But it will also let you search for a specific color — I use the sliders to match up with beads:

And it’ll offer up a palette that matches your chosen color!

Your palette also has a Pin It button that’ll let you pin some pretty color in the hopes that we can drive out the usual denizens of Pinterest…pictures of impossibly fit/skinny people tagged “inspiration” and pictures of poor newborns smushed into unnatural positions or shoved into cowboy boots.

For these, I felt like experimenting with hoops and drops instead of the usual “tight” earrings I come up with.

These earrings have a 70′s color vibe to them.

Gold-tone copper wire and a group of Swarovski crystals = tacky holiday ring bling! The crystals move around as my hand moves.

1) Make two doc appointments: one for the eyes and one for the neglected thyroid. About the eyes: I think I haven’t had an eye appointment in 2 or 3 years. About the thyroid: I feel fine..light-years from how I felt on the levothyroxine last summer. But the worry of something being wrong is still in the back of my head. Could I feel even better than what I consider fine? I’m skipping my primary physician for this and going to a local doc that was recommended by two completely different people. I’d like to schedule both appointments for one day and just take off of work.

2) Wash, dry, fold AND PUT AWAY 2 loads of laundry.

3) Take two 20 minute walks.

4) Read up on data integrity. It’s been a while since I’ve dealt with databases. Time to brush up again.

5) Eat a salad every day. Not for the nutritional benefits, but to fill up on stuff other than Entenmann’s.

6) Figure out how much it would cost me to package and ship a pair of earrings to someone here in the US. This is the next step of my loooooong trek toward opening an Etsy shop. Pricing is my downfall. I never kept track of how much my beads and wire cost so it’s hard to approximate how much I should charge for things. But envelopes & shipping are pretty concrete costs.

What’s on your list?

So what I’ve been doing is saving Tazo tea tins and using them to hold all of the beads, wire, and findings I need for each project.

The tins are even big enough to hold my wire cutters and pliers if I decide to take my projects with me. To keep them organized as I collect more tins, I just tape the name of the project on the outside.

Here is a sampling of my craftiness. It’s neat to see the evolution through the years. Now all I need to do is bring some to work with me and open the darn Etsy shop already!!!

Tonight we’re converging upon a little Italian joint in Marlton to celebrate the beginning of year 39. /jackbenny Thirty-nine isn’t bugging me 1/10th as much as 35 did. I think I’m just coming to grips with windows closing and other ones opening.

For my present from WM I can choose either a Dremel for jewelry making or a Figureprint of my favorite World of Warcraft character. I’m on the fence, as always.

My year 39 resolution is to get back to writing and get back to the social media juju that I love, including this blog and Twitter. To that end, I signed up for an SEO class tomorrow night after work, and I’m going to WordCamp Philly 2011 on November 5th!

In other FANTASTIC news, WM finally got a teaching job! In a public school! Teaching social studies! For real, American money! This job came through just in time for us, because his 99 weeks of unemployment ended 2 weeks ago.

And that’s what I’m learning as I get older. That things don’t happen when I want them to happen, but they always happen just in time.

I’ve been in a long dry streak, creativity-wise. I have drawers full of jewelry making components and no idea what to do with them. I get caught up looking at other jewelry for hours, then completely choke and not make any of my own. I don’t know if I think I can’t create anything stylish or attractive or what, but it was really getting me down. I’d put beads and findings together and hate what I came up with

So I decided to put the beads away and stick with wire.

This is a 2×2 chain maille bracelet.

Gold and silver tone 18 gauge rings

I really like how it turned out. I worked on it off and on all day yesterday while I was playing World of Warcraft. And since it’s coated copper, it’s pretty light.

Have I mentioned I bought a ring mandrel? Well, I did. And today I figuredd it was high time I made a ring. So with the help of this rosette ring tutorial I did!

22 gauge antique copper finished wire

It’s pretty, and the sharp bits of wire don’t hurt too much. (Kidding)

(This photo was taken a week before I realized I could focus my iPhone camera by touching the item I want to be in focus on the screen.)

Three different styles, because tween styles are all over the place. It took me about 2 hours to make the three. The hardest part was tying the knots. I tied them tightly, trimmed the tails and put a dot of glue on the knot to set it. My aunt asked me immediately if I made the bracelets. And I sheepishly admitted that I did.

I told the birthday girl that if they broke, I could fix them. I have no faith in the structural integrity of my own stuff.

And about that — I have more than enough stuff to start an Etsy or Artfire store with. But I’m terrified I’ll sell something and it’ll break and I’ll be out of beads to replace them with. I can make the snuggest of loops and close jump rings so they’re flush, but sometimes things break. Heck, sometimes costume jewelry I buy from the store breaks!

Today WM and I went to the Sugarloaf Craft Festival in Oaks, PA and I’m completely inspired to grab my wire and … make things that will undoubtedly sit here unworn or worn once.

–> Played the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion.
–> Made a bunch of earrings.
–> Cleaned up the kitchen. I mean really cleaned it up.
–> Changed all my passwords, thanks to the people who hacked Gawker/Lifehacker/Jezebel.

Cataclysm: My paladin’s level 84 and a third now and the level cap is 85. I try to spare you all the over-the-top game talk by putting it on a separate blog but I am having SUCH a good time. I won’t lie — I timed the days off to coincide with the first weekend of Cataclysm.

Earrings: I was struck by the creativity bug on Saturday, and I took my bead stash to Mom’s for some fun. Here’s some of the stuff I did.

Starbucks cups make for a so-so background.

Last night I made eight more pair. A bunch like the snowflake dangles (which will be part of a Pollyanna at work) and other brown & blue pretties that might end up in the mythical Etsy shop I keep resolving to open.

Kitchen: I started this because I simply wanted to know how much flour I have (answer: a little less than 5 lb) But one thing lead to another and before I knew it my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and I were tearing the place apart. Upon going through the cabinet, I found to my shock and horror that I had FIFTEEN cans of tomato product. Crushed, sauce, paste, etc. I guess we’ll be having pasta for a while.

Eeek! A mouse!

And soup for lunch, too.

Passwords: Long story short: The Gawker network was hacked and my email/user/password was one of the ones released, albeit in encrypted form. Ain’t it grand to find out your email address was up on the Pirate Bay?

Eh, crap.

I have five passwords I use: one for World of Warcraft, one for money sites, one for this website, one for all work things and one for EVERYTHING else, including Gawker. This morning I awoke to an email saying someone was trying to reset my LinkedIn and World of Warcraft passwords.

So if you’re my LinkedIn buddy and see that I got a great job, I’ve been hacked.

I changed Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, eBay & PayPal immediately.

Sadly, I think I’m too behind to finish Reverb 10, plus almost everyone who wrote a question has a book they’re promoting. In many cases, the questions are directly related to the subject of the books. I understand that we all have our projects, but this seems a bit too “promotey” for me. No biggie.

Lunch is over. Back to work. Tonight? More changing passwords. :/

Last night I made dinner. It wasn’t high-falutin, but I don’t like to cook and I don’t think I’m very good at it. But I threw together chicken, canned tomatoes, frozen broccoli and pasta to make a passable meal. WM liked it. I thought it was — alright. Most of my meals end up soggy.

I want to make my silly Play-Doh sculptures again. I want to make more jewelry but I’m in a creative slump. It’s not as much time, but inspiration that keeps me from making. However, in my journal (yes, I actually keep a written journal too for thoughts and feelings that would upset people I know in real life if I put them on my blog) I vowed to make 10 pair of earrings this week. I’ll post a photo Sunday night of what I accomplished.

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This is part of the Reverb 10 project.