Lawyer: Contacted

The nice thing about having done business under the same name for 10 years on the internet is that I apparently have a case for trademark on erthefae.com. I've just submitted a form to a law firm who specializes in domain and internet law to see if they can write me a nice cease and desist letter. If that doesn't work, it's lawsuit time. Oh yeah.

At this point, I'm thinking that I should have bid on the auction when it was $60.

Anyway, I've done all I can on the domain front for now, and I've written all of the descriptions for this weekend's BFAC auctions (Locked Away is one of them!), so now it's beading time. Yeah! I've got a flower to finish.

You're joking, right?

It's been a while since I posted about the saga of my attempts to get erthefae.com back. Some months ago I tried to get it back, only to be informed that the person squatting on it wanted $800. For a small business like mine, that's a ridiculous amount of money, so I simply couldn't purchase it. I was also too busy to pursue arbitration, so I sulked.

Yesterday, one of my husband's co-workers decided that he was going to take up my cause. He put in a small offer on my domain, I guess hoping it would prompt them to offer it to one of us at a more reasonable price. Instead, they informed him that they now wanted $5,000! According to them, erthefae.com is valued at $8-10k, due to high ranking in searches. Yes. That's right. Based on the content of my website, I was highly ranked on searches for the names Erthe Fae and AJ Reardon, and things like Spiral Bracelets. Funny, that wasn't making me a lot of money. I don't think it would make anyone a lot of money.

So it's time to finally pursue arbitration. ICANN's website is full of legalize, though, so I'm going to have to wait until later (ie, when Chris is not on his endless work-day conference calls) so that I can focus on reading it.

I have to admit, there have been times when I've considered just throwing aside the Erthe Fae name and coming up with something different, but I've been using this for 10 years, so I guess I should stick with it.

In the meantime, I'm working on a beaded flower. It's good to actually be beading again. I need to stop letting things get in the way of my work.

A Key Necklace!

Key to the Autumn Door is the first piece in my new series of inexpensive steampunk jewelry. With the economy being what it is, I'm sure many people will be looking for affordable presents for the holidays, so I'm trying to add more modest pieces to my collection, to balance out the wanton extravagance of beadweaving and art beads. This new line of jewelry may also include other themes, but I just purchased a lot of keys and brass elements to use, so that will be the main focus to start with.

In other Etsy-related news, today I was accepted in the Fantasy Artists Etsy Team. I'm really thrilled and honored, as many of my favorite Etsy sellers are part of that team. If you'd like to get a taste for the excellent work done by the members of FAE, just go to Etsy and do a search for "faeteam."

In annoying news, my domain name was finally released, only to be snatched up by one of those annoying companies that purchases expired domains to use for advertising. So next week, I have to try to get it back from them. This is about where I start to bang my head against the wall...

Mmmm.... tea

I'm in a bleh mood, I have a ton of work to do, and Chris is sick with a cold which I'll surely have within the next couple of days. But at least I have delicious tea. I bought some mojito flavored tea from this seller. I'm on my second gigantic mug of it tonight, which considering the fact that it's black tea, does not bode well for my ability to sleep tonight. Guess maybe I'll get more of that work done...

I don't think I'll quite finish my turtle necklace tonight, but it will definitely be done tomorrow, unless I wake up sick, which would suck because then I likely wouldn't complete it in time for the EBW challenge, which is the whole reason why I'm making it.

The above run-on sentence proves that I have had too much caffeine.

Oh, and a website update. We've purchased erthefae.net but Chris can't find my database to upload it. I've decided not to be annoyed, because at this rate, it's almost funny. It would be nice to have my site back in time for my 10 year anniversary of business, though.

And now, back to my turtle.

What's on the horizon?

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I was feeling moody and wisely stayed away from my blog.

Anyway, there are things coming up soon. Since it looks like it may be months until I get erthefae.com back, Chris and I will be getting my website set up on erthefae.net. I really don't like having the 150 or so items on my website just sitting around doing nothing, and it would take forever to get them all transferred over to Etsy.

Speaking of large numbers of beaded jewelry, I think that once the website is back up, I'll be having a clearance sale. I have some very nice jewelry which has just been around for way too long. And because I keep making more jewelry, I am seriously running out of places to put all of this stuff!

I'm going to spend some more time tonight working on the "turtle soup" pendant. Note that I won't be calling that when it's finished, but it's a good working title. We're moving the Wednesday game to our house, due to various drama and the tendency of my dogs to eat my shoes and the cat's toys when we leave them at home along all night. By having the game here, I'll actually be able to have an Ott-Lite at hand to make working with those little size 15 Japanese seed beads easier. Assuming, of course, that I don't have a Daisy pup in my lap all night!

A little contest! Join in the fun!

Yesterday I mentioned that I felt like doing another contest. I thought about it a bit and came up with one that should be fun.

The objective is to guess the number of thread bobbins in the cup on my desk. Just post your guess in the comments section on this blog. The first person to guess the right number wins!

The prize is a pair of earrings, in the winners favorite color(s) and their choice of Sterling or Gold Filled findings, shipped free to the winner. Prize has a minimum value of $10.

My thread cup is 2" tall and 3 1/2" across, so obviously this is not like one of those county fair jelly bean guessing games where the answer is in the 1000s. That's all the hint you get :) So start guessing!

In other news, I am having a lot of trouble with my domain and my website may not be back up until September at this rate. I'm trying to stay positive, and focus my energy on the Etsy shop. As promised, I added another bracelet today (as seen above), and I'll have one more tomorrow. Then on Saturday, an exciting announcement! So be sure to visit on the weekend.

I made something - AND - took a picture of it

Look at this... I finished a bead project and took its picture! Ok, so it's not much of a picture. I took it right here in the office, with it just sitting on my current beading work surface, so the colors are a little off and the reflections are weird, but you get the idea.

This is the rivoli necklace that I was working on last week, and having a bit of trouble with. I managed to make it work after all! I thought the top two stones were both Deep Lagoon color, but the middle one is actually erinite, upon closer inspection. They're somewhat similar, but the Deep Lagoon has a warmer base color and odd, dark flashes due to having one of those special after-market coatings. It's one of the many custom colors that Betcey at Beyond Beadery carries, and the base stone is actually vintage. Oh, and the bottom rivoli is emerald. The strung section is an assortment of emerald and erinite crystals in various shapes, with the same Delicas I used for the bezel serving as spacers. The washers are actual hardware, from Home Depot, and the idea is to slip a ribbon through them and tie it at my neck, making for a nice adjustable length and a mixed-media feel.

A couple of things about this necklace: One is that it was almost free. The rivolis all have little chips or scratches on the edges, which can be hidden by bezels but which Betcey didn't feel right selling, so my co-workers and I at gem show got to take them home as a bonus ;) The crystals are all from various birthday presents and surprise packages from my friends, who know how much I love green (especially erinite and emerald!). The Delicas were from a friend who was destashing, the 15s were inherited from my friend Layne. I think I may have bought the Czech 15s from my first gem show employer, but they might also be from Layne. The only things I paid for were the thread, Beadalon, crimps and washers.

The other thing is that this is an attempt to make a necklace with steampunk inspirations, without it being obvious. Though I had the idea to do these rivolis with golden and bronze bezels before I moved, the impetus that got me moving was my new goggles. It doesn't quite match (the lenses are definitely more like the discontinued Medium Emerald Swarovski hue than the true emerald I used), but it coordinates nicely. And the genuine brass hardware washers are a nice, subtle touch, I think. I have two more that I want to turn into earrings, as soon as I find the bronze-hued titanium findings that I bought at gem show. The idea is to be able to wear it with my goggles as a nice accent to a steampunk costume, but for it to also be at home with other styles.

In other news, my website is still down. Bah. And since I was feeling a little down (physically and mentally!) yesterday, I read Jumper. All of it. I started at 3:15pm and ended before 1am, and that was with taking an hour break to play some Guild Wars, and some time for dinner. So I basically devoured the book. It was much different from the movie, better in lots of ways, worse in some (the movie is cooler, the book is deeper).

Also, I still can't find all my little spools of beading thread. Right now all I have at my disposal is my huge spool of black, and the little spool of olive that I've used for my last two projects -- neither of which are suitable for the bronze and golden brown lariat I want to start. Guess I know what I'll be doing today!

Website temporarily down

I somehow always manage to forget that my domain registration expires before my web hosting does. As such, my site went down sometime today, and I'll need to get Chris to help me bring it back up tonight.

I'm probably going to switch hosts this month, too. I don't know if there will be any downtime involved in that. I've been more or less content with the host that I've had for the past few years, but Chris says the host he uses for his business is much better, and since he does more back-end stuff with my site, I feel I should be using the host that has the options he likes.

While I was quiet all last week, I was getting some things done: beading rivolis, writing my book, considering a second blog project, and preparing to adopt a dog. Yes, as little as my cats will like it, it is time to add a canine member to this household. There are a few more things I need to do to get the house ready for a dog, but in the meantime I spent most of Saturday reading Dogs For Dummies. I learned a lot of nice little things that will make dog-ownership easier for Chris and I, and better for our pets, too. Stay tuned for more on this story as it progresses.

One other thing I did was finally go see The Dark Knight with Chris. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't find it to be quite as awesome as everyone said it was. In fact, I found that it really dragged on, especially at the end. I guess it didn't help that by the time we factored in the trailers, we were in the theater for nearly 3 hours to see the movie. It practically needed an intermission, though I suppose that might have removed some of the tension from the movie. Over all, while it was good, I didn't find myself wowed like I expected to be. Hellboy II gave me much more bang for my buck.

Today is feeling like a good day for some beading, so I think I'll go do that now.

Update delayed.

Today has not been a very great day. I won't bore you with the details. One thing that I will say is that my site keeps temporarily going down, which does not make me happy. It also makes it difficult to update.

This week's update is getting pushed back a day or two, while I deal with obnoxious real life stuff and study for my final. Thank you for your patience!

Site down again.

Not sure what is up this time, but I haven't been able to get into my e-mail for at least the past couple hours, and my website also seems to be down. If it's not up when I get up in the morning, I'll definitely be rattling my host's cage. In the meantime, I guess I can be glad that all the ads I had running expired today, so it's not like I'm missing out on any click-throughs from them ;)

Sorry to have been so quiet lately, been kind of busy. More about that throughout the week. Right now I'm pretty tired.

Site and Stardust!

As of this morning, erthefae.com is back up and running. Yay!

Last night we went to see Stardust. As you may already know, I am a huge fan of Neil Gaiman. I've been looking forward to this movie ever since I heard about it, as have Chris and his mother. The three of us went together for a late-night showing, and we were all positively thrilled by the film.

First, I must say that the movie takes a few liberties with the original story, but most of the changes were fitting for a movie. Some things were omitted or streamlined to save time, and they added some action to make the film more exciting. Certain characters and events are all together missing, and the ending is completely different than in the book, I think partially to make it more climactic (the addition of an action sequence), and partially to appeal more to Hollywood (changing the very end, making it less bittersweet than the book). However, all of the important elements are still there, and the film stays true to the tone and message of the original graphic novel and novella. The look of the movie, too, is very much like Charles Vess's artwork from the graphic novel, and my mental images from reading the book (which I read first).

The scenery was beautiful, as were the costumes. The special effects for magic, and the makeup on the witches was all pretty convincing. The swordfights were not that impressive, but they were at least believable. And the performances were mostly great, though the witches sometimes seemed to be overdoing it a bit. Robert De Niro comes close to stealing the show with his great portrayal of the airship captain; you really have to see it to believe it.

Over all, if you are a fantasy fan, you owe it to yourself to go see this wonderful treatment of one of the best modern adult fairytales.

Site status and more NY fun.

First things first: my web host package is still active, it was just my domain name that was down. I've just paid to renew it, but since they're not open on the weekend, it probably won't be processed until tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be quick about it, I always hate having my site down!

In more pleasant news, I'm still having a great time in NY. On Friday we went to Ace Handicraft, where I got some more great beads. They always have the coolest glass! In addition to glass beads, I picked up some carved horn, an almost dzi-style pendant, and a carved stone knotwork pendant. Chris also got a few clasps for his maille bracelets. The people working there were as nice and friendly as ever, and really admired Chris's work (the conundrum weave bracelet that he always wears has garnered a lot of attention so far this trip).

Yesterday we went to a Renaissance Faire in upstate NY. We didn't know about it until we got out here, but luckily I had packed some dance clothes, so between that and what I bought at the Indian import store, I was able to cobble together a decent costume which was appropriate for the 80 degree weather. Chris had no such luck, but he's not as obsessed with such things as I am anyway.

We had a really fun day... Little traffic on the drive, and there was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a little breeze to keep it pleasant. The Faire itself wasn't quite as large as the one in Arizona, but it was still big enough to keep us entertained until almost closing time! Several of the vendors and at least one performer also do the AZ faire, but mostly it was different shows and shops. It was held in a forested area, which was so wonderful, a lot more appropriate than our desert setting, and also less dusty! Our faire is always either dusty or muddy.

One of the performances we saw was Dextre Tripp, who also performs at the AZ Faire. We love his show and had to share it with my mother-and-law, who really enjoyed it. We also saw some belly dancers (not as good as Syrene from AZ), a band called Karpathios, a pretty cheezy illusion show (the tricks were nice, but the spiel was lame), and a kind of cool knife throwing and whip trick show.

Shopping was great. I love shopping at these events, but after 9 years at the AZ faire with some of the vendors never changing their wares, it's not as exciting as it used to be. Seeing all these new-to-me vendors was a ton of fun. There were different weapons, different musical instruments for Chris to admire, and lots of different clothes for me to drool over. Plus various artwork and jewelry. The artwork was great, the jewelry not so much. I ended up with an amazing two-layer handkerchief hem skirt of hand-dyed silk, and a matching top of hand-dyed silk and hand-dyed handmade felt. It's simply gorgeous, with a flowing, faerie-like look and feel to it. I can't wait to dance in it. Chris got a blue-glazed porcelain ocarina and a cool woven African hat with an Asian look. He wanted to get one at our faire, but they were all sold out, so he was really happy to find one out here.

There were a lot of people out in costume yesterday, even several wearing full armor. It was also nice to see entire families dressed up. Oh, and there was one cool guy in a 17th century courtier outfit, very nicely put together. He was at the hand-dyed silk booth at the same time as me, so I overheard part of his conversation with the gals there about his costuming. I didn't catch any details, but his enthusiasm was apparent. It was cool to see something a little different from the usual medieval-style and fantasy/gothic costumes that are so prevalent at faires -- not that I mind those at all, it's what I usually wear!

I'm hoping to maybe even be able to swing a visit to that faire every year that we're out here, since it spans the time that we tend to visit. Only going to ours once a year is just not enough!

Well, I've babbled on enough. After I clean out my purse and find all the business cards, I'll share links to some of the vendors we bought from or admired.

Site Down!

I was certain that my webhost package didn't expire until after I got back from NY, but I can't get into my erthefae.com e-mail tonight, and my domain is showing as parked. Great. I don't know if I'll have time to deal with it tomorrow, so I'll have to hope that they do business on Sundays.

Other than that, it's been a great day.

Watch this blog for updates as to the site's status.

Bead Museum Trip!

Before I tell you about my fun trip to Phoenix today, I'd like to mention that my website is back up. Apparently there was a problem with it and it had to be transferred manually, so if I had e-mailed them sooner, it would have been up sooner. They were quite quick to fix the problem after I e-mailed them, so I'm happy now... Even though my mail was bouncing back while the site was down. Ugh!

Anyway, on with the trip! My parents and I went to the Phoenix Metrosprawl today, to visit the Bead Museum there. None of us had ever been, but they were having an exhibit by our favorite polymer clay artist, Christi Friesen. Well, as it turns out, the "exhibit" was only one small display case, but she still has some very nice things there. And between the museum's permanent contents, a huge exhibit on African ritual beadwork and the Trajectories exhibit from the ISGB, and the fact that the gift shop is of course a bead store, there was a lot to see. Not enough to really justify a trip to Phoenix, but we all agreed that it was just nice to be out of the house doing something different on a beautiful day.

Of course I had to wear my latest polymer dragon, Sky Dancer. You can see her above. She's a little coatl who likes to flirt. You can see it in the teasing way she glances over her shoulder and the saucy tilt of her wings. And of course she's adorned herself with green pearls, malachite, lapis, and cobalt glass. Making all of those individual feathers was a chore, but sooo worth it!

While we were in Phoenix we also ate In-N-Out burgers (mmmm) and visited a gigantic Bookmans. For those not from Arizona, Bookmans is a huge used bookstore, which like most book stores these days, also sells CDs, DVDs and other forms of entertainment. They are quite possibly my favorite non-bead store in the whole entire world.

Today's Cool Thing is this week's BFAC auctions! They're ending Sunday, so you'd better bid now :D Of course, there will be more beautiful items next week!

Website down

My website is down. My host said they were moving it to a new server and that it would be down for maybe half an hour. It's been down since sometime last night. Needless to say, I am not too happy about this.

My e-mail is also down, since it is tied to my website. Grar! Thank goodness I had the foresight to have my blog here on Blogger, so I could keep people informed about this sort of thing.