Organization Woes

I feel like lately I've been way less focused on my jewelry business than I should be. Not even than I should be, since really I don't have to answer to anyone but me... but than I want to be.

And oddly enough, the way I can tell this is that my office is... not too organized, because anyone who knows me knows how much I love organization. But the problem isn't organization (too much or too little) so much as the fact that I just sort of shoved all my jewelry-making supplies in a closet and haven't looked at them in a couple of weeks.

Part of the problem is that I need to find a better way to store my finished products. When I didn't have as much, it was easy to store each piece in its own plastic bag, and group the little plastic bags in bigger plastic bags by type of jewelry and type of metal. Now that method is getting cumbersome. And I'm hesitant to make more finished products before I have a better way of storing them.

Hopefully I can dedicate part of my upcoming 4-day weekend to finding a better storage method.

But for now I'm just going to enjoy my homemade Orange Julius.

Busy Bee

This week is absolutely, positively insane.

Today I worked 8 hours at the courthouse and another 3 at the library.

I'm working a yet-to-be-seen number of hours at the courthouse tomorrow. Going in around 9:30 and staying til whenever they need me to stay, hopefully not past 8 though...

Wednesday - 8 hours at the courthouse (possibly less depending on whether I stay late enough to earn a little comp time tomorrow), 3 more at the library.

Thursday - 8 hours at the courthouse (definitely 8), 4 hours at the library.

Taking Friday off, but Glen and I need to pick up our new recliners for the den that day (yay!!!). Slowly, but surely, our den is turning into a real room.

We got two of them to set up on the other side of the room from the piano. It was difficult finding a good color, the den is already so brown that I didn't want anything brown or tan. Which was difficult because I still wanted something sort of neutral. There's a bunch of green in our dining room, so sage green seemed like the perfect solution.

We'll also be moving our record player from the living room to the den.

Can't wait to sit in the den reading a book and listening to some music. :-)

Now it's time to watch some Doctor Who with the husband before bed. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Scaredy-Pup

Now that it's summer and the weather is warm, we've been getting a lot more thunderstorms. And you know what that means...

It means our poor dog spends a lot of time hiding under the bed.

Don't worry, Elvis, the thunder won't get you!

And now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure I've never introduced you to the other critters that live with my husband and me.

Meet Nory and Sery, our pet rats. I know, I know, we voluntarily keep "vermin" in our home, how weird of us. But how could you not love those cute little whiskered faces? Seriously, rats make amazing pets, they're low-maintenance, but incredibly social and snuggly.

These are our degus, Barnum and Bailey. (Sorry about the glare, I took this picture from outside their aquarium!) If you're not familiar with the adorableness that is a degu, it's a small rodent native to Chile, and it's a relative of the chinchilla. They're not quite as affectionate as the rats, but they sure are entertaining. Especially when they get on their hind legs and box.

Here's a video I found on YouTube of a "degu fight." (Don't worry, it's not really a fight, this is just how they play!)

Cute, right?

What can I say, I'm a sucker for unconventional pets. Maybe sometime I'll tell you about the time I had a pet hedgehog. :-)

Giving Old Jewelry New Life!

I've been having quite the burst of productivity lately.

I designed a tri-fold brochure, played around a bit with the design of my blog (I'll probably continue to tinker with it, but I feel like the current look is a step in the right direction), and...

As promised, I finally got moving on my recycled jewelry idea. I'm currently in the process of photographing and posting the pieces I have already made, and there are 4 on Etsy at the moment (more to come during the next few days!). They got a lot of attention and admiration at a recent craft show, and a pair of earrings I posted on Etsy on Sunday night sold almost immediately.

I've been struggling to find a niche, but I'm starting to think this recycled jewelry thing might be it. I love the idea of combining old and new, and incorporating at least one recycled component into each piece I make would make my jewelry unique, and it could help me establish a brand identity.

I love the beads on this necklace. The original necklace they came from had a ton of them, and I have a lot left over. Can't wait to make more jewelry with them!

The mother-of-pearl coin beads are the recycled component on this necklace, they were originally on earrings!

For the time being I think I'm going to keep the recycled jewelry as a separate line within Mischievous Kitty, since I have a fairly large inventory made from all-new components. Not to mention, I have a sizeable stash of new beads and findings and such and don't think it would be wise to immediately go out and buy a ton of old jewelry to take apart and reuse (although I relish the idea of spending a Saturday afternoon checking out antique and thrift stores or flea markets!).

But perhaps I will gradually transition into using recycled components in each and every piece.

What do you think? Good idea??

An Unexpected Visitor

Just taking a quick moment out of my work day to share this:

So here I am, hard at work at my day job... I pick up a big pile of reports from my office floor, and see one of these guys clinging to the side of the stack of papers:

Note: This is not the actual centipede in my office, just a picture I found on Wikipedia. I did not have my camera on me, and if I did, I doubt I'd have had the presence of mind to snap an actual photo.

I'm generally not afraid of bugs, and I actually have great respect for the house centipede, but I still think they look like monsters. So while I'm glad the little guy I found is probably off hunting all sorts of less savory, and potentially harmful, insects, I'm not too happy about the fact that he chose to scurry under my desk, or that I chose to wear open-toed shoes today.

I promise my next post will involve more jewelry/other fun stuff and less scary-looking insects. And to make up for the yucky picture, here's a cute one:

Elvis staring at the flowers in our front yard last summer. He woke me up at 4:00am today. He's lucky he's so cute.

Giveaway Winner

The winner of the Summer Giveaway is Sharon Jackson Wagner! Congratulations, Sharon!



I've decided I'd like to do a giveaway for each season, with a piece or pieces I'll design to capture the feel of that season. So keep your eyes peeled for another giveaway in September! :-)

Summer Giveaway!

I decided it would be fun to do a summer giveaway. I designed this necklace and earring set that I thought would be perfect for summer, the colors make me think of the ocean. :-)


Here's how the contest works:

First go to my Etsy shop, then go to the Mischievous Kitty Facebook page, become a fan, and leave a message on this discussion topic telling me what your favorite piece from my shop is.

You can earn extra entries by referring people to the Mischievous Kitty Jewelry Facebook page. For each person who "likes" my page and posts to the giveaway discussion topic to tell me that you referred them, you'll get an extra entry. You can earn as many extra entries as you like!

You have until midnight on June 11 to enter, and I'll announce a winner (selected via Random.org) on Sunday, June 13.

Good luck! :-)