Vlog?

What is the term for a video blog post?  Anyway, here you go:

Oh, pictures of hands!

Oh, the indispensable wedding photo titled "Portrait of Rings."  Hehe!  I love it/hate it.  It is similar to the "Portrait of  Bride and Groom with Cake (no. 400 thousand million)."  No one is actually married unless there is photographic evidence of the actual cake eating. (Man, I would love a piece of cake right now.)  No one can escape the staged ring photo, not if your wedding photographer has anything to say about it. :-)

Not even me.  Witness the evidence below.

 You might recognize my ring from previous blog posts, but here it is in all of its bridal day glory.  The Shop Monkey's ring is one I made in platinum, special, just for him.  It has a shallow groove down the middle that is filled with my finger prints.  And the following picture is from someone I was lucky enough to make their wedding jewelry for.  And you should have seen the other photo!  I'm now convinced that my next wedding will need to be beach side. (Just kidding, I'm never getting married again!)

Where have you been?

Sorry everyone!  I've just been trying to get myself back into working mode.  For me that is the hardest part of working for yourself, no one expects you to stick to a schedule, so you have to supply all of the structure for yourself.  Which I am determined to do this year!  I want to have a more structured existence, in fact I need it!  Otherwise I just fritter away my days skipping from one website to another, reading the back entries of blogs (curse you, Apartment Therapy!), and consuming news media of all sorts.  I don't want to waste my life away on the desert that is the internet!  I want to do things that matter to me, not read about things that other people have done.  I want to practice the piano, quilt, cook, play with the pugs, and draw pictures!  I want to do things!  Actual things!  Not read random stuff off a computer screen.  I have an internet problem.  And I know I am not alone.  Can I get an amen?

Towards this end, I have instituted a daily schedule, that I am going (to try) to follow.  Of course there will be room to improvise.  But you can't improvise from nothing (at least I can't, my life just turns into a total sh*t-show...see above), so a framework is going to be a positive change for me.  I've even given myself a bedtime and a time to get up in the morning, and established some little pleasant rituals that will help me stay the course.  And I've banished the iPad to the studio, where it sits dormant until it has to go on a trip with me, instead of laying around the house like a black hole that an entire morning/afternoon/evening can vanish into.  Things have already improved since I've returned from my honeymoon, and I think that with the gradual build up of willpower, I will be where I want with my time management skills by the end of the year.

As for work, I'm going to try to manage that better as well.  I needn't go into extreme detail, but I am going to try to break things up into more reasonable chunks, and make a regular process for everything, rather than just using brute force to power my way through my work load.  I'm not a natural organizer, I tend to just try to get everything done at once, rather than using a progressive, step by step approach that would be more efficient.  So, that is my plan, maybe I will blog about my progress.

I am going to be adding a few pairs of earrings to the line up this year!  I'm pretty excited about them.  They are very plain, but nice I think.  They are exactly the sort of thing that I would like to wear, so I hope my taste doesn't differ too widely from the norm.

I don't have photos of new work, but I do have photos of my honeymoon, which I know you are all dying to see!

The Wedding

Okay!

Okay!  I'm finally legally wed and finished with all my work.  Off on my honeymoon trip with my honey!  Glad to be done with everything!

And now!!

So close!

Keep on keepin' on

Almost there!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

KRAY-ZEEE

The Be-Moustached Bachelorette

I had the loveliest of times at my speakeasy themed bachelorette party on Friday, hosted by two of my future bridesmaids (see the two with the handle bar moustaches).  I don't think I've ever had such a lovely and thoughtful party thrown for me.  It was fabulous!  This has nothing to do with jewelry, but I couldn't resist the chance to post a photo of me with a moustache.  I've always wanted one!

In case you were wondering

Whatever happened to those projects with the cool sapphires?

Well, here they are.  Turned out pretty spiffy (if I do say so myself...yuk yuk yuk...).  

And now I'm going to do this:

With this!:

Not the best of blog posts, but I'm pulling my hair out here trying to get everything done so I can have a breather before the wedding.  Starting to get excited about it, it now seems like it will actually happen and be a pretty fantastic party.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Misc.

To cast or not to cast:

I was thinking yellow gold with little green diamonds in the settings?


Puggery:

"Oh, did you want to sleep here too, Dieter?  Too bad. Only room enough for one pug."

"Oh, did you want to enjoy the space heater in peace?  Too bad."

Pug Tetris, beginner skill level.

New stuff:

My second foray into platinum.  I'm really loving it.  I can see why some jewelers work with it exclusively.  I really love the tapered band on this one and the stone was very unique.  GSI1, with a crazy black inclusion right almost centered, but somehow it just got lost in the sparkle.

Finally!  I've blogged about how I wanted to use one of these silvery gray natural diamonds and I got my chance shortly thereafter (thanks Joey!).  I love the way it turned out.  It is hard to photograph, but I love the way it sort of glows from within because of all the inclusions.  If I can get more of these stones I will be offering it in my shop.

All right, I have to get ready for craft night!  My lady friends are coming to the studio to work on crafts!  So excited, but I need to sweep up all of the pug hair that has accumulated over the last few days.