Building Your Jewelry Wardrobe

Losing My Creative Powers

At this point I´m so out of blog post ideas and feeling like all my creative powers has gone. I think this is pretty common situation time to time to people who do a lot of creative works in their hands. I have lost my creative enthusiasm couple times before but luckily it always come back.

When I feel that I have used all my creative energy, I usually head my focus elsewhere for little while. I might scrolling Pinterest or just going walk in the nature and trying not to stress so much about lack of my creative powers.

I have always enjoyed to do something with my hand weather its baking, trying new food recipe, planting flowers, crocheting, knitting or making jewelry that I  have done past eight years now more or less as a full-time job. Sure, I have my work as a newspaper distribution but it only takes one or two days from my week.

What Do When You Don´t Feel Creative

Here´s few tips what to do if you feel you´re out of creative powers:

1. Don´t force yourself to make something if you feel opposite

It´s pointless to sit in front of your work table many hours just wait if something comes up. This usually lead frustration and leaving you more angry than you were at the beginning.

2. Do something else

Usually when you head your focus elsewhere, you might get sudden inspiration what to do or make. If you are professional writer, you might get writing inspiration when you least expect it. In my opinion, same goes pretty much other things that require creativity. Don´t be scared, if month or two passed when you get back in track. Our brain needs "vacation" or other things to think. I like to say that creative mind is usually busy mind. I mean that creative people often do multiple things at the same time and your focus might change hundred times during the day.

3. Learn something new

When you head your focus elsewhere and learn to do something unusual you, you often find yourself to having fun and not to worrying your creative power. Don´t stress about it. Most important is to have fun and enjoy what you are making even if it renovating your home. That´s creative too but you might feel much happier when you see your favorite color on the wall.

4. Take a course

I went couple years ago to jewelry making class although I make my own jewelry. It was wire wrapping class and it was so fun! I never get same peace and calmness to make my own jewelry in home because I have multiple cats that´s usually start to fight each other or dropping things that they shouldn´t and my work usually interrupted multiple times in day. Plus in course, I learned new and there were similar people who shares my interest to making jewelry. The course cheered my up and given me so much boost to make my own jewelry.

5. Scroll Pinterest

Pinterest is a good place to go when feel out of creative powers. Pinterest offers so many good tips for gardening, home interior, how to renovate your home etc. Usually just looking beautful pictures might get you inspired again.

6. Walking in the nature

Walking in the nature by yourself, with boyfriend, friends, husband or with your dog might get you inspired again. Nature has healing powers and our stress level decreased. I love to live in Finland since we have so much forest near us. I love to go for jogging by the river or small forest path. I usually plan my walking and running routes that I don´t get interrupted by cars or other traffic so much. I love to listen music too so that´s is good way to relax. Finnish singer artist have once said that she doesn´t know any state of mind which the music wouldn´t help and that´s so true. Music and nature has power to heal us and help us to deal with our emotions.

I hope these tips would help you and feel free to comment which has helped you.

~ Minna

Mother´s Day & Gift Ideas

Mother’s Day is celebrated around the world and this year Mother´s Day is celebrated on May 10,2020 in United States and also in Finland.

Many families have traditionally bring breakfast for the mother in her bed with self-made card. With cards, the mother is often remembered with a Mother’s Day poem or verse.

Today, Mother’s Day lunches and brunches are also popular. Here in Finland our Mother´s Day tradition is to collect white anemones for mothers. I did that every year when I was younger and lived in home but as a adult, I usually send a card. At the Finnish Mother's Day celebration, the President of the Republic awards Mother's Day badges to deserving mothers. Grandmothers are also often celebrated on Mother’s Day.

How Mother´s Day Celebration Started

The Mother´s day celebration began in the United States when Anna Jarvis mother died in 1905 which made her thinking society haven´t take into account the role of mothers the nation's industrialization and raising children. At Jarvis' suggestion, a memorial service was held for all mothers at Andrews Methodist Church in May 1907. The following year, May 10, 1908, the first “official” Mother’s Day celebration was celebrated in Jarvis ’hometown of Philadelphia, and six years later, in 1914, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday to be celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

Mother's Day was celebrated in Finland for the first time on July 7, 1918, although only in Alavieska. Mother's Day was brought to Finland by Vilho Reima, who once worked as a primary school teacher and Member of Parliament. The following year, the day was celebrated on the third Sunday in May and in several localities, but by 1927 the present time had become established for Mother's Day. Mother's Day was confirmed as the official flagging day in 1947.

Mother´s Day Around The World

Nowadays, the second Sunday of May is settled and below is dates and other countries when they have Mother´s Day.

• February second Sunday ━ Norway
• March 8th ━ Albania, Bulgaria and Romania
• Mothering Sunday ━ Ireland and United Kingdom
• March 21nd ━ Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
• May first Sunday ━ Spain, South Africa, Lithuania, Portugal, Hungary
• May 8th ━ South Korea (Parents' Day)
• May 10th ━ United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Commonly celebrated in South America 
• May second Sunday ━ Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Austria, Japan, Canada, China, Cuba, Latvia, Malta, Peru, Germany, Singapore, Slovakia, Finland, Switzerland, Taiwan, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey, New Zealand, Estonia, United States 
• May 26th ━ Poland
• May 27th ━ Bolivia
• Last Sunday of May ━ Dominican Republic, Sweden
• June first Sunday or last Sunday of May ━ France
• Aug 12th ━ Thailand (Queen Sirikit's Birthday)
• Aug 15th ━ Belgium (Antwerp), Costa Rica
• Second Sunday of October ━ Argentina
• Oct 14th ━ Belarus
• Last Sunday of November ━ Russia
• Dec 8th ━ Panama
• Dec 22nd ━ Indonesia
  

Gift Ideas For Mothers:

• Cook for your mom special dinner
• Spend movie night together or go to cinema together
• Buy a ticket in her favorite concert
• Buy a jewelry
• Reserve table in her favorite restaurant
• Buy flower bouquet
• Make a long phone call if can´t visit 
• Take a walk to the park
• Record a video (everyone can say "Happy Mother´s Day" etc)
• Make a playlist 
• Make your own card

Or go to help your mom with her garden or offer helping hand with yard.

~ Minna

How I started To Crochet

I haven´t crochet much before I started. I remember doing one crochet work in the primary school and I think it was something for the Easter time, maybe little chick or something. 

Years later I was studying in Interior Designer school and hadn´t time to learn how to crochet although my internship place boss were crocheting almost anything but at the time I wasn´t so interested to learn.

After I graduated from Interior Designer school I started to spend my free time crocheting things. I wasn´t plan to learn how to crochet, it just started naturally. I searched on YouTube suitable videos for beginners and I must say I really enjoy to crochet.

My first bag handles. These are slightly
flexible and flat shape.

First I started to crochet bag handles since my friend needed them in her bags and wanted different kind handles than faux leather or fabric ones. So I started to seek right kind yarn and suitable video on YouTube. I learned pretty quickly to crochet bag handles but then my friend was looking for some decorations that she can attach in her bag creations. I remembered my grandma´s crochet butterflies but couldn´t remember how they crochet so after couple hours seeking right kind videos I found one but the butterfly wasn´t exactly same but still it was pretty.

After making things for my friend, I wanted to expand my crochet skills and now I have crocheted ear warmers, scarf, couple ballerina slippers, baskets, cat toys and my favorite thing to crochet: fingerless gloves.

I learned all on YouTube so naturally the stitch names that I know are in English. I laughed with my friend that once I didn´t know the stitch names in Finnish! 😆 So now I´m willing to learn those stitch names in Finnish and want to learn how to read different patterns.

As you can see, you can crochet pretty much anything. Here´s some of my crochet work that I´ve made during this time.
My cats just loved to play with crocheted mice but the ball wasn´t their favorite. On the right are the butterflies. pink edged butterfly is my grandma´s that she made years ago and next to is my version.

As always, I´m open to learn anything new and interesting so now I have crochet about year and half and now I´m learning how to needle tat. It´s been little challenging but at least I´m trying and most of all, I got new experience and learn constantly from my mistakes. 

This quote describe well about my creative life. Try, learn and most of all have FUN! 

~ Minna

Photographing

This week I thought to write about photographing. 

My Interior Design studies included one course of photographing and first I was so excited about it since I´m always eager to learn to take better photos but when I realize that the teacher wasn´t going to teach us to use SLR camera even some of us haven´t used it before and told us to just to take bunch of photos I consider the course vain.

I´m not professional photographer but I´ve been photographing pretty much my whole life different things  like my favorite Finnish singer which is pretty difficult to photograph since she likes to dance along with her songs. Lately I also love to take nature photos too. Usually I have my Iphone with me and the phone have good camera.

Once my Interior Designer teacher said that camera doesn´t affect the quality of the photos but I´ve testified it wrong as below photo collage show you - camera do matter the quality of the picture!

Over these years I´ve changed my camera probably three times. Above collage you can see how different camera affect the quality of the photo.

First photo on the left is with white glitter background. That time my camera was battery based and they were pretty quick out after couple photos. Also for this photo I haven´t used any natural light nor flash.

Second photo with wooden imitation background I took with my new camera that needed to charged with USB cable. For this photo I tried to use natural light but it was pretty much impossible for me at the time since my apartment were near forest and corner where the Sun didn´t shine was any time of the day.

Last photo is taken with my latest camera. I´ve been long wanted SLR camera that suited for beginners since I didn´t want any fancy one with fine features that I probably won´t learn to use. I planned the background, used natural light and bought a mannequin bust for the necklaces.

If you have Etsy shop or planning to open one, I simply recommend to buy good camera. Mine camera is Nikon D3300 which is user-friendly camera. With that camera I´ve taken all my Etsy photos and I´m so pleased with the camera. This camera is also good for any beginners who haven´t used SLR camera before.

Here´s my few photograph tips to take better photos:

1. Buy good camera

As I´ve shown you, nothing beats good camera that takes clear photos and the quality of your photos will bring you many sales

2. Plan your photos

Many seller favorites clean white background, usually PhotoFuzed one but I personally think that it may be clean but also makes items little floating in the air. I highly recommend to use clean background and I bet it can be found in your home. You can use your kitchen table or counter to photograph your items or any other table you may have in your home that suited your item style

3. Use natural light

I´m not talking about direct sunlight but good day light which won´t bring much shadow around your item. This may require to observe little while how the natural light come in your home and which time of the day is the best time to take photos

As you may know, you can´t learn photographing unless you just photograph. Try different settings of your camera and transfer the photos in your laptop to see the differences between photos. That way you can find the settings that suited best your items.

~ Minna

Spring 2020 Jewelry Trends

I´ve been little busy in my personal life and I have coming to a point when I needed to think my limited time so I have decided that starting April I´m going to write my blog every other week. I´m also out of blog writing ideas so this looser schedule gives me chance to search and write more interesting things.

Today, I´m going to write little Spring jewelry trends. Warming weather and Sunny days are finally brighten up my mood. Soon we can dress little more lighter and that´s best time to start wearing jewelry if you haven´t wear them yet.

This Spring jewelry designers have thought about beach vibes so it shouldn´t be surprise that this season hot jewelry are made of seashells and different metals.

This season designers mixing different shapes, sizes and metals to create the most eye-catching pieces!

Earrings are this season big, bold and statement looking mixed with shells, different metals and classic pearls.

Look for following earrings in this Spring: 

Gold plated wire asymmetrical earrings are hot in this Spring.
Shop these earrings: FjeldDesign

• Multi-layered hoops
• Statement earrings
• Mixed shape earrings
• Pearl earrings
• Seashell earrings
• Sphere earrings
• Big sphere earrings
• Hoop earrings (all sizes and shapes)
• Mismatch earrings
• Single earrings
• Pin drop threader earrings
• Clip-on earrings

Necklaces seems to have interesting textures in this Spring.

Lariat and layer necklaces are once again hot this season and also chunky chains but not classic heavy chunky chain necklace like some rap artist might have.

This Spring chain necklace needs to have texture or enameled and details are the thing.

Following necklaces are IN this Spring:

• Lariat necklaces
• Layer necklaces
• Textured chain necklaces
• Pearl necklaces
• Sphere necklaces
• Choker necklaces

Bold bracelets and cuffs are going to adorn the wrist in this Spring.

This Spring following bracelets are IN:

• Shell bracelets

• Friendship bracelets

• Pearl bracelets

• Bead bracelets

• Cuff bracelets

Everything from necklaces to earrings to bracelets will feature the strong and spherical shape. In this Spring all jewelry are playful with different shapes and sizes with a lot of colors. Jewelry materials seems to be very beach vibes and natural. So go and have fun with jewelry!

~ Minna

... and finally here is idea where to get this Spring hot jewelry:

Bridal Bangle Bracelet

GlamorousSparkle is handmade jewelry shop and friendly shop owner is happy to fulfill any custom order you might have.

In her shop you can find jewelry for your special day but also jewelry that you can wear everyday!

Unlucky Day

Yesterday was unlucky day for me. I was going to work and I was carrying heavy bag of newspapers and ads that I usually distribute once a week. Somehow I almost fall in the stairs and twisted my ankle 😓

I sat little while on the stairs and just holding my foot. It was so sore at first and when pain eased, I continue my work. I needed to lift up the heavy bag on my bicycle and head to distribute the newspapers. I couldn’t go anywhere since the chain from my bicycle went off and the weather was worst possible — rain and windy day. I needed to put the chain back in my bike as my brother has once advised me to do that and I was ready to go.

I drove little while bicycle and walk road when I saw that road is blocked by tree cutters. Their big truck blocked the whole road so I had to move beside the motor road which wasn’t easy since I had to go through muddy grass. Finally I closing the place where I need to distribute the papers but chain from my bicycle went off again. My ankle was hurted and I was thinking that this wasn’t real, how unlucky I’m today... Once again chain back in place and I finally reached to the mailboxes where I put the newspaper and ads. I literally managed to go through two mailboxes that I missed first time and suddenly my bikes chain went off again. 

I thought it was better for me to walk than tried to cycle and managed to distribute all the rest of the newspapers and ads.

I was having worse work day, I was soaking wet and my bicycle seemed to fall in parts. I decided to go nearest grocery store and buy some treats. I felt like I needed to buy Berliner doughnut with coffee  and also warmed sauna was waiting for me at home so coffee, doughnut and sauna cheered up my day and my ankle was swelled little bit so I was resting the rest of the day.

What’s your most hardest or difficult work day? How you managed get through that tough day? Was there positive things that you waited for or did your day turned somehow in more positive way?

Now I’m trying to get slower and learning to rest since my ankle is still little bit swell and its side appeared big bruise. I can luckily walk and use my leg as normally so I won’t probably need to make doctor appointment but will if it’s not getting better.

I’m planning to do jewelry to BlueBellJewelry but haven’t got the missing parts yet so for now, my jewelry project are pause mode. Hopefully I’ll get them soon in order to continue with all those brilliant ideas what I have. 

Wishing you wonderful day and I’m hoping that your week is going well 🤗

~ Minna