Just so you know & apologies to my friends

For those in the jewelry making communities, you may end up hearing a bit of bashing about some of us.

Please ignore it.

The hostess of the last bog hop had some emotional issues during the entire thing, and kept accusing people of attacking her or being rude to her.. which gave her license to attack them or be rude 'in return'.  I'm sure there were some that were, but I'm also sure now that it was in response to something she said, rather than just being rude from the start.

Since the majority of those IN the hop, and who were subsequent 'victims' of her rudeness, were involved because I brought this hop to their attention, some came to me in private about her replies to their questions. A simple note of ' I can't find my name on the hop list...', was met with a response of ' It's not my fault you can't follow the rules.', or something similar.  If anyone responded beyond that, she complained to the group that she was 'being attacked' by the person, or that they were being rude to her.

I got to read some of these comments and replies and trust me, the only attacking or rudeness in them were coming from her.

I had merely put it off to her being stressed. However, after other things have come up, I think her complaining afterwards is more of an attention/pity grab than anything else. So please, if you come across any posts from her bad mouthing others, or complaining about their treatment of her, take them with a spoon of salt, and ignore them. She's only putting it out there for the attention, so having her pity grabs ignored will be a far stronger response than any words could ever be.

Even more drama has enfolded since I wrote that comment at the end of my hop post. Indeed, my little comment at the end of the blog, the one that praised her for her organization of it, excused her rudeness as completely understandable stress, and simply suggested she try something smaller next time with a bit more work on people skills ( something every one needs work on at some point), inspired her to leap completely off the deep end.

She apparently posted on her fb page that she's never holding another hop. Then after that, she posted that she's giving up making jewelry because the beading community hates her. Apparently she even mentioned that she might find a different job because she currently works in a place that she might have to help or serve members of this community.

She also blocked me and several other people because we were 'attacking her'.

Obviously, she has issues above and beyond a bit of stress over a first hop, and being overwhelmed by it.

I'm not retracting anything I said. Indeed, the only times I've even even commented on it, were one post on my personal FB page ( where she wasn't mentioned by name ), and here on my OWN BLOG, -this post right here, where I haven't mentioned her name, and in the blog hop post, which I don't think was in any way 'rude' or 'attacking her'.

You may think my writing this is wrong, however I feel my NOT writing it would be wrong.

As I said, the majority of the people involved were in it because of me, in a way. They were subjected to her behavior and attitude, and subsequent 'bad mouthing' because they, like myself, saw it was her first hop, the next to non-existent participant list,  her low page view count on her blog, and decided to jump in and make it a good first first experience for her, and get her blog noticed.

Because we wanted to be nice and help her out, some of us are now being slandered by her going around saying we were rude to her and attacked her.

  It's to them I wish to apologize since most of you never would've dealt with her if I hadn't shared her link. My friends, I'm sorry I got you involved with someone who was rude to you.

Now, me personally, if I'm going to be blamed for something, screw it, I'll write this post and let everyone know what really went on... and give her something to actually bitch about :)

Will this stop me from doing the same thing again? Of course not. If I see someone just starting out struggling to get their blog noticed, or get a hop organized or something, I'll still share and help out... but I'll check out them out a bit first next time, to make sure they're not nut cases that will end up hurting people then claiming to be the victim.

Oh and before I sign off here, I'm going to say that, this post is more for those who WERE hurt by her treatment and comments. I personally find her response to my comment rather humorous. I've learned to not let the opinions of others matter to much to me - your opinion only counts in my book if

A) I asked for it, or

B) You're someone I respect or care about.

If you're some random person out slinging rudeness, you don't even enter my 'opinion' radar. It took me a while to get to that point and I have days when I crumble under it, bu for the most part, I'm a hell of a lot stronger than I used to be.

 That said, I find the fact that my  ONE COMMENT saying she did a great job but should brush up on her people skills... would inspire her to completely change her life and declare that an entire community hates her or is against her... very humorous.

But I can be a bitch when someone hurts my friends, so maybe it's just me :D lol

**EDIT - It appears she has left both Bead Soup Cafe and Creative Bead chat on facebook.

Year's End

This past year flew by so fast... I can't remember half of it, it just vanished so quickly.

One thing I remember, is that I started the year off feeling ill... and I'm ending it off the same way >.<

It did have it's good points though, make no mistake... for all the downs, there were some ups. I hope to continue the 'ups' into the new year, and leave this batch of downs behind ;)

My resolution for 2012 was to continue with my art and create so much on a monthly basis. That went not too badly for a few months until it died off. I did continue to create, but not within any timeline, for the most part.

2013 sees a similar resolution, only this time it's strictly for my jewelry. I joined a new group on facebook, The Year of Jewelry Project. The goal is a bit more ambitious than my previous one, with it being one piece a WEEK, however, I'm in a group so there is support should I seek it out, plus they offer a list of themes to help inspire you. 

As well, I discovered that opening my own shop isn't as financially unreachable as I'd been lead to believe, so I'll be using this 'challenge' to build enough stock to get that done :)

Oh, and I purchased a jewelry class online. It's mostly basic stuff, but I thought but would help me refine a few things and maybe learn different ways of doing things :)

I decided to do a 'year in review' kinda thing... but being me, I had to do it differently :) And so... a year of jewelry ( mostly... some aren't in there, and some... might be from last year... I 'think' I did them this year, but it went by so fast I can't remember >.< )

Some of those I've shown here... some I haven't :) Looking at the different backgrounds, I love the wood in natural lighting... not as much in artificial light. I rather like the black though... I think this year I'll have to consider ordering a light tent. I've tried some of the 'do it yourself' versions, but all have failed miserably >.< I can't follow instructions. I just can't. I NEED to take instructions and

 figure out how to do it my way... that doesn't work all the time ;)

Oh well.

And so, you've read all this way through and are no doubt wondering if I'm going to say who won December's F.F. giveaway....

... I guess so. I mean, you guys DID read all the way through this.. so.. you know...I suppose I could let you know that little bit of news... ;)

Out of 81 entries, Rafflecopter says the winner is #10

Kristi Jaro :D

Do I even need to remind you of the rules? lol You know the time limit by now, Kristi...give me a shout and crush everyone's hopes of a redraw ;)

I'll be posting a new giveaway on Friday, so be sure to pop back in and check it out :) Plus, I'm offering up a bundle of goodies to one lucky designer at the Bead Soup Cafe's 'Non-blogger/ blogger 3rd challenge, ' 'Fur'liz Navidad' .  It's a 'closed group', but everyone is welcome :)

Hope you all have a great night and enjoy ringing in the new year in whatever way you chose to :)