5 Fab Tutorials from around the Crafty Web

All of my crafty friends and I have been getting ready for holiday shows. In fact, I'm going straight back to my studio to finish up my new line of Eco Journals right after this post! I just wanted to post some fabulous crafty tutorials I've found around the web this month:

1. Upcycled Tin Can Belt Buckle from adaptive reUse- (shown above) It's amazing what you can make from a tin can, and this tutorial is from a patent-pending design by Christine Terrell! Great website, very inspirational work, must bookmark.

2. Smooshy Stack Owl from Lolly Chops- Awesome fabric owls to use up scraps and dazzle your clothing!

3. Magnetic Notepad from Skip to My Lou- I'm addicted to buying these and I'll soon be addicted to making them too. Great gift potential as well!

4. Tubular T-shirt Scarves from College Fashion- I have a bunch of souvenir t-shirts that are perfect for this project.

5. Stylish Pen Case from Pink Penguin- This case looks so cute and it would be great project for using up scrap fabric. Very detailed photos, too.

November Giveaway: Win A Pen!

I'm giving away a FREE PEN, every month!

The winner of the October Giveaway can choose any pen in my shop, MandiBeads!

This contest is open to international residents, as well!

Ways To enter the October Giveaway:

1. Leave a comment under this post and tell me about your favorite pen in my shop, or suggest a new design!
2. Subscribe to my newsletter (thru box at top right)
3. Tweet about this giveaway, and let me know about it in the comments.

Please leave enough info so I can contact you if you win: email, etsy shop, twitter etc.

Each person can enter 3 times by doing each of the 3 ways described.

The winner will be announced December 1, 2009.

Congrats to Lisa for winning the October contest!
Peace & Love,
Mandi

7 Things I Leaned From My Biggest Show Yet

The Urban Street Bazaar was held 2 weekends ago in the Bishop Arts District. It took me a week to recover from it, and another day to finally write about it. It was a good show, and I'm happy that I was there, but it also gave me doubts about doing future outdoor shows because there's so much more to contend with. Then again, I love all the new friends I made and interacting with my customers in person.

I shared my booth with Patricia of KarmaCrochet. It was freezing on Saturday and the weatherman was wrong about it warming up, so I modeled a KarmaCrochet scarf to keep warm for awhile.



She makes these amazing neckwarmers that everyone was going crazy for! I don't know if it was because they were featured prominently on the USB website or if it was because a lady that bought one was proudly flaunting it around the bazaar. Either way she sold all but one!

So the Bazaar was 12-8 on Saturday and 12-4 on Sunday. As I was driving there on Sunday, it started raining really hard! I was skeptical and didn't want to subject my handmade books to this weather, and even debated going home! I told myself I was committed to doing this, and it was important to see it through. Even if it was just for the experience. I'm so glad I did!

Things I learned:

1. EZ-up tents are far from being easy to put up. I used mine once and it broke! Same thing happened to the fellow crafter next to me. If you plan to do a lot of outdoor shows, check out this awesome tent review post by the Kessler Craftsman.
2. Be extra prepared for outdoors shows. So many more things can go wrong it seems. Things I wish I had: extra clothes, small screwdriver, tarp to put my stuff on instead of the wet ground (and cover it if it started to rain before I set up the tent). My checklist was essential for all the things I would have forgotten.
   
3. Make friends with your neighbors. Help each other set up those hard to put up tents, watch booths for bathroom and coffee breaks, check out their display, talk to them and learn from them. I'm always improving my set up.
4. You can learn a lot from your customers. Guys were more interested in my journals than the ladies. I will be creating a few more masculine journals in the future.
5. Sales on the short Sunday were much better than the long Saturday. I never would have guessed that.
6. You never know. Treat every customer as a potential buyer. Say hello and don't be shy to tell them about your work. Patricia and I were both surprised at who dropped money in our booths that we wouldn't have expected.
7. Sharing is awesome. I can't imagine doing this by myself, at least at this point.
   

Shout-outs to my lovely, talented neighbors:
Pigsey Art: Unique Upcycled Journals, and someone I love for using every scrap she can
Bolsa Bonita: Sexy bags for foxy ladies, and I just love her Tom Selick purse!
Ornamental Things: handcrafted jewelry from vintage components

Thanks to Larry aka Kessler Craftsman for helping me with that horrible tent, and also to Stephanie of Tefi Designs for writing a sweet feature and coming out to support us!

Worktable Wednesday: Cupcake Parade

Yesterday I made several flavors of beaded cupcake pens for the Urban Street Bazaar on Saturday. I had fun using the colors of the last cupcake cupcake pen (pink, red, white, chocolate) and created the Deconstruction of a Cupcake Pen:


What do you think? I love comments!

Tutorial: Easy Retro Flower Cane

Basic flower cane was the first thing I learned when I got started in polymer clay. I wanted to share it because it’s fairly easy and there are many color variations. For this tutorial, I used pink, purple, and black to achieve a more “retro” look.

Materials:

• Clay: ½-1 ounce petal color (we used pink) ½-1 ounce center/outline color (we used purple) ¾-1 ounces contrast/outside color (we used black)
• Razor blade/ slicer blade
• Roller/acrylic brayer (or pasta machine)
• T- pins (used for quilting) and foil pie plate or other method of baking
  

Instructions:

1. Create a cylinder out of the pink clay by rolling it into a ball, and then slightly flattening it. Then roll out the purple clay into ¼ in thick sheet long enough to cover the cylinder. Save the excess purple for step 3.


2. Roll the purple clay around the pink cylinder and then reduce it down.


3. Create 5 equal lengths of the reduced cylinder. These will become the petals. Then create a length of solid purple the same size. This will become the center.


4. Create 5 more lengths using the black clay. Shape them into triangles by simultaneously pinching the top and pressing down to flatten the bottom.


5. Space the 5 petal lengths around the center, and then place a triangle in between each petal.



6. Roll out ¼ in layer of black to wrap around your entire roll. Reduce it down and cut the cane to create ¼ in to ½ in slices. You may choose to cut the cane in half and reduce each half to a differently. This way you can create focal and accessory beads.


7. Cut the cane to create ¼ in to ½ in slices. You may choose to cut the cane in half and reduce each half to a different size. This way you can create focal and accessory beads.



8. Push a t-pin half way through the slice and stop. Then push the t-pin through the other side to meet the first hole to prevent the clay from puckering. Stick the end of the t-pin into pie plate. Repeat until you have reached the desired number of beads, the bake according to the instructions on your clay package.
Enjoy your beads!

Polymer Clay: Comparing Brands

There are many options when it comes to choosing a brand of clay, and each brand has different properties and benefits. I keep a few different brands in my own stash. Hopefully this list can help you decide which brand is right for your project:

Sculpey III: This clay has a wide variety of beautiful colors, and is low in cost. Though it is also considered more brittle/fragile than other brands, it is a great choice for beginners.

Premo! Sculpey: This brand is strong and flexible when cured, and the colors are brilliant. This is the preferred brand of many clay artists.

Super Sculpey: This clay is a pinkish-beige sort of color that is somewhat prone to “plaquing.” The addition of a stronger more opaque clay can eliminate most problems.

FIMO Classic/Soft: Soft is easier to condition than Classic, but both types will hold the finer details of cane work. Great colors available that come in blocks of 8 segments allowing for easier cutting and blending.

Cernit: The German clay is one of the strongest on the market, and has a wide range of flesh tones. It is soft and sticky when warm, so it is better suited for doll-making than cane work.

Kato polyclay: Being one of the newer brands on the market, this clay is both strong and flexible. It can be difficult to sand, and it has a strong vinyl odor.

Liquid Sculpey: This product has many different uses including smoothing surfaces, attaching two pieces, and creating faux materials. The translucent brand can be tinted to any color desired.

Tomorrow I will post my tutorial for making polymer clay Rorschach Focal Beads using Sculpey III!

October Giveaway: Win A Pen!

I'm giving away a FREE PEN, every month!

The winner of the October Giveaway can choose any pen in my shop, MandiBeads!

This contest is open to international residents, as well!

Ways To enter the October Giveaway:

• leave a comment under this post and tell me about your favorite pen in my shop, or suggest a new design!
• Subscribe to my newsletter (thru box at top right)
• tweet about this giveaway, and let me know about it in the comments

Please leave enough info so I can contact you if you win: email, etsy shop, twitter etc.

Each person can enter 3 times by doing each of the 3 ways described.

The winner will be announced November 1, 2009

And the Sept. Giveaway winner is....

Dawn! Congratulations :) I'm sending you an email now. Thanks so much to everyone that entered. Your comments and suggestions help me a lot. Check out my new Triple Cupcake Pen inspired by all the cupcake lovers:


The October Giveaway details will be posted tomorrow!

Bash Voted "Best One-Stop Shop!"

Holy cow holy cow!! Our Bash shows were just voted as Dallas' "Best One-Stop Shop" in the coveted and uber popular Dallas Observer's Best Of annual issue. It's on stands today!!

This is a huge. mega. deal. Here's the write-up:

Sure etsy.com—the online boutique community for crafters, jewelry designers, knitters, tailors, bookbinders, vintage sellers and collectors of everything—is a surefire way to kill an afternoon and build up a wish list, but an Etsy Dallas event is even better. Prices are great, the craftsmanship is fantastic, it feels good to support local crafters and you'll still cover everyone on any gift list you might have for the next two years. But the downside is you'll also empty your bank account with little to no effort without some preventive measures. We have a friend keep us from purchasing on the first lap through the show. We spend only cash (even if a booth takes cards). And we buy no more than we can carry on our own person. It's hard, but, well, you gotta leave something for the rest of the shoppers to look at. On the other hand, screw everyone else, retail therapy rocks! The Etsy Dallas Jingle Bash takes place November 21 at Sons of Hermann Hall. Sharp elbows stimulate the economy, people.

In case you're wondering, What the heck is the Bash?, let me fill you in. The Bash is the premier arts and crafts event in Dallas that we started back in 2008. The Bash is put on by Tefi Designs and Pamela Michelle, with support from the Etsy Dallas leadership team: Larry, Carrie, Cheyne, Alicia, Mandi (that's me :), Dylan, and Randi.

This year's 2nd Annual Jingle Bash will take place at the historic (and somewhat David-Lynchian) Sons of Hermann Hall, November 21st (that's a Saturday) from 1am-7pm. More deets here.

Reposted from Etsy Dallas Blog

Time Track Thursday: Key Questions to Ask Yourself

Here are some amazing questions to ask yourself throughout the day to keep yourself on track, identify things to delegate, and avoid time wasters. Choose one to ask yourself, and start today.

1. What is the best use of my time right now? -Lakein, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life
   
2. What is the value added from this task? -Kunich & Lester, Survival Kit for Leaders
   
3. Is there an easier way to do this? -Griessman, Time Tactics of Very Successful People
   
4. What 3-5 things can I accomplish today that will make a big difference to the bottom line?-Rinke, Don't Oil the Squeaky Wheel
   
5. Is what I'm doing this minute moving me measurably closer to my goals? -Kennedy, No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs

I have number 5 on a sticky on my computer, and it's a great reminder. These were complied by Pamela Dodd and Dog Sundheim, The 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques.

5 Cool & Green Craft Projects

While I'm working on my next tutorial, I thought I would share some awesome projects I've found around the web. Enjoy!

1. Repurposed Paper Magnets by Tara Anderson- for these unique magnets, you get to bust out your sewing machine and repurpose Starbucks coffee sleeves
   
2. Recycled Denim Book Covers by Margot Potter- a back pocket becomes the front pocket to hold your pens, then you can graffiti it up with stencils
3. Recycled Paper Bag Art Journals by Regina- art journaling is so inspiring and can open your doors to new projects, and this is a fabulous way to reuse paper bags from the grocery store
4. Recycled Magazine Baskets by Jessica Jones- you can never have too much storage in a craft room, and these baskets can clear the clutter of magazines and hold works in progress
5. T-shirt Grocery bags via Martha Stewart- all those old souvenir shirts you don't wear, but can't get rid of can now carry your groceries

P.S. Don't forget to leave a comment on this post and be entered to win a free pen!

My Big Crafty Weekend

On Saturday, I got up early, got all my beady supplies together, then drove through the rain to the Dallas Bead Society meeting. Marcia DeCoster is coming to teach classes next month, and we were practicing Right Angle Weave in preparation.

My friend Ralonda just finished a huge project, Willow, who is a semi-finalist for the Land of Odds Competition. I can't show a picture until its been posted to the site. She needed to go on a huge bead shopping spree to restock. Two other DBS members Carol Ann and Lisa joined us. We went to Rock Barrel, had some fabulous crepes at Cafe Brazil, then headed to Artful Bead. Here's a shot of my loot:


Driving through the rain this whole time made me realize my Jeep needed new windshield wipers! After my DH installed them, I was off to Larry's for the Esty Dallas 2nd Birthday Party. We had a great time and honored our fearless leader, Stephanie, with a surprise:

I LOVE football. So all I did the entire rainy Sunday was bead and watch the Cowboys, and a few other games. At 9pm, I watched the final episode of Design Star, and my fav from the beginning, Antonio, was the winner! Those design shows can inspire my work and give me great ideas, so I can't wait to watch his show :)

Time Track Thursday: 6 Powerful Prioritization Tips

We know we should be working in Quadrant 2 and that list making can help us prioritize. Here are 6 more tips to help you prioritize with power.

1. Actually use your planner. Write down your priorities and plans in your organizer so you can always have them with you.
2. Have some flexibility. Plan your day around tasks that must be done at a certain time (meetings, your favorite workout time). Delegate and simplify if possible.
3. Eat your ugliest frog. Mark Twain came up with this phrase, and he recommends tackling the things you hate to do first thing in the morning. It feels great to get it out of the way, and you can spend the rest of the day doin what you love.
4. Rule with an iron fist. Schedule the important things and stick to your plan. Dinner with friends, craft time, and a child's school play are just as important as big meetings. It's ok to say "I'm busy."
5. Use your prime time wisely. You know that time when you have the most energy and tend to do your best work? Well that's a great time to do your most important work as well.
6. Give yourself a time out. This can be used in conjunction with your prime time. Minimize interruptions for an hour by turning off the phone, closing your email, TweetDeck, Facebook, and even the door. Take a few moments to reflect as well.

Next week I'll have a list of questions that time management experts constantly ask themselves. Maybe you can apply one or think of your own to help you spend you time wisely. Until then, eat ugly frogs and go to time out!

Worktable Wednesday: Fabric Panels for Labor Day Sale Living Room

Our love seat was hideous! The chewed up cushions sank into the hole in the bottom of the dated disgusting flower patterned couch, and I couldn't stand it anymore! I got an ad in the mail for the huge Labor Day Sale at Rooms to Go, and found the perfect sofa for $300 off. DH and I ended up redoing our entire living room (taking advantage of all Labor Day sales), and the only thing we kept from the old room was my papasan chair and our tower lamps. Everything looked great except for the monstrosity of a dog cage in our dining room:



So I decided to make fabric panels that hang from the vaulted ceiling to cover it all up. Luckily all Home Decor fabric was on sale at Hobby Lobby. It was kind of scary climbing on top of the dog house to put the hooks in the ceiling! The dining room looks really small now, so I have a bit more designing to do. The most important thing is that Ruby can be happy in her giant cage away from my brand new sofa!



I also got to finally thread and use my sewing machine that has been sitting in a dusty box since I got it for Christmas 2 years ago! It was a lot of fun, and I plan on making a beaded art quilt. I'm still working on the painting for the living room, and I'll post a slideshow of the final results!

$212 Giveaway & Online Sale

Happy Birthday 2nd Etsy Dallas! This group started with a few convos from Stephanie Hindall, our fearless leader and fabulous designer. We had a trunk show that fall with like 8 vendors, where I met graphic artist extraordinaire, Pamela Michelle. Now we are putting on the 2nd Annual Jingle Bash with 50+ vendors, entertainment, free raffle, and 50 Etsy Dallas reusable grocery totes full of handmade goodies! We have come so far, and now it's time to Sale-A-Brate!


This is the pen I donated for the Birthday Giveaway. Just leave a comment on this post for your chance to win the $212 worth of handmade goodies! There are a few other ways to get extra entries, so scan through the whole post.

We are having a huge online sale as well. I am offering free worldwide shipping all week! Click here to see the full list of sales. Here's to many more years of fun and crafts with Etsy Dallas. Cheers!

Time Track Thursday: List Making

We know from last week's post that we need to do the most important things first. All time management experts suggest making lists to organize all those important things. I like to get everything out of my head and on paper so I can focus on a task without worrying about everything I might forget to do. Here is a list of the lists that I keep handy:

• Monthly goals based on my Master Plan (which was created by planning backwards)
  
• daily to-do list with tasks I must accomplish to reach those goals
• Checklist of my recurring activities (ex. I do link-building on Mondays, check Facebook on Fridays, and write my newsletter once a month)
• A sticky note on my computer with the most important thing I need to do to call it a productive day, even if I don't get anything else accomplished

It's also a good idea to prioritize your lists using the ABC system. Rank each item as A=high priority, B= medium priority, or C=low priority. You can color code them if that works better for you. Don't fall into the trap of spending more time creating lists than you do on crossing things off. Again, crossing off more As is better than crossing off as many items as you can.

Worktable Wednesday: Hummingbird Necklace

I'm having so much fun playing with flat marbles and magazine images. When my mother-in-law came to visit recently, she had a copy of Birds & Blooms magazine. She has a million hummingbird feeders and the magazine was a special issue about gardening for birds and butterflies. The photography is gorgeous and the perfect size for the bigger marbles! "Can I cut that up?" I ask. She gives me the look and I explain my idea. She mailed it to me a few weeks ago after she was finished with it, and now I have the perfect Hummingbird Necklace to send back to her! I may need to make a tutorial about this project as well :)

Giveaway: My Etsy Dallas friend Patricia of KarmaCrochet is giving away a whole basket of handmade goodies! Click here for the blog post with directions on how to enter.

September Giveaway: Win A Pen!

I'm giving away a FREE PEN, every month!

The winner of the September Giveaway can choose any pen in my shop, MandiBeads! This contest is open to international residents, as well!

To enter the September Giveaway, leave a comment under this post and tell me about your favorite pen in my shop, or suggest a new design!

Subscribing to my newsletter gives you an additional entry!

The winner will be announced September 30th. Thanks to The House of Mouse for inspiring this contest. Click here to enter to win a mouse!

6 New Pens, 1 Brand New Design

I know you're not supposed to list items in your shop in batches, but I can't help it. That's just how I work, I guess. I had fun playing with the colors of my butterfly, swirl, and vertigo designs. Then, I worked on a brand new design: the flowers.

I played around a lot with the flowers design: drawing, beading, and ripping out! I was going to have them swirl around the pen, but you couldn't see them very well. I staggered them, but then the back was too blank. After ripping that out, I decided to do 6 flowers on each side. I think it turned out great, how about you? I'm going to try to get a few of these listed in my shop today.

Special note: The first of the monthly giveaways begins tomorrow! Just leave a comment on tomorrow's post to enter. Also, the subscriber-only offer (for those of you signed up for my newsletter) ends tomorrow at midnight.

E-book Review: Making a Great Blog

I bought it, read it, did the worksheets, and applied what I've learned. Now its time for the review of Making a Great Blog: A Guide for Creative People by "Sister" Diane Gilleland. She also writes my favorite blog ever, Crafty Pod. At $12.50, this e-book is a must-have for crafty bloggers!

I've had several blogs since I discovered blogging, but after reading about adsense, blogging for business, and driving traffic etc, they weren't fun anymore, I couldn't think of anything "good enough" to write about, and they just died. Thanks to Diane's e-book, I have turned my original blog around, and blogging is fun again! Through the worksheets, I pondered why I want to blog, my goals, brainstormed ideas, and discovered that my blog shouldn't be about me. All the traffic stuff I was worried about before is happening all by itself thanks to this new approach.

"A great blog is about the whole world as filtered through the lens of your passions." -Diane Gilleland

Diane covers how to avoid all the problems I encountered on my blogging journey and the most important parts of blogging:

• How to build an interesting and valuable blog.
• How to create great blog posts and great photographs.
• How to keep your blogging inspiration flowing over time.
• The do’s and don’ts of blogger etiquette.

This e-book is great for someone who is just getting started, or to refresh the blog of a veteran. Thanks, Diane!

Time Track Thursday #8

Now that I've gotten you to plan backwards, it's time to do some prioritizing. Do the important things you need to reach your goals first, and these are not always the things you want to do. I'd rather make some more projects into tutorials instead of filling out my LLC paperwork, but it has the highest priority at the moment.

Today's biggest focus: Do the most important thing first!




I'm sure many of you are familiar with Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix. This is a friendly reminder that we should all be spending most of our time in Quadrant 2: important but not urgent. Occasional urgency is ok, but don't let it run your life. Activities in Quadrant 2 significantly and positively affect our lives, the quadrant in which our dreams and goals are. Next week I'll have some great tips to help you prioritize more effectively.

Tutorial: Recycled Magazine Magnets

Today I will be making a set of Mythbuster Magnets featuring Adam and Jamie! DH and I love the show. I also love green projects, and I would like to start sharing them. I chose an easier one to start with because I'm new at writing tutorial instructions. Please let me know how I do, and look past the dirt and glue on my nails and hands. True hands of a crafter, right?

Materials:

• Magazine with cool images to recycle
• small circle punch (mine is Fiskars brand)
  
• E-6000 glue
• Diamond Glaze (had to order from Joann's online, Etsy sellers also carry)
  
• clear flat backed floral marbles
• 1/2 in button magnets
• scissors
  

1. Find the perfect image in your magazine. Cut it out and leave enough space that you get the whole image, and can get to it with the punch.

2. Punch out the image.

3. Apply Diamond Glaze to the flat side of the marble.

4. Place the image face down on the glaze. Look from the front to make sure the image is centered. The glaze is slick stuff so it will be easy to make adjustments.

5. Cut away any excess paper, and let dry. There is no drying time listed on the bottle, so I waited long enough to make a pizza and watch a movie with DH before getting back to the project.

6. Glue on a button magnet using E-6000, and let it cure overnight before using.

I had to photograph them outside for the least amount of glare. These are for my DH who lets me cut up his magazines even before he gets a chance to read them:

DH: Where's my new issue that came in the mail yesterday?
Me: Right here. (I hand it over)
DH: Where's the Mythbuster's article?
Me: Right here. (I place the new magnets in his hand)
DH: (rolls eyes) Thanks.......actually these are kinda cool.

FREE Promotion with the Jingle Bash Goody Bags!

Ok, I just misplaced my decoupage scissors, so I decided it was a good time to take a break from crafting, and talk about promoting your crafty business by sponsoring the Jingle Bash. This fabulous show is put on by Etsy Dallas, and I am in charge of the goody bags this year.

About the Goody Bags
Our popular Goody Bags have become a thing of legend. Shoppers at the 1st Annual Jingle Bash arrived over 30 minutes before the doors opened just to get one of these bags! The line of shoppers was winding down the hall, out the door, and down the sidewalk to the next block (pictured). At the 1st Annual Spring Bash, a crowd of Dallas shoppers snatched up the bags in less than 2 minutes. Wow!

I am working on getting some reusable grocery totes for Dylan of Dowdy Studio to screen print, and all 50 will be filled to the brim with handmade goodies from the vendors and other crafty businesses. To participate, please fill out the form found here.

Elf: FREE
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog
-Deadline November 13, 2009

Frosty: $50
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on this Sponsors page
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Rudolph: $200
- Hang your company banner or sign at the Jingle Bash
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on this Sponsors page
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Santa: $500
- Logo posted as "Official Jingle Bash Sponsor" on promotional materials (logo due August 24th)
- Hang your company banner or sign at the Jingle Bash
- 150x150 ad/logo and link posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- 175x175 ad/logo and link posted at the top of this Sponsors page and on the Etsy Dallas home page
- Spotlight article about your company posted on the Etsy Dallas blog
- Include 50 business promos in our popular Goody Bags
- Get your 50 promos listed on this page and the Etsy Dallas blog

Click here to fill out the form to participate! Thanks for your support! Now where are those scissors...

Time Track Thursday #7

Planning backwards helps you focus on results

Planning forward is the natural approach. We have a goal and think about all the future actions we need to take, but the real focus should be results. Planning backwards is results based, and provides a structure to get the right things done at the right time.

How to Plan Backward

1. Pick out one of your larger goals, and break it down into smaller goals. Pick the first one you need to achieve.
2. List the mini goals or milestones you need to accomplish to achieve your goal by the deadline you've set.
3. Draw a timeline from left to right. Put the current date on the far left and your deadline on the far right. Insert each milestone with a date, starting from your deadline and working backwards.
4. Once your milestones are in the right places, list underneath each one the actions you need to take to achieve them. Keep it in your planner, and TAKE ACTION!

Planning this way can make your dreams become reality and transforms your excitement for a project into focus productivity. Writing out a plan like this is really the hardest part of achieving your larger goals and dreams :)

Worktable Wednesday: Butterfly Bracelet

Yesterday was my birthday! I worked on this piece for some of the day, and later had drinks with friends. I feel pretty good about being 26.

The bracelet encompasses 3 of my favorite things: butterflies, purple, and button clasps. I plan to turn this project into a free tutorial on my other site www.beadcircle.com. I moving the site to my new server today, and then I have some more exciting ideas to add :)

SonStock '09

I skipped blogging last week to get ready for a show that came up unexpectedly. My glass artist friend, Larry Pile aka Kessler Craftsman, invited me to share his booth at SonStock at the Sons of Hermann Hall. I love that venue, so I accepted! It was a dismal show in the way of sales, but I got to hang out with Larry all day, made some great new friends, got a lead on another show, and drank Shiner draft all day.

Since my birthday is August 18th, Larry let me choose a pair of his new earrings! The blue circles are copper that have pens colored with colored pencil and sealed. Apparently the sealing technique is a secret, and I just love them. He's getting good at wirework and silversmithing :)

Steve Moya was the artist next to us. I loved visiting with him and his wife Janice. His art is a-m-a-z-i-n-g! He paints a lot of musicians, and various athletes. I fell in love with a few of his KISS and Stevie Ray Vaughn pieces. The photos on his website do not do his work enough justice, so advise everyone to see him in person at the Front Street Festival on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 10am-5pm. Larry will be there, and maybe even me.