Secret Sale through 29th!

Correction--The sale is through the 29th!

Secret Sale!

Spring is here! We are having a secret sale on our Looking Cocktail rings and our Reflections pendants through March 29th. Buy any Cocktail ring or Reflections pendant and receive another item of your choice FREE!

During checkout place the following code AND your free item choice in the note to seller during* the etsy checkout. Here are the links to the Reflections and Cocktail rings section of my shop for easy browsing:

Sterling Silver Reflections Pendant and Chain

http://www.etsy.com/shop/caughtredhanded?section_id=5511191

Looking Cocktail Ring

http://www.etsy.com/shop/caughtredhanded?section_id=5511194

Code: Spring Secret Sale Through March 29th

Happy Spring Rings Everyone!

Amy

*code must be placed during checkout on the etsy page. Discount will not be given if code is entered on PayPal or through convo or email.

Baby. Eats. World.

I am an excessive planner--I guess it is just part of who I am. When you walk into my kitchen you will see my meal schedule and menu typed and hanging on the fridge, you will see Sebastian's eat-play-sleep schedule, my cleaning schedule, and my to-do list all neatly organized.

Some of my close friends and family call me OCD for my excessive need to plan things out. At times, I might agree with them but I am quickly learning that Sebastian does not always fit into "my" plans.

This has been a huge struggle for me since I am not a fan of surprises and I hate when I do not accomplish everything scheduled for the day. So in this daily battle I am fighting the first thing that has gone is my "create" time. Creating has truly become a luxury. I have a few drawings finished for my Spring collection, and a few penciled out ideas for a new line but that is it. Sigh.

When you live off of your art you MUST create art. Simple idea right? I guess I did not plan for this little boy to run away with my time and my heart. I am quickly learning how to adapt to this new life I have adopted. Somewhere, somehow I am going to have to fit my art back into my schedule--right now I seem to be stuck on the "how" because my baby has eaten my world. . .

Sunshine Secret Sale!

The weather has been amazing the last few days! Though I am not finished designing my Spring Collection yet I wanted to post a little pre-sale. From March 9th through March 15th you will receive a FREE chain when you purchase 2 or more pendants. You will also receive a FREE belt when you purchase 2 or more buckles. Just include the following promo code during* checkout:

Sunshine Secret Sale through March 15th

*This code must be noted on the etsy checkout page and not through paypal, convos or emails. Happy March!

Inspiration: Discovering Your Muse

Creativity has always been a strength that I have been blessed with. Recently, as life changes, so have my inspirations. They seem to be evolving right along side of me.

I used to teach High School English and I loved to use it in the classroom. I would dress up as characters, preform murder mysteries, create plays and the list goes on. I was always coming up with the next crazy plan to bring a lesson to life or to keep me from boredom. I could never use the curriculum provided--always had to create my own. Creativity became my drug of choice.

Of course, when I quit teaching, I had to foster that creativity through another channel. That part was easy since art depends on the creative mind but my art seemed to demand a little more from me. . .I needed a little inspiration to spark the creative process. Nature and color took the job and were always battling it out for the place of muse in whatever I was designing or painting at the time.

I soon assumed another role in life, mommy. This role was foreign to me but it was not long before the creative gene began to take it over as well. I was not excited about having a boy. I had planned the nursery for a girl, so when I found out Sebastian would be a boy I was pretty upset. I decided I would just throw a few toys in the nursery and call it a day. Obviously that plan soon passed.

I found my muse for the nursery in a very unexpected source, my husband. Jim suggested I do a Dr. Seuss theme. I LOVED the idea and ran with it. A friend and I sketched out the room according to our take on The Cat in the Hat and got to work on creating our little Seuss Land. We had so much fun creating Sebastian's room and it made me even more excited for his arrival. I was a little more receptive to the idea of having a boy:)

Inspiration has become such an important part of my creative process. Whether I was teaching, creating art, or just being mom, I had to find what inspired me and foster that into something great. I have learned that life is full of the unexpected but if you use the world around you, the situations you find yourself in, and the people in your life to challenge you, your inspiration is really just a moment away. Life is meant to be colorful and I am learning to use every crayon in my box.

Wishing Life Away

I have often found myself wishing certain parts of my life to move along just a little faster. We have all had those moments of wishing. When I was a kid I just simply wished for Christmas or summer vacation or even more importantly to be ungrounded for once. I was such a bad kid--I can only imagine what my mom was wishing!

That eventually turned into wishing for my driver's licence and maybe, by a miracle, a first car. Before I knew it I wished myself all the way to married, 28, one kid, and my own business. Sounds pretty good right? Well at the risk of sounding like a grandma--I think I wished my life away.

I remember back to when I was dating Jim; I just could not wait until I was engaged and when I was engaged I could not wait to be married. I remember just wishing months and weeks away so I could get to the next step. Always pushing for the next step and looking back now, I did not stop to enjoy the journey. Dating and falling in love was a fairytale. The engagement was amazing as we planned for our futures together, and marriage has been incredible as we watch our plans unfold. All of these things I lived but in the process of wishing I think I may have actually missed them.

At the wise and ripe ol' age of 28 I find myself playing the same old games. I am sure it is no surprise to any of you that I was wishing myself out of pregnancy as fast and hard as I could possibly wish and into a stage where sleep was an option again. Here I am at 28 years old, and after doing the math, I have only truly lived 18 months of my life.

These thoughts have been festering for awhile but today the wishing well is dried up. That is it. No more wishing for the weekend or wishing for Sebastian to take a nap or wishing for this ridiculous workout to be over with. Today, I am done wishing and instead I am going to start living. . .