distractions

Home Sweet Home Clock by iluxo

I found this article via Etsy's newsletter- titled Craft A More Productive Day.

Easy & practical steps to carve out just a bit more time each day for my crafty needs/work.

I especially resonate with the 3rd point- Limit distractions. 

Maintaining your focus is one of the most difficult things to accomplish in this era of massive plugging in and rampant social media. It is far too easy to jump online to check your email and come out of an internet coma 20, 30 or 45 minutes later with nothing to show for the time (I did it at least once while writing this article). Limit your online interactions to certain times of the day and watch your productivity soar! If you can work away from your computer for any part of your day, do it. If you can’t, try keeping open only the windows or programs that you require to complete your current task and resist temptation to open any others.

I'm extremely guilty at this, I have so many browsers open with blogs to check out & after 2 hours on the computer, I haven't done any real work! Learning to switch off the computer in the afternoon is a good start, I find myself more focused to get work done than looking out for new mails every hour or so.

With this bit of reminder this afternoon, I hope to list up the many bracelets I have made over the past 2 weeks, the bracelet pile is sure adding up quick!

colourful! // work for today

I have many of these medicine cups and they are simply perfect for storing work in progress pieces :)

fuchsia pink, turquoise blue, olive lime green...

yum yum!

finding inspiration

stumbled upon Preciosa's Inspirational Guide, this is my favourite in the 6 page booklet

Soft lush pink & purple shades = ♥

Love the asymmetrical earrings too :)

If you are interested to see the rest, click on this link:

Spring / Summer 2011 

brand new week

taken from my jewellery notebook, where i scribble ideas, note down orders & a to-do list i never really bother

I love Mondays, the fresh start of the week :)

& I love the bead shopping trip last weekend!

For the rest of the week, with more beads added to my collection, I'll be in jewellery making mode.
New & restocked old ones, it's quite a lot to sort through... can't wait to get this done.

Among the new beads are shiny-cum-matte glass pearls, in the most awesome turquoise shade ;)

will show it here one day!

pearls

I have got a local buyer who loves pearls, she asked me to make her a set, here's what I came up with:

 Kept it simple with 2 hearts dangling off :)

I rarely make earrings these days, once in a while I accept requests and this pair is made to match the bracelet or worn as it is.

I don't have fresh water pearls in teardrop shape so I suggested cream coloured glass pearls, topped off with Swarovski crystal on top. 

Talking about custom orders, here's another one I made recently, one of my favourite designs ever!

Theme: Dark Angel

It's made of layers of chain, with 2 of them weaved together.

I tried it on as well, it's a bit small for me but I just wanted to take a photo of it to show the hanging chains :)

I'm always happy to receive custom requests, extremely flattering that buyers trust me in putting together their ideas :) at times I don't even believe it, sounds like something too good to be true for someone as ordinary as me... 

Thank you ♥
 

lines

from Cowbirds in Love


I would rather be a squiggly line!

april round up

Hibiscus

April was great! I have been more focused on my online businesses after the opening of the boutique (where I had rented a table for my jewellery). So far that has been doing alright, taking into consideration the shop is still very new, I'm quite optimistic sales will pick up very soon! :)

fingers crossed.

11 new items were listed in my etsy store over the past month, not bad I would say. But since I have been eyeing some new beading materials lately (intricately designed Cloisonne beads in the most amazing colours!) & am planning for a huge splurge in July, so I better be working hard these coming 2 months if I were to shop without guilt by then! :)