Sci-Fi Blog Hop

So AGES and ages ago, there was a discussion about good ideas for bloghops on one of the groups...

... or at least, I think that's how it started... lol

Anyhow,  the suggestion of a Sci-fi bloghop became a big long discussion, and it was decided that ' IT MUST BE DONE'.

That was... before Christmas sometime... and here we are, hop day, and the nice long list of interested people has shrunk to a few of us geeks that felt compelled to see this plan out :)

As I've said, I've known about this hop for MONTHS. I had plenty of ideas... too many in fact. So many fabulous books, movies & tv shows that I can pick from.

In the end there really was no contest about which one would get picked... Star Wars won, of course. Can I get a 'duh!' ? lol You all knew that as soon as you saw I was taking part, didn't you?

So... months of planning and creating time... I must have done lots, right? :D

*snort*

Yeah right >.<

It came down to crunch time. My necklace plans ended up getting scrapped in the interest of finding the time to 'get something done'... and thus I fell to the fabulous little mainstay... Earrings :)  the one pair of which I wore today and loved... the others are getting worn tomorrow.

 They're mine. 

Keepers.

:D

What? You wanna see? Well... alright....

So... according to the rules we need to provide a link to our inspiration...

So.... THIS 

The Death Star

... inspired THIS...

And THIS ...

Darth Vader

Inspired  THIS ..

I did have something for 'the good guys' in the works too... but as I was finishing up I realized I'd made a boo boo... got frustrated and chucked them aside. >.<

Make sure to check out the others in the hop... see what they drew inspiration from, and what they made :)

Hostess - Pamella Rachelle  - Crazy Creative Corner

Melissa Trudinger - Bead Recipes

Debbie Rasmussen - A Little of This, A Little of That...

Lee Koopman - Strega Jewellry Blog

Zoe Marcin - Beads, Tea & Sweets

Shelley Graham Turner - The Fabric of My Life

Denielle Hagerman - Some Beads & Other Things I Like...

Susan Bowie - http://susanbowie.wordpress.com/

Memories & Thanks Blog Hop

I'm very lucky to have a mom who, despite the trying times I've put her through growing up, is still one of my best friends, if not THE best friend...I mean, after all, friends may come and go... but mom's are kinda stuck dealing with our crazy butts, now aren't they ;)

My first piece is for my mom. Not surprising, since some of my favorite ( and biggest ) 'art projects'...( or attempts >.<) have been for her :)

Background ... my mom LOVES frogs... especially Kermit the Frog and those red eyed tree frogs. so needless to say, My eyes have become programmed to spotting 'frog' or 'Kermit' stuff across a busy store with no problem... despite my having to squint to make out the sign four feet away...I can see that frog keychain hanging on the tent pole ten yards away, past two or three dozen people moving past ;) lol  When my mom got a dark green pick up truck one year...I painted a giant Kermit the Frog head on her tailgate... and made a patching one for the back of her jacket. Everyone LOVED it... she was known as ' Mrs. Kermit' all over town :D

And of course I've made her plenty of frog jewelry. Every time I find a cute frog bead or pendant, I make something for her. My dad, however, is NOT a frog fan, so she doesn't get to wear the cutesy frog earrings when they go out, because 'they're embarrassing'. I did make her a pair that she wears with his okay, because the frogs are itty bitty images on itty bitty brass 'coins'... so you can't tell they're frogs until you're up really close >.< Bored of making earrings she 'can't' wear, I decided to make her something that would fit with just about every 'dressy' outfit she had, as well as most of her casual stuff, that contains her precious frogs, but not in such an obvious way that dad would grumble.

 

Four simple silver frog charms that 'blend in' with the silver chain,  four little green Czech Glass beads, and one little charm that says simply 'mom'.

Mom's a big fan of black and silver for her dressier outfits. For several years, every dressy outfit she had.. was black and silver. Seriously... she wore black to my wedding... although I really can't fault her on that one ;) *L*

The monochrome wardrobe is something we've tried to break her of by introducing other colours into her wardrobe that she likes, but not matter what colour she ends up wearing, you can usually find black and silver being teamed up with it. Usually in the form of a beautiful black velvet jacket decorated with a silver frog pin 'climbing' up the front .. so the bracelet is a win-win ;)

My second piece is for HER mom. My Gram doesn't love frogs... or Kermit. No... she loves Tweety Bird and dolphins ;) She's pretty much told us 'no Christmas gifts' her reason is that she has too much stuff already. Personally I think she just doesn't want to feel like she has to get us something in return... so I always bypass that by sending her something for her birthday instead... which is just four days before Christmas ;)

This year was not a good one, and her birthday was far from happy as news arrived that my cousin, George, had been lost at sea. By the time I learned of this, I already had this made, but  it oddly enough kinda makes me think of him, as well as her... I don't know if she feels the same, but I heard she did love it.

 Silver, black and dark & light blue... simple, understated, but very pretty at the same time, I think. the darker colours I think are what make me think of George.. A silver heart toggle that hangs in front over her heart... and a black dolphin - rather fitting to commemorate a death at sea... Not done intentionally. Like I said, I already had this finished, photographed and boxed up when I heard about it.

So two pieces of jewelry made as 'thanks' to two wonderful women in my life... and inadvertently in memory of a man I  really didn't know at all, since the last time I saw him he was still pretty much a boy.

Alright, now you've seen my pieces, and maybe someone of you have put a tissue or two to use over the last piece... so off you go to use up the rest of that kleenex box while you visit the rest of these blogs!

You can use the main list on Lori's blog 

Memories & Thanks Participants List

#100 + Tori Sophia

... hmm... suddenly wish I knew how to do animations and crap... woulda been cool to have exploding fireworks and crap right here...

... post number one hundred on Blogger :)


... and I'm using it to tell you all about something new I'll be doing this year... starting right now, actually :)

I have lots and lots of friends online here who have Etsy, Artfire or FB shops...some for jewelry, some for beads and other goodies. Seeing comments all over FB about driving traffic to the shops, and advertising, etc etc etc... it got me thinking I should go back to doing 'artist features' again.. like I'd started on my old blog. Only this time around, make each feature... special ;)

So here's what I'm doing.

 I contacted five of my shop-owning friends, all of whom I believe are also followers on this blog, actually, come to think of it. Well, no, I contacted FOUR of them about continuing this idea... the lady up today I contacted before hand, just about today ;)  Each month until April or May, I will be featuring one artist and their shop... and hosting a giveaway to go with it. It might be in place of a Freebie Friday ... or in addition too... depends ;) This month, it's 'in addition to' ;) There'll also be a new catch to some of the F.F.'s to come.. starting with Feburary's... that I'll fill you in on later... you can all blame Kashmira for giving me the idea ;)

Okay... off track ... gotta stop rambling...


 I hope most of you know Shelley Graham Turner.

 She's a member of both the FB groups 'Bead Soup Cafe', and 'Creative Bead Chat',  has teamed up with Marlene Cupo to host two rounds of 'The Holiday Bling Blog Hop'...( and I believe I saw mention of a third in the works?), and start a new group called  'MarShell Swaps'.

Plus, Shelley is also the lady who started the 'Pink Hair For Lori' campaign last summer :)

She's witty, sarcastic, fun, and just a great lady to know :) She also has one of the biggest hearts I know of.

And some of the cutest grandkids ;)

Anyhow... back to business ;) She's also pretty talented when it comes to making stuff ;)


 Have you seen her adorable LOL charms?

Etsy Link

  They are SOOO CUTE!!! I have a purple one... I call him ' Lol' ( pronounced lawl ;) )


 You've probably seen her sand dollar... right?

Etsy Link

How about her new Dressed Up Ear Wires?

Etsy Link

Well I have a surprise for you :)  One lucky person is going to win, not one.... but TEN pairs of  Dressed Up ear wires. All of these...

Makes you want to pull out your beads and start designing earrings for these, doesn't it?

So, anyone who wants a chance to win these pretties, here's what you have to do... ( There's a Rafflecopter widget below to check off each entry you've done. If you can't use rafflecopter, please say so in your entry comments! )

Go to  Tori Sophia  and look at all the goodies. Come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite item is. Check it off in rafflecopter... Tada! One entry.

You can get another entry by faving her shop or an item in her shop ( and letting me know in a comment & rafflecopter).

Hmm.. and how about one more entry for sharing a link to her shop on your FB page or blog? Yeah... not a link to this blog & giveaway... Share the link to her Etsy store, Tori Sophia.  And again, leave  comment & rafflecopter check to count it :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll let this run for a week, then have rafflecopter pick the winner.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO USE RAFFLECOPTER -- please let me know. Leave your entries comments below, and state with each one that you are unable to use rafflecopter... , and I'll make sure you're included :)

So now that you have something to look forward to... and drool over... ;) I guess I'll let you all know... that one of my followers has ALREADY  won a little something. Just for being a follower on this blog :) I've got 52 followers here, and after assigning everyone a number... the winner is LISA LODGE ( aka pineridgetreasures, for those searchers for her among my followers ;) ) Lisa,  I'm sending you a little something in the mail... not sharing pictures or anything until you get it ;)

Make sure to drop back in on Saturday for the Memories & Thanks bloghop!

ABS & YoJ, plus #99!

Yup, multiple topics post :D

You may remember I attempted to take part in the ArtBeadScene monthly challenges last year... I think I managed one... maybe two, but I remember one for sure, and I don't recall making it on the list so I must have screwed up the submitting somehow >.< lol I did want to try several of them, but they never amounted to much due to various reasons. I wasn't really planning on trying this year, since I signed up for The Year of Jewelry Project  instead... but fate smiled :)

The painting for the January ABS challenge...

And my entry....

The gorgeous peacock focal was made by Marti Conrad of Marti's Buttons n' Beads.  This was actually made for a gift exchange Lori Anderson put together over on BSC . My partner was Rebecca Anderson, and this baby spent about a month in the post to reach her. Her gift to me is still traveling, so I'll have to share that another time ;)

As for The Year Of Jewelry , week #1 's project started off great... then hit a snag and stalled... then grew into three different ones, all of which went slowly due to them each demanding my attention... >.< This meant that my Week #1 project is a day late in getting posted.

The theme was 'renewal'.

Sorry for the crappy pic... night time, indoors... and my normal background is currently acting as a 'table' to hold current projects >.<

Alrighty... now.. for the #99 part..

This is (or should be, anyhow) blog post #99 ... which means the next post has goodies up for grabs :) The day I write the post, I'll do a random.org pick of my followers for one surprise prize.. and then I'll have a second fun little giveaway posted for everyone to enter :)  So make sure you keep an eye out for #100! ;)

Plus, you can still pop over to the F.F. #13 post and enter that giveaway, too :)

F.F. # 13

Happy New Year, every one :)

Despite ending 2012 sick, I still managed to start off 2013 good. January 1st was the first day in almost a week that I didn't feel nauseous, and I've felt fine since :) Yay! Here's hoping the year continues on a much healthy note for me :D

For those of you that are a part of the Bead Soup Cafe on facebook, don't forget to sign up and take part in the third non-Blogger/ blogger challenge, Fur-liz Navidad' :)You can find it under 'files', and there's a link to the album where your inspiration photo is. All you have to do, is make a piece of jewelry, or a bead or something inspired by the pic, and on Jan.14, add your photo to the album :) One lucky participant will win a lovely bag of goodies from me and become the next hostess... and let me tell you, this is one impressive bunch of goodies. I was inspired by the kings ransom in beady treasures that Robin sent me for my prize, so this is even bigger than my F.F. bundles. As in about three times the size, if not more ;)

For those of you who would rather just stick with blog winnings that you don't have to work for, your chances at winning here are tripled this month :) First off we have the FF that I'm about to post here... plus my 100th post is just a post or two away, so I'll be doing two little giveaways for that. One will take place on the 100th post, and the other will be announced on the 100th post... or I should say, the winner of the other will be announced. All my followers will have been entered in that one automatically :)

But back to the matter at hand... GOODIES!!

The feature artbeads of this bundle, are four bumpy lampwork beads made by Gail, of Oregon Made Jewelry. Added in are a couple of new jade leaves, some Tibetan silver leaf charms, a couple crackle agate rounds, a big piece of amethyst, and I believe that big baby there is blue apatite. Plus there's a big puffy copper heart, some blue faux suede, and a bunch of assorted glass beads in colours to go with the various lampworks :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Year's End

This past year flew by so fast... I can't remember half of it, it just vanished so quickly.

One thing I remember, is that I started the year off feeling ill... and I'm ending it off the same way >.<

It did have it's good points though, make no mistake... for all the downs, there were some ups. I hope to continue the 'ups' into the new year, and leave this batch of downs behind ;)

My resolution for 2012 was to continue with my art and create so much on a monthly basis. That went not too badly for a few months until it died off. I did continue to create, but not within any timeline, for the most part.

2013 sees a similar resolution, only this time it's strictly for my jewelry. I joined a new group on facebook, The Year of Jewelry Project. The goal is a bit more ambitious than my previous one, with it being one piece a WEEK, however, I'm in a group so there is support should I seek it out, plus they offer a list of themes to help inspire you. 

As well, I discovered that opening my own shop isn't as financially unreachable as I'd been lead to believe, so I'll be using this 'challenge' to build enough stock to get that done :)

Oh, and I purchased a jewelry class online. It's mostly basic stuff, but I thought but would help me refine a few things and maybe learn different ways of doing things :)

I decided to do a 'year in review' kinda thing... but being me, I had to do it differently :) And so... a year of jewelry ( mostly... some aren't in there, and some... might be from last year... I 'think' I did them this year, but it went by so fast I can't remember >.< )

Some of those I've shown here... some I haven't :) Looking at the different backgrounds, I love the wood in natural lighting... not as much in artificial light. I rather like the black though... I think this year I'll have to consider ordering a light tent. I've tried some of the 'do it yourself' versions, but all have failed miserably >.< I can't follow instructions. I just can't. I NEED to take instructions and

 figure out how to do it my way... that doesn't work all the time ;)

Oh well.

And so, you've read all this way through and are no doubt wondering if I'm going to say who won December's F.F. giveaway....

... I guess so. I mean, you guys DID read all the way through this.. so.. you know...I suppose I could let you know that little bit of news... ;)

Out of 81 entries, Rafflecopter says the winner is #10

Kristi Jaro :D

Do I even need to remind you of the rules? lol You know the time limit by now, Kristi...give me a shout and crush everyone's hopes of a redraw ;)

I'll be posting a new giveaway on Friday, so be sure to pop back in and check it out :) Plus, I'm offering up a bundle of goodies to one lucky designer at the Bead Soup Cafe's 'Non-blogger/ blogger 3rd challenge, ' 'Fur'liz Navidad' .  It's a 'closed group', but everyone is welcome :)

Hope you all have a great night and enjoy ringing in the new year in whatever way you chose to :)

Holiday Bling Blog Hop #2

I missed out on number 1 since I just had too much on the go at the time, but when Shelley and Marlene decided to hold an encore, I had to jump in :)

For those who stumble across this form outside of the hop list,  Shelley of Fabric of My Life , and Marlene Cupo of Amazing Designs tossed all the applicants names into a hat and pulled out two at a time to partner us up... 

... well okay, I don't think that's EXACTLY what they did, but you get the idea ;)

We contacted our partner to get mailing addresses and some ideas on likes and dislikes, and discuss what type of gifts to exchange. Jewelry, non-jewelry, religious or non-religious... etc etc etc.  I'm not sure what all everyone discussed... I just know we were supposed to decide between the two of us any specifics without giving away what we were doing.

Both my partner, Jo-Ann and I were very open and easy going and didn't really set any limits, leaving the floor open to lots of possibilities.

As all of you creative types know... that is both a blessing and a curse >.< It leaves you wide open to any inspiration... and to ALL inspiration >.< I did have a few likes  to guide me, as well  a 'do not use' colour.... which of course became a prominent colour in my layout until I remembered it >.< lol

I blame the owl for that though.... seriously. He was the one demanding I use pink >.< Him plus some gorgeous multi coloured fabric that, due to the pink issue, I ended up not using.... nor did I use the fuzzy non-pink multi coloured yarn I'd grabbed as a substitute.  As a matter of fact, in the end, I didn't use any fabric at all :)

Instead I used some gorgeous cranberry colored, top-drilled potato pearls that I'd been hoarding forever, that had been sent to me all the way from Sweden in a bundle of goodies I'd won from ' Maneki' of Wild Roses & Blackberries :)

Want to see?

alright, alright... here...

Cranberries & Ice

Cranberry Potato pearls & quartz chips, with a cute owl from TreeWings Studio :) 

Oh.. btw... that one pearl is not backwards... the strand is flipped since I have it curled around and I didn't notice it until after I'd put the camera away. You can see the two above it are the same ;)

I was playing with buttons at the time too, and while going through the whole' pink/no pink' issue, I made these...

She can add a hook and hang them on her tree... or add ear wires and make them big chunky earrings ;)

So now you've seen what I sent her.... pop over and see what she made for me at It's A Beadiful Creation ;) then pop through the rest of the list to see all of the other goodies made this round :)

Shirley Moore http://www.beadsandbread.blogspot.com Lori Bowring Michaud http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.com Catherine King http://catherines-musings.blogspot.com Dyanne Cantrell  http://deelitefuljewelrycreations.blogspot.com Sonya Stille http://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com Elaine Ray http://elaineray.blogspot.com Gina Hockett http://freestyleelements.blogspot.com Jo-Ann Woolverton http://itsabeadifulcreation.blogspot.ca Debbie Rasmussen http://kepirasmussen.blogspot.com Renetha Stanziano http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com Ginger Bishop http://lilmummylikes.blogspot.com Miranda Ackerley http://mirandack.com/category/thoughts Tammie Everly http://ttedesigns.blogspot.com Alicia Marinache http://www.allprettythings.ca Melinda Abrahamson http://www.firstreetcrafts.com Rita/ Toltec Jewels http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com Chandra Merod http://www.junipergoods.blogspot.com Mary Govaars http://www.mlhjewelrydesigns.com Kelley Fogel http://www.mylifeonebeadatatime.blogspot.com Tiffany Goff Smith http://www.southerngalsdesign.blogspot.com Heather Rats Otto http://www.thecrafthopper.com Anitra Gordy Boyers www.leelucreations.blogspot.com  Marlene Cupo http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com Shelley Graham Turner              http://www.shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com