Birthstone Jewelry: August Peridot

I thought I would start an occasional tromp through websites, finding beautiful jewelry.  In this case, I am choosing birthstone jewelry, and more specifically, for the first post, my birth month of August.  Giving a beautiful piece of birthstone jewelry does not have to mean just for birthdays (i.e. theirs, or their children's, or grandchildren's), but can make a creative, thoughtful gift any time of the year.  And who says gifts have to be saved for birthdays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and Christmas?  Sometimes, it's more special, when it's just random.

I mainly traipse through Etsy and Artfire, when I look for jewelry inspiration, but am open to anything.  If you have a favorite, that you would like to see on here (other months...I will repeat, eventually *laughs), then send me an email at kittyn dot twins at yahoo dot com and I would be happy to look at it.

I love the tree of life pendants.  It seems like you would have to really mess up to make it look horrible, but this one is beautiful.  Copper with peridot, it says that it promotes healing.  It "fosters emotional balance, and helps us heal from past emotional wounds. It clears the path way to the heart and heals damaged egos".  ManyMoonsJewelry has created a beautiful piece of healing in this piece, and you can find it here:  ManyMoonsJewelry's BluJay Page

Wow.  This one is ...loud simplicity?  Makes a hell of a statement, just by being simple.  Faceted peridot stones wirewrapped, then dropped from simple long V earwires, these would be beautiful for both day and night.  Isn't that the best jewelry, though?  Find LHJewelryBoutique's earrings here on Etsy. 

Wow.  I really doubt you are going to find anything the same as this.  One huge, "raw" chunk of peridot, wrapped in gold filled wire.  I look at this one time, and see a beautiful, chunky piece that would stand out at night...then sometimes I see a perfect item for daytime, enough to offset a t-shirt and jeans, or a business suit.  One day, I will learn to wire wrap...and items like this are what I can aspire to make.  Find it here on flash12itchy's eBay web page.

I have only recently really gotten into bracelets.  I am weird...I am a jewelry maker, who rarely wears her jewelry.  But lately, I have worn more bracelets.  And I find I tend to like ones that you can "play" with.  This one falls into that category...a little loose, it will spin, you can rotate the rondelles...heck, I bet this would even layer nicely with others.  What I like about it, is that it is simple, but so many details...the twisted ovals, the wire wraps, the faceting on the rondelles...I also have a small wrist, about 6 1/4".  It's a little hard to find bracelets that fit me (and funny...the customers that I have IRL...variance of weight, yet we all have about the same size of wrist), and so I think this would be a great one, to play with.  If I only had the money *sighs* I would grab this...but you can check it out on livjewellery's Artfire site.

So...if you have a preference for the next stone, send me an email, or post a comment...It should be in a few days, so you have time to brib.....erm, ask me.  *grins*

Money, Money, Money! Three Ways I have to make money!

Well, these aren't going to make you rich...at least not overnight.  Just like anything else, these require work.  And at the beginning, these will probably be less than minimum wage.  But if you have a laptop in the kitchen, waiting for the meat to cook, so you can flip it over, waiting 5 minutes for the kids to get home from school, or those little stolen moments of the day, these are some great time fillers.

#1 - Swagbucks - A great program, and the first that I joined of the 3 I am posting on here.  You can search via their search engine, play games, trade in books, games, cellphones, watch videos, and more.  With the points you accumulate, you can choose various gift card options, or items that they have available for purchase through their points.  My two favorite options is 450 points for a $5 Amazon gift card, or 700 points for $5 to be sent to your Paypal.  You can also use your swagbucks to enter sweepstakes for some outstanding prizes, also!

#2 - Sponsored Tweets - This is the second one that I had joined ... well, and still belong to.  They use an algorithm to check your twitter account, and suggest a price range that you could set your tweets to be paid for.  You get a variety of sponsored ads to read, and decide if these will fit your follower's interests.  Of course, this means you have to have a twitter account, which I forgot to mention at the beginning of this, laughs.  They use 2 different methods, a "Cost per Click" and "Cost per Tweet" method, and will send you different ads through both of these messages.  "Cost per Tweet" means they pay you straight out, no matter how many people click on your ads.  However, if the "cost per click" average comes out below $1.50 on this, they will ask you to retweet up to 2 more times.  "Cost per Click" ads are just that.  You post, and receive depending on who clicks on them, in my case usually between 2 and 20 cents.  And when you refer someone, you get 10% of their revenue. A slight disadvantage here, is you may take your time, write up a beautiful post, then the person runs out of money in their campaign, or tries to game the system, by asking you to directly post their URL, bypassing the URL generated specifically for you.  You can earn a bit of money through this, however, they have a minimum of $50 before withdrawal, although you can pay $2 to withdraw early.

#3 - MyLikes - A very good one, in my opinion, but I am still learning it.  Still some ins and outs of it.  The most promising of it, is that if you earn over $2 in one week, on that friday, they will put the amount in your Paypal.  Granted, not a lot, but my first month, I earned about $15.  This program allows you to earn for your click, then each click coming through Twitter, or your website ad (I havent figured out much beyond the Twitter-generated revenue).  They allow you to post the ad to your Facebook account, but does not pay for them. 
     It does state that you can only post 1 sponsored like per day, and appears that you can only post each one once, or retweet someone else's ad for that same ad.  They do not remove the ad from your stream, however, if you post, and they do allow you to post more than once per day.  I believe the "posting the sponsored like" refers to that you can only earn once a day for yourself, but will earn from others.  I could be wrong, am not sure.  And this one has a different referral program...they give away an iPad a week, to the person with the most referrals starting at 12:01am Saturday, to the following Friday midnight.

Now, with the last 2, your revenue is dependent on your twitter stream, as in the people who follow you, and who are real.  It is not the best, if you have a ton of followers, and they are all fake accounts, the kind where you get 50,000 in 2 days.  You need to engage your followers...having interesting tweets, responding to others, retweeting...to show you are a real person.  Not canned information, or only ads.  It does not mean you have to be online 24/7 posting...but perhaps your specialty is your organic garden in the backyard.  Post how you made the garden riser, planting the tomato seeds, how you gathered the water in the barrel to water, that kind of thing.  Your new daughter, her health, freebies you found, that great dress you found tucked in the back of the clearance rack for $2 for her...there's a lot of topics that are of everyday interest, that people like to talk about.  And hear about.  Kindof like walking by someone talking on a public phone, and stopping and listening, while someone is talking to a friend...and then, sometimes, tossing in your own comment or suggestion, just in the international way.

I would love to hear your opinions, suggestions, and anything else you have to say about these...please leave a comment below.  I would love it even more, if you signed up...but some people don't have the time, or just choose not to do so.  And of course, if you have any more programs that you participate in, that aren't scams, PLEASE let me know...I will be checking out surveys, some pay per click programs, and the like.  Let me know of your experiences, and I may join, myself!

Tutorial: How to Make Castille Soap in 13 Steps

I was reading the Frugal Kiwi's blog, and found a recipe for making Castille soap.  Well, having been a person who has wanted to make soap for a long time, I read through her instructions, but was intrigued by a link to instructions that has as step 2 to get chocolate and peanut butter.  So after reading the Soap Chix's blog, I am still laughing, especially all of the singing she does to her soap.  I am wondering if by the end of the batches, her voice is gone.  But the pictures look lovely...and makes me want to consider making some.

sometime.

In those rare "gee, I actually have some time moments, that I never seem to have, because I am so ADD, I keep doing 5 million things.  But...one of these days.  Especially with inspiration from people like the Frugal Kiwi and Soap Chix.

Contest: Sterling Silver Earrings

Oh my...aren't these gorgeous?

I had to show these off here, because they are gorgeous!  And if you want to enter the contest, here's the link:  Frugal Kiwi

Joke of the Day: Which Way

Loved this joke:

Trying to Take It With You

A stingy old lawyer who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness was determined to prove wrong the saying, "You can't take it with you." After much thought and consideration, the old ambulance-chaser finally figured out how to take at least some of his money with him when he died.

He instructed his wife to go to the bank and withdraw enough money to fill two pillowcases. He then directed her to take the bags of money to the attic and leave them directly above his bed. His plan was that when he passed away, he would reach out and grab the bags on his way to heaven.

Several weeks after the funeral, the deceased lawyer's wife had gone up in the attic to clean. Coming upon the two forgotten pillowcases stuffed with cash she exclaimed, "Oh, that darned old fool, I knew he should have had me put the money in the basement."

Cheap Babysitter?

Oh, this is soooo cute!  Shows that sometimes a cat can be smarter than a human.  Or the parents realized the cost advantage of a cat for a babysitter.  I have seen them do this for a *long* time, and the cat always has that "okay, just *one* more time* look.

Drooooooools: Beads that I *love*

Okay, normally I don't look lately, because I haven't been creating, and don't have the money to buy.  I also have been in pain, not having much time to create, and keep my website up (well...I do, I get too much ADD going on, and it takes me a while to get started, so I never have the time, by the time I am ready to start, it's time for bed.  *sighs*)

But Szarka posts some beautiful beads.  She's on my facebook, so it's hard not to see her items.  She has shown a LOT lately, that would have been in my price range, if I were purchasing lately (right now, I usually can only afford about $5-10/strand...except the one time I put in an order for $300, where each strand was about $45 each...and I am STILL kicking myself for that one...bad timing, and I'm not up to that level.  But I just *had* to have the herkimer diamonds...*laughs*)

Okay, so this is the one that caught my eye today:

Aren't those beautiful Ruby in Zooisite?  Some amazing detail, and gorgeous!

So I will drool for a while, til I get back into the creative mood.  By then, Szarka will be through her 1300 lbs of beads, and I will not see anything I like then...or can afford.

Anyway, if you like beads, and want to see more, check her new products here:  Magpie Gemstones