Anticipation...New finds ready for new creations for my shop

The spoils of my gem show spree, I've already got several ideas for these lovelies...

The strand at the front already inspired these...more to come!

Starting to feel the Fall

In South Florida, it will still hit 90 for a few hours of the day, and be humid enough to frizz anyone's hair, but the edge has come off the past few days. Just a touch, enough to hint that the reprieve is on the way soon.

Here's a sampling of some items on Etsy matching that mood of the start of the seasonal change:

On Time Management and Organization - some help from MooreMagnets

I've mentioned I joined the Aspiring Artisan's Guild this past spring - a great group of like-minded Etsy shop owners looking to improve and grow our small businesses. It's a nice team - lots of helpful people, events, motivation, and a great sense of camaraderie (yes I had to look that up to spell but it was the best word).

One of my teammates is April of MooreMagnets. (She also has a supply shop, LessMagnets, and that name makes me smile).

April has been on Etsy far longer than me - her avatar is one that most anyone familiar with the Etsy finds or front pages would recognize - her iconic magnetic pens help define her and her brand.

But she is mostly known for her magnet boards, like this lovely pink pastel one:

On her blog, twitter, and within our team forums, April is a great advocate of time management, which is so important for any small business, and also fits well with her brand: Boards, Magnets and Message Centers, all tie together with her central theme of orgnaziation, all born from a need to find a better way to help her children display things safely and (presumably) attractively.

Her blog is really well organized, and has taken full advantage of a lot of the widgets and tools to really tie it all together that I hope to "borrow" from!

Please visit April's Moore Magnets Blog to follow her Time Management series, I hope you will enjoy her frank and focused style as well as her tips! You will also find links there to her FB/Twitter, and website as well.

Revisiting the park

Earlier this summer I visited the nature trail at the south county park - a real nice escape from the normally congested South Florida environment:
http://aeridesdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/07/trip-to-park.html

I went back this past weekend just to walk around and see if I might find anything new. I'll start with a nice butterfly picture (another Daggerwing I think), but I do warn you now the other critters are an acquired taste - a little beyond the backyard.

This elegant crane is one of a few that hang out around the lake:

Had a little stare down with this grasshopper - he was huge - probably 3" long. Just look though at the beautiful colors on him:

Ok this guy...made me jump back a little...I think this is an anole lizard. Pretty big (definitely over a foot including that tail) and very aware of me while I captured these pics...Ok so I had the zoom on but still...The scaliness around his mouth has him looking so prehistoric to me:

I'll make another trip back later in the fall and see what else pops up then!