The Weekend Begins - and for me a week!

Since my birthday is falls right around Memorial Day, and the latter is a paid holiday in my day job, I typically make a week of it - and this year is no exception! For the most part I'll be home and just have a long "me" week (plenty of time to make new pieces for my shop, tinker with redo-ing pictures for the umpteenth time, and get a head start on my summer tan). Next weekend the hubby and I will spend a couple of days on the west coast...of Florida, but this weekend we'll start as we always do.

I am nothing if not a creature of habit, but I do have some nice ones! Saturday mornings = breakfast at the beach. A 10 minute ride from our house up along A1A - careful not to hit the bikers and joggers who take the term "share the road" and interpret it as "get off the road if you are a car"....Cafe Luna Rosa - a staple of an italian restaurant / sidewalk cafe, right across the street from the beach.

It's finally getting past the point of comfort for sitting outdoors even at 8am, but perhaps a few more weekends we can sit outside...

Photographing Jewelry for my Etsy shop - expanded edition

A couple of months ago I wrote about my experiments with photographing jewelry for my Etsy shop, and it was probably my most commented post so far. Recently I joined the Aspiring Artisan Guild on Etsy, so when Sarah-Lambert of Tuckoo and Moo Cow, our team leader, asked for a volunteer to write about the same topic I jumped in. Here's the link to the full post:

How to Photograph Jewelry

Here's a snippet:

"The first time I tried to take pictures of my jewelry to sell on Etsy, I ended up almost in tears. Here I was all ready to start my shop, but I had no clue what I was doing with my camera. I think I tried the classic black velvet background, indoors, with a flash. I ended up with blurry overexposed pictures. The lint on the velvet was the only thing that was clear. My husband mentioned something about macro mode but I didn’t even know what that was. About the only thing I knew for editing was cropping...."

I'm no expert yet, but I'm happy that I'm getting a bit better. And it was fun writing about it too.

My "patio staging studio":

May Means Mangoes

A huge Mango tree inhabits our side yard, ready to start dropping fruit any day now. After a particularly early cold snap for Florida last winter - I had imagined the fruits this year would be limited.

Nope. Plenty of Mangoes almost ready...I have to admit, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this tree. The mangoes love to fall about 5 mins after I leave the house in the morning, so they are beautifully rotten and chewed by squirrels by the time I get home...Ok maybe other critters but squirrels are cute so I like to think it's them.

Last summer, in the peak readiness week, I think I came home to about 30 "splats" one night. I'm going to try picking them this year, but it's a very short window between:

1. too early I'll always be green
2. Ok come and get me I'm perfect
3. Oopsie not waiting, splat on the patio

But for now these large green fruits tempt me with the promise of a lovely sweet harvest...so I'm checking them each day to try to catch as many at Stage #2 as I can.

May Morning

This year is just flying by. With May's arrival, most of my spring blooming orchids are putting on their final display for the season.

I picked up this ascocenda at the January Orchid Show in Fort Lauderdale - he's already on his third bloom spike so he's a constant bloomer so far:

This Phal usually gives me a couple of spikes in late spring - a second shoot is on the way now.

More Phals:

Never to be outdone, my roses are starting to show off too:

Happy Easter

A collection of lovely easter-themed finds from the Treasury Friends Team on Etsy:

Garnet, Iolite, Peridot...When I can't decide...make earrings from all three!

One of the many great thing about jewelry design, after you build a real collection of gems: you never have to just make "one" when you have a new idea. For some newer pieces, I've borrowed from my smaller dainty, and my longer decadent styles, and found something in the middle. I love the larger french style hooks for these - adding length and a little drama and swing without going too wild. I'm a big fan of earrings you can wear to the office, and out for dinner too, but it's a tricky balance sometimes.

First I started with a new pair of Iolite Earrings. I love the deep blue of Iolite, and have some really gorgeous stones that barely need any help from me:

It was an easy leap over to Garnet next:

And then to Peridot - these stones are a little smaller than the others so instead of 3 gems I went with 5, and swapped in a braided rope instead of the silver teardrop:

Now time to look at my citrine and amethyst...hmmmm.....

AeridesDesigns.com is now live!

I'm really excited to share my website - now live! I have about a dozen items shown which link back to my Etsy shop for purchases, and also a link over here to my blog. Craig created my new logo and overall design and I'm really happy with how it turned out! Now of course I need to get more items over to him to add!

As I start to expand beyond Etsy, I'm glad I now have a more grounded place to point customers and clients.

Please visit Craig's website for more ideas and to see his portfolio at CRCJRDesigns