My sister and her fiance had their pictures taken for their engagement announcement today. Stupid me didn’t take the opportunity to tell the photographer that I was interested in the digital editing help Sis had mentioned. I meant to be more assertive, but the timing never felt quite right. I mean, the purpose of the day was to get the photos taken. Sis had other questions about photo and video options too. It didn’t feel right to sorta jump in and say, “Enough about the wedding, let’s talk about me now.”

The photographer did show me a sample of his work and the type of editing he’d want me to do. I guess that would have been the time for me to speak up. If I had gone into it thinking of it more like an interview, it probably would have gone much better. But dragging my kids there and watching my sister have her photos taken put me in a more casual state of mind. I wish I could have expressed my enthusiasm more. As it was, I may have just blown what could have been a fabulous opportunity.

My pearl order finally arrived today. Yay! The earrings are finished and the necklace is nearly finished. It’s currently 18″ long with a clasp that I don’t like much. I want to reduce it to 16″ and add a much nicer clasp. I’m very pleased with the results of the necklace so far, though working with all that wire has really chewed up my fingertips.

In other news, I’m meeting my sister tomorrow for her engagement photograph. The guy taking the photos works with her full-time during the week, but photographs weddings on weekends. Apparently, he needs someone to help him touch-up his digital photos and my sister offered me up as a solution. The deal sounds just a little too good to be true. Sis says he’s talking about somewhere around 10 hours per week, and he’s willing to pay $20 per hour. All that to sit at home playing on my computer. Which I already do. Everyday. For free. Like I said, seems a little too good to be true. But I’m going to meet with him and probably get my sister’s photos for touch-up, if nothing else.

Scientific studies have shown that interacting with and petting animals can promote good health by preventing depression, decreasing stress, and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. In nature, all kinds of animals groom one another within their societies. These things lead me to believe that pleasurable, non-sexual, physical contact is not only natural, but beneficial to many species.

As adult humans, we’re limited in our participation of this activity, despite evidence which shows it to be natural and beneficial. We’re allowed to make this type of non-sexual, physical contact in romantic relationships, or with very young children. Or the other extreme, we’re allowed to pay a professional for things like haircuts, massages, manicures, and pedicures. But there’s this strict rule about how much and what type of physical contact is acceptable between friends and other family members. If you get past the initial weirdness of it, it doesn’t make much sense.

Tell me why these things I’m allowed to do with animals, children, and strangers are forbidden when it comes to friends. Maybe it’s a bit silly, but I think if human adults were allowed to have more of this type of physical contact with each other, we’d be healthier, happier, and better to each other.

I know that my boys are a little bit spoiled. They have too many toys, not enough limits, and I’m a bit overprotective. But I feel pretty confident that they’re much better off than a lot of children. Tonight’s example, Ryan and the fireworks.

Tonight was the first chance we’ve had to display our fireworks since the Fourth. Just before dark, I called the boys in from the neighbor’s yard and told them they could invite their friends to watch too. As we gathered near the street, Ryan’s dad got in his truck and drove by. He told us he’d be back in 10 minutes with more fireworks. I figured he was just trying to bond with Rob over fireworks. When he got back, I learned that his wife sent him out to get fireworks because Ryan was jealous that WE had fireworks and HE didn’t. And if he didn’t get fireworks, he was going to throw a tantrum.

Don’t get me started on children who are allowed to binge on food at a very young age.

About a month ago, I decided to change insurance carriers for my homeowner’s insurance. I called Karen, the woman who handled our insurance at our first apartment and our first house, and explained exactly what we needed. She was about to take a conference call when I called, but she promised to call me back later that day.

Yesterday, I realized that my termination date with BigBadInsuranceCompany was fast approaching. I called Karen left a message reminding her about my insurance. I still hadn’t heard from her at 1:30 p.m. today, so I called again. Again, I had to leave a message with her receptionist.

Karen called me back about 20 minutes later. She told me she left a message on my voicemail the day after we first spoke. That seemed a little strange, but whatever. So, as she was pulling up my quote, our call was disconnected. She called back, and before I could answer, she was disconnected again. She called back once more and told me that a storm just caused them to lose power. Her system was down, but she would call me back as soon as it came back up.

Coincidence or runaround? Ironic or just unfortunate? I’m undecided.

I received one of my bead shipments today. This shipment included materials for two new projects. One project is a bridal necklace (yet to be named) made from Austrian crystals, fresh water pearls, and silver. The other project is a pair of earrings (also yet to be named) made from peridot and pearls. Anyone who has seen my online store can probably tell that these designs represent a different type of jewelry from what I was previously making. That means different price points, of course, and probably a new target audience. I’m okay with that though. This feels more like where I want to be.

I’m still waffling about my new website design. It uses the same color palette seen here on my blog, but the design is a bit more youthful. I’m thinking it may be a bit too youtfhful for the new designs I’m making. Unfortunately, I’ve already approved the other design, so making a change now would mean spending money that I’d rather spend on supplies. I hope living with the design here on the blog will help me decide one way or another.

So, I redesigned the blog. It went quicker than I expected, although I spent a huge amount of time working on getting the darn thing centered. You’ll notice that I never did figure that out. I’ll get to the centering thing eventually, and I know that the all white background kinda sucks. I’ll get to that too. Eventually. No, really. I will.

EDIT: It took four hours, but I figured out that centering thing!

My glamorous life has been so full of glamorous things, that I just haven’t had time to update. Riiiight. So here’s the real deal.

Website Redesign
I decided to go with a professional for my website redesign rather than muddling through it myself. Right now she’s just waiting on me to get the darn photos. My problem is that I don’t have enough inventory to get her enough photos to make the site anymore useful than it is now. But hey, it’s a start, right?

Inventory
The plan was to buy $100 worth of supplies each month and create a new design every week. Unfortunately, several unexpected expenses at the beginning of the month (adding up to over $1200!) prevented me from reaching my goal for June.

Marketing Ideas
Oh my gosh! I’m having so much fun coming up with marketing and packaging ideas for my jewelry. I’m struggling a bit with some of the written materials though. I have what I think is a very good idea for hang tags, but I’m afraid the written stuff may sound a little too arrogant or something. I’m trying to find that balance between bragging and begging.

Busobby (more than a hobby, not quite a real business)
Not a day goes by that I’m not working on some aspect of my new busobby. I’m constantly researching, designing, ordering, organizing, or just brainstorming ideas. Of course I’d love for things to be able to move along faster than they are, but I’m content just knowing it’s moving at all. I can’t help but wonder if everyone is having a good laugh about “Kerrie’s new little hobby” though. I’ve used this blog many times to express my desire to be taken seriously by friends and family. I’d like to put together a timeline type thingy with dates and goals for my busobby, but I don’t know how to determine realistic goals. For now, I’m just gonna keep on making stuff and see what happens.

Still…
trying to get pregnant
growing my hair out
graduating in December

No longer…
working part-time
taking a class during the summer
feeling great about my progress in ceramics