A Change in Pattern

After a few years of selling patterns for my peyote designs on Etsy, I've finally decided to change my pricing policy to what it seems that the majority of pattern sellers do:  THE 3 FOR 2 PROGRAM.

So after a morning of editing, all 60 of the peyote patterns I currently offer in my Etsy shop are now available under the new pricing structure.

This change doesn't affect the pricing of the patterns offered here on my blog (there's a tab at the top of the page that will take you to the patterns), where the prices are already lower (and where the patterns are available for immediate download).

Wonder what else I can do today that's productive.

Oh yeah.

We have a house to build!

The next "pattern" I'll be working on is laying out the cultured stone for the fireplace.  I have 270 square feet of wall to cover, and about a ton of stone to move.  Beads are much lighter.  :-)

Building a House Takes a Lot of Time

Don't let anyone fool you. It takes a TON of time, especially when you're doing a lot of it yourself. It's lots of fun, at least for us, but it's also a mad scramble at times to ensure that we're getting everything done when it needs to be done.

My husband's back has held up quite well during the process (he has major back issues), and even though we'd have liked to do some of the siding ourselves we hired some awesome carpenters who are working so well and so quickly that we're just going to have them do it all. I must say I'm relieved that we came to that decision. It would take us four times as long to do what they're doing, and we'd both be worn out. My job has been to paint all of the siding before it goes onto the house (we're putting a second coat of paint on after it's up), and it was all I could do sometimes to stay ahead of them. The problem wasn't so much with my getting tired of painting, but because the siding is so large and awkward I was limited in where I could put the pieces to dry. At this point I think I have enough for them to finish.

We've also picked out almost all the plumbing fixtures (the plumber has been doing all the rough-in work) and most of the lighting fixtures. It seems weird to be picking out tile for the bathrooms at this point, when we don't have any real walls (just framing) yet; but we have to have the shower figured out for the master bathroom so the plumber can do his thing. That means a trip to the tile store. We settled on cypress for the decking material, thanks to the boring bees we have around here. Boring bees are called that not because they're uninteresting but because they bore into wood. Apparently they don't like cypress, so we're going with that to ward them off.


Even with all this activity going on at the house, I've been beading whenever I can. I try to have beads strung all the time so I can crochet in the vehicle when we're driving around, and when we're at home I'm usually camped out in my chair with beads in front of me.

I managed to finish off another set of bracelets for The Laughing Dog Gallery in Vero Beach, Florida. It was fun to pull out some of my designs and bead them up in new colorways, and I'm anxious to see how well they do in the gallery.


Just as exciting as having all these cuffs in a gallery is that two projects I created are included in the newest Interweave Press eMag, Fabulous Peyote Stitch Jewelry with Crystal Accents!


The projects I created for the eMag were this crystal-edged peyote bracelet:


and these little peyote bails made to hold a crystal square:


And now I'm off! It's time to head to the tile store to try to make a decision about the tile for the master bathroom shower. There are soooooooo many choices that it's going to take awhile to finally settle on something we both like. Maybe I'll do a little browsing in magazines before we go so I have some ideas...

:-)

Button, button - Who's got the button?

Now where's that from? Button, button - who's got the button? I can't remember. It's something I've heard for years and years, but I'm not sure where it originated.

Anyway, about buttons.

I have them. Thousands of them. I haven't counted, but I'm sure there are thousands of them. They're in a big box, and within that big box are numerous containers with "sorted" buttons. Even though I have thousands of them, I still can't resist looking at new ones when I visit stores that sell buttons. I try to resist buying, but sometimes I swear they just jump into my cart.

Several months ago, as I was going through all my vintage buttons, I came up with an idea for a simple bracelet. It's an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) with a loop at one end (the herringbone is carried right into the loop) and a button at the other. So I made a BUNCH of them and left them at the Art on Depot Studio and Gallery, in Waynesville, NC. They were pretty popular, so I've been working on some new ones.

Aren't these fun?


I'm going to make some more and list them in my Etsy shop. For now, the black and white Checkerboard one you see in the photo is the only one I have listed; but I'm planning to remedy that soon.

Ready for a GIVEAWAY???

It's been awhile since I've done any kind of giveaway on my blog, so I thought this might be a good time for one.

What do you win? A button bracelet in your choice of bead colors (I'll choose a suitable button from my collection). THREE people will win. Because I have LOTS of buttons. :-)

How do you enter? To enter the drawing for a Button It bracelet, you can do one ore more of the following. Please note that all comments must be left on my blog (not on my Facebook page(s), even though you'll see this post appear there). And you must leave a separate comment for each in order to receive more than one entry into the drawing. If you do all of these, you'll leave FOUR separate comments and have four chances to win!

1 - Leave a comment here telling me your favorite button project. Or, if you're not a "button" person, tell me about your favorite supply and how you've used it.
2 - Blog about this giveaway and post a comment here with a link to your blog post.
3 - Link to this post on Facebook and leave a comment here to let me know you posted.
4 - Tweet (Twitter) about this giveaway and leave a comment here. Make sure you include @time2cre8 in your tweet.

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you (email, or a link to your Etsy or Artfire shop name). If I don't see a way to contact you, your comment will be deleted and you won't be entered into the drawing. :-(

When will the winners be chosen? All entries/comments must be made by midnight on Friday, April 8. I'll use a random number generator to select the winners on Saturday morning and will announce the winner on this blog later in the day.