I got the coolest thing on Etsy!

A couple of weeks ago I pulled up the Etsy homepage. I like to see the treasury that made the front page. Yes, I prefer this to going somewhere to shop, I haven't been to a mall in years. Anyway, towards the bottom the newly listed things scroll by. I saw this photo



I was instantly intrigued, not even sure what it was from the thumbnail. Clicked thru & actually went oooooo and fell in love. Purchased it right away. Now the details, this is hand thrown stoneware from Marsha at DovecoteDesign. It's a jewelry bowl. Marsha has created a bowl complete with a column to put your rings and holes around the edge for earrings. I absolutely LOVE the color, she calls it rutle green. I call it gorgeous. It came lightening fast, packed so well that it could have been drop kicked & it would have made it to me safely. And it now resides on my dresser holding my adornments. Lovely. And I think this would make an awesome gift for someone! Here's photos from the listing, used with Marsha's blessing:




Now can you see why I fell in love with it! Isn't it awesome? Mmmmmmm. Check out her store, DovecoteDesign to get one of your very own. I've got my eye on a few bowls in this same color. ;-)

Treasury

My pink amethyst necklace is featured in an Etsy Treasury. This always makes me so happy. It's in good company in a treasury filled with pinks & browns. Lovely! Thanks Kat. ;-) Please stop by & give it some love. (Yes.....everytime I've typed the word 'treasury' I've made it a link.....shameless promotion I say!)

Here's the pic:

Museum of Science

This is the last week of summer for us as school starts next week. So we've been trying to cram in some fun stuff. I knew there was a MOS in Ft Lauderdale, but that's almost 2 hours away & with gas prices being what they are, probably not going to happen. My oldest LOVES all things science. A Mom at Karate told me yesterday that there was a MOS in West Palm Beach. So this morning after a couple of errands, we headed down there. I grabbed my camera on the way out. Not because I wanted to schlep it around all day (days like this I wish we'd bought the smaller, lighter model), but I really was hoping to get a pic of my little one with his hair all standing up from the plasma thing. It does it on slides so I thought this would be funny. Things to do next time.....bring extra batteries for the camera or charge them & feed the kids first because they have nothing to eat there.

Took us a little over an hour to get there. VERY COOL PLACE! We were there for over 5 hours, couldn't tear those kids away. Next month the "Grossology" exhibit comes so I'm certain we'll go back. My batteries were so dead that the photo of the mastodon bones didn't come out right. But I did get two photos, they creep me out but they're really cool.....in the light of day. They have an ancient Egypt exhibit, complete with mummy.



Creepy but cool huh? The signs said that they couldn't tell if it was a girl or a boy without causing harm to it. But they do know that it's a little over 2400 years old, and it was well cared for because there's gold on the face (you can see it close up), and that it probably died from the crack in the skull & the fracture in it's leg. They said it was about 5 years old but it was small. Like the size of a 2 year old today. But what's REALLY creepy.....I was sitting next to it for a really long time while the kids were exploring & you can actually see it's hair. Not sure if you can in this pic....






So all in all it was a really fun day & we can't wait to go back. Next time I'll check the batteries! They had so many cool things in the Egypt exhibit. There were containers, forgot what they're called, that they used to put the organs into. There was a sarcophagus. A mummified raven. And a really old necklace with lapis in it. And a lapis scarab, they believe from a piece of jewelry.

I enjoyed the gem & mineral exhibit and the underwater exhibit- fish I've never seen before. But the little one picked out all of his friends from "Nemo" LOL.

Just wanted to share this before I went to bed. Hoping that this little guy won't show up in my dreams tonight.

A Fresh Coat of Blog Paint

After years of the old template- it was time for a change on the blog. I really wanted 3 columns. So....here it is. Not quite finished but I've looked at HTML & CSS until my eyes are crossed, so it's time to give it a rest. The new template, the 3rd column added~ that's the part that made me buggy~ without losing any significant data. I'm a happy girl & I'm off to bed. ;-)

A great trend

I got gas today and it was only $3.89. I never thought I'd refer to that as "only", but just a couple of weeks ago I paid $4.18 so I think this is a great trend. And milk is really high too....$4.49. We need a cow.

On the jewelry side of life, here's a new pair of earrings. These tabs are etched with vintage text (from the late 1800's) and sterling ear wires were soldered onto the back then smoothed into shape. Added patina, tumbled and polished. Once I get a few more decent photos I'll add them to the shop. Hope you like them!

It's here, it's here, it's finally here!!!!!

I almost wished away the whole summer because I knew it would be almost over before this book came. Such is the way when you pre-order. But last week it finally arrived and I'm so excited.

A Charming Exchange

The photos are delicious. You can see the detail in each piece. The projects are fresh. New (to me) links, one's that I've never seen before. My head is still reeling from all the incredible eye candy.....but the best part....the instructions for the projects are well written and stepped out. Even a jewelry newbie could make beautiful pieces. It's written in Kelly's voice....just like she was sitting there next to you. It's about jewelry, it's about sharing, it's about collaboration (one of my favorite things!), it's about making some awesome pieces of art jewelry. I totally love this book. (It's right up there with Semi-Precious Salvage by Stephanie Lee) I feel inspired and can't wait to get some bench time. If you love swapping, charm swaps, making jewelry....this is a book that you should have. But it won't be on your bookshelf, this is the book that stays on your bench. The one that you grab to have a peek at to get your creative juices flowing while you're listening to your 'tunes' and sipping your coffee. Job well done ladies! You guys ROCK.

Photo used with Kelly's blessing ;-)

Some new things

It's late and I should be sleeping. But instead I'm going through some photos. Took almost 100 pictures off of my camera tonight so I've been tagging and sorting. But here's a few that I wanted to share.



This first one are some inchies that I did for a swap on the BookArtz group. They are 1 inch square. I did 16 of each color & rec'd some wonderful returns. They were fun to do.

These are the the beginnings of the pile of returns that I sent back from the charm swap that I hosted. I wrapped up the packages before I stuffed them into envelopes. They've been received by the participants and everyone is enjoying their returns. It was another fun swap. I had started to make a second set, ended up using some for fill ins, and a few became earrings before I was even finished- I'll have to grab a photo of those too.....I liked those!

Copper and sapphire swarovski crystals for a swap on Adornmentz. The copper was treated to a heat patina then hammered around the edges for texture.

Oh, these are terrible photos. But they are on the other side of the country now so these pix will have to do. For the same swap- copper washers hammered, then married with indicolite swarovski crystals.

And lastly, for the same swap, hammered and heat treated copper together with emerald swarovski crystals. The theme was earrings using swarovski crystals in case it wasn't obvious. Although I don't use them very often, I did really like this design. I'm going to do some more with little gemmies. Iolite, garnet or moonstone- I've got some pretty little rondells of those 3 stones. And all three would be pretty with copper. Notice how there's a crystal on the ear wire too? It was a nice touch to bring the design together, however.....I think I should have given them a LOS dip. Next time.....it was an after thought. I should have the returns from this swap in the next week or so. Looking forward to it!

More pieces out of the tumbler and photographed.....but it's time to me to head off to dreamland.



Be happy!