Memorial Day

thebsreport.wordpress.com

“The cost of liberty is less than the cost of repression.” -W.E.B. DuBois

“Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.” -Daniel Webster

"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart."
Albert Einstein

"The purpose of all war is ultimately peace." ~ Saint Augustine

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy

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Just some Lovely Awesomeness

fantasy pictures and Celtic music (the fast kind)
Rated PG

Saturday Blog Shoppers

Hello! Back to Saturday Blog Shoppers after I took a week off.

This week I listed my two newest handflowers. I think they're also my new favorites. I really like the connectors and the whole net-style of the chains, and the beads are so smooth and shiny although they're natural stone.


Chained Turquoise Handflower
genuine turquoise beads


Chained Onyx Handflower
genuine black onyx beads

These are lightweight and adjustable at the wrist. It took awhile to make them; I attached the bead pins directly onto the chains instead of using extra jump rings. I made the turquoise one first, and although after that I had some experience with the design, the onyx one didn't quite work right at first. I got the placement of the chains wrong so the wrist came up in the middle; but I fixed it.

I actually took about ten photos of each handflower in order to show the details of the beads and connectors (especially important for the turquoise, which has different patterns of the blue-green and brown), so since an Etsy listing can only have five photos, I made a photo album on my Facebook page just for the extra photos. Actually I put all ten photos of each handflower in that album.

Don't forget the other SBS Bloggers. ;-)

Thanks for looking, and Happy Saturday!

Purposeless Productiveness

Well, it's been an interesting week. Actually it was kind of a blur, and productive but with no ultimate purpose.

All week I was getting things ready for WataugaFest: making price tags, figuring even prices with sales tax included, buying a few supplies... also I made a new bracelet and a necklace. Thursday it was hot; Friday it started getting rainy and the weather things on Yahoo and iGoogle and AccuWeather all said it was going to rain all weekend. So I emailed the WataugaFest people and they told me WataugaFest was canceled. Sadface.

and of course, being the predictably unpredictable weather state that Texas is, it was mostly sunny all weekend without so much as a drop of rain. I'm still trying to find out if they'll reschedule the Fest or just leave it canceled. In the future I need to remember to only do indoor craft fairs.

So I was a little bummed on Saturday. Except for going out with my boyfriend and seeing the movie Date Night, which was really funny. That was a good date. Incidentally we also saw Iron Man 2 with a couple friends yesterday, and that was pretty good.

A couple good things about not having a craft fair is that I didn't have to get up at 5:30AM, and now I get to list my new items on Etsy. Of course things probably would've sold a lot better at the Fest than on Etsy, but still I'd like to freshen up my shop a little with my lovely new items. Right now though I'm trying to redo some photos from a few items already listed, but today Photobucket won't let me finish uploading them. As soon as it's finished I get "connection was reset", and retry and refresh don't help. sigh. maybe tomorrow.

And of course I can still use the things I did last week for the next craft fair I have, which is how I was productive last week. I just kind of feel right now like I wasted my week. Hence the decision to stick to indoor craft fairs, like I told myself I would the last time something got canceled.

And now I'll freshen up this post with some flowers.

here are my sunflowers. It's about time to transplant them outside, just need to find a spot.
here are the strawberries we're attempting to grow in a TopsyTurvy Planter. It's not really working so far. We only get tiny green strawberries which turn into tiny red strawberries that don't seem to be getting bigger.


Here are the lovely flowers that my dad got my mom for Mother's Day.

There was also a woodpecker on our pecan tree but I wasn't able to get a picture of it. And yesterday I saw a blue jay.

Anyway, I hope I can show my new items soon. I like them.

Saturday Blog Shoppers

Hello! It's Saturday again. It's also May, so don't forget to change your calendar. ;-)
For SBS this week I want to show you my Purple Cross chainmaille handflower.




Silver + Purple Cross Chainmaille Handflower

This is actually the second silver/purple cross handflower I've made and the third chainmaille cross one. The first one was a request from a friend, only unfortunately it wasn't as good as this one because my materials were not as good, and because of inexperience I had the cross upside-down and it didn't fit so well. :-] The other one I made was black with a red cross, and I sold that to someone at my church.

Right now the wrist only fits about 6.5 or 7 inches, but I'm going to put a chain on it to make it more adjustable; especially because I'll have it for sale at a craft fair in two weeks (unless it sells on Etsy before the 14th), and it's difficult to get the right size on things unless they're adjustable.

On that note also I will not be participating in SBS on the 15th, and my shop will be in vacation mode from late afternoon on the 14th to late on the 17th or 18th. That way I don't double-sell any OOAK items and I have time to deactivate sold items. After I come back I'll list some new things (unless they all sell at the festival).

Thanks for reading!

Saturday Blog Shoppers

Hello! It's Saturday. Time for Saturday Blog Shoppers.

I have two handflowers I wear all the time, and I get a lot of comments about them. I seem to get more comments about one than the other, and although I won't exactly copy a handflower especially the ones I wear, I have made a similar one for sale. So here today is the Silvertone Chain Handflower:

Silvertone Chain Handflower

The last comment I got about my handflower was that when the guy first saw it he thought it was a tattoo. :-] I prefer chains to tattoos because they don't hurt and they're not permanent. Also because I just really like chains (and prisms, which are on my handflower). I haven't tried henna but I think it's pretty cool. Of course handflowers are not as intricate as henna, but you can take them off and put them back on whenever you want, which I think is a good thing. ;-)

Thanks for looking! Please check out the other SBS bloggers participating this week.

My Thoughts on Trends

Confession: not only do I not follow trends, but I refuse to follow them on purpose. Why? Because I'm interested in my interests, not "everyone" else's; because I'm somewhat rebellious against doing something just because someone I don't even know said I should; because I don't see the point of being "just another follower" of everyone else or of the celebrity that happens to be big right now; and because I know that my tastes and interests may change now and then, but not nearly as often as trends do.

So here are some of my thoughts on a few trends that we've gone through (or are going through). These are just my opinions and not flames or critisms against the creators of these trendy things (or even of the people who like them, really). ;-)

Harry Potter: I've never read the books, or seen the movies. Not one. This is because they were already popular before I got a chance to become interested in them on my own (unlike with The Lord of the Rings when the movies came out, since that's been a classic for a long time, and I do read). I do like fantasy fiction with wizards such as Gandalf and Merlin, but Harry Potter simply never interested me. And then there was some, er, worrying, among some Christians about whether it was "right" or "safe" to read books about witchcraft and wizardry, and I had to take some time to consider whether I thought they were right. Eventually I decided I do not agree; I think it's harmless fiction. But there's still the problem about it being popular before it's interesting to me personally. However, I'm currently considering reading them, for two reasons: 1. Harry Potter is now contending with the latest fiction trend, which I like because it shows that people care about their real personal interests more than what's "popular" now; and 2. because The Doctor mentioned reading them in the Shakespeare episode of Doctor Who, and I absolutely LOVE Doctor Who. If Harry Potter is good enough for The Doctor, then I can at least consider reading it and see how I like it. This might put me in danger of "following someone else", but hey, it's The Doctor. I don't think I mind. ;-) And if I don't like the books or I get bored, I'll stop reading them. Besides, Dr. Who is not a trend, it's the longest running Sci-Fi show on TV and there's good reason for that.

Twilight: the latest fiction trend which is in competition with Harry Potter. It's a teenagery love-drama about a sparkly vampire. I am so not interested. I don't care about vampire fiction anyway, although I did like that one movie... what was it... Underworld. I kinda liked that. I especially liked a certain dress someone was wearing (not that that's my main focus in movies). But Twilight? No thanks.

Dragons: I like dragons, and I like How to Train Your Dragon. I do not like Eragon much. It's ok, but it's just Star Wars with dragons instead of space ships (not literally, but major parallels). I do like Star Wars, btw; but a story should be its own story. I don't think dragons are trendy right now actually, but Eragon almost was.

So basically the point I'm trying to make is this: My style and interests are mine, and your style and interests are yours. I hope the jewelry I make becomes somewhat "popular" in the sense that a lot of people can find things I've made that they like, but trends are things that people are into just because "people are into it", and they change and go away in favor of the next one. I don't want my jewelry to be trendy for any reason. I want someone to buy a handflower because they like it, it fits their style, and they can keep wearing it through the trend changes as long as it still fits them, like I've been wearing mine for about 10 years. Also for the most part I want to continue making just one of each unique piece of jewelry, so no one can have the exact same one as someone else. Every person is different, and they should have their own handflower. That way you can wear it because you like it and not because someone else is wearing it.

I do want to just clarify one thing before I finish this post: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with liking something that happens to be popular, or anything wrong with vampires, if that's what you like. For instance I refused to watch any anime for awhile when my friends were all into it (but didn't think anything was "wrong" with them for liking it), but then my boyfriend showed me some and we started watching it together and I liked it. All I'm really saying is I'm in favor of liking something just because you like it, and not worrying about what "everyone" wants you to like.

And that is why I do what I do.