See my new pictures!

So you can all see I have managed to slip in a few pictures of what it is I mostly do. Eventually I will show you some of my crocheted creations. (I specialize in thread crochet) I love to make Christening gowns with thread and also tablecloths. They take a lot of time, but they are great for keeping my hands busy in front of the T.V. at night (the goal had always been to keep my hands busy and out of the potato chip bag!)

I splurged and bought myself a professional light box, we were flying home from a trip to Texas (hot and muggy and buggy!) and I was going through sky mall magazine and saw this great light box. I had been using a homemade box that while functioned OK really wasn't giving me the best photos that I knew I could get. Long story not so short, I am in the process of replacing some of my pictures on my site which is of course kathieanncollection.etsy.com.

My very second blog ever!

Well here we are again. I have been thinking about the kinds of things I can do in the future, but for now I thought I would let you get to know who I am. My name is Kathie Ann of course and on my last posting I did tell you a bit about how I came to be a jewelry artist, and Oh, I forgot I was going to tell you how I got started on the internet.

To begin with I haven't had anything to do with computers for probably 20 years. My poor husband has tried in vain to teach me and to drag me into the 21st century (It is a bit like husbands trying to teach wives how to drive! A very bad idea). I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever knowing what LOL meant or OMG or any of that very popular lingo, (or is that stuff only used on the cell phone?), but anyway I have a good friend that told me that if I ever had a great enough need for it then I would be able to learn it and she was absolutely right!

So back to how I actually got here. I have been making my jewelry and selling enough through word of mouth , family and friends, and craft shows/home shows to keep myself afloat and to make it worthwhile. I really do love it so much though I probably would make it even if I had to pay someone for the priveledge of doing so, which is probably not a good thing to divulge and I guess it shouldn't go into my mission statement right?

So in the midst of my happy little world of "just enough" along comes my "little" brother with a precious beautiful new life partner. She, as it turns out is also an artist and a mighty fine one I might add, ( see www.laurapallatin.blogspot.com) and we just really hit it off and she has become a very special lady in my life! She is many things, family, friend, coach, cheerleader, etc. So, she calls one day and says she and my brother will be up for the weekend and she has created an Etsy site(KathieAnnCollection.etsy.com)!

So what was that again I was saying about when the need arises you will learn? She had gone to all that trouble, and truthfully I was a little tired of packing all my stuff and lugging it around to craft shows and home shows so I really was excited to see if I could do this.

Voila! All that worrying for nothing, Etsy is so much fun and sooo easy to do.

Well she wasn't done with me yet! All that was a couple of months ago, and recently she started talking about blogging! I thought she said blabbing and heaven knows I can certainly do that! I haven't been called Chatty Kathie and motor mouth my entire life for no reason. So that brings me to now as to how I got on the internet.

Today I just got a new portable photo lab and I will be playing with that to see if I can improve my Etsy site pictures. I will let you know how that goes.

My very first blog... ever!

Well since this is going to be the very first day ever of my blog, let me tell you some of how this all came about.

Five years ago, (don't worry it won't be a blow by blow of the last 5 years), I was an avid crocheter and had been for the majority of my adult life. I was at my local yarn and craft store looking for new patterns under the usual crochet title when I ran across a book all about Bead crocheting with wire! Needless to say I was very intrigued, looked up what I would need on the spot, bought some very cheap acrylic beads (in case it really wasn't for me) and ran home and spent the entire evening playing with this new concept. The final result looked fairly promising so the next day I went back to the craft store and bought some less, but still very cheap, glass beads. I showed the necklace to my neighbor who worked in a very large facility and she wore it to work. After that for a year solid I could barely keep up with the orders that came in from just that facility!

I have been making jewelry ever since and have come a long way since those first crocheted necklaces. If you would like to see my work I invite, nay implore you to visit my online shop at KathieAnnCollection.etsy.com, I hope to in the future share with you some projects that can get you started on your own journey if that interests you as well.

I hope you will check back with me for my next blog, where I plan to share how I went from selling my jewelry and crochet items at craft shows, to opening an on line shop especially because I never even knew how to use a computer. (This involves a very special person in my life who I will tell you all about).