VICTORY~~!!!!!!!!!

Victory!  I have been telling my friends Leslie and Gina that they needed to read the Twilight Series and watch the first two movies since the third one is getting ready to come out.  I read the series right after Christmas and feel in love with the books.  Well I invited Leslie over to the house tonight to eat supper and I put Twilight in wile we were eating supper and she was instantly sucked in!  VICTORY!  Now I have someone to go and watch the thrid movie with.  June 30th...here I come!

Back Problems

Ok, so I have never had any type of back problem until last Thursday and it is killing me.  I now have a new respect for anyone who says that their back is hurting.  I did it while working out.  I don't know what I did but all I know is that it hurts.  It was starting to feel better on Monday so I made the stupid mistake of trying to cut grass and work out in the yard.  Well BIG MISTAKE!  I could hardly get out of bed this morning and I can't stand up straight.  Looks like it's going to be a long day!

I have went Resin Crazy!

So, I have went Resin Crazy! I have been trying out the new UV Resin that we got in a couple of weeks ago.  I have made quite a few pieces with the resin and have loved it.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love the Twilight Series.  My friend Leslie told me that I could go to etsy.com and purchase digital sheets of twilight clip art that are the size of a scrabble tile. I went online last night I purchased 8 different collage sheets and went to staples and had them printed out so that I would have some really good ink. Well...needless to say I have went a little crazy with them!

As you can see I have my UV light full with new pieces.  I am still trying to learn a few things about the Resin. The one thing I have yet to figure out is why certain shapes of the bezels create bubbles in the Resin as it cures. 

Here are a few of my finished pieces.

Mud Bones

Well yesterday was Monday and Sammy and I decided to go out and try a new Restaurant in town that we have never eaten at.  Last week was Barleys so this week we decided to try Mudbones in Spindale. I was really good.  The interior to the place was nice and the waitress was super sweet.  They had some great lunch specials.  Sammy got a pulled pork sandwich, french fries, and a drink for $5.00.  I got a hot dog, tater tots, and a drink for $5.00.  This is a great deal considering a chicken sandwich meal at Burger King right now is almost $7.00.  That's right....you can eat cheaper at a local restaurant than  you can at some fast food places.  Anyways, if you haven't tried it you really should because they had great food!

The bottom picture is a new pair of earrings that I made this week.  There is a new bead store in Spartanburg called Robins Bead Nest.  I visited it last week and purchased these plastic beads.  I stacked the blue flower on top of the brown one, put 2 different kinds of spacers on a headpin and stuck them through the center of both pieces to keep them together.  Even though these earrings are massive they are super light because of them being plastic.  Plus, I am the only human being on the planet right now to have a pair.  Ain't I just the luckest girl in the whole world?   :)

New Sandles!

So I hate hot weather but I love to wear sandles and flip flops.  These eare my newest pair. I bought them last week at Spindale Drugs new gift shop.  The medallions on the top are interchangable meaning that you can buy other medallions to go on top and store the others.  I love them!

I have been really busy the last couple of weeks trying to get the April Class schedule finished.  It seems like it takes forever to figure out what to teach.  I spend countless hours on the internet looking for fun ideas and hours coming up with projects of my own.  By the time I come up with one schedule, it seems like it takes me forever.  Not to mention that I am picky and I work and re-work the schedule to where I am happy with the times and happy with the fact that I think my customers will love the classes. I have written up all of the class descriptions and now Sammy is hard at work putting them all down on a calender and on the website.  Look for it later this week at http://www.offthebeadedpathbeadstore.com/

Barleys

So Sammy and I have tried to make a pact where we are going to try and eat at one locally owned restaurant a week instead of a chain restaurant.  Today for lunch we at Lunch at Barleys in Spindale.  They had some wonderful lunch specials for $6.00.  Above you will see my lunch special. You could get 2 slices of pizza and a drink for $6.00.  I, thinking the slices were going to be small, ordered the slices.  Well as you can see they were far from small. These things were massive!  I couldn't believe how huge they were.  I couldn't even eat once slice.  I had a whole piece left over so I took it to my mom for lunch.  You could basically feed two or three people with this meal.  They also had some other great specials.  Sammy got a sub special and he said that it was great.  If you get a chance I defently recommend Barleys.  I am not a drinking girl but if I was this was the place to be.  There bar looked amazing and I honestly think they had any beer you could possibly think of.  They also had a list of entertainment and it looked like they have a lot of nice bands coming in the next few weeks.  If you go on Wednesday you can get Green Beer!

After we left Barleys we went right next door to check out the new gift shop at Spindale Drug.  It is super cute!  I found a new pair of flip flops for the summer where they have extra embellishments you can buy to change the looks of your shows.  I also found a really cute headband with shiny's glued to it. You know I couldn't leave it there espically with my hair getting to the length where I can actually wear a headband.  I will post pics of my new shoes later on in the week. First I must get a pedicure done because I don't think my shoes will look good with my big toe still being a nice shade of black and purple from the log falling on it.  Until next time..bling me up!

UV Resin Bracelets

So this is what I have been working on this week.  We got in a great new UV resin a couple of weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to really do anything with it thus it hasn't really sold well.  So, I sat down this week and decided to make a few samples.  I made the first sample using copper Tierra Cast frames with copper chain, aquamarine bicones, gemstones, and copper beads.  I made a really full charm bracelet and lOVE IT!  Its so much fun to wear it because you get all kinds of questions about the piece and you get a chance to explain the people in the photo.  The second piece I made was again using the Tierra Cast frames but I used pictures from the wedding of a couple who goes to our church.  I made this bracelet simple and classic because I am going to give it to the wife as a gift for her birthday. 

If you have never used UV resin before you should defently give it a try.  Basically once you put your picture in the frame, you simply squeeze out the amount of resin you need in the frame.  You then put the piece in either a UV light for approximately 10 minutes or you can sit it out in the sunlight for a couple of hours.  Either way, you will get a nice hard cover over the picture and a permanent piece of art.  These mixed media pieces are so fun to make because they are one of a kind.  You can make memorial pieces to immortalize your loved one's who have passed on, you can remember important events from you life such as a wedding, graduation, shower and so forth, or you can put random pictures in the frames to create something that you will cherish.  These frames also make great gifts.  The person receiving these frames will think you paid a fortune to have these pieces made and they will be shocked to find out that you made then in 10 short minutes. 

I'm hoping that the weather will stay pretty today long enough for me to go and take a few pictures throughout town.  I would like to make a souviner bracelet or necklace with the frames of images from our town.  And you know that when Owls baseball starts I will have me a 2010 Owls bracelet. I think I may have just gone UV crazy! 

New Beads

So I stole this picture from one of my favorite beady friends Pauline. (HI PAULINE) I did it though to show you what fun beads she has been working on.  I'm sure this bead was inspired by her bird Ruby!  I love this bead and it gets my creative juices flowing.  It has been a semi-warm fews days here in Western NC and I have really been in the mood to make some spring inspired pieces.  This bead makes me want to be sitting on a warm beach somewhere in the tropics with a fruity drink in my hand and a bead tray in my lap. To see more of Pauline's work check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/paulanc

Getting Things Done!

So, last fall, Sharon and I went to a bead show in Asheville and I fould these really cute componants that were made by MyELEMENTS.  They are shrink plastic and they are sooooo cute!  I instantly fell in love with them and wanted to go home and do something with them immediately.  Only problem is..I didn't!  I brought them home and they sat on a shelf until today.  Today I finally got sick of looking at the mess on my bead table and decided to organize a little bit. And suprise suprise guess what I found?  My pieces.  So having left my tools at the shop, I borrowed Sammys tools and made 5 new pairs of really cute and unique earrings.  As all of you know I have an earring obsession and I just added these to my ever growing collection.  Thats ok thought bc I'm a woman and I have the right to have fetishes.

In other news....I have been really inspired to work on some new projects lately.  I was looking on the web this week and I found a ceramic sugar skull pendant that I liked.  Now, not knowing exactly what a sugar skull meant I started searching and found some really interesting info on sugar skulls and the day of the dead.  If you have never seen or heard of either, surf google and look them up. You will be quite suprised at what you find.  Along with the sugar skull that I still haven't ordered, I have been trying to get out of my crystal box that I live in and try a gemstone box for awhile.  I have been working on getting some new gemstones in the store and have found some really neat new pieces.  I am trying to transform the shop a little bit at a time.  I started out the year wanting to re-priortize my business and I have been successful so far.  I have been doing little things at a time so that It doesn't seem extreme to me or my customers.  This tactic has worked for me so far and I am going to continue to build on it.  I hope to have all the new changes made by the beginning of summer. At least that's my goal.

Sometimes I wonder...Is it worth it?

I love this picture. I loved my hair cut and I remember this being a really fun day at the shop.  Sammy tooks pictures of all of us to put on the website.  I guess this picture was taken sometime early spring last year.  Two things that I learn from this photo. One is that it's amazing how fast my hair can grow and Two it's amazing how much can change in one year, in my personal life and business.

Being a shop owner can be the best part of life and it can be hell.  I love my shop and I love my job.  I love being able to make my hobby into a living.  I love all of the new beads and findings that constantly come into the store and I love most of my customers.  They are the one's who can make my day great or not so great.  I have been in the hell part of the shop the last few weeks.  As the shop's six year anniversary rolls around my thoughts have been wondering over these years.  I remember when I first moved into our new building six years ago I started out with some of the greatest customers in the whole world.  Most of these customers became really good friends and mentors to me.  Along with the great one's though came some really bad ones and some that claimed to be my friend but it was only after the friendships ended that I realized that these people were only my friends for what I could give them or do for them.  It's hard to look back at the past because I feel let down by some people and I miss some of my old customers.  As we all know life throws us curve balls and we cannot always continue doing things we once loved to do. Some customers have really let me down because as soon as a new bead store came along they went a runnin to the new things. Some customers have gotten out of beading, and some have had medical issues that have caused them to not be able to bead right now.  But, some of my customers who were with me then are with me now and I still get to see their faces coming through the doors.  Along with them are new customers.  This is great but the only problem is that along with these new customers come new tastes.  My original customers loved seed beads and glass beads.  Thus my store is stocked with beautiful seed beads and glass beads.  But, my new customers are into gemstones, copper, mixed media, etc.  My problem is this.  With a store that is busting at the seams how do you keep your old customers and your new customers happy?  How do you add new things without upsetting your loyal customers who have been with you for six years? I guess I am going to have to start hanging things from the ceiling.

It has been funny watching customers the last few weeks.  We have started getting in some more gemstones and copper findings.  My original customers walk to the seed beads or crystals and don't even stop to look or think about the gemstones. My newer customers walk straight to the gemstones and don't even go to the part of the store where seed beads are at.  How do you correct this?