Making it easier........

Personalised cuff links with a chain link back

Each one individually hand cut, stamped, filed, shaped and polished



Well Blogger have updated their site so that mobile devices can view the blog on mobile friendly settings....I have activated it but now I need to get a mobile device to see if it really works!!

On other news the search for a job to insert cash in to Silver by K8 continues (as does my fight to resist turning in to a profit orientated retail giant!). So with reality biting I am off to Hong Kong to pursue that job and the lifestyle that might make running a company in my spare time that little bit more realistic profitable without pinching the customer for more money(less tax out in Hong Kong).

Silver by K8 is still producing items (see the pictures above and below) however there will be a longer turnaround time now as I will not see my studio for 6 weeks after it is sent to Hong Kong.....and I need a job before I can send it over so keep your fingers crossed (or hold your thumbs!). I shall be on the trail of silver suppliers and stone suppliers from the minute I land and will keep you up to date of the differences I find and what is better or worse out there for the jewellery industry and international selling.

On a final note for this blog I have noticed that people are not inclined to polish their pieces as often as would be best for the silver.....the answer? Wear it!! Natural body sweat actually keeps the tarnish from building so fast so yes, rub it with your (clean) fingers now and again and when you want the shine back then use an appropriate polishing cloth.

Custom order 'traffic light' pendant of black onyx

New tools

Last week I tried out a new polishing system. It is a series of three different grades of rubber to polish up the silver just like using graded paper, Tripoli and Rouge.

I liked the idea of using these as they do not involve polishing compounds that get stuck in fine detail and in stamped words that make them look dirty (and which takes longer to have to soak and clean them afterwards).

I have to say the results so far are promising, the final polish has not come out as good as using rouge just yet but I am still practicing and it is not far off. The added bonus too is that they are supposed to be able to polish up semi precious stones too and there is no risk of getting the tips confused as they are colour co-ordinated....brilliant.

They are more expensive and by the looks of it they do not last that long either so time will tell if they are worth it but as every jewellery maker will tell you - it's all about saving time where you can without lowering the quality of the finish.

I also got my first batch of 'tarnish free' silver in the post this week after a delay and I am excited to get using it. It doesn't look like much but it was a good £100 worth......new pricing structure required here! The prices of silver are really only going one way but hey, it is a precious metal.

I plan on doing an order for cufflinks in this tarnish free silver as they will be perfect to see the difference on fire stain (i.e. if there is any reduction on this silver as promised) and thus time it takes to produce them.

Well I have donated to my wonderful charity of choice now so I think I might start one of those running total things where I can see how much I put in over the years....just to keep track and remind me to do good things for others. I just read on the Moving Mountains website that the founder (Gavin Bates) is doing his 6th Everest ascent this year and you can even follow his progress in a very high tech way here:http://www.myeverestchallenge.com/
Best of luck Gavin, come home safely.

Right, back to my studio now as I have quite a few orders stacking up again....exciting!! Oh and the rings I started last week are not done yet...in fact I am on my third version of one of them as it is proving technically harder than you would think to look at it....oh the fun in the studio!!!

Achievements

Wow, a few weeks and no update. Something big must have happened....afraid not but I did go away for a week’s holiday and the pain of getting back in to the swing of things again is real. But I'm back.

Whilst away I took part in Sweden's (and apparently the worlds however there is a longer one in Canada when I Google search but then again it also says the one I did was the longest - anyway I transgress) longest cross country ski race up in Dalarna, north Sweden. Its 90km's long and we had the best conditions they have had in 20 odd years. It was an utterly fantastic experience to be there with thousands of people all moving along like a pack and fighting the pain till the end. The last section was just magical, the light of the day was fading, the last stop (with 9km left to go) was lit up with soft street lighting and candles and they fed you up with warm sugary coffee and buns before you set off for the last time toward to the finish. As I set off the path was lit with candles for about 1km, it was twilight and I felt this overwhelming sense of satisfaction and pride that I was actually going to finish this course (before they close it off as they have cut-off times). It made the pain disappear for a few minutes and I just thought of getting to the finish line to see my husband and know he would look after me from there on. 12 and half hours after I started that morning in minus 15 degrees, I finished. It was minus 8 again!!

And the rest as they say is history! We then spend the next few days in a spa hotel which totally put me back together again (can't tell you how much a sauna does for you after being cold for soooo long)and then we got on a plain to Riga in Latvia for the hubby's birthday surprise. I think the surprise was that it was sooooo cold!!!

So back to jewellery....after all this is a jewellery blog. In actual fact the week before we went on holiday I was in London (quietly so apologies to all friends if you read this but it was not a social visit - it was a job hunting one) and whilst there I took advantage of delivering an order. Here are some pictures of that one:

Pear shaped name pendant

Free form moonstone and blue tourmaline pendant


Natural Turqouise set (window set dome pendant with dome stud earrings)




This week I am working on order for 2 rings. One of which I will be setting, a navette shaped Tanzanite stone that is stunning, as a family heirloom. Pictures to come.

So personal tax time is just around the corner but for companies here in Sweden we had that done and dusted in February. It is very hard to tell how well you are or are not doing when you don't have a full year of operation to reflect upon however with a little help from the accountant we could see that I made up a little of the debt the company used to start up which is a great sign. It is not a profit and that may not happen for a number of years but the figures are going the right way already and that is a great sign especially given that silver prices are going up. With that in mind I realize that my charity donations may be very long in the coming so instead I have decided to give a donation from the company every year anyway and not wait for the profit to come (that was rather too hopeful of me to think I would achieve profit within 6 months!!). So donate I will do. Having said that I have briefly researched this and found this article..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703787304575075400171203026.html
..I will do a little more hunting around however I feel the donation may not be tax free. Well, it's not for my benefit but this is an interesting subject that I didn't realize about Sweden.....and if I am honest, it's not a deal breaker for me donating. One way or another if they get some cash and can do well with it then that is my goal. If in the process I get a tax break that is a bonus, if not...c'est la vie.

Until next time - when I hope to let you know about my experiences with some new Argentium silver and rubber polishing heads I have ordered. Just gadgets or are they time saving devices?

Don't forget to click on the title of this page to see my web shop ;o)

How to get known....... click here to see my webshop!

A pair of black Onyx hearts

Recently I have been wondering how to reach your target audience in today’s media frantic world where a Google search in itself can take ages to find a simple item and everyone has at least a Facebook page, a twitter account AND a multiple page website.

It is a full time job keeping those sites up to date and marketing them and the minute you take the eye off the ball the viewing numbers will drop. But is it all enough? Does it actually create sales or a name or a reputation for yourself in an industry?

Everyone has heard of Hatton Garden if they are looking for an engagement ring in London but even there you find shops that are full of counters with people selling jewellery wears and trying to make a name or a fast buck.....its ruthless these days.

Time to get smart. Without the time or the finances to go on a course for several years in the city and create contacts I need to get out there and been seen. It's the BEST advertisement anyone can have. I am in the fortunate position that my product is made to be displayed and portable so it will get the most amount of publicity just by being worn. I now need to ensure that my target audience is seeing this.....sitting in my garage or behind a computer screen all day just will not do it.

I have decided that the best way for me to do that is get back in amongst what I consider my target audience and wear my jewellery and wear it well! So the search for part time jobs back in the investment industry begins.

Everything in life is worth trying and if it doesn't work perfectly the first way then tweak it a little. I am in this company for the long run as I love making the pieces far too much to ever stop but I need that balance of exposure right now and whilst I am still young enough and can remember what to do in an office (just!) then now is the right time to mix and match.

Next week I will update on some pieces I have been working on, some tips I have learnt the hard way and how did that end of year result go?

Gothenburg Event

My next event has approached fast and I now only have one week left until the pre valentine’s day event in a shop in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city (it is actually nicknamed little London by the locals).
I know a lady there called Jane and she runs a shop called Jane's Place which sells all those things from the UK that you miss and just can't find in Sweden such as Walkers crisps, Monster Munch, Jaffa Cakes and real sausages. So every year I order my Christmas items from Jane including the crackers that you cannot bring over yourself (because of the explosive bit) and on Boxing Day we have our English Christmas with the Swedish side of the family.
On one occasion picking up sausages for a BBQ in the summer we were chatting to Jane and we talked about the possibility of doing something business wise together and it has ended up being one of her tasty Saturdays. This is where clients come along and taste selected items from Jane's pantry once a month to see wheat she has in stock and catch up. We thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the clientele she already has and let them see something new in the store plus there is plenty of time left before Valentines so I can even take orders. Tomorrow I am off to hand out flyers in Gothenburg. I have 120 of them....I hope that is enough....and I hope they don't all end up on the floor making a mess or I will have to stop and pick them up again.
So mass marketing and spreading the word is this week’s target, oh along with making the mandatory pieces...which thankfully I started with last week. Hurrah. Here is a little peek at a new piece just for the Valentines do at Jane's Place.





So if you are in town or about or have an afternoon to spare come on over and see what we both have to offer.

Prioritising

Prioritising...it is so simple when given due thought however it can upset the whole logistical flow if you miss even one little (but important) thing.
I am not entirely sure how I thought I was prioritising my orders from my London party at first....maybe it was by who ordered first on the day or what I thought I was in the mood for but anyway what I had not done was look through my orders as a whole and see how much work each order was and how long it would take to do. When taking the orders I did a rough calculation but I did not sit down and work it through with all my material once I returned home. So inevitably I focus on one thing and forget all others for few days until.... I get an email asking how it's going with one piece (which is so very simple and quick to do that I really should have done it first), it is then I realise my error.
It's so funny, so friggin simple yet I don't do the things that I know I should....I guess I have no real discipline yet when I comes to orders and prioritising them as I have not done it before but I am very much a girl who only has to be told once (unless it's my parents!!). I promptly sat down and wrote a time each ticket would take to complete, measured all the materials I would need and then set about putting the work in to my diary which gave me a much better idea of realistic due dates for items. I then emailed those customers left who would be expecting a short turnaround time to let them know when to expect their items....and now I feel like I actually have a grip on things again.
Lesson for me here: When I get back from a big ordering event allow time to plan all the orders in to the diary (prioritise with small, easy ones first as those people will expect a shorter turnaround time) and then mail out the due dates to the customers. It is great for keeping the communication channels open too and that is very important when dealing with long distance customers.
So once the smaller orders are complete I will re-assess my time line and if I am still on target I will mail out the expected due dates to the people with slightly bigger pieces ordered and start the communication up with them again.

An update on the time management thing too, it works!!! It is not easy getting up every day at 6am but it really works and I am treating my silver more like a job now, with my daily schedule, and it seems to be going much smoother.

Items slowely getting up on the new website:

Marketing Ideas and a really good 'make your own calendar' tip

I am thinking a lot lately about marketing, target audiences and how to reach them. In Sweden it is a mixed bag, there are technology savvy people and there are the older generation who are not quite so and are just getting to grips with searching the internet.

Google sent me an ad the other day with money off for Ad words. It seems I would get a small advert on the right hand side of the page on a Google search result page but only pay if someone clicked on my website. I am skeptical. As a routine searcher myself I regularly click on those links to see what I get and where, rarely does that ever lead to a purchase which leaves me feeling that I may just end up paying for people to surf the net. There is strong argument that it may just get traffic to my site and that alone is good enough but I am not sooo sure and it's quite a risk.......but one I may have to take to drive new audiences to the site.

It is time to target some publications too. I have seen that magazines for mums are very popular when advertising jewellery here in Sweden and I have even approached my local orienteering club who advertise on the back of their quarterly pamphlet. There is a local newspaper that goes out once a week too and that does reach a LOT of local people as it is free but the adverts don’t come cheap.....time to design a good (but tiny) advert!

So that covers the internet and publications for now but I feel like I need to reach more people so I think I may get some small A5 leaflets printed and hit the streets of Alingsås and Gothenburg. I will also leave some at the tourist information in town and make sure I am registered on the company website for Alingsås.....every little bit helps.

I did see a really good way to promote a site too this week. A fellow Etsy shop owner, (check out his blog I am following on the left), is doing a giveaway competition but in order to be entered you have to follow his blog, add his blog to yours etc etc. It's all designed to get the word out there......I think I may have to follow in this wise mans footsteps soon....maybe a February give away.........WATCH THIS SPACE ;o)


One little tip I found this month too....a website where you can make your own Swedish or Finnish or Norwegian calendar:
http://kjell.haxx.se/kalender/
You can upload pictures for each month and insert dates for birthdays throughout the year which update the age of the person automatically every year if you put in the original date of birth and of course it has all the flag days, red days and name days in there, perfect!

New SEK based shop NOW OPEN

Finally I have a site where I can post items for sale, customers can see what I have previously sold and read up on Silver by K8 all in one place. There are even links to the right of the page to go to my blog and my Facebook page where I can advertise offers and events, huraaahhhh.

What about my current website then? Well I have decided to streamline and really I don't need all those pages so I will have my wonderful IT man (Henrik the husband) make the SEK based shop appear when anyone types www.silverbyk8.se or www.silverbyk8.com in to the address bar or searches from Google....at least that is the plan! For now it is a link that I have embedded here, on my FB page and on my current website.

So why did I do it?
The Etsy page was very American, whilst providing as much protection for both consumer and purchaser it also made a lot of admin for anyone just trying to buy an item (signing in to Etsy first then buying the item on Etsy and THEN buying it for real). It was actually confusing for a lot of people who don't use Etsy.....and that is most people in Sweden! So to simplify for customers and for my accounts, (no more USD conversions,)I found a much simpler alternative here in Sweden. Now customers can find the item they like, click on the buy now button and pay with a credit or debit card. No additional steps required (but if you find any let me know!!).

My new flower ring with a pop of colour from last week in the studio:



Some Christmas orders (completed and since christmas is over I can now publish them!)

Time Management....my old friend

I have spent years in and out of the military managing my own time from flying over a target within 5 seconds of the planned time to managing my personal itinerary over half the world, coordinating with relatives, booking flights, accom, things to do, finding a job etc etc. I set goals, I set time limits to realise them and I make sure they are realistic, I just did it naturally as that is what drove me........BUT what I didn't CONSCIOUSLY realise is that managing your time is a full time job when it doesn't come naturally and for me, creativity and time management have never been a natural partnership.
I have noticed that in order to let my creativity flow I need to turn off to the world outside and just let it happen, allow myself to feel happy or sad or whatever it is I feel that day and work with that in the studio or here on my blog or the website. Now that could be argued as a requirement for the job and I would agree......but and this is a big but.......where does the creativity need to get turned off and the business head turned on? That is what I have struggled with whilst setting up this company and I am sure many others do too.
At first I thought it best to just go with what I felt like on the day (surely that is the luxury of working from home and being an ARTIST no?), if I felt creative I would go to the studio and work and if not I would stay in and do computer work\bookkeeping. Sounds good but didn't work, I ended up indoors a lot, watching the TV, baking and not bookkeeping.
I started to read success stories from other small businesses and bloggers and I noticed a theme, many of them had children and thus a set routine, emails in the morning, making things in the afternoon and packing in the evening and of course they worked it all around the children. I wondered how they managed to find the time to do it all when I don't have any kids and struggle to get out of bed some days! But then it dawned on me (and it's not rocket science) they have limited hours in their day.......they had time management forced upon them all the time and the creativity was not on tap or free flowing it was more given a chance once a day to rear it's strange head and play...and that worked for them........time to give that a go me thinks (the routine not the kids!).
Now I know you are all thinking 'doh, we learnt that at primary school' but it's so different when you have to actually instigate it for yourself and discipline yourself (no teachers here)and there is no motivation around other than yourself (even travelling there are always others around to tap in to)so here I am forcing myself to get up at 6am everyday with the husband and stick to a routine, computer work in the morning but with a strict cut-off time (or I seem to disappear in to the ether for hours on end) followed by exercise (cross country skiing these days) followed by the afternoon in the studio.
Well it's only few days in to it and already I feel like I am gaining ground on everything.....I am almost excited that I can see the potential for my new website to be up and running and a routine whereby I make something, photograph it and post it up all within a week. I even have a new Facebook page for my business where I can separate my business affairs from my personal, hurrah.
So time management, tricky little devil if you take your eyes off it for too long or even misinterpret how to best use it for yourself.....even in the name of creativity. I have found that in order to tap in to my creativity and keep momentum within the business I need structure to tell me when it's time to do those things, even the deadline to get off the computer drives me to finish my web updates first instead of wondering off to Facebook and as for the creativity well that just pours out of me the minute I see my stones in the studio so right now I have no problem with that....more with putting the lid back on it in the evenings ;o)
Time management is so personal to everyone, as with the ladies with children who also run their businesses, there are often factors beyond our control that drive our choice of how we manage it but when you find yourself with the luxury of being able to choose it entirely for yourself it then gets really personal....you need to tap in to yourself and know what you need to get the best from yourself...AND JUST DO IT! Nike spokes girl maybe?

See you next week

Jingle Bells

Christmas has indeed come and I am still shoveling snow daily but it will be a very beautiful and white Christmas here in Sweden. Here is a quick picture of my gingerbread house that I entered in to the competition to win a trip to the Ice Hotel:






The Christmas postage deadlines have past now so the main bulk of orders have been completed and I can safely say that this year I have succeeded in maintaining a balance between too many orders and too little. I will confess that my capacity is not exactly 100% yet but routine is forming in my life and thanks to the launch parties I had enough business to keep me busy up till now and I still have 5-10 orders left to do. I also have a sales day in a shop in Gothenburg at the end of January where I hope to sell items in advance of Valentine’s Day so I have to get going on those items too.

We are rapidly heading for year end (and another new tax nightmare approaching I am sure!) so this is the time I will sit down and go through the plan for 2011, month by month, using my lessons learnt from 2010 to try and improve on all fronts and there is plenty room for improvement.

The first improvement, as mentioned last week is the new Swedish Kroner based website (written in English) the second, a Facebook fan page. I have decided that the shop will be my silverbyk8.se domain page, I have a blog and I will have a FB page too....so that I can keep my personal and private lives separate, as can my friends on FB. I will be looking at my marketing of these sites and networking in and around Sweden primarily (magazine adverts, newspaper adverts, listings at local tourist information offices, local internet company listings, local bloggers, even local jewellery shops to network, network, network). I will also be looking at the UK market too and doing the same.

Whilst networking I will be looking out for shops to sell\display my items too. I have one in Scotland already interested so I will be looking to take them up on the offer as soon as I have items completed. I need to have displays I can show to potential shops to entice them to display my goods and then of course target appropriate shops and industries.

I will look in to partnerships with home party sellers of beauty products and also reaching out to larger companies to give them ideas for gifts to employees etc.

Right, I feel like I need to get going already!!

I will be here again next week......Mondays is working MUCH better for me.

Networking with small businesses in Sweden

The Christmas orders are nearly complete, I have submitted the photos for my gingerbread house competition and I (and the husband thank goodness) have been on another Tax course and this time he understood all that I missed….twice before!! So I am now ready to really put all the pieces of my business together to make 2011 a strong year for Silver by K8.

In the studio my confidence is growing in leaps and bounds with both the soldering and the design of the pieces and I am really looking forward to doing some ‘freelance’ pieces again after the orders are done.

As for business I met a couple of people in the past few weeks I want to mention:

The first is Tina of Kuckilura


www.Kuckilura.se, who is a mum and sews hats and jackets and clothes. She organized one of the Christmas markets that I went to and a couple of friends were in and I bought a fab little hat for my niece (no pics yet as it’s a Christmas prezzie surprise ;o) ).

The other person was Sarah from Country Living

http://www.storegardencountryliving.com/. She is originally from the UK and has lived here in Sweden for 20 odd years now. Her store and café is only 45 minute drive from where I live and we visited this weekend, what an inspiration! All the things that are wonderful and come from the UK (not just the UK either) have been rooted out by Sarah and brought back to this adorable place in the Swedish countryside not to mention the Peony fragrance hand soap and lotion which I am going back for at the first chance I get. Even the clothes, which I thought would be the same as any other place really, were from many different countries and the Norway brands were FAB! She has Angora and Cashmere items which are trendy and very reasonably priced. If you can imagine bringing together the items that you think are the best from all the places you ever have been too, but only the best ones, and then put them all together in a house….that is Country Living.

Both ladies have been inspirational for me and more connections in this new country and new life. I have decided as a result of one of the conversations with Tina that I will purchase a service for a Swedish shop now instead of running my Etsy shop to sell on. I like the fact that Etsy can reach more people and is commercially better known but I am not a commercial seller and I need to ensure that both I and my customers get the best service available and that means being as simple as possible. For a customer in the UK or Sweden to buy something in US dollars only for me to have to change it back to SEK again is crazy not to mention costly so I am working on getting the SEK based web shop up and running ASAP. I will keep the Etsy shop there but I will not be actively promoting it as much as the Swedish shop. I am still focused on building my clientele within Europe first……Europe first, the world second (and I am not the only small business with big ideas either huraaahhh).

So no pictures of jewelry this week, more of Christmas things ;o)
Have a great week and hopefully see you again next Monday.

London's over, Swedish Christmas markets begin

The London launch party was great! I had a wonderful time with friends and family and the whole week was wonderful for my company too. Not only did I get my advertisement out there but I got future ideas for ways to sell when in the UK....home parties here we come.

I got to spend some time with friends of an evening and show them my wears. I found when there is no pressure, some food and drinks available and time to explain and play with stones and ideas it produces a much satisfying outcome for both the customer and me. The larger party was great for advertisement and volume of sales but not something I think I would venture to do more than once a year.

Pictures from the event:




So with my sales strategies coming together slowly I look towards the next week and I have 2 winter markets in one weekend! I still have the card accept machine for this next week and I am interested to see how many Swedish people use it at these country markets....time will tell. I anticipate these markets to be hard to sell high value items at (although I may be proven very wrong) so I am pitching myself with low to middle priced items and a few high end items. I will only have on sale the stones that are set already and the rest will be silver items and a mixture of silver and beads.

Once the markets are over I will be head down, bum up, producing the Christmas items for Swedish and English customers alike in my newly refurbished and insulated studio (courtesy of my father in law and my husband) which is just fantastic!! Just try getting me out of there ;o) It was such a suprize when I got home I couldn't stop crying for a full 20 mins (I was a little tired too ;o).....hence the pictures are still a little bit blurry from the shaking! Who can ask for more in life? I am a very lucky and happy girl x

London baby!!

No, the cufflinks are not finished! Just a 'what they will look like roughly' picture.


Last week update:
We did not make it to the next round in the Ikea challenge which is a mixed blessing, we would have loved to have done it but I just don't actually have the time to do it right now! So maybe a little later on when I have my feet under the table with this company I will look for some more exciting things.

General update:
I had my launch party in Sweden just a few weeks ago now and it went really well, I had 6 orders in total and it well exceeded my expectations :o) I have even had my first cold caller on my Etsy shop from Sweden and so far so good....we'll wait until she leaves the feedback to be sure she liked them! So things are rocketing along in the Christmas season and time is whizzing past but I am in high spirits whizzing with it!

It's nearly time to head to London for my launch party. Very excited and a little nervous but it's all healthy. It's a chance to do some supply shopping at Cooksons now that I have set up an account for tax free purchases and have a look around the big smoke again with some Swedish friends.

I had to source a credit card accepting machine to do the London event as I can't use the Fakturing system I use here in Sweden.....it's far too risky. The other option was for people to use Paypal but if they don't have an account it's quite complicated to send them an email then wait while they use a computer that's not theirs and input their details and I only have 2 hours to get as many sales as I can so speed and efficiency is the name of the game. We shall see if it off-sets its own costs for the 1 month hire fee. I also have 2 Christmas markets when I return home that I will have it for so there is more opportunity to use it there.

It will be very interesting to see how my business is doing by the end of the year in my tax return....I am using that as my goal right now and then I will sit down and do a marketing plan for 2011 which will begin with a pre-Valentine’s day display in a shop in Gothenburg in January.

It's lucky I love what I do so much but I guess that is the whole point when it comes to art, I never turn off and love to look at everything people wear but I do it in a slightly different light now, I look for inspiration from the piece and see what I don't like about a piece and try to work out why.

Here are some pics from this week in the studio and I will post again when in London.

VOTE !!!!

To all and anyone who reads this out there.........please take a look at this website

http://www.ikeagarderob.se/261

and vote for it by pressing the 'gilla' button (with the thumbs up sign). It will possibly give my friend and I the chance to have a wadrobe in an IKEA store in Stockholm and it's purely a numbers game, i.e. the one with the most votes etc etc.

So thanks in advance and I will update soon about life in the studio...

Finishing a piece

Finally I finished that ring! It became that job I just had to do.....finish that ring but it was also one of those pieces where anything that can go wrong, did. Many lessons learnt on this one so it made this ring personal and more so once it was finally done...want to see it? Well I want to show you!!






So I was very happy and inspired to continue....here are just some of the pieces I continued with.....













As pictures speak a thousand words...I'll leave it this for today's blog. U