#BlogtemberChallenge: Blog Mood Board

 I think today's #BlogtemberChallenge prompt is so much fun!  

"Create a collage or inspiration/mood board that describes your blog."

 

Big Summer Giveaway with Caravan Sonnet and others!

My sweet friend Rebecca, at Caravan Sonnet, is hosting an awesome summer giveaway, and I am excited that I get to be part of it along with these other lovely ladies :-)

From Rebecca:

"The wonderful thing about this giveaway is that there are multiple prizes! Are you still looking for a graduation gift? A wedding gift? You could win it here! Looking to try out Arbonne? Looking for a fun summer book? These prizes will give you some options! Or win a Starbucks or Visa gift card for you or a friend! All you have to do is enter via the rafflecopter below!"

The fabulous prizes (which will ALL go to the one winner - what a haul!) are: 

$25 Visa Giftcard

$10 Starbucks Giftcard

1 Beautiful Handcrafted Pair of Earrings from Always, Katie

1 Free Make up primer or mascara from Arbonne

35% off first order from Arbonne through Anna

3 Jodi Picoult Books

1 Six Month Membership to the Parcel Post Tribe 

These are the earrings I've contributed!  Happy little summer dragonflies, made with jasper and antiqued silver-plated wings :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Etsy Shop is Open!

Today is the day!  The Grand Re-Opening of Always, Katie's etsy location :-)

Please go check it out, share with friends, celebrate with me!  I am so excited to be back to doing what I love :-) 

Don't forget the free shipping code I shared on Monday! And stop back by the store often this week - I still have a few items I'll be listing in the next few days. :-)

Shop Talk Monday: Grand Re-Opening Scheduled!

I am so excited to announce that my etsy shop will re-open on Wednesday!  I have been doing a lot of planning and dreaming about how I want to do business this time around, and I feel like I have new energy and direction. :-)

I will have a "Limited Edition" section in my shop that will have both new and familiar designs that are ready-to-ship but not necessarily able to be re-listed in the future. 

Another new section in my shop will be a new line called "Family Tree Pendants," based on the tree of life birthstone trees I have custom made for a couple of years now.  My Swarovski birthstone crystals are well-stocked and ready to sparkle on these awesome gifts for moms, grandmoms and great-grandmoms!  

I am going to re-introduce the "Petite Princess" line of small crystal earrings on stud earring findings that are lightweight and ideal for little ears.  Birthstone colors will be available, as well as seasonally-themed color schemes and Disney Princess-themed colors.  Of course, custom orders will be welcomed... favorite colors, sports team, school spirit?  The options are nearly endless with Swarovski crystals!  (Recommended for ages 4 and up - it is important that kids who wear these are old enough to not chew on the earrings, as broken glass is never a tasty snack, and I am unsure as to the potential danger of the miniscule amount of lead used in the core of Swarovski crystals. DEFINITELY better to be safe than sorry!)

In the next couple of months - I am hoping by the end of August or early September, I will be launching another new line, this one of customizable Swarovski jewelry for formal occasions - think bridesmaid jewelry, prom, homecoming.  All items listed will be available in any color for which Swarovski makes the necessary shapes of bead, which will be nearly all colors!  I am especially excited about this line, as it gives brides and other customers who are interested in custom jewelry a starting point for customization.  Of course, I will still take completely new custom orders based on a customer's imagination or inspiration :-)

If you stop by the shop and celebrate with me this week, please use this code for free shipping on any order! (Good Wednesday through Sunday!)

CELEBRATE

Home Sweet Home: Craft Room/Jewelry Studio Progress

Now that grad school is over, I have been able to dive head-first back into decorating and cozying up our house!  Over the weekend, Ethan finished painting my craft room/jewelry studio, and I spent most of today moving stuff in and organizing it.  I still have a LONG way to go, but I already feel happy and inspired every time I step foot in this room :-)

Wanna see some pictures?  Good!  Because I can't stop taking and sharing them :-) My facebook friends are going to be so tired of this project pretty soon!

This is how it looked when the previous owners were here...

Many hours and two shockingly blistered thumbs later, the PAINTED on Ts were finally scraped from the windows. Ugh.

After a nice, neutral paint job :-) 

My packing and shipping station is coming together... I made that basket at VBS when I was, like, 10, by the way :-) It has all my jewelry baggies in it.

The bookshelves are holding mostly my novels, small business books, craft idea books, and inspirational magazines.  The table is split into general crafts (left hand side) and jewelry (right hand side).  The wall art is a series of 16x20 prints from Shutterfly of some of my favorite pieces I've made.  I got the Vera Bradley memo board for $10 from a yardsale page on Facebook!  All of my fabric is stashed in that tub under the table... I may try to get a cheap table cloth or piece of fabric to hide that... or not.  The corner by the windows is where I'm going to try and make a little jewelry photography set-up, I think the natural light will help get some really good pictures.  

I still need to get a big storage unit for one of the other walls (for allllll my craft supply miscellany), I want a smaller table for the other wall for my sewing machine and Camille the Cameo, and I am planning to put my jewelry inventory on the wall in the closet, where I have my packing and shipping station.  LOTS more work to do, but other than painting, everything else came together TODAY, so I'm feeling pretty excited about the progress! :-) 

I am hoping to have my Etsy shop open again in about 2 weeks... I have been doing some planning and sketching for a more streamlined product line, and can't wait to share it all with you soon! 

A Little Bit of Everything

IVF:  My local gyn (not the old RE) prescribed a monophasic birth control pill for me to start with my next period.  Which should have started, um, a while ago.  But I'm stressed, and none of us are particularly surprised by its tardiness!  The monophasic pill is something Barbados Fertility Centre specified, rather than a diphasic pill, which is what I was on for KRM.  I'm not sure what the difference is, or why monophasic is preferable, but I try to be compliant ;-) That gyn also agreed to do my pre-Barbados baseline ultrasound, so YAY!  Our family doctor wrote orders for a laundry list of blood work... we both still need to go have the blood actually drawn.  

Curious about the kind of blood work required for IVF?  Besides all of the usual hormone levels, which I've had drawn a zillion times (so I had recent results to hand over already) we are both being tested for: HIV1, HIV2, Hepatitis B Surface Antigen, and Hepatitis C Antibody.  Additionally, I'm having blood drawn for: Full Blood Count, Antiphospholipid Antibody, Antithryglobulin Antibody, TSH and Rubella IgG.  Oh, and I have to have a recent gyn check-up, which I'm taking care of later this month... when insurance will let me :-)  

Grad School:  I finished my internship!  I don't think I've blogged at all since I started my second placement... the one at the high school.  This placement was such a blessing to me!  I had a lot of fun, and got to practice a lot of skills I've mostly read about in the last five years :-)  And my mentor at the high school was the mom of an old friend, and I got to know her professionally as an adult, which was really neat.  All of the counselors, teachers and administrators were so encouraging and good to me... when I left my final function on Tuesday night, I was fighting tears.  Hard.  And kinda lost that fight.  I am truly grateful to be ending my graduate school career with such an overwhelmingly positive experience!!  Speaking of ending my graduate school career, next weekend (May 10), I get to wear this: 

Around the House:  Housework has been slipping majorly since I started my second placement... it was exhausting!  But I made a shadowbox of our Disney trip, brought my wedding bouquet over from where my in-laws were keeping it safe while we moved, and discovered a new favorite cookie recipe (thanks, Pinterest!).  

We bought a football helmet display case from Michaels for the bouquet.  It fits quite comfortably in it!

I'll share the recipe soon!

Jewelry:  I finished jewelry for 6 members of a wedding party!  That was a LOT of fun!  I'm hoping the bride will let me share some pictures of the jewelry in use after her June wedding, but here's a little collage in the meantime.  Also... I got my handmade glass beads back from the studio where I made them, and I made myself a new long (32") necklace with some snake chain and jasper beads in a soft, spring green!

I also got a haircut.  Which doesn't really fit anywhere above, but now I think you're caught up on my last couple weeks :-)

I try to be honest with myself and all of you, so trust me when I say... I will NOT be back on the blog until at LEAST May 11!  I have a ton of stuff to finish up before graduation, so I need to buckle down and finish this journey strong :-)  Gotta make those future babies proud of their Momma... and their Momma proud of herself ;-)

Lampwork Beads Pinspiration

I started the second placement of my internship on Monday, at my old high school :-)  It is so fun to be back there, and I feel like I'm learning a lot already.  I am also so glad that it is spring break now!!  

I have some exciting plans for spring break... I've been saving some Christmas money to go to the spa, planning on using it during IVF to relax a little :-) But since I won't be in reach of my favorite spa during IVF, I'm going to get a massage and a haircut one day over spring break!  Another day, we have our phone consult with Dr. Skinner at Barbados Fertility Center!  And on Monday, I'm checking an item off my bucket list - learning to make lampwork glass beads :-)  I've wanted to take a class and maybe rent some studio time to see if I like it and have a knack for it before I invest in a kiln and torch.  One of my goals for this year is to make at least one donation to Beads of Courage, which is a super-cool organization that gives special beads to kids with chronic serious illnesses to help them tell their stories. 

Ethan gave me a groupon for this class for Christmas, and ever since, I've been pinning some of my favorite lampwork beads on Pinterest for inspiration.  The talent behind most of these beads is INSANE, and I know it will be a while if I'm ever this good, but I just love looking at these!  So I thought I'd share, because who can't use some happy pretty colorful pinspiration!?! :-)

 

PS: Please see my pinboard for information on these beads, their designers and where to purchase some of them :-)

Outfit Post: Happy Spring!

I'm just popping in for a quick outfit post today :-) 

I had to run a quick little errand today, and since it's the first day of spring, I wanted to go "springy!"  I still have a lot of spring clothes to unpack (and de-apartment-stenchify), but I picked this cardigan up at the outlets a couple of months ago, thinking it would be a good all-year piece... yeah, it's definitely a spring sweater!  So I broke it out gleefully today, paired it with a spring-green cami and tossed on one of my most colorful, vibrant necklaces :-)  

Khaki Pants: JCP brand from JCPenney.  I cuffed them; they're actually ankle-length.

Green Cami: This thing is so old I can't read the tag anymore!!!

Blue Cardi: LOFT outlet.

Sandals: Maripé (Rack Room, I think)

Necklace: Always, Katie (see this post)

Toe Nail Polish: L'Oreal Paris, Wishful Pinking

It was still a LITTLE bit chilly out, and I've seen people use the "S" word (rhymes with NO!) regarding Tuesday, but for today, I just reveled in winter being officially, technically over :-)  Happy Spring, y'all!

Funding IVF: Silent Auction: Seeking Donations

Thank you all so much for the love and support you've all shown Ethan and me these past few days.  We are almost 5% of the way to our goal, in just 2 days... and at least as importantly, we have received sweet messages of encouragement from so many of you.  We are overwhelmed and so touched by the support!

In my last blog post, I mentioned planning an online silent auction.  I will be hosting it on Always, Katie's facebook page, hopefully the last week of February.  

Where I need your help (besides bidding on items in a few weeks!) is with the items I will be auctioning off.  I am asking for donations, especially of handmade items... this is a great opportunity for small business owners/craftsmen, as I will be talking the items up on this blog and on Facebook, as well as Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest... and you will of course be more than welcome to send business cards or literature along with your donation. 

Some examples of categories I'd love to see represented in this auction would be:

• Knitted/crocheted items 

• Baked goods

• Paper art

• Printables

• Bath and Body/Spa Products

• Paintings/etc

• Photographs/prints

• Direct Sales Items

• Gift Cards

... just to give y'all some ideas.

If you know anyone who may be interested in donating and helping us out with this, please, please share a link to this blog post!  Pin it, Facebook it, tweet it... we will be ETERNALLY grateful!  I am excited about this as a way to both make some money for our IVF cycle, and to get to know and support some other small business owners and artisans :-) (And here is an update with important dates for donors to know!)

How to Clean Your Silver-Plated Jewelry (without damaging the silver plating!)

As I mentioned in my post last week about organizing my jewelry, the silver plating on several of my older pieces had tarnished... on some of them, quite a bit.  And honestly, when I'm reaching for a necklace to complete an outfit, I rarely grab the one with the weird goldish-greyish-greenish layer of funky gunk! 

For example: this Anthropologie knock-off necklace that I made two and a half years ago (time flies!)

This is what it looked like when I made it... 

Shiny!!

And here it is, fast forward almost three years...

So sad :-(

I knew not to try to use silver polish on something silver-plated, as silver polish removes a thin layer of silver from whatever you're polishing, and the layer of silver on silver-plated jewelry findings is already super-thin to begin with.  So I searched the internet for a way to clean the gunk off my jewelry without destroying it.

I found instructions on this website and decided that it was worth a try...

Her ingredients are cheap, household items...

• An aluminum pie plate (or a bowl with aluminum foil covering it - the aluminum is important for the chemical reaction.  Check out the link to the original article for more info on what is supposed to be going on, chemically.  I'm far from a chemist, and haven't run this by the chemists in my life yet, but it worked for me!)

• Baking soda

• Salt

• Hot water (enough to cover jewelry in the pie plate)

• Paper towels

(Before you start - keep in mind that this process WILL ruin a purposely antiqued finish, and while some people have had great success with pieces with semi-precious stones and crystal... you never know.  So be careful.)

The procedure is easy enough.  Put one tablespoon of baking soda and one tablespoon of salt in the pie plate... pour the hot water over the soda and salt and stir to dissolve... dip your jewelry in (if it's lightly tarnished) or place it in and let it sit for a few minutes (for more heavily-tarnished pieces).  Fish the jewelry out and dry it off with the paper towels.  Very tarnished pieces may turn almost black and need a good rub down with the paper towels, but the silver underneath should be beautifully sparkly and clean! 

It may not be QUITE as good as new, BUT I'm still really excited to have a bright silver necklace that I will actually wear, as opposed to a sad, neglected, tarnished necklace.  :-)  It will also come in handy for the Katie's Closet sale I have been contemplating... I can rehab some of my more neglected pieces and hopefully sell a few of them at awesome second-hand prices. :-) 

Jewelry Organization from a Jewelry Hoarder

When we were shopping for our house, one of the things on our "Sure Would Be Nice" list was a walk-in closet in the master bedroom.  We didn't HAVE to have one, but a house would have to be stellar in several other ways to make up for it, you know?  

Well... in this wonderful, beautiful, blessing of a house, we have a walk-in closet.  EACH.  I'm in Heaven, y'all.  Having a whole closet to myself means that my clothes aren't cramped, which makes getting dressed easier, and I think has resulted in me using the full range of my wardrobe better.  It also means that my purses and my jewelry have their own nice, organized spaces in a convenient, but out-of-the-way location!

I spent some time this week unpacking, untangling, re-organizing, and otherwise squaring-away my jewelry collection, and I thought I'd share a little bit about my strategy.

First, I have a whole wall dedicated to accessories.  The two walls of racks and shelves were already here when we moved in, and that third wall was already empty, so it seemed perfect.  I put the two 2x3 cubby things from my old "cloffice" on the wall to hold my purses and totes... as well as two sections for clothes that need donated or sold, and two that are currently holding some cuff and coil bracelets (until I can find my bracelet holder) and trays of earrings.  I use ice cube trays to organize most of my earrings, and I especially love the trays with lids... I got some at the Container Store... $4 seems a little pricey for ice cube trays, but pretty reasonable for jewelry storage! :-)

The top of the cubbies is a great surface for my jewelry trees and my small jewelry box (and my pile of camis... I'm looking for a basket for them).  See the little brown jewelry box in front?  My niece made that for me for Christmas a couple years ago. <3 Priceless! 

These are my jewelry trees... the one on the left is from my mom, and it holds necklaces and bracelets I either wear a lot, or want to remind myself to wear more often ;-) Around the base, I have some pendants that I don't have designated chains for.  The other, more tree-like tree, we picked up at CVS of all places.  It's perfect for earrings that I like to have within very easy reach.  Sad, single earrings and some other doo-dads (like my embellished comb) are hanging out on that base until I can find their mates or make a replacement. 

Then, there are the tie/belt racks.  These have hung in each of our three homes somewhere... in the apartment, the only place I could figure out was the inside of my closet door!  They're just held up by finishing nails, so the weight worries me a little bit.  I will probably add another rack right above these soon, and shift my bracelets up to it. 

I made the observation on facebook the other day... when you make your own jewelry, it is REALLY easy to become a jewelry hoarder!  Some of these pieces, I NEVER wear...  I found a tutorial from another designer on how to remove tarnish from silver-plated jewelry.  I'm thinking of polishing up a few of these things I never wear and having a Katie's Closet sale.  With IVF hopefully in March, every little bit will help ;-)

July Pinspired: The White Skirt

Yay!  Happy 1st of July!  I LOVE July - it's our anniversary month, and that's at least as exciting as my birth month.  Probably moreso, because there was some choice involved.  :-)  Annnndd... the first of the month means another Pinspired linkup party with Shay, Sheaffer and Mel!  This is where we show off outfits we put together using outfits we've pinned on Pinterest as our inspiration... it's a lot of fun - if you blog, you should totally play along next month!  

As I was digging through the spring clothes that I still have in a ginormous tub from moving, I discovered the cutest little white skirt that I COMPLETELY forgot I had - even though I'd apparently worn it at least once, since the tags were gone.  That's what I get for not rotating my clothes, but this whole apartment thing is transitional, soooo... no guilt.

Anyway, since I was pretty thrilled about my "brand new" skirt, I decided to do some hardcore Pinteresting for cute ideas of how to wear it.  I found three (THREE!) adorable outfits that I LOVED and already had all of the pieces to do a pretty good version of each of them.

My absolute favorite was this one with the dark blue print top and the white skirt.

via

Somehow, the bold print and color seemed unexpected and awesome with the stark white skirt, and I really liked that she wore a coordinating pair of bold-colored shoes with it.  I wimped out a little bit and went with brown sandals instead... but I still loved this outfit when I wore it to our cousin's high school graduation party.

• Dark Blue Print shirt: I have no idea anymore.  But it's pretty sheer, so I wore a cream-colored cami under it. (Because I forgot to pack my white one, and couldn't find my navy one.  Have I mentioned that my clothing situation is a little disorganized?)
• Cami: JC Penney (I love these camis... they're Worthington brand and come in a ton of colors.  Currently, it looks like the color selection is pretty limited, but the colors seem to come and go seasonally - check out the photos attached to this listing!  They're super-soft and they have pretty lace that is high enough to be reasonably modest, and NO shelf.  Which is important for a busty girl!)
• White Skirt: JC Penney (also Worthington)
• Brown Sandals: Maripé 
• Necklace and Earrings: Always, Katie
• Puppy: One of a kind.  

The next outfit I found is this one: 

via

I have the perfect shirt for this, one of my absolute favorite shirts!  I don't have a skinny brown belt, but I do love my wide stretchy belt... especially for the hourglass effect :-)  I wore this out to supper with some of our best friends :-)  It was the day after some big storms came through Southwest Ohio (where my in-laws live and we were spending some lovely time)... so it was crazy-windy out!!  See?

• White Skirt: Same as first set!
• Pink Button-Down: JC Penney.  I swear, I don't get ALL my clothes there.  
• Belt: Kohls, a couple years ago. 
• Brown Sandals: Same as first set.
• Pearl Necklace and Earrings: Valentine's Day gift from Ethan <3

And here is my last inspiraton outfit: 

via

Unfortunately, I ran out of good excuses to wear a short, tight white skirt during June, so I didn't actually get to wear my version of this outfit.  Here's my planning photo, though:

I have two summery scarves, one of which I thought would be really neat with the white-on-white look.  I did end up wearing it with a white shirt and jeans a couple of times this month, and I'm not entirely sure I would have without seeing the above pin.  I really do love these scarves, but I almost never wear them, mostly because I a) forget about them b) have a hard time wrapping my mind around the "a summer-weight scarf is a chunky necklace" rule.  Getting these two into the rotation is one of my summer fashion goals... so that maybe I can justify another one or two in the near future.  ;-)

Always,
Katie