In Bloom - New Flower and Garden Inspired Jewelry - Make Great Bridal Gifts!

As we head into August I'm enjoying all the lovely flowers in bloom and veggies in my garden.  From all this beautiful inspiration I decided to add some color and summer to my shop.  So may I introduce the first three pieces....

 

A beautiful Rose Pink Dahlia on a lovely silver filigree setting?

 

 

Up close it is even prettier! 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

 

 

I swear the pictures don't do it justice no matter how I try...I'm no great photographer - I tried to capture the beauty of the piece, but it eludes me.  I want to point out the depth of the piece - it is no flat piece of jewelry, the setting has a delicate dip and curve to it and the resin flower has so many layers of petals!!  I love this piece dearly.

 

 

And on the other side of the spectrum of colors I've done a beautiful Ivory White Dahlia on Antique Brass.  The round filigree setting you can find in my typewriter jewelry, but this particular piece I set on a (new to the shop - and only one I have so far) flower chain necklace!  I think it adds to the garden feel without overpowering the pendant.

 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

 

Still can't capture the true beauty of the piece, but at least you get the idea - please check out my shop for more photos.

 

I love the Victorian feel of this piece...

 

And the third piece (actually the first I posted in my shop) is a Rose Pink Dahlia on a Flower/Filigree setting.  Simple, but elegant.

 

 

Available in my shop HERE.

 



And that is not all!!  I have more flower jewelry coming soon!  Different colors, settings, etc.  Please check my shop for updates!!  I hope you like these pieces.  As soon as I made my first necklace my mother snatched one up for herself.  LOL  It's getting to be a bad habit with her - I'm having trouble getting things into the store before she can grab them.

Happy Wednesday!

Whale of a Time - Summer Inspiration - Happy Hump(back whale) Day!

I love whales and in the summer I love seeing new items out there that are inspiring...

 

First up - a beautiful bottle opener!  How cute is this??

 

 

Available at BHDLN

 

There there are these really cool items for kids' rooms:

 

 

Which unfortunately Pottery Barn Kids no longer has in stock, but you could always check out Ebay

 

Then there is some delightful fabric at spoonflower:

 

Simple, but so cute.  Available here.



 

This is more pirate themed, but with cute whales, pirate ships and mermaids - who could resist?  Available here. 

 

And Spoonflower has a lot more whale themed fabric so look there for more!

 

And last, but not least - a great artist that makes really beautiful whale art - here are a few of my favorites:

 



 

 

His name is Greg Pezzoni - google for more great art!!

 

And that's it for this post, but I have another big Etsy update coming up son - plenty of new items in the shop - please check them out!!  ;)

 

Happy Hump(back whale) day!  Sorry, couldn't resist.

Happy 4th! Flowers and British Loving Kitties...

Er - well, Smokey didn't get the memo and thought the Brits won...

Well, that or he is as big a Sherlock fan as I am...  Mum bought me that pillow for Christmas.  ;)

But meanwhile outside...




My Lily of the Valley is in desperate need of dividing. 









And I found some beautiful Foxglove and Delphinium to plant in my cottage garden!






And after those pics we painted the porch and fixed it up a bit...

 

It's been cool and very rainy here in the Midwest.  My heart goes out to the firefighters that died in the Arizona fire this weekend.  I hope you all are taking care out there and staying cool and away from the fire.  I'd gladly share some of this rain with you...

Happy Fourth of July!!

Fashion Fri - I mean Saturday: Cute AND Practical Sandals

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am at the lack of cute practical sandals in the stores? For over a decade or so I've mourned the lack of decent sandals to wear with shorts or pants when running around in the spring and summer.

It seems to me sandals are sorted into two categories these days: Super Dressy Tart (high heels and bling) or Rock Climbing Butch. So they are either too fancy to wear every day or they are super athletic (not to mention ugly) and the exact same style being sold in the mens department. Ugh.

Well the other day I searched zappos.com for some alternatives and found these:

Wedge sandals by Cordani. Only problem is they are $180 and I wasn't quite prepared to shell that much money on a shoe I can't even try on so I went to Amazon and found the exact same shoe for much less! The dark brown ones were $126 - still pricey, but the gray ones were $75 or so.

They have since run out of this color, but they still have the more expensive 'black' (I think it is really dark brown) ones. Only a few left so if you are interested hurry up and buy them. They arrived super fast even with free shipping and they are very comfy and nice looking in person. Exactly what I wanted. I'd buy the other color, too, but I'm still on a budget.


So my mother saw the sandals and loved them so much she was going to buy some until she found these sandals by the same company:

Cute, huh? She snatched them up as there were only a few left. I'm not sure how practical red sandals are, but they were too cute to pass up.
And then I saw these recommended under the listing for those shoes and ended up buying these by Jambu.

So, long story short - I'm all ready for sandal season. LOL I can't wait to wear my new shoes!

All shoes are available at Amazon as of 3/3/12. Some may be available at Zappos, but more expensive. Sorry for lack of links, but it is 2 in the morning and I'm tired. Zzzzz...

Anybody else know of a good sandal available out there? My requirements are good arch support, a bit of a heel, but not too high and they must be CUTE. :)

Have a Great Weekend!

Gratuitous Tomato Pics

Finally it's a post that is not an Etsy update! But instead I'm spamming you with pictures of tomatoes! Isn't that fun? It's looking like rain outside so I decided to grab a basket and check if there were a few tomatoes needing to be picked... Boy, were there! This basket is so full of tomatoes it feels like I have a brick in there.

The basket looks small, but it is very deceptive!

I thought I'd lay them out so you can see what kind of variety there is...

Lots of small, medium, large and even jumbo ones along with little bitty cherry tomatoes. More like mini grape tomaoes or something - they are very cute! My green peppers are stunted this time - not sure why. Last time I got two that were almost as big as the ones at the grocery store. Oh well.

My tomato plants are just falling all over. No one helps me keep them trimmed and they are inadequately staked so it is like a forest in my tomato cage. Oh well, as long as I get a bounty like this - who really cares, right? LOL

And I do have a few new items to add to the shop, but I still need a few finishing touches and to seal a few so they will be up tomorrow or so. Bye for now!

Alice in Wonderland, Parisian Images and Sheep, Oh My!

Okay, so another Etsy Update. First off, I made another pair of Alice in Wonderland images like the one I gave away at the Mad Tea Party.

Only it sold SUPER fast - like within an hour or so and it is already in the mail today. I'm dizzy! So, I decided since they are so popular I'd make just one more set. The picture above is the set that is going up in my store today. Grab it while you can. SOLD AGAIN - More to come (9/9/11).

Then, as I was making the above set I decided to try a different Alice in Wonderland series...

SOLD

This one has Alice and the White Rabbit, but also a pretty little dress for Alice and a pocket watch like the White Rabbit has in the beginning of the tale. Cute, huh?

At least I think so. Love this particular set!! I love the rabbit and his little watch. These would be sooo cute framed in a grouping in a girl's bedroom or in an office, studio, etc. Also great for Scrapbooking, etc.

And since I was on a roll I decided to make one more set to sell - this time French to go with the French text...

SOLD

There is an Eiffel Tower, a Napoleonic chair, a Fleur de Lis and a Phrenology chart - just because. :)

SOLD

So cute! And these will all be up in my shop by the end of the day. I also put up my last Sheep Canvas...

I have no more canvases to paint on so I better try and find some more. These are really high quality canvases that I get at the art supply store rather than a crafting store since those canvases tend to have staples on the sides and not look as nice. The ones I use are smooth with a bit of heft to them as they are well made with good canvas and wood. Check out the listing for an image of the back. I use only the best quality supplies.

And that's all for now. I'm melting today and it is only going to be hotter tomorrow. Remind me again why I love summer so much? LOL

Heatwave and Etsywave...

It's been a couple of scorcher days! In the 100's here and heat index usually like 115 - whew!! I'm laying low inside, but still being productive. Just a quick post to let you guys know there are new framed silhouettes in the shop.

First - I sold my larger oval silhouettes awhile ago (even my own personal one off my hallway wall) so I got two more frames and decided to sell a pair for the first time in these beautiful larger black frames...

The larger frames allow me to use the larger silhouettes and also for you to see more of the background - in this case the beautiful antique music paper. They are very dramatic on the wall - so pretty! I don't care if they sell, really, as I want them to hang on my own wall and I don't have any more frames to make my own at the moment. :)

And due to popular demand - the smaller antique white square frames are back. These sold out SUPER fast last time and I only have these two sets left so grab them while you can!

One on vintage French book paper.

And one set on music paper. For more pictures (and bigger, better detailed ones), please see my shop!!

Thankfully a storm has cleared the hot weather for the next two days so hopefully I can get a few more things done. Hope you all are safe from the heat!

A Beautiful Necklace - Native American Fetish and Heshi Beads

My mother has always had a necklace I coveted. A beautiful Native American Fetish and Heshi bead necklace. For years she said she'd make one for me and a few weeks ago I finally got one!

We've collected quite a few of the carved animal beads over the years, but I picked out a few of my favorites to string up. Among the animals represented are: fish, armadillo, turtle, rabbit, bear, fox, wolf and a black rooster. At the center is a large white dove.

A few detail pics...

Just wanted to share my pretty new necklace with you. Have a great weekend!! It's a three day weekend with the 4th of July and we have a very hot weather forecast - 107 degree heat index tomorrow - whew!

Hopefully we'll get to have some BBQ and maybe see some fireworks. Don't forget that you have until Friday to enter the giveaway in my tea party post below.