Elegant Orange

Happy Halloween!

Continuing this week's celebration of orange, I'm featuring a fun print from studio1212, whose charming dog portraits are almost enough to make you forget about the shedding and chewed shoes. "Proper 1" is a lovely rendition of what I hope will be my next dog - a standard Poodle.



Now, get out there trick or treating, and save some for me!

Boo

More orange today, this time as an accent color. It's almost Halloween (of course, if you asked my 6 year old, it's been "almost Halloween" for a couple of months now). And so, we need...MONSTERS. Scary ones. Creepy, crawly, nasty monsters with big bloody fangs and faces that turn even the bravest of men into whimpering piles of fear.

And I've got just that. Here's something from Mint Conspiracy that will scare the pants right off you.



OK,well, maybe not. Cute, though, isn't he?

You can read more about these little beasties at Jill Christine's blog.

Tomorrow, maybe I really WILL scare you.

Orange is the New Black

First of all, a cheer to the Red Sox! Fun World Series this year.

Now, the business at hand. This week's theme for fabulous indie work is a color that I've somtimes hated, sometimes loved. Lately, we're in a love phase. Orange can be a little tricky, but the artisans I've found do lots of interesting things with it.

Monday's find is this great Giclee Poppy Print from Etsy seller Modern Art Everyday. I could cover every square inch of open wall space in my house with this stuff.



More orange to come tomorrow!

New Feature Coming Soon!

Happy Friday, all!

I'm working on a collection for a feature I'm going to be starting this Monday - a Design Theme of the Week. I'll introduce the theme on Mondays, and then will feature an item from an indie artisan each day that embodies it. I've got some ideas brewing already - colors, foods (of course), cultures, news stories - it should be fun. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my favorite artisans.

For today, though, a little plug for my Etsy shop. The moon has been absolutely breathaking for the past couple of days (and with these obscenely late World Series games, I've had plenty of time to look at it). It's a classic spooky Halloween full moon, often surrounded by clouds swirling by. And at midnight last night, it was fabulous.

My Lunar Surface Earrings are out there, a nice way to think of the moon even if you go to bed at a decent hour.



Enjoy this gorgeous fall weekend - and do get out and have a look at the moon.

Nervous Wreck!

Yikes.

There's a lot for me to feel nervous, excited, jumpy about today.

First of all, the World Series (or, as my daughter calls it, the World Serious) starts tonight. I grew up as a Phillies fan and now I'm in Red Sox Nation. Anyone who knows the history of those teams knows that their fans don't ever really rest easy.

Second, I've got a HUGE craft show coming up next weekend - the Christmas Craft Festival at the World Trade Center in Boston. We're talking a three day event with attendance estimated at over 30,000. It should be fun, and exciting, but holy glue guns, Batman, that's a lot of crafters and a lot of shoppers! I'm now alternately worried that I won't have enough jewelry to last the weekend or that I will be lost in the shuffle and won't sell enough to recover my (rather hefty) booth fee.

And finally, I've had a lot of coffee this morning. A LOT. I was hoping to work on a coffee pendant to go with my Epicurean collection, but I'm thinking a saw is not the ideal tool for me when I'm this highly caffeinated.

Yours in jitters....

The Fall Classic

A little sleepy again today, this time because another loved one took time away from my sleep. But staying up late to watch the Red Sox win was probably worth it. ;) Now I'll have to be sleep deprived for the rest of October watching those late World Series games. Ahh, the things we do for our children and our childhood allegiances.

In honor of the red hot Sox, I thought this might be appropriate.



Check it out in my Etsy shop!

Sunday Shopping

It's a beautiful fall day, but while everyone here gets up and ready for the day, I'm doing a little virtual shopping. I'm looking at one of my favorite indie style blogs, Modish, and dreaming at the moment of redecorating my house from top to bottom.



And check out Modishoppe, the blog's sister site, for some really lovely indie finds! It's a nice little online storefront - I'm hoping to sell some pieces there soon, too.

Once I head out for the day, I'll be enjoying a walk in this lovely fall weather and a stop at the Dunstable Artisans annual show. I'm going to be picking up a beautiful sweater I ordered from weaver Kim Niles and looking for some other treats for myself.

Happy Sunday!

Children, Sleep and Stargazing

Ahh, motherhood. Such joy, such fulfillment - even when your child wakes you before dawn on a Saturday morning. Even the dog is still asleep.

So here I sit, with a LARGE cup of coffee and a bright-eyed 2 year old, ready to share with you something I created when I was feeling both more awake and more exuberant about the joys of motherhood. The Sun, the Moon and the Stars:



I made this pendant with my daughters in mind, and the two bezel set stones are their birthstones. The idea, which is explained at length on my web site here, is that our children mean the world and more to us, and that we'd give it all to them in a heartbeat. Even when the precious little darlings rouse us from our beds at some ungodly hour.

It sounded more special when I wasn't propping my eyes open with toothpicks.

Oh, and these would make lovely holiday gifts for other sleep-deprived moms, don't you think? ;-)

Be Still, My Heart

I've given in, and I'm not ashamed of it. ;-)

I've been saying for years that heart jewelry was overdone, especially when you look at what comes in those little aqua boxes...but now I'm making hearts.

I started playing with the idea when a customer at a craft fair approached me with an idea for a heart-themed pendant with the initials of two loved ones incorporated. She'd been looking at heart shaped stampings with engraved letters, and that wasn't quite doing it for her. So I came up with this - two closed, stylized hearts that link together but move around freely, with handforged letters fused in place.


In the process of forming the hearts, I've also made this Nested Hearts pendant, with a tiny heart suspended from a larger one. I think I'll end up giving a piece like this to my newly pregnant friend (seems like a nice symbol of life growing from life, don't you think?)



And there you have it. Love someone today!

More MOO and recipes, too!

I have my cards from the fabulous people at MOO and I couldn't be happier with them. Funky little things, these. I'm planning to use them as promos at my upcoming show in November - I'll have a basket of MOO cards on my table, each with a little surprise discount on the back ($5 off purchase, or free extras, for example), and I'll invite browsers to pick a card and apply it to a purchase right then and there. Here's a shot of my cards:




Now, the recipes. My Epicurean Collection jewelry has been quite popular (people must be hungry!), and I'm having a lot of fun with it. From now on, I'll be including a recipe with each piece from the collection. Here's what I've got so far:


Garlic Clouds (little savory puff pastries, and they are heavenly, indeed) to go with this pendant


A really lovely Vanilla Cinnamon cupcake for this one. There's a lot of butter involved, so you'll need to be brave. ;)


One of my favorite Thai lettuce wrap recipes, with just a touch of heat, for these Chile Pepper earrings.

All of the recipes are my originals, or my variations on something I've discovered while wandering through my frighteningly large cookbook collection. More to come!

Shopping Tip of the Day

I recently discovered Artisans Market, a lovely little online shop with tons of handcrafted goodness. There's some furniture here that I really think I must have. Take a look!



I've set up a gallery of my own on Artisans' Market, too. Check it out here!

I'm Baaaaaack...

Hello everyone!

I'm back, with the resolve to stick around and keep posting for a while.

Lots going on here - and I'm ramping up for a busy holiday season and looking around the Web to see what I can share. I'm going to be posting daily with a recommendation for either a great site for cool product reviews, or with a particular favorite handcrafted item that I've found.

Today's plug is for Rare Bird Finds, a great blog with a nice snide sense of humor. ;-) Oh, and the fact that they featured my Aspen Leaf Pendant recently doesn't hurt, either!