It's Love Month, right?

The last 6 weeks have been really rough for my little family.  We've had some of the worst colds ever - mostly my husband and I - and we're struggling to keep up with day-to-day life.  Thankfully, my husband works from home, so he can take a nap in the middle of the day if he needs one.  It doesn't help me much, because, well, it just means I have another baby to take care of!

So I'm finally getting around to posting my Valentine's Day earrings.  I've made a bunch more than these, including some new designs, but I find that my creative energy is being sapped by everything else going on.

Of course blogger thinks the pic isn't a real pic...

This is what I get for trying to transfer to a new(er) computer after having been sick for a long time.  Ugh.

Apparently computers aren't so smart.  I had to rename the file before it would recognize it as a jpg.

Anyway, because I feel the need to be creative, I look everywhere for materials that might make fun jewelry.  If you look closely, you'll see former buttons, metal brads, shrinky dinks, beads, and even real candy hearts (coated with Mod Podge).  It feels good to take something and use it in a different way than it was intended.  Not sure why.

I am selling the earrings.  For now, they are available through this blog (and handybyheather@gmail.com), on facebook, and at Orem Family Pharmacy in Orem, Utah.

Getting ready for the next holiday

I'm having a hard time with the whole 2013 thing.  Not feeling much inspiration or something like that.  I do have a little project from last year that's had me thinking of other possibilities.

Last year with Halloween I found some buttons that I thought would make great earrings.  I found similar supplies for Christmas, and have had fun searching for something for Valentine's Day.  My projects into seasons started a year or two ago with my favorite ever Snowmen earrings, but blossomed last year with my candy heart earrings.  I think they're super cute.  Not a huge seller, but fun enough to continue. 

When I have some more made and ready to go I'll post a pic, and hopefully I'll have a bunch ready to take over to the pharmacy to sell in the next day or two.  I do have lots of earrings made, but I need the card inserts for the little plastic bags.  I sure wish my printer didn't decide it was out of a new color every time I needed to print something...

Pics by Wednesday, I promise.

Don't blink!

When my friends first started talking about Doctor Who I kind of felt bad for them.  I mean, they raved about this show that sounded really dumb.

One friend decided to share a specific episode with us at a girls night, so I had to sit through it.  Can you guess which episode is the most stand-alone?

A few years ago, Doctor Who started over.  Well, it had been on hiatus for like 20 years (with one TV movie in there somewhere), and it picked up like it had never been gone.  See, the genius of the show is that it can be rewritten in ways that most sci-fi shows can't.  Don't like the lead?  Write them out and put in a new one.  It's easy!

Can you tell I have now become a fan?  After watching the episode called "Blink" I found myself in a Netflix lull and devoured all of the "new" episodes.  I have now introduced many of my friends and family to the show and everyone but my sister is as obsessed as I am.  She still thinks it's just dumb.

Well, it is, but it's so much fun too!

Anyway, it's pretty much accepted amongst Doctor Who fans that the Weeping Angels are the best villains out of any TV show.  Man, they are creepy!  If you haven't seen the episode yet, do!  Best of all, do it alone at night and with your curtains open.  Gives me shivers even to contemplate it.

I was first inspired to make my own fan art by this little masterpiece: http://wich-crafts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dont-blink.html.  I have my own cheapo Barbie that I need to turn into a statue.

But after getting all the supplies, the Christmas season hit and I got distracted (that happens a LOT in this house - the distraction, not the Christmas thing, that would be weird).  And then I saw a little example of angel earrings in a craft magazine and my brain lit up.

This is what I've come up with:

I'm not going to claim that these are the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who fame.  I have no permission to do so and would absolutely not want to infringe on any copyrighted characters from that awesome BBC show.

But I will say that my flying lady statue earrings are kinda sad.  How's that?

I am selling these innocent-looking earrings - $8 can buy you a pair of crying ladies.

Contact me at handybyheather@gmail.com for information or requests.

Let's figure it out together

I want to know where the discipline comes from that is required to become really really good at stuff.

I'm pretty sure I don't have ADD, but you'd never know it by the sheer number of projects I start.  I make plans all the time, but have a really hard time following through on those plans.  I quit when I get frustrated at the skill I don't have and move on to the next item on my massive list of things to figure out.  And I do love to figure things out.

Whether it's sewing or crafting or building or cooking, I want to know how to do it.  I daydream of becoming a plumber, an auto mechanic, and a carpenter, but I'll content myself with hiring experts as long as I can do the demolition myself.  That is fun!!!

Jewelry is something that I really have picked up on my own.  I'm no expert, but I do have some skill, and it makes me happy.  That could be at least partly because it doesn't take a lot of time to finish something that you can show off.

Anyone who knows me in person will confirm that I love people.  It makes me supremely happy when people want to spend time with me (unless it's my kids and then I get claustrophobic easily), so I'm constantly trying to organize crafting parties and such.  I figure if I can socialize and do create at the same time then I won't be worried about wasting time that should be spent cleaning my house.

I'll share anything I figure out on my own - unless I want to sell it myself, so feel free to request tutorials on any subject that interests you.  This blog is for me, but I love to share.