G'Day from Sydney!

I'm in Sydney now - the land of my youth! I've done a lot since I got to Australia (including spend a few days in Canberra and Melbourne) but I haven't had much time for crafts here! I did, however, find the bag of jewelry I made to sell. Now I just have to go through it and figure out what is sellable!

Although I've done very little knitting (except for a tiny bit on the plane on the way over), I have two quick things to recount:

1) Alpacas are OUTTA CONTROL! Or at least that's what Sam found when one tried to bite his hand on a farm outside Melbourne (I have photos which I will put up soon, but I don't have time to upload them just yet). They are also pretty cute! (And, um, their wool is really soft. Yeah.)

2) In Canberra, on the way to Sydney, they forced me to either check or chuck my plastic knitting needles, even though THE SAME AIRLINE LET ME BRING THEM ON THE WAY THERE! Needless to say, I chose the former. Needless to say, this made me MAD! Grr!

Ah well. That is all for now. Lata!

I must admit, I'm going a little blog crazy

But I made this one (and it's twin!) for myself, so I couldn't resist the urge to put it up here.

The Case of the Missing Pictures

I found them! It seems that I am running out of memory on my memory card and that when I erase pictures, new ones take their places, literally. I'm used to seeing them at the end of the rows of pictures that I upload onto my computer, but I found these sneaky ones throughout. I found that picture of the red, white, and black necklace, and this blue one which I must say I am really pleased with.

More on this Naming Business

This has been on my mind so much that I am *gasp* blogging during my lunch break!

It occurred to me that I might someday want to have an internet domain. And suprise, suprise, adinadesigns.com already exists. All weekend I thought about this. Should I sign up with another name before it's too late? Before I *gasp* list something??

stripedfrog.com already exists, too. And Striped Frog Designs really sounds like it would be a website about striped frogs. (For some reason, way more than Striped Frog does.) I needed a new name. Something very me. Creative and a little bit funky.

Then it hit me! Last year for Valentines Day, Sam made me a mixed tape and called it "Funky Cold Adina." (A play on Funky Cold Medina). That is also the perfect name for my new business! Very funky and very me! :-)

What's in a Name

I'm almost ready to start selling my stuff (it'll probably be a month or six weeks) and I've been toying with name ideas for my business for a while. The last time I sold anything I made, I was sixteen, and sold my jewelry at market in Australia under a hand beaded sign that read "Beaded Bijoux." Other then the fact that I wouldn't have to make another sign (ha!), I wanted to think of something else for this time around because (a) although I'm mostly selling beaded things, I have a couple of things I've knit specifically to sell. I already have a crafts blog with the word "knit" in it, where knitting isn't always the only or even the primary thing I write about, and I want to give myself room to grow/change (if this ever amounts to anything!) and (b) Apart from what would meet a college language requirement, I don't actually speak French. In a world where crafts are often sold on the internet, I don't want to be misleading.

That meant I had to come up with a brand new name. I definitely want to start an etsy site, and I might even some day (gasp!) have my own website! The obvious choice was stripedfrog. That name just started out as a hotmail account when I was fifteen (that I still use) because I liked frogs and all of the other frogs (spottedfrog, polkadottedfrog, etc.) were taken. For some reason, that name has always gotten a lot of attention. People always ask me about my email address at random times. I just wish there was a more meaningful story behind it!

And then I could go with the more narcissistic option - "Adina Designs." It sounds professional, which is kind of what I'm going for. Plus, being of Eastern European Jewish origin, it is unlikely that I will name a child after myself (that's considered bad luck) so this business might be my only chance. (I mean, maybe I could name a pet after myself, but I think that would get a little confusing. It would also be very weird. "This is my dog, Adina, Jr. And this is my cat, Adina the Third.") Then there is the alliteration of the D. It sounds kind of cool to me.

I was going to ask around and get some opinions on this matter. But last yesterday, I was surfing etsy.com (as I often do) and came across this awesome painting by Hillarie Tasche. After going back and forth to it all day, I finally caved in and ordered it. But in order to do that, I had to get an etsy account, and in order to do that, I had to have a name! And etsy warns to choose one's name carefully because it can never be changed. What ever was I to do??

I thought about it for about thirty seconds and went with the narcissism. Adina Designs it is! (Well, will be, anyway. Once I get it all up and running...)

some entertainment

from ihasahotdog.com

This one took a while to make - the cylinders always take longer than I think they will. I really like it, though.

My camera is doing weird things. It takes pictures fine, but it won't save new ones to my computer. (It will, however, save old ones. And it's not a memory thing, because I keep erasing different ones, but the same ones will save.) This picture from my phone will have to do.

Obsession

I think my brain is wired to love beads. These last few weeks, I've been completely obsessed. I bought a lot of beads and supplies, and I can't say I regret it at all. My friend, Maria, at work suggested that I host a tupperware-like party at my apartment to sell things, which was extremely encouraging for me. I just have to wait until I go home to Australia in three weeks so I can get my old stuff from my mom's house! Seed beading really takes a long time, and I don't have enough of a collection for that right now...but I'm beading as fast as I can! Most of what I've been making is to sell (some time in the near future)...unless, that is, I get separation issues. Here are the objects of my life from the past few weeks (well, the ones I've actually finished anyway):
On Thursday night, I made two rings for myself:
I liked them a lot... so I made five more.
That lovely blue background to these photos is my futon. Photography is not my forte. I ain't no photographer. It's frusterating, because it's really hard for me to get the details, especially with the sparkly beads. If anyone has any tips on how to better photograph these pieces, I'm all ears!