Awww baby Jesus…

You missed me! I know, I know. I missed my friggin’ self. I managed to pack an entire house of tons o’crap, with virtually no help, to move in with my ex-Mother in Law. Yeah, for reealz. Luckily, my new attitude and spirit of cooperation has managed to make this a growing experience. And my son is over the moon. P.S. divorce pending. Anyone got 60 bucks I can borrow? God almighty. Plus Christmas too. My son told me today that I never hang out with him because I am always working on my jewelry. I looked at him like he had grown a 2nd head and shook my head in disbelief. Me: Boy, are you crazy? I haven’t done any jewelry in months, so I have no idea what planet you live on”. Ahhh….to make pretties..it would be so f’in rad right now, but no, I have to listen to my first ex cry because my son would rather hang out with me then him and his slut girlfriend (sorry, she is). Got kicked out of my friends 40th birthday party at a bar (Bubba’s to be exact) because I actually expect customer service. Ohhh no, how horrible. Only like 20 of my highschool friends where there that I DIDN’T get to hang out with because of her crotchety attitude. Did I mention that I hadn’t been out in oh, say, 10 years. Not really, but close.

So on the jewelry front, something BIG has got to change. I LOVE my creations. The Merchany Co. is doing I don’t know what to me. All I know is I made 6 buckaroos in 1 month. They keep moving my stuff and it’s just not working. Changed me from contract seller to consignment. I mean, what the hell, I need to get this show on the road, quick!! I WILL succeed in this whether Idie tryin’. I love it too much. So starting tomorrow project BODY DECOR expands, and that means wholesale baby. Wish me luck and I’ll be back soon. Love you guys!!

Birdie from one of my new line bracelets.

Oh yeah guys!! I am only having the best deals ever on my site. I might as well just drive down the freeway and throw my jewelry to the hitchhikers or whatever. The deal is, and LISTEN UP!!! 1. ENTER CODE: NEWLINESALE at checkout for 15% off 2. All purchases come with freee pinup girl necklace of your choice of style and length 3. FREE SHIPPING!!

It is all at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BODYDECORBYNICOLE?ref=si_shop

BODY DECOR NEW LINE IS HERE!!!! I will have everything up on ETSY shortly. If you see anything you like or would like a special order just let me know. SEE A PREVIEW.

 

I AM NOT ALONE

This blog was really suppose to be about my story and my experience with the healing effects of jewelry making. I want to tell my story this way in hopes of some sort of cleansing. The thing is, that the more research I do the more I’ve come to realize that I am not alone in this. So many woman write about how making jewelry literally saved their lives.

As a jeweler I receive newsletters from all sorts of people in the business. They send tips on things from how to display your jewelry (which is very important), to how to market your brand (important as well). So my in box fills up with all of these helpful newsletters, but really, who in the hell has time to read all of this stuff.?Most of it goes right to my junk box; most,except for one newsletter that caught my attention immediatly. I think I keep going back to it because the author, Rena Klingenberg, doen’t try to sell me anything and is whole-heartedly dedicated to the craft herself. Rena reaches out to her fellow crafters to form a community. The newsletter is called Home Business Jewelery Success Tips: And Friendly Jewelry Community. Why am I babbling on about this you ask? Let me tell you, As soon as I started googling the topic on the theraputic effects of jewelry making and design, article after article popped up attached to her site. A huge, knowing smile spread across my face as I took note. It was like my own personal joke. Rena fucking Klingenberg, of course, it made perfect sense. I had emailed her a message of appreciation previously and she was quick to respond. I feel as if she is a fellow traveler in this hobby/lifestyle of ours. Finding all these women with stories like mine, on HER site of all sites, was slightly cathartic. Who are these women? Where do they come from? How did they get here? Read for yourself.

Meet Danica Losich: A Young Woman Battles Years of Intense Depression and Anxiety Through the Art of Jewelry Making

Meet Karen Seng: A Comical Look at Today’s “Therapy“

Meet Divya N: An Indian Women with  Nero Limitations Finds Happiness

I will come back to my story next post, but I wanted to share this with anyone who may be having similar feelings. We are never alone and someone else has already lived our story. Maybe we can learn from them.

~CRE8ORDIE~

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“Hobbies are self-nurturing activities. In loving ourselves-that is, nuturing ourselves for the purpose of spiritual growth” ~THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, M. Scott Peck, M.D.

This story starts a couple a years back, when I met my soon to be ex-husband. It was the closest thing to love at first sight that I ever experienced. We met online and talked on the phone all day, every day. We seemed to have so much in common it was uncanny. When we finally did meet it was like we’d known eachother for years, literally. He was proclaiming his love by the end of the night (first red flag, stupid me). It’s alarmingly easy for quick relationships to happen online, because you find out so much about eachother prior to meeting that you think you’ve got it all figured out. I’m sure most of you know someone who’s played the game. I didn’t learn enough though. I sure as hell didn’t learn how much pain, confusion, loneliness, anger, guilt, suffering, and pure torture I would endure to be married and in love with an alcoholic. I didn’t even know what that the hell alcoholic meant. Weren’t all my friends alcoholics anyway? The answer was no, they were not, they were not the “leave a path of destruction everywhere you go” type of alcoholics. Well, maybe some where, but I didn’t marry them.

In the beginning of our relationship I didn’t do much crafting at all. I was way too busy doing nothing with my boyfriend to have time to make stuff. Geesh!! It wasn’t until I lost my job of 6  years, that the true co-dependant nature of our relationship started to chip at my sense of self. We, we, we, or him, him, him. That was all. My friend saw it from miles away and warned me over and over, but I was too stubborn, and too in love. I did however; feel the slightest twinge of what, heartburn maybe, gas? It was something, something that led to my initial and still beloved barretts. I made them like my life depended on it. I started with big, flowery, pin-up girl style , but then they became more and more elaborate. In my mind I had invented the concept of Victorian hair art. This absolutly obsessed me for days, and was able to take me away from “him”, into my own mind that was exploding with styles that would bring the fashion world to its’ knees.

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  Well hello my fellow bloggers. Geez, technology I tell ya, I love it and hate it. I was sitting here thinking to myself, “self, I’d really like to write a scathing analysis of how making jewelry keeps me sane”. Easy enough, right? Not so. Of course I need to share my twisted and slightly psychotic thoughts with the world, and maybe someone will be listening (or reading, whatever) and understanding how I feel. Hours later I’m still setting up my blog, totally forgetting what the heck had me so worked up in the first place. It’s almost 2am and I’m just not sure how much I have left in my brain. I am also aware that my blog layout is probably pretty lame, but that’s not why we’re here afterall, right? We’re here to connect, and I could care less if this is all a big cliché, double negative, run on, whatever, take it or leave it. Bitter much? Let me smoke a butt and decide what’s next.

As of late, my life has well, fallen apart. I am sure it will all work out, but my husband left me for the bottle. Sounds like a bad country western song, but it’s true. Last year I was writing my wedding blog, this year I have no idea where that guy I married is. This jewelery thing has stuck by me though. I started making jewelery at 14, on Grateful Dead Tour. My friend Eric taught me and I’ve been doing it on and off ever since. Lately more on, I’ve noticed. I think my designs are brilliant and just want to share them with the world. My poor Etsy site is lacking due to photography issues, but believe me, I have a buttload of pretties to unload. At 2 in the morning I look at my bed and see a sexy guy (not!), I see a bag of feathers, my lovely plier set (shiny), freshly made shrinky dinks, a halfway finished necklace, bottlecap settings, pin-up girls waiting to be affixed to something…I could go on like this forever, but if you are a crafter you know exactly what I mean. This is peace. I could make 10 very cool random things right now. That feeling is so empowering. It is the calm in my storm.

I received 2 orders this week from ETSY and that made me happy, but it’s the making of my creations that really calms me. Like most crafters, I’d be fine giving it all away, but at some point you have to say no and get serious about it, or that’s what they tell me anyway. Folks, this is really all I can do tonight, but thank you so much for listening. If you know how I feel let me know you’re out there, in space somewhere. Checking out for tonight. C

RE8ORDIE.

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