Previous Blog Entries

So… I can get into the "pity party" mode on occasion, but then I hear about something that someone else is going through and I think how really lucky and fortunate I am.

Recently a friend/acquaintance of mine, Lynn Richards, broke her arm in three places. Can you imagine? Talk about major ouch! The thing is, not only is it painful and inconvenient, she is a glass artist so now her livelihood is put on hold. Her good friends at Lampwork Etc. are organizing auctions and other things to help raise money for Lynnie's expenses and I'm trying to help… a modest but heartfelt attempt to raise donation money for Lynnie… please have a look:

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Unsolicited Advice to eBay Sellers

I believe in the past I've mentioned my uncertainty regarding whether or not to talk about and/or expose things in my life or my mind and what impact, if any, it might have on my business/sales/customers/etc.

But I saw something recently that just screams "I need to rant and I don't care who I rant to so everyone listen up and if this doesn't make you want to come and buy my jewelry then so be it". Eeeeeeeeeee!!! If you have to be a biatch, don't do it where you work. Okay, end of Laura-rant. J

Check it Out

I recently happened to catch a small post on the SRAJD forum about one of our members having a sale. Wow, I am SO GLAD I went to check it out. I just got the goodies in the mail today and WOW!!! Let me share her with you now: Crafts by Chris

Wanna see a couple of other really cool sites? This person paints on maps… you must see their work. And this one does paper cut-outs.

Sales

Yeah! I had a sale from this (BrackenDesigns) website today. Sorry, but I make a lot more sales through eBay than I do through here (no surprise; they have huge foot traffic), so it's always exciting when I get a sale straight from the store. And it usually behooves the customer too because I can charge less for the same items since there's no overhead (listing fees, sales fees, gallery fees, etc).

Upcoming Project

Oh, I'm totally excited about receiving an email from someone I sent a note to the other day (although he sounds as busy as I am). I mentioned to you that I wanted to do a series of jewelry based on the paintings of Lady Frieda Harris. Well, this guy, Claas Hoffmann, wrote an article and posted it to the internet. It's: Projective Synthetic Geometry in Lady Frieda Harris' Tarot Paintings and in Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law. Boy, after reading that I'm even MORE excited about starting this project. Of course, holding and looking at the cards, I feel a smidge intimidated. I mean, I'm used to being an intuitive artist/creator… I'm not used to following any kind of pre-thoughtout ideas, plans, or designs. Keep your fingers crossed!

Hockey

Monica had a great time in Fresno this past weekend. She and Taylor both played, and the girls won both Saturday's and Sunday's games.

Gabe thought he had no hockey this weekend because it was a by-week for the Midget 16's, his dad doesn't let him do the Dublin pick-up games on Saturday night (although the guy complimented Gabe again when he called asking for him this week), and we were too late trying to sign him up for the CAHA pre-select camp tryouts in Vacaville. But he got a pleasant surprise when the Midget-18's asked if he could fill in for Teddy, who was sick. He went and had a great time. I am so grateful to the 18's for being nice so him even though he's only a first year 16.

I'm struggling a little to figure out what my goalies are doing this weekend. There are two goalie camps at the same time. ARGH! As someone who's always on the lookout for goalie instruction for the kids, you have no idea how frustrating it is to see two camps on the same weekend (and then nothing else the rest of the season).

Jewelry

I have about 15 pieces to list, but I discovered that I can't get away with taking pictures NOT setting up my photo set-up. Hmph! So tonight, while I'm struggling with five custom orders I'll also try to get pix and then can start listing again. Some of the upcoming pieces are quite nice… like this:

It's just an icky picture. L

Beady Jam

Alex and Patrice and I are trying to get together. Maybe this Friday.

Okay, I'd better go now.

TTYL!

For anyone whose email I haven't responded to yet: Things that take up Laura's time

Friday, December 14, 2007

Ha ha ha! That last entry was lame. I was going to talk all about how I want to catch up with people, respond to emails and all that. ROFLOL… sigh…

The Jewelry Business

So, I started a new site for advertising self-representing artists. So far the response has been really awesome. I'm not able to send out too many invites, though, as I don't want to overwhelm the site straight off the bat. I'm limiting it (right now) to 20 new ads per month. It will premier in January 2008, but if you wanna see what it looks like right now: SRA Jewelry

In other news, some of you know (but most of you don't) that a year ago I mentioned on the Etsy forums that I was closing my Etsy shop because the effort required to market it properly wasn't something I could afford at the time. I mean, if I already had eBay (which brings in the traffic for me without me having to do any marketing) and my own website (if I'm going to spend time marketing something… duh!... it would be my own website) why would I need a third site that required me to bring in my own traffic and then went ahead and took fees from me?

Anyway, I was completely lambasted in public for that. And I say "in public" because in private I got ten times the responses that I got in public, but in private people were sending me cyber high-fives. They felt exactly as I did, but they knew better than to say anything in the forums.

Why? Because there are a handful of outspoken bullies and just plain mean people dominating the Etsy forums and they totally eclipse the hundreds of really nice Etsy shop owners.

But that's life.

What brought this up today (in my mind) was this thread: "I'm Leaving. Are you?"

You can blast me all you want about my Etsy nay-saying, but you might want to know that I am in the majority with my opinion.

I only wish I could post quotes from the hundreds of comments I've received from Etsy shop owners who feel the same way I do, but I believe that crosses the line of private communication.

On the Hockey Front

I wasn't able to get Gabe into the NorCal Pre-Select Camp Tryouts because I waited too long and they filled up. Just one of the hazards of dual custody. I didn't want to pay my non-refundable fee for Gabe to go and then find out his dad wouldn't let him go ('cause he likes to wait until the last minute before making any decisions regarding what hockey events the children are allowed to go to on his custody time) because I've been there and done that before. Christmas is right around the corner and money can't just be flung around into the wasteland.

Oh, speaking of money and Christmas and hockey, the kids ARE going to their usual Christmas present… ProFormance Goalie Camp. But what I wanna know is: How come goalies are virtually ignored all year and then all the freakin' goalie camps are on the same weekend in December so that they can't attend them all!? ARGH!

Life in General

I am proud of my dorky self for actually taking care of a few things I have been procrastinating on. I went to the bank, I went to the pharmacy, I paid my parking ($100 a month… ouch!), and I edited one of Mike's reviews. Everything went pretty smoothly too. Does that make up for the fact that earlier in the day I was choking on an Excedrin Migraine pill for about 30 seconds and absolutely DID NOT want to have to get one of my co-workers to Heimlich me? Blah! That's the second time one of those darn things has gone down sideways. Sheesh! And I've noticed (like when I'm sick) when I have a severe coughing fit I get this weird (and equally severe) pain in the muscles of my arms and throughout my back… like my coughing is shooting some toxin into my body. Ugh!

Upcoming Projects

Here's one I've wanted to do for awhile. I want to make a series based on the paintings of Lady Frieda Harris that she did for Aleister Crowley's Thoth tarot deck. My feelings on the subject, however, are too immense for words (or words that I can find, anyway), so I'll just leave it at that and keep my fingers crossed that I can do even a percent of what I plan.

Well, lots to do so I'd better sign off for now. TTYL!

For anyone whose email I haven't responded to yet: Things that take up Laura's time

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hm… really feels more like Thursday today. Oh well.

Today's keyword is "communication". I am going to try to catch up on some overdue communication today.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Hockey

Kind of a fun weekend, but I missed my buddy. L

Gabe's team played twice and won both games. Yay! The second game was a shutout. Double yay!

This Saturday, unless they're full, Gabe will be going to the NorCal Selects Tryouts in Vacaville.

Monica's team (girl team) had one game. They won, but Monica wasn't happy about one of the two goals she let in. Each one is something you can learn from, though. The other goalie and their family really bailed us out this weekend by taking care of Monica on Sunday. I'm glad all the girls on the team get along. They're a great bunch of kids!

Monica's boys' team lost BIGTIME (again), 13-0. Monica wasn't there to witness or participate in that debacle. I sincerely think there is a problem with the system if a team's season games go like this:

5-1

2-0

6-0

14-0

12-0

13-0

(these are all losses)

And because NorCal deemed them an "A" team, they also have to play all tournaments as an A team. Our first tournament:

6-1

5-1

7-2

5-2

Don't get me wrong, I've had my children on plenty of losing teams, and by "losing" I mean they went all season without a win. But I believe something is intrinsically amiss if a team plays all season without the belief that they can win at least one game. The chance to win must be there.

If a team is winning every single game in their division, they should be playing in the next division up. If a team is losing every single game in their division, they should be playing in the next division down. Even if that means sending teams to double-A and/or sending teams to in-house.

Each team that plays in a NorCal season should feel that there are at least a couple teams in their division that they can compete evenly with.

And… as I catch up with way old hockey news and updates that should have gone out to the team ages ago… and think of everything else I'm behind in like that, it reminds me that I was going to sketch out a little scenario for anyone wondering why I don't always do the things I'm supposed to do (or that others THINK I'm supposed to do).

Things that take up Laura's time.

Monday, December 3, 2007

The Big Day

It kinda went how I thought it might. Kinda… Max's lawyer was in court somewhere else so it was just Max and me there. When they called our names, the judge asked us if we had a mediation appointment. Max stated that we did and it was for December 9^th. I then asked if I could respond to that and went on to explain that the last court order we had stated that the next time either party wants a change in custody we need to go to Dr. Fallin for an evaluation. The judge (actually, the commissioner, but I don't know the difference… she was filling in for the judge so had the same authority) said she had no clue why that was ruled last time, but since it was there, she ordered us to go to Dr. Fallin. Whew… and Yay! Dr. Fallin is one of the few people I've met in all our court issues who I've ever felt really had the kids' best interests at heart. I trust him to do right by them. Our review is set for January 24^th; hopefully he'll be able to fit us in before that.

BTW, I'm not pushing, I'm not fighting, and I'm not arguing. I want to go with the flow of the universe, especially on this matter.

Feng Shui

So I'm reading another book on the subject (did I already mention that?). And there's an interesting part about teens. One, the book says if they want to surround themselves with the color black, let 'em. Black is an introspective color and it probably means they're trying to learn about themselves. The other thing I found interesting in light of the fact that most if not all of Feng Shui is about rules and certain ways things need to be, etc. It said let teens arrange their furniture and their surroundings any way they like, regardless of good Feng Shui placement and order.

Also, I don't have the book on me at the moment (and I'm not the best paraphraser), but I wanted to mention a part that really FIT me and some of my issues (aka "problems"). It was about de-cluttering and how you may have things that you want to get rid of but you think they're still too good to just throw out, so you make a section or pile or whatever of all this stuff that you're going to take to a consignment store or list on eBay or have a garage sale for. Well, that's NOT a good thing to do. They say, just put the stuff in bag and/or boxes and give it to charity/goodwill. Because otherwise, it just sits in your house and continues to be clutter, organized or not. OMG, that is SO true.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff…

This is another book I'm flipping through. I'd say "reading", but it doesn't seem like what I do really constitutes reading. To me, "reading" is when you have more than five minutes at a time to sit down with a book, and you read it from start to finish not bits and pieces here and there with you re-reading the same paragraphs over in most cases 'cause you forgot where you left off or because someone was interrupting you while you were trying to read.

Creative Stuff

Here's a bracelet I made that used a skill or method that I hope to get better at. This one came out too large (in my opinion) and although I'm not opposed to things not being PERFECT in jewelry art, I would have liked it to be a smidge less wonky-looking. Still, I am okay with it as a first attempt.

Oh, here are two dainty gemstone and sterling charm bracelets (Tourmaline and Amethyst/Garnet):

And two very chunky bracelet sets:

And then one last necklace with Alex's great beads:

Remember, you can click on any of those pictures to be taken to the eBay listing.

Hockey

Gabe had a game in Fresno. I wasn't there, but it sounds like his team did well. They lost 3-0 against an undefeated team. Goals against the Bears in the four times they've played the Fresno team have been 8-7-4-3 (in that order).

Monica didn't play the U14 game on Sunday morning, but she was there. Taylor had the game and I think it was one of the best performances I've seen from Taylor. We tied 2-2. Catherine Romanchuk tutored me in the fine art of filling out the score-sheet, so now I no longer have an excuse for avoiding that task. Ha!

In the afternoon, Mon did get to play half a game with her Bear's team. They got smoked and although I thought Monica did well under the circumstances, she was not happy about letting in 6 out of the 14 goals. She is starting to get a little bit of the "want" to win attitude. I mean, she always wants to win, but now it seems more important to her.

And then last night she mentioned to me that her SJ coach said he's going to announce a starter goalie on Dec 20^th. Monica is totally freaked about this. She wants to play; she doesn't want to be a back-up goalie. Like I tell both the kids: "If you want that position, you can only do one thing to get it… work hard and earn it."

And I believe in both kids very much in a variety of aspects, but additionally in their ability to perform well as goalies. Which reminds me, I just sent the paperwork in for their Christmas present (the same thing it is EVERY year… goalie camp).

Darnit! I just looked at the schedule for this weekend. Mon and Gabe have games at the same time on Sunday. I'd really like to see both games. It will be a tough decision.

Health

I had kind of a neat breakfast this morning. Nothing overly stuffed-inducing but enough to hold me over. It was bone-in sardines and cheddar cheese on Triscuit crackers with smoked almonds, a tangerine and a square of chocolate.

Tomorrow, I have to go to the hardware store. I'm thinking of walking there on my lunch hour.

Okay, I'd better go now. I realize I didn't say too much about the book I'm flipping through (how do you like that? It's more realistic than if I said "the book I'm reading"). Maybe tomorrow.