Monday Technology Quirks - Very Frustrating!

So it's Monday. Not a holiday for me, I have to be at work. Not sure what I will accomplish. Banks are closed, no mail, half of our job sites are closed down for the holiday, yet here I sit.

I had a brainstorm to create and upload a page to the sub-domain I created last week on our home site. Not being much with raw html code, I thought I did pretty good for a simple and basic page. Even did the background color, text color, etc. Ok, next step is to ftp it to the server. No problem. I even remembered my ftp username and password!! Wow, that's an accomplishment for me, since I have so many different logins and passwords for the many sites, programs, and other access points that I use. I've been meaning to create a wallet of all my logins so that I have them. Never fails, I try to login to one of my suppliers and I can't remember my login, then have to remember which email address I used to register so they can send me my login. Ok, I digress.

I was happy to see that the page I had just coded loaded and displayed as best as I can expect, considering I didn't do anything fancy, with the exception of adding my etsy mini. Now, when I signed up with the hosting server, I was given $75 in free google adwords. I figured I might as well use them, so I proceeded to login to my account (yep, remembered the login, this time!). Lo and behold, the server is DOWN! I managed to access the support page, of course THAT isn't down. It appears that their main server had a nervous breakdown and they are "working" on getting things up and running, but no word on how long it will take. Great! I get my site online, have it referring to my etsy site, and nobody will find it because I can't setup the adwords.

I am seriously considering moving my web to another host, but not sure which one is good. I like yahoo but it can be quite costly. But I guess you get what you pay for, huh?

If anyone has any suggestion for a web host, please, let me know! I am currently on powweb. I like it, there are a lot of features that make it easy for someone who hasn't kept up with her html coding that was learned many years ago, (Can't even do CSS, XHTML, or any of the other ones, just basic HTML), but what good is it if it's always down?

Oh, and if you want to check out the new page, it's at http://rukar.karuss.com/

Happy Monday!

NOT!!!!!

Found A New Bead Store!

Today I was introduced to a new bead store. I was on a quest with my son's girlfriend to find a bead so we could fix her bracelet. She has a Lia Sophia bracelet, a 3-strand beaded bracelet with black beads, gunmetal ball end eye pins and gunmetal clasp. The bead we needed was a 10mm faceted Czech bead. None of my usual places carried this bead in 10mm. Plenty of 8mm and 12mm, but no 10mm. After making stops at 3 places, she mentioned that there was a bead shop near her house which is a few towns over. Since we were near there, we decided to check it out. Voila!!! We no sooner walked in the door than her sharp eyes spotted the beads in a drawer of a display unit. My eyes were still adjusting to the change in the lighting, but I could see it would do the job. It was a Swarovski, and the bracelet was made with Czech, but the only difference we could see was the price. I'm sure a Czech glass bead would have cost less, but having none to be found, this was our best choice. The new bead is the one at the top center, next to one of the originals. (You can see that it is unattached to the rest.)

The next leg of my quest was locating the gunmetal findings, which we didn't see at any of our previous stops, and the bead shop only carried a few findings, earring and necklace components.

So, when we got back home, I fired up my laptop, made a pot of coffee (3rd one today and it was only 2:30pm), and proceeded to check out all my online sources. Very few of them carry the gunmetal head/eye pins and/or the wire, but the hard part was finding the ball end headpin. After searching through all the jewelry supply sites that I could find, I remembered that there were a few stores on etsy that had supplies. After flipping through a few pages of my search results, I finally found a source for my headpins. The picture was very clear, and the color was right on to what we needed. So I ordered, paid and already got my response from the seller that they will be mailed out on Monday. Being that Monday is a holiday, I anticipate not getting them until Friday, which will be perfect since I don't get much bead work done during the week.

All in all it was a good day. I had an enjoyable afternoon with my son's girlfriend as we had our fun in the craft stores, discovered a new bead store that I intended to get back to on occasion, and I found everything I will need to put her bracelet back together. Oh, and yes, I did buy more beads at the new bead store. Watch for the new items in my shop in the next few weeks.

New Jewelry Listings Today

The mistress has been busy. She made four new jewelry creations last night, but managed to find time to spend with me of course!

Her new items are necklace and earring sets, bracelet and earring sets, and a Swarovski crystal bracelet that I think would look "mahvelous" on ME for a collar! I suggested that, but she just chuckled. Oh well, can't fault me for trying!

Check them out:

This is the Swarovski crystal bracelet.

Don't you think it should be on my neck?

I do.

This is the amber and glass bead necklace and earring set.

Too big for me but I'll bet it would make a nice harness for the big dog that lives behind us. This beauty is 29" long!

Now this is a real beauty! What lady wouldn't like this for an special evening out, like Anniversary dinner, or New Years Eve.

This one is 18" long.

This is the ruby red and black bead bracelet/earring set.

If I lose weight, this bracelet would probably fit me.

naaaa, I like to eat too much!

You can see these and others at her Etsy shop. Just click the link on the side bar or go to http://designsbyrukar.etsy.com/

Mystery Stones

Ok, I'm on flickr now, mainly to store pictures for etsy so if I have them ready but don't list, I can always get them and do it at work when I'm bored LOL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rukar/

Right now it's just pics of some stones that I was asking others on etsy to help identify. They told me they are carnelian, a type of agate. All I know is they were part of a necklace that my mom had. She got it from a lady she used to work with who got it when she was in Africa, sometime around the early to mid 80's My niece broke it when she was about 2 (she's 17 now), so I know the stones are at least 20 years old or more. She had it when my son was small and he is 27 now.

Carnelian is supposed to have powers, healing, stuff like that. I asked my friend Laurie what she thinks of them, she knows a lot about spiritual things.

I don't know what to do with them. They're too heavy for earrings or a bracelet, and I dont have enough to make a necklace with them. I don't know if I should try to sell them or what. I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Our First Sale!

We did it! We made our first sale in our Etsy shop. It was the turquoise earrings, which we called "Mysterious Sparkle Earrings". It is very exciting to make a sale, and also very encouraging.

Last night mistress and master went to their favorite craft supply store and pretty much depleted the gift cards that the mistress received for her birthday. Watch for some new sparkly and "pearly" creations in the near future. They also bought more storage containers, which were needed DESPERATELY! Unfortunately, I cannot open them as easily as I could the other boxes, so that means the only way I get to play with beads is if they are open or there are some out on the bead boards. Altho mistress seems to be wise to me now!

below: Catscan


p.s. How do you like this font? Does it make my ears look big? ;)