Amanda’s Musings

I’ve entered the September Challenge for the polymer clay artists guild of Etsy (PCAGOE) and one of our wonderful guild members (Pam) has put together a great slide show of the entries. You can see it here and vote for the entries here. Voting starts on September 1st (USA time) so pop over and take a look. The theme was ‘texture’ so here’s my entry called ’smooth is a texture too’:

This is a faux wood cuff bracelet.

Most Saturdays my wonderful in-laws take Kezi for the day and we get a lot of things done that are easier without a toddler tagging along. She loves her days at Granny and Poppa’s place and always comes home happy. This morning Michael dropped her off and took Luci so I had the house to myself for a couple of hours. That’s a pretty rare thing so I took advantage and spread myself out on the floor with all my jewellery findings and handmade beads.

In November I’m taking part in two market events. The first is the Melville Baptist Church (our church) Fair at which I’ll be selling my polymer clay items. The money from all sales at the event go to local chaplaincy so keep November 1st aside if you are in Perth. The second event is November 15th, the next Made On The Left market at the Hyde Park Hotel in North Perth (this time my sales will go to the work of SIM around the world). This will be my first really big event. The only other event I’ve participated in where I’ve sold my wares live is at a Curves market night last year.

I have exactly 9 weeks before the first of these events so I’ve been trying to do as much time snatching as possible and create stock. If I don’t have to empty my Etsy, Wahmania and MadeIt online stores I won’t. 9 weeks seems like a good amount of time but not when I have to balance family life, SIM work, events, travel and a myriad of other things in between.

So, back to today. I think I spent about 4 hours or so in total making things and then taking photos (this time for my own records, not for listing in my stores) and then more time editing the pics and putting them on my flickr page.

I had a really great time today and in total put together 7 necklaces, 1 necklace and bracelet set, 1 bracelet, 7 pairs of earrings, 2 phone charms and 7 bookmarks. I also got to go through my current stock and separate what I think I can sell at the markets in November. Now, if I don’t get to do any more time snatching this week then I won’t be so stressed!

Here’s some shots of today’s results:

Bracelet

Dragonfly Earrings

Purple Pansy Dragonfly Earrings

Inspired by India Earrings

A hoard of Bookmarks

Oceanic Necklace and Bracelet Set

Seashore Necklace

Keyrings (made these the other day)

Anyway, I’m not planning on listing any of these in my stores BUT if you see anything here or on my flickr (where the rest of today’s work is displayed) then contact me and I’ll let you know my planned prices.

By the way, today was the last day for the money from my sales going towards the work of SIM with Pastors in Malawi, I’ll be putting up the project for September and October sometime this week and letting you know the results of the last two months. Thanks for reading my blog and for those who comment, I get a little buzz out of it every time so thank you! : )

It finally happened. We have officially joined the ranks of parents with kids who have decorated their face with textas (markers). I woke this morning to see Keziah smiling at me like this;

Happily for us it washed off but she had alien-like eyebrows for the rest of the day.

She actually had quite the creative day, starting with library activity time;

and continuing at home later;

She is currently obsessed with glue sticks and paper, maybe she’ll take after me afterall!

In amongst the madness of the last few months I’ve been thinking about Keziah’s upcoming 3rd birthday. I have decided that with Kezi joining dance classes lately, a dance theme would be a great choice. This week I posted off her invitations which I had a great time drawing and making. I’m looking forward to her first themed party, should be fun!

A little while ago I bought a great matching t-shirt and romper set (from this shop) for the girls. The t-shirt says ‘I’m Lucinda’s big sister’ and the romper says (you guessed it!) ‘I’m Keziah’s little sister’. Today was the first chance I had to put them on them and take them out. We actually got to church today after missing a few weeks due to sickness or being away (second time I’ve taken Luci) and I wanted to keep the outfits for a ‘good’ occasion (as in one that doesn’t involve food or mess!).

I managed to find (by accident) a matching pair of courderoy jeans in both size ‘000′ and ‘2′ when I was at Big W the other week so they look so cute dressed the same at this age. I’m not sure that I’ll dress them the same too often but I was just glad to be able to do it this once (something to bring out at their 21st!). Anyway, here’s the end result:

My Mum reckons that little Lucinda looks like Kezi’s doll in that photo. Cute!

I was also able to put Luci’s new Bitty Booties on her and they only just fit!! I think she’s going to be tall like her sister.

Yesterday morning a group of us Western Aussie Etsy sellers met up at the art gallery cafe for coffee before going in to see the Art In Bloom exhibition. One of our group, the very talented Liza from Lillybuds had some work in the exhibition and we all went to support her. I find it very important to support and encourage people, even if you don’t know them well. I’ve been at the receiving end of this many times and believe in the principle that its better to ‘give than receive’ (Acts 20:35).

The meet up was really great, I got to meet a few more sellers that I’ve only spoken to online and a lot more that I’ve met before. Liza’s work was beautiful too!

So, here’s the ladies who were there, missing only from below is Princesslotta.

Part group shot (me in green)

AliJ, TinyLittleGirl and Ramsdendesigns

EmeliaRose (Soop Design), GetSilvered ad Lillybuds

J2aney and Osier

Sinipuu and OddGirlOut

TeaforBini and DaraArt

I had a little idea last night for some scissor covers and now realise that they would make a really nice set along with the pincushions I sell. Here’s a sneek peek at draft 1 of the idea. When I do get around to making these for the shops they may vary a bit but these work well for my personal use:

Look what my lovely hubby bought me after all the sickness of the last few days!

I took some photo of the felt book so far and here it is. So far I’ve cut the pages out and pinned three;

Hopefully I’ll make steady progress!

Apricot blossom from our backyard

Since my last post both Michael and I have had varying versions of the virus that Keziah had all weekend. The last few days have been hard, I’ve had to dig very deep in order to handle the situation and I really do thank the Lord that Lucinda hasn’t caught either Kezi’s bronchitis or the virus. Amongst the trips to the bathroom, the piles and piles of washing and the sleepless nights Luci has been a very easy baby to have. She has slept peacefully most of the time and even went 6 hours between feeds on Sunday night (hasn’t done that since though).

I have even managed to get working on Lucinda’s felt book as I mentioned in a previous post, pinning down three pages already. Haven’t taken any photos of that yet but I will do later.

Its amazing how sickness sets you back so much. I had grand plans to spend the day at carousel shopping centre on Saturday as well as get working on the invitations to Kezi’s birthday party, our SIM display, my Polyclarific display and more over the weekend. I’ve done none of that, instead I’ve washed Keziah’s quilt and bedding at least twice (before wising up and putting her on a smaller mattress with just a mattress protector), our bedding twice and loads and loads of other washing. Oh the joys! Hopefully we can get back to normal in the coming days, whatever ‘normal’ actually is!

Well, what a weekend this has been. I have had very little sleep although last night was a lot better than the previous two nights. This was related more to Keziah than Lucinda. She has had bronchitis for the last week and then on Friday night around 1.30am she started throwing up! We think that she has a virus on top of the bronchitis and the health line people think that her system would be down a bit due to antibiotics hence making her more vulnerable to viruses. Poor little girl.

Usually I do all the night feeds and shifts and Michael will get up with Kezi (and now Luci) around 6-6.30am and let me sleep for a bit longer but on Friday night/Sat morn he had to take care of Lucinda and her feeds while I took care of a chucking up Kezi!! We were both wrecked by Saturday morning. It was all looking on the up until just after bedtime for Kezi last night when she was sick again so we did what we had done the night before and set her up in the lounge room so I could sleep next to her. Michael would have done that shift except that he was preaching this morning so really did need sleep! It all turned out ok because Keziah slept most of the night, wasn’t sick again and I actually got sleep between feeds.

I feel fully initiated into double parenthood now. Looks like I survived. : )

In between all of this I have managed a tiny bit of time snatching and creativity. I think it keeps me sane. Here’s the results from the last three or four days:

Some bitty booties for Lucinda, she only just fits them though!

Various pendants, beads etc… that I’ve made this week and varnished

Varnished a large group of pendants and beads (ready for an upcoming show - stay tuned!)

I have realised that I have a lot on my plate for the rest of the year. Between my SIM responsibilities (newsletter coming out soon, emails, admin and working on our display for upcoming events), Creativity and my shops (I have 2-3 actual physical market stalls before Christmas), Home life (the usual cleaning, kids stuff, feeding Luci etc etc…, buying presents, arranging Kezi’s birthday party for next month etc…) and church life (I’m yet to get as involved as I’d like, I was either away or pregnant for most of our first year at our new church!), I need to be organised. I’m happy though to be no longer pregnant and able to have a reasonably clear brain again, its good to be busy!