Just Keep Creating...Yea!

So I have been focusing on getting back up and moving forward now that the house projects have slowed down..owning a home is fun but let me tell you...EXPENSIVE! LOL
So anyways, I have been able to stay motivated to get going again, and I realize the schedule I came up with over the weekend is just not....well lets just say "easier said than done"...at least for now. I know I should be creating and networking a bunch on a daily basis but I have figured out I am too creative and I change my mind alot on designs because I only have a few hours a day to work them out and I always come up with a better idea! I guess I shouldn't expect to be fully motivated all the time because I work full time, and my job is an hour away from home. So  M-F I drive an hour, I work 8-10 hours a day, then drive that hour back home. So needless to say most days when I get home, I don't really feel like pressuring myself to create and market as much as I am able to on the weekends. So bottom line...come up with a new schedule?
I think my best step would be putting all the stuff I had out from previous pieces I have made away, and starting with a clean board and desk. Plus my home office is a bit cluttered right now, and I think I need to rearrange the desks in there to free up more floor space. Maybe then I wouldnt feel so....unmotivated LOL
I was trying to keep a schedule of a minimum of at least one piece per day (started out as two per day) with a one hour window for marketing/networking/listing. Here is my issue with that: Im not a stay at home mom and dont have that kind of time to play with. I'm not the type to be able to just throw something together real quick, I take my time to make sure it turns out gorgeous! And to make sure I dont make mistakes that require the entire piece to be reworked.  And if i try sticking to the 1 piece per day rule, I would be feeling pressured all the time to make my own quota and obviously that would take the fun out of it.
I have spent so far three days on my current piece, because I have changed my mind about three times, and then again this afternoon I was looking at it and decided on making two pieces out of the beads by using additional beads to make it work.I still have a piece that has been finished for a week now and I keep forgetting to get pictures taken of it and listing it for sale! Well hopefully that will be done soon and i can keep moving forward.
Honestly this week my knee has been really hurting since Saturday and I have a hard time sitting and creating when I am in pain and just want to lay down. As a matter of fact, Im laying on my cozy leather couch with my cozy little handmade blanket my daughter created, (its beautiful and Im so happy she is so creative and such a fast learner and loves to make things!) typing this blog. I wanted to keep working the piece I started while laying down, but I just know I will need to keep getting up to go get more supplies or additional/different beads and that defeats the purpose of my R & R!  So anyways, hopefully by the end of the week I will feel better and can continue what I started- My valentines Day pieces!
So until then...I hope to get some new fans over to my facebook page to help me gain more exposure. I will continue networking while Im down, and go back to creating when I'm feeling better. I wish you a Happy New Year and Thank You for reading my blog. It will be more interesting with pictures soon I promise! :) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kimberly-Lynn-Designs/141969352521411?hc_location=timeline

What is holding me back???

The other day I realized I haven't been doing anything lately for my business, why? what is holding me back???  Its because I just feel like its too overwhelming, too much to do, and too much to keep track of, and like I will never get caught up. I haven't wanted to make more jewelry for the same reason, I'm feeling like I'm already so far behind on everything that making new pieces would just add to overflowing cup (yeah, you know one of those 64oz super big gulp cups? lol) of things to do.
So I sat down and started thinking to myself, and organized my thoughts into exactly what is my problem, what is the most frustrating thing, or biggest task that is holding me back?
So I thought, OK how many websites do you have? Answer = 2. Not bad. Just my Art fire store and My Website- Kimberlylynndesigns.com. OK.
Next, I need to go to each site and get out all my pieces, and see which pieces I have on each site. OK.
I did that today, and I shocked myself! I have 15 Pieces that are not even listed on either of those two sites, and an additional 14 Pieces That are not listed in my Art fire studio! What is wrong with me???
Then I remembered. Ahhhhh yes, that's right- MY LOVELY HUSBAND ACCIDENTALLY DROPPED MY ONLY GOOD CAMERA IN KERN RIVER BEFORE I HAD TAKEN PICTURES OF THE REST OF MY PIECES!!
So upon returning home, I still had pictures to take and no way of taking them, and money was tight, so I had to just deal with it. Well, I now have a new camera, and I now know which pieces I need to get pictures of. I think that was a big roadblock for me, I felt overwhelmed for some reason with knowing that I had to figure that out. Now that is done! What a relief!
 So I also googled how to make my own light box (which I have done before, but couldn't remember what it was I was missing to make it correctly the first time) So I went to the store and home depot and bought the stuff I need and now have it set up, you can see here:

I have black cloth and white cloth as well as some other tiles I can use for backgrounds or whatever I need. This picture is just the basic idea, When I set it up it has more detail to it. Things like the tripod come into play and other little details.
Here a a few pix of my studio:

 I have an extra monitor hooked up to my laptop, because its much faster to get stuff done with being able to see two screens at once, then there's no flipping back and forth from screen to screen.

Soon, I will be placing my supply order, and will have tons more beads to play with! then I will post those pics for you all to see too!
So continuing on, after I finish this post, I will take the pictures of my pieces and post them to my two sites. Then I won't feel like I am so far behind. Then all during this week, I will get back into my Link Love stuff on Face book. Well, wish me luck, I will blog more often and update more frequently from now on.
Thanks for stopping by to read my blog and best wishes to you and all your paths traveled!

Slowly but surely....I'm getting there!

So it seems like I am always a day late with this blogging stuff! I said I would do this every Saturday, but I always end up super busy on Saturdays. Either I have company, or have to be somewhere...and next weekend I will be working for time and a half pay! whoo hoo! Beads? Beads? I think I will deserve some beads for working the weekend. Today, I was able to progress with my website a bit, I added a visit counter, changed the home page wording a bit, and I also customized a welcome tab for my facebook page which I am very pleased with! I feel like I accomplished a little something today. Usually, I spend hours on end just doing the #LINKLOVE stuff and liking all these wonderfully talented artists pages. I honestly love seeing other peoples work, it is very inspiring to see such beautiful creations that were not just another "made in china" item. It is unique, and hard work and patience was put into it, and I can appreicate that as an artist myself. I know sometimes you can feel like your work is under appreciated or goes un noticed, but just know that I at least appreciate it and absolutely love it all! If I was rich, I would have nothing but handmade everything in my home, like the pictures on my walls, my furniture, my clothes...nothing would come from some production line in china or some other country. Dont get me wrong, I do not have anything against all that, except knowing it is made by the millions at a time, therefore is is anything but original or unique, as well as the fact that the people who make this stuff get paid cents! I have seen some beautiful jewelry in like Wal-mart, and other large chain stores, but unfortunately, it is all made in china and is not at all original. It is simply a "product" to be sold just for the money, not for the love of making the pieces, and most likely not hand made.
I have a dilemma on my hands. I need to get my hands on a good camera. I just hate not being able to show my pieces that I have been working on, and there are even times when I would love to snap pictures of the steps as I go along, so other can see my pieces being "born" so to speak. I will post some pictures of my pieces in my blog here too, I also am going to try and find a way to make my blog more noticeable and attractive by figuring out how to customize it. I think adding pictures is going to help, and looking at how others have designed their blogs to understand the layout possibilties. I have seen some really beautiful blog pages on here, and I am so impressed! I need to do that with mine here too. I need to figure out how to offer coupons, and have sales in my website and my artfire studio too. I need to get to a point that I am happy with on each of my pages, so that I can do all this. I need a lightbox. ugh, my mind is wandering now. Ok, well, I have enjoyed blogging, and need to get back to working on spicing up my pages as much as I can. Bye for now, and Thank You so very much for following my blog! Feel free to leave me comments or send me a personal message.

The need for more beads

So....I am a couple days late here, I swore I was going to blog every saturday. I don't know about you but with the holidays around the corner, I have tons to do that I still have yet to finish. I have a bad back, meaning, I have bad scholiosis, bulging discs and sciatica nerve problems. I can't do hardly anything anymore, thank god my favorite hobby is not stressful!
Anyways, I made some more jewelry pieces and last week, I got this really cool idea for this beautiful triple strand necklace. Well I got all the beads out I could possibly use, and had to get creative with my ideas because everything I thought of I couldn't do because I did not have enough of a certain bead, or something.
I got the beads that I could use for it, and began with building the part that the pendant was going to hang from. Let me tell you, it took me a long time to figure something out to hang that darn pendant because I didn't want it to just hang from jumprings or something simple.
So I used three looped sterling silver earring findings, and did the same in the back by the clasp. so there I was with that part finally built with all the strands of wire put on, and then could not figure out a pattern with the beads I had. I had to get clever because I only had so many of each bead to work with, so I had to divide them equally so both sides of the necklace could be the same. To make a long story short, I let it sit for a week, to keep coming back to it and see if I could come up with something. I finally did, and put it all together and somehow after several hours of thinking, and stringing and re stringing, I managed to make it way too long. I don't know how I did it, and yes, I pay attention to the beadboard, but I did not realize it was going to end up 25" long when it should rest right below the collarbone if that. What a waste of wire, crimp beads, and crimp covers all in sterling silver. Now I have to take it all apart again and shorten it. So that is that, and I will do that maybe next weekend or somehthing, but I have put so much effort and thought into this necklace, that I seriously do not want to even look at it, and it frustrates the hell out of me to think all that time material and effort wasted!
Ok, here is my other dilemma. Right after I finished that triple strand necklace and realized it was too long, I  decided I wanted to make something I would be successful at making and something I would be proud of when done instead of frustrated. I made this beautiful necklace, and was so proud of it. I packaged it up with some antitarnish strips and set it on the table with the other stuff I made that is new and needs to get pictures taken.
Back at my desk now, and I found some beads that I did not think should have been left over, so I second guessed my necklace work, and went back to the table, picked up the necklace, it slid out of the package and hit my tile floor and shattered the glass pendant! I was soooooo frustrated by then! I went in the other room, got the bigger desk, brought it into my bead room because I feel if I would have had more room on my bead desk, I would never have place the necklace on the table behind me, and never would have dropped it! So now I have two desks in there, and I am going to rearrange it this week, and I need to go somewhere and get some rugs to put on the floor, so if something breakable drops, it wont break.
Of course this all happened on sunday night, making me not want to go to work on Monday!  I just wanted to stay home, rearrange my beadroom, and fix everything. Unfortunately I have no choice but to buy a new pendant, but I'm thinking of something a little prettier.
The reason I say the need for more beads, is because I really do need more, I am constantly limited to designs, I always find myself not being able to pull through on an idea for a necklace or set because I don't have the right amount of a certain bead. Im so tired of being told I have "tons" of beads, and I dont need any more because yes I do, I am the one that uses them, and I am the one that knows what I need or don't need. I just need to stop talking to people about it I guess. Fine, I'll just blog about it! LOL but really, it gets frustrating when I get this really awesome idea and I can't go forward with it because I only have half the amount I would need in the beads I want to use. Any beader knows, beads can get super pricey, or I would just go right out and buy what I need.  I need to start buying like 3 or 4 (or more) strands of each bead, instead of 1 strand. But you know, that is a learning curve for me, I now know that I need to change my ordering methods. You would think after all these years, I would have figured it out, but I have not run into this problem as much as I do now.
I am very tired, it is only 9:10pm and I was going to get on facebook and do #LINLOVE stuff  for a few hours, but Im so tired, I had to take a benadryl to calm the allergies that I just figured out I had. My eyes have been soooo bloodshot for a week now, and today they were really really bad. So I decided to stop at the store on the way home and get visine allergy drops, and some benadryl. Thank God the visine seems to have cleared it up better than the other stuff I have been trying. But the benadryl is making me very sleepy....We'll see, I might just see what is going on in facebook.