Favorites For Friday

No green beer here but I do have some very interesting items to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. All of these items are from Etsy (as always) and boy was there quite a few to choose from. I love how something is just green and someone has used the tag of St. Patrick's Day but I guess if you are going to celebrate it then you need something green ... no matter what it may be! These were a few of my favorites.

McTavish The Irishman - Mary's Monkeys

May The Road Rise Blessing Trinity Knot - My Serenity Way

Glass Lampwork Four Leaf Clover Pendant - Boomwire

Guinness Sugar Cookies & Shamrock Cookie Nibbles - Crafted Cookies

Lucky Charm & Silver Shamrock Earrings - Ali C's Creations

The one nice thing (in my opinion) about St. Patricks Day is the fact that no matter whether you are Irish or not....no matter what religion, you can celebrate the day. The Irish are very welcoming like that, more than happy to have everyone join in with the celebrations. Hope yours is a good one.

Favorites for Friday

I always try to have a reason/theme for choosing my Favorites. This week is no exception. Last night I was eating dinner and after I was done I felt a sharpness in the back of my mouth. Well, I'd only gone and lost (eaten..ick) a filling. Luckily it is one right at the back but of course, no health/dental insurance so I shall be walking around with a big gaping hole at the back of my mouth. That is why I chose the word tooth to do a search on Etsy this week. I came up with some cute and cool items.

Mastodon Tooth Fossil Wire Wrapped Pendant - R2 Rockz Art Gallery

Monster Tooth Pillows - Hannahlah Designs

Pearly Whites - It's Beautiful

Tooth Fairy Pillow - Chloe Jane Handmade

Gothic Victorian Human Teeth Cuff Links - Loved to Death

I have to say I'm really loving those cuff links. I have a pair of teeth that I had to have pulled when I was about 14 before I got my braces. Always kept them in the hopes of being able to make or have them made into earrings. Hope you enjoyed these and have a great weekend.

Favorites For Friday

Some fun Winter finds this week. I'm sure most of you have had a little bit of snow so far so and might have a bit of the Winter Blues and I think these items might just cheer you up a bit.

Crocheted Snowman by sabahnur

Waiting for Twilight by ara133photography

Christmas Light Bulb Earrings by atomicdog5

Cobalt Blue Glass Mugs by daydreemdesigns

Fresh Snow Starry Night Necklace by ccvalenzo

Enjoy!! and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Wired Again!

I'm skipping Favorites For Friday this week so I can post these new wire wrapped cabochons I've been working on. I finally got a pin vise, which if you didn't know, is this great little tiny hand sized vice. You slide your wire in and tighten it up and twist away. Square wire always looks cool when it has been twisted so I decided to do a few cabs with some twisted wire adornment. As always, I really don't know for sure what the stones are since they were slabs I got at the Gem & Mineral Society shop but I really likes them.

This second cabochon was wrapped using brass wire which is a tough wire to bend but I was very happy with how it turned out. Personally, I don't like too much wire to cover the actual cabochon since that is meant to be the focal point of the pendant. I prefer to keep it fairly simple and add any extra adornment around it. Although you do need to do some wrapping across in order to hold the cab in place.

I think I may have to keep the pin vice handy when I'm doing the wire wrapping since I just LOVE the outcome. Now, I just need to find something nice to hang them on.

I did make a really cool chainmaille pendant but my home-made lightbox got smashed in the move and so I'm trying to take the photos in real light. Didn't work on that one so I'll have to play around a bit more. Plus I have another cabochon which I wrapped with silver colored artistic wire that I want to take a few shots of. More of those later though. Hope everyone has a great weekend and if I don't stop by and say Hi than I hope everyone in the States has a great Thanksgiving!

Favorites For Friday

I had intended to do this post last week but got side-tracked, as I do. So this week's favorites are actually last weeks favorites though they are always favorites....make sense? All of this weeks faves come from a few of my favorite Entrecard blogs. Blogs that I stop by regularly to see what is new and exciting. Obviously these are just a small handful but here they are. Clicking on the photo takes you their listing but I've also added links to their shop (top link) and blog (bottom one).

Summer Stripes Peyote Cuff by Random Creative
The Beadings and Buttons of Randomcreative


Sweet Strawberry Swirl Cold Process Soap
The Life of a Mad Soaper


Oval Silver/White Pendant - Contained Series
nfall2rt designstudio


Vanilla Cake with Mint Creme Miniature Charm
Miss Millificent's World


Going Green Bracelet
Beadsforever - A Beading Heart is a Happy Heart!


I'm away from the computer over the next 2 days so won't be dropping by. Don't forget, Sunday is the last day to enter to win those lovely earrings made by ME over on the EJDSS Team blog. Enjoy and have a great weekend!!

New Treasures and an Award

I've been trying to create a bit more rather than sit on the computer or in front of the tv all the time. The above pendant was one that I had actually started probably about 4-5 months ago. It was all done except for the bail which I finally got off my lazy butt and finished this past weekend. It wasn't like it was difficult either. This was a complete departure for me as far as the colors I used in it. I admit it, I like pink (the brighter, the better), orange, turquoise, purple and green but it has to be neon green. For this pendant I used a Swarovski Rivoli which is called Sahara but in layman's terms, it's green with golds and browns depending on which way you move it. The smaller Swarovski bicones around the edge are Colorado Topaz and Smoked Topaz Light and I used gold seed beads. Gold is not a color or metal I wear at all, other than my wedding band and a pair of opal earrings I wear all the time and the only reason I wear the earrings is because my dad went to Australia when I was about 12 and brought back 3 pairs of opals which he had made into earrings for my mother, one of his sisters and me (no wonder my sister hates me..lol). I have to say that I was quite happy with how it came out seeing as I'm not used to working with this combination of colors.

I also managed to get a few more cabochons made and wrapped one so far. Now, when I was done with this one I was pretty happy with how it turned out. That balloon soon burst when I showed it to my husband and he says "It looks like a Christmas Tree". Then again, I could take it as a compliment....right? You'd think after 20 years of marriage I should know better than to expect him to NOT say something like that. Don't worry, I'm used to it and just laughed it off just like he does when I say something about sports that he thinks it's ridiculous. I did have to get the opinion of my friend Jennifer as to whether it was too much at the top and luckily she lied like a good friend should and said it looked fine! I've got more wire on the way to me so I'm hoping to get a few more done and maybe do a few other wire projects.


Well, as I was in the middle of this post, writing about my great award from PJ who has a great blog that I love to read here....my darn Firefox crashed! Must be telling me something! So, PJ I apologize but I am not going to pass it on but I will tell you the 7 things I love (if I can remember them lol).

1. My Husband - Yes, it's sloppy and obvious but he is my best friend as well as all the other things that go along with being a husband. I couldn't have wished for a better partner in life.
2. Music - Yes of course, The Boss comes first in this category but he isn't the only one. Music means so much to me.
3. Creating - It's a part of me that I lost along the way in life and found again.
4. Travel - My travels have shaped me as a person. It has meant more for me to stand looking up at the Sistine Chapel or view the Sydney Harbour Bridge in person rather than to read about them in books or online.
5. Sports - Watching (in person, preferably) NOT playing!
6. Nature - It's just so darn cool and amazing.
7. Animals - Mostly dogs but all animals. If I'm ever down, all I have to do is watch Animal Planet and I am instantly cheered up.

So, as I say, I was in the process of getting blogs I wanted to give this award to which was a task in itself since there are so many out there that I really enjoy and then the darn browser crashed. Luckily most of this post was saved. That will teach me to save it every once in a while rather than just keep on typing. Needless to say, I hope all of you out there enjoy my blog half as much as I enjoy reading yours. Actually, consider yourselves ALL tagged with this award!!

Fossils .....

and no I'm not talking about my Mother-in-Law again! Don't worry, she always says "I'm ancient!!" so she wouldn't be offended by that. No, I'm talking about a real fossil that someone dug up and made into this gorgeous cabochon. Last weekend the Intergem show was here in Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada Gem & Mineral Society asked for volunteers. Well, since I'm sitting around the apartment all day and my eyes are going square from looking at the computer and tv all day, of course I was more than happy to help. Friday, I saw these cabs and just had to have one. I ended up spending my Saturday night wrapping it. I tried to keep the wrap simple since I really wanted the focus to stay on the cab. I'm planning on going back to the shop Thursday this week to cut the other slabs I bought last time and maybe get one done to wrap as I have some more square copper wire on it's way to me. I think this is one piece I shall be keeping for myself unless I got some crazy offer for it!

I'm Wired!!

Not just wired on coffee! I've been taking a break from my chainmaille obsession and have been working on some wire-wrapping creations. The first photos is the cabochon that I made. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about then you can read this post here for the explanation. I know that a lot of people use square wire for their wrapped cabs but I had some 22 gauge round wire lying around so I just ended up buying some half-round wire from a seller on Etsy. I'm very happy with how it turned out considering this is my first ever attempt at wrapping a cab. Now if only someone could tell me what the stone IS then I'd be really happy.



Green aventurine is such a pretty stone and I love the way it looks combined with copper. I already have one pair of copper earrings with aventurine in my Etsy shop but these are slightly different. I'd like to do a pair like this in silver but maybe with garnets or lapis. Hmmm, or maybe I'll just have to make one pair of each.



This last photo is a cuff I came up with after seeing a design in Step by Step Wire Magazine. The original design had smaller "waves" but was along the same lines. This was fun to make since it was all very random as I went along. Lately too, I have been trying to make my own findings so the clasp on this cuff is handmade as well. One of the next projects I'd like to work on with wire is some hammering, so need to find the right time so I don't disturb the neighbors. I bought some 12 gauge wire which I'm chomping at the bit to play with. Uggg so many ideas, not enough time OR money! I'll be listing these in my shop soon so keep an eye out.