Lately I’ve been dreaming of branching out into metalsmithing. I was seriously excited about it a couple of weeks ago, I had that new hobby excitement – I was going to be a metalsmith, I told myself! Anyway, that was before I realized that it’s just not a possibility for me right now. I was hoping it would be something I could do on a small scale to begin with, but it looks as though you need a lot of ’stuff’ and also a lot more time and space than I currently have. Not to mention that I would ideally need to take some metalsmithing courses! So, I’ve put the dream on hold and have penciled in ‘be a metalsmith’ for 30 years from now, when I’m retired… lol.

Anyway, I’ve recently discovered an Etsy shop called ThirtySixTen, which is run by Amy, a self-taught metalsmith. By the look of things, it’s already a huge success! And of course, I am incredibly envious of her skills. It’s inspiring to know that she’s self-taught, and that it is possible! She also has a great blog which is definitely worth a read here. Here are a couple of my favorite things from her shop! Seriously thinking about treating myself to the iolite ring. Not sure if I can resist!

I finally put a treasury together! I couldn’t think of a good enough title in time, so I settled for ‘Winter’s End’. I was trying to think of nice way to describe the change from winter to spring, which is what I was trying to show in my treasury – but I ran out of time and the little treasury title bar popped up – and well, when that happens, you just have to type whatever you’ve got in there. Anyway, here it is!

I was delighted to rediscover mincingmockingbird’s shop the other day. I saw those lovely bird paintings and immediately remembered MMB as one of the first Etsians I met in the Etsy chat room. Well, I’m not sure if we actually chatted, but I remember at least marveling at all the awesome bird paintings. They’re just so cute. I’ve always loved those tiny little birds. Remember the Disney version of ‘Aladdin’? I always loved Princess Jasmine’s bird house – with all the little birds. Yeah. Anyway, ever since I saw that as a kid, I’ve always loved those tiny little birds.

Anyway, I listed some lovely new earrings in my shop today. Pretty pleased with the photos. I’ve been struggling with my photo backgrounds lately, not knowing whether to go bright and springy or listen to my gut and stay with dark and mysterious. Anyway, I like how these turned out. They’re made with amethyst and oxidized copper.

That’s all for now, it’s time for bed. Good night!

I’m stuck at 199 sales. Oh, how marvelous it will be to finally be at the big 2-0-0! And yet, it’s just not happening. I sit here, twitchily, glancing at the always-open Gmail tab in my Firefox window. No matter how many tabs I have open for various things, the first tab will always be Gmail. And you have no idea how excited I get when I glance up there, and it’ll say ‘Google Mail – Inbox (2)’. Two emails? That might be a sale! A glorious ‘Etsy Transaction Email’ followed by a ‘Notification of Payment Received’ email. Best. Emails. Ever. It’s been a slow week for me, but I’m hoping that at least by this time next week, I will be somewhere in the realms of having 200 sales on Etsy. How exciting!

I’d also like to give awkward’s Etsy shop a mention. She makes gorgeous knitted things, and has a lovely shop. I’m mentioning her because she’s currently at 199 sales too, and I’d love for us to hit 200!

Check out these cute ‘glovelets’ from her shop!

Anyway, I’ve added some new things to my shop, including my Haunted Moon Earrings. I’ve had such amazing feedback for the Haunted Moon Necklace, that I decided to make the matching earrings:

Also new to my shop are my Ice Melt Earrings – made with sparkly crystal quartz and oxidized sterling silver.

In other news, I finally made it onto the Etsy front page last week! About time too! It’s so hard to get noticed on Etsy, especially now that the weekend deals and gift guides have gone – so it was great to get my twenty minutes on the front page. (I say twenty, because the item actually sold and so was all-too-promptly replaced by another item made by someone else!) But still, I’m pleased to have finally been on there. Also, if you read my previous post, you’ll know about the ad I put in the school paper. Well, I was never under any delusions that I was going to be faced with a flood of sales – since it was only the school paper. But I still got a handful of sales on Folksy, and my traffic is up – so that’s something.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Have a great week!

In my last post, I mentioned I would be getting an ad put into the school newspaper. Well, here it is!

I decided to promote my Folksy shop in the ad, since Folksy is actually based in the UK and people are more likely to buy when the prices are in the correct currency (I wish Etsy would hurry up with the currency conversion thing!). Anyway, it was very exciting to see the ad in the paper – I think it turned out very well! What’s amusing is that it appears right beneath the big sex survey they did at my school. Nice… lol.

It’s been a stressful week, due to various exams, essays and demonstrations – and I’ve been quite busy with my shop, too. It’s been a lot to juggle! I made it more stressful for myself than it needed to be by writing an essay which I thought had to be done by yesterday, when in fact it’s not due until next Thursday. But at least I’ve got that over and done with, and I have most of the next week off. So I can relax and chill out now – hooray! I’ve got some new supplies, and I’ve made a little list of things I’d like to make over the weekend, so you should be seeing some new things soon! One thing I’m particularly pleased with is a necklace I made – it’s adorable – although I don’t think my photos do it justice. Might try and take some more photos over the weekend. Here it is, the ‘Aurora Sky Necklace’ – made with a very shimmery labradorite briolette and little tourmaline and iolite rondelles.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll leave you with Snuffle’s paws.

In an attempt to get a little more local business, I’ve done something quite adventurous (for me, anyway) – and have placed an advert in the university newspaper. It’s their Valentine’s Day edition, which is coming out next Tuesday. Now, I don’t have any expectations – but nevertheless, it’s the first time I’ve paid to advertise my shop – so I’m still entitled to be just a little excited about it. It will be fun to see it in the newspaper, anyway! I’ll probably post it on here next week.

Other than that, there is not much news. My cat has taken to sitting on the back of my chair, right behind my head. As a result of this, the chair is slowly being destroyed by her little claw marks. Poor chair. Doesn’t matter how much I make her wobble by moving about in the chair (not intentionally, of course), she’ll continue to lay there as if it were the most comfortable place in the world. I guess she must like me.

So, February is finally here. Yesterday, we had a gloriously sunny day. I felt great. I’ve also been listening to some new music lately, which has helped a lot in lifting my mood – including this song by Blue Roses (below).

I have to admit, the weather here in England is really getting me down right now. I’m trying to remain cheerful, but day after day of dark grey skies and rain are making it difficult. Every day I walk in the grey rainy weather to get the bus to college, which is mostly built out of dark grey oppressive concrete. I’m not joking, either – I guess grey concrete was the preferred choice of building material back in the 60s, when my college was built. I’d post a picture of it here, but… I’ll spare you.

Instead, I’m choosing to try and think about something nice (see photos below). When we lived in the south west of England a few years ago, we used to go to Cornwall in the spring time. In case you don’t know, Cornwall is the most south-western county in England. It’s the little pointy bit that sticks out – quite out of the way from all of the big cities in the UK. It’s kind of a lost little place – it used to be its own country, too! We used to have its flag stuck on our old car. And what a glorious place it is in the spring! And now, every year around this time I start longing to go there – I really miss it. But unfortunately, that’s not likely this year… argh. Oh well, I guess I’ll just pretend that I’m there again (see last photo).

The print below can be found at gemmabear’s Etsy shop. The neat thing is that she actually lives in Norwich, just like me!

Valentine Print – You Are My Favourite

I love all her illustrations – the characters she creates are always are so endearing, quirky and sweet. Check out her shop for lots more awesomeness.

Anyway, I’ve been working hard on creating some new items for my shop, which will be listed tomorrow. Also, I’m doing free worldwide shipping in my shop right now (until Monday) – so feel free to take a look! Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

This is my final week of freedom before returning to school for the spring term. I won’t deny it, my stomach is churning just thinking about it. This is an attempt to take my mind off it!

Some of these photos are from before Christmas, when I went to visit my parents who live in the Norfolk Broads. It’s a big network of rivers and lakes – very nice there. These aren’t great photos, but I thought I’d post a few anyway.

This one is just a boat by the river. I’m more interested in finding out what that strange bird is. It had weird fluffy legs and a strange face… Never seen one of those before.

This next one was taken as I faced the other direction. On the right is The Swan Inn, where we later went to eat that day. Very enjoyable. It was all cosy inside and decorated for Christmas with lots of twinkly lights. It also had a fire going, and I loved the building (lots of wooden beams inside) – I just loved it. I’d go back there now if I could!

And for dessert, we had sticky toffee pudding. Now, if you haven’t had sticky toffee pudding before, you are missing out. Having said that, I’m pretty sure it’s not something that’s available in the US – perhaps it’s just a British thing. But OMG, it’s so good. Mike loves it. Here’s a pic of him about to eat his sticky toffee pudding. Argh. Now I want some.

Anyway, I took the Christmas decorations down yesterday. One other big improvement I’ve recently made is that I’ve cleared off all the crap on my desk. All of the little things which I think I need but really don’t need are now in a little box under my desk. That way, I can still get to everything quickly, and it doesn’t have to all just be laying out on my desk in the open, collecting dust. I just have my computer, keyboard, lamp, mouse, mousemat and a box of tissues on my desk and THAT’S IT. I love it. I can’t believe I’m posting about this, as if I’m letting you all in on some amazing tip: “Put stuff you don’t need in a box under your desk”. Yeah. Great tip. I really wasn’t trying to make it sound like that. I’m just genuinely surprised that it’s so awesome.

I’ve always struggled with keeping a tidy desk. But for some reason, I’m actually sticking to it this time, I’m keeping it tidy. Perhaps it’s just that this is one little thing I have complete control over, in a house where things are constantly getting messed up by other people. Y’know? Yeah, I need help… lol.

Anyway, happy new year to you all. Hope you have a good one!

Here in England we’ve been enjoying some pre-Christmas snowfall, which is almost completely unheard of! What’s even more shocking is that the snow has stayed for around four days now. Firstly, we usually only get snow in January or February, and secondly, it’s almost always completely gone by the next day, and replaced with that lovely brown slush. But this has been lovely. I’ve really enjoyed having some snow, and I love that every day I’ve been out to walk about, there’s been that lovely crunchy sound of walking on new snow. I almost fell on my arse a few times, but that’s to be expected. I think it’ll start to melt tomorrow. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

It made me really miss going to the US. I’ve been there several times in the winter, visiting my in-laws who live in Idaho. And I love winter there. It’s so snowy, and makes the already beautiful scenery even lovelier. I love all the evergreens and the mountains – it’s gorgeous. Before that, I’d never seen proper mountains or proper snow in my life. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been, and I definitely miss the feeling of winter I get when I’m there. But thanks to the snow we’ve had, I’ve managed to get that feeling back a little bit. And I’m grateful, because most of the time, winter passes in a depressing grey blur and I absolutely hate it. So I’ve been really thankful for the snow. I just wish it would stay like this and not all melt away. It’s a little bit magical.

But I’m sure most of the population disagrees with me. The tiniest amount of snow causes absolutely chaos here in the UK. People don’t know how to drive in it – that’s the main issue. Oh, and for some reason there’s always a huge grit shortage for the roads, and everyone complains about how we’re never prepared for wintery weather. But it’s okay, because as a nation, we’re never happy unless we’ve got something to complain about… lol.

Anyway, time for sleep.

The last couple of weeks have been insanely busy for me! It only finally came to an end about thirty minutes ago, when I returned from the post office after sending a huge amount of packages!

And now I can finally begin to acquaint myself with my 4 week Christmas break. Hello there! It’s strange for me, because before I went back to uni and before I started my Etsy shop, I didn’t have much to do. Ever. I had quite a slow pace of life and I felt very lazy. It had been like that for several years. I guess I’m just in a reflective mood right now, and I’m thinking about the year that’s almost gone. I feel good about it, because unlike many of the previous years, I feel like I’ve actually achieved things this year. I’m on my merry way to actually being able to make something of my life. So woohoo, go me!

Anyway, the point I was making is that I have 4 weeks before I have to return to uni for the spring semester, and I’m feeling like it’s going to be difficult to wind down and relax. Whenever I get a spare moment and I’m just trying to do nothing, it’s a mixture of guilt and panic – I start asking myself what I could be doing that would be more productive – and I do that instead. That is so not me… lol. I guess it’s the new me. But I will try and chill out – but I’m very aware of the fact that my Etsy shop currently only has 17 items in it! Argh! I was featured in the Friday Finds promotion last weekend, and that kept me very busy! I’m almost grateful that the item the Etsy admin chose to feature was one with a not-so-great photo, because I don’t think I could have coped with all the orders if it had been one of my super-shiny-awesome photos! Last time I got into a Friday Finds promotion, the admin chose one of my favorite items with a really good photo I managed to take (somehow!), and I got *extremely* busy with orders after that.

I’ve definitely realized that I need to be better prepared for Christmas on Etsy next year – I really made it hard on myself by not ordering enough supplies in advance. Like, jewelry boxes. Never run out of jewelry boxes! Or ribbon. Or tissue paper. Or actually *anything* you need… lol. Great advice, huh? But yes, it has been a little stressful, but everything’s done now… and I only have one order to send out tomorrow.

Oh – and if you’ve ever been a customer of mine, I’d just like to say thank you. And give you a big hug! I never thought I’d be able to make or sell anything, but this year has changed everything. It’s given me a big confidence boost, and I’ve met some lovely people through my shop and have had so many wonderful comments. So yes… thank you!

I don’t like to have photoless blog posts, so here’s a photo. It was taken in the summer last year, and it’s of Norwich Cathedral. They began building it in 1096 and it wasn’t completed until 1145! Norwich actually has two cathedrals, but the other one is much more depressing and grandiose – I like the one above much better. Anyway, now there’s a nice photo, I can go and try to relax. Wish me luck!