During the hell of working 100-120 hours per week for much of last year, I must confess that my system of keeping myself organised and on top of things fell into an abyss, along with many other important things in my life! And I’ve found it difficult to pull it back out again.

So in recent days I’ve been reading through Getting Things Done all over again to remind me how it’s all supposed to work and that it does in fact work - it’s the only system I’ve ever attempted to use to manage my time and committments that actually does the job.

It’s also been very useful to remind myself that I have slipped into committing many GTD cardinal sins, such as keeping lists of things I need to attend to in my head, or of writing them out and then never looking at them again - and even of hiding piles of ’stuff’ in drawers, based on the rather flawed premise that if I can’t see it, it therefore does not exist.

Once I got my head around all of that once more, I set to work on collecting everything into lists and piles and have now gone through every single item and processed it. This shot of my in tray(s) as of a few weeks ago in comparison to one taken this evening will give you some idea of the difference to my state of mind:

It’s not that I’ve done everything, it’s just that I’ve organised what needs to be done in a way that means I won’t need to keep fretting about all the things I haven’t done or might have forgotten or might forget if I don’t keep reminding myself over and over numerous times a day. And it also means I can put my finger on exactly what I need to complete things whenever I decide to do them. Yay me!

The centrepiece of my new organisation is a very nifty piece of software I’ve discovered called Journler. It has many, many possible uses, but after lots of thought I have come up with a way to make it do exactly what I want in terms of organising myself.

So far it works a treat! And it’s going to be far more efficient than the old little application I have been using to date, which was one reason I let things slip into a hole. If you’re a Mac user I very highly recommend you get a copy and have a good play with it. If you’re not … well, it sucks to be you, huh? ;P

So far Journler has 131 entries in it in terms of next actions … and that’s after I knocked quite a few on the head this afternoon. And it’s not including the large number I still need to move across from my old software (in fact, that in itself is one of my next actions!). So, yes, there’s still too much to do. But at least I’m in control of it - and we jewellery makers do like to be in control!

PS. Hi steppy!!!

I can’t remember exactly how it was that I arrived at Jen Maestre’s wonderful Etsy shop, but one day fairly recently I did. Wow … Jen works almost entirely using pencils - not to draw with, but as the actual material from which she creates objects. For her Etsy shop she creates art cards and jewellery using coloured pencils sliced up in a wide variety of ways, making full use of the bright colours both inside and out, along with the light coloured wood which has its own unique grain and texture.

COPYRIGHT SIMONE WALSH - do not use without permission.

I really fell in love when I first encountered this work - suddenly I was one of those pencil fans that Jen welcomes to her shop! And I just had to buy something. After agonising for some time, I went for this lovely little art card which arrived promptly and is currently living on my desk while I ponder a more permanent home for it.

But wait … there’s more! Jen also makes incredibly impressive three dimensional pencil sculptures which blew me away even more. You can find these on her website at www.jennifermaestre.com

Asteridae by Jen Maestre. COPYRIGHT JEN MAESTRE - do not use without permission.

They are created in a wide variety of sculptural forms, frequently using the pointy tips of the pencils. And they are wonderful - a really clever play with material and form.

Aurora (detail) - sculpture by Jen Maestre. COPYRIGHT JEN MAESTRE - do not use without permission.

So make sure you visit Jen’s Etsy shop and website - although, be warned, you too will soon become … a pencil fan.

The Etsy Metal street team is having one of its very rare sales this week - partly to celebrate the new year and partly for Valentine’s Day. The sale starts at 8am US EST on Monday 22 January (find out what time that is where you are) and ends at midnight on Friday 26 January.

Participants in the sale - including my very own handmade jewellery shop - are offering up to 15% discount on some or all of their items - visit the participating stores for their sale details.

Participating metalworkers:

Ahna
BCYR Jewelry
C Baran
Discomedusa
Down to the Wire Designs
ES designs
Experimetal
Honeybee
Howlin Doggie
Kathryn Riechert
Lunasa Designs
Mimosa
My Little Store
Nina Designs
Nina Dinoff
Nanopod
North Star Jewelry
NY Hedy
Powder Mill Studio
Precious Pups
Rachael Sudlow
Ruby Girl
Simone Walsh
Siren Jewels
Wildflower Designs

Etsy Metal is a group of makers who work with metal using age old and specialised techniques - and who also sell their work via Etsy. Learn more about what the Etsy Metal Street Team is all about.

As of around midday today I have been the proud owner of a sparkly new Macbook Pro and an equally sparkly new iPod nano (bright pink of course … are there other colours?).

I was very dedicated and didn’t even unpack it for at least an hour or so before I had a few other tasks out of the way. This is mostly because I was fully anticipating spending much of the next few days migrating things, reinstalling things, digging out ancient registration numbers and encountering moments of intense panic as things went wrong.

But I forgot one simple little thing … this is a Mac. Such things are just not part of my reality anymore. Moments into the process of first starting up the new machine I clicked on a button to say I wanted to migrate from my old Mac … I then hooked the two machines up with a cable … and it was all sorted out for me. Yes, it did take an hour or so to move everything across, but then there was about 50gb worth of data.

And then I finished the set up on the new Mac … and everything is here in perfect working order exactly as on my old machine without me needing to lift a finger to do anything further.

Lovely.

And now it’s all set up and functioning dreamily … and I just need to figure out what to do with the old one. It’s incredibly faster and therefore happier than my old Powerbook - which was the only major problem with it. It’s also quite a bit less worn out looking, but other than that it looks almost identical.

Now I’m trying to get my head around my iPod and how to organise it. But that shouldn’t take too long. And then life will be complete … or something.

PS. Are you paying attention, Meshell? I wonder if this means I’m officially stalking you now!

Ah, yes, it almost killed me … but there is new jewellery being added to my Etsy shop after photographing it all yesterday. There’s still more to come from what I photographed and also more to be finished making and photographing.

I made the near fatal error of thinking, ‘This won’t take long!’ and setting up my light tent, lighting and tripod on the loungeroom floor to save me from clearing my desk. That was at 1:30pm. Next thing I knew it was 6:30pm … and I was in agony! All those hours of kneeling, crawling around on the floor, squatting in really awkward positions for several minutes at a time … it was hell.

Could someone please make sure I never do that again! I still hurt all over.

Now I’ve had my whine … onto the work. I’ve made a number of simple little Valentine’s day inspired pieces - hearts of course!

The red and silver hearts to the left belong to a pair of love heart earrings. I really love this finish on copper (top secret it is!!) - it seals the metal to help prevent oxidisation, which is the main thing that makes copper suck! But it also leaves a gorgeous, slightly mottled matte red finish. Delish!

The heart to the right is a hammer-beaten sterling silver pendant which has been slightly domed. I’ve got it on red and black silk, as well as one suspended on a sterling silver wire choker … none of which are in my handmade jewellery shop yet, but they will be very soon!

This cut out heart with flowers pendant is one of my favourite pieces from my recent days of making. I’ve had this heart illustration lurking around for such a long time. I made a few modifications to it and finally took the plunge and sawed it out of sterling silver and then domed it slightly. I think it works!

I’m pleased to let you know that I’ve finally managed to get around to putting these wonderful handmade sterling silver chains into production for my shop. I wear one of these almost every day - it’s my very favourite piece of handmade jewellery. In fact, I love it so much that I had to make a blog post about the joys of handmade chains (and more!) and just how very special they are.

This is my new forget-me-not pin or brooch (depending on where you’re from!). Another new little idea I started work on recently was these very simple little pins made from sterling silver and hammered to make them nicely springy. They can be worn in lots of different ways and so far the pieces I’ve made with them (there are more to come!) all feature items which can actually be removed from the pin easily and worn as a necklace - or replaced with something different. I’m looking forward to exploring this idea a bit more in my production work!

And finally I’m pleased to say that I’m managing to add more of my Japanese etch pendants and earrings back into my Etsy shop. There were hardly any left after Christmas - and other shops I sell through were selling them so fast I could barely keep up! But there’s been more added in recent days - including this etched pendant with chrysanthemums - and there are more to come soon, including more earrings.

Be sure to visit my shop to see what else is new - there are a few other pieces too and I’m adding more regularly. Oh and if one of the items linked to above is sold and you’d like it, make sure you actually check in my shop as I may well have relisted it.

So that’s it for now, but I’m sure I’ll have more new trinkets to show you in a few days.

Today I’ve made a good start on a few new pieces for my Etsy jewelry shop. And here’s a very quick shot of a few components I’ve been working hard on during the day.

As you can see there’s a few heart pieces in time for Valentine’s day, along with some new flower pieces which I’ve been thinking about for a long time.

None of them are complete, of course - instead first thing tomorrow (ie. about 11am!) they’ll go into the tumbler for a few hours. Then I’ll start working out what to do with them all! For some I have a fairly good idea, but for others I wanted to get them to this stage and then have a play and see what looks good.

I also have a lot of other pieces to remake in order to replenish my Etsy shop and other outlets after a very successful festive season. So all up I’m going to be very busy (but then when am I ever not busy?!).

Hopefully in a day or so I’ll have some proper photos of new handmade jewellery to show you - and I’ll have them listed in my shop as well.

For now I recommend you have a look at my fabulous new earring model!

As mentioned in my previous post, my workroom/studio was left at the end of 2006 looking as if a war had been conducted in it. I was so incredibly busy during the final months of the year and it quickly dawned on me that the workroom just wasn’t cutting it in terms of the way it was set up and organised.

There were many issues, including simply not having appropriate places to put things or to undertake certain tasks. I kept losing things, wasting time trying to find things, my work spread out across my entire apartment as I kept looking for more working spaces and generally everything ended up in a mess.

So my very first task for 2007 was to entirely dismantle the room and start again. And I am pleased to report that I have pretty much finished, after many days of very hard work and after spending a rather vast sum of money at Ikea!

My workroom needs to fulfill a lot of needs - it’s my office for work as I work from home, it’s the place where I run my business and, of course, it’s my jewellery studio - so I thought long and hard and came up with a plan to reorganise it, which I’ve pretty much stuck to.

I was going to post ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots here to show you the rather remarkable difference … but I accidentally deleted the ‘before’s! So instead I’ll just share the ‘after’s.

Above is my brand new desk, which replaces a wobbly old one which used to be my rather dodgy jewellery bench - so it was covered in burn marks, dents, scratches and more - not very nice to do general work on. Soon there will be a brand new Mac on my new desk … but for now there’s my trusty old one.

Behind the still to be properly hung curtain is some metal shelving containing relatively big pieces jewellery equipment, materials and more - with lots of chemicals in the boxes at the top. The table in the foreground will be where I keep my pickle for cleaning metal - saving me from running back and forth between rooms with very hot or wet pieces of metal! I will also use it for polishing. In the background are my new bookshelves, all neatly arranged as of today.

One thing I realised I desperately needed in the last few months was simply a place to pack parcels which would also be the place where my packing materials are kept. And finally here it is!

I’ve already put it to good use - and there is another order sitting on it in this photo waiting for me to pack up.

I’m pleased to report that it’s most excellent!

And finally … my lovely jewellery bench, now complete with far better organised storage and lots of surfaces nearby for storing things on.

I’ve moved it to the other end of the room so that the place where I solder is near the window rather than cooped up in a corner - I decided that the fumes were getting to me!

So … what next? Well, I won’t bore you further with descriptions of my newly reorganised kitchen, nice new fridge and speccy new vacuum cleaner … or the rather chunky amount of sorting out that still needs to happen in my bedroom.

But I will share my in tray with you. Yes, it’s a nightmare. And it needs attending to very soon! There’s also another pile of random paper hidden in a drawer that needs sorting too.

Once I feel a bit more on top of those things I shall be back at my bench making new stuff. Can’t wait!