Busy day

Well, there's lots of updates.  I am now officially divorced.  Yay!  I just got back from the hospital, my best friend had some hemorrhaging after having her baby over a month ago.  She had to have an emergency surgery, she's doing better now, but I'd greatly appreciate it if you would send good thoughts her way.  I have a 2nd job (in addition to being a clerk in a dr.'s office, being a full time student, and trying to do jewelry on etsy on the side) I love this job, I am doing some writing from home for redhillgeneralstore.com  it is an awesome company, and they offer just about everything online and in their actual brick & mortar shop.  The people are great and I love to write so its a match made in heaven.

Another bit of good news...I won a poetry contest, details at this blog: http://blog.accentuateservices.com/2010/10/14/1412/comment-page-1/#comment-2493

Hopefully things will calm down a bit and I can focus more on my jewelry and on my loyal blog followers.  Until then, I'll try to keep you posted :)

Shout Outs and Updates.

Starting off with tonight's post giving a shout out to Red Hill General Store.  The owner graciously did an interview with me for a school project, and I was amazed at how far they have come since I worked there back in High School, and my first go round at college.  You should visit their website at http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com they have just about anything you could think of and then some.  The staff is friendly, and the prices are reasonable. 

Update, the Jewelry Presentation my small group did turned out very well.  Our group came in 2nd, but we had a lot of fun, and I got to work with some wonderful people.  My Power Point class finally started, and we have a few projects which will be a bit more work added to my already stressful life, but I think I will still enjoy this class.  I get to be creative in a few ways, which always makes me happy.  Work has been stressful to the point that I've been nearly in tears and physically shaking every day on my way home.  I love the people I work with, but we need to figure out a way to lighten the load.  Or else I'm going to have to go to a Dr. and get put on some meds or something.  This much stress can't be good for someone.  I wish I enjoyed my job again.  :(

I have to work this weekend, but hopefully after I tackle all my homework in the evenings I will have time to  make some new jewelry and get pics up and stuff listed. 

Thank you to all of my readers.

Sales, Fire, and Speeches Oh My!

Made my first sale.  Sold a pair of earrings to one of my mother's friend for a birthday gift.

The Boy's work place caught on fire temporarily today.  It was a plant separate from his, but still it causes me to worry about him during the day.  So far as I know no one was hurt though.

Been working on my experience speech for Communications class.  Not a whole lot of fun.  And its a whole lot to remember has to be 5 minutes.  (YIKES) So wish me luck on that.  Our paper on it is due Thurs, and the speech is due the following Tues. 

Well off to work on some more homework.  Just wanted to give ya'll an update. :)

Weird Couple've Days...

Its been an interesting and weird few days lately.  Found out I most likely have a half-sister that I did not know about...still deciding on how to go about (or if I) contacting her.  A little girl a few towns over from here died from a mysterious illness, a lot of people are in an uproar over it.  Understandably so.  Waiting to see if something is put in the news about it.  If so I'll share that here.  Went out to Turn One in Wytheville, to watch a friend's band play.  Fast Back.  They were pretty good for only 3 practices, but it was for a good cause, they were raising money for a 15 month old who needs an intestinal transplant.  The Boy was a sweetie and donated some extra money in addition to paying for the door charge for both of us (door charge was all going the baby's fund).  Am trying to get everything together for our group project this week, and realizing that A LOT of big projects are due, just one class is keeping me so busy I can't breathe, I'm honestly typing this on a forced break from memorizing my intro for our project.  So my brain feels a little like this:

Second Treasury!!!

Wow, I must be on a roll, I was featured in another Treasury!  :)  That makes me feel happy!  This one was created by olisichka the treasury is here.  Also there is a pic below:

Lovely mix of undiscovered!

First Treasury, New Listing

I was featured in a treasury for the first time today the link is: http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c917982b4a86d91291544d9/something-wicked-this-way-pounces-a made by factorygirlashli, she
 titled it Something wicked this way pounces (a Pounce treasury):

My latest listing:

Projects galore...

So, I mentioned the Small Group project in an earlier blog.  The one that we are doing for my communications class, anyway, the product my group picked was my jewelry :O Which is awesome!  The girls are determined that we will sell a piece the day we do our speech.  They are all so super nice, love my group. LOL. 

Well, as I had said about Records Keeping, I have a feeling that it is going to be the death of me.  Accounting is not my thing, and I'm doing it online (I'm sure I've mentioned that a million times) but really ONLINE??? WTF was I thinking???  It took 2 tries to get a passing grade on my post test (and that's not the real deal grrrrrr.) I have one more try, I'm gonna study some more and shoot for a 100.  The bad thing is that for the pre and post test we can use our book...and I kinda have a feeling that we'll have to go to the ARC for the main tests and no books there *big gulp*  I need to look into that...

Now onto my latest listing:

Small World

Went to a cook out with The Boy yesterday, met some of his friends that I hadn't met before.  Had a lot of fun, the food was great and the conversation was interesting.

Found out one of his friends hangs out with some of The Lil' Sis's group.  Just found it weird how each group tends to link back to another in one form or another in this little town, but it should be expected by now.  He was telling some party stories, that I'd heard from someone else's perspective (the lil sis's) and it was neat to hear it in a new light. 

Also I have listed a new  piece of jewelry on Etsy and I have updated some of my links at the top of the page.

New Treasury, New Week

I have a Woodsy Themed Treasury at this link.  A few of the items featured are below:

Forested Away Unexpectedly

• 
  Vinyl wall art decals -...

  surfaceinspired
  $145.00 USD
• 
  PREORDER The Wise One -...

  noblegnome
  $26.00 USD
• 
  Mixed Metal Emerging Sa...

  BethMillner
  $150.00 USD

Tomorrow is my first day of online classes, I'm getting uber nervous.  Then Tuesday will be the nerve wracking experience of setting foot into a classroom again.  I'm mainly scared b/c I was an honor roll, national honor society, government school going, AIM Scholar, Advanced Studies Diploma type student, and here I am 7 years later, scared that maybe I won't be good at it anymore.  I don't know that I could handle failing.  I'll just have to make that NOT AN OPTION.

LOL.  Wish me luck!

Also here is today's first dropper:

   

Go support their blog!  Thanks!

Nice Day...

Today was a nice leisurely day, went to church w/The Boy, his church was celebrating their 100th anniversary.  Which was cool, lots of fun activities :) Then lots and lots of really yummy food. 

I also have a new listing in my shop:
                                                                          See it here

Hope everyone else had a lovely weekend

Hoping to get Critiqued.

I posted in the Etsy Forums to get a critique on my shop, if you are on Etsy please visit this link and help me out: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6597599 I would sooooo greatly appreciate it!

I am hoping to get my shop as flawless as possible before I start going to school in 2 weeks, so that I can use my spare time for making jewelry and listing it (and hopefully shipping it) instead of trying to work out kinks in the store.  That would be a great help to me.  And since my hours have been cut at work I could definitely use some extra income if I could get this thing up and going.  Everyone has said this summer has been slow on Etsy, so hopefully I'll start seeing some more action as we move towards the holidays.

Well I am off to clean, organize, and make some jewelry.

Today's first dropper:

   

Update:
Made a treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c61a784f3bd6d915d20e343/cool-me-blues?index=0
Featured in a treasury:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c61c0bf347c6d91df2cf718/quick-draw?index=0

Busy Day

Work was swamped today, my legs still ache from my walk Tuesday lol. What a day. I've made some new jewelry pics will come later :) The Boy and I are going to watch a movie tomorrow and do a little shopping. Can't wait. Despicable Me here we come LOL.

On a more interesting not, our local Wal-Mart was witness to a robbery of its bank inside:

UPDATE: Robbery at Woodforest National Bank located in the Wal-Mart on East Stuart Drive

A spokesperson for Galax Police Chief Rick Clark advised that on August 4, 2010 shortly after 2:00 P.M. that Galax Police responded to a reported armed robbery at the Woodforest National Bank located in the Wal-Mart store located on East Stuart Drive in Galax.

Employees of the bank told responding officers that a W/F approached the tellers and produced a robbery note. The note alleged that there was a second suspect who was armed and would start shooting if they did not comply. The suspect was given the amount of money specified in the note.

The female suspect is described as:

White
5’4”
Blonde hair
Scar on left arm
Slender build 140-150 lbs
Black tee shirt
Blue jeans
Approximately mid to late 40’s

At the time of the robbery the suspect had her hair pulled up into a black ball cap, she is seen exiting the store after having removed the cap. Her hair in that photo is described as blonde and long pulled into a pony tail.

Police have not verified that a second suspect is involved.

Anyone who thinks that they may have seen the suspect is asked to contact Galax Police 276-236-8101.




First Dropper: http://spinpic.blogspot.com/

Etsy Treasury

Okay here's a partial pic of my treasury to view it all click HERE:

Package in the Mail

Got my beads in the mail today, just the thing to cheer me up a little.  :)  Hoping I feel better tomorrow, this headache, and now full body ache is really getting to me.  So I'm gonna focus on my beads, and try to keep my mind off of it.  Hopefully I'll be posting some new jewelry that I've made by the end of the day.

First Dropper today:
BeThere2Day: http://bethere2day.com/
Show their site some love!

Baby Shower

Have a baby shower to go to this afternoon. My bestie since 5th grade is having a little girl. (Can't wait till she gets here, I'm gonna spoil her rotten!) Until the baby shower, tho, I've gotta get a shower, clean some, maybe do some laundry and hopefully make at least 1 piece of jewelry for my shop. I have 2.75 hrs to accomplish this in. So I guess I'd better get my butt off here and get hopping :) lol.

Oh, almost forgot, here's today's first dropper:
Beaded Tail: http://beadedtail.blogspot.com/
Go show their blog some love!

New Listings

I have some new listings on my Etsy Shop.  Pics below:

Check these pieces out at: http://www.crystalraen.etsy.com

Getting my shop up and running...

http://crystalraen.etsy.com Please stop by, check it out and come back and offer me some feedback on what I can do to make it better.

Thanks guys!

Eclectic Raen & Her Beading Adventures

Here's my banner for my shop, now just to get enough made and in stock to start my etsy shop back up:

What do you think?

Also I decided to give ya'll a fun article to read, know a lot of people do work on their homes during the summer, so here's an article I wrote on Updating a Mobile Home just click here.

I'm off to play with beads :D

Etsy

I've been throwing around the idea of getting back on Etsy and selling some of the jewelry I've been making and see how it goes.  I've got a few pieces that are ready to list, but I want to wait til I have a few more so that my shop doesn't look too empty.  So naturally I've been throwing around a few shop name ideas in my head....Need some help here.  I'm hoping to have some more quirky, different, brightly colored, and just fun jewelry along with a little steampunkish items (as The Boy, has def inspired me to start liking all things Steampunk and its a recent thing so I'm exploring it currently) So please see my ideas below, and help me out.

Which one do you like best?  Don't like any of them, please list a suggestion:
1. Raen's Rockin' Regalia
2. Raen's Chop Shop    (like to make new jewelry from old, and that entails chopping it up...so this popped into my head)
3. Eclectic Raen & Her Beads

Please please give me some feed back.

Conundrum

Yes that's what I'm in right now.  I've been in a jewelry making kick lately, and honestly I love it.  It still isn't sewing :/ But it is still that same sort of meditative relaxing feeling.  I also have been debating ways to make some extra cash since my hours are getting cut............


..........Yes I know first thing you think of is "Sell some of the jewelry you make"  but honestly I fall in love with it all.  And when I do have a piece that I think I can bear to part with, I worry about the quality since I'm still a beginner, and then I worry about how to price it etc.  *sigh*  I wish I was less of a clutterbug and more of a "okay, I made this its cute, lets sell it and find a new home" type. 

But, just because I love my jewelry doesn't mean other people will either....and I don't need to be losing money that I need to listing fees due to items that will not sell.  Any advice?