HBBH#3

What...? You thought the holiday swap & hops were over with? Don't be silly... plenty more holidays to celebrate :) And Marlene Cupo & Shelley Graham Turner have decided to encourage us to celebrate !

Holiday Bling Blog Hop #'s 1 & 2 were Christmas / Yule / Solstice type themed.

#3 has a wider selection of choices... we could chose ANY holiday that occurred withing February or March. They even provided a list of some... want to see some of what they found for us?

  · Ground Hog Day - Feb 2

· Chinese New Year - Feb 10

· National Foundation Day (Japan) - Feb 11

· Mardi Gras thru Feb 12

· St Valentine's Day - Feb 14

· National Flag Day (Canada) - Feb 15

· Do a Grouch a Favor Day - Feb 16

· International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day - Feb 23

· Purim - Feb 23-24

· Saint David's Day (Wales, UK) - March 1

· Barbie's Birthday - March 9

· Commonwealth Day (UK) - March 11

· St. Patrick's Day - March 17

· Feast of St. Joseph (Italy) - March 18

· Big Bird's Birthday - March 20

· Greek Independence Day - March 25

· Start of Passover - March 25

· Easter - March 31

...plus we could use any others we discovered, as long as they took place in the Feb./ March time line.

My partner for the hop was Alicia Marinache, a fellow Canuck who actually lives a few hours away from me :) Rather decide on a holiday together, we left that up to inspiration.  

Alicia said she had the perfect one but that it wasn't on the list so it would be a total surprise.

I had Mardi Gras stuck in my head, but wanted to do something that Alicia would love, so I haunted her fb page and blog for holiday inspiration. The perfect one appeared - her sons birthday - but without any hints as to his favorite colours or even the actual date for me to discover birthstones... I couldn't grab onto enough inspiration to get it going.  I did however discover a bunch of Easter photos of her and her family enjoying the holiday. 

Still hemming and hawing over ideas, I decided to let it stew for a bit, hoping she'd post something to help kick start the birthday idea. I had plenty of time after all.  Then while picking up some envelopes and glue for another project, I did my usual stroll past the beads and my eye got caught on some new sparklies. They'd got in some Swarovski Elements with coordinating crystals and they were all screaming at me to buy them >.< I managed to make it out with just two... both for homes other than mine... and one of them was in pinks, greens and clear; perfect for an Easter theme. It sat beside me for an entire day as I let ideas flow, then started work.

Unfortunately, after it was finished, I noticed a flaw in the focal... and in trying to 'fix' it... it broke >.< Luckily I was able to find a replacement focal that enhanced the theme even more I think...

Here's the original design with it's flawed focal just prior to breaking...

 

And here's the completed necklace with the new focal...

The death of the sparklie was sad... however I think the rose quartz lily adds a much more delicate touch, plus lends itself to the holiday a bit better :)

As for what Alicia sent me... wow. The holiday she chose was a special one that her family keeps alive in their own traditions, and I was touched to be a part of it :) The holiday she chose? Martisor. It's a traditional celebration of spring in Romania on March 1st :)  I LOVE what she made for me :) Go check out her blog to find out more about Martisor  and see what she made for me ;)

Then go check out the rest of the blogs to see what other holidays were represented!

 Alicia Marinache

  Catherine King  

 Chris Schlicht  

 Cynthia Machata
 Dyanne Everett-Cantrell  

 Gina Hockett  

 Jennifer Reno 

 Laura Reed  

 Leanne Loftus  

 Lennis Carrier 

 Lori Bowring Michaud  

 Marti Conrad
 Mary Govaars  

 Renetha Stanziano  

 Rita/ Toltec Jewels
 Sarah Goode  

 Sherri Stokey  

 Sonya Stille  

 Tammie Everly  

 Therese Frank  

 Tiffany Goff Smith
 Marlene Cupo 

 Shelley Graham Turner

Friday Feature ; Marti's Buttons-N-Beads

Sorry for the delay >.<

Anyhow, this month I'm featuring another fabulous shop :)

 Marti's Button-n-Beads

For those who've never been to Marti's, shame on you! You have no idea what you're missing!

Marti loves playing with clay, and we love the results ;)

I'm sure you've see her paw print charms around

etsy link

And one of my all time faves... her dragon pendants...

Etsy Link

She's been playing alot lately and has some new stuff that I love. Like these..

 

Etsy Link

and these...

Etsy Link

I love her horse cuffs and fish cuffs... and well... I love too much of her stuff >.< lol

So this month I have a $10 gift certificate to Marti's shop up for grabs  :)

You know the drill :) Use the Rafflecopter widget to enter! ( you can enter all three parts, not just choose one ;) ) If you can't see the rafflecopter widget, it's because you're not on the actual blog post... click on the post title and you should be able to see it :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Update

Sorry for the no posting >.<

I'd meant to post my new shop feature this past week, but a combination of headaches and some news about a former girlfriend kinda knocked me out of the blogging mind set for a bit.

For those missing the Freebie Friday post, there isn't one this month, sorry. January and February are tight months with a bit smaller paychecks thanks to fewer hours at work, and I've been continuing to set aside just as much money as always for my investments and savings. My extra money has all been going to Project Bead and a few other small charitable causes.

For the next while at lest, Freebie Fridays will be merged with the shop features, so you'll still have a chance to win goodies here, they'll just be in the form of gift certificates or special goodies form the shops I feature.

I have a blog hop coming up this weekend, and a couple posts in my drafts file waiting for me to finish, so they'll be coming soon. I promise I'll have that shop feature up this week BEFORE my blog hop on Saturday.

As a tease, this months feature will be on Marti's Buttons N' Beads on etsy & Facebook ;)

Further more, those of you commenting may notice I've changed the settings. No captcha's, don't worry ;)

Due to rising frustration and irritation at the number of anonymous spamming comments to sort through, I've removed the anonymous commenting for the time being.

Zan, I know you don't have a blog or fb page or anything, but according to Open ID, you can use that option if you have a google or gmail account, too. Here's the link so you can check it out. http://openid.net/get-an-openid/

 If you still can't use it to comment,  you're still welcome to email me and I can enter you in anything that has commenting as a requirement ;)