A Year in the Making, day 357

I will clean tonight. I will. Really!

I'm using my personal day tomorrow for my birthday, and it'd be nice to not spend the whole day cleaning. I'm thinking I should go see a movie, at least.

I just got my vendors' packet for the Medieval Country Faire two weekends from now, at Volunteer Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. The Seattle Knights will be there, which is always a treat!



I'll be spending a good portion of my free time next week making sure I've got everything tagged. I always say I'm going to price everything as I post it, but I never do. Silly me.

I got the fancy necklace finished a little bit ago, and would have made this post earlier, but I got sucked into Facebook and an hour went *poof*! Such a marvelous tool, the internet, but such an easy way to waste time too.

OOAK Steampunk Amethyst Multistrand Choker



And the pieces from yesterday are now photographed and up in my Artfire shop as well:

Steampunk Necklace and Earrings with Freshwater Pearls and Amethysts



Sterling Dragonfly Necklace with Rose Quartz and Garnet

A year in the making, day 356

Monday, sleepy Monday. Too much fun this weekend! But I survived.

I'm taking my personal leave day Wednesday for my birthday. Of course, I'll probably be going to spend most of it doing those little bits of cleaning I was going to do every day so I didn't have to do it all at once. I have spent years developing my mad procrastination skills.

Instead of cleaning last night, I was making more jewelry, and finished the second of these just a little while ago. Not listed yet, as I missed the good light, although photoshop and a good camera make up for these kinds of problems.

I noted at my last event that I really didn't have enough Steampunk jewelry left in the stock to fill out a full-sized table display, so I'm going to have to start working on that. Steamcon II will be here before I know it!


Steampunk Pearls and Amethysts by *dbvictoria on deviantART

And another piece, hanging on to the last few weeks of summer, a sterling silver dragonfly with rose quartz and garnet. I actually got this dragonfly from the selection of sterling silver pendants months ago from Artbeads.com, as a part of their Beaders who Blog program**,but it disappeared mysteriously while I was still plotting what to do with it! Well, I found it last night, when I spilled some beads while working on the sofa. It was hiding under the cushions. I swear I looked for it there when I first lost it!



It's a gorgeous little bug, and it was originally supposed to be hiding out in my field of swarovski flowers in my Spring Waterfall necklace, but I think he'll be fine here with rose quartz and garnets instead.

**This post is a part of the ArtBeads Beaders who Blog program. They provide the beads to us free of charge, and we provide an honest review of their products. We are not paid to review or endorse them.

A Year in the Making, day 322

Today, the eyes were happy! Yaaaa! I wore my contacts for only about an hour and a half yesterday, then went back to my glasses. I realized this afternoon that I hadn't put them in their soaking solution, and they just sat overnight in a bit of water from when I rinsed the case out. So I'm trying an experiment today, thinking that maybe, just maybe, my eyes had suddenly decided they didn't like the solution I've been using. I got a different brand of solution and am giving this a go tonight. Cross your fingers for me, okay? I have to do an awful lot of driving tomorrow.

I did two variations on the same design of earring today, a longer and shorter version. I usually go for longer styles, because small ones get lost in my mane, but some of my friends like the smaller decorations. They have pearls, of course!

Short Red Crystal and Freshwater Pearl Dangle Earrings on Sterling



Long Red Crystal and Freshwater Pearl Dangle Earrings on Sterling



There's really just over 1/2" difference between the lengths of these two pairs, but it looks like so much more, doesn't it?

We will be snacking soon on the husband's infamous crab dip. It was supposed to be eaten at a party today, except I did a boner and got the date wrong - realized at about 12:30 today that the party was actually last night! Color me a heel.

Gratuitous food shot before I sign off for the evening, last night's dinner (with the husband's beer - my Pimms' cup was mostly empty by the time this was ready to eat):

A Year in the Making, day 285

Thrown off schedule again? Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned that I'd been thrown off stride by a case of food poisoning? Well, guess what? Another case of food poisoning. A much worse case. I've been a very unhappy kitty since about 6am Saturday morning. I'll spare you the unpleasant details.

I did get a necklace made today, one of which, along with the green lampwork necklace from a previous post, will be gifted to one of my daughters' kindergarten teachers. Tomorrow is the last day of kindergarten! How did the year fly by so quickly?



A brief dose of cute to make this a happier post - my daughter's first official tea party:



Tea parties must be a dominant gene in little girls. I had them when I was her age, with my own stuffed animals.

A Year in the Making, day 278

Back in the beading saddle again, as promised! I actually have been making things the last few days, just not posting them. I nearly ran out of chain, but my supply order came just in time to save the day.

With the camera charged, I was able to list the two pieces I made last week finally!

Freshwater Pearl and Celtic Knot Necklace



Amethyst and Freshwater Pearl Necklace:



And on to the new stuff! I was already romping through the red/purple/pink box, and I have these wonderful huge rose quartz beads that finally demanded I do something with them.

Rose Quartz and Amethyst Choker



This one isn't going to be listed, as it's going to be gifted shortly:

Apple Green Lampwork Glass with White Flowers



And now I'm off to find something to satisfy my sweet tooth. I am craving pudding, but I am out of milk with which to make some. I may have to settle for yogurt. Ick.

A Year in the Making, day 265

I'm celebrating today!



Last night, I had my 100th sale from my Designs by Victoria's Etsy shop! Hooray!

Weather continues to be grey and gloomy and a little too cool. But I shouldn't complain, because that's better than a little too hot, right?

Here's today's silver lining, a new steampunk piece:

OOAK Steampunk Pirate Queen Necklace with Freshwater Pearls



Now off to go play with electricity, because the lights just went off in half the upstairs for no reason we can determine. Booo.

A Year in the Making, day 264

Still grey, damp, and gloomy. Told the barista that I was tired of the three months of March we've had so far this year when I was getting a toasty beverage this morning. It got just warm enough to open up the French doors to the deck for a bit this afternoon, at least, letting me get my fresh air fix.

I received an invitation vie email this morning to vend at the upcoming Erotic Steampunk festival at the Little Red Studio in July! It's the weekend after the 4th, and hopefully by then Mother Nature will have gotten the cranky out of her system.

So, I was inspired to do some more Steampunk jewelry this afternoon, another, slightly different pair of waterfall watch bits earrings:

Steampunk Waterfall Earrings with Freshwater Pearls and Antique Watch Parts

A Year in the Making, day 250

I just popped a chicken in the oven, stuffed silly with garlic cloves, then massaged lovingly with a lemon-garlic-pepper rub. In about 20-30 minutes, the house will begin to smell heavenly. Garlic is practically an aphrodisiac in our household. The timing will be a bit hit-or-miss, as there wasn't a weight tag on the bird, so I am guessing it to be about 6 pounds.

We have all the doors and windows open again, even though it's still a bit cool, because the fresh air is just heavenly. I'm not an outdoor kind of girl, but I'm a fresh air junkie. A bit of a contradiction there, but I'm a complicated girl.

Today I've got a remake of an earlier piece - I'd done a grape cluster necklace in brass some time ago, and today decided I needed a silver version of it. I've been on a grape kick, snackwise, lately, so it's only appropriate. And there are some lovely muscat grapes in the stores right now. I don't have any stones that match their green and red blushing beauty, so amethysts it is instead.

Purple Grapes Cluster Necklace with Leaf Toggle Clasp and Amethysts



And another from the vault, one of those pieces I made at night and then took daylight pictures of a few days later, but never got around to listing:

Bronze Dragon & Green Freshwater Pearl Necklace on Vintage Brass Chain



I lied, by the way. In the time it's taken me to write this post, the house has already begun to smell heavenly. Less than 10 minutes. Mmmmmmmmm.

A Year in the Making, day 235

It's overcast today, but just the perfect temperature. A little cool, so you don't get overheated taking a nice walk about the neighborhood. Just right!

A little springtime fun today, another bracelet:

Strawberry Glass and Peach Frenchwater Pearls Bracelet



In other important news, I've had Tom Jones stuck in my head all day long. So here - let him be stuck in yours too!



What's new, pussycat?

A Year in the Making, day 184

Time to get back to work! Spring is here, my tulips are beginning to poke their little heads out, and I'm hitting the green box. I've also got some gorgeous 3mm peridot Swarovskis coming soon.

Tulips are a very vivid childhood memory for me. There's a lot of Dutch blood in our American mongrel pedigree, and my mother had these amazing tulip beds when I was growing up. I remember the catalogs coming every fall, and her picking out the new varieties to add to her beds.

Here's a necklace from yesterday, March's birthstone.

Bloodstone chunk necklace



The second piece, mixing some brand new pearls with one of the last of the most amazing fluorite beads from the stash:

Green Chinese Fluorite and Freshwater Pearls