Too many facets

Hello friends!

Do you have too many facets too? I have come to realize that lately I do so many things that I have too much variety in my business. Strange problem to have huh? I guess I just never want to get bored or feel trapped by just doing one thing. I have SO many great ideas and it's like each one of them could be it's own business!

Learning this about myself makes me happy because it means I am very creative. Instead of being able to work in just one medium I can work in many and surprising to me I am quite skilled at it as well. I do excel more in some areas than others for sure.

So where am I going with this? Well I will be sort of doing my first business related project. By business I mean I will be creating something in glass for another business in their theme!

So what is this new project?  I am creating some pet themed necklaces and keychains for Advanced Animal Care of Colorado! 

So a little side story on how we got hooked up... Ricky's mom works for Dr. Steyn at the clinic. They were brain storming what item they could give to their clients that had lost a beloved pet. My MIL suggested that they contact me to do some pet themed items. I was very excited to be asked to create a special piece for their clients! 

So to begin I created a variety of designs for them to choose. So off to work I went and these are the ideas I came up with...

 

With my love of mixed-media elements I chose to use some Scrabble game tiles. I did my first scrabble style game tile in this fashion for my design in this years BSBP Sept 2011 . This first design is a "C" for Cat and a "D" for dog. I sealed images on the back sides where the larger paw print is on the dog keychain and the smaller prints are on the cat keychain.

 

The next design was the same cat and dog theme, but with distressed tiles and different images. The dog pendant has a fire hydrant and the cat pendant has a cartoon kitty.

 

Next were my glass pendants. Since dog and cat pads are the same these designs worked for both. Paw prints on the front and hearts on the back.

 

Finally I created some simple designed keychains geared more for male clients. Paw prints on the front and simple polka dots on the back side.

What are other facets in your creative business?

xo Genea

Fall walk at Waterfront park Portland, OR

Hello Friends!

It's that time of year again, FALL!  My very favorite season of all!  On Ricky and my days off together we enjoy doing things around the beautiful city of Portland, OR.  A few days ago we went down to Waterfront Park

to get some exercise and enjoy the beauty of the city with the leaves changing colors. 

We start our journey by public transportation.

 

Here is a view of the Trimet Rail System map(sorry for the blurry photo). This map shows you the different colored lines of the MAX(Metropolitan Area Xpress). This is our light rail/train(same thing) that takes all over the city along with buses. Since our move to our apartment we live right off a MAX line so we get to enjoy speedy transit through the city most places we go.

 

Here is a beautiful little free bike repair station. Portland has a bike map for the entire city of bike only routes! 

On our way to the bridge to get to the walking path.

 

Here is the Steel bridge .

Here is a view from on the bridge walking across.

 

It's a little hard to tell wha'ts going on in this photo, but there is a little portion of the bridge that raises for boats to go through unlike smaller bridges where the entire bridge opens to allow boats safe passage. We were lucky enough to get to see the bridge raise on our walk!

 

Here is the little guy that needed to get through. Funny enough it looks like the only thing that didn't clear the bridge was the antennas!

 

We saw these geese hungrily feeding in one of the parks open grassy areas. In Portland for summer events the grass gets so trampled they actually cage off grassy areas to allow them to re-grow over the winter !

 

Here is a view of the Convention Center from across the river. I really like the shape of the building.

 

There is art EVERYWHERE in Portland! This was a sculpture under the bridge along the path.

 

Here is one of those fountains that squirts up the little shoots of water.

 

Here is the Hawthorne Bridge.

 

Here is a much better shot a portion of the bridge raising for a boat. I don't know how we managed to arrive at the bridges as they were letting boats through that day, but it was really cool to see the bridges raise :)

 

Here is where people wait for the bridge to lower again to pass.

 

There was this cool boat museum on the water that you could check out. We didn't go inside, but it looked pretty cool.

 

More sculpture along the walk way. This one looks like a ball inside a net.

 

Here is part of the path that is on the water. It has these long rusty poles with white pointy tops. I like this view. It think it would be cool if a painting was on the poles where it made an image from this perspective! 

 

Here is another shot of that same walking area.

 

This was the end of that path. I love the curve of the street above, the brightly colored trees and the covered walk way :)

 

Another sweet sculpture made out of stained glass .It was all this gorgeous reddish orange color with an iridescent luster!

 

Doesn't this one look like a tree trunk and roots with the greenery above? I'm not sure what it was supposed to be, but it's some sort of rusty metal.

 

Some more metal sculptures.

 

A seagull just chillin out by the water.

 

The MAX that takes us home. The Blue line that goes to Gresham. This is a city just outside of Portland and the end of the line for this color train.

I hope you enjoyed seeing our river front walk!

IN OTHER NEWS.....

I just wanted to thank all of you that commented on my post about naming the jewelry side of my shop! You all are so wonderful to help me brain storm! I will keep you all posted as we get things sorted. This is also the reason I'm not doing listings today like I normally would. Don't worry though, I have some wonderful beads for the next shop update!

I would also like to share the wonderful post Staci Louise, of SLArtisan Accents did about our bead swap on the Love My Art Jewelry blog! I totally adore Staci and her work! Stay tuned for more about our swap and the beads we received!

See you soon!

xo Genea

A name for change...

Hello friends!

So last night I consulted with a fellow Etsian from our PDX group. Her expertise is marketing so I was interested what she might be able to suggest for my business. I need to make a few decisions about some things and the first of which is what to name my jewelry side of my business. Any ideas? I had wanted to come up with some awesome way to present this as a game with a prize, but alas I have not.

BUT.... How about this... How about if I pick your name idea I will send you some goodies? Sound like fun?! I mean who doesn't love beady goodies?

So what I am thinking of is maybe some sort of fun name, something punny maybe? I love clever things like that. My other "handle" is "Eye Do Glass, " but that doesn't really encompass everything as far as my jewelry is concerned. I figure maybe since you all can see things on the "outside" you probably have some wonderful ideas that I can't see.

My jewelry style is mixed-media and I love to use recycled items to make sweet stuff. I LOVE to use bright colors and use components in surprising new ways.. (does this totally sound like a personals ad?! lol)

So what name ideas have you got for me? :)

xoxo Genea

Some of my FUNKIEST most CREATIVE designs yet!

Hello friends!

Ok so after it taking me almost the ENTIRE day to get going, here we are with some late evening listings! I am really proud of the creativity of these designs and hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

 

"Crying Spiral Eye"- This ring was SO much fun to make! The center eye is made from shrink plastic and hand drawn by me. The spiral eye is the same eye I doodle with my signature. I gave it a glass droplet tear to be a "crying eye" which was one of my favorite doodles in highschool.  I just LOVE this design!

 

"Green Peace"- a wonderful way to make your peaceful statement. In gorgeous Bullseye odd lot glass. Violet purple and glittery green! Adjustable for any finger size!

 

"Space Strider"- a wonderful mix of my lampwork beads, and mixed-media materials of: leather, rubber, lucite, enameled chain and fibers! Inspired by the Peter Max image below(one of my favorite artists!).

 

"Setting Sun"- my WING DINGS as wonderful little stitch markers! Super big and bright to be seen among your stitches for knit and crochet!

 

"Green People"- Well it didn't get picked for Lark's 500 ring series book, but it sure is AMAZING! This ring is not only made from recycled paper, but it's "green" theme is even accented with all sorts of wonderful shades of green. What makes it so remarkable? Oh I dunno, the fact that it's REVERSIBLE! The droplet dangle even hangs properly no matter which side you wear! 

 

Both sides worn.

Well since I piddled around all day long I am almost late for my work out with Ricky! So I better get movin'!

Have a super fantastic weekend and thanks for stopping by!!

xo Genea

Oh My BLOG!

Hello friends!

Yes, I am indeed still alive.... barely. Lol. I felt like I was in the dark ages for sure moving and not being online for over a week! What did we all do before the internet anyways????

So I just thought I would stop in and let you all know I'm still here! No shop update for today. Don't worry though,  everything is back up and running and beads are in the kiln!  I have a lot of things to photograph to show you and some wonderful photos of the beautiful city of Portland I took during our river front walk :)

I hope things are going awesome in your neck of the woods and that you are enjoying the wonders of fall!

See you soon!

xo Genea

Shop Update- Wing Ding Waterfall necklaces, Daisy Cake neckalces, Eye Flowe ring and Stitch markers!

Hello friends!

Well today's shop update features finished items. You know it's never too early to start shopping for Christmas gifts for that special someone. It's ok if that special someone is yourself , I won't tell ;)

 

Daisy Cake"Chocolate"- Ok so who doesn't love chocolate and cupcakes?! I did actually have to make cupcakes once after making these beads because I had a craving!

 

Daisy Cake "Mint Cream"- Don't you just love these colors?! Thank you Bullseye for making such perfect colors! Oh and mint is pretty tasty too!

 

"Eye Flower"- Yes, both amazing things in one ring! Eyes and daisies. This ring is SO me it's retarded. I hope you like it too.
 

 

Wing Ding Waterfall "Cream on Top"- Ok so if you are on the more meek side this will be perfect for you. Or.. maybe you aren't a color fanatic like myself. This design is "safe" and will match with everything. 

 

Wing Ding Waterfall "Fire Maple"- It's that time of year again.. FALL! My very favorite season! I love watching the colors of the leaves turn and fire maples are no exception!

 

"Bright Pop"- "Wing Dings" and knitting or crochet? Sounds like a winning combination to me. I was excited to offer these for the first time EVER since I have been enjoying using them behind the scenes on my projects ;)

SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?....

Well moving again, kids. Yes sir'ree if there was a prize for times of moving in one year, I may have earned a plaque, or a medal or a bozo button or something for sure. Hell I will even take a cookie if it's gluten free :D

So this time we are staying right here in Portland, OR, we are just moving into our own apartment. We have been living at a house with some roomies for the last few months and we are needing a little more space.

We got  a cute little two bedroom here at Dalton Park Apartments. The rent is $795 for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment with: w/d hook-ups,  a dishwasher, fireplace, and is right off a MAX line(our light rail/train).  Did I mention everything is electric too?! No expensive gas!  The rooms even have their own thermostat! Pretty sweet! I heard from some of you this is cheap because the same thing in your area would have been way more expensive.

So I am getting ready packing, packing, packing. So on that note, I should get back to it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xo Genea

Bagby Hot Springs and Mount Hood National Park

Hello friends!

I wanted to share some of my adventure from this weekend with you. The photos don't even do it justice!  This past Saturday I visited the Bagby Hot Springs and Mount Hood National Park with my roommate and her boyfriend. It was such an amazingly beautiful place!

 

Here is a view from a bridge we crossed of a creek below.

 

More water, trees and fallen trees. Pretty huh?!

 

There were a lot of these areas where water ran over the rocks and made little waterfalls :)

 

See that teal spot of water? It really was that color. I don't know if it's a reflection or rocks or whatever, but it sure was beautiful!

 

Here was a huge tree stump and a huge hollowed out tree. It doesn't look like much in this pic, but when you see the next one you will understand.

 

This was my standing height tall (I'm 5' 8").

 

Here is why we traveled to the hot springs! These large wooden tubs are filled with water from the hot springs. It comes out of a spout attached to the tub. You can sit inside here and enjoy relaxing under half covered half uncovered roof. The water was HOT. Wow! We had to get buckets of cold water from the creek to dump inside so we could get in the tub.

 

This is lichen. It's a fungus/moss that grows on the trees. It's really pretty. 

 

Here is one of the smaller tubs that was private. There were wooden walls all around it with a door.

 

Here is the spout. When you removed the little board of wood water from the spring would flow down that log to fill the tub.

 

Here is a photo of the path we took to reach the tubs. Doesn't it look magical?!

 

This was a pic of me standing looking up to see the tree tops. They are SO tall! You feel so small in a forest with such tall trees! I wish I could show you some better perspective, but trust me, they seemed to go on forever!

 

Life finds a way huh? These little trees were growing out of a larger tree's stump.

 

Another one of the pretty little waterfall and water pools.

So don't you totally want to go now? :D I will say the ride there and back was horrendous for me. With the rapid elevation change(about 2500ft) and the cooler weather and allergies I felt horrible. I was so glad to get out of the car. I felt revived and incredible after getting out of the tub!

See you soon!

xo Genea