What's Happening With MNS?

Somehow I thought when the busy holiday season wrapped up that I would have some semblance of free time again...WRONG!

Not that I'm complaining though. Most of the stuff keeping this girl busy have been due to an amazing turn of events for Miss November Studio! You all know I have my full time job, lately I have had so much take home work I have forgotten what its like to relax. Right as the homework stopped my sales on Etsy skyrocketed!
 Last Friday was my day off and I spent the first half of my day running errands and purchasing supplies to fill all the orders. The second half of the day (noon to 9pm!) I was in the studio making umbrella necklaces. I had a few hours set aside to spend with Allison Cecil of Monkeys Always Look which I'm so glad for because it was so fun and really nice just to hang out, chat and play around with tools and metal together.

Once the diversion was over I was in super focus mode working on five orders that had rolled in overnight. Thankfully I had decided to make a few extra because one of them melted a bit when I tried to straighten the handle, then I decided to leave the handle on another slightly off kilter instead of risking another being melted. I can't sell it because its not up to standard (all those for a giveaway say "aye!")
I also ran out of 1.3mm chain and when I was purchasing supplies I grabbed chain that was too small to fit my jump rings through.  I sent DH on an errand Saturday while I was at work to purchase the correct chain but they were sold out! Did I panic? A little...but I had him buy the next size up which was too large and had to spend half an hour Saturday night squishing the round rings oblong so it would look more like the original chain. What a ridiculous ordeal! I finished them up Saturday night after leaving work at 4pm, dead tired, but still determined to get them all done on time. I decided I would finish sanding the patina from the chain at home after work Sunday. I had them all in the mail Monday afternoon.

I have to say, my usual local supplier of chain and wire is starting to not quite work out...when the cost of silver was lower he kept the most amazing assortment of chain and wire and was always fully stocked. Now that silver is spiking his supplies are pretty sad.  I found a website through Allison when she sent me a link to a piece of really expensive dream equipment that chops your metal in straight lines. Sunday night I found myself searching through this website and ogling the selection of chain...not as good a selection as my local supplier, but they had the chain I was using and its so much cheaper! I have no reason to run out of chain again,  I won't have to gripe about the cost and I can keep the price on my umbrella necklaces in the realm of inexpensive, although the next time I order silver sheet its going to be almost three times the cost of the metal I have in stock now. UGH!

I do have to make a quick, huge THANK YOU to Carol of In Pursuit of Pretty Things, I know at least one of the orders I received recently were directly due to her wearing and blogging about her MNS Umbrella Necklace in at least one blog weekly.

Oh, and did I mention my Elephant Balancing on Ball Necklace was on the FRONT PAGE OF ETSY for approximately 15 minutes? My page views exploded and the next day my Ray Gun Necklace was featured on the blog EtsyStalker! The day after that I was contacted by the blog Crafterholic for a feature about Miss November Studio to be pubished March 22! Yesterday I was contacted by the blog Bohemian Vintage because she had featured my Elephant Necklace in a collection of her animal related jewelry favorites on Etsy. We got to talking and in April she will be hosting a giveaway for one of my Umbrella Necklaces! So much blog love lately, and I'm in 3-5 treasuries per week...I feel pretty good about that!

All of this has kept me from creating new pieces in the studio so hopefully I can focus this week and get creating again. I don't want to keep making the same three pieces over and over again, I want to be diverse! We'll see what I come up with Thursday and Friday!

Some of last week's treasury love...looks like they're starting to embrace my turquoise background :)