Been slacking!

I will admit that I have been slacking when it comes to my Etsy shops. I've been managing to pop in once and again to renew a listing, but even though I have a variety of vintage items at home waiting to be photographed, and a ton of yarns that just need to be washed and listed, it's been tough to find the time to get around to it. The new fitness regimen that I'm on has definitely been taking up a lot of my time, as well as assisting the husband with his new website. Learning PHP, SQL, CSS, and a variety of other three letter acronyms is quite time consuming!

This weekend, I managed to give a couple of the yarns a bath - one handspun and one recycled yarn that I re-plied - so I will definitely have to photograph them as soon as they're done drying. I renamed my yarn section in my shop Knitnats, which I think will be my yarn moniker.On the vintage side, I photographed some depression glass, this pretty pressed glass vase, and a gorgeous George Buckett lithograph ready for listing. I've actually had a hard time deciding if I want to keep the litho for my own kids...but I don't have any yet so I'm going to see if it sells first! I think it would be a pretty addition to any nursery.

It's good to feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things. After all, I wouldn't want my shops and my blog to feel neglected.

Confessions of an earring addict

I've really come to terms over the last few years with the fact that earrings really are my jewelry of choice. I enjoy necklaces but invariably strangle myself at some point during the day, which takes away from the whole appeal. I do wear the occasional bracelet but they're not an every day thing for me - not the most comfortable accessory while I'm clacking away on the keyboard at work - so I tend to reserve them for evenings out and weddings. Ever since getting married, I've also neglected most of the rings I own in favor of proudly displaying my wedding and engagement bands. The beauty of earrings are that they can be anything from ridiculously wild and playful to demure and understated...and once they're in your ears you can forget about them but know that they are keeping you well adorned in the simplest of ways.

I recently signed up for an earring swap on Craftster, seeing as my earring collection needed a little rejuvenation. Over the last year, I managed to lose one of each of the earrings from two of my favorite pairs. This was definitely a good time to replenish with some new favorites and maybe take the opportunity to dig around in my box of beads and findings for some new inspiration.

I'm still waiting on the rest of the earrings from my swap partners but I was really happy to get back into the swing of things with this pair made from shells and wooden beads. I made some for one of my partners but loved them so much I wanted a pair for myself.

I also took this opportunity to bust out my wigjig and make some swirly wire bits. I'm still using the wire that came with it, which I'm finding to be very easy to bend but entirely too fragile for my liking. However, I was still very happy with my first attempt and have offered them up for another swap on Craftster. I'm going to have to pick up some heavier wire at the store and go to down with squiggly earring designs! The possibilities really are endless so what kind of designs would you like to see?

I was hacked

I woke up this morning to find out that the Organic Stills e-mail account had been hacked and somebody had sent an e-mail to everybody on my contact list asking for money. Thankfully, most people are pretty familiar with this type of cheap tactic that scammers are currently using and don't actually send money their way.

So, here's how it worked for me. At first I just couldn't log into my gmail account (which this blog is also attached to I should add). I went to hit the "reset password" button and was told that the link needed was sent to my yahoo account. The problem being that I don't have a yahoo account. Obviously when they hacked me, they had changed the alternate address provided. I had to fill out the Google form giving them all the information I could possible think of to verify that it's me. An hour later, Google sends me an e-mail telling me that they've looked into it and verify that I can now go back in and reset my settings, which I do. I find myself looking at the e-mails they sent in my sent mail folder, as well as the alternate e-mail address they registered so that I couldn't reset my password. I'm currently looking into notifying the appropriate authorities with all of this information.

My biggest concern of course was the impression that would be left upon the various people on my contacts list receiving an e-mail like that from me. I can only hope they are understanding. I've updated my security settings on every account I can think of right now and I am considering myself incredibly fortunate that they only had access to my account for a very short period of time and there appears to have been no intent other than trying the trust of my clients, friends and family members. I will of course be closely monitoring the situation until I can consider myself to be all clear.

I'd totally forgotten about this!

A while back, a certain Vickie Howell (who has hand-held me through much of the process of learning to knit courtesy of Knitty Gritty) was looking for crafters to send her information on themselves and their craft for a new project she was working on. I very randomly thought it sounded like fun and sent along my bio with a little picture of myself. Time went by and I somewhat forgot I'd even submitted my info...until this morning. I went to check out Vickie's new site - Craft Corps - and found someone very familiar staring back at me!Check out the comments of the post below this one and you'll see a little comment from Vickie letting me know that I am being featured. I'm truly excited and honored given that the site only just launched. Anyway, if you haven't already, I encourage you to send your info in to the site so that your story can also be told!