Slacking again...

I really need to get busy and blog more.

How does one do it? I have a full time job, jewelry designing on the side, home to take care of, supporting/helping my husband with his local music stuff (http://www.stillnotdead.com/), his work (http://www.snddesigns.com/), helping with a local wine shop(http://www.thebottleshoppe.biz/), writing for a blog (haven't done anything yet but hope to by this weekend. http://www.craftersattack.com/), dealing with some major family drama, and take care of my sweet dog who has been WAY TO neglected lately! I feel like I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

The jewelry stuff is going ok. Still not alot of sales. Traffic in my shop has slowed down as well. I know part of it is because I have no time to promote. Work has blocked etsy except for the 60 min of quota time. I try to use that time to do all of my online networking but I tend to not get very far!

I am about to make a lot of progress on my shop. This last weekend I pulled out my old 35 mm and fell back in loe with it. Too bad it isnt digital. Well I decide to invest in a really good digital one that set me back some big bucks but I feel like since it is digital i will get so much more use out of it. I am so antsy for it to get here! I plan and taking ALL NEW PICTURES of my jewelry so when I get those up I will definitely have to ask you guys what you think.

Speaking of my camera my hubby and I went to grandfathers mountain this weekend and even though it was past peak up there the valleys were amazing! I really did fall back in love with picture taking and cant wait to take more pictures! I am contemplating selling prints in my shop as well. What do you guys think?

I have a show coming up on Nov. 14th and so far that is it for shows other than my usual wine shop stop but I just have not had the time or energy to do any more. I am hoping etsy picks up for the holidays so I can make some money back-even though I will just spend it all on more beads!

This weekend I am looking forward to Halloween. We are going to a show my hubby co-sponsered and the headlining band is playing the whole dookie album! CAN NOT WAIT. I am going to dress up as little red riding hood and the hubby is the big bad wolf!

If i could put time in a bottle...

..I would take some now! Holy cow have I been busy.

Weddings, funerals, shows, floors, you name it we've done it!

So I have been slack, but from the list I hope you all understand why. On top of that my work has blocked most of the internet so I never can get on here to blog, post on esty, twitter, ANYTHING! I finally went out and got a netbook to take around the corner to Starbucks on my break. Nice getaway but it is not my dear gaspump coffee in Gastonia. Sorry Ella I swear I am not betraying you!

So last weekend we FINALLY re-did our floor in the living room and the hallway. Nice laminate from IKEA! I love my new floors but the dog can't run like he used to.

In jewelry news...I have been selling my items at The Bottle Shop in downtown Gastonia during their wine tastings. This works out well for me since I love wine! It has been going fairly well. Unfortunately I took checks for the first one, and my biggest sale...well..the check bounced. Guess I need to quit taking checks unless I know the people personally. My bad. Right now I am trying to brainstorm other ways to sell my jewelry other than online. Any ideas? I have some in the coffee shop (thanks Ella) and needs to look at a few more stores. I usually am much better at marketing but lately I have been way too busy to do anything. I am behind on making jewelry and taking pictures!

In other news...I am so excited for Halloween! If any of you are from the Carolina's I am sure you are very aware of Scarowinds. The Halloween season can not come fast enough. Witches, goblins, bats, cats, pumpkins, ghosts....life is never better. Think I am going to FINALLY be Lily Munster this year!

Ok Gotta get back to work...grrr...at least the day is almost over.

Check out http://www.ambersaccent.etsy.com/ I have a Halloween necklace and pair of earrings up as well as I did some price drops.

Wild and crazy weeks!!!

I always hear about people traveling a lot and I have never been one of those people. Well apparently that has changed, at least for these few weeks.

Last weekend we traveled up to Marion, NC to see my friend to the end-Stephani's wedding. I was a last minute bridesmaid so we got to stay overnight. Her wedding was great and she looked beautiful. He dad flew in from Wyoming and let me tell you, I have never seen a father look so proud of his daughter! It was sweet. We had a great time and now I can not wait to see the pictures!

Next weekend we will be in Atlanta to see GREEN DAY! My favorite band in the whole world! My sister got me a ticket for my b-day last month. What a good sister I have! This will be my fourth time seeing them since 1994. I am so excited!

Then in August there is a slight chance I will be going to Tennessee for another wedding! I am deciding I like to travel! I just don't like leaving my dog.

On August 8th I will be at the Butter Bean in Huntersville selling my jewelry. It has been awhile since I have done a show and I am very excited! I will have a lot of pieces I did not have previously because they were in shops. One of the shops I had my stuff in is revamping so I have to pull my stuff out. That is fine because they had no foot traffic anyway! You can not open a store in May and change your hours 2 weeks later so you are only working there 20 hours a week and expect the store to do great business. That is a whole other story though.

I have been hitting a slow time, where I do not feel like doing any jewelry work. I need to get back into the swing of things, I just have been so tired and really enjoying my relaxing evenings with my husband! Tonight I have to do work for a friends birthday present I am giving her tomorrow! No excuses tonight!

I am also getting ready to take new pictures and list new items in my online stores. I would like to hear feedback on what colors of jewelry people are looking for. I guess that is something I need to ask on forums. In the meantime check out http://www.ambersaccents.com/ for links to all my shops!

Serial Killer In My Backyard

OK, not really but close enough. For those of you who have not been following the story of the serial killer (or my definition until more details emerge-spree killer) in Gaffney, South Carolina he was killed yesterday. So thank god the guy is gone, but scary where he got killed. He left South Carolina and ended up in North Carolina and was shot by a police officer (after he shot a cop) 5.34 miles FROM MY HOUSE!!!! Who knows maybe we drove past him or saw him in Wally World! For more info http://www.news14.com/content/top_stories/611614/questions-swirl-as-police-say-serial-killer-slain-in-n-c--town/Default.aspx

In happier news I have been tagged in a few blogs so one of these days I will tag many of you in mine, let me know if you want to be tagged.

Also one of the tags was for me to reveal 10 facts about myself so here I go.

1. I love thunderstorms. I chase them and got engaged on the day a funnel cloud passed just north of our house ( I have pictures of it!)

2. I love art. Painting and anything else with my hands (hence jewelry making). Funny fact...in second grade we had our first real art class (not just art project time but an art teacher came in) and were told to paint anything we wants. I painted a tornado and I still have it!

3. I have a dog named Jack. He is a rat terrier and my baby!

4. I got married on the beach in 2007, it was the best day of my life.

5. It took me 10 years, 5 colleges, 3 states and two husbands to graduate from school!

6. At one time I was convinced I was going to be a profiler for the FBI. (still kinda want to be one).

7. I love to eat peanut butter mixed with mashed potatoes. It is WONDERFUL!

8. I do not like the cold, but I love snow!

9. I try to be as earth friendly as I can. I even just bought a bike so I can ride to the farmers market instead of drive!

10. I LOVE the Nebraska Cornhuskers! GO BIG RED!!!!!

OK now that is done.

Well this weekend is my last Gastonia event (for now). I haven't done very good at these so I am thinking of lowering my prices. I just can not figure out if I really should or not.

OK all for now. Happy reading!!! Don't forget to check out www.ambersaccents.com! It is getting ready to get a facelift, or body lift really.

Spiders give me the creepy creepertons!

Ok so this week one night at dinner I am eating and my husband gets up from the table. I ask what is wrong he says "nothing", I'm thinking oh god there is huge spider on the door by the table, or a bee or some other bug that I do not like. Then I feel something on my arm and look down, the spider is on ME. I looks huge and black (bigger than a silver dollar). I freeze and feel like I am gonna be sick! Ryan gets the little guy and takes him outside. Thank god, my first question "was it a black widow" he said no it was fuzzy and had white spots! Apparently it was very small too but it looked huge to me! We did have a dead black widow in our house years ago so now I need to make sure every spider is not one. Anyway since then everyday I feel like I have a spider crawling on me. Gross!!!

In other news I had a jewelry show last Friday and decided that despite my back issues I would change pants in the car after work. Big mistake!! I royally messed it up and felt like I would not be able to get out of my car. So it took 45 min to get from work to the show (where my husband and mother-in-law were setting up my booth) and the whole time I am thinking "I am going to have to live in my car for the next 24 hours. I couldn't even bend forward more than an inch. Well it was much easier to get out of my car than I thought but I was miserable all night. To top it off...no sales! This concert event series in Downtown Gastonia does not do well for any of the vendors. Hopefully next one I will get a sale so I can offset the cost I paid to be a part of it!

Saturday my mom and I went to the Down the Street Bead Show at the merchandise mart in Charlotte. So this was my first bead show I have been to and their were 20 vendors. Holy overwhelming!!!! I decided after my initial walk through to buy from 4 vendors. After I started shopping I could have stayed there all day!!! I had such a great time and got some amazing beads! My mom also bought some stuff so I can make her a few necklaces! I will have to attach one of the pictures of an amazing pendant I bought.

Sunday I spent the whole day listing and crafting. I was more productive Sunday than I have been in 2 months!!!

Here are my sites for you to check out!

http://ambersaccents.artfire.com/

http://www.ambersaccent.etsy.com/

http://www.artgaragesale.com/StoreFront.aspx?SellerId=374

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Ambers-Accents/82144769821

http://twitter.com/AmbersAccents

www.myspace.com/ambersaccent

Bye Bye Beach

So I am home and boy do I miss the beach. It has taken me days to adjust back to real life, even though I am still not adjusted fully.

Exciting events of the trip....

Saw Dolphins, watched a guy catch a 4 foot long shovel nose shark, Cow nose rays in droves, caught something that took my fishing line way out to sea and then when it let go my hooks were bent! Ryan caught something big as well but the line broken, had a wonderful two year wedding anniversary, saw family from Illinois, found a sweet saloon on the waterway that I will go back to year after year, and saw loads of ghost crabs which my dog loved chasing.

The day before the beach trip I sold my jewelry at the Market on Main event in Gastonia. I did not sell much and other than being so hot I thought I was going to pass out I did enjoy it. My next event was scheduled for July 10th but I just found out yesterday I will be selling at the Exchange on Main event now too which is this Friday. I will not be able to get off work in tine so my mother in law and my husband have to set my booth up. Oh lord I hope they do a good job!

In other fun news I have been upgraded from guest book attendant to bridesmaid for my friend Stephani's wedding in July! I am very excited and honored she would ask me! I get to see her tonight and get my dress!!!

Beach mode

So I must apologize for not posting, I have been in super lazy mode now that the countdown for our beach trip in on!

Before we go though we have a few events coming up as well as a few that have passed.

First is this Thursday (June 11th). Yours truly will be 30!!!! I do not feel 30, nor do I feel I look 30. I am thinking the 30's will be good for me, but hate that I will be seen as more of an adult!

For my birthday my wonderful husband got me a dremel so I can start experimenting with stones and shells for my jewelry. I did get one hole drilled in a huge shell, that was fun. Since we are going tot he beach I am sure I will bring back 100,000 shells (as usual) to mess with. He is excited his wife likes power tools! He also got tickets to see No Doubt this past weekend. I will tell you what, that was the best concert I have EVER been too. Worth every penny he spent. Now I wish they were coming back through so I could go again.

This coming Friday I also have my second show. I am going to be a vendor at the Market on Main event in Gastonia. I am pretty excited this is the first show since my disastrous one in Cabarrus County months ago. I am bringing around 30 pieces and figure that will be enough, if not I have another event on July 12th at the same place so I will be more prepared on what to do for that one.

After that is a week on the beach. Nothing sounds better than that right now!

In older news that I am horrible at keeping up with right now, I was picked to win the "Lovely Blog" award. I really appreciate it and glad someone likes my blog. I am to pass it on but have not had a lot of time to pick other blogs, but I will get there I promise!

What a weekend...so far!

It has been a very eventful weekend so far and it is only Sunday morning!

Yesterday we went fishing at two different spots, did I catch anything? No!!!! Thats ok it was the first sunny day we have had here in FOREVER so it was nice just to get outside. Besides with all the rain we have gotten everything was flooded so I kept getting hung up and having to cut my line. Hopefully we get out again before we go to the beach this month.

We finally were able to plant all the flowers my neighbor gave me weeks ago AND mow the lawn. I ended up with 6 pots of flowers and a lawn I want to roll around in. I think today would be a good day to get a lawn chair out and nap in the sun (maybe it would cure my slight hangover).

We went to the Rock for Peace at Home event and had a GREAT time! I was skeptical b/c it wasn't our usual crowd at first, but they ended up showing up. Nothing is more fun then sitting around drinking with the punk rock kids! I was supposed to sell my jewelry there but that is a whole other story in itself! Anyway the girl who organized the even ended up buying the necklace off my neck! HA! Maybe I should have brought my stuff!

So speaking of my jewelry I have been SOOOOO lazy lately and have not made anything! I have so much work to do it is not even funny. I have a show on June 12th and my stores are all having a 20% off sale until June 11th in honor of my 30th birthday on June 11th! So everyone go check it out and tell your friends!!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7182894

http://www.artgaragesale.com/StoreFront.aspx?SellerId=374

http://www.artfire.com/users/Ambersaccents

Was this really a yard sale?

So I went to a VERY interesting yard sale over the weekend. Friday a co-worker of mine was emailed info on a huge yard sale. One of things that they were selling were 30-35 boxes of beads and so of course she told me. She went to the yard sale Friday and put some on hold or me to pick up Saturday (this yard sale was all week).

Saturday comes around and my husband agrees to come with me. I am SO glad he did. It was raining (like it has been doing just about everyday lately) so the yard sale was moved inside. Seemed unusually quiet at the house for a yard sale on Saturday.

I go to the door and knock. This totally stoned looking guy answers and I tell him I am there to pick up some beads, he knows who I am and lets us in. The house is a DISASTER! Pictures have stains on the and are hung crooked on the wall, a cat is sitting on a table (the same cat that apparently uses the whole house as a litter box according to the guy),there is junk everywhere but I figure they had to move the yard sale to the indoors so whatever. Then this totally strung out woman comes out of the back. She literally looked like a crack head.

I ask her about the beads and she pulls out the box and sets it on the table, I look at then and they are pretty good. I was told $10 for the box, which was a little much for a yard sale but I did really like some and had never seen them before. She says $20. I am ready to leave and she changes her mind. She then pulls out five more boxes and says I can look through those too. At his point my husband is praying I just hurry up and leave, but I just HAVE to look at the beads, and I am glad I did she really did have some beautiful stones.

So as I rummage through I ask how much for three of the boxes. She says If I want to switch out some of the beads in the one she put aside for me that's OK but she needs to keep some. What?! IS this a yard sale or what? Don't offer if you don't plan on selling. She then says I can pick what I want, so I tell her I really want all of what is in each of the boxes she still has 2 left. She says "well I and just letting people pick what they want and leave the rest". Ok she is either really stupid or on drugs I figure at this point. So I ask for a bigger box and offer her $20. She agrees and doesn't even pay attention at this point to what I am choosing (she originally told me that cost would depend on what stones/beads I wanted). I pack it full and then she goes into the kitchen (which I bet 100 roach colonies live in, it was so gross, food on the floor, trash laying everywhere, etc.) and brings out a box of findings and pendants. I choose a pendant as she goes rummaging for more stuff. You would think she would have had all the stuff together. I decide I have had enough and I need to jet. She asks if I need anything else she has a gift card and can go get it for me. I decline saying I can get it myself. She then asks if I can leave my number in case she finds anything else. Hell no I am not leaving my number with some crazy crackhead!

So as we are leaving we notice one thing, the door has been pryed open and the lock is completely messed up. We then wonder, was the even their house? Then I wonder why she was so insistent on $20. If it wasn't $20 she was gong to nit pick but once i said $20 she didn't care what I took. Drugs perhaps? I know I am being judgmental and speculating but this was no normal yard sale.

Why...

Why is it that I can never find the right color of bead? I am looking for a particular shade of gold but cant seem to find it ANYWHERE! I am hoping that tomorrow (since I have the day off) I will be able to run to a few places and find it.

Why does my computer have to be retarded. I need to get more pieces up on etsy but of course our computers have been acting screwy and so I can not resize my pictures.

I just hope tomorrow will work a little better, the DMV will go fast and I get LOTS of work done. I need to go run up to see a few friends but the more I think about it the more I realize I have to do at home. Why is there never enough time?

Come check out my stuff!

Here are links to my etsy store and my website.

Hoping to have a few more items for sale on etsy this week even though I do have some of the items left from my website as well.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7182894&ga_search_query=ambersaccent&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

http://ambersaccents.com/Ambers_Accents/Welcome.html

Its off to the races

So here I go with yet another blog. I have a lot to say about all my jewelry adventures but no one to tell except for my wonderfully supportive husband.

So getting down to business I started making jewelry this year in January after receiving some supplies from my mother in law. it was Christmas times and I needed ideas fast for family members. Well we went to Michael's I saw the bead isle(s) and I said "I want this for Christmas" and proceeded to basically pick out everything.

Long story short Christmas came, i got a few pendants, beads and tools and I was off. I made one necklace and realized that I need to do this for everyone! So five months later I have my own small jewelry business which actually started in Feb. but i am now starting to really push it. I have a website (ambersaccents.com) , an etsy store and 3 shows coming up! I have had one show that went terrible but I learned a lot from that show and my next one is May 30th in Uptown Charlotte!

I hope to get what I need done by then, hopefully 30-40 sets! I never know what is the right amount to have at these things! Wish me luck!