~ A Clean Studio Is So Motivating ~

I have been busy, going out of my mind with javascript, custom orders, packing supplies and...well...shopping :) So, I have been neglecting my little studio. Things were everywhere!


Not a pretty sight. But, I finally cleaned it. After an hour, I am ready to work again!! All the post-its are custom orders and what I need to order for supplies.


Most of my crystals are organized by shape, size and color in the little 10-sections plastic containers.


They go neatly into these yellow organizers. I love those yellow organizers! If I need to travel, I just stick the containers I need in there, grab it and go. It has a sturdy handle. Look at the rainbow of crystals!!! I love organizing by color.


I didn't get too many of these though because I figure the containers are fine if I just stack them up.


Here's what a container look inside. I use little post it flags to write down the name of the colors. Some of them are so similar that if I don't write it down, I will have issues remembering which is which.


When the box is closed, the tags conveniently bend to show the text! Yes, I am very proud of myself. And notice that I use matching color flags :)


A clean studio certainly puts me into a good mood. Well, it also helps that the sun was shining and for the first time in a few weeks, I got 8 hours of sleep! Glorious sleep! I am feeling good and I hope you are too ;)

~ Fun Tools from Gmail Lab ~

I am sure most of you have a GMail account. Did you know that there are a lot of beta features for Gmail? They range from fun to necessities. To explore these features, click on "Settings" in the upper right hand corner and then click on "Labs".


All you have to do is click on "Enable" for the features that you like. Don't forget to click on "Save Changes" when you are done.

Here's my list of "must-haves":

• Offline: Use your GMail in your browser even when you are offline!
  
• Signature Tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "--" line that appears before signatures.
• Canned Responses: Email for the truly lazy. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
• Forgotten Attachment Detector: I do this all the time!!! I have done it at work, and even when I was sending resumes to recruiters! This feature prevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.
• Undo Send: Ok. I do this sometimes too. Just hit send when I wanted to save, so this is really good for me. Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

There are some fun ones like Mail Goggle that makes you do some simple math before it allows you to send an email. So, no more "omg I can't believe I just confessed my undying love to my hot TA while I was drunk!!!".

There's one that puts a random quote as your signature for you. There are features to let you preview YouTube videos, Flickr pictures, and more right in your email. There's also language translation tools, google docs and google calendar gadgets.

Just go explore :)

~ My Beads Obsession ~

In celebration of my tax refund, I went on a supplies acquisition rampage!  I got a huge order of Swarovskis and sterling silver findings.  I have never ordered this much Swarovskis before and was surprised when it came in these cool Swarovski boxes:

So neatly packed!

Here's some of what I got, just looking at them got me all excited!

I got a bunch of pearls....looking into doing some bridal pieces :)

So, when I was ordering all this stuff, I realize that I really need to do inventory because I don't know what I have!  When I order, sometimes I order stuff that I already have and neglect to order some because I thought I have some.  It took 4 nights to do inventory of just my Swarovskis!  I don't think I am going to do the sterling silver stuff for a while.  Doing inventory sucks.

But, it's worth it.  It's all nicely stored in my Snap 'n' Stack boxes.  I love these boxes but they are a little expensive.  Like $8 for a stack of 3 at Target, I think.  But, they do go on sales after holidays like Halloween and Christmas 'cause they have the "holiday colors".  Just FYI :)

Got one stack of Swarovskis on the left and a stack of tools and other beads on the right.  This is my working space.  My dining table :)

Yay~!  I am finally done~!  I just need to write an application to help me track this stuff and to provide forms so I can input what I used for a creation and it'll automatically calculate the price and update my inventory for me.  That's my goal for April!  After I am done, I am certainly going to share with you all :)

Happy Friday~!