Catching up!

Whew! What a month its been!!! Feels like the most "happening" month ever. I bet that's not true, but that's how it feels.

Lets see...I quit my previous job. I had wanted to that, and move my new company, for, hmmm....close to 3 years now! Its an interesting story how it all came about, but that's a long one, so lets skip it.

May 30th: Last day at my previous job. Bittersweet that. I terribly, terribly miss my friends.
May 31st: I went to visit my sister
June 3rd: Got back home
June 4th: First day at my new job
June 7th: Cousins visiting
June 15th: Parents visiting
June 20th: Parents back home
June 23rd: Close friend from India visiting
June 25th: Meeting another friend who moved to different city, and friend from India going back home
June 26th: Exhaustion setting in!

(I bet this sounds like cakewalk for folks with kids at home, but then I am a pampered one, with quite an easy life)

Here are a few things I did manage to make in between...

First, two custom orders I made for a repeat customer. 

Fire Agate Set

Purple Crystals

And these are earrings I took with me when I went to visit my sister. The firs two are for her nieces.

And these tornado beads are for my sister's daughter who graduated from 8th grade that weekend. Interestingly, the dress she wore for the graduation had all these colors in it! I loved making the tornado beads, so I am thinking I will make more of them and see how else I can use them...as a pendant, or a focal on a bracelet...we'll see!



I had to pack away my "studio" for all these visits, so have not been able to participate in a lot of challenges that I had planned on. It was definitely fun meeting up with everyone. So no complaints there.

But now its time to start planning and playing with my beads again!
Here's my to-do list:

1) Accounts: Oh, how I love to ignore the existence of this pesky task! As most of you know, I donate my profits to an organization in India, Project WHY. I do it via a partner they have over here. Trouble is, this US org sends them the funds only after a minimum dollar amount has been collected. So I decided to send my donations every 6 months, hoping that I have a substantial amount collected by then. So, I set myself a deadline for end of this month to finish off this task. Am almost there. Have a few more sales to put down and then I am done. Unfortunately, not a whole lot collected. I need to get my act together and work towards getting more sales. Folks from the Creative Bead Chat group have been kind enough to suggest a few things, so I need to get started with that next.

2) Blogging: I LOVE to write, but have not been able to do a lot of it. I will blame Facebook for it! It makes it so much easier to reach a lot more people, but it also takes away the essence of blogging. I think I will adopt a theme for each day of the week. At least it will take away the step of thinking about what to write about! Also, I am hoping to feature a child from Project WHY at least twice a month, so that the organization also gets some exposure through me.
I need to post about the upcoming Bead Soup Blog Party, and about the "Free Beads For Blogging" program. I have setup the button, need a write up about it. Oh man, now that I think about it, there is SO much more my poor blog needs!

3) Promoting my store: N.E.E.D to do it!

4) Catching up on challenges: I want to be more regular with the Art Jewelry Element challenges, and hope to make an entry on the Art Bead Scene Blog.

That's it for now. By the way, this is where I work now. Its part of Shutterfly.
I am loving it here!