The Joy Of Making Treasuries

I have finally started making treasuries and I think I'm hooked! There is such a rich and deep pool of artists on Etsy, it is mind-blowing. Gathering collections of these amazing artists is just sheer joy to me. Now that the new Treasury East has opened up, I am taking advantage of the fact that we don't have to wait for the number to go below something. It's open all the time and is unlimited. You can make as many treasuries as you want.

Here are some screen shots of a few I've made so far. You can click on the pictures below to go directly to the treasuries. Enjoy!

Sweet, Spicy, Smoky Chicken

I'm having my lunch of leftover chicken from last night and this is so good I thought it would be nice to share the recipe. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. You'll have to trust me when I say it looked as good as it tasted.

I call it a recipe but I didn't actually measure things for it, so just use your own taste judgment as to the amounts of the flavorings. Go easy on the Cinnamon - it is easily overpowering.

I used chicken thighs but you can use this on any part of the chicken you like.
Sprinkle the chicken liberally with:

• Sea Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper
• Smoked Paprika
  
• Cayenne Pepper
  
• Thyme
  
• Cinnamon

You can season the chicken in advance and put it back in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. The flavors permeate the meat even more that way.
Put the chicken pieces on a wire rack over a foil covered pan. Lots easier to cleanup later and it lets the grease drip off. I cut up some yellow and orange bell peppers into wedges, sprinkle them with olive oil, and a little sea salt and bake them right alongside the chicken.
Bake at 375° until the juices run clear and the chicken skin is crispy.

Bon appetit!

Hittin' The Books

How does having no sales in three weeks affect you? It motivates me to dig deeper, to find out if there is something I can do to improve my chances of getting my stuff noticed out here on the world wide web , then I am determined to find it and do it!

This week I have been reading and studying every bit of information I can about SEO - that wonderful term we all know and *love* - Search Engine Optimization. [Insert scary music here].
Reading and studying is one thing. Understanding and implementing is another!

I have been on Etsy just over a year now and I have attempted to read and understand SEO from the very beginning. I confess, it has taken me this long to just begin to get a slight handle on it. Often I find an article that looks promising and as soon as I get 2-3 paragraphs into it, I realize I haven't heard a word I've read and instead I'm thinking about the dishes I need to wash or the garden I need to weed.

Here's what I've learned so far about SEO, in a tiny nutshell. When you give an item in your Etsy shop a title, make sure that title contains the most important keywords for Google to find. For example: I make lots of necklaces with skeleton keys so the most important search keyword would be "skeleton key". I need to be sure to include that in my title. Then I also need to be sure the first part of my description repeats the same keywords, and also I need to repeat them in my materials and in my tags. I can't explain why, but I know repeating those keywords is important - it makes them stronger. Stronger is good. It means chances of your item being found in Google searches is better.

So I will be spending the next however long it takes, working on all my listings.
Here's to hard work paying off in sales!!

Just a Few of my Latest Pieces

I do have a thing for keys! They are so beautiful. They are intriguing. Where have they been? What have they locked? What have they unlocked? What secrets do they hold? What kind of lives did they exist within? I let my imagination run wild with the keys. I hope you will too!


Darkheart


Seeing Eye


Dolce


Bejeweled


Bates Motel

Oooh Treasures From The Ruins!!

Hi one and all! I hope the month of April is bringing nicer weather to some of you at least. We had temps in the 80's last week and now we're back down in the 30's. Very typical northern Illinois in April.
Well, I was very fortunate to be able to go antiquing with hubby a couple of weeks ago. I found some very nice little treasures at one of my favorite antique shops in Wisconsin. I try to get there every few weeks. They always have something tiny and wonderful for me! This visit was especially rewarding. Here's a couple of pictures of what I got.

The pink box is a doll's trunk. I just HAD to have that!! The little gold box with the designs is a slide-open box just the right size for pills in my purse. That large key is a motel key to room 416 - two of my favorite numbers 4 and 16!!



I put the other treasures inside the doll's trunk. There's three antique watchworks, a couple of wonderful skeleton keys, a green glass charm, a gold octagon locket, a very nice bug that is already on a necklace in the shop, a sterling silver chain with beautiful deep purple gem in a heart shape, and last but not least, a sterling silver rhinestone studded moth pin!



I think my best find of all of these is this snapshot. I could say something about it, but I think it doesn't need any help from me. Enjoy!

My Empty Head

I haven't posted in awhile. Oh I've managed to put up some pictures here and there. I always like pictures when I read so I try to include pictures here.

I haven't written lately because I have not had anything interesting to say. Do you ever have times like that? I think we all do. I want to keep up my blog so I feel bad when I just don't have anything to write about. I don't think my rambling would be of interest so I usually just don't write anything at all.

I've thought about writing some tips on picture-taking. Like there aren't already enough tips out there. I wouldn't be writing anything new. It would just be the knowledge that I have accumulated in my own head. But maybe it would be of use to someone.

I could write about the weather.

It's spring.

Well that was short.

I could write about sales being slow. But I really can't stand whining.

I have a lovely picture on my desktop of a very old abandoned house. It is a very old picture of a very old house. That is something that thrills me. I would love to go inside that house. But fear would keep me out. I'd be afraid of the floors collapsing under my feet, or the roof caving in on top of me. I'd also be afraid of trespassing. But I would love to just see what it's like inside. Thankfully there are others who are not afraid to go inside of these places. They actually take their cameras inside abandoned houses, hospitals, asylums and prisons. There are websites full of their incredible pictures. So I do get to go inside, through their pictures. I have them listed under my Very Cool Sites list, here on the blog.

I've tried to figure out what is behind the fascination of these abandoned places. Is it the beauty of the architecture when everything was made by hand? That is certainly part of it. If you look at things that were made a hundred years ago, even the tools were ornate. Everything was made with beauty in mind. That was before the giant factories and the assembly lines. Those things were made to last, so we are fortunate that we have an abundance of antiques still with us.

The beauty of these places is what draws me in. But then I want to know their stories. What were the lives that were lived in these places? Sometimes we know their history. There are also websites that have some of those stories. I have one in particular that is very fascinating, called Willard Suitcase Exhibit. You can find it on my list of Some Very Cool Sites. They found an attic in an abandoned asylum, full of suitcases with some of the personal belongings of the former inhabitants. It is the most fascinating site I have ever seen. It is haunting and sad but their stories are finally being told. I highly recommend it, especially if you are looking for a dose of darkness.

Well I guess that's about it for today. If I get inspired later I will write more. Time to get to my domestic duties. I wish you all a wonderful day!!

Pals

Alfie (dog) and Wolfie (cat) sunbathing together.

First Day Of Spring?

Yep. It really is the first day of spring. It's 30° Fahrenheit and it's been snowing since last night and all day today and is still coming down. I took this picture this morning. It's ok with me. It covers up all the yard work we will need to do once true spring arrives, sometime in April or May.

Learning New Skills

Hello dear readers and fellow bloggers!!

I've been learning a new skill, making chainmaille jewelry. Oh boy, it is challenging! But the rewards are so nice and somehow almost addictively satisfying. I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe the puzzle-solving that is involved in order to figure out how to put these things together. Maybe just that the results are so beautiful. Whatever it is, I feel myself being drawn in a little more with each piece I complete!

Of course my 'maille' is not going to look quite like the pieces that other people make. I love the beautifully polished and perfect pieces out there. The chainmaillers I've met do incredible work!

But my pieces are something you would dig out of an ancient ruins, so I use dark annealed steel in a heavy gauge. This is rugged stuff. It's hard on the hands because it is thick and stiff. It polishes to a nice pewter color, with a nice dull sheen. The ends of the links are never going to be perfectly smooth and perfectly seamed together just because of the nature of this wire. I like that rugged look so it suits me perfectly.

Here are the pieces I've made so far. I'd love to hear feedback! Always feel free to leave comments!!

A bit of European 4-1 in this necklace

Spiral Bracelet


A 'unit' of Scherzo in the first pair of earrings.


The second pair is just links, my way.

My variation of Helm.

Wolfie

This is Wolfie.


She is my assistant.


She helps me make the jewelry.


She is always there to lend a helping paw.

She appreciates the fact that I put a nice warm lamp here, just for her to nap under.