It's almost my birthday... and it's almost my husband's birthday (they're only a few days apart).
So I'm having a super duper special sale: 28% off any one item from my Etsy shop! That's the largest discount I've ever offered. The discount is good from now through midnight EST on March 4. You can either send me a convo letting me know which item you would like, and I'll change the price before you purchase. Or you can go ahead with your purchase and payment, and I'll refund the discount to you via PayPal. Easy peasy. Click here to visit my Etsy shop.
What do you have to do for the discount? Well, just wish me happy birthday. You were going to do that anyway, right?
I just added a brand new freeform peyote bracelet to my shop, too, so while you're there visiting you can check it out. It's called Moss, and it was inspired by all the moss and lichen I see when I'm taking hikes around our house. All different shades of green, lots of texture, and lots of fun.
Time to figure out what to do for my birthday celebration! :-)
This week's installment of Fabulous Friday Finds is just overflowing with goodies. So I'll get right to it:
Fabulous Friday Find #1 - All Things Littleput (aka Ryan) has taken some wonderful spring photos (spring? what's that?) and wants help deciding which one to use. You can vote for your favorite and win a set of any three of her photo cubes! Click here to visit her blog, so you can read the rules and vote.
Don't know what photocubes are? That's one of my favorite sets, Forest.
Fabulous Friday Find #2 - Another giveaway, this time by GafferGlassUSA. I came across their goodies when I was poking around on Facebook (amazing how many talented people are on Facebook!), and now I watch their updates every day. They're hosting a 100th blog post giveaway, and the prize is this adorable Melanie Moertel Gaffer Glass lampwork glass penguin bead.
Click here to visit their blog and see the details about the giveaway.
Fabulous Friday Find #3 - I think this one is fabulous because I LOVE LOVE LOVE purple! One of my beadweaving friends, Smadar (aka SmadarsTreasure) just listed this incredible bold necklace that features agate teardrop nugget beads. Just look at those!!! Smadar has all kinds of wonderful goodies in her Etsy shop, but this has to be one of my all-time favorites. Yummy!
Fabulous Friday Find #4 - If you read last Friday's post (which was actually Saturday's post, but that's a whole different issue), you saw some cute little ceramic houses. Well, apparently I just can't get enough of little ceramic houses because I found some more. These are made by mudpuphouses, and I think they're absolutely positively adorable.
And once again, I can envision having a whole VILLAGE of these!!! I think this purple and pink one's my favorite, although it was really hard to choose.
Fabulous Friday Find #5 - This one makes me wish I lived closer to Pennsylvania. Although it's probably a good thing I don't, because I have a feeling that the Berks Bead Bazaar would melt my credit card for sure. The bazaar is tomorrow and Sunday in Reading, PA; and there are sure to be some mouth-watering beads, buttons, and cabs there. I sooooooooo wish I could go!
One of my favorite artists is going to be in attendance - Lisa Peters. She's been posting pictures of her new goodies on her Facebook fan page, and my laptop is in danger of shorting out because I've been drooling over the pictures so much. That picture you see to the left is just ONE of the many she's posted.
If you're lucky enough to live in the area and want to attend Berks Bead Bazaar, Lisa also posted a link to a coupon good for $1 off admission.
***
Okay, I guess five is a good number of Fabulous Friday Finds, so it's time for me to have another latte and get back to my beadweaving. And I'm going to be doing a little Google searching for the Asheville area so I can figure out where to go for my BIRTHDAY on Sunday!!! Woo hoo!!! :-)
Wow. #8. I can hardly believe it.
I had a few designs in the works, and I was actually trying to do some sort of fish design for February. Something fitting for a Pisces. I fiddled with a couple of ideas, but they just weren't working out right. And then I started playing around and wound up with this new design, which I've named Staccato.
The colors for this version were inspired by the upcoming Bead Art Originals color mosaic. An uber-talented polymer clay artist on our team, Dee Wilder (Malodora), chose green and silver for the mosaic; and I can hardly wait to see how it's going to look when all the participants' pieces are together.
I've already beaded another version of Staccato, but I'm not going to post pictures of it just yet. Not because I'm keeping it a secret or anything... I just haven't gotten good pictures yet. So it will have to wait.
I did list one other thing in my Etsy shop today, another one of my funky chunky fringe bead clusters. I named this one Tumblewood because I used some fun little triangular shaped wooden beads for the fringes. Isn't this fun?
If you're looking for peyote patterns, my 3-for-2 pattern sale is still going on through the end of February... And just in case I have a design in my shop that you really really like, but I don't have the pattern listed yet, you can let me know. I'm working on getting all my designs turned into patterns (hard to believe I had so many of them), and I'll be glad to move one up the list.
And now it's time for a little beadweaving (I'm working on a new freeform piece) and watch a little hulu.
Happy Thursday!
I completely missed yesterday's post! What was supposed to be an afternoon outing, though, wound up taking longer. Oh well. I still have a few fabulous finds to share with you. This week's finds are all things I found while browsing on Etsy. It's way too easy to find fabulous things on there - I could browse all day!
The first fabulous Friday find is something I've never seen before - a lampwork toggle clasp. This beautiful clasp was made by Lorna, of pixiewillow. Wouldn't this look lovely as the focal in a necklace? Who says a clasp has to be at the back?!
The second find is these absolutely adorable little stoneware houses by Szilvia, whose Etsy shop name is elukka. Wouldn't these tiny houses look cute sitting on a shelf or windowsill?
That's just one example of her little houses (that set is called "My Town"). She has tiny landscapes with trees... and tiny houses used as earrings and pendants... and they're all adorable. Oh, and she has dogs! Wonderfully whimsical dogs like none I've ever seen before. Such cute stuff!!!
The last fabulous find is by one of my Facebook friends, Michou Pascale Anderson. I can't tell you how much time I spend ogling her incredible lampwork beads! Just one look at the picture below, a set called Love and Art, and you'll understand why.
Michou's designs are filled with such movement and color that each one is a piece of art in itself. Michou's Etsy shop is called michoudesign -- Any time you need to have your day brightened, just take a look in there.
Somehow, without really intending to do it, I've managed to post Fabulous Friday Finds that are all by European artists! Lorna (pixiewillow) is in the UK, Szilvia (elukka) is in Finland, and Michou (michoudesigns) is in Germany.
Don't you love that the internet can bring us all these wonderful things from other countries?
:-)
I don't know about you, but I'm amazed at how fast the time is going this year. Isn't it going faster than normal? Are there really 24 hours in EVERY day?
While I'm marveling at how quickly the time is passing, I'm also marveling at the fact that I'm managing to keep up with my goal to create a new peyote design every week. This is week #7, and I have design #7. Oddly enough, this one began with the beads rather than with a specific design in mind. (I still have a whole sketchbook filled with ideas for other designs.)
I was sorting my collection of Delicas (did you know there are more than 800 colors and finishes of these little beauties?!?!), and I had containers of crystal, white, black, and red that wanted to be put away... until I saw how great they all looked together and decided I wanted to make a simple pattern using those colors. I'd been thinking about a pattern with stripes, but I wanted the stripes to be going from side to side on the cuff rather than from end to end, and I didn't want "regular" stripes. So I just sat down and started doodling, and this is what I created: Curved
As you can see, the stripes go from side to side. And they curve slightly. And overlap in a couple of places. There are seven colors in all, and no matter how many Delica colors are available, I think my favorites will always be black and white. :-)
Speaking of black and white, my other new creation is a caterpillar bracelet: Bennie the Black and White Caterpillar. These are so much FUN to make, even though they take several hours and LOTS of beads. Bennie is really special because of the way I made the fringes. Starting with a base done in single peyote, I added hundreds of fringes to create Bennie's "fur". The fringes alternate between black and white... five white size 11 beads, a black-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one white size 11 bead at the tip... five black size 11 beads, a white-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one black size 11 bead at the tip. A perfect blend of black and white.
Oh, and check out the Etsy listing for this guy. I thought Bennie deserved a poem.
While you're visiting Etsy, I thought you might want to stop by a shop I discovered recently. While I've "discovered" many a shop while browsing on the internet, I came across this one IN PERSON when I was visiting the Frog Level section of Waynesville about a month ago. We went into a pottery shop and studio, and I immediately fell in love with some of the creations made by Cathey Bolton, the owner and artist. The name of the studio is Art on Depot (click that link and visit the Gallery for a little virtual tour) and Cathey's Etsy shop goes by the same name (ArtOnDepot), so it's easy to find.
Cathey has some pottery pieces that feature her "signature" handles. I think these look like seahorses, but she says other people have seen all sorts of things in them. Fiddle ferns maybe? Something kind of industrial? Whatever you see, I think they're cool!
One of my favorite things about Cathey's pottery is her colors. While I can appreciate the earth tones in a lot of pottery, it's really fun to see something in an unexpected color, like... RED!
This set of two mugs is in Cathey's Etsy shop. If you drink coffee or tea in the morning to help wake you up, the color of these will add a little kick.
She has other cool colors, too... bright yellow, a beautiful shade of turquoise blue, lime green.
...
But, as much fun as Cathey's pottery is, I was (not surprisingly) drawn immediately to the pieces she made for jewelry. She has a bunch of her own jewelry creations in the gallery: big, bold pieces in every color and shape imaginable. And she has some big belt buckles that feature oversized oval ceramic pieces with all sorts of colors and textures.
It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery (I forgot to mention here that right after that first visit I signed up for one of her classes: Four Pounds for Fun, and just last week I went to pick up my creations. I made all jewelry components. Well. That's what I tried to make. Some turned out to be little mutants. But that's a whole other story.)... okay, where was I? Oh yeah. It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery that I convinced Cathey she should list some of her jewelry components in her Etsy shop.
She has cabochons, buttons, and pendants galore (after all, what ceramic artist has enough time to create jewelry components AND turn them all into jewelry herself?!); and you can see a small selection in her Etsy shop. I'm the lucky one, though... I got to prowl through some boxes and bags and pick out pieces for myself. There are distinct advantages to being able to visit a studio in person, you know. One of my favorite pieces (of course, I grabbed a couple of these for myself) is this red heart pendant.
Doesn't it look like it has dandelion fluff on it? And isn't that neat? :-)
Okay, it's time for me to get out of my chair and get some pictures. Maybe I'll get around to taking pictures of some of my mutant clay pieces today...
Happy Wednesday! Don't forget, all my peyote cuff patterns are still on sale this month: purchase two patterns and receive a third pattern of equal or lesser value FREE (just leave the name of the third pattern in the Notes to Seller when you check out).
Another Friday, another Fabulous Friday Finds post. I can tell these are going to be fun. And the good thing is that I'm not even having to look very hard to find fabulous stuff!
The first fabulous thing I want to show you is on flickr. Begun by Nina Dinoff, a talented jewelry designer, the Ring a Day challenge is without a doubt one of the most creative undertakings I've ever seen. One of my favorite artists, DDee Wilder (aka Malodora) is participating, and I freely admit to stalking her flickr feed to see her rings of the day every day.
One of my favorite rings of Nina's is this Shooting Gallery ring. What a hoot! She has some equally fabulous ones in her photostream, and it's only February!
And this one by my friend DDee is just wonderful:
Those are just a couple of the rings. There are LOTS of people participating in the challenge, and you won't believe what some of them have created. Check out the entire Ring a Day challenge pool HERE.That's not all I wanted to share for this Fabulous Friday. One of my beadweaving friends posted a link to Mary Harding's Etsy shop because she's having a fabulous Valentine's Day sale -- 40% off!! I've been ogling the creations in her shop all morning, and I think I'm going to grab a few goodies before they go away. Her ceramic pendants are gorgeous, with such detail and such surprising colors. Check this out:
Okay, it's time for me to have some latte and do a little beadweaving. Before I leave, let me remind you that you can still receive a 20% discount from my friend Doree (aka PinkQuartzMinerals) on some of her wonderful mineral makeup. Check out last week's Fabulous Friday Finds to see how.
AND... I'm still having a 3-for-2 pattern sale on all peyote patterns in my Etsy shop. I have 25 patterns listed and am working on getting more of them ready to publish, so if you have a particular favorite design that's not listed yet, let me know! The 3-for-2 sale goes through the end of February -- purchase two patterns and receive a third pattern of equal or lesser value FREE (leave the name of the third pattern in the Notes to Seller when you check out).
Happy Friday, everyone!! :-)
It's week #6 of 2010, and I'm still keeping up with my resolution to create a new design every week. This week's design is called Sunflower Garden, and it was inspired by my wish that this winter weather would just GO AWAY!! Knock on wood, we don't have the piles of snow that's blanketing some parts of the United States, but it's really cold and windy. I'm sooooo ready for spring!
Sunflower Garden is a somewhat whimsical design that features several big happy sunflowers surrounded by wispy vines and leaves. It's the perfect design to brighten up a winter day, don't you think?
I don't typically publish the pattern on the same day as I list the new design. That's not for any particular reason other than that I don't typically have the pattern READY to be published on the same day. I'm working on getting more of my patterns available, though, so I pushed myself a bit on this one (click here to see the patterns in my Etsy shop). After all, since I'm having a three-for-two pattern special during the month of February, part of my goal to reach 5000 sales in my Etsy shop this month, I need to have more variety. (Visit my shop to see details for the special.)
Lest you think I'm spending all my time focusing on new peyote patterns, I have to show you the result of my latest experiment: Pearlicious
I've been wanting to try my hand at making a fringe bead, and I had these faux pearls sitting in my bead stash just waiting to be used for something special. Pearlicious began with a short peyote tube made from dark bronze metallic seed beads, and to that little tube I just kept adding short fringes with the faux pearls at the ends. Hung from an oxidized brass chain, these are such fun I can hardly stand it. :-)
I think I was focused on fringe this week because I was working on a new caterpillar bracelet, Charlotte. Charlotte is unlike any caterpillar I've created to date, in that she has stripes! Alternating rows of bright silver-lined chartreuse and black-lined clear triangles make this one of the most fun caterpillars ever. (She'll soon be joined by a couple of other caterpillars that crawled off my beading board, as soon as I get some pictures taken.)
Time to play with some more beads. And work on next week's new design! :-)
I've been wanting to do some sort of special post on this blog, and I've finally decided to start a regular feature: Fabulous Friday Finds.
Why? Well, because I come across all sorts of things that I think are wonderful and I'd like to share some of them. You'll probably find these posts to be pretty random, as I'm thinking of sharing not only fabulous creations, fabulous Etsy sellers, and fabulous artisans, but also some of my favorite links, tips, hints, etc. I hope you'll enjoy these, and if you'd like to play along and create your own Fabulous Friday Finds, we could start a whole "movement!" Wouldn't that be fun? :-)
So for this first Fabulous Friday Finds, I'm going to share one of my favorite creators of handmade goodness.
Fabulous Foundation! I have managed to find what I think is the absolute best foundation EVER! It's all handmade by Doree of Pink Quartz Minerals. And I love it!
The reason I think this stuff is so great is that it's free of additives, chemicals, and other stuff that bothers sensitive skin.
I've tried different foundations over the years (who hasn't?), and I've never been completely happy. Gooky, pore clogging, strange scented foundations that I never really liked that much. I'd use some and then wind up throwing the rest away because I didn't like the way it looked or the way it felt on my skin.
And then I ordered a set of sample foundations from Doree (sample foundations because I wasn't sure exactly what shade I would need). The first time I tried them, I knew I'd found my new makeup source. This foundation goes on so easily and is so light in texture that it feels like I don't have on makeup. It does a great job of evening out skin tone, and with all the shades she has available I'll be able to find just the right color for any season.
I know I'm going on and on about the foundation because that's my favorite thing. But Doree also has drop-dead gorgeous shades of eye shadow (170+ colors!), blush and bronzer, and even lipsticks and lip balms. She even has stage makeup! Pink Quartz Minerals offers a huge variety of shades and colors, and you can even order samples (like I did) to make sure you get just the right colors.
Okay. Here's the FABULOUS part. Doree is offering a 20% discount to my blog readers! Woo hoo!!! To receive the discount, visit Pink Quartz Minerals, choose your makeup (click the "Shop Now" button to see the product offerings), and use coupon code time2cre8. Easy peasy. Don't delay, though. This offer is only good through the end of February 2010.
Isn't that a fabulous find?
Before I sign off, I want to mention that I have a goal... I'm really close to having 5000 sales in my Etsy shop!!! Can you believe it? That's something worth celebrating, and I'd really LOVE to be able to get that 5000th sale during this, my birthday month. To try to speed the process along, I'm offering a three-for-two special on all the peyote patterns in my shop: buy any two patterns and receive a third pattern free! The special goes through the end of this month. Mention "happy 5000" and tell me which pattern you'd like as your free one in the Notes to Seller when you check out, and I'll send it along with the two you purchased. I'm busy working on some new patterns, too. :-)
Click here to see all the available peyote cuff patterns.
Now, what should I do to celebrate that 5000th sale? Ideas? Suggestions? Anyone? Bueller?
** A note to Facebook readers... please visit my blog to leave any comments! Thank you!! **
I'm still managing to keep up with my 2010 New Year's Resolution to create a new peyote design every week. Although it's probably going to become a challenge as weeks go by, for now I'm having a really good time working on new designs.
The newest design, just listed in my Etsy shop yesterday, is Radiating Hearts. Modern, simple, and fun, I'm already envisioning this design done with more colors... perhaps varying tones of red and pink, going from light to dark. Or perhaps in all different colors. I'm working on getting the pattern for this one ready to publish, too, so be on the lookout.
I'm always amazed at how changing colors in a design can completely change the look of it. Last weeks' new design (Fanciful), for example, was initially shown off in shades of yellow and gray; but just look at how this version looks in black, white, fuchsia, and aqua:
The pattern for Fanciful is available in my Etsy shop. Click here if you're interested in creating your own version!
I'm working on a very special blog post for tomorrow... coming up on 5000 sales in my Etsy shop (woo hoo!), and I'm trying to figure out just how to celebrate. Any ideas? I'm thinking some kind of giveaway... :-)
