free photoshop layer textures by les brumes via flickr

free photoshop photography filter textures by les brumes via flickr

- les brumes offers hundreds of amazing textures for photoshop geeks like myself to use for free. I can’t keep this find to myself, it’d be cruel. click on the images to check out more of her free goodies.

- house of gems is sponsoring a featured jewelry artist contest. enter to win and you could receive up to $500 to spend however you wish at their store. the contest deadline is today: august 15th and I just found out a few hours ago! fate? hurry up and enter here.

- I haven’t been posting/promoting the past few days because I’ve been spending all my time playing with PHP in order to have dynamic content on bumblesea. originally I installed joomla and skinned it to look exactly like my current site. I think I was searching for some PHP plugins when I came across indexhibit and fell in love with it. I’m scrapping the entire joomla project, it’s bloated and unnecessary for what I need. I’d prefer to support other small companies with similar taste in design if possible. is anyone still reading this? hi, mom!

behind the scenes: still tweaking the bumblesea site, the code is sloppy and unfinished. brainstorming youtube video ideas. (I might have had a breakthrough.) figuring out the best option to offer free shipping on jewelry. brainstorming ideas for squidoo, associated content, helium. eating entire cheesecakes.

speaking of eating everything, someone’s started a daily journal about their anorexia/bulimia with the name bumblesea. so if any of you happen to come across that and wonder if it’s mine, nope. I still love food. and digesting it.

steambath by sgoralnick via flickr

amalia by habablow via flickr

shades of blue by whimsical via flickr

bumble sea press

I love this post that heather from gathering spriggs made. it’s a combo of bumblesea (pictured below: the margot and hatched necklaces) and a clothing line caled saltwater. our styles match up quite well. the model in these photos is so adorable.

margot necklace by bumblesea + saltwater

hatched necklace by bumblesea + saltwater

to do list: editorial style photos with the jewelry, new acrylic line, redo the site so the content is dynamic (ugh). better than being bored, I suppose.

bird, with vines by asha aka mango woman

I love asha’s photos. at first I thought her blog, marty party, was a curated collection of her favorite photos by different photographers. then I realized they were all hers. love ‘em.

new pendants on bumblesea jewelry

looks much better with sixteen designs up, but I still need more. I think part of the reason why the last jewelry line was so successful is because I had a bit over fifty designs. I need to step up my game and stay patient. my alexa rank has jumped 18 million points since the launch. my ranking is still terrible right now but it’ll get better over time. 18 million in a few weeks isn’t shabby. and the buzz interview comes out tomorrow! I am so nervous, I know they’ll end up publishing a picture of me looking like a quadruped.

last night consisted of my favorite girls on earth, making fresh mojitos, fawning over iron chef, and roasting marshmallows over a candle. I love that I’m able to run bumblesea from wherever I’m living at the moment. for a while I felt like a nomad. but I’m so happy to be home, I don’t know if I could ever leave. I know once it gets cold again I’ll be grumbling about how I should be living in austin, TX. but this summer has been great so far.

I know I’ve been talking about this forever but I’m finally done taking better photos of the jewelry. I’m in the editing/finishing stage right now and I’m pretty happy with the results. the hatched necklace and a few other new designs will be added to the site in the update as well.

some plans are in the works to make recurring (possibly weekly?) blog posts about DIY projects. I am tired of the majority of the content on here being shameless plugs for bumblesea. I’m also compiling a list of all the talented artists and designers I’ve met/discovered in the independent and handmade community to be featured here. if you want to be featured you can always email me to be considered.

there are a few other interviews being arranged in addition to buzz, I’m happy that everything is falling into place for the new line. I’ve picked the worst possible time to turn bumblesea into a luxury brand but I’m feeling more comfortable with it as I go on.

my mantra for the week, via flickr:

YES ! by twisty331

weather’s great, zucchini’s growing. I’m getting everyone I can to play badminton tonight. can you tell I haven’t gotten any work done lately?

I want to grow a little moss garden but every time I attempt to it dies off. I’ve tried transplanting clumps and this method. what am I doing wrong?

small world by caddis fly

and in the time it took me to write this tiny update, eight people have added me on twitter. add add add.

trying to make some pure silver lichens at the moment. if everything goes according to plan I could see lichen jewelry becoming a signature bumblesea design.

lichens! and a superbly creepy (four eyed?) spider.

spider lurking in lichen by nutmeg66

lichen on a branch by michiel thomas