of greenness - because let's face it, being kind to the environment is being kind to the world.

When the tough get going, the going gets easier.

So I feel as though I've been ignoring my shop lately. Mostly because it's true.

I have been trying to get schoolwork done, as well as save my sanity. Last weekend I also babysat my little nephew (my best friend's son). It was exactly what I needed to completely forget the rest of my life and lose a bit of my stress. Who knew running after a one year old who likes to climb stairs would actually be calming??

My fall semester reading week is almost over and, as usual, it has been much less productive than it should have been. I did succeed in buying a pair of shoes that I desperately needed (I was wearing sandals during the first snowfall of the year) and most importantly I got my workspace cleaned up and laundry done.

There seems to always be a connection with how messy my mind is with how disorganized the spaces I inhabit are. Being so cluttered kept me from working on new pieces, not to mention listing them.

I plan on hopefully listing some pieces soon. I still have a good deal of inventory that I have just yet to list. I have to get a lot of pictures done, mostly.

I'm excited to get more into my shop and really starting to get things moving. Once I'm organized enough, who knows, maybe I'll celebrate with a sale. But I think I've said that before, haha.

It's a forest!

Here's something I've been meaning to post for a while.

I collected all my trees together on my back deck and made a little forest. Here are the pics:






I do have other pictures of my trees and forest in general that are posted to my Flickr. Two of the trees are listed on Etsy - the green pop can leaf one and the small one with brown bead leaves. The one with the autumn pop can leaves has been sold.

The pop can ones are probably my favourites because of the detail of the leaves.

I also want to suggest to anyone that likes my trees to check out this guy that's also on Etsy. He does trees and only tress and they are fantastic!! (I hope it isn't too creepy that I'm doing this....) http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5091124 His name is salvatore7.

Lowered Prices!

So after feeling anxious about it all for more than a week, I finally did it....

I lowered my prices!

Some prices are more changed than others, and some haven't changed at all, but I'm a bit more comfortable with the prices overall.

Also, I've made two unofficial sales this weekend to two very supportive people. Thank you!

This weekend I haven't been posting more items as per usual, I might get to it a little later, but it's really important that I relax a little bit and try to take a bit of time off from everything. This is safer for my sanity, atleast.

The Hand!

Introducing one of my latest creations!

THE HAND!

Here are some pictures:




And of course, I had to have a little fun with taking pictures of it:


The hand is actually modeled loosely after my own left hand though my fingers are a little shorter. My roommates have already made comments about how it could belong to Anakin Skywalker but the general consensus is that its mostly just kinda creepy.

I will try to list this item before my Art showcase day on Thursday along with atleast one more "art" piece, which will probably be a small tree.

Me and some pictures

So I finally got around to putting some new pictures on my flickr page, and one of them is ME!

This picture is not exactly the same as that one, but it was taken at the same time.

I just thought that I'd show people that I existed beyond the realms of the internet and that I am, in fact, not actually a strawberry poison dart frog. Though that would be really really cool.

I've been meaning to also add a lot more listings to my shop, but have so far been very busy with school. Apparently reading middle english, anthropology essays and preparing presentations doesn't leave much much time for setting up shop. My studies will always come first but I will be posting more items this weekend.

It seems to be a regular thing that I will always be posting more on the weekends. Next weekend, Thanksgiving, will have to be an exception. That's going to be split more between family and last minute school work. However, keep yourself posted! I still have a lot of items that I have yet to post and will frequently be updating whenever I have the time.

The day of chicken noodle soup.

So after spending the entire day being sick and miserable I finally seem to have had enough rest to get my but back on the computer. (None of my pieces were tainted/compromised if you are worried.)

I also had an awesome chat with my best friend, which is enough to pick me up on any day let alone a sick one.

The chat made me want to be sure that it was known:

I would love some custom orders! I cannot always make more than one of different items, and most items always seem to be slightly different even when the same, but if I can make you something that I

Also, to people that I know or anyone that has particular circumstances I would be willing to accept other forms of payments than Paypal. It's just the easiest and surest way of getting a quick payment that I've found. I know too well how common fake cheques from people over the internet are from my part time job and would rather avoid any sticky delays, but if I can trust you then I'll take any form of payment.

I am also willing to deal with any one that I know or can meet in person. This means that if you want to skip Etsy, it can be done!!

Me on Showcase!
This week I had my first showcase spot. It was in the Gift Guides section. I have three other showcase spots coming up:
Oct 9th: Art showcase for my trees and other art pieces (I'll have more listed by that time!)
Oct 20th: Supplies showcase - I have to destash all those beads I have somehow!
Oct 21st: Jewellery showcase

I keep missing out on opportunities for the Main Showcase, but someday... someday!!

More, more!

More listings are here and more are on their way!

I've started to list some of those beads that I've had around for ages but not yet done anything with. There's so many that would make really great projects but none that I can think of that I would have the time or materials to do.

I've been meaning to do some introductory sales, and I most likely will soon enough. Once I have a few more listings up, I think... I might also at that point in time shell out for a bit of advertising, perhaps.

It's pretty exciting to see the number of views on my items going up, even though I know some of them are people I've told to look. :P

Now selling!!

I've finally listed some items!

This is pretty exciting - the plunge has been taken!

I had been hoping to start off with a bang, putting as many items as I could all at once. Yeah - not exactly the best idea to begin with, I'm sure, but I'm ambitious like that. It certainly hasn't worked. It's been a lot of work, and there's still more to do, so I'm just going to take it one step at a time.

Now that I've started to list items I'm going to need to get my @#% in gear to get the rest out and off to the world.

My first batch is less than ten items and is being listed with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the background.

The items listed include Eve - one of my first and favourite wire pictures. It'll be a while before I can list any other like it.

There are also some of the "dimensional" pieces - so named because of the dimensions of colour in the metal. Although it may not be an appealing comparison it's not unlike the kindof rainbow you get in drops of oil, though perhaps less colours.

Another of my favourites is the "Expanding Heart" it's just pretty :D

Now on Flickr!

Okay - so there are a lot of steps I'm taking to get my shop set up. I set up the shop part (without the items), the blog, and now...

dun da naaa! - A Flickr account! Now I can show off pictures!

www.flickr.com/photos/30660528@N02/

The only thing I really have left to do is, 'gulp', list items.

I wonder if I'm subconsciously trying to prolong the last part for any particular reason.

I have been trying to get things ready, getting a bit of inventory of all the things I've done ready with pictures and descriptions and things like that.

It's an adventure, let me say... I think I'm just going to start listing what I have, and then continue listing things as soon as I get them ready. I have a lot of things that I've made, and the making always seems to be the easiest.

But why?

I feel as though I should be giving excuses as to why I need to have a blog. There are lots of reasons. A pretty big one is my ego.

Surprisingly more important than my ego, I want to find a way to promote my little store. It's great to see fun stuff and to buy it, but to have a chance at knowing who you are buying from and most importantly who makes what you are buying is something that I think is important. I always love the personal experience shopping is when it's someone you have gotten to know, whether by being local or just plain friendly. It's the feeling that you are receiving more than just the item and paying your money. You are having a discourse, an interaction, with someone and supporting them. What you get from that experience, and what you give, is far more than the sum of it's parts.

This blog is my opportunity to speak to you, to talk about my work, the crafts that I do, my experience trying to run a this smallest of small businesses among all the other things that I do.

(Wish me luck.)

Huzzah!

This is an exciting new thing... the arevera blog!