baubles from hell.

i was up late last night. i was finishing pieces, starting new ones. trying to label stuff but finding my pen inadequate. and then when we finally went to bed, i tried reading myself to sleep, but my thoughts kept getting in the way. will i have enough food? i still need to get plates. and napkins. and soda! and wine so i can make sangria. so i guess i need fruit. ack!

i need to clean the litter box. it'd be easier if they used the toilet. there's even one in the basement, a scant 12 feet away from the litter box. i'm just sayin.

i need to wash the kitchen rug and the bathroom rug. i need to leave here early today so i can start the cleaning. chairs... we'll need to move some of the chairs from the dining room and into the living room.

i was thinking about grouping things by color, instead of "here are necklaces, here are bracelets," etc. that way there's not one person holding up the line, looking at the earrings. and i'm going to use the china and crystal to display it. maybe intersperse it all with the food? ooh, i'll use the antique cake plate to display the moon pies. love them. and the cake plate is blue.

i can't organize all my beads tonight... i'd never get to sleep. but i should probably have them out and available in case people want to look, and maybe custom-order something.

BK said she probably can't make it. that kinda sucks.

feh. i have work to do. i'm gonna go do it. then i'll get out of here early, and go make my house perfect. or as perfect as it can be. or i'll make sangria and nobody will notice the house's imperfections. (no, jen, they're not coming for the house. they're coming because they want to play with shiny things. stfu+gbtw.)

perspective.

i am a giant snot. i spend most of my time on etsy looking at other people's stuff, and if it's remotely like mine, i get all catty and jealous. it hasn't escaped me that i do, artistically, what a LOT of other people do (hence the glut of jewelry artists on etsy). i'm constantly thinking of things to do to set myself apart from the pack, and i suck at the follow-through.

today i saw an etsy shop that stopped me in my tracks. foundling.etsy.com. go there if you haven't already; her stuff is amazing, and it's clear that she's having fun creating. she's carved herself a niche that i thought i was trying to carve myself. i need to work on my niche. moreover, i need to stop creating with the intent to sell... have more fun with my work and remember why i spend so much on beads. or, as JB says, stop measuring myself against other people.

all of that being said, i'm having a SHOW on saturday. i'm excited and stressed and nervous and i don't have enough snacks. but i'm having it because people ASKED me to have one. i feel so honored. i really do. and i've had people ask me to set aside stuff before then. it's going to be fun. and maybe i'll get inspired by my guests.

soapbox.

i shop a lot. a WHOLE lot. and i do realize that my penchant for rampant consumerism doesn't make me an expert. but holy crap, people - just because you have a store on ebay doesn't mean you can lie your pants off.

1. a search for "anthropologie" returns some anthro clothes, and a SHITLOAD of stuff from a seller who has some random clothing and "anthropologie lip balm" or a notecard or some such crap. that, to me, is disingenuous. you, sir, are a LIAHHHH. not to mention an assface.

2. a search for shoes returns a whole mess of lies. sellers who list their items with the "kitchen sink" approach (which, i'd like to point out, existed before hillary's campaign) do so with the aim of getting more hits. maybe that makes them shrewd businesspeople. or maybe that makes them assfaces. i do not want your "size 8.5 shoe boot pump peeptoe platform wedge," sir. i do not want them, because i don't know what the HELL they are, and you're a moron.

3. not everything is vintage. wait - let me amend. not everything is antique. if you're hell-bent on selling something and using the word "vintage" to describe it, at least use it correctly, i.e., vintage 1970s. just throwing out the v-word can mean anything, and 90% of the time you're using it to describe something that's 5 years old. and i'm sorry, "vintage 2003" just sounds lame. you assface.

as for antique, technically that's stuff that's at least 100 years old. get a fucking thesaurus. and a dictionary, while you're at it.

oh, and nObOdY's impressed by your inability to type, or your insistence on using the word "L@@K" to drag people in.

no, i'm not sure where i'm going with this. i just know those people suck, and i wish i could kick them with my shoes, which aren't heels-wedges-peeptoes, nor do they come with an anthropologie notecard.

ta.

chips, chips, chips... du du du du du...

i frikkin' love paolo conte. i'm listening to a mix i made, containing songs i probably shouldn't have spent money on. but right now, they're making me very happy. (currently: the buzzcocks.)

so i sent out an evite for my trunk show. now i just have to get my butt in gear and actually organize stuff. crappy part: jenny can't come. like a fool, i didn't check my calendar, and jenny'll be in texas for her mom's 60th birthday. poop. i mean, yay, mom, but poop on me for not checking to see if she'd be in town.

so. things to do before the trunk show: clean the house. make a stuffed form/display for my bracelets (rolling up a wad of fabric didn't work. maybe i'll try to make a bolster pillow, instead). while i'm at it, revamp or recreate my other displays. there are so many pretty displays out there, but i don't want my stuff to look like other people's stuff. there's so much competition out there in the handcrafted-jewelry world; i need to differentiate myself somehow.

ideas are appreciated. :)

oh, here's my latest and last piece, until i get my act in gear for the trunk show.

Job Wanted

Wanted:

Full-time editorial position, anywhere but in the publishing industry. A position in an association would be nice, as long as I don't have to feign interest if it's a crappy association. Within 20 miles of my house would be great; within walking distance of a Metro stop would be even better. Position must not start before 10 a.m., and liberal holidays and leave should be provided. Must provide excellent health-care benefits, 401(k) matching, paid time off, and free parking if the Metro stop part isn't available. Casual dress code, unless I feel like getting fancy. Coworkers must be more than bearable; whistlers and absentminded-tappers are unacceptable. Meeting attendance should be voluntary, and meetings should be held to a bare minimum. If management doesn't actually have a clue what's going on within the organization, no attempt should be made to fake it. Furthermore, policies should apply companywide if they are to apply at all - none of this "management can still fly first-class" bullshit.

Job duties should include substantive editing and copy editing; no managing whatsoever. In fact, if things could just be put on my desk and then retrieved, we can just call that workflow management and be done with it.

Other stipulations as they come to me.

welcome to newmoonpie!

i'm always bad at updating stuff like this. we'll see if it sticks.

welcome to newmoonpie! i'm jen, and i make pretty jewelry, based on the idea that the classics don't have to be relegated to the past. pearls with jeans and sneakers, i say.

please visit my website, www.newmoonpie.com, and my shop on etsy at newmoonpie.etsy.com. (incidentally, if you haven't been to etsy, you're missing out. it's like ebay, only everything's handmade and awesome, and there are way fewer prada knock-offs.)

the latest at newmoonpie is that i'm taking a hiatus from creating new stuff, for about a month. i did a show last saturday (etsyCREST's Savage Snowdrop, which was lovely), and after selling nothing, i realized that it doesn't make sense to keep buying supplies and making stuff just to fill my office at home with said stuff.

so.

i'm having a trunk show on 3/22, at my house in silver spring. if you're interested, i'd love for you to come out and see my latest creations. there'll be foods and drinks, and lots of fun stuff to try on. heck, there'll even be door prizes. why? because i can.

if you'd like to attend, please e-mail me at newmoonpie (at) gmail (dot) com.

if you can't attend, please feel free to visit my website - it's just launched, all soft-like, but there's a good bit of new stuff there that wasn't on the old site. holler if you have any questions!

thanks,
jen at newmoonpie