Speaking of...

...Wednesday...

What? I'm sure someone was. Somewhere...




So, as we have established, it is Wednesday. Today I should have a mondo-sized coffee next to me because it is insanely busy (I mean, I only get to type about 2 or 3 words here before I have to answer the phone again. Sheesh!). In fact, I could use some booze in my coffee, that would help a lot, I'm sure. But I have no coffee left, and I have no booze. How sad.

Oh lighten up. I'm just joking.
Sort of.

Speaking of coffee... I think we have a coffee stand for every 10 persons in this town. They are everywhere. 15 years ago we had maybe three latte stands. They multiply. Like rabbits. Or weasels. (Starbucks is a weasel, in my opinion. No offense, but I am not a fan...) Anyway, a couple years ago I read in the paper that we had something like 256 coffee stands in our county. Which pretty much means in this city, although there actually are a few in outlying areas. I'm sure there are at least another 100 now. It's crazy.

Speaking of stands...I used to pick my coffee stands by proximity. To where I lived, where I worked, that kind of thing. There was an awesome one near where 911 used to be housed (the Public Safety Building morgue basement (used to be the morgue, once upon a time. Cheerful? Not.) I went there primarily because their coffee was okay, but their chai tea was fantastic! They made their own - none of that boxed Oregon Chai crap (sorry, but again, not a fan). Then the owners sold the place and it no longer had that fabulous chai tea. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth but they finally told me if I didn't stop doing that they were going to call the police, so I quit. And quit going there.

Then our office moved (thank goodness, because now we have windows! Although, we are near the rendering plant now, so it often stinks to high heaven out there.) There is a coffee stand kitty-corner-ish from there, and I started going there just because it was so close. And they had pretty good coffee. But then the girl who used to work mornings left and the owner took over and for some reason she wasn't open half the time in the morning. So I stopped going there, too.

But then I "found" this place.



It is 5 minutes from my house so I can actually have coffee to drink on the way to work! Which is great. And the coffee is great, and reasonable priced. But now I'm sad. Yes, sad.
And not just because I am at work without booze.
No, today I am sad because my favorite coffee girl is leaving.

This is A--. (Names have been shortened to protect the silly.)


She is almost always here when I come through for my "usual". I haven't had to tell her what I drink for the better part of a year (I am such a creature of habit...although she has, from time to time made special, interesting and tasty suggestions for me!) But A-- is leaving to move onward and upward in the world. She has taken a job that hopefully will parlay into a good career for her.
But I will miss her. And her sunny smile. (And her lattes!)
I am lucky, however, that the other girls there are nice as well and also excellent latte makers!

But speaking of A's last day...to wish her well I made her one of my funky, chunky necklaces:


This is a really cool glass pendant that I got at Wonders of the World downtown. I have no idea how they do it, but it looks like flames on the back, which is fun.


Speaking of fun (not)...Secret Agent Man and I are working on putting in a big flower bed out front. I don't think I'm going to quit my day job to work in landscaping, but it is kind of sucky hard painful rewarding. I am taking pictures, hopefully I can post the finished work soon.
The best part of that will be that we are done! Yea!

So...what are you speaking of on your hump day?

Beauty of Spring Necklace

A little behind on my blogging for beads... but I am finally posting.

The theme this time around was "The Beauty of Spring". I decided on these lovely "Peek-a-Boo" porcelain beads from Artbeads. I also used a variety of Swarovski bi-cone beads, in different blues and greens. I wanted something that had some layers, yet was light and airy feeling. This is what I came up with.



I love the combination of colors, which made me thinks of blue skies and new green leaves. Seemed perfect for spring. Or summer, even, because it's kind of a beachy combination, as well.


I have worn it a couple times and get good comments on it. It was fun, a little different than my usual stuff.

Go here: Blog for Beaders, to see more designs and some fun projects.

Necessary Legal Stuff: I have received the above mentioned products from Artbeads.com and am honestly reviewing them. I have not been paid for my endorsement.

Spring Fever Necklace

A while back (has it been that long??) I said I was working on a necklace using some of the pretty, pretty beads from Artbeads.com. Well, I finally got it done! It turned out to be fairly labor intensive, plus I haven't had much time to work on it, but I think it was worth it.

I used these Czech glass flowers and these Venetian glass beads and these Olive green ("Army" green) glass beads and a whole bunch of these Rose Swarovski crystals and these Olivene Swarovski crystals. Along with some old peachy-pink glass beads I had laying around.

It kind of represents my desire to be done with winter and get on with spring!








Necessary Legal Stuff: I have received the above mentioned products from Artbeads.com and am honestly reviewing them. I have not been paid for my endorsement.

Monkey!

So a lovely Etsy seller, "2nJoy" contacted me a while back about my "M is for Monkey" alphabet print. Her son likes sock monkeys, apparently, and she bought a digital file from me to use on a mug for him.
It turned out way cute!

I have to say I never even thought of doing something like that...I might have to look into that a little further. In my opinion, you can never have too many coffee mugs! Especially cute ones.

Anyway, she agreed to let me put a picture up on my blog:




Also, while you're at it, check out her shop. She makes jewelry, too, completely different from mine. It is very pretty. I love these earrings!

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves....

Come on, people! Sing it with me!
"Gypsys, tramps, and thieves
We'd hear it from the people of the town
They'd call us Gypsys, tramps, and..."
No?
Well, you are no fun at all.

That's ok, I'm gonna show you a "pretty" anyway. 'Cause I love ya. And that's the way I am.

This is a lovely "gypsy" bracelet I made for a friend of mine.
I used some of the great Swarovski crystals I got from Artbeads.com that I had left and some dyed pearls. Then I added two "raw" rubies for luck, one on each end.

She needs the luck, since she recently fell off a ladder and broke her back! Augh! But she's mostly better now and back at work with me, so it's all good.

It's really quite festive! I may have to make some more...


(And, apparently, now I have to disclose that I "received the 'products' free of charge from Artbeads.com and that I am honestly reviewing the products and have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received." Hmm, yah, well I'm okay with that! I still think it's great they found me and asked me to participate!)

New Stuff for November

So I finally got around to making something with some of those lovely Swarovski crystals I got from ArtBeads.com! Well, actually I made them last "weekend" (my weekend being Thurs/Fri) but I was also sick and by the time I got to feeling better I had to go back to work. I just got around to photographing them today.

I really, really like the briolette crystals. The color is called "Silver Shade", there is just a little bit of silver color to them and they are far more gorgeous than my photography can do justice to.

I made a set of earrings and a necklace with them, and the 5mm bicone crystals in Indian Sapphire (a nice, soft grey blue color) and Black Diamond. I wanted to make something that would look fancy when worn together but could be worn separately to dress up jeans and a sweater or something along that line. I wanted a sort of chandelier earring, but not too complicated. After two attempts I wasn't happy with I finally got something I really liked!
Here's what I came up with:




Then I also made a set of drop earrings and a necklace out of some Swarovski I bought a couple years ago. They are lovely fall colors. I used an olive green round, an olive and a lighter green bicone and some orange-y diamond shaped ones, along with a lovely olive green drop pendant.
I really like this set, too, and it is also one that looks much fancier when you wear the pieces together.




I really wish I had more time to do jewelry, I really enjoy it. I'm going to try to do more soon. I still have a lot of lovely stuff from ArtBeads.com (thanks guys!). I think I'm going to try and make a colorful bracelet for a friend of mine who likes "gypsy" jewelry.

-----------------
I have also been busy with some new art. I'm trying a new style, something a little more "loose". Sketchy.

I call this series "Laundry Cat". 1, 2 and 3:

New Crystals

So I got my new Swarovski Crystals from Artbeads.com. Remember? I agreed to blog about Artbeads and their products and they agreed to give me free stuff? I love me some free stuff!

I tried some different colors and sizes than I normally would, usually I use about a 4mm crystal (I found out the 3's are way tiny, after accidentally buying a bunch, but I'll figure out something to do with them, I'm sure.) But this time I thought I'd try some larger ones to use more like a bead than an accent, so I got 5mm ones. They are quite nice, and the colors are just like they looked online, so that's a bonus! I hate it when you order something on line, beads, shoes, sweaters -whatever- and they look completely different in person than they did in the catalog or online.
Well, these are great. I'm looking forward to having some time this weekend to make some stuff. I think I'm going to do earrings. I, personally, wear more earrings than I do necklaces. But we'll see where it goes. Sometimes I start with one idea and go somewhere completely different. My drawings often work that way, too.

I do have some time this weekend, too, because Hubby, aka Secret Agent Man, is off to Michigan visiting his folks. I couldn't get any vacation time, so I get to stay home and work. And clean house. And make jewelry!

Here's some pix of the crystals I got this week. They are colors like Indian Sapphire, Indian Pink, Rose, Peridot, Padparadscha, Blue Caribbean Opal (which is interesting and opaque, I haven't used crystals like that before), Jet, Black Diamond,and Silver Shade. In a couple days hopefully I will be posting more jewelry.










And don't forget, all my posted jewelry is available at olivehue2 on Etsy! If you want to buy something, and you include in the message to seller that you saw it on my blog, I will give you a discount and free shipping!

Opportunity Knocked

So I got a lovely email from a Duchess Erickson at Artbeads.com who saw my jewelry and that I have a blog and asked if I would be interested in participating in a program they have where they send samples to some jewelry makers/bloggers and have them talk about the products and use them. I thought this would be fun and give me extra stuff to blog about, so I said "sure"!
This month, apparently, is Swarovski crystal month! Yea!
(Of course, the really funny thing is I just ordered a whole bunch of Swarovski from another bead company but, shhh, I won't tell if you don't. That's okay, though, I love them and will use them all!)

Anyway, I'll let you know what I get when I get 'em and maybe have some more pretty stuff to show!

Being the crow girl that I am, I love all things sparkly! Here's some interesting Swarovski stuff I found online:

Jewelry

I finally FINALLY! got some jewelry listed in my secondary Etsy shop, olive hue 2! Over the next few days (and weeks) I will be listing more. It's been fun, if not a lot little time consuming. I really like making jewelry. Hopefully I can make stuff that has some appeal to people other than myself!
I started making jewelry a couple years ago when I kept finding stuff I liked in catalogs. Most of it was listed as "artisan" and "one of a kind" and had a hefty price tag included! So after finding one particular piece I really wanted but couldn't afford, I went out and bought my own beads and made my own version!

These new ones are a little vintage, a little steampunk, really girlie, and fun.

New Direction

Well, actually a re-visit of an old direction...

Years ago when I had nothing better to do with my downtime (read "no laptop") I was knitting a lot, but it wasn't really fulfilling the more creative desires I had. I was painting not much some, but wanted to do something else.
I have always loved jewelry. All kinds. I get the Sundance catalog, which I adore, and regularly drool over the jewelry, especially hers. I am really drawn to that gypsy-looking stuff. The one I fell in love with she no longer sells, but it had rough rubies and pearls and was layered with all kinds of trader beads and stuff, kinda like this one. I wanted it so bad, but it was really freakin' expensive a bit beyond my price range.
Then one day Secret Agent Man and I went to a local little shopping center to have lunch and walked past Wonders of the World. The sell beads, lot and lots and lots (you get the idea) of beads. (Anyone know the HTML to use to cue up an angel choir here? Anyone?)
Changed my life.
Sort of.
Anyhow, it did become my new obsession of the week. I bought beads. Silver beads, glass beads, pearls, semi-precious gemstones, crystal, all kinds of stuff. I made myself a version of that necklace. (Which I would show you a picture of but it broke and I still haven't fixed it yet...I know, I know!)Then I made little lanyards for all my friends at work. I started bringing stuff to work and making jewelry in my down time there.
Then my work decided that we could not craft or knit or anything because it causes carpel tunnel. (Whatever. I type for 10 hours a day, wouldn't you think that doing something different would be good for me?) So that left little time for jewelry.

Then I got the laptop and was able to really spend time drawing, even at work. Yea!
But, I still have all those beads! And every time we get anywhere near a bead shop S.A.M. drags my ass in there to buy more stuff. Seriously. I have tons and tons of stuff.

So I have decided to get back into jewelry. I opened up a new Etsy store, olive hue 2, but I don't have anything listed yet, as I am still waiting to get pictures taken of stuff to do listings. But seeing as I'm an artist kind of person, I drew some pictures. Really! Some of the earrings I have so far look like this:


I'm kind of excited and hoping to get lots done in the next couple of days. My artwork is not selling exactly like I'd hoped, and apparently I still need to find my niche. I have started another shop at ArtFire to see if maybe I can reach a different base of people. We'll see.

In the meantime I'm going to try something different for a while. When I get actual photographs of some of the jewelry I will post it here and you all can let me know what you think.

New Ideas, Sunday Drive and Old Lady Glasses

[First off, this picture has nothing to do with anything except I think it would be funny to see my Buster Kitten in a variety of hats...but he would claw my eyes out if I actually tried anything like this with him and then he would slink off into a corner and not speak to me for days. Well, he doesn't really talk to to me, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I've done a little series of drawings with Buster in a variety of hats. This is my Eatser Buster. He would hate this one most of all.]

So, I have decided I'm going to try getting into the glass pendant necklaces like I see on Etsy and other places online. I have noticed a lot of them are using art papers and Japanese papers, which are really lovely, but I'm hoping that I can maybe do one better by using some original art work. I've noticed florals seem to be popular. But what do you all think? What kinds of pictures/art/images do you think would be nice/fun/cute/pretty, etc (and by that I mean sell a lot)?

On a different note, the weather was great today! It was 58 degrees outside and it's hard to believe that we had 4 inches of snow last week! I am feeling much better than last week, so we took a long drive in the country. Then we came home and watched this movie, and then this movie. Phew! That was a lot of violence and action and car crashes and dead bodies (I read that "Shoot 'Em Up had a body count of 108!) and wow, what a ride! Definitely better, for that genre than the last intense action movie I watched (see this post).

Tomorrow is my 2nd day off and I am going to get the dreaded bi-focal...I already have to wear glasses most of the time, but it's gotten so that I can't use just my "regular" glasses at work because I can't see anything close. I have these in the tortoise/green and I like them ok, and I have these in dark red, but they are way too dark for my face. So hopefully I will find something I really love. We'll see!