I'm back with a new little sidekick and a new line of jewelry!

Hello again! Remember how I kept mentioning how pregnant I was?  

Here's my little sidekick! (And his daddy!)

 

This is Little Roger.

He's growing WICKED fast.

Little Roger is almost 4 months old already, and it took just about that long for me to get used to juggling the needs of a very new and loveable baby and just about everything else.  I let my Etsy shop coast for quite a while since I had built it up so much over the summer but all I had energy/time to do was ship orders out as they came in.

While out and about just before Christmas, hanging out with my mother-in-law just so I could get the heck out of the house, this new jewelry line hatched.  She was looking for an inspirational bracelet for her pastor and couldn't find anything she liked.

Suddenly, something clicked.

So I went home and made this.

There's a similar one listed in my Etsy shop.

Boho Wrap Bracelet - Inspirational Jewelry, Trust, Faith, Hope, Believe in Denim Blue with Sodalite, Lapis, Labradorite, Czech Glass Beads

Ever since I started making jewelry for my flea market booth and Etsy shop in 2007-8, I've struggled with finding a voice.  I love love LOVE Czech glass beads and I LOVE semi-precious stones and I have a ton of both but there's only so many pairs of earrings I can make and hardly any of my stone jewelry/nature line ever sold...EVER.  All of the sudden, all of these materials came together in Boho Wrap Bracelets, which I can't seem to stop making and I'm finally using all these beads that I bought a ton of, way back when.  That night, I made a bracelet for my mother in law for Christmas, and I made a bracelet for my own mother to match the necklace I made her for her 50th birthday in 2009.

I made wrap bracelets until I ran out of wire, and then I bought some more and kept right on going.

#309 Boho Wrap Bracelet - Deep Ruby Red with Garnets, Labradorite, Antique Buttons, Smokey Quartz, Freshwater Pearls, Czech Glass Beads & Charms

#319 Boho Wrap Bracelet - Pink and Green Czech Glass Beads with Malachite, Aventurine, Chrysoprase, Dyed Agate, and Charms

And then...I made a huge one...for ME. Because I wanted to make an attention grabber that I could use to advertise my shop.  I have made a few pieces for myself over the years and handed out business cards when people ask.  I've heard whispers of "hey, she's wearing clock hands for earrings" while out at Ocean State Job Lot. 

So here is the most awesome piece of jewelry I've ever made, which I call "The Button Box (#326)."  I've been hoarding glass buttons ever since I started selling buttons on Etsy, and started putting them in my jewelry during the past year.  There are some buttons I would admit that I would miss if I sent them off to new homes, so I used many of them in this bracelet, and I used the best of the beads I own, as well as semiprecious stones.

The Button Box - Vintage and Czech buttons with Czech beads and Labradorite, Fluorite, Garnets, Carnelian, Aventurine, Chrysoprase, Peridot, Malachite, Turquoise, Amazonite, Lapis, and Amethyst.

Of course, I'm open to making another one, but they're extremely limited as I don't have many yellow or orange buttons.  If there's a high demand, I'll source more, but a lot of these buttons came from lots I got at yardsales so the colors were up to chance.  (I used to buy small buttons from EKSupplies on Etsy, but she doesn't seem to have any left to sell.  Still, she's a fab seller!)

So that's bringing you up to date.  I also started a new little website, Adventures with Meg, since I used to post some adventures in here and that site also has Saab shots. 

I hope to be able to post new blog posts once a week, but that might be a bit too ambitious.  We'll see. :)

It's time to revive the shop blog!

I mean, it's only been 5 years since I posted anything at all.

The best years I had on Etsy were 2008 and 2009, and I spent the morning editing old posts in this blog so that it would hopefully remain relevant if anyone wanted to see my earliest beginnings.  I stopped focusing on Etsy during mid-2010 when my photography career took off, and I spent the next two years building that. For more information, see my website: http://meganmcgory.com .

I'm up to 332 Etsy sales, 2 artfire sales, and over 100 positive feedback on eBay, and I'm hitting Etsy hard as I come up on a new period of extended-no-day-job-ness.

Not like I'm losing the post office job, I have that as long as I want it.  I left it once, I went back.  Now I'm preparing for a maternity leave and am using it as a springboard to hopefully build my Etsy store like I never did before.

In the past month, the size of the shop has tripled and I now have more listings than I ever did in 2008/09/10.

What else has changed in the past five years?

Damn near everything.

I have a new camera.  My last posts mentioned my learning process with the Canon Rebel XS I had just received the previous January.  I have all new lenses, two Canon 7D's and when I look at my product photos from 2008, frankly, I'm embarrassed. lol  Go see the part about my photography career taking off.  There's an ebb and flow to the working world now.  Maybe there always has been.

Oh, and since my blog idolizes Lunatic Sophie Saab, let's update that too.

#operationrescuesaab on Instagram.

My 1984 Saab 900 S served me well until January 2010 when it stalled in the road five times on my way home from the post office, a distance of 1/2 mile, and I pushed it home.  I parked it that day.  I couldn't afford to keep dumping money into it and mechanics were raking me over the coals. Turns out there was nothing wrong with it but a bad battery (that I had just purchased, but that happens, apparently).  And it had been parked for almost three years before I found that out.

My poor 1984 Saab.  It sat so long for nothing.  Now it has a host of many, many more problems while I was out driving all over kingdom come in my used Subarus, a 2005 Legacy, and a 2010 Forester.

 Sally Subaru, which I drove from February 1, 2010-June 30, 2011

 Rhonda the Mafia Mobile, which I drove from June 30, 2011-May 2, 2014

Meanwhile, during an ebb in my photography work, when I figured I would eventually have to sell my Forester, my loving fiance (Brent!) found me a 1993 Saab 900 S. So this is the new Saab that will be turning up in obligatory saab shots.

 This is Grumpy Sophie Saab II of Buggyshire, purchased February 19, 2013! See this Saab in still-life action on Instagram! #grumpysophiesaab2ofbuggyshire

So as it turns out, the transmission from the 1984 Saab is compatible with the 1993 Saab, so I do still have both, though the original saab is a sad saab sitting over at my future in-laws.  Brent is my only trusted mechanic, and his dad owned SEVEN Saab 900's while he was growing up, so guess what he's worked on more than he knows?

And we still go up Lantern Hill every year with my now 83-year-old grandfather. 

So what's new in my Etsy shop?  I got rid of all the half-assed crap that I thought was so special (Polymer secret beads from Feb. '08?  No one cared.) I debuted new magnets, which I made in 2009 but never listed because I wanted to make sure the glue was sturdy enough.  I GUESS AFTER 5 YEARS WE KNOW THE ANSWER.

So here they are!  Magnets -  Neon Jewels Variety Pack

And in case you were wondering, I am in fact still listing hand-made jewelry, and making more!  Here are some of my latest creations!

 Art Deco Steampunk Clock Hand Earrings with Antique Buttons

  Ruby Red Steampunk Romance Necklace

As always, I have a wide variety of crafting supplies (especially buttons!) and vintage clothes!  Check out all my links to pinterest and twitter on the side of the page, and check back soon for more regular blog posts (that hopefully won't ramble as badly as the old ones, oh hell, maybe not. haha)

Can you say BUSY 3 times fast?

Between work and catching up on a month's worth of journaling, I haven't really had time to devote to the blog too.


I do have a big announcement. No, I'm not pregnant. But I did launch my website, meganmcgory.com FINALLY. And so now it's official that once Geocities disappears for good, my old "Nutmeg's Realm" website is going with it, only to remain archived somewhere in the depths of a CD binder full of burned backup CDs.


At the same time I was launching my website, if you follow me on my shop twitter (also newly launched) you'll see that I've been working hard on the 2nd Annual Etsy Yart Sale, sponsored by the Etsy Supplies Street Team. YART = Yard + Art! And there are some great deals to be found there. I was surprised to find out I got a tiny blurb honorable mention in this blog: Dirty Pretty Things.


So, what's my yart sale specials? First off, I have a discounted Yart Sale section in my shop. Then, my 150th sale gets FREE SHIPPING. Next, I've been running specials of the day and TODAY'S SPECIAL is Free Shipping on orders over $30! My first special of the day was BUY ONE VINTAGE ITEM, GET ONE 1/2 OFF, and that's been extended indefinitely because I really need to move the vintage stock. That's a BIG hint!

Getting back into the swing just in time for spring!

I am SO READY for this winter to be over. I wanted it gone sometime after I had to work through the second snowstorm. And...if you live in New England, that was a few months ago. HA.

Anyway, on Wednesday I got a phone call from the store I had some of my clock hand earrings in consignment in. They're going out of business, and they wanted me to come down and pick up what I had left. Come to find out, the two pairs I sold in August were the ONLY pairs I ever sold in that shop. I'm glad to have the remaining eight pairs back home and just finished editing the photos of them so I can get them up in my Artfire Studio. Here's a little tease of what's going up once I measure them and get them listed sometime this weekend:

Number 94


Number 104

Well, since I was heading out to Rhode Island to pick up the remaining earrings, I couldn't pass up a trip down to my favorite sea glass beach! I found two items I've never found on a beach before, a blue glass bead and the stem from a clay pipe!

And now for something a little old, but got missed because I was so incredibly sick. On my birthday, I went a little crazy and drove all the way out to the tip of Cape Cod. I was on a strict schedule, so as soon as I got there, I had to turn right around and come back home. Leave it to me to NOT realize that I had embarked on a 320-mile round trip that was entirely pointless, but an amusing adventure.

I also got the Lowepro Slingshot 100 camera backpack for my birthday. Having two different camera cases, one for the camera, and one for the lenses, was a huge pain...and I couldn't have actually afforded this for myself so thankfully my birthday was right around the corner from when I got the Canon! I don't really know how I would ever get along without it, and I've thought that ever since I realized I can utilize it as almost a portable workspace. So here it is next to my new purse and some new orange shoes that cost $5 and some really cute socks that I got some months ago that just match this whole hot mess really well. lol.

The socks really don't make any sense (cloud & crossbones?) , but they're so cute!

Ugly new messenger bag!

I'll spare you the rest of the stuff for the next update, but I've been having a lot of fun with the Canon experimenting with night shots and the rest. :)

Anyway, over the past couple of days I've been hard at work listing new things on ebay and getting my artfire shop up to speed. Surprisingly, I had a sale on Etsy today...first time since Feb. 1! I still haven't really decided where I'm going to list the whole truckload of fabric I picked up at auction just about a month ago. I can't believe how fast time flew this month, especially after I got sick. Now my mom is sick too, but it's with something different. Hopefully it will pass soon, and we'll all be enjoying spring and not getting sick, and all that fun stuff.

Now...off to Google Analytics to see if I can actually learn anything. lol

Merry Christmas Eve! Sea Glass, Dead Cat, VIRUS, Snow, Peter Gabriel, and a Christmas Tree!

Since my last post, I went to the beach (yes SEA GLASS!) we found a dead stray cat on the lawn, my computer caught a virus, and we got incredible amounts of snow in our first snow storm of the season! Those of you who were following me on twitter would have noticed the saga of Cat Doe. I went door-to-door but no one would own up to the dead cat (which had been hit by a car and someone either placed it on our lawn or it died there). So we gave it a home and buried it ourselves in the back yard, before the snow came. The poor thing was frozen when I picked it up with a snow shovel, but I didn't want to leave it there because our neighborhood isn't THAT trashy to the point where we leave dead cats sticking everywhere. And we couldn't stand looking at it because it was only 10 feet from the front door. (We live 15 feet from a main road).

ANYWAY, now for something cute and happy, a Chickadee at the suet feeder!

Now, SEA GLASS! The day before Cat Doe, I went to the beach, and had amazing finds!

The last find of the day was this blue shard from Scarborough Beach.

Many pre-1860 "black glass" deep olive green shards.
And an "upkick" from the pontil of a bottle!
11 cents, the dime is dated 1972.And then, the best find that wasn't discovered until we got home....

Another piece of uranium vaseline glass!


And on that happy note, Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got our first snow of the year, which is already starting to melt. I'm actually glad because I have to deliver the worst route in the office tomorrow driving from the wrong side of my jeep in Bozrah...and frankly don't feel like dealing with iced over roads and the rest. I mean, it's not like I can wear a seat belt while driving from the passenger side (wouldn't be able to reach brake/gas pedals) so to say I'm nervous while driving on less than ideal roads like that is an understatement.

Anyway! Since many bloggers are posting their Christmas lists, I'm going to post mine.


And here we go!

1. Nikon D60 D-SLR camera. I've only wanted a new camera for a year now, especially ever since my Kodak DX7590 that I got for my 21st birthday (I'll be 25 in February) broke in the fall of 2007.. Many of the buttons wore out suddenly and my camera lags in orienting itself (so pictures that I take right-side-up come out upside-down...this problem preceded the buttons failing by about 2 months but easily fixed in any photo editor). Anyway...A digital SLR would be a logical upgrade now that they're affordable. My Kodak cost almost $500 in 2005, and the Nikon D60 costs about $550. I would also settle for a Nikon D40, but for about $50 more you can get the D60 so therefore the D60 is a better value. One of the differences is that the D40 is 6 megapixel, and the D60 is 10.2MP. I would be extremely happy if I got this and nothing else...the Kodak is still going but the last 5000 pictures have produced more than its share of disappointments. (During its whole life, my Kodak has taken roughly 18,000 pictures.)

2. The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Wally Lamb is my favorite author by far, though I could be biased because my mom had him for a teacher for her poetry class at NFA around 1975. He's since been on Oprah's Book Club. His books are well written and if you grew up in and love eastern Connecticut, it's fun to try to relate to the story by finding the little clues he leaves that you would only know if you lived here. Not to mention his plots are fantastic. I often wonder if he would remember my mom. It's not like she looks any different. lol

3. Elect the Dead (CD by Serj Tankian, lead vocalist from System of a Down). I love SOAD and I don't listen to the radio much anymore since I have a CD player in my car, so I only found out recently that Serj has solo projects going on. I like what I've heard so far.

4. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime Boxset. It's the Talking Heads. I love them. A lot. Watched True Stories last night and still never cease to be amazed by how much that movie had an influence on current pop culture (or late 90's at least...both American Beauty and Titanic have obvious references to two clips from that movie less than 5 minutes apart.) I'm sure there's others. Not to mention the Love for Sale video, which is the most demented music video I've seen. Even Hell by the Squirrel Nut Zippers takes a back seat to Love for Sale.



and Hell (not that great quality):



5. Custom Nightmare Snatcher Journal - Mugwump (in blue!). From the Spiderbite Boutique on Etsy. Looks like she shut down for a bit to fulfill a large order. Oh well, my birthday is coming too.

Also, please support your local brick and mortar stores, buy as much handmade as you can! The big box stores will survive.

This vaguely reminds me of 2006, when I boycotted all malls and Walmart for my holiday shopping, just to mix things up a bit. Of course, in 2006 I got strep throat out of the blue just before I bought plane tickets for Egypt, and so my entire Christmas budget that year was $125. I think I did end up going over that, but it was such a blast! This year I've done most of my shopping on Ebay, Etsy, and Amazon. But I do avoid the huge powersellers on Ebay...you know, those people with 100,000 positive feedbacks. Take a closer look, 4000 positive feedback in one month with 50 negatives that they never even reply to...well...I'd be willing to pay just a little bit more to a seller with 300 positive feedbacks and only 1 negative, just so I know I'm helping someone in their quest to be successful independently!

I have several ebay auctions ending today but have to work extra hard to get the next round of items up. I'm going to have a very long day at work tomorrow and be exhausted when I get home. Better to be productive today!