The Bento Box

i’m back…but will it be for good this time?  it’s been almost 6 months since i posted my last entry…where has the time gone?  i’ve been so busy at work and then i come home, and still busy with family stuff that i haven’t had much quality time to spend with my hobbies.

today i’m ‘lucky’ to be home instead of work, but that means i’m home with the little girl, who’s not feeling well, which means not enough time to work on my hobbies.  right now she’s off napping, so that’s why i have the chance to post something today.

after i post this i’m gonna start working on a couple of custom orders for earrings and bracelets.  they’re from someone working in the same office…she saw my Glimmers of Color bracelet and liked it so much she asked for one, which led to another order from her friend, who also asked for earrings, which then led to my office worker to also ask for earrings.

talk about busy!  i better get outta here so that i can start on those orders since the little one is still asleep.

until i post again…

as some of you know i sell my wares on etsy.com.  my first store, sparklechic.etsy.com, has gone thru several name changes, but the url remains the same.  the name right now is bella lotus by leighbeads.  in this shop i now only sell my finished jewelry items.  at first i was selling both my finished items as well as my extra materials.  although i did sell a couple of my finished items i found that my extras were successful at being sold.

so, i opened a second store, leighbeads.etsy.com aka leighbeads, and from here i now sell all my extras or unwanted supplies and materials.  and although i’ve only sold 6 items and have only 2 feedback so far, i’ve had more interest for my items in this store than i ever had in my bella lotus store.  i’ve sold more items in leighbeads at a faster rate than bella lotus.  i think people are more interested in buying supplies and materials than finished products.  of course i think these are people like me who like to make their own jewelry or who have their own business making beaded jewelry for sale.

so far, all my business at leighbeads have been from international customers.  one from scotland, one from singapore and the most recent one from australia.  so far i’ve only received feedback from my singapore customer.  i’m wondering where my scottish customer is?  did she receive her items?  did she like or hate them?  no word whatsoever, not even to tell me whether she got it or not.  i think i’ll go convo her and ask if she received it.

 anyway, i’m slowly adding more items to my store as i have time.  it’s been very busy at home and at work that i’m so exhausted by the time i have any to do any etsy business, i’d rather just catch some zzzz’s than deal with my stores.  hope to get back to it soon!

hasta luego…

today is good friday and i have the day off…it’s a state holiday here…which means i get to stay home with the daughter (yipee, yeah right…).  so far it’s been good, she’s not misbehaving or whining.

 the last couple of days have been good for my etsy shops.  one bought from my jewelry shop, but she picked up the last of the supplies there (sp headpin), and the other bought from my supplies shop.  and, a couple of other people showed some interest, but i haven’t heard back from them or had their business yet.  so will see.  in my supplies shop most seem to be interested in the gemstones.  i offer them in very small quantities so that buyers don’t have to spend a lot of money for a whole strand.   so, i’m pretty satisfied so far that my stores are getting some looks.

 so anyway, it’s time for our afternoon siesta.  the daughter’s already nodded off, after a bit of whining and crying.  now it’s my turn to get some shut eye.

until next time…

so here’s some pix of some of the recent gemstones i purchased.  lovely don’t you think? 

well hello everyone! (whoever that reads my blog…)

 did anyone think i got lost since i haven’t posted in months?  i don’t really know why i didn’t keep up, well, that’s not really true…i just got lazy and the lack of interest in my blog made me lose motivation to keep it up.  but, now i’m back sort of.  one of my delphi forum and etsy friends asked if i had a blog.  well, yes, but i wasn’t keeping it up.  so since she asked and i gave the url to my blog, i guess i’m gonna have to do some writing now and then to keep her, and any of you that reads my blog, interested in visiting here every so often.  my forum/etsy friend also has her own blog: http://tomoko-etsy.blogspot.com .  she’s from japan and her english isn’t very good so she needs to use translating software, so please be patient and understanding.  she is a very nice person and has done very well with her etsy shop.

so what have i been up to?  not much except for the daily grind of work and family.  haven’t had enough time to work at my beading like i want to.  i’m currently in the middle of increasing some inventory for the local pet expo coming up on mother’s day weekend.  i’m making doggie necklaces for the chihuahua club to sell for me.  they’ll be getting a donation from the sales of the necklets, as i like to call them.  i’ll try to post a few pix when i can.

i haven’t added any new jewelry to my etsy store, but i did make a few sales of headpins i listed.  i also opened another etsy store…for my extras beads and supplies.  why open another etsy store when i could just sell them from my first store?  well, i’m a neat freak and i like to keep my finished jewelry separate from the “loose” stuff.  and besides, i can only have 10 sections (categories) in a store, so i thought better to save the unused sections for new categories of finished jewelry that i haven’t come up with yet.

personally, the daughter will be four years old in 18 days.  how quickly they grow up, and yet, not grow up fast enough!  if any of you are a parent, then you know what i’m talking about, i hope.  one minute she can be so sweet and good natured, the next she’ll be a tyrant and have a fit. <sigh>

back to  a beading note…i’ve been spending way too much money lately on gemstone beads and brios that it’s taking a toll on the checkbook!  they’re wonderful gems, pink and green amethyst, smoky topaz, citrine…oh, so costly!  anybody want to buy some of my extras?  check out my etsy store: http://leighbeads.etsy.com .  convo me that you found me through my blog (and you have to name my blog) and i’ll give you a 20% discount on your purchases.  (this offer expires 12-31-07).

okay, that’s all from me for now.  until next time…

i finally have a photo of a pair of earrings that i completed a while ago.  it’s a scan (not bad) and not an actual camera photo (i’ll try to shoot it this weekend).

simmery is linear earrings featuring chainmaille and gemstone brios.

the chainmaille weave is helm and the brios are smokey quartz, about 12mm i think.  can’t remember which size i used.  can’t give you a length either. will know for sure when i get it uploaded into my etsy shop.

i had the toughest time (and still am) with the wirewrapping of the brios. for some dang reason the wraps loops kept ending crooked, so then the brio wouldn’t hang straight down, even now, and you may have or will notice that the wrapped loops are slightly crooked. but, it’s not so crooked that the brio hang down straight enough.

i was doing pretty well with wrapping loops, but know, sheesh it’s driving me nuts that they don’t come out nicely. oh well, i guess i need to start practicing again.

must be in cyberspace, cuz i sure heck don’t know. what am i talking about you might wonder? my last post: been a while. i went the the laborous trouble of typing out a long post of why i hadn’t posted in a while, some bit of news and all that, only to have the post not even get uploaded. sometimes wordpress just drives me crazy. it’s happened to me before, but i somehow was able to recover the post, or i was dumb enough to re-do it. it could be that i did it on my work pc, which i kinda slow, has firewall issue, yada yada yada. i think from now on i’ll post using my home pc.

here’s the potd:

it’s a helm chain necklace that i finished recently. the focal is a 14ct. brazilian amethyst. this piece was fairly easy to make, my first helm weave. wrapping the brio was the most difficult. for some dang reason it wouldn’t wrap properly for the brio to hang straight. even when it did come out, the wrapped loop is still a bit crooked, but the brio hangs down straight enough. the original length or size of the necklace was maybe 17-17.5 inches, but i had to shorten it because the helm chain wouldn’t sit properly on the neck line to show off the weave. this one is a keeper for me.

occasionally i’ll be posting things that i have for sale. in addition to my regular jewelry for sale at etsy.com the items for sale will usually be my extra beading materials and supplies at below retail prices. once in a while it may be gently used items like infant/toddler or adult clothing/shoes .

for my very first listing i’ve got some genuine 1st quality swarovski crystal beads! 6 pcs for $7.50 and includes free shipping!

payment by paypal only. if interested please leave a comment and i’ll get back to as soon as i can.

my name’s keleka and i’m a beadaholic.  i like to make my own beaded jewelry and i love to browse other bead-heads’ designs.  i also try to sell my wares at www.sparklechic.etsy.com.

i have way too many beads and spent way too much $$$ :-o .  if the husband really knew how much money went to those lovlies he’d blow his top.  i think he has some idea of how much i’ve spent, but doesn’t angrily complain about it cuz he has his own addiction - electronic gadgetry - that he spends $$$ loads on.  so we’re equal.  but you should see how many extra tvs, printers, digital cameras, etc. we have!  anyway, getting back to my addiction…

here’s a pic of earrings that i made for myself recently.  nothing fancy, just basic design, but a lot of hard work on my part.

these are red garnets wrapped onto a ss chain and suspended from flower-patterend indonesian earhooks.

so, any of you out there a beadaholic too, or have any addictions (non-illegal and non-sexual, please) you’d like to share?