ok. i’m trying out a new style of photographing the jewelry that i make and try to sell. go to this link and then come back here and tell me if you like the new pictures better than the old ones. (there’s an example of one pair of earrings photographed both ways.) i have other photos to add later (more necklaces) but i haven’t gotten them uploaded onto the page yet. any advice to improve this idea? oh, and which of the jewelry names do you like the best? should i stick with one naming theme? (quotes, food words, women’s names, other ideas?)

i found a silpat baking mat at the dig-n-save today! if you’re not familiar with this, my favorite bargain-hunting ground, it is basically the “outlet store” for one of the local thrift store businesses in town. if items do not sell in the regular thrift stores, they get sent to the dig-n-save. sometimes, if their intake load is high, stuff gets dumped directly to the dig-n-save. there, items are priced by the pound. you walk in and there are rows of four foot-tall appliance boxes full of clothing and linens. clothing is $1.00 a pound, linens are 50 cents a pound. a little further back in the store, there are tall tables (with about 12″ sides to hold stuff in) filled with metal stuff, glass and ceramic stuff, and then random tables filled with stuffed animals, baskets, toys, games, boxes, artwork, kitchen supplies, you name it, it’s probably showed up at some point (all 25 cents a pound). beyond these tables are piles of furniture (priced individually, not by the pound) and then shelves of electronics, lamps, suitcases and tables of books and other print material (books are 20 cents a pound). most of it is junk. large portions of it are junk. but sometimes, there is treasure to be found. like today’s silpat mat. i own two that i love and use every time i use my cookie sheets. i have a third cookie sheet and was considering getting another silpat to boost it’s usefulness, but didn’t want to fork over the cash since i make cookies about once a year and don’t usually need more than two cookie sheets. but, at 25 cents a pound for an item that weighs…probably less than a quarter of a pound? hooray!