Challenge Check In #3

*phew!*

Okay... once again I barely made my challenge! >.<

Seriously..I like JUST finished the third pair of earrings about ten minutes ago then took the photos.

Of course, in my defense, this week has been spent working with my writing muses... when not fighting with my sewing needle and the stupid 'not-yet-stuffed-almost-plush-cat' >.<


To prove this 'not-yet-cat' actually exists and isn't just an excuse....here ->

The face is stitched, the stripes are stitched on the back of the head, the tail and the ears are finished... and the rest of the red bits are the body and feet.


Alright... now that you've seen the stupid cat >.<  How about my challenge pieces for this week?

Blue shell beads glued onto star washers. They're about the size of a dime.

The red ones were supposed to be for a gift, but lately every time I aim for steampunk...I come up more goth O.o I have another pair coming that is sticking to more steampunky, but there's a lot of gluing involved so...maybe they'll end up finished next week... these are made from a pair of bead caps that I flattened and hung some dark red crystals from :)


The blue pair is the one I finished last minute >.< blue buttons & silver jump rings.





and there... managed to scrape through another week >.<  although this week I have two other pairs of earrings in the works...they just didn't get any where near finished ;)


For an extra treat, I decided to feature a very talented photographer over at DeviantArt . She's received very little notice  for her work and I think she deserves a  lot more :)  Pop in and take a peek at the pictures I've selected to show, or follow her link through to her own gallery to see more :)  Feature: Embersadrift

FF- another Destash update

Another Friday has snuck up on me  >.<

And for the record... once again I STILL don't have any jewelry made towards my challenge yet, despite plans and ideas. I DO however have tomorrow off, so assuming I don't get distracted and/or lazy again, I should be okay :)

I am still working on that stupid stuffed cat I had the *brilliant* ( extremely heavy sarcasm) idea to make for a gift exchange >.< I have the tail finished, the ears finished ... and the face sewn. Just gotta get it put together fully. Was going really good tonight until I suddenly stopped and realized...I had no clue how to get my ears where I needed them to be so they'd flip right when I turned everything right side out...*sigh* I know now, but...I don't wanna sew NOW >.< ( I was whining there... did you hear me? ;) )

Next time I get this urge to sew... please, please PLEASE some one tell to to at LEAST stick to something made of the fewest pieces possible? I mean...if I'd done this in two pieces, I have had NO trouble at all. But no... I had to be fancy >.<  Grr... if it didn't mean another trip to the store for more red felt, I'd totally start over and do it EASIER!! Hmm.... maybe tomorrow depending on the weather and how much I get accomplished jewelry wise.

Any how, apologies for the late post... even though it IS still Friday ;) I was going to post earlier this afternoon, but I got distracted, but hey ! I'm here now :)

And... here you go...

I believe these little tube beads mark the last of the beads for the destash. I'll be going through my pendants and charms next and will no doubt have a few to add in to the lot before I tally up all the comments and find out who I send them all to :)

Oh, and thanks to everyone for hoping my week got better. I'm happy to report that it definitely perked up :). While I'm sad to say it didn't perk up enough for me to win heaps of money and retire somewhere WARM, I'm over the crap; and while still prone to bouts of irritation over a certain young lady and her 'helping', that's reaaaaly nothing new ;)

I'm off to snuggle up under my warm fuzzy blankets and listen to music until I fall asleep :) I'll check in with you all again on Sunday :)

~ Skye

Challenge check in #2

Sunday again. And once again I barely made my challenge deadline >.< thanks the stars I left myself that easy out of earrings and other small stuff being alright or I'd have failed miserably by now *sigh*  I should just rename Saturday as 'Scramble-day' since that's when I rushed to make all three pieces for my challenge >.<

Is that not terrible? What should be a fairly ease thing for me to do with a whole week to get them done... and I still end up doing it last minute >.<  I had ideas for stuff, and indeed, I wanted to do a piece for the ABS monthly challenge, but :p, nope. Not this week anyhow.

I did decide to do something a bit different since I was going with just earrings. I followed a quick tutorial from Fanciful Devices on 'making' artisan ear wires *snicker* love this little cheat and I think they look so much better! As well, both Fanci and Sparrow Salvage post earrings I adore. And while I haven't even attempted to try my hand at stuff along their style ( although I love it and it looks like a crap load of fun to make ;) ) I decided to keep it low key this time and just try one little aspect of it... the mis-matched pair. 

I pulled out some lampwork and ceramic beads I've had for ages and never used and got to work. Oddly enough, the three pairs I chose were all in the same color range...

The top pair is the most of the mis-matched , with the order of the beads reversed.

The next just has the seed beads colors reversed for a more subtle difference. I rather liked the ceramic focals here... they're a coffee tone with orange.. the scribbles look almost like Japanese writing but I don't think it is.. just artsy scribbles
.

The bottom pair isn't mis-matched at all ...I don't know why I didn't... maybe because it's all mixed media? lol Ceramic focals, wooden spacers and gem stone chips lol

As for my art part of the challenge... still zip on that front. Unless you count the red cat plushie I have sitting here in pieces. I DID design it, make the pattern myself and have it all cut out ready to put together. The face and stripes are sewn on and everything. I just kinda hit a snag of forgetting the pipecleaners to make the tail and ears positionable back when I started sewing, and then by the time I bought them, the sewing urge had abandoned me >.< If I get it done soon and it looks as good as I hope it will, then maybe I'll count it this month, simply because I did design it from scratch.

As to WHY I haven't done anything creative this week? Well.. I DID do quite a bit of writing... just nothing else. For those who don't know I write and have a website dedicated to my 'world' and characters, I do :) lol Hunter's Prey  .

~ ~

Okay...after writing it all, I decided to zip back up here and post a warning. This marks the end of jewelry/rational stuff. 

The rest of this post is dedicated to a massive whine/rant/bitch fest that you are in no way expected to actually read. Please feel free to skip to the comment form concerning the challenge bit if you'd like or just leave all together :) I'm perfectly fine with that. If you do chose to continue, I apologize in advance. I did try to not swear but... sometimes there are no other words to fully express it.

 ~ begin rant ~

 'Hunter's Prey' began as one story about six or so years ago. I'd just kicked my hubby out and had dived back into doing all the stuff I loved that he'd ruined for me with his attitude. Some friends did some fun little group writing projects to fight off the boredom of school work and life crap so I decided to start one. I created a world and story base to jump from, peopled it with some characters lead by a remake of an old character I'd made years before but not gotten to use much, then they all joined in. The story exploded with new characters and twists appearing, and branched off into a multitude of back stories and side stories. 
Within a couple months I'd started a website to house all the work so others could enjoy it too.  The website was intended to be run by two of us, the main writers, since the others were immersed in schoolwork and had enough trouble finding time to write, let alone help with the editing and site work. However, over the years I have received very little in the way of help with it. Plenty of new writing and art work, but very little edited work to post and no site work at all. Tons of excuses though; everything from a computer that won't access the website, to various other computer and internet issues.

Finally I decided it was for the best since their versions of 'editing' and MY version of editing were two completely different creatures... and their spelling was scary >.< I have a massive back log of writing to just spell check before I can even begin to consider editing it to make it remotely readable. If you read any of the stuff on the site  you'll begin to see what I mean. Group stories are difficult to edit together into one work so I try to piece the various parts together and nail as many of the spelling errors as possible into a rough draft that is at least readable. Even so, a lot got past me in the early days of posting them up >.< You'll also be able to pick out the stuff that others 'edited' for me... the ones where every other paragraph is taking place with a different set of characters or a different location and your brain is kinda jumping around to keep track of it all >.< 

Last year I had reached the point where I was so extremely pissed off over it that I couldn't write and was ready to let the site die. The rest of the group had vanished so it was just the two of us for the most part, and I was told about all these 'fans' who loved the stuff and wanted more, and what great reviews our work got. Turns out, while I'm working my ass of trying to edit these stories into readable works before posting them on a website I'm paying for to host them... she's off tossing the rough work up on other sites to be read. I felt like she was completely screwing me over and wasting my time and money. We ended up coming to an agreement after I'd cooled off ( luckily I try to make it a point to fume and growl in private or in venues where the person pissing me off won't hear or see until I'm calm enough to approach them reasonably over it ) and it was decided that I would renew the website on a three month trial.. which would be renewed into another year IF she started helping spell checking everything and doing at least rough edits for me... and to stop undermining my work with the site by posting everything all over the place. She could post teasers to draw people into the site for the rest, but not post the full work.

Then nothing.
First she couldn't do anything because she was working two jobs to save money ( great... no problem with that since it was much needed and a long time coming for her! I was more then willing to continue carrying things for a while longer if that was the reason.) Then she mentioned a bus trip across the country to spend a week with some mutual friends and attend a convention... then I hear next to nothing from her for a month, then the next thing I know she's stranded because plans changed and her dad decided he'd drive her and visit family while she was there... and they ran out of money and gas >.< Okay... lack of writing help understandable again.  
Then a couple weeks later when they get money again and they've had their little vacation.. do they head back home? Nope.. they continue on with the traveling to go see his family.. and the same shit happens. By the time they get home, they hock the computer again for money to get through the rest of the month. During this time I get word that they're selling their place and moving to another State. Her parents were getting an apartment in a complex and she was going to stay with her cousin until she got a place of her own. Now they're staying with mutual friends, not even in the same State as they were moving too, because her parents are on a waiting list, and she claims she never planned on staying with her cousin. 

The whole family is completely irresponsible, both financially and personally... I'd thought she was breaking free of the crap they'd been doing to get by month to month and she WAS making a difference... but now she's dived head first into her fathers irresponsible attitude >.< The way she acts reminds me more and more of my ex ( whom she couldn't stand, btw ). 

This week I found myself getting pissed off  again. Every time I dropped into our work forum and saw her name listed as having been into the site, but seeing nothing added by her, It bugged me more and more. This kind of stuff will go on for a week or more, then she'll leave a few little bits, then vanish again for another week or so. I just got extremely ticked off over her vanishing acts and refusal to do so much as to leave a note or email or facebook message saying that she was busy or not feeling up to writing. And she never responds to emails either >.<  

I decided that enough was enough. Since the group no longer exists and it's just the two of us, the group name is coming off the site. I created an original world with original characters and almost everything in the stories revolves around them. Her characters are based off of game characters or movie characters and she's just changed them around a bit... and she keeps using story lines from movies and games as well...its driving me nuts. It's like she has no concept of the term 'original'. I'll still give credit where it's due, don't get me wrong, but I'm no longer sharing credit that's mine. I'm the one who doing all the editing and website work, I'm the one that created the entire concept, world and main cast of characters that started everything, and I'm the one paying for the damned domain and website.

All she wants to do is write, that's fine. She'll get credit for the writing on the works that she did. 

Yesterday she reappeared out of nowhere and began writing up a storm on the work forum again and is still there now. I'm willing to bet she'll vanish again by tomorrow- Tuesday at the latest. I love her like a sister, but more and more her shitty selfish attitude reminds me of my ex and pisses me off. ... which I guess is about average for little sisters, right? You love them but there are times you just are tempted to throttle the living shit out of them or to try and knock some sense into them >.< she's been my honorary little sis for over ten years now. That's gotta be the longest running friendship I have to date. I still enjoy her company and love writing with her, but damn *sigh* the urge to shake the shit out of her is becoming a monthly occurrence.

If we hit the point where she starts to destroy my love of writing with this crap like my ex did...I'll have to call it quits. Ten year friendship aside, I'm not letting that part of me go again without one hell of a fight. Until then I'll just start being a bit selfish myself and make sure that I pay more attention to what I want and like rather then what she'd like.

Oh, and a good thing out of it all... when I get that pissed off, I've found I can channel it into my creativity, whether it be a painting or writing... usually writing. I usually choose a character that my writing is usually fairly good too... then write a very dark storyline in which I get to torture the shit out of them. Or I'll take a character that has a dark past and explore that past more fully, usually making it a tad bit worse as I do. Not so nice for the poor character, but great for the story and great for my emotional well being :D

Anyhow, now that I've made those decisions I'm feeling better :) I'd even decided that once I finished with the dark pieces I was writing, that I'd look over the stuff we have ongoing on the work forum and see what stirs my interest for taking over solo. It was rather eerie...within an hour of my decided THAT, she appeared and began working on some of them again... lol  sometimes I think we're connected just well enough that she can tell when she's gone that bit too far and I'm getting pissed off, even if we haven't spoken in ages.

So, dark mood has passed, new goals and decisions have been made to help keep another one at bay ( aside from PMS moods...those are a whole 'nother ballgame ;)  ). 

If you actually stuck around and read all of that .. wow..I'm impressed by your attention span and apologize for all the bad words ( although I was trying not to use too many ) and  the endless, ranting, bitch fest.

If by some chance, a certain sister or two actually found their way here to read this ; 

D- relax and calm down, I'm fine now and I'm not planning on disowning her.. do not link her here, try to play middle man, or get depressed over it. I'm fine. I promise.  

A- I'm sorry but this shit eats at me and every now and then I gotta let it out or it'll explode all over your ass and we'll end up kissing the friendship goodbye. I don't want things to go that way. I love you hun, but you just irritate the fuck outta me sometimes and while I've tried to explain shit to you, and ask you not to do some of it, I've done so AFTER I've tried to calm down. >.<

 ... Mar, if you read this, same goes for what I said to D. Thanks but no thanks. :) some times a girls just gotta bitch. You're married... you SHOULD understand this by now ;)

*looks back up at the massive rant and cringes* Once again, I'm sorry to all of you. Don't feel like you have to comment on any of the ranting topics. I really am alright and no longer moody or depressed over it all, but I decided I'd write it out anyhow.

I'll try to see if I can't remember to get around to doing a BTW post this week. If I do, I'll catch you all then :) Hell, maybe I'll share a bit of my writing every now and then and see what you guys think of my solo work and the characters I enjoy tormenting through my bad days  ;)

~Skye

FF- Destash update

Friday again :)
Tons of stuff on my mind but no will power to type any of it up, really. Been an up and down week emotionally, but nothing big time or serious, so don't worry ;)  Maybe I'll tell you guys some of it on Sunday with my challenge check in post since... my challenge is on the verge of fail this week >.< lol Tomorrow will be an earring making day to make my deadline lol

Anyhow, I've picked up some new containers and have been sorting through my beads and stuff the past couple days. Care to see what I've selected to add to the destash this week?

..I mean, considering that's why you're reading this today, after all ... ;)

How about some flat backs and a selection of glass beads? The smallest of the beads is 8mm , and the biggest is about 20mm from end to end. The flat backs are 6mm.
That medium blue round bead in the middle there has white and black polka dots on the sides... but the silly thing rolled over on me when I was taking the picture >.< lol Actually, it's a white dot with a yellow dot inside it then the black dot inside that... rather like a weird little eye ball.. lol  again, I had plans for these when I first got them, but after having them this long and not following through on those plans... time to pass them on to someone else.

Again, only my followers are eligible to win the detash. Comments on each destash post count as entries.

Challenge Check up!

Alrighty :) It's Sunday.. and boy am I glad it's Sunday. Despite the fact that it means there's no buses running and I had to walk all the way home in the cold and I didn't wear my long johns today,.. and wow...reaaaaly could of used them today >.<  anyhow, as I was saying, really glad it's Sunday because that means tomorrow is Monday... and I have Monday OFF!! :D 

WHOOHOO!!!  

This has been a loooong week, peoples. Very very long. Way too many predawn wake ups in a row. We're down two people at work which doesn't sound like a lot, but they're both among our small selection of day staff. So we're trying to run regular two-person shifts with just one person whenever we can and I've even gone in for a few hours first thing in the morning on my last day off just to help past the rough spot so it could be handled as a one person job. I think the only way we're surviving is due to it being a slow time of year and production being a bit less then normal. If this had hit any other time of year we'd be SO screwed right now >.< And there's no end in sight ... the one is off for the next few weeks since she's out of the country, and the other may be needing surgery... so...*sigh* .. the pay checks will be a bit nicer for the next while, but I'll be either catching naps after work or going to bed early a few nights a week... and no doubt getting a bit crabby over it all. No worries though, I'm still good for chocolate ; 3/4's of a box of brandied cherries, a few Bailey's chocolates, half a box of After Eights and two chocolate creme eggs. I think between those and the three bottles of wine in my fridge I'll survive alright ;)

   But you know what the best part of tomorrow is? No alarm clock tomorrow !:) I don't have to get up before the sunrises. I probably will anyhow, but..I don't HAVE to and that makes ALL the difference in the world ! :) I'd proclaim it a jammie day and lounge around in my fuzzy pajamas all day but unfortunately I have to run some errands and do laundry >.< 


Okay, enough of my babbling. If I don't cut myself off right there and get down to business, I'll start bitching about stuff and I'm not in the mood to bitch right now ;)


So, how's my Productivity Challenge going? Touch and go for a bit this first week, but I got my three pieces done :)

The first one I did is one that's been niggling away at my brain since just before Christmas. I used two large glass 'pitted pearl' beads, along with some 8mm purple glass beads that have a satiny soft finish to them. The pretty focal is one I won from Wild Roses & Blackberries . I believe she made it herself and I am so lucky to have it since she doesn't sell the components she makes :) I've been hoarding my special little stashes for 'that perfect project' and for this one, this was it :)

It was Friday by the time I finished with the necklace and I knew I wasn't going to get enough time to get much more done, so I rounded out my three with a couple pairs of earrings. The left is crackled glass and little black lampwork with flowers. The others are also lampwork, but are a purple with a bit of green and gold swirl through them that the camera didn't pick up very well, but is the reason why I added the green glass bead and little gold beads to go with them ;)


As for my art segment of the challenge, nothing in the works yet, but that part has a month to get done so I'm still good ;)  How are you guys coming along with your  self-challenges?

Oh, and before I forget. I teased my followers on Friday about a kit to be added to the detash pot ;) Here it is. I found this back in the fall and tons of ideas came to mind, but ... nothing came of them and this has sat untouched on my shelf ever since >.<  I believe they're acrylic but someone ripped the top half of the tag off so I can't tell for sure >.< I also don't know how old the kit is. I haven't seen these in any of the stores in the region however...if any one knows, speak up!   Even if you're not into using these types of beads yourself, it's all in one little kit so you can always pass it on to someone else :) Perhaps you have a little beader in residence who would enjoy creating along side you ;)


As always, all comments on detash posts count as entries for Followers ;)




there. I've done my blogging obligation... now I should go warm up my fingers with a cup of coffee and clear off some space to see about making something for the ABS monthly challenge :)


                                            ~ Skye

Destash addition #1

 :) 

So how's everyone coming along in the new year so far? Still sticking with your resolutions or have your crashed already? 

Mine are a bit behind, but it's been a rather hectic week at work with being short staffed >.<  I know I can still meet my challenge and post proof on Sunday though.. just gotta get my butt in gear ! :D

I'm sorry there have been no BTW posts from me in a bit ( since I officially joined the flickr group, actually >.< lol) I'll try to get back on track with that, too ! 

Today's destash addition may look a bit small... but that's because I have more set aside to add in with my Sunday post ;) A whole kit worth of 'more' :D hehe ... yes yes, I'm a tease, I know :)  I might add in a bit more on Wednesday, too... you never know ;)

Alrighty... added to the destash pot this week ...

One little pouch jammed full to near bursting with a muddle of beads in a variety of sizes, shapes, styles and materials. Every time I clean up after a project I seem to miss some beads... so when I find them, I more often then not just chuck them into a baggy or dish rather then take the time to sort them out and put them back in the right places >.< I have found that these little baggies can be handy for playing with when bored or looking for inspiration. :)

As well I decided to share a taste of the soup mix Lori of Pretty Things sent me in the little beadsoup swap she held a little while ago. One baggy with a mix of glass beads (mostly purple since the greens are currently being picked through for a new project ;) ) and two imperial jasper :)

Like I said, I had more to add in but I'll save them for my next post ;)

Remember, you must be a follower of this blog to enter. I noticed an 'entry' on my last blog from a non-follower :p tsk tsk tsk. Curious as to whether they just saw the word 'giveaway' and commented without reading the rest, or whether they were planning on clicking the 'follow' button and just never got around to it ;)

Well I'm off to work on some of my jewelry pieces for my weekly challenge to meet my deadline. I have a very pretty necklace I'm loving that I'm almost done with... then I'll probably end up doing a couple pairs of earrings just to get my three projects in >.< lol

 ~ Skye

Happy New Year!

I'm actually writing this on New Year's Eve afternoon, thinking back over the year that has flown by so quickly and remembering just how much I've accomplished... and failed. Needless to say, the failures will be reattempted again this year in hopes of becoming successes and accomplishments to look back on NEXT year ;)

In just the last half of 2011 I've managed to reach a point in my jewelry making where I'm confident enough to consider actually selling some in the future. I look back at some of my older pieces, even just from the start of this year and cringe to think of having made and gifted them. I'm so proud of myself for having made such huge leaps in the quality of my work :)

I'm also proud of myself for having stuck with it as well as having stuck with this blog... although I haven't been as regular with posting as I'd originally intended.

While my quality in my work has improved, my productivity is just as lagging as ever >.<  To remedy this I've decided to set myself a challenge... and to share it with all of you.

This is an open and completely personal challenge. YOU decide what your challenge is and set your own limits, then just share your progress with me and anyone else interested :) I know some who think that a pair of earrings a day for a month is a great challenge, but for me that's just too many earrings to end up with since I don't have a shop yet to sell them in, plus a daily challenge just isn't right for me >.<

I've added a page just for my challenge where I'll keep a linkup of all my challenge entries, as well as links to anyone who joins me in challenging themselves to keep creatively productive no matter how busy their lives are :) 

Check out the 'challenge' tab at the top of my page :)
and with that, I'll leave you with a fabulous New Year's wish -

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something...
So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever." ~ Neil Gaiman - http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/12/my-new-year-wish.html

~ Skye