Small business owners club

Wow am I ever excited! I got myself thinking about leaving work today and wow my minds a spinning. I met up with my friend Carrie the other day, I have known her for years and needless to say with busy lives I don't see her as much as I'd like. She is starting up her own business as a holistic therapist. It was lovely to see her talk with such enthusiasm and excitement. It's also lovely to see someone else embarking on a similar adventure. She had been to see some premises which proved to be perfect, once she has them she can start to see clients and the sky's the limit. If your local you should check her out at Lifechanges-uk if you're not local you should look anyway and become a fan on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cleckheaton-United-Kingdom/Life-changes-uk/79697687402. Even if you are too far away to visit you should still visit, she is an inspirational young lady.

The good the bad and the simply gorgeous

I'm feeling a little low at the moment, a little, erm, preoccupied. I'm finding it hard to sleep and I can't seem to concentrate on anything but my business. I just watched an episode of Voyager but couldn't concentrate on it, how weird is that? What's worse is that it's making me so angry that something so stupid could make me feel so bad. Again this isn't something I intend to discuss here or dwell on but when you spend nine hours a day somewhere it's hard to ignore it.

But this is my happy place so that's my little whinge over, it's done.

Oh, I have hugely wonderfully spangly news! I have a brand spanking new website!

Aprilis Designs

It's nowhere near finished yet but I'm not much of a web designer, The design isn't right but I'm using a limited template and HTML eludes me.

So it's not all bad, actually there's a lot of great stuff going on so good in fact I shall use bullet points for emphasis

• My two bestest buds are getting married soon which I am really excited about because frankly it's about bloody time!

• Another friend is about to drop a bairn!

• James has suggested to me a financial target I really need to achieve in order to quit my job and it's a lot more attainable than I thought. I just need a really good Christmas.

• I have met some really awesome people recently through my craft fairs and I'm loving it!

• I have the best husband in the world and amazing friends (okay so that's not a recent development but sometimes you need a few crap days to help you see what's good)

Talk about turning a post around! Well I've cheered myself up so I'm off to get a glass of milk and get myself tucked in.

Nighty night!

Sunny sunshine

Well it seems that this week we are having a belated mini summer. The sky is beautiful clear blue and the sun is beating down. Sadly it's not beating down on my garden thanks to a neighbours overgrown trees! We had about 30 minutes of sun before it fell behind the old Oak trees. However in those 30 minutes I did manage to get some photographs taken.

Fresh water pearl, amazonite, amethyst and rose quartz cluster earrings

Fresh water pearl, rose quartz and jasper wire wrapped earrings

Red agate choker

Red agate and butter Jade bracelet

Pearl charm bracelet with Swarovski, amethyst, rose quartz and amazonite.

Give a little lurve

to my coriandr people that's what ama gonna do today. Etsys listing process is so blummin long and the big C's is so easy by comparison. Back soon
Mwwwaaaa!

So I guess it's Autumn now!

I suppose I should have rolled out some sort of Autumn collection by now but me being me I've only just realised the time. If I turn to my left I can see that the trees in the distance have had very light dusting of gold.

I'm not sorry to see summer go but I am sorry that once again we don't seem to have had one. I am also sorry that daylight is slipping further away earlier and before long the weekends will be the only time I can photograph my work in day light, the best light of all.

Well I just took a break from this post to take some piccys and to feed Jimmy and I found that maybe I'm not soo Autumnally unprepared after all.

Coral and Smokey Quartz

In my head though I can see my winter range, bright silvers and icy blues, Emerald, Sapphire, blue topaz and Clear crystals. A bright sparkly glitzy range to get you through the cold dark winter.

Coral and Rainbow Agate

I've really enjoyed having the last week off and I'm determined to make the most of this one. I can't really say why I'm off but I can say that the thought of going back next Monday fills me with dread and makes my tummy churn. I'm trying not to think about it and when alone I have verbally told myself of for allowing my mind to wander there. Sadly finances dictate that I must go back, and I will, but I do so with a very heavy heart.

Citrine, Swarovski and hand made glass

Maybe I need a little dread though, maybe a lit match under my lazy bum is just what I need, I do feel determined but then I'm like that. My motivation is extreme, one minute I'm not the next I'm obsessive. I would say that I am obsessive at the moment yet in a few days with no new sales I'll crash and feel low. The rest of me thank goodness is a lot more balanced.

Red Agate, Golden Jade, Cherry Quartz, Coral, Rose Quartz and Red Adventurine

All that is not to say that I can't be bothered with the business, I can and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't make jewellery or do something on line it's just that to constantly market your work is tiring, that's why I like it here. On Twitter I feel like a spammer on message boards I feel like I'm feigning interest in others to fuel my career. The truth is that I'm not, I follow way too many blogs to visit each one daily but I do read them, I am interested and that goes for the Tweets I read and the forums I post in. I'm not much of a net worker, I never have been. I've never made a friend thinking " I wonder what this person can do for me" If you are my friend either in real life or in cyberspace then it's because of your value as a human being not opportunities your friendship may or may not present. I want nothing from you but friendship.

Golden Jade and Red Adventurine

I am in real life as rubbish at keeping up with friends as I am in this world but not a day goes by them I don't think about them and when I do meet up with them it's like we haven't been apart.

Golden Jade and Red Agate

As I don't have a market for a month things will be tight financially so I'll have to get more items in my shops soon. My silver order will hopefully arrive tomorrow and I can make more. I have loads of gemstone beads left, I could do with some fresh water pearls and Swarovski to brighten things up a little.

So here's to a productive week and a great weekend. I'm having some friends around on Friday to show off my new garden. In fact I hope my Internet-wary chief bridesmaid is reading this and can make it.

Nighty night.

Aah man

I just typed out a really long post and blogger went bleeuuuuuurr and I lost it. So to summarise

• V. V. Brown and Calvin Harris were awesome
• The Qemists lead singer was a foul mouthed idiot
• The Qemists were rubbish
• The Qemists can't spell
• I don't like people swearing in front of children
• Calvin Harris should have been headlining rather than The Editors who were good but not lively enough
• Jimmy got drunk on beer and haribo
• The photos I took were rubbish
• I had a great time
• Festival toilets are horrible and I prefer tea to beer, yes people I am 27 not 77.
• I'll be back later, bye!

Weekend wonderland

So far this weekend has been relatively quiet by recent standards. No markets to attend and no visiting people. Yesterday was almost completely unproductive, well for me anyway. James screen printed a few T Shirts but I watched Voyager and the biggest loser and made a couple of pairs of earrings and half a necklace before running out of wire. Sadly my silver order did not arrive as expected yesterday, my fault, Saturday orders have to be ordered by midday otherwise they are delivered the following Saturday. I have emailed them asking that they send it next day on Monday. I can't go a week without tinkering!

This week I intend to sort the spare room out. I'm going to do a car boot sale and get rid of my junk. It's a good sized room so with the money I earn I'm going to board out the loft and then eventually turn the room into a workshop/office.

However today is going to be much more exciting than that because today we're going to Bingley live music festival. We went last year and it was good fun. Last year the happy Mondays headlined and although that's not my kind of music they were really good. This year it's Calvin Harris and the Editors.
I'm charging my camera battery as I type so there will be plenty pics coming your way!

http://www.bingleymusiclive.com/

Have a great weekend!

Show and tell

Well here it is, one of last nights pieces. I think it needs a few more pearls. It's red jade (dyed), red agate, coral and cherry quartz on sterling silver with freshwater pearls.

The clasp is a little flimsy as the wire is too thin. I have a delivery of heavy SS wire coming tomorrow so I'll replace it then.

Tea-aholic

Oh yeah, that's what I am. So far my week has gone -Tea - list - tea - list - tea - toast - list - pepsi raw (sorry Jimmy) more tea and so on.

I was planning on taking some more photos to add to the ones on Etsy but I've just looked out of my window and seen that it's raining, again.

Well, this computer chair is giving a me back ache so I'm going to go make a cuppa and a bracelet.

I'll be back later for show and tell.

Need more markets

My next market is 39 days away! I can't go that long without a fix! That means that this week I'm going to have to really work hard on my stores. Blogging, tweeting and posting on forums all over the place just to get a little attention and hopefully some sales. I have been really rubbish at keeping up to them but today I've been listing new items. It's a time consuming process on Etsy but Coriandr is a much simpler process, it's all on one page so there's no waiting for pages to load and such plus its all in GBP rather that US Dollars. Yeah it's great and Rachel informs me that I was on the front page the other day. How great is that?

I do still love Etsy but I very much that I have ever been on their front page!