The choices the choices!

How can a person make up ones mind when the choices are pretty much limitless? (Excepting, of course, prongs and pavé...) What is my personal style? I'm not sure that I can identify my professional taste as different from my personal. Are they the same? I know that I very rarely make things that I wouldn't actually wear myself (but there have been a few....), but then again I don't make many things that I could make because they wouldn't be feasible to make all the time. There might be something that I could make once or twice, but that I wouldn't make on regular basis for one reason or another. When I start to think about something to make for my business, I generally have in mind a great many things that I wouldn't necessarily have to think about for my own ring (i.e. profit margin, time required, sale-ability etc.).

How do I free my creative mind of those requirements (except of course cost!) so that I can create something that will suit me? Something that I won't get tired of....(I do tend to get tired of jewelry quite quickly....but there are a few pieces that I've never stopped loving. Jade bangles and a pair of white and turquoise earrings I made a thousand years ago...that's about it.)

Until I can come up with something (or maybe several different somethings and take a survey?) I am wearing these (this style will be available in the shop this week under the name Today and Tomorrow rings, 950 palladium and diamonds):

Bean and Shop Monkey make it official

I love old cuts

There is just something so nice about a old European cut diamond. Too bad they are so hard to find!

I've been a bit preoccupied

(this exact post is also posted on my personal blog, sorry Bean and pug stalkers,

I'm still too busy to blog regularly. See below for details.)

I'm sorry folks. Most of August feels like Wedding D-day in the singleB studio. There are so many weddings happening over Labor Day that all I do is work (at least that is how it feels to me!) And there are always a few last minute rush projects for people going on vacation or visiting with family etc. and they NEED to have a ring by then. And as much as I love them, rush jobs make my life hell. I'll be honest. I'm not the most organized of people (truly). I just tend to rely on my giant brain (ha! Better keep popping those fish oil supplements!) to keep track of everything, instead of having a system in place to keep track of things for me (like what an organized person would do....I'm not even sure what that would look like. Sticky notes? File folders? Spread sheets?) It has worked so far.....I haven't missed any weddings.....yet. (Fingers crossed, knock on wood!)

But besides being the busiest business month out of the year for me, I also had my brother's wedding, a visit from my sister, and worst of all a move. The studio is still in the same spot, but the cute little apartment that the pugs and I inhabited was left behind for a cute little place that has room for me and the pugs and the Shop Monkey. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that I HATE moving with my whole soul. (Can I get a show of hands?) I swear, every time I move I think "I'm never buying a single trinket ever again. I'm done. I hate you Amazon!"

Now that the move is over (almost a week you say, from the 1st, which surely was the date your move finished?) you would think things are going to calm down. Sure. Except that a good friend of mine from my Navy days got married on the 4th, and that wedding was in Maryland. So the Shop Monkey and I packed our bags and traveled across the country for a lovely wedding (where I had waaaaay toooooooo muuuuuucccchhhhh to drink. A flash back to my Navy days as well?). And then when we arrived back in Portland (which, by the way is much better than any other place on the planet. Our tap water is the best in the country. This is true, google it), we had to repack the things we had just unpacked a few days before in order to move to the Shop Monkey's parent's house while our condo is torn apart in order to get rid of mold in the walls of the two bedrooms. Good Gravy! I actually RAN to work today in order to get away from the chaos that is my life at home. And now we* will be staying at the parentals for who knows how long. As much as I hope they like me now (hi Fanny!), I hope they will still like me after their house has been invaded by me and the pugs.

So, dear and gentle readers (including you, Nancy!), I will be back to regular (and by regular, I mean random) posting soon. Just as soon as I am not living out of a suitcase/plastic bag, perhaps.

*and by we, I mean me, the Shop Monkey, AND Gunter AND Dieter. Poor Shop Monkey parents.