Awareness pendant

I found a delightful chainmail pendant online, and I knew I just had to make it.
For some reason, I decided to try out stainless steel for some of the rings, too, to see what it is like to work with.

First off, I am NOT a fan of working with the stainless steel rings!  They do have a nice weight to them, and I love how they look, but these things are soooo much more difficult to work with. I have gotten very spoiled with my anodized aluminum, and I am rethinking my decision to foray into stainless steel. I may just use up the stock I have and then go back to just using aluminum.

Here is the pendant that I made, the silver colored rings being the stainless steel, and the pink is anodized aluminum. 

In the center, there, I attached a silver colored awareness ribbon with the word Hope inscribed. 

I like how it came out, but it is a little looser than I would like. I may play around with the ring sizes to see if I can get a tighter weave. If I'm able to figure out a good design I like, then I may expand to  make all sorts of different colors. It wouldn't be too hard, as the hope ribbon would be the same every time.

Browsing Kickstarter campaigns

Lately, I have found myself browsing through the Kickstarter website, looking at all the various campaigns that people are trying to get funded. I have, to my bank account's chagrin, even backed several of them.

It's just sad that so many people just throw up a paragraph of info and a random picture, and then expect all these people from who knows where to jump in and give them money. It seems to be more and more often that I see these, too.
Launching a Kickstarter campaign is a lot of work. There is a lot of research, planning, research, pre-work, and oh yeah... research... that goes into a campaign. And this is all before even launching on Kickstarter. Sometimes I will see a campaign that I am really interested in and there is just no information, I will actually request it.

I came across a campaign that had just a paragraph, with vague information, and I was interested in the reward item. I sent a message asking for more info and suggesting that if they expand to add pictures and more details, they may attract more backers.
I was thanked for the recommendation, and there was additional information added, but not much. Certainly not enough for me to back the campaign. I was considering backing at their highest reward tier, too.

For me, the biggest thing a campaign needs to have, is pictures! Just a paragraph of text doesn't show me what you are offering. Not just that, but (and I cannot stress this enough) have pictures of your rewards! I want to actually see what I am pledging for before I do so.
On the other hand, don't have a ton of pictures of items that you have made in the past, but are not even offering in this campaign. I have run into this, as well, where I find something that I would love to have, only to find that it isn't even offered.

Have you guys ever browsed through Kickstarter campaigns?
What seems to draw you in or push you away the most?

New car!

Up until recently, I drove a Smart Car. I loved that car a lot, but when it came time for craft fairs, it was not very helpful at all.

So, since have been doing craft fairs, I decided to go ahead and buy myself a new vehicle. I bought myself an SUV! I love it, and I have been able to fit ALL my craft fair booth stuff inside easily.

Not a very crafty post, I know, but I love my new car!

I'm also going to be going on a week-long trip out of town, so rather than lugging the chainmail stuff on an airplane, I am going to take a stitchy project to work on, so I may actually have some progress to show on one of them, soon!
I will most likely take the Palace Garden. I think that it is actually starting to call to me!  I haven't heard the stitchy call in a while, it has been all chainmail lately!

Bracelet display stand

I like to look at craft fair booth setups that other people post online. I believe it helps me to improve my own, and I am able to take ideas from here and there to incorporate into my own setup.
I'm pretty sure that everyone does this (if not, they should). I even started up a page on Pinterest for me to save some booths that I like.

I came across a bracelet display stand that I just loved, and I wanted to find some just like it for my own booth. They added a little height to the display, and they look a LOT more professional than I had previously been doing things.

Of course, wood displays are not cheap. I did my research (have you figured out that I like to research a lot before buying things?), and I was able to find some for a pretty good price through Amazon.
Because it's me, and I don't like spending money if I don't have to, I researched some more, and found some of the same displays for even cheaper on another website. It wasn't a site that I had ever used or heard of, but I decided to give it a chance.

I have to say that I am extremely happy with my new displays. They were inexpensive, and they look just amazing!

My new tent!

Oh my goodness! I can't believe that I haven't posted about my new tent, yet!
My Kickstarter last year was in an effort to be able to afford a nice outdoor tent to allow me to be able to go to outdoor craft fairs.
The Kickstarter was a success, and I did purchase my tent! I have even gotten to use it a couple times, however I don't have a picture of me using it, unfortunately.

I went ahead and purchased a higher quality tent than just the cheap kind found a Wal-Mart.
I did my research and found one that I fell in love with, even though it was kindof expensive.
When I went to purchase it, I found it much cheaper than I was expecting, so I was able to save some money and use it towards weights.

Here is a picture of the tent that I got:

I love it! I do want to get a better rolling case for it, though, as it is practically impossible to put back into the case it came from unless I take everything apart. Anyone have suggestions?
 

Make 100

In an effort to ensure that I keep putting out posts, I have already typed up a few, and just set them on a staggered release schedule (so I don't forget). This is the first of the scheduled updates.

I have been looking at the Kickstarter website a lot, just browsing through campaigns and projects to see what is out there.
The past couple years, in January, they have had an initiative towards making things in editions of 100. For example, making 100 of one particular item for your campaign. I have been tempted to translate this toward my crafting.

Up until now, I have been just making things randomly. Of course, things ordered take priority, then for a while I was busy making one of every color for some of my bracelets, to have pictures for my Etsy listings. But other than that, I usually just make whatever strikes my fancy at the moment.
This can pose problems. I order my rings based on what projects that I am wanting to take on at the moment, and then have to wait for them to come in. By the time the rings get here, the drive and excitements have usually waned, and I end up with rings that just sit around since I only ordered those particular ones for that particular project.
But, I can try incorporating the Make 100 initiative of Kickstarter, and use it to make 100 of one of my chainmail items. I don't want to do a campaign, I'm just using it to guide my crafty mojo, when I need to figure out what to make.

Now that I have decided a direction to spark my crafty mojo, here comes the hard part of figuring out what to make 100 of.
I already have lots of bracelets, so I'm wanting to make something else. As crazy as it sounds, I am leaning toward one of my larger items, and thinking of making 100 dice bags.
Any feedback? Is there something you guys think I should make, instead?

Picking back up

I know I haven't posted in forever. I have actually been meaning to for quite some time, but then life gets in the way! Here is a brief rundown of everything since my last post.

After my last post about broken pictures, my husband and I took a 2 week trip to Australia and New Zealand. It was an amazing trip, and I would love to go back some day!
A few weeks after we got back, I started having stomach issues (like I had had previously, only worse) that sent me to the ER. I got a CT scan, and then was admitted to have my gallbladder removed immediately. Apparently it was 4x the size of normal, and had started to die off inside.
At that same time, I started a new position at work. It's more of an escalated group, but not quite a promotion.
Now that things have smoothed out, I have been wanting to put up a post, but there is so much that I have made and wanted to talk about, that I just didn't know where to start. So, I just decided to go with what I have some pictures on, and figure it out from there.

Here is some of the chainmail that I have been making (you know, that I have pictures of).