Just another WordPress.com site
Here are your random numbers:
8
Timestamp: 2008-11-30 20:44:55 UTC
CONGRATULATIONS ALISA! Please email me with your mailing address and I’ll send your necklace to you Monday morning! Thank you everyone for playing along this round of the Blog Giveaway fun! I’ll try not to wait so long until the next one! 🙂
Hello!!
I’m home. It’s good to be home again. Thanksgiving was great. The food was fabulous and we got to spend to some quality time with our niece and nephew, and family. We did a little bit of shopping, L.L. Bean, and the outlet store in Lee, Mass. We had a nice bonfire at my sister-in-laws, after a smorgasbord of food. Roasted marshmallows. Went ice-skating. Not me, but Joe went. I took the photos! And I’m like the most uncoordinated person EVER, and knew I would break a limb if I so much as thought about putting a pair ice skates on.
After skating we went to my favorite restaurant in Connecticut. Shady Glen is the coolest place. Plucked right out of 1957, it hasn’t been updated since. My favorite thing about it- the Cheese Furter. They do this funky thing with the cheese, put it on a grill and it gets all fried and crunchy. It’s the best.
I am just relieved to be home. My cat is too. She hasn’t left my side since we arrived. I was so stoked when I got the mail today. 2 of the most FUN parcels were waiting in my mailbox.
The charms for the charm swap! (more on this later this week)
and Andrew Thornton’s package of goodies! I’m showing pics so don’t look if you haven’t gotten yours yet. Andrew posted on his blog a few days ago about how he had some handmade trading cards that he wanted to trade. I was one of the first ones to jump on that bus, and I’m so glad I did because look at how cool! I’m listening to the cds right now. I love every song- there are a few of my absolute favorite artists on it. Cat Power, Coldplay, Ani Difranco, and so many more that I can’t wait to hear. Here is my trading card. It spoke to me as soon as I saw it. The colors and shapes drew me in.
Now I have an excuse to drag out some art supplies! I’ll post pics later this week after Andrew gets my goods in the mail.
ALL FABULOUS> Except the shrimp tacos. Shrimp + Tacos= yick.
This guy makes me laugh so hard. He is hilarious in the kitchen. The show is filmed right in his house, and he’s normally tripping over one of 2 dogs, and then he’ll bring in his wife or his kids to try whatever he’s made, and sometimes he’ll make the camera guy hand over his camera so that he can try the food too. I love it! Cooking can be FUN! And FUNNY!
Plus, I think he’s kinda cute too. Shhh, don’t tell Joe.
I bought Sam’s cook book. You can buy here.
Check out the Just Cook This website here.
And check out the Sam the Cooking Guy website here.
watch some video of Sam.
Some random thoughts for today…
1. When Heather Wynn posted on her blog, sweet little necklaces that she made using Beth’s HINT charms (here), I knew I had to have one of my own! So I sent my HINT charm, Saskia the owl, to Heather and she made me this! Using a sweet little 1800s button, and one of her signature Love Bravely stampings. It’s nice because it flips, it’s on the owl side, or on the Love Bravely side. Always something pretty showing! Now matter how you wear it!
Randomness No. 2:
I desperately need a haircut. Or maybe I should just grow my hair long again. ? This is a never-ending battle.
Randomness no. 3:
I created this funky modern charm necklace last night using a triangle charm that I had gotten from Nancy of Round Rabbit. It’s kind of fun, and challenging due to the location of the holes in the charm, but this is what I came up with. Not sure how I really feel about it. So if you have any thoughts, leave a comment. This is THIS MONTH’S JEWELRY GIVEAWAY! HA! Didn’t see that comin’ did ya!!! Leave a comment on this post and I’ll pick a random winner on Sunday evening (11/30)
And the final Random thing for this day, go read Andrew Thornton’s blog. He’s doing a fun trade and you don’t want to miss out – He’s trading his handmade trading cards, for whatever you feel is a fair trade. I already have mine picked out- BUT, there are lots more to pick from! I can’t wait to see the kinds of things he ends up getting.
have a good tuesday!
Yes, you read that right. FREE SHIPPING to USA, and CANADA, all week from today Monday 11/24 through Friday 11/28! Prices have already been altered on etsy listings!
Happy Thanksgiving week!
It was a long day of travelling to and from my mom’s house 2.5 hours away, via CARGO VAN, but we did it. and we’re home. And I’m exhausted. But not too tired to whip up a pretty. Must have been feeling extra inspired. My mom and I talked aprons all day. We bounced ideas off of each other and I think we are headed in the right direction. Now the task at hand is to get the cute stuff. You know, Amy Butler fabrics, Heather Bailey, Alexander Henry… cute, bright, large printed material. If you know of any good suppliers, please leave a comment, and let me know. Even Ebay sellers… I’d be interested.
Now to talk about my pretty… These lovely aqua faceted rondelles were sent to me by the lovely Heather Wynn when we did a little bead swap. I love them and have been hoarding them for a long long time. It’s time to let them go. They are beauties and they look so beautiful paired with the steel wire, dark chain, and pewter Door charm from Mamacita Beadworks. The funky clasp- I made it! So easy, and so awesome. I just love this swirly shape. I never know what I’m going to come up with when I make a clasp. It’s completely random. I love that. Yes this bracelet will end up on etsy tomorrow (monday)… Better snatch it up fast. I have a feeling it’s gonna go quick!
xo
off to bed….
ahhhhhhhhh.
It was a busy day in my warm studio as the snow floated down from the sky. I was in “Winter Wonderland” inside my head and my beads were telling me to run with it. 
I was picturing a small blue bird, nestling in it’s nest for the winter. And what I had originally thought were pillows of snow, soon became piles of eggs. Which wasn’t my intention but I left it as is. 
The Aqua chalcedony beads, and teal bird and Czech glass squares create a nice back drop for the ceramic Snowflake pendant that I received recently from Gaea. 
The pendant is a beautiful terra cotta color with a white snowflake, and the white “eggs” play off the white of the snowflake.
It’s definitely a whimsical piece but definitely wearable. I even photographed it on so that you could see how cute it can look with just a plain white tunic.
Next up, my mind shifted from snowy thoughts to Mexican Day of the Dead parties. Do you ever dream up a design but it just never works until you draw it out on paper? I typically just lay out my projects before I start putting them together, and still, I only sometimes do this. But sometimes, when the project isn’t coming quickly to fruition, a drawing helps!
I wanted bright colors. But new that the Green Girl Studios bronze Skull pendant had to be paired with the right color combination, so that it didn’t turn out like a big ol’ pile of color mess. you know what I mean, right? It’s hard to put it in words. Sometimes too much color can turn sour… can look childish, also.
So I have this pile of beads….
This drawing is still in the beginning stages… But I was thinking that would be cool to have either a plain black cord, or since I don’t have any on hand, maybe just a simple double strand of matte glass seed beads, and then clusters of colored beads at the front with the pendant hanging in the center. What do you think??
Listed on Etsy:
and then I leave you with a fun video of Marley: when I gave her the sweet little Organic Catnip mouse that I ordered from Ernst and Thistle– there was serious catnip love going on uninterrupted for like 25 minutes. I shot a small video with my camera. Thought I’d share it, it’s cute.http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Another reason we are headed home is so that I can collect some of the handmade Aprons that my momma is making. I have agreed to open an Etsy shop (or possibly a 1,000 Markets shop!) and to manage this shop that will sell her aprons. I have spent a lot of time trying to talk her into this and I hope that I can do a nice job in trying to sell them for her. She really could use a little extra money these days and she’s a whiz at the sewing thing. Me? Not so much.
At first we talked about doing zippered purses but mom didn’t like the whole zipper thing. So she came up with aprons. I don’t know how hot Aprons are these days, but I know there is A LOT of people selling them on Etsy. And I figured with the right kind of material, you could really create a cute apron that would make a great gift. I just ordered mom some Amy Butler fabric – this and this…so she could play around. So be on the lookout for that happening soon…and I hope my customers will send a little love my momma’s way and maybe buy one or two! 🙂
Have a good weekend!
That’s right. I did. I changed my mind. I have been thinking long and hard about which direction to move in as far as a second venue goes. There are so many wonderful opportunities on the internet for handmade sellers. I thought that Lolli Shops might be the one but after thinking about it, I don’t really fit into that genre. I don’t make frou frou jewelry. I like to create earthy pieces, using lots of green and brown colors, using natural elements such as ceramics, polymer clays, metals, and glass. I just feel like if I was part of Lolli shops I’d be trying to create jewelry to fit into that genre and that doesn’t seem like “me”. Does that make sense?
So I decided I better back out before the site goes live, and before I put a lot of time, effort, and money into it. I feel good about my decision. I think it was the wrong direction. I know I want to try to sell my jewelry online in a different kind of setting. Etsy is all well and good. I have my complaints as do many other people. I am not bashing Etsy. I will stick with them. But I thought it might be nice to transfer some of my eggs to another basket for a bit. See what happens.
And so I found, 1000 Markets.
As soon as I stumbled across this website, I was in love. I like the simplicity of it. The look of the front page, it’s attractive. It pulls you in. It’s not fussy. There aren’t a lot of links. You can search by Craft or you can search by Market. I won’t bore you with all the details of the site. You can do your research for yourself. But I like it, and I’m going to try it out. I’m setting up my shop now. It will be called The Owls Den.
It has to be approved once everything is in place and meet all of their criteria. I’ll let you know when I’m up and running. 1,000 Markets uses Amazon Payments – no paypal. I think this makes it quite easy for the shopper to use a credit card securely. But hey if you love paypal, then stick with Etsy. I’ll still be on Etsy. I’m not leavin’!
On to the good stuff.
image from Del Higgins
All of a sudden, I’ve created this necklace. Sometimes I wonder how I come up with this stuff.
I absolutely adore this necklace. And it was created out of a vision of the woods-I don’t know where it came from. I suppose if you sit in the studio long enough, you’ll always come up with something! Created with a handmade ceramic pendant from Chinook Jewelry, a WISH bead from Diane Hawkey, various green Czech glass beads, Ceramic rounds from Elaine Ray. The clasp is a Vintaj Brass Co. Leaf toggle located at the front side of the necklace giving it a nice asymmetrical feeling.
I continued on with the woodsy, earthy theme and created this bracelet using a funky ceramic toggle from Mary Harding. I’ve been holding onto this toggle for a while now and decided it was time to let it go. I pulled in the green with lucite rounds, and red with some buri nuts, and added some awesome spikey top drilled seeds.
These two pieces will be the first additions to my new shop (if my shop gets accepted!) on 1,000 Markets. I hope that you like them, and that you’ll support me in my new venture.
To thank you, my blog readers again, I’d like to offer you a 25% discount today on everything in my etsy shop.
I’d also love to clean out some of the older stock, and get some new stuff in there. So just mention BLOG POST in the notes to seller and I’ll send you an updated invoice. 🙂 xo
After feeling a bit better I took a ride to the bead shop to pick up the essentials that I had run out of during the open house preparations. Crimp beads, jump rings, a small strand of Czech glass, and I bought this little bird and nest from Earthenwood Studios. I just love this pair…they are my favorite thing that Melanie makes. And there is no better color combination than the pale blue and yellow. AND I threw in some red just to be crazy and my husband even said he thought it was a nice combination of colors.
There is just something about a good charm bracelet. Little treasures that you can play with and fondle. This one ended up being a little heavier due to the frosted Recycled coke glass beads that I used. But the color was perfect! I’m still enjoying making my own clasps as well. This hook clasp is a really simple design- but is imperfect and sort of rustic. Love that.
Ok, I’m ready for my wednesday. Bring it on.
xo
loreleieurtojewelry 