The New Floor .... and a little bit of Jet

I LOVE MY NEW FLOOR!  Yes, I screamed that at the top of my lungs.  I feel like a grown-up now that my floors are not made of plywood any more.  We're no longer living in a house known for it's dorm-room-chic qualities.  Alright, we still have some funky things going on, but for the most part, the house is done.  Amen.  It's only been 14 1/2 years.

You probably think this is a nice hardwood floor.  You would be wrong.  It's linoleum.  Yup, linoleum.  The manufacturer uses a photograph of wood and somehow adheres it to some really heavy duty linoleum.  There's even real wood-like texture going on here.

A friend of Rick's, who has installed many hardwood floors over the years, made the comment: "Why would anyone get real wood?"

And here's Jet on his new bed, after his grooming yesterday.  I wuv him.

New Earrings in My Etsy Shop -- Finally!

Now that the Great Flooring Installation of 2011 is complete, I'm finally back to work in my studio.  There's nothing like a little renovation to get me motivated again.  My studio was completely empty for several days as the floor was installed, so I took the opportunity to sort through stuff, clean and rearrange a bit.  While it looks the same (to the untrained eye), it feels very different to me.  In a very good way.

Without any further delay, I'll share with you two new pairs of earrings in my etsy shop.

Midnight Blue Pearls

Concave Cut Green Amethyst

Stay tuned -- I have more earrings to come.  The photos need to be edited, blah, blah blah.  As usual, click on the photos to go directly to the listings in my etsy shop.

A Brief Update

I know you have all missed me and my posts terribly.  And I do feel bad about being absent from my blog lately.  But I actually have some good reasons, which I will cover in a minute.

First, I'd like to report that our Bad Girls of the North craft show in Fairbanks was a huge success.  We think that there was a record turnout on Friday evening.  If I was a shopper, I think I would have left!  I don't do well with huge crowds.

My house is a disaster zone.  In preparation for new flooring (actually, it's my house's first real flooring ever -- we've been living with plywood floors for 13 years.  very embarrassing to admit this here), most of our belongings and furnishings are packed up and living on the deck under blue tarps.  For those of you not familiar with this strategy, it is very Alaskan to use a multitude of blue tarps, wherever and whenever you can.  I'm not a fan of this look, but given what we need to do, this is a necessity.

As many of you know, my studio is located inside my house.  Yes, my entire studio has been dismantled and will not be back to normal for a few more days.  This timing is far from brilliant, as we are in the middle of craft show season.  The actual floor installation will take place on Monday and Tuesday.  It is only after that, that our lives begin to get back to normal.  Rick is certain that I will be searching for missing items all winter long and he's probably right.

No pictures of this disaster are available.  I'm not proud of how our house and deck look right now.  The neighbors are concerned for our mental stability at this point.

On a brighter note, Jet is having a blast running around the near-empty house.  There are few places where his toys can get stuck!

Thanks for sticking with me through my long absences.

Preparing for the Bad Girls show in Fairbanks

Later this week, we drive north for our 12th annual Bad Girls of the North craft show in Fairbanks.  It's a long, long drive that takes most of the day.  We will leave on Thursday and get up early to do the show layout on Friday morning.

I made several small adjustments to my jewelry display last year, so I have no new display items for this year.  But I will change it up a bit so it doesn't look stale.  And most all of my jewelry is new and fresh.  There is one strategy change I will introduce, that I'll try to explain here.

One of my best selling necklace styles are my pearl mixes.  As a refresher, you can look at this post from a few years back.  The earrings that I make to go along with the necklaces are usually simple, single pearl drops, matching one of the pearls in the necklace.  They are sold separately from the necklaces, but I display them together.  It never fails -- there are always several customers who purchase only the earrings, leaving the necklace without a matching pair of earrings.  This year, I decided to make about 20 pairs of varied single pearls drop earrings for these people to choose from!  I will display them all together in a little basket.  Hopefully, this will prevent the lonely necklace syndrome.

We'll see.

Jet has a Play Date!

Jet is now 11 months old and weighs in at about 82 pounds.  That's a lot of dog, isn't it?  He's finally big enough for a "fair" play date with Murphy.  Murphy is the gorgeous labradoodle that lives across the street.  He's about 120 pounds!

Last week, I snapped some photos of them playing together in Kathryn & Timer's Murphy's backyard.

Looks rougher than it is.

Rick with Jet and Timer looks on.

(Murphy's not really biting Jet -- it just looks that way)

After only 10 minutes, the two of them are panting like, well, like dogs.

Poor Blitzen had to stay in the house.  She doesn't play well with others.  And she's old.

State Fair -- Food Photos

I only have time for a quick post with some photos of some of the food we've eaten during the past week.

Blue Corn Tamale (with all the toppings)

Pork Chop on a Stick (after a few bites)

Baked Potato topped with Cheese, Bacon and Sour Cream

And I decided to live-on-the-edge and get a feather hair extension.  I kind of love it.  The gorgeous earrings are from my friend Brandi at Caties Blue.