New Necklace

This is my newest piece. I listed it the beginning of the week. I just love it! I have been wanting to do something with that Buddha pendant for a while and I love how this came out. You get the nicest light reflection off of the natural agate and the smoky quartz. The picture jasper draws your eye back to the Buddha because of the color and the yellow jasper is just a nice pop of color. It will work well with so many fall and winter pieces. Any woman could throw it on with lots of solid color sweaters and long sleeve tees, gray, brown, cream, navy blue, all sorts of colors. I can also see it with dressier work outfits too, if you have to do that sort of thing. A lot of my jewelry is geared toward the jeans or casual dress kind of woman because I don't have to do the work dress thing and I am definitely a casual dress kind of woman. I love casual clothes, but clothes that stand out just a bit, clothes that express something about me. I hate for everything I wear to be ordinary! How about you?

Are You Like Me?

I remember reading in a forum a while back that a lot of etsy women had chronic pain and chronic diseases like RA, (which I have) lupus, fibromyalgia (which I also have) MS etc. So I was wondering if there are others like me who deal with this chronic pain on a daily basis and what you do about it? What remedies have you found? Where do you live? What remedies are available to you outside of the U.S. that aren't available here? Do you take pain meds and if so, which ones? Anything you want to share about your illness and your treatment, alternative treatments, and how you deal with your life with your illness would be appreciated. I think it's good to reach out to others and only those who have been where I am or who are there now can really understand what it is like and can really share ideas that work. We know they work because we use them when they do!! So thanks for whatever input you feel like you want to share. I look forward to your comments. And in the meantime, I will be thinking of a tip to share. And I'll also share a little more of my story by answering some of those questions. Thanks!

My Favorite Journal For Kids

I want to share this great find with you! Perhaps some of you are aware of "Nightmare Snatchers" a great little journal for children, offered by The Spiderbite Boutique, found on etsy. If not, you simply have to check them out! I found the journals while posting in the forums, and since I have a niece that is facing cancer at just 10 years old, I thought this would be a perfect gift for her. She can write and draw about any fears or worries she has and trust them to the "Nightmare Snatcher". What a marvelous idea! As a proponent of journaling for all women, I find it a very powerful tool, I think it is a great idea to get girls to start at a young age. And especially someone who is going through something as tough as facing childhood cancer! I ordered mine for my niece and received it in the mail a few days ago. I can't wait to give it to her as it is sooo adorable. Her favorite color is pink, so I ordered a pink one. I was completely impressed with the quality and care that was taken in making it. It looks better even than the pictures and I found Sarah Jane, who operates The Spiderbite Boutique, to be a lovely seller with the buyer's best interest at heart. So, have a look at her shop and at the "Nightmare Snatcher". I'm sure you'll be bitten by the bug too!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=79767

Events Update for Cassidee

If you happen to live in Florida or if you are just interested in what we are doing to help Cassidee and her mom you can check this link. They are supposed to be getting a trust fund set up so that people can donate to help, but I guess it's not finished yet. Apparently a trust fund is quite a big deal to get set up- lawyers and all. Thanks for looking.

http://www.cassideeb.com/id5.html

If you are wondering what this is about my article "Cassidee" (below) will explain all. Thanks!

Another Fall/Winter Forecast

I was just reading Fire Mountain Gems fall/winter forecast for gemstones and beads and they had lots of interesting ideas. Seems like my carnelian bracelet, necklace and earrings are right on track as carnelian is a hot stone for fall and red is a hot color! You can find all three of these at my etsy store by the way!

Labradorite is another hot gemstone and I love working with gemstones. I have to say that at this point I prefer gemstones to glass beads. What do you think? What's your preference? I just like the earthiness of them. Anyway, labradorite is a stone I haven't worked with yet and when I see pieces made with it I always make a mental note to buy some, but so far I haven't. So once again, mental note to get some labradorite!

I'm taking some new pictures of my rose quartz pendant necklace because even though it is pink and lavender and pearls, gray is a big color for fall and winter and I think it would look marvelous with the right gray sweater, or purple sweater which is another big fall color. It would be a sweet look and not for everybody, but still it's right for someone.

They also have some ideas for men's jewelry which I am interested in making. I have one men's/unisex necklace in my shop now and I have made several other pieces for family members and friends. My husband loves the chain I made him for a wooden cross. I also had a man who wanted some pearls, yes pearls, that belonged to his deceased grandmother made into a masculine looking necklace. Not an easy thing to do. But, I did it and he wears it everyday. He is a very manly man and he wears it well. I was glad I was able to do that for him.

Here's the link to the article if you'd like to check it out for yourself. And if not, check out my shop for some of the pieces mentioned above. My etsy mini to the right will take you directly to my shop!! Thanks for checking me out!

http://www.firemountaingems.com/trends/fw08/default.asp?WT.mc_id=Q016

Vicious Circle

It's a beautiful Sunday morning and I sit here in quite a bit of pain knowing that I probably won't go anywhere to enjoy this pretty day. It's not any different than most days lately. I have RA (rheumatoid arthritis) and fibromyalgia and along with that comes depression and and now a low thyroid and a few other things that aren't necessary to mention. I've had all these things except the thyroid condition for 20+ years now, and they have gotten progressively worse. This last year has been particularly bad and I feel like I am just in a vicious circle of pain, medication, depression, more pain, more meds, more depression, on and on. I'm pretty sure the pain medication fights the anti depressant medication, but without the pain medication the pain is even MORE unbearable and the depression is even worse. It's just horrible to think about. When I feel up to it and get out of myself and make some jewelry it takes my mind off of the pain for a time. Sometimes it's too difficult because my knee is one of the joints affected at the moment and sitting at my work area hurts after a while. When I chat in the forums I also feel some relief, but my right hand has become extremely swollen from overuse on the computer. That was one of the reasons I had to go out on disability from my job, my hands wouldn't allow me to work at the computer for 6-7 hours a day anymore. I am writing this to let people know who I am and not for sympathy. Perhaps there are others of you out there who can relate and who go through similar or worse. Maybe we can help each other if by nothing else than just by knowing that someone else deals with this too. I would love to hear from you.

Pictures

I have been working diligently on my picture taking. I got some great advice from a photographer in an etsy forum who explained why when I was taking pictures on a white background I was getting a "blue" effect. So I was able to fix that and now I can take pictures of my jewelry on a white background as well as using some of the other backgrounds that I like, but that may not show up the jewelry as clearly. I had not been using any editing software either and recently my husband showed me ezimba.com so I have started using that, but only to put my shop name at the bottom and sometimes to correct the lighting if necessary. I don't do any special effects or change the look of the jewelry in any way. I hesitate even to change the photo at all, but sometimes it is clear that the quick fix option does make it look more like what the jewelry actually looks like in person. So what do you think? How do my new pics look to you? The top pic is one of the best of my old pictures and the one below is my new stuff. Feel free to leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you! You can view more pictures at my shop too! And if you are interested in this piece it IS available for purchase!!