Not much happening, but here's a treat anyway...

I don't have a lot going on right now. I stayed home for Thanksgiving because I had to work in the gallery on Friday, and will be there again on Sunday. I'm working on a few orders for Christmas and shipping out things from my Etsy Store. The BIG, BIG BIRTHDAY SALE is winding down and a lot of people have gotten themselves some really good deals. The drawing for the free earrings will be done on Tuesday. Since there's not a lot going on, I thought I'd give you this to ponder, because who doesn't like Johnny Depp? He is, after all, the sexiest man alive.

Off the road for a little while

I went to Charlotte on Friday for the annual Charlotte Trunk Show. It was previously held at my friend Patty's house, but since she moved to Maggie Valley I've been doing it at Hospitality House of Charlotte as a benefit for that wonderful organization. They provide low-cost housing for people who have loved ones in the hospital. A portion of my sales from this event are always donated to their cause. Plus, my good friend Kimberly is their Executive Director and I get to spend quality time with her and her family while I'm there. It was a pretty lousy turnout this year, blamed on the economy as usual, but they'll still get a nice donation from me. We went out for a fantastic dinner last night - I'm still celebrating my birthday!

I designed a charm with the Hospitality House logo on it that we were going to raffle, but since there were only two customers who entered the drawing we decided that it wasn't really fair. I ended up just donating the charm to them to raffle at another time. I decided that I will take orders for this charm and a portion of the price will also be donated. I already have orders for two of them. Here's a picture of it:

I'll be listing it on my Etsy site soon. You can have one of your very own for only $25.00.

I like to listen to audio books while I'm driving. I've had Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo checked out of the library for a long time. It's on a "Playaway" (a book loaded on an MP3 player and you only have to provide your own ear phones). I didn't realize how long this book is, (25 hours, I finally found out) so on the way home today the battery died. I got out my iPod, but it was dead, too. There was a football game on my favorite radio station. So, for the last 45 minutes I drove in complete silence. I can't remember the last time I did that! I let my mind wander and came up with several good ideas. Some about how to re-design my show display and a couple of new jewelry ideas. I'd forgotten how good a little quiet time can be!

I don't have to go out of town again until December 11 - a family thing in Raleigh - and I'm glad to be out of the car. My back is sore and I'm looking forward to a little down time. Maybe I can clean up my house and pay some attention to my poor neglected cat.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yesterday was my birthday, and, wow! It was a great day. My best friend wanted to take me to lunch and said we could go wherever I wanted. I told her that I wanted to go to Olive Garden because their television commercials always make my mouth water. She reminded me that we don't have an Olive Garden here in Boone. I said "well, that's where I would go if we had one." So, after deciding that we didn't have anything better to do, we drove to Hickory (about an hour away) and went to Olive Garden for lunch. It was delicious and I'm so grateful to her for making the trip. A special treat, indeed.

Because they're working on widening the highway that comes up the mountain (they've been working on it forever) the DOT closes the road from 12:00 to 2:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays so they can dynamite rocks off the sides of the road. Therefore, after we finished our lunch we had to kill some time by shopping until we could get back home. We went to Michaels and she was amazed by the amount of jewelry stuff for sale. It's all made in China and people can purchase bits and parts and put together their own jewelry. I was a little amazed, too, and now understand even more when people think that my work is too expensive. But, the debate over "junk jewelry" or "costume jewelry" versus "art jewelry" is a topic for another day. Over all, it was a lovely, leisurely day.

This also means, of course, that there are only 13 days left for the BIG, BIG BIRTHDAY SALE in my Etsy shop. Sales have been brisk, so go look before everything's gone. If you make a purchase this month your name will be entered in the drawing for a free pair of earrings. I'll draw the name on December 1st, and announce it here.

I'll be spending the rest of the week getting ready for the Trunk Show at Hospitality House of Charlotte on Friday afternoon and evening. If you're in the area (across from Carolinas Medical Center), please stop by and shop because a portion of the sales will be donated to this wonderful organization.

Lost the bid, but got the camera anyway

I lost out on the Ebay bid -- someone must have had one of those automatic bidding programs on this one because every time I increased my bid during the last minute I was out-bid within seconds. It eventually sold for $85.00. Then, I got the idea to go directly to the Olympus site and order one and got it (without the hassle of bidding on Ebay) for $70.99!! Fancy new pictures will be up here soon.

Watching Ebay

My camera is acting really funny. Sometimes the pictures have lines through them and sometimes I only get half a picture. It's ancient, though, so I'm not surprised. It's really been a trooper, but this is very frustrating. So, since my lovely sister sent me some money for my birthday I'm going to spend it on a new camera. I had read a blog post by Kate McKinnon recently about her Olympus FE-340 and how much she loves it for taking photos of jewelry, so I thought I'd look for one on Ebay..... I found a refurbished one being sold by Olympus, with a warranty and everything! Wow! ...16 minutes left on the auction.... I'll let you know if I win the bid.

Productivity

Purple goldstone donut with a fine silver center

I realized the other day that by putting all those items in my Etsy shop for the BIG, BIG BIRTHDAY SALE, I was running low on new things to sell at my upcoming Trunk Show for the Hospitality House of Charlotte on November 20. (Look to your right for more information about that.) And, I'll need things for the galleries for Holiday Shopping. So, here are a few of the new things I've been working on in the last couple of weeks...

Fine silver pendant on a hand-forged sterling silver chain

Boulder opal set into fine silver

Black akoya pearl on fine silver

Take a deep breath... let it out slow....

I sometimes forget that language subtleties, like sarchasm and inflection, cannot be conveyed well through typing online. And other people forget, or maybe just don't realize that this is true. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten upset over something that someone has put into an email, or a message board, only to be told "I was just kidding", or "You didn't understand me". Recently the tables were turned on me and I got lambasted by someone for something I said. It escalated, got worse and we both got mad. I chose to end it and just not respond any more. There's another person that swears that we're getting "closer" just because she comments on my Facebook posts..... I haven't talked to her in person for months, and then nothing that I would call a deep conversation. These things keep me awake at night and I consider this one of my personality flaws. I just don't understand sometimes how things can get so out of hand and I go over and over it in my head instead of just letting it go.

I was visiting a friend recently and her teenage daughter spent all evening texting on her cell phone. I asked her who she was talking to and she said it was her best friend. I wondered why they just didn't call and TALK to each other, or better yet, see each other and talk in person. She said that's "just not what they do". It makes me wonder if technology is eroding our personal relationships. Do you HAVE to use the latest technology just because it's available to you? What do you do if there's a digital misunderstanding?

I suppose I should just chill over this, but it bothers me and I don't like it any more than any one else when my words are taken the wrong way.

Things are going pretty good!

The Big, Big Birthday Sale is going well. I keep finding new pieces to add, things that I know you just need to have for yourself, so check it out: http://www.zoenelson.etsy.com/   Go to the section on the right side of the screen to find all the things that have been marked down.  There have been two people who took advantage of their own November birthdays and received an additional 10% off, and there are some names in the running for the drawing for the free pair of earrings at the end of the month. Here's a few things I've recently added:

Lovely dichroic glass with multi-strand cord and ribbons

Was $98.00, now $75.00

Shield pendant with lots of texture on a snake chain

Was $98.00, now $75.00

Blue and gold dichroic glass on a black cord

Was $90.00, now $65.00

I'm finally over all the dental mess I was in a couple of weeks ago. It took me another week to recover from the ravaging that antibiotics can do to your system and to get my energy back. Whew! That cost me nearly two weeks of lost time and now I'm working on catching up. I have three more days before I have to work in one of the co-op galleries, so now is the time to work on new things for the Benefit Trunk Show for Hospitaly House of Charlotte on November 20.

Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines!

OK, folks. This is it. Today is November first and my BIG, BIG BIRTHDAY SALE has started. Just go to my Etsy Store and click on the link for the section where all the sale items are and you'll see what's been listed so far. I'm still working on it and everything should be listed by tomorrow, I hope. There are the following gimmicks attached to this sale: If you also have a birthday in November you can get another 10% off the already-marked-down price. If your birthday falls on the 17th of any month you also get 10% off. That means, of course, that if you share the same birthday as me you'll get 20% off! You have to be able to prove this by either sending me a scanned copy of your dirver's license, or by some other method like your Facebook page.

And... that's not all!!!....

Everyone who makes a purchase this month will get their name put into a drawing to win these lovely earrings... a $20 value... yours free just for purchasing. And, you'll pay NOTHING to have your purchases sent to you by standard US Postal service mail.

OK. Sorry. Can you tell that I spend too much time late at night watching info-mercials?