I don't feel so bad now...

From the AP:

"Cougars 4 Cook."

There it was, on a poster in the "American Idol" audience last week, after David Cook belted Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" in the Key of Emo. And that slogan — not to mention the woman who hoisted it — speaks to the 25-year-old singer's popularity with, ahem, women of a certain age.

And #1 and #2 quotes of the week, both from Salon:

#1, about David Archuleta:

He has the most unforced vocal technique since -- excuse me while I dry-heave -- Josh Groban. He is sweet and milky and blackhead-free, and he is utterly inhuman, like something you'd encounter on Disney's "Small World" ride. (Paddle! Paddle!) "Archu-Dee-Two," one blogger has called him, and I would have to agree, except that I can't help envisioning a time when Archuleta breaks out of the workshop and goes on a rampage through the surrounding countryside, hot-wiring cars and breaking kneecaps, with Miley Cyrus in tow. To quote the title of his favorite song: "Imagine."

#2, about David Cook:

I realized that one of the things fueling my season-long vigil -- one of the reasons I still watch this show after so many years -- is the possibility that my generation might still have a say in our pop culture. David Cook is young enough to be my son, but he makes music for grown-ups, and we grown-ups need music even more than the wheatlike children who sway in front of every "American Idol" stage. At least for today, the U2 song no longer applies. We've found what we're looking for.

Okay, no more AI from me...for this season :)

Guilty Pleasure: AI

I recently read an article saying that American Idol viewership had decreased among younger viewers and increased among "older" viewers 35-49. Not sure how I feel about being an "older" viewer, but, I must admit, I'm still a sucker for AI.

And, if my husband can have pictures of Evangeline Lilly from "Lost" on his desktop, I can admit I have a little crush on David Cook. I'm almost old enough to be his mother (if I'd been a seriously unsupervised 14 year old), and I'm definitely old enough to have been bothered by his original hair-in-his-eyes style. (When you want to push hair out of someone's face, you know you've turned into your mother).

If anything shows the viewership age gap, it's the two finalists. You have the battle of the Davids: David Cook (favorite of us "older" folks) and David Archuleta, who doesn't look at day over 15 (he's 17) and was born when I was a senior in COLLEGE. When David C. sings, the crowd goes wild. When David A. sings, the girls scream in Beatle-esque unison. And, while David A. is technically proficient, he doesn't seem to have a real grasp on the meaning of the songs he sings. David C. makes you think he's lived every word.

I think that, in about 5 years and 2 ex-girlfriends, David A. will be able to back up his wonderful voice with some real emotion. David C. has that combination now, and I hope he wins the AI final on Wednesday. Either way, this "older" consumer will absolutely buy his album.

I (heart) my Lindstrom pliers

I took the plunge and bought my first pair of Lindstrom pliers. My Hobby Lobby cheapo roundnose pliers were getting a bit out of alignment, so it was the perfect opportunity to upgrade.

On the Etsy forums, someone recommended replacing pliers one at a time due to the cost. I did a little web-browsing and found that Urban Maille had the best prices. They shipped pretty quickly, too.



I unpacked them and immediately noticed how much shorter the tips were than my old pair. However, now that I've used them, I think that gives me more control without having to move my hand so much when I loop wire. Also, it took a few turns to figure out the best spot to loop the wire around.

The handles on these pliers are wonderful! They're much longer than the pliers I had before, and they're extremely comfortable. When I switched between them and my cheapo chainnose pliers, I could really tell the difference.



The tips are so tiny! You could make a tiny loop with these, and, although I haven't tried it, I bet it would make a much tighter start to a wire spiral.

Now that I have these, I can't wait to replace all my other pliers! Ooooh, and the flush cutters, too :)

I'm ALIVE!

When I'm not working or making rosaries/jewelry, I'm taking MBA classes. Yes, I am slightly insane ;) The past week or so has been consumed with my Economics class. Luckily, my final was Monday night (not good AT ALL), and, after sleeping it off last night, I'm ready to take full advantage of the 2 month break before my next class (another blasted economics class!).

April has been a good month for me, sales wise. I also had several firsts:

- first repeat customer
- first private Alchemy request
- first customer who said they found me on Flickr
- first customer who said they were refered by a past customer

I'm hoping May will be a good month as well. I will have time to make and list new items more regularly, and one of my chaplets will be in the Etsy cooperative ad in the May issue of CRAFT magazine. I've also stocked up on rosary and chaplet components; I'm going to try to use up a lot of the beads I have on hand before I buy more.

Hmm, looks like May could be just as busy as April after all :)

A busy week behind...a busy week ahead

This has been a great week, shop-wise. I sold the Saint Peregrine chaplet (in the picture above) and a custom order. I've also got about a week's worth of new items to list. I've tried to either list or relist once a day, although I may stop listing on Friday or Saturday, because the traffic is not very high.

IRL, I'm a web developer, and, in a former life, I did desktop publishing. Today, I've been working on new business cards for my husband's company (he's a one man computer consulting dynamo). My next task: designing a promotional postcard.

In addition to my day job and my Etsy shop, I'm pursuing my MBA (or perusing, as our newspaper wedding announcement said). I'm taking Economics this semester, and it's not my favorite class ever. I'm supposed to be doing online quizzes this weekend. I'd rather design postcards.

Trying to figure out the photography thing

Sometimes I take pictures and they turn out like this. Sometimes...well, not so good. I can't seem to figure out the secret to taking consistently good pictures.

My main problem is that most of my items contain metal (base metal mostly, but sometimes sterling silver) crucifixes, centerpieces, and medals. If I have the lighting so that the color of the beads are more true-to-life, I get a mad glare on the medal components. If I have the lighting so that there isn't a glare and the detail of the metal components is clear, the picture is too darn dark. ARGH!

I read an article that suggested setting the camera's f stop to 8 and the ISO to 80-100. I've figured out how to set the ISO, but not so much the f stop (although the camera loves to tell me what it's currently set to).

The worst glare, however, is on my pinback buttons. The buttons look so much better IRL than they do in the pictures.

Photography...the bane of an Etsy seller's existence ;)

I (heart) my button machine

It took a while, but I finally got my new 1" button machine. (BTW, thank you Keith @ American Button Machines for being SO helpful!) I am absolutely amazed at how easy making the button is! What is not easy: creating the graphic.

I found a public domain photograph of St. Therese and a Photoshop button template. I knew that Paint Shop Pro would open the Photoshop file, but what I apparently forgot was how to use Paint Shop Pro. It took me FOREVER to get the words on a curve the way I wanted. But I finally did...at 2AM this morning *yawn*

The rose was a little easier. My brother and I cut some photos out of magazines and catalogs, and I found the rose in a magazine ad. My brother made buttons using a picture from a telescope catalog and a page from an old map.

I could make buttons all night...I'm such a geek :)

Things I Made for the Wedding

There's been a lot of talk lately about handmade weddings, so I wanted to share items I made for my wedding last month.

Rosary



I made wedding rosaries for both me and my husband. I gave my husband his during our rehearsal dinner, and the restaurant manager wants to know how much I'll charge him to make one for his mother :) I used Swarovski bicones in the new Golden Shadow color, and the crucifix, centerpiece, and findings are sterling silver.

Bridal Jewelry



I made two sets: one for me and one for my matron of honor. I was still making the matron of honor's jewelry the day before the wedding! Everything turned out well, though. I used vanilla semi-round freshwater pearls and fern cubic zirconia. My matron of honor's jewelry matched except for the color of the CZ, which was a lighter yellowish green (lemon ice).

You can find out more and see more pictures in my Flickr wedding set.

Merkaban?

I bought these lovely beads, and, once I had them in my hands, they made me think of Van Gogh's "Starry Night." They are so clear I had trouble getting my camera to focus on them.

One question: does anyone know what a merkaban is?

I (heart) my lightbox

This past Christmas, my brother and my husband gave me a great lightbox set. The box itself is collaspable and folds up into a carrying case, which has pockets for a great set of lights and a tripod that came with it. I recently started taking my product pictures using the lightbox, and I think they've turned out great.

While my coffee cup seems to work well for hanging earrings, I've not found a good solution for my rosaries and chaplets. I've ordered a curved display from Fire Mountain Gems that I think will work well, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.