A non-fatal addiction

I guess it shouldn't come as a (rather recent) surprise to me that I have an addiction to jewelry. I mean, I'm a person who wears 15 rings (including on both my thumbs). For a few years, one of my Dad's hobbies was making jewelry. He took courses at the (Rochester) Memorial Art Gallery. He made all kinds of jewelry, including the lost-wax process.  He gave most of his pieces to my mother and me. Besides the rings (I wear 7 he made), he made pendants and bracelets.

But this post is about broken china jewelry. (I also wrote one in 2016.)

So ... I already had three necklaces made out of broken china.  One Mr. L gave me for Christmas a few years back. I absolutely LOVED it. You can wear it as a pin or on a chain. (Obviously I like it better on a chain.)

After a couple of years, I asked for a second one as yet another Christmas gift. I must admit, I'm not as fond of the second one. It's rather plain. Just a little flower. I tend to wear this one more in the summer -- because ... summer! Flowers!

For my third broken china pendant, I was feeling low and missing my parents. My Mum left me some money and I decided to treat myself to a third broken china pendant that I saw advertised on Facebook. It's Spode and is holly for the (what else?) hollydays. (Sorry about that.) And to make it more special, one of my readers (who has made jewelry) sent me the chain. In fact, she sent two!

These three pendants were in the $75+ range. and I R Cheap!  Mind you, they are definitely worth the extra price. The mounts are beautiful and very sturdy. These are definitely "professional pieces.

But since I'm a sap for old china (and buy far too much of it at yard sales), I wanted MORE broken china jewelry.  Actually, I broke one of my mother plates last summer and tried to find someone to make me a pendant out ofit.  At the time, I came up empty so I tossed out the broken plate. (BIG MISTAKE.)

While I was going through some of my mother's things last month, I found a little white box and inside was -- SURPRISE -- a broken china pendant and silver chain. Whoa! There was a sticker on the box from a museum in Vancouver, Canada. Wow--my mother had gone on a cruise to Alaska some 15+ years ago and one of the stops was in Vancourver where she must have visited the museum gift shop. I'm betting she bought the necklace for me and simply forgot she had it.  So ... guess who has a new-to-her piece of broken china jewelry.  Again, it's not my favorite, but it has great sentimental value because I (want to) believe she meant for me to have it.

Well, once you get more than three of anything, you have a collection. I guessed I was now collecting broken china pendants. I just happened to be on Etsy looking for something else (which I did not buy) and thought about broken china jewelry.  BIG MISTAKE.  I found a page called Marooned Jewelry. The pieces there don't have as "sturdy" mounts, but they are beautiful and a LOT cheaper than the others I had. We're talking the $25+ range. I immediately found one I like and -- oops! Next thing you know had ordered it. I love the pattern, love the flowers.

But then I realized -- oops again -- I'm going to need a chain. (Duh--forgetting the other chain my reader had sent.) So, we were on a boot-hunting expedition and Penney's had a deal on silver chains. BOGO. So, I got them. Brought them home and said to myself, "Self, this means you were meant to have yet ANOTHER broken china pendant. And so, back to Marooned Jewelry I went. This time, I ordered a brown transferware piece (because I collect brown transferware plates). Oooh! I love it!  (It arrived yesterday.)

But a funny thing happened during the time I was waiting for the brown transferware pendant to arrive.  I kept finding silver chains. I'm on an organizational kick and have been trying to get my bedroom organized. (Already have sent a big bag of clothes and a box full of stuff to Goodwill.) In all, I now have five empty chains. You know what that means ....

(P.S.  Marooned Jewelry will also make pieces from your broken china. I'm almost tempted to break a plate so that I can have one made.)

I know I can't have hundreds of broken china jewelry, so I started a Pinterest page so I can at least have a very large virtual collection.  You can see it here.

BTW, as part of my jewelry organization, I bought a bracelet display stand. I made a video about it yesterday. (A little dark, but you can get the idea of what I've got. Hopefully I'll get better the more videos I make.)  You can see it here.  And while you're there, I hope you'll subscribe to my new YouTube Channel (Lorraine's Fun Stuff). My regular (book trailer, etc.) Youtube channel is here.

Have you got a jewelry collection?

Finally got me a Hummel

Back in the 1970s and 80s, Hummels were hot! At every antique or collectibles establishment you went, there they were--and they weren't cheap. In fact, a cheap one might be about $75.

My ex-sister-in-law loved Hummels, and my mother gave her quite a few of them. I no longer recall what quite a few amounted to, but it was more than I ever got--which was nothing.  I hinted very strongly that I would like one, but ... it never happened. (I remember the first one ex-SIL got was the Apple Tree Girl.)

One of the reasons they struck a chord with me is that Mr. L and I worked with a man whose son made them. Yup. He decided at a young age that he loved Hummels and wanted to work for the factory that made them.  So, he learned to speak fluent German, as well as studied his craft in ceramics--and actually got a job there. Of course, all these years later, I have no idea if he's still there, but it was kinda cool -- and his father sure was proud of him.

But back to Hummels and me.

I never had one. Until last week. Mr. L took me to a thrift shop in a rather tony suburb. This shop opened in October but we only found out about it at Christmastime--when it shut down for a couple of weeks, and I didn't get to go until last week. WOW--can you say sticker shock? But then everything in it was good quality stuff. And they had three Hummels for sale.

The resale market for Hummels has gone right down the toilet. In fact, I read an article online about how it's one of the 10 collectibles that essentially has no secondary-market value. (Anything from Franklin mint comes next.)  But that doesn't mean I didn't want a Hummel.  They're incredibly cute.

Two of the Hummels were in the $35 range--and I wasn't going to lay out that kind of dough, but they had a small one for $12 and I decided to splurge. Isn't she cute?

Now this little tyke lives in one of my china cabinets surrounded by Chintz china cups (which have also lost their market value). I finally have my Hummel. And I bought her with money my mother left me after she passed. Thanks, Mum!

What collectibles do you covet, even if they have no real intrinsic value?

Friday with Fred

Other people's cats do cute stuff and love to pose for pictures. I tried to get my cat, Fred, to do a photo shoot yesterday and he wouldn't cooperate--wouldn't hold still, or when he would, he wouldn't look at the camera. Apparently he has no interest in cultivating a social media following. (Like, wow!)

If your pet photo afraid?

And then I bought it ...

It's not my fault!

I've been trying to get all my websites straightened out with a new provider. Part of that has meant being on the phone for hours on end or waiting for (yet) another call. So what are you supposed to do while waiting?

Oh, yeah Google stuff.

Like broken china jewelry ...

And the next thing you know ... I was on Etsy and hit the buy button. Oops. Then I had to buy a chain. But honestly, this was 1/3 the cost of the last one I bought, so I actually saved money (right?).

Um ... I bookmarked the site because they have some really cool stuff, like this little kitty pendant and I might want to make a return visit (way too soon).

Did you do anything bad this week?

I turned it around FAST

Back in October, I put my latest Life On Victoria Square story, It's Tutu Much, for pre-order. But oddly enough, readers didn't seem interested in the story. I wondered if it was just the fact that the holidays were coming up, or if it might be the cover.  My beta readers liked the story and they liked the cover. But when it came to debut day, the pre-orders were 2/3 less than the previous three stories.

Something wasn't right.

I kept focusing on the wrong aspect of the story. I kept thinking it was about the children in the dance class, but the more I thought about it, the story is really about their teacher, Dana Milton.

I asked my review crew what they thought, and they were split. Some like the cover, some thought it looked like it was a children's story.  I didn't like hearing the latter, but I had to listen.  Although it's only been 10 days since the story has been out, the sales went right down the toilet. In fact, I've already had a couple of days without a single sale. That's not good.

So yesterday, I asked the members of my Facebook Group (Lorraine's Perpetual Tea Party -- if you haven't joined--why not???) what they thought of the current cover and a dummy cover I put together.  I'm no Photoshop wiz, and I couldn't get the ballet dancer to stay on a colorful background. After a lot of trial and error, I managed to get her on a gray background.

Readers thought the covers were bland. They wanted color. They wanted a proper tutu. They wanted whimsy. They did NOT want a photo on the cover. The original cover didn't mesh with the other covers in the series.

They were right.

However, that didn't tell me what I needed to convey to my cover designer. So, I decided to let her decide what to do. I told her what the readers said, I showed her what I had done, and let her play with it.

I love what she came up with. It's whimsical, it's bright, there's color -- and the ballet and tap shoes say there's more than just one kind of dance being taught in this studio.

Being quickly able to correct something like this is one of the best things about being an indie author.  Had this been a traditionally published story, it would have been stuck with a "bad" cover for eternity. I was able to turn it around in less than two weeks from publication.

Now, see if you're more interested in the story.
 
 Dana Milton opens a dance studio on Victoria Square. Can she teach her students kindness,  respect, and shuffling off to Buffalo, or is it all tutu much?

Kindle | Kindle Worldwide

Nook |  Kobo  | iBooks


What do you think?

I'm dreaming of yard sale season

This time last year, Mr. L and I were snowbirds for the first (and possibly last) time.  Of course, the current weather (with temps as low as the 30s) in Clearwater, would have made it rather unpleasant.  When you have cats, rental possibilities aren't that frequent and we were STUCK with a terrible rental house.  (The world's most uncomfortable beds, a house surrounded by millions of LIZARDS, and nightly kitchen visits from palmetto bugs, who usually died overnight -- but not always. That was the house from hell.)

Paid $2 for these three cocktail shakers for Mr. L's collection.

Good things?  HGTV. Publix. The Cricketer English Pub. And thrift shops and yard sales. There were scores of thrift stores near where we lived, and we visited every one of them (and more than once). And then eagerly searched the online listings for sales in our area. We learned Clearwater pretty quick driving around town looking for sales.

Our first weekend there, we went to five yard sales and a rummage sale.  IN JANUARY.  Now that's one part of the Florida lifestyle I could get used to in a hurry. We won't see a yard sale here until at least mid- to late April. *Sigh*

A prize from my holiday FB event.

No doubt about it, I'm a collector of many different items, but I also subscribe to the "catch and release" program. When I had a booth in an antiques arcade, I would buy stuff, live with it for a while, and then sell it. Now ... I mostly give stuff away.

I especially collect teacups and occasionally give them to readers via events on my Facebook. I should give away more of them, but have you seen the weather?  I haven't taken my car out of the garage since before Christmas. I probably won't need gas until at least March. But getting to the PO this time of year is proving to be a problem.

A rummage sale find.

Another problem I have with all this stuff is storing it so I can actually see it. I'd be giving it away. Wayfair had a great sale on storage cabinets back on Black Friday and I thought I had ordered one. But apparently I didn't finish all the steps.  Say goodbye to that cabinet.  They don't stock it anymore. It was perfect for a spot in my basement. Haven't found anything the right size since. Right now most of the teacups and plates are carefully wrapped in paper and sitting in boxes. I don't have x-ray vision, so to find everything, I need to haul them all out and unwrap them. Kind of messy. I need to come up with a new system.

I love cookbooks and last summer I bought more than 24 of them. I sorted through them the other day and today those that didn't make the cut (for one reason or another)  are going to the Friends of the Library bookshop. (When I left Florida, I left another 10-15 of them at my favorite thrift shop so that someone else could enjoy them.) They cost as little as a quarter and as much as a dollar and gave me many hours of pleasure.

If you'd like to see some of my yard sale treasures, you can find them on one of my Pinterest boards.  This one is called (funny enough) "My Yards Sale Finds."

For now, I'm going to start dreaming about the upcoming yard sale season. Maybe I'll write a short story about going to yard sales so I can live vicariously through a character.

What do you look for at yard sales?

Fresh from the oven

I made Yorkshire pudding last week using Gordon Ramsey's recipe. I never made them in a muffin pan before (usually in a cast iron skillet), and while they look great, obviously Gordon's oven runs hotter than mine. I think they could have used another couple of minutes, but they did taste good. I'm going to make them again like that soon. Now to buy another $26 rib. Have you made a new recipe lately?

I saw a blue jay!

It's National Bird Day. It's so cold, I haven't seen many birds this past week, but this morning I saw a blue jay jumping around the branches of the arborvitae outside my kitchen window. He (or she) looked COLD.

Heading to the library today to drop off a bunch of the cookbooks I got over the summer at yard sales. I hope the Friends of the Library can make some $$$ on them. I had fun with these books and now I hope someone else will.

What are you up to today (besides trying to stay warm)?

Hurry Yard Sale Season

by Lorraine Bartlett / Lorna Barrett / L.L. Bartlett

This time last year, Mr. L and I were snowbirds for the first (and possibly last) time.  Of course, the current weather (with temps as low as the 30s) in Clearwater, would have made it rather unpleasant.  When you have cats, rental possibilities aren't that frequent and we were STUCK with a terrible rental house.  (The world's most uncomfortable beds, a house surrounded by millions of LIZARDS, and nightly kitchen visits from palmetto bugs, who usually died overnight -- but not always. That was the house from hell.)

Paid $2 for these three cocktail shakers for Mr. L's collection.

Good things?  HGTV. Publix. The Cricketer English Pub. And thrift shops and yard sales. There were scores of thrift stores near where we lived, and we visited every one. And then eagerly searched the online listing for sales in our area.  We learned Clearwater pretty quick driving around town looking for sales.

Our first weekend there, we went to five yard sales and a rummage sale.  IN JANUARY.  Now that's one part of the Florida lifestyle I could get used to in a hurry. We won't see a yard sale here until at least mid- to late April. *Sigh*

A prize from my holiday FB event.

No doubt about it, I'm a collector of many different items, but I also subscribe to the "catch and release" program. When I had a booth in an antiques arcade, I would buy stuff, live with it for a while, and then sell it. Now ... I mostly give stuff away.

I especially collect teacups and occasionally give them to readers via events on my Facebook. I should give away more of them, but have you seen the weather?  I haven't taken my car out of the garage since before Christmas. I probably won't need gas until at least March. But getting to the PO this time of year is proving to be a problem.

A rummage sale find.

Another problem I have with all this stuff is storing it so I can actually see it. I'd be giving it away. Wayfair had a great sale on storage cabinets back on Black Friday and I thought I had ordered one. But apparently I didn't finish all the steps.  Say goodbye to that cabinet.  They don't stock it anymore. It was perfect for a spot in my basement. Haven't found anything the right size since. Right now most of the teacups and plates are carefully wrapped in paper and sitting in boxes. I don't have x-ray vision, so to find everything, I need to haul them all out and unwrap them. Kind of messy. I need to come up with a new system.

I love cookbooks and last summer I bought more than 24 of them. I sorted through them the other day and today those that didn't make the cut (for one reason or another)  are going to the Friends of the Library bookshop. (When I left Florida, I left another 10-15 of them at my favorite thrift shop so that someone else could enjoy them.) They cost as little as a quarter and as much as a dollar and gave me many hours of pleasure.

If you'd like to see some of my yard sale treasures, you can find them on one of my Pinterest boards.  This one is called (funny enough) "My Yards Sale Finds."

For now, I'm going to start dreaming about the upcoming yard sale season. Maybe I'll write a short story about going to yard sales so I can live vicariously through a character.

What do you look for at yard sales?

Something I've always wanted

Was Santa good to you last week?  He was to me.  He brought me something I have wanted since I was 11 years old. A lava lamp.

YES, a Lava Lamp!

My friend Cherie either got one for her birthday or Christmas and I remember going over to her house and we sat there for a long time watching that goop go up and down and up and down making odd shapes. It was mesmerizing. I wanted one too.

My mother grew up in England with open fireplaces and had a terrible fear of fire.  She used to go around the house at night and unplug everything "just in case." She would come into my room, unplug my radio and I'd pretend to be asleep.  As soon as she left, I'd plug it back in and listen to music.

Mum was convinced that lava lamps were a FIRE HAZARD.  Of course, they had to be. They got WARM so that the goopy "lava" would go up and down.

So, I never got a lava lamp.

Until last Monday.

Weeeeee!  Although ... it's not as active as I would like it to be.We've had it plugged in for 3-4 hours and the "lava" seems to sit on the bottom looking like the sun on the horizon. Sometimes a piece will break off and it looks like a rather large goose egg.  Did Santa bring a defective lava light or does it need to be on for 5-6+ hours before it gets up to speed?

Time will tell.

What did Santa bring you?

Happy New Year!