Closing up Etsy Shop

Insert sad face here. I haven't blogged in awhile due to pregnancy and now newborn. Insert smiley face here. Things are just busy with the 5 boys, breastfeeding, playing taxi, and now back to work. It was a hard decision but its only temporary; approximately 3 years temporary. I start back to finish my bachelors degree in nursing on Monday and then hopefully get into the Masters program for nurse anesthesia following that. I figure I can convert my bead room into a playroom for my 2 year old and baby as he gets bigger and pack away the torch until I can afford all the cool tools I want for jewelry making. I really want to do shows but I just don't have the finances to do it right. I plan to keep my blog going and maybe blog about different bead makers and jewelry makers as well as follow my favorites and stay in the community and help when I can. I've recently found some bead and jewelry makers I didn't know of before during Lori's blog hop. Maybe I can put up a "Friday Feature" each week. We'll see how time plays out. I'll keep my clearance beads in Etsy until they are gone. Chat with ya later!

Karen Beth

My Studio..now indoors!

With.... PINK walls! hehe!

The Glass Wall

The Glass Stash

The Lil Dragon

The Oven

The Barren Jewelry Table

Still working on organizing a little bit more but the majority is done. Hope you enjoyed your peek into my workspace.

Free Shipping on all orders in my Etsy Store

Enjoy free shipping on all orders from now until Easter at midnight in my Etsy Shop. Enter coupon code EasterFreeShip11 upon checkout.

Revamping the Blog

In case you see something out of place or misaligned, I just thought I'd share that I'm in the process of revamping the blog. I wanted something more springy and vibrant...like sunshine. :) I also wanted to get rid of a lot of nonsense things I have on here that probably isn't necessary and make it look more stream-lined. Ease of blog-a-bility.

I'm still working on pickling and organizing my glass as well as unpacking the studio. It's taking me a little bit longer than it should because of the pregnancy and not being able to move easily or stand for long periods. Chiropractor says my sacr0-iliacs are misaligned which is causing a lot of pelvic and groin pain. It's ok, though, just 13 more weeks to go!

Pickling and Labeling Glass

I'm taking on a big venture and I'm not even halfway done. My studio is just about set up. The walls are painted (thanks to my mom). Everything is in it's place (thanks to my hubby and boys). I'm working on pickling (cleaning) and labeling EVERY glass rod I have. Yes, it's going to be a huge project but after trialing the pickling of the clear rods and seeing them sparkle, I just have to do them all. Not to mention, I get very frustrated that I have rods here and there that aren't labeled. It seems they never get used because I'm "afraid" of them. Also, it will make it easier to order glass when I know which ones I'm actually low on. I read about pickling glass on the Frantz newsletter and read more about it on LE (a lampworking forum) and I'm so glad I found out about it. Scummy clear is always a problem. Well, hopefully, not any more. I'll take pictures of some clear encased beads after I'm all done with this venture to show you the details of pickling. To read more about pickling, hop on over to the Frantz newsletter blog and it should be in the December 2010 archives if its not on the first page.
As for labeling my rods, I'm making excel spreadsheets with the color, maker or brand of the glass and the ID number and taping it on each glass rod. I may make a little tip section on how to do this in case other lampworkers are interested. I'm on a mac so this is the easiest way I have found to do this. There is another way using a program that another LE member came up with but it's only compatible with Windows. Also, if you want my spreadsheets that I've done so far, you an email me and I'll send them on over for you. My email is karen dot e dot colaneri at gmail dot com.

Yahoo Pingbox

This new app for your blogs or website is totally cool. It's private so your visitors can leave a message and the whole world won't see it, only you. When they leave a message it goes directly to your yahoo IM. If you are offline, it shows you are offline so you will only get messages when you are both on. I think it's kinda neat. Especially if you love comments. It's also a cool way to meet new people that visit your blog.

Here is the Pingbox, so you can get yours.

Leave me a message! I can't wait to hear from you.

As for updates.. the studio is being painted this weekend and I'll hopefully have it ready to start making beads by next week. I still have clearance beads available in my Etsy.

Beadmaking on Hold... Once Again.

I was all gun-ho with those colors and now everything is on hold for at least a week. My mother and father-in-law are moving back to their house with nursing help from the ALS clinic. We got my mother-in-law confident in caring for him and she's dieing to sleep in her own bed again. I don't blame her! My studio was set up over in her spare bedroom but now that they are moving back, they want to set up the spare bedroom for out of town family and I can have my den back for my bead studio. I'm very happy. We all are. The drag of moving stuff ensues...

I'm heading to the bookstore today to buy a few vampire hunter novels and maybe a ceramic beadmaking book. That's if I can find it. It's Jennifer Heynen's book, Ceramic Bead Jewelry. I won't be starting to make them until after the baby is born and I'm back to work but I need to study! :D I can never find beadmaking books when I want them. Here's to hoping.

Preparing to go to Town!

I'm getting ready to go to town making beads and discs tomorrow. I have been preparing by coordinating colors and making twisties and stringers. I'll be making them in shades of blue and a touch of green.

More Clearance Beads in my Etsy Shoppe!

More beads were added to my Etsy shoppe on Clearance! Woohoo! More sale! Don'cha love it??
Happy Birthday to my son, Trevor! He turned 14.

Animoto Collage

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

More Clearance Items in my Shoppe!

Go ahead and enjoy the sale while you can!

Beads Going on Clearance in Etsy.

I'll be uploading beads from last year to my etsy that will be going on clearance. You can stop by my shoppe page to see what's available or to hop on over to etsy.

Disappointed...then Happy

So, I got ready early this morning, got Matthew ready to take with me to the studio. I wanted to clean and photograph some beads for this post. I got my camera and put my last 2 new batteries in it. We got there and I ooohhh'd and ahhhhhh'd at what came out of the kiln. I was soooo happy. I cleaned the beads (always a chore). Went to photograph them and the batteries were dead. @!#@%&@!!!! Grrrrrr... I checked before we left and they worked fine. So, to make a better day of it, I took him to the park and got him some Micky-D's. He was happy anyways. And it always makes me happy to see him happy. Maybe tomorrow for the pictures.

Heading back to the torch!

Today's gonna be a great day at the torch. I got a special package in the mail yesterday that arrived from Denmark. I was so excited, I squeeled in delight. I've been waiting a couple of weeks. It came much quicker than I thought. I'll share with you what it is when I have the pretty beads to go along with it. (Does that give you a hint?) I want to make more discs to make a necklace. I have a list or fun, whimsical beads I wanna make. I'm so inspired, I won't wanna leave the torch today. Ok, now to try and sneak out without the lil guy seeing me...

Disc Challenge

A friend of mine wanted to come up with a challenge to help us attain a goal and complete it since we both have motivation issues and get mind blocked. She wanted to challenge me to 15 discs. I completed mine yesterday. Here they are, all nice and cleaned. One picture is outside in the sun and the other on my table top studio. (Dont mind the dust on the black surface. I'm working on cleaning the studio.

Sick on my big 5 days off... BLAH!

Well, I had 5 days off from work that I just couldn't wait for it to happen. Now that it's here, I'm so SICK! Needless to say, no beads this week. I was really hoping I would feel better today but it just won't go away.

So, I've been keeping to my promise...

I've been busy making beads and going to local art shows. Having a great time. I moved my studio to my mother-in-law's house to have it indoors and I've been busy setting it up. I'm super excited to get to use it. I'll have peace and quiet and "my own" time to just create. I'm thinking this is going to be a big step forward in my bead-making career. I'm hoping to get to do this full-time and hopefully do some art shows and start selling online when I get a fancy dancy website. I guess I should add that my goal also this year to "BE HAPPY". I'm doing that by making my dream a reality. It'll be slow, but steady progress. I guess I should make the next goal to clean my beads and take some damn pictures, already to liven up my blog, huh?