Squisharita Anyone?

So, I spent the day at the Arsenal in Brooklyn yesterday - at the inaugural Squish Art Market. It was slow. But it was a lot of fun! Met some Fabulous people, drank some wine, sold some rings, drank a Squisharita (you'll have to come to the next one to find out what that is!), chatted with fabulous people, and sold some more rings. At the end of the day, all my sales were rings. I almost sold a watch and a pair of earrings... but all I sold were rings. So, I guess I'll have to make some more rings.

Not too many customers, like I said but, it was a beautiful day out and there was an outdoor market nearby... would have been packed if the clouds hadn't parted. So most of the crowd came in at the end. Unfortunately, several of the vendors had already packed up and left by then. Oh well. Their loss!

I'm going to do it again in September, or October - whenever the next one is - so I'll let you know as soon as I know so you can all be sure to be there! The Arsenal wasn't that hard to find - but I did Google Street View it before I went. There does need to be a little better signage, but all in good time, I'm sure. It is on the 4th floor though... so it'll be good exercise! Oh and Thanks to Justine for thinking of it and to Bob for the hosting venue. Squish!

Among the fabulous people I met yesterday was another Andrea (who happens to run an Etsy Street Team of 700 people!!). She told me I could link Twitter to my Etsy store so that it would tweet every time I added a new item.

Now, you all know I'm one of those people that says: Twitter?! Bah Humbug! Why would I want to update people on the minutiae of my life when that would be really boring for everyone involved AND I already feel like I spend too much time online and not enough making and showing my jewelry anyway? Actually, most of the people I know don't even have a Twitter account. But, I know a lot of people do and, since I won't have to actually send the updates myself once it's set up, I thought: Why not?! I'll just add my pictures and listings and blog posts and let this twitter feed tweet them out to the masses - or the minuses or thin air as the case may be.

So, since I had the laptop and a good bit of down time yesterday waiting for people to come in and buy rings, I set up a Twitter account and linked it to my Etsy store, Flickr page and my Blog. So, if you're a Twitterer, you can get a tweet from me whenever I put up new pictures, add items to my store, and write something new (like right now). Or you can tell the people you know who Twitter to do it... Doo it. Doo it. Comon. Doo it. Follow my Tweets. ;]

Ok. Now, there is a little not rightness with the account name so you can't just look for Custom Adornments. For some reason, Twitter wouldn't let me add the last "S" for my name. Though, I didn't see anywhere that mentioned this character limitation. So, my Twitter address is @customadornment. I think. I haven't really spent much time on the site and I'm not following anyone... Phil has an account, so I guess I should follow his non-existent updates. Anyway, if you know how that works, then just don't add the 's' at the end when you look for my Twitter self.

Oh, and if you're up this way: this week I'll be finishing up some small word necklaces for Paper Presence (in Beacon) and the Pink Cloud Boutique (in Harriman). There'll be different designs at each store, because I like to have every store get exclusive designs. Which means you should be able to pop over to one or both stores and get a couple this weekend... ;] Also, I've been asked to man the posts at Raindance this weekend as well. So, I'll be at Mower's Market in Woodstock on Monday... if anyones going to be in the area...

Sorry. No pictures this week, but I'll try to add some to my next post - promise!

Home, home, not on the range...

Well, I made it cross country and all is just as I left it... sort of.

All my stuff is just as I left it but, there are no more weekly Saturday Markets in Beacon. Going to be the Second Saturday only now. So, I'll be there on September 12th. Which means I'll be at the Mower's Market in Woodstock a little more regularly until I start doing more jewelry parties. Oh, and I'm going to be at the first Squish Art Market at the Arsenal in Brooklyn on Sunday August 30th.

I'll have some more jewelry in different retail locations around by next month too.

But more about that later. I want to tell ya'll about the trip back across to NY.

I met up with my dad in Denio Junction and went hunting for Opals. That was fun AND I found a few too. They're all Opalized wood and some of them are pretty cool. Of course, that means I have a lot of partially Opalized wood AND plain old fossilized wood too. We also went to a place where there were supposed to be Fire Agates on the way out and I found a piece of rock that looks like it could actually be Fire Opal OR, a really nice Banded Red Agate or Carnelian. Not really sure since I haven't found any pictures like it or someone to tell me what it is. Let you know when I figure it out.

We're already planning another trip out there for next year though. Til then, the Opals will be curing and then I'll figure out what to do with them. (Dad took all the pictures on that leg, so I got nothing for you. Sorry).

After the Opal hunting, I drove up to Missoula to visit Bill. We hiked and saw some high mountain glacial lakes (it was raining so, again, no pictures) and then went to Gem Mountain and found some Sapphires. Only two were deemed ok for cutting, but they said it would take 6-9 months for me to get them back, so I took them home with me. Along with the smaller and fractured ones AND a couple Garnets and a nice little pebble of Hematite. Oh, and a bag of bigger rocks too.

That was fun too.

I love digging around in the dirt for nice rocks. I have a LOT of them to wrap and polish and play with too. Guess I know what I'll be doing this Winter;}

Oh, and here's a picture of the Gem Mountain part of the trip.

The rest was DRIVING, driving, Driving. I saw some great things - as I drove by - and got stuck in a LOT of construction traffic past Illinois. Probably would have been back a few hours earlier if it weren't for all the stopped dead then 15 miles of 20 MPH driving that occurred from Indiana to NY. Road rage did also ensue (after 9 hours of driving through that kind of thing, it is really inevitable).

One of the really amazing things I saw I couldn't get a picture of. No place to pull over and then it was dark. Along my right side there were plateaus as far as the eye could see AND it was raining on that side (not where I was or the other side though) and really wide rainbows were coming down - STRAIGHT down - from the clouds and landing on the plateaus. I saw a double one with lightening striking to the side of the smaller second one.

Really beautiful and amazing! Wish I had that picture!

Wish I was still in dry heat with cold mountain nights too... well, I never did like the humidity much and it's been raining a lot with high temps so, it's pretty much like living in a sauna. Not my favorite place to live....

Ok. So I'm ready for Fall, what can I say? That IS my favorite season.

Last Park Silly Market, and then...

Well, tomorrow is the last Park Silly Market for me. Then it's off to Nevada to dig up some Opals (really this time. Not like the Diamonds).

This time I'll be between Heber and 7th (right side heading toward 7th; should be somewhere in front of Zooms). Hope to see a bunch of you there!

Everybody wish me luck for the Opal hunt!

After I find a ton of Opals, I'll be heading North East to Montana for another friendly visit, and hopefully, a dig for Sapphires too. Already planning my return to Southern Utah in Spring for some fossil and Topaz hunting. I just love digging around and playing with rocks! Doesn't everybody? ;}

Ok, that's the news for now. Should be back in NY by next Monday. See some of you at the Beacon, Hudson River Market the following Saturday (August 22).

See some of you tomorrow! Wish for a beautiful, gentle windy day with no down pours (yes, it's been strongly gusting and bursting forth from the clouds frequently these last few days, so...) - fingers crossed for a good day for an outdoor market.