Weird Stick Bug

Found this lurking around my chili plant. I thought it was a dead stick so I tried to remove it... It didn't like that at all. I was told it was in inchworm... I have never seen one of those before but I thought it was pretty cool.. Like a little giraffe :o)

July mailing list giveaway

Sign up for my mailing list (top right corner of my blog) for a chance to win these awesome Swedish Mushrooms. Value $22 and they're the perfect sized studs. If you're worried about being spammed you can relax! I send out a newsletter once a month (sometimes once every two months) and you can opt out at any time (and no hard feelings!). In my news letter I write about what I've been up to lately and what's new, special deals etc.

So what are you waiting for? Go and sign up!

Who knows where thoughts come from.. they just appear

I've spend a lot of time thinking about creativity and originality. When I opened my Etsy shop last year I was still under the illusion that my designs were completely unique to me (ha like I'm sort of genius!) but as I came across different shops I quickly started to realize that the more simple designs like my bud studs and my dish studs or dish ring were pretty common designs on Etsy. Some of them had been on there longer than mine, some were listed after mine. Did I break down crying cause I am not that special or did I freak out and started yelling copycats? No of course not. I am an adult and I chose to believe the best about others.

There are two things that you always have to keep in mind. The limited options of a material or shape. I mean there is only so much you can do with a disc, a doming block or a piece of wire. The other is that you can confront the other seller but you will never ever know if they are being truthful or not. Or maybe you will not believe anything less then if they say: Yes I copied you. But if that's the case I guess you don't care about truth, only to be right. What I am trying to say is that you will never know so why waste everybody's time. Rock on with your bad self instead, and keep creating. Keep challenging yourself instead of pointing fingers at others. But if you desperately need to know. Just f-ing ask.... and yes, I mean YOU. Please don't make someone else do the dirty work for you. But be prepared to accept the answer you get and move on. Even if the answer is as simple as "great minds think alike".

Some of you reading might know where this post is coming from and I just needed to vent. Get all this thoughts out of my head before it would explode. A dear friend of mine was accused of something as terrible as copying other sellers work. I felt it was handled incredible bad and that she was left with no choice than to walk away from something that had mattered a lot to her. The situation left me feeling that anyone could be next. You could suddenly discover that you were on the receiving end of being accused of copying and you would have no way of defending yourself. I just don't want to have any part of that.

It takes many people to build a community but only one to bring it down.

While the Kiln wash was drying...

I decided to play with some ideas that I have had for enameling.. I just had to use the torch instead of my new kiln... since I am applying kiln wash to it and I work full time so it's taking it's sweet time to get ready! I love all the new colors I've got and I have been playing with fusing glass beads to the enamel. I really like how some of them turned out. The white one is awesome! But some of the other color combination didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted to... But you have to try to learn! I will be posting them as One of a Kind on Etsy so hopefully they will all find loving homes! The white one might be a permanent design in my shop cause I just loorve how it turned out.

Their favorit scratching post

David was so awesome and made this after the kitties started to attach the furniture... And they love it. He glued a bunch of recycled cardboard together and cut out this awesome cat scratching post. And as you can see from the wear and tear, they absolutely love it. And so do I! I think its beautiful, but then I am not surprised as it it my very talented boyfriend who made it.

hard to focus

I have special eyeballs. Ever since I was a little kid I could be in complete control of them.. It's quite the party trick... Just ignore that fact that I look retarded and be blown away by my special powers..

I just can't seem to be able to focus on work today (that is my boring day job)... I know I have a tone of thing to do... but I much rather think of new designs that I can work on in my studio AFTER work :o)

I have these amazing cabs I've got from a wonderful seller on Etsy.. I'll be blogging more about that when I have a design idea ready for them... I've also got tons of ideas for enamel pieces now that I got my kiln. There is especially one necklace that I am making for Jaime from bellabijoujewellery that I want to get started on. If only there were more hours in a day!

I've had 4 weeks off Etsy now so I am very excited to be opening up my little shop again... Tomorrow is the big grand Reopening!

It's not about what you COULD do tomorrow. It's about what you actually DID today..

I am so clever... Figured out that one all by myself...
It's been so hard to get motivated to work out. Keep telling myself tomorrow I'll do it... Tomorrow I'll make a change.. But this morning I woke up and I thought to myself.. It's now or never. You can't live your life in the future dreaming of what could be. I want to be happy right now. So I got up and removed a pile of clothing from my ab lounge.. I don't know what's more embarrassing.. That I have an AB Lounge? Or that I've used it as clothing storage for the past year? Anyways I did 50 sit ups and then I did my feet exercises (they are soooo boring... but my poor feet are feeling better after I do them so I think they work). I showered, got dressed and went to work. Work wasn't completely horrible today so it actually went by pretty fast. I leave at 4pm now which makes a HUGE difference for me. Now I get home at 4:30 instead of 6pm which I did when I left at 5. And I hate sitting in traffic!


When I came home I stared at my bike which has been sitting on a trainer in our living room for the past couple of weeks. I swear it's laughing at me everytime I walk by... But today I actually changed into my bike clothes and started biking. I felt great! And by great I mean sweating like a pig and being out of breath... I only rode for 30 minutes but it's a good start. I also lifted some weights for my arms (got to keep up the momentum!) and then stretched out a bit. Overall I feel like I actually did something positive today instead of just complaining.

I just had a nice sallad for dinner and I feel very motivated to jump into my studio to get working on some stuff! YAY! I think I can actually do this! No more fat TESS!

TODAY'S WEIGHT: 61kg
WORKOUT: YES
PORTION CONTROL : YES

ps I'll upload photos tomorrow morning (forgot my camera at work..). But I promise I'll spare you from seeing me in my tight padded bike shorts.. Yuck!

Tadaaa My New Kiln!!!!!

Wait a minute...Something is missing.... WTF! Where is my window??? I can't believe I have waited so patiently for my new little friend to arrive only to discover it has the wrong door on it... Boooooo!! I am really bummed out. I've written artfulcrafter to let them know and I am just waiting to hear back from them... Their Customer Service had been less than satisfactory and I won't be shopping with them again...

STEP 1 Etsymetal Charm Swap 4

I am participating in the Etsymetal Charm 4 and I was having the hardest time deciding what to do. I finally landed on an enameled charm. I just bought a Paragon SC2 kiln (which should be arriving any day now) so I started preparing my little copper discs.

I have to make 22 charms and they have to be done by the end of august (I think). So I used my new stamp with my pretty logo from Infinity stamps. I love how detailed it is and I am very happy with that purchase.

After stamping all 22 charms on the back I drilled the hole for the jump ring. Since I will be enameling the pieces I needed to do that now... cause ofter wise I would have 22 useless charms after firing them :o)

After drilling all the holes I added some texture to the back and domed them. And all that is left now is the fun part! I think I am going to do a clear enamel on the back (which will be the side you see here) and then I want to play with some different colors on the front. I kind of want to do a bunch of different colors cause I just got some new ones in and I have been dying to play with them.


One thing I've been playing with is fusing glassbeads to the surface of the enamel and this photo is of some label pins that was a custom request. So I think I might try that with some of the charms. I have to say I am really nervous about this swap. There are some seriously talented members of Etsymetal that is participating and I really hope that they will like my charms when they are done! Heck, I hope I will really like the charms when they are done!!!

stinky feet

So last week I finally went to the foot doctor. I've had problems with my feet for a long time and it's been making it almost impossible to stay active and do the things I normally love to do. Walking for a longer period of time gets really painful... so the nice doctor told me that I had Plantar Fasciitis which is a painful inflammation and it's probably been caused from my 10 years working for IKEA running around on concrete floors.. I was kind of hoping that it would be something that they could just cut up my feets and fix... There isn't really a cure for this. He gave me a bunch of stretching exercises that I have to do every day and hopefully it will help and make it better. I know that I can kiss all my pretty high heel shoes goodbye though which makes me really sad..

I don't want to wear orthopedic ugly Minnie Mouse shoes for the rest of my life!!!

I can do it!

I really don't know how it happened... but slowly I've put on weight. I guess that's how it works... Been eating a little too much.. and eating things I probably shouldn't.. Sitting behind my desk all day and then in my studio all night. I am only 5'3" so when I finally stood on my scale in bathroom and discovered that I now weigh 63 kg I wanted to cry. It's time to deal with it. So I've setup my mountainbike on a trainer in the living room and I am determined to bike it off. And keep it off! It's been really hard working a full time job and running my Etsy shop with only 24 hours in a day. I've been on vacation from my Etsy shop the past couple of weeks to catch up with life and I have another 2 weeks before I reopen. So now is really the time where I need to get into some good habits and stop being such a slacker! I need to get down to 55kg so I can fit into the jeans that I love. They have been at the bottom of my wardrobe for way too long!

Poor Lisa

So my cute little kittie decided to play with a bee.. or wasp.. I'm not sure.. But she was sporting a "boxing glove" a couple of days ago. I am glad to report that the paw is now down to normal size and she is bouncing around all crazy again... But doesn't she look cute with that big paw? :o)