Midweek Musings

I'm trying to post regularly, so I can get myself back into the blogging habit. Granted, everyday life does not always seem post-worthy, and it is rarely accompanied by photos. But there are a few things I should very much like to share with my readers.

First off, I received an exciting parcel on Monday afternoon, and inside was such a treasure. I had custom ordered a pair of earrings from a fellow Etsy seller, a Canadian to boot, and they had just arrived. Had I been thinking, I might have taken pictures of the cute packaging, but I was so eager, I simply dove right in.

Inside were my earrings, the sweet wire wrapped pair I had been checking the mailbox for everyday since I bought them.

Simply amazing aren't they? Giddy as I was to try these on, to my surprise and further excitement, Joella had included a second pair of earrings completely free as a thank you gift!!! They are gorgeous gold and turquoise dangles, and I will post a picture soon. She has been so sweet, and her work inspires me. I want you all to check out her shop right now and click favourites, I promise you won't be disappointed by her wonderful handmade designs. http://www.etsy.com/shop/jkfoster I already know I'll be shopping with her again soon.


Also, tonight was our last Young Womens activity before summer break, so we had a little party for the girls at church. My friend ordered gourmet cupcakes from The Cake Box, and I made yummy fruit-kabobs with Marshmallows included. I also helped the girls create their own monogrammed door hangers. Mine is shown there at the top. I simply printed out large letters for each girls name, cut out the letter from coloured cardstock, and then glued that onto a 6 by 6 inch cardboard square which I had modge podged patterned paper onto. Add some pretty ribbon with little brads, and voila, a cute, easy paper craft!

Hope everyone's weeks are going well. Leave me a comment and let me know. Don't forget to check out Joella's shop!

Summer Shop Talk

I've been very absent from the blogging world for the past few months. Life has its ups and downs, and I was meeting quite frequently with some down portions, so I felt it was necessary to just step back and not worry about these sort of things. However, I'm feeling wonderful now, and with the sun making attempts to break through the rainy clouds, I can see clear skies ahead.


I thought it was time to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Though I have always felt blogs were incredibly self centered things, I've noticed that they can be therapeutic. And there are blogs which are so wonderful and inspiring.


My etsy shop Daisy*Kisses, has slowly been updated with new summer earrings. I've really got the earring bug at the moment, and keep feeling inspired to make more little danglies to adorn your lobes.

Just yesterday I added three new sets of sweet floral earrings, excellent accessories for girly girls in summer. Take a peek at the shop here http://www.blogger.com/www.daisykisses.etsy.com ! If having a green thumb isn't your thing but you still love flowers, then these are the perfect way to show it.


I also attended a 2 hour photography workshop that a friend of mine had put on this past Saturday, and boy was I glad I did! One of my biggest frustrations with the whole etsy endeavor, is that the pictures are absolutely essential in selling a product. If one can't see the quality of the item, because the picture is too fuzzy or too dark, then buying is a scary process.


I have an HP Photosmart M415, and its really not the best for great photography. However, I was able to learn some great tricks in the class, about how to take better pictures, and was eager to try it out. The new earrings gave the opportunity to do just that. See here, I'm quite pleased with the improvement in my shots.

Granted, I still want to save up and get a better camera. She talked about Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed in the class, all functions in a camera that can make taking good quality pictures so much easier. I'm definitely going to start piggybanking for that now, and also, try and use my camera more often to take some more artistic, or just plain better, photos.

Love and gratitude to all my visitors

~Katrina

the lovely lemon tree

I have long been absent from the blogging world and I have ever so much to catch up on reading. But my days have not been entirely fruitless (pun intended). There are some new items in my Etsy shop, most notably this sweet little collection of lemony jewelry.




The above bracelet is three strands of sunny cuteness. The gold & silver closure is salvaged from a vintage necklace I found. And all the pearls used are also recycled from old jewelry. All other yellow and white beads are made of glass.




These earrings remind me of a tangy lollipop! So fun, they'd be sure to brighten up any outfit.

And this single strand bracelet has the perfect combination of delicate recycled pearls and fun fruity swirls. All items are available for sale now in my shop! www.daisykisses.etsy.com . Please have a look, and leave me some feedback!

My Esty Shop

Finally...After an entire summer of saying I was going to do it, I've finally gone and done it!! My shop, Daisy*Kisses, is finally up and running on Etsy.com. I am just sooo excited, and really quite relieved. You can find it by clicking here http://www.daisykisses.etsy.com, or it will always be in the sidebar under My Other Pages.



For the past few months its been somewhat frustrating every time someone would ask me "So what are you doing these days" and I would explain what I was working towards, but I felt like I had nothing to show for it. Now I can finally say I make and sell jewelry (and soon other handicrafts), and then easily direct them to my shop website.



Hopefully you like what I have to offer. I absolutely love the creative process of finding neat pieces to work with, and then putting them together into something wearable. Some of my pieces use chain, and lots of it, others use recycled jewelry from broken or unwanted pieces, and others use silk cording. I'd have to say the silk cording is my favourite media to work with, as it seems to be something you don't see much.



It really has so much potential though, for both casual and fancier jewelry. I wanted to get all my jewelry posted first, and perhaps in the coming weeks I'll start posting some of the other things I've made. Now that all this jewelry is ready to go, I'm eager to start working on the next batch. What sells first or gets favourites will be a good indicator of what ya'll (that's right I said it) are looking for, and while I will try and cater to the market, I still want to be creative and make sure that my pieces are inspiring to me as well! Thank you for all of your support in reading my blog and encouraging me towards accomplishing this dream of mine!



xx

Katrina

necklace

For Christmas this year I sent my friend Steph, http://www.flickr.com/photos/archibald-maximilion/4287323118/ a couple pieces of jewelry I had designed just for her. Because I am unashamedly proud of this piece, I wanted to feature it here on my blog.

The silver swirly pieces were purchased at Michael's one day. I thought they were so darn pretty, but I had no idea what I would do with them; just one of those, had to have things. When inspiration finally came, it came in this form and Mum says its her favourite piece that I've created yet.



The pearls, both small and large, were repurposed from other pieces of jewelry I had thrifted. I was originally going to use silver chain to hang it from, but felt that the design was too delicate to add chain to. So i experimented with ribbon, and boy was I happy with the result!

Hope you've enjoyed this little taste of what is to come in the shop. My shop is there on etsy, but as of yet has no listings. Its taking more work then I had realized to get things organized and set up. When it is finally open, you'll be able to find my work at http://www.daisykisses.etsy.com/.

Thanks for popping in and have a wonderful day!

charmed thrifting

Today Mum and I stopped into Value Village to see if we could find anything. And we did. I found some great little charms on various chains. Some were such a decent price I picked them up immediately...Others were well...outrageously priced for second hand charms but I gave in and bought them too.


I found a sweet little goldtone daisy charm, a must have for me. A cute itsty-bitsy rainbow, which I will use on some piece for my etsy shop (soon to be opening I swear, I'm in the process of organizing all the last minute details now). The one I could not pass up despite its price, a vintage telephone! Hello awesomeness, thanks for calling! And lastly were some sweet vintage bows; cause they were sweet.

So what do you think? Mega cute right? I also managed to find the perfect frame for a project I've had in mind for a while. I'll post that one later, when I show you what its being upcycled into.

Thanks for visiting my humble little blog. I've recently photographed & created a new header, what do you think? Also, be sure to check out the latest poll and place your vote! Thanks so much. xx

busy days

I forgot how hectic the days become as the holidays draw near. Mum was hosting a small party tonight, so first thing on my agenda was to clean the house top to bottom. That was work enough. But after that, the day kept throwing more tasks at me to complete, and I tackled each one with as much cheer as I could muster.

After the cleaning was done though, I was pleasantly surprised by the postman delivering a package from my grandparents!! It made me so happy.

I've a function to attend tomorrow night, and I thought I would make some treats. Just some easy truffles and peppermint bark hearts. They weren't so easy, but once they were done I was really happy. And I most definitely did some sampling...Truffles are heavenly. Nuff said.




I also decided to work on some Christmas presents. I made a necklace for a friend, and a necklace & earrings set for my mother. As I know she has no clue how to find my blog, I'm posting her gift on here for you all to see. She liked purple alot, so I made her some jewelery to go with all her purpley tops and dresses. Its packaged with a pretty bow and nestled under the tree for her now. This is the sort of jewelery that will be available when I open my Etsy shop in January!

Lastly, I found Daisy's festive neckerchief which had been tucked away from last year. She has a special holiday message to share :

"Fleas Navidad!"