Hey, I won something!!

In the monthly drawing at Rings & Things! Check out my goodies! I know those beads are going to be great in earrings and I'll have to make some pendants to match , too. If you're not a Rings & Things Blog Partner, Here's how to become one . As a blog partner, you get the chance to win a package of goodies and then you can review them on their website, each review gets you a chance to win $50.

I think they're even in town today...gotta see if I can get over a check out what they have!

Wordpress on a hosted site....

Hubby and I have a couple of websites we registered last year for safe keeping, one is his landscape and pool service company, The Plant Managers,  here in Mesa, Az, one for Desert Rubble of course, and one for my lovebird breeding. Pretty much that was all we did last year, got them registered. This year I decided it was time to at least secure hosting so we could something with them, so we did and I decided to go with GoDaddy. Their deluxe hosting can be used on all the websites you have registered with them and when you pay for a longer term than a year, our hosting works out to $5 a month, getting 3 websites hosted. I'm thinking that's a pretty good deal.

But the whole process has been an ordeal and it's only been about a day and a half so far. From getting the old economy hosting off the websites and adding the real hosting, figuring out what password to use where, just figuring out how to get around and find what I need in all the multutudes of places there are that you can end up. Seems there are way too many menus all spread out and too many passwords for this that and the other, and the user name is never what you thought it was when you set it up!

This is all so not for the faint of heart. Or maybe it's just GoDaddy that isn't for the faint of heart? And I still am not getting to my wordpress admin page, sigh. I have a feeling once I get there it will start to all go downhill, I mean it's wordpress, right, it must be somewhat similar to the wordpress hosted free blogs, it has to be. And then there's the waiting anytime you made a change. Right now I'm waiting.....I had the primary site forwarded and I guess that was preventing me from getting to my wordpress admin page, I changed that, now I wait.

Wish me luck!

Obligatory photo......

 

Steampunk Charm in Polymer Clay w/Watch Gear in Metallic Gold, Silver

Click to go to the gallery pages on my website

Steampunk Street was a blast!

The costumes were out in full force and I wished I had been able to go check out the other vendors and the art exhibits, I know it must've been awesome, but it was an awesome crowd! I didn't sell as much as I'd hoped but got out a ton of business cards, so that rocks =)

The weather was icky, windy =( And I forgot some of my canopy weights! Jeff had to go back home to get them which left me super behind in getting setup but he was a trooper and helped once he got back with the weights. With my lights and sidewalls up my booth was I think the one respite from the cold and wind =)

My cool new steampunk pieces were a big hit with the crowd which rocks because they were by far the closest I have come to producing truly steampunk work, so I couldn't be happier with that. I didn't sell as much as I wanted but for a 4 hour street fair, but I had really good traffic and got out a lot of business cards, truly my main goal. The organizer for Wild West Con was there and mentioned the 2012 Steampunk show in Tuscon (he'd been keeping his eye open for artists he'd like to see there) and told me how awesome my work was and that I should set up as a vendor next year. I don't know if I could handle the logistics of that (3 days, I don't have a helper, can hubby feed the birds?), but the validation couldn't be more amazing!

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes and thanks to all those that visited my booth, you were all so awesome!

Click to see what's available in my online shop!

Steampunk Street!

Tomorrow night in Downtown Mesa, Part of Main Street will be turned into Steampunk Street as part of Mesa's 2nd Friday Sci Fi theme for April 8. And I'll be there! Have been really busy trying to get things made for it and trying to get my booth a better appearance.

In doing all this I totally realize how horrible I am at time management and I know I get so scattered when I have no focus, so it's so awesome for me to get back into doing second Fridays, it gives me a set goal that I can't fudge!

So I did get a lot done! I made little lock and key charms, screw head buttons, lots of small industrial scrap pendant, some uber cool steampunk/goth hearts that I so love! And some really cool steampunk pieces. All these pieces were on the fly, too, no doodles to go by and I love when I work like that, ti's so awesome.

So here's a pic of a bunch of my new goodies! If you're local I hope you can drop by and check them out and say Hi, I would love it =)

Find cool pendants available in my online shop by clicking here =)

Steampunk Dragonflies!!

A lot of you may not have seen my dragonflies before now but one of the first things I made with polymer clay was a steampunk dragonfly! Well my little shop ran out and it was time to make a few and here they are, I'm loving the swirls in case you didn't see the fish with them lol

Find so many cool dragonfly pendants in my gallery.

 

And something I made for a friend.....anyone know what this is?! Or, um, what it's supposed to be lol

Technicolor Fishies!!!

I love the new colorful fishies!!! They're not entirely finished, they still need a sealer, but I love, love, love these! 

 I hated making them......I have a bunch of Premo I need to use up then I'm switching back to all Kato....I hate Premo! It's just so darned soft yet so much harder to smooth than Kato, I love the firmness of Kato, it makes handling piece while you're working on them so much easier and just plain doable. I'll be glad when the Premo is gone, guess I'd better start using colors lol

 

steampunk angelfish pendants 

Here's a link to my Streampunk Fish page in my gallery 

Don't forget to check my shop for fish pendants, too

Fishies!!!!

I know a lot of you don't follow my Facebook or Flickr and I really should make more of a point to post my new work here, too...am gonna work on that! On that note, I wanted to show off my new fishies! I am looking forward to making lots of these, they were so much fun and are going to be so versatile =) And no, the hinges don't work lol

 

A steampunk piranha

 A steampunk angelfish

 

Check out my shop for available pendants by clicking here! 

 

 Some cabochon and bead sets I made yesterday, the one with the beads has quite a few imperfections on the beads....am thinking will be a good giveaway item =) Am getting better at making beads though!

And check out these beauties I won on fellow Smoosher B-Lee Kreations Blog during her giveaway when she hit 15k visitors! She sure does some lovely work, doesn't she?

Thanks for stopping by!

Lynn

Life and all that goes with it!

There's always so much to do, isn't there? So many things to take care of and get done, and lists, omg I have lists for everything from stuff I need from the store to things I still want for selling at craft fairs. There are lists laying everyone, even my husband has them laying everywhere, this morning he exclaimed that he'd lost a house, crap! How do you lose a house? lol It was all good, but a strange thing to hear. He's started a small landscape and pool service company and I figure it is definitely growing if he lost a house. But it was buried under his lists lol My pile of lists is far more disorganized and messy, so I'm not even going there.

So, life, there it is, it's just busy and a but frazzled and that's OK You get stuff done when you can and I'm still working on finishing my items that I need to list! Hopefully today I will have some new very cool things in the shop =) I did get the other things in the shop though, Am up to 75 items!!!

Thor's Hammer

And life brings surprises! Sometimes timing is everything. If you've been following me you know I haven't been doing this long and there are many others who deserve to be on the front cover of Polymer Cafe, but fate stepped in. I was so honored to be featured on Polymer Clay Daily but it was so much more than that, the timing was uncanny. Joan Clipp just happened to be looking for the subject of a feature for Polymer Cafe on that very day. So that's how it happened and it's an amazing thing and I am flabbergasted to be in the magazine much less on the cover. You can find my first tutorial in this issue, too, so please check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lynn
Don't forget to check out my shop!

I know it's been awhile, but I am working on some new things!

It's good to be getting new things done, too!  I went for a long spell where I was really not feeling well and felt lucky to not be throwing up really, not to mention a nice little bout of depression, don't we all love those? It took a while to gather my wits about me, that's why I had time to get the hubby to help me build a new work table and to get organized lol But I think I may finally be back in a groove, or I hope so anyways, I really want to start growing an inventory so I can do some of these  local street shows!

Anyways, I don't love them all, some of them I did to help try and get my creative juices flowing and I can tell they weren't quite flowing yet on those =( But then I started having fun...I like those piece MUCH more!

They aren't finished, not even remotely, they need a sealer still and some of these puppies are getting chains, beads, turned into earrings, whatever. Most of these are just new ones of what I've made before...next time I'm hoping to have more entirely new pieces, that would rock. I gotta keep reminding myself to make new stickpins, too!

Thanks for looking and have an awesome weekend!

Browse through the pages in my gallery section to see these finished pendants and earrings!

Getting Organized.....

And Staying Organized!

Something I'm working on and I think it's working. Recently I got DH to help me make a new work table and I gathered some things to help get things more organized and still keep them handy while I'm working. That's the hardest part, I want EVERYTHING to be handy while I'm working. I've only sat down to make things a couple times now but I am staying far more organized now than before....and I'm actually putting things back where they belong, how cool is that?! See my super cheap lightbox on the right, yep, that's where I take my pics, nothing fancy. Here's a link to my post with more pics of it

I think by far the best part of the table is that it's deep, so I have plenty of work room and more room beyond that, I'm loving all that room. I made a super easy shelf for that space, too, more easy access space where I can grab things from quickly. I got a bunch of plastic storage drawers from craigslist for cheap. Some of the drawers have other things inside to keep them organized like cutlery trays or just plastic boxes. I picked up an ice cube tray for my tools and I think I'm in love with it, it totally rocks.

 A super quick and simple to make holder for pliers and stuff, these would normally be everywhere whether I was using them or not lol

I use a lot of different craft boxes and tackle boxes for my cutters now and for my beads, charms, and findings. BTW Hobby Lobby has their cookie cutters on sale right now everyone! These tiny cutters are normally $.50 but they are 30% off right now. So handy for making odd shapes =)

I'm not 100% there but I am far more organized than I was, and it makes everything so much easier.

Kutter Home Found!

For now......all my little cutters fit in a little craft storage box! And all the Kemper sets get to sit together and I have quick access to all of them at once, I love that. And I already had it, even better! Now y'all are thinking I'm nuts having seen all my little cookie cutters but I like to use shapes, maybe I haven't used them so much thus far but I also feel like I really haven't made a substantial amount of work either =) I have a tutorial in the April issue of Polymer Cafe where you can see how I use different cookie cutters for different shapes, they're so versatile.

My First Kemper Kutters!

My arsenal of polymer clay tools is starting to grow! I found a garage sale this morning that was all crafts and it was a ton of crafts, too, let me tell you. We all do this, right? Get interested in a craft and start collecting things we KNOW we'll need for it and maybe never use 1/4 of the stuff we 'had to have.' Who among hasn't got a stash packed away and most of it still in it's package? I for one have a huge stash of cross stitch stuff I am not willing to part with, including several huge Teresa Wentzler kits that I look forward to doing one day. Anyways, there was a bucket full of polymer clay stuff with 6 new sets of Kemper Kutters!

And this totally cool set of sculpting tools made by Kens Tools. I tried to get a decent close up of these tools so you can see them. Not sure what these will do on polymer clay but I'm sure I'll love them =)

So, now, how does everyone store their Kemper Kutters?! I saw where some make a polymer clay sheet, stick the cutter in it, then bake. Any other ideas?

Looking For Some Inspiration?

Look no further because here it is!

Metamorphosis

Kazuhiko Nakamura

Simply amazing and utterly inspirational. Click on the artists name to go to his website, a must to see the rest of his work and how it comes about.

A New Year!

For the first time in a long time I find myself taking a moment to look back and to look forward, instead of sitting still. I look at the past year, at what I've accomplished and I'm amazed! This past year has been a new beginning for me. I found something I love and that I can be a part of. After realizing just how bad my circulation was and why I felt so poorly, I am now in the best physical shape of my adult life.

And I'm looking forward with new goals in mind, at what I might accomplish in the new year and it's exciting. Very soon I want to have 100 items in my darned shop lol but I'd love to get it up to 300, but not because nothing is selling lol I hope to continue to challenge myself, improve my execution, and to get farther out of the creativity box. I'd love to start working on a local presence, as well...need inventory for that!

I want to keep getting into better shape and keep feeling better.....and if I could actually slim down some, too, that would rock! I want to really start narrowing down my lovebird stock and start making some awesome pairs.

More than anything I want to stay motivated and focused, those are tough.