HOORAY

It is time to leave the day job to go to bank and pay bills. I am not too sure what that is exciting for me but at least I am away from the day job.

Margot Potter was talking about RESPECT in her post today. I think all of us need to remember this when we treat everyone. I felt like a speck of dirt today but tomorrow will get better, it it doesn't it will be in a corner with a dunce hat on!

ARRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

Take me away, far away from this place....not better! Still praising Jesus cause thru adversity, we grow into better human beings.

Oh Dear Lord...it is Monday!

Bleck, and it started not that great but I retain hope that it will be better. The folks have left and on the way home. I miss them and the house is quiet. I got my studio basically set up, missing a few things so I have to dig in another room, I moved it to a different room with better light. I did start working on a piece, stopped, re-thought about piece and now, it is going into another direction.

I am starting to get use to the new bed and I finally got up our jewelery at Copper Country! I have to add more pieces and get some more display items in there. I need to get some earings and more bracelets added in there as well. Oh, I see tons of fuzz on picture above...oh dear Lord, I need a better jewelery taking camera. Any recommendations?

My dad..

My dad at the airplane museum in Tucson. This is his actual plane from when he was in the Air Force with his squardon badge on it:) It was cool!

I came home last night and he got my studio organized:) So now all I have to do, is unpack the beads and set up the tables and I am ready to go:) HOORAY!! Thanks monkey dad, I love you!

Drum up business

Can you all do us a favor? Can you please go to our shops in Etsy and critique them? I rather hesitate to do this thru Etsy because some of those people are evil! LOL, they are really mean and I want an honest, nice, details of what I need to fix.

I am still working on my camera issues so hopefully that will be resolved and then, it just popped into my brain, I have to figure out a new place to photograph the jewelery! That nice color wall was at my apartment...hmmmmmm

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5041123

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7205503

Thanks bunches!

Jolene/Donna

Exciting

This picture is from a mission in San Antonio Texas that I took before I left there. It is beautiful and has one of the oldest rose windows in the United States.

Do you know how cool it is to read and get inspired by all of you? Thank you for your wisdom and wonderful creative beauty to look at and drool!

A kind of rainy day

We had some sprinkles here, I wonder if our monsoon season is ready to start? I have been totally busy with day job that this is my first chance to get into here. I am doing great and the rest of the house is almost ready for some picture taking:) I love having my own home, it rocks my world!

A fluffy and girly day of the dead piece.

Pendant by Gaea of course:)

Where is this coming from? Well, it is technically my business blog so I am trying to get more business pictures/pieces etc on here also:)

FEEL THE NEED TO BEAD/CREATE

Okay, my question posed to all of you, how long can you go without creating anything?

colors...

These piece is made from jade (at least that is what they had listed as the stone) and the pixie from Green Girl Studio with pearls of course:)

My comment to a comment doesn't work well at the day job so the peach in the kitchen is before I painted it red/yellow combo..:)

It is wonderful having the folks here and happy fairy day. My main bedroom/bathroom has fairies in it. I love fairies and I have a fairy tattoo:) Yep, that is me, just a wild thing what can I say.

I am freezing at the day job and really want to go home!! :) So I give you a picture of the desert around Tucson, it is so beautiful!

Before and after shots of house

Here are some before & after shots of the house. First will be the kitchen and part of the living room.

So there you go:) After the other rooms get done, I will post them here as well. My poor dad did all the painting and that red, he did NOT like:) Had to put too many coats of paint on the wall but it is worth it:) I have so enjoyed having my folks here, everytime they visit, I learn more about them:)

I know that some of these pictures are repeat sorry, problems with formatting on here with a not that great computer person on the other end.:) LOL.

Studio will rise again!

I wish I had a Frankstein picture to put up here, won't that be too cool:) Latest update, the folks are leaving on Friday, I will miss them horribly but this will give me room to get my studio set up and start creating!!! I am actually running low on jewelery to put out there and let me tell you, that is too cool! Of course, I think my brother in MN has a bunch that he is trying to get into stores up there:) WOW, three states, now that would be cool:)

My head is super full of ideas and themes to make and I am getting impatient, reminds me of Ms Margot Potter:) LOL!

My living room, kitchen, bedroom and both bathrooms are basically all done. I need to hang up more pictures in the living room and the next are my guest bedroom and the studio. Oh, I can paint my studio really funky too....dur, too used to living in apartments, how fun this will be. Must ponder colors and stuff now.....

Mom and dad's AC isn't working that great in Florida so they need to get home to fix it, of course, neither of them are looking forward to dealing with the heat and humidity, yuck.

Favorite shop on Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5318408 Fiber Beads by EBrown2503.

This picture/products were produced by EBrown 2503.

Ms Eleanore makes very lucious fiber beads. We buy from her often and make many things using her beads.

For example; our jewelery listed in Viva Mexico with some of her beads used.

Each of her beads have different stories with them and they are pretty funny. They are also frisky so you discover more beads when you swear you only had 2 of her beads:) She is a great person and very funny. We highly recommend that you purchase from her:)

It is Monday!

This is a picture of me before I lost the 30 pds and got new glasses:) This is dated from Dec 2008. I can add a newer picture of me tonight.

I am trying hard to get excited for Mondays...why you may ask, because if you think about it, we wish most of our lives away. "I wish it was Friday or I wish it was Saturday!" What about the other days of the week, yes we have to work but our attitude determines our reality and our happiness. So, I am trying to get excited about Mondays-Thursday LOL!

I had some guests over to the new house. It was so much fun. The living room is almost all painted so I got to put up some pretties and some pictures. Looking much more like me:) ahhh, that is always fun & nice:)

I also sold a bunch of jewelery to my friends mom, who I can't remember her name for the life of me! I am bad, I remember faces but names, not that great at!

FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOORAY FOR FRIDAY!!!!! I don't know about y'all but this has been a long and boring week!! I have a meeting to go to this afternoon so I have to drive to it, fun and excitement, NOT! Tomorrow mom & I will go check out displays, get stuff for display and price the jewelery that is going to Copper Country. We also have to escape and do some fun girl stuff:)

Darn it, forgot to take those kitchen pictures again! I promise they will be coming.

Last night sunset/flower

Finding....

I am finding other blogs that are full of inspiration either verbally and with wonderful pictures. They are inspiring to go different directions with my jewelery and expand my horizons.

Thank you.

jewelery made by Funky Monkey Girls

All photos/jewelery are owned by Funky Monkey Girls/Viva Mexico/Jolene and Donna Hardy. Do not reproduce unless authorized by owners.

I hate putting that statement out there but after reading articles etc, I guess I have to.

Some items have been sold, some aren't so if you are interested, please let me know!

Thursday...big sigh

I honestly do not want to be at the day job. I want to be home, putting up tables, opening beads, creating away...I am getting really grumpy so tonight, I will be setting up some tables etc so I can at least do something!!!

Dad has to finish up the living room painting so I can get my stuff out of boxes and pictures hung. I was going to take pictures of the finished kitchen but got discrated by the sunset colors and took pictures of that instead. I really love having a digital camera:)

Okay...must focus on day job stuff now....bleck.

rude people

I don't understand people some days or should I state most days. Andrew Thornton had posted on his blog various viewpoints about copying/copyright laws screen shots from other artists blogs. He just stated in his blog that he has received in his e-mail really rude comments from people screaming about it. What the heck?

As an artist, I realize that we do see someone's work and more than likely subconciously copy it. I know that I have done that in the past and who knows, now also. I love posts that explain that and how to give proper credit when credit is due. I have forgotten where/when/how/names of a art bead that I bought or if we may have copied a picture on line and totally brain farted the artist name. Please tell me! I am bad but I do try to keep the name of the artist by that bead but if I don't use that bead for a while, that name could have disappeared and I don't give credit cause I totally brain farted. Give credit where credit is due, write in your description the link/shop name/artist name where you got that bead. Most artists are thrilled that you did that and won't say anything.

Copying is a totally different nut. DO NOT COPY PEOPLE TECHNIQUES OR THEIR ART WORK! Yes, I have in the past used some images that I shouldn't have...notice the phrasing, in the past. I will change it,mix it up, make is my own. Yes, we do get ideas and I do get jealous when I see something that I had thought of but someone made it quicker than myself. Learn and move on....

Take a lesson from fashion, many of the past styles keep coming up but they are different from the previous years by use of fabric, folds, buttons etc. Keep that in mind while you make your creations and you will be fine. I will take my own advice as well. But if you see your artbead or your idea, please let me know so I can fix it and give proper credit where credit is due.

Wild Kingdom

Here are pictures of the bob cats, please excuse the quality of these photos, the sun was directed that way and they wouldn't sit still for the pictures LOL Momma caught a bunny and the little boy grabbed that bunny. I believe he shared it but didn't see them eating. It was the coolest thing ever!

All pictures on this blog unless indicated otherwise by the author are the property of Funky Monkey Girls/Viva Mexico/Jolene Hardy or Donna Hardy. Images are not authorized for reproduction unless specified by the author.

Promoting my favorite shops in Etsy

I am going to try to do this weekly if day job permits. I have several shops in both Funky Monkey Girls and Viva Mexico shop on Etsy that I have marked as favorites and have bought items from them. So I got a brilliant idea and decided to promote their shop on our blog.

Handmade Ceramic Buttons and Whimsical Fashion!
siennaorlando's Shop Announcement
Welcome to my online shop of crazy little beautiful things. Everything is handmade by me, so please allow for minor variations. See shop polices for lots more information! (this is her picture from her etsy website)

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6675386 She makes the cutest buttons ever! This is her Variety Pack Everyday is Your Birthday Special.

I haven't purchased anything yet but believe me, I will and they are just too cute to put in the back as a clasp..

Organized

is the key word for my studio. I thought I was but having no space truly you aren't. Now, I have an entire room, a huge closet and my dad sleeping there:) So, my plans are on the back burner for now but yes, they are bumping and thumping around my brain.

I have a good digital camera but I am not getting the quality of the pictures that I truly need to sell our jewelery. Mom & I are taking inventory tonight and getting things ready to go into Copper Country this weekend. For those who don't know, Copper Country is an antique and comissioned store. It has all sorts of goodies in it and I have bought my shabby chic dresser and kitchen chairs from it. It is HUGE but the jewelery counters, which are locked are up front and everyone goes wandering down those aisles. http://www.coppercountryantiques.com/ website....

The kitchen is almost ready to take pictures:) I have my 2 Mary Engelbreit pictures up on my red wall and they both just pop! It is cool!!!!!!!!!!

This picture is my Mayan necklace listed here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5041123

Etsy

I was going to be so clever and copy pictures out of one Etsy store to move it to our other Etsy store...didn't work, the pictures are extremely blurry, darn it!! grumbles....

I will be editing away, hopefully tonight, praying that laptop works so I can get some new stuff on Etsy. We have it pictured, now I just have to size it etc...mom is way to busy with school stuff so I better pick this up right away:)

painting and wild animals

Back at the day job, bummer. My red and yellow kitchen is coming along wonderfully:) As soon as it is all painted and pictures are hung, I will post it on here.

My dad is sleeping in my studio because of the lack of light at night, I have good lamps etc for the day time hours so no setting up tables etc, I am getting antsy from lack of beading!!!!!

Loreli made an awesome necklace using the Alice in Wonderland theme so I am thinking of favorite childhood stories to do some of the same thing. Thanks for the great idea!!

I think I have 2 families of bobcats that are roaming in the neighbors and mine backyard. It is really cool. I need to water something back there when I get home so I will loads of noise so they know I am coming out. Mom got the best pictures so I will try to get them posted. It is so cool!

Both Funky Monkey Girls and Viva Mexico are back up. I am slowly learning how to edit pictures on my laptop at home so new product will be gradually updated on both sites. Also, we got a couple of shelves at Copper Country so we will be putting product in there this week:) I am excited.

The washer/dryer will be delivered today, it was suppose to be delivered on Saturday but who knows what happened? sigh...such is life. Luckily everyone had enough clean underwear LOL.

It is Friday

We have bob cats and babies. They are super cutest! They are playing in my back yard and it is totally cool. I love it:)

The 2 shops on Etsy are re-opened and we are ready for business. We need to bead. Daddy monkey has painted my kitchen wall red. We need to buy more red paint for it and then the rest will be yellow. It is going to be totally awesome.

House...

The color that I picked for the living room looks rather like baby poop...the brownish stuff...so I am changing my mind on that one. The red will work great in the one wall in the kitchen but we need to get some stuff to put on the wall so dad doesn't have to paint it over 5,000 times. We will check the yellow paint tomorrow on the kitchen walls to see if that will take a bunch of painting over it as well. It is going to be just cutest!

I am so feeling the need to bead!!! I am transfering that energy into working on my house, i.e. hanging up pictures, paint colors etc....sigh. I WANNA BEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All my stuff is still packed so I am telling my inner maxine beader person to hold on to her pants and WAIT!

Studio...

argh....feeling frustated because I haven't created anything in a while and plus, I can't find my jewelery to wear everyday. I am thinking I am going to move some boxes into the guest bedroom so I can at least start unpacking some stuff so I can create!! I can't unpack living room until I get that painted.

Must find jewelery...feeling really really naked lately!

Monkey dad

The monkey dad arrived yesterday safe and sound. He likes my house;) So that is good news...if he didn't like it, he can sleep in the shed LOLOL.

I did way too much stuff yesterday!! Unpacked the kitchen, lifted some boxes, went to the old apartment and cleaned some more there....I am a hurting person right now.

We are going to church later...drinking much needed coffee right now!

Day job

Why do people need to create more work/issues for you than you already have???? Sigh.....I should have taken more time off from work. I am very irriated and frustated at the day job and when I get home to see the mess there & my back hurts...I get more irriated and frustated. I am trying really hard not to take it out on mom. I am going to ask for some time off next week.

I will pray about it and let it go. My one toliet is running all the time, so I am going to shut off the water on that one and dad can show me how to fix it. I can do it once I learn how:)

Now, my goal, hopefully, is to get the bead room more organized by getting the tables set up and some of the boxes that are temporaily in there, moved into the closet. Dad can help me put up the heavy book boxes so at least those are out of the way for now. Tonight, we go back to the old apartment, pick up stuff, bring back the vaccum cleaner and tomorrow the cleaning people show up, my couch shows up and dad shows up. Busy Saturday.

Moving on Jet Plane, don't know when I'll be back again..

Yes, the move was a success:) Everything is in the house but not unpacked yet. I was lucky to find clothes for work last night:) We are exhausted. Of course, you never sleep well in a new home so I am one tired out monkey right now.

I forgot that my water heater runs on gas so we had to heat up some water using Mr Coffee, yes folks you can use it to brew coffee and to heat water so you can take a sponge bath and wash your hair!! LOL

My gas gets delivered tomorrow. It sounds like a mouse/rat is trying to make it's home under my house so I have to get some poison for it...I don't want to do that but I can't imagine trying to get a poor little cutest mouse out of a trap either......yuck. I don't like killing stuff unneccessarly but no cat etc....too bad a friendly snake won't get it and then move out!! I have to get steel wool today to plug up the hole as well, it is probably got in by my gas stuff..

I couldn't find my alarm clock so both cell phones were set up to go off today. The cleaning crew is coming out on Saturday to the old apartment:)

Too tired...

Okay, I am a dork, I set my alarm to go off around 0430...yawns...I got out of bed around 0500 and by 0530, we were done packing the bathrooms/rest of bedrooms etc. So, now mom & I are doing computer stuff and being really really tired.

I am so glad that I am off at noon. I will go home and nap...probably not cause I will have unpacking to do at home:) Please pray for Monkey momma while the movers come etc because I will be at the day job....

*yawns* I HATE GETTING UP EARLY!!! Once upon a time before I got fibromylgia, I was a huge morning person....that went away:)

admission

I don't feel like working....I wanna bang on the drums all day.....sigh.

Life, Universe and everything...

View of my old living rm:

Starting to sound like a Douglas Adams book...good author, he wrote Resturant at the End of the Universe and several other books, they were quite unusal.

I got the half day tomorrow off:) Praise the Lord! So, tomorrow afternoon, I pick up mom and then off to new house. The movers are coming tomorrow and I am super excited! Dad is coming on Saturday so at least we can start doing some painting in the kitchen soon. We got some super cute shower curtains for curtains in the kitchen. They don't look like shower curtains and I really couldn't find anything that I liked so why not:) Thinking creatively out of the box is a fun thing:)

I am still not packed. We are down to 2 boxes which the rest of plates etc go into and the rest, the good old stand by packing material, no rub garbage bags:) They work really well for clothes. Today, I have a cute outfit on that I haven't been able to wear in several years;) Soon, I will be able to get into my summer box of cute clothes that I was really close to wearing when I was living in San Antonio. Tucson has been awesome to me and yes, God has had that happen to me as well:)

I am so relieved that part is over and it took me over 1/2 the morning yesterday to take care of getting things turned on. Yes, I know I waited but hey, I was a bit paranoid stuff would fall thru!!

House...

It is officially MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I signed the property lease (I rent that) today and I move furniture etc in on Wednesday! Excited is a mild term for how I feel!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Taking a back break from packing right now. Most of it is done just the 2 bedrooms and then life stuff that you need everyday. :) It took me all morning to be sure the utilities are all done...pain in the butt!!!

I was shaking like a leaf on Saturday when I signed for my house & gave them downpayment money. I was in a much better mood like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Stay tuned for a open house invitiation for everyone!!!!