jewelry

well, i finally got the camera out again.

semi-precious something (i don’t recall what exactly), wood, and brass.

wood, swarovski crystal, the same semi-precious stone… it’s like dyed agate or something.  the large beads are olive wood, a gift from greece from my friend charlie.

brass, seed beads, wood, and a garnet chip:

freshwater pearls and tigers eye:

a whirled peas bead on ss chain and silk:

matching earrings, made with whirled peas minis:

i took a class at emmi beads from lisa oristian and forged this necklace.  just the chain, not the circles at the bottom.

and i had pieces left over for earrings:

more earrings.  these main beads are whirled peas again:

card and gift tag

for a first communion.

i cut the lily of the valley from a martha stewart template using an x-acto blade, painted the white bits with acrylic, and went over it all with mod podge.  same deal for the monogram, except it was without a template.

new jewelry and stuff

first, a couple gifts:

for eva’s birthday – a matching bookmark and earring set.  they are made from amethyst chips and blue goldstone, which looks purple to me and is very satisfyingly sparkly.

 

for derek and meghan’s wedding – adam and i put together this bottle opener (available at EmMi Beads) and also made them a “jamaica me crazy” scented candle (not pictured).

 

this is the candle i made last night.  the top half is macintosh apple, the bottom is pomegranate.  

 

here’s the rest of the amethyst chips.

 

 

and here’s my first attempt at tying/knotting/can’t remember which it’s called.  the pendant came from h+m a long time ago.

 

 

 

more knots… i didn’t really care on this one so they don’t look that great.  i made this so it can be worn as a necklace or bracelet.

 

 

 

inspired by lanvin fall 08 jewelry.  these are swarovski pearls stitched onto dyed silk.

 

 

 

more stitching with random crystals and ribbon.  i like the bow clasp vs. tied bow thing going on.  (the real bow doesn’t come undone.)

 

 

 

crystal-pearl-ribbon bracelet.

 

 

 

this is a necklace from h+m that i tweaked.  it originally was a big Y-necklace that was too long and altogether too much.  i just took off the tail and added more leaves to the chain.

 

 

 

and i saved a few leaves for earrings.  

 

these juicy looking beads were a gift from charlie a long time ago, and the leaves were a recent gift from lisa.

 

here are lisa’s other leaves.

 

some rings i made at work.  clockwise from top they are made with 1. a mirage (mood!) bead, 2. turquoise, 3. some red stone, 4. swarovski pearl, 5. and 6. swarovski crystal.  come in and buy one!  

 

also at work, a valentine-ish necklace.  brass, freshwater pearl, and sw. crystal.  also for sale!

 

my new wave of jewelry

before november i hadn’t made any jewelry in years.  then i started working at the bead shop…

these are sister bracelets for me and sarah.  the chips are our birthstone, garnet, and the other glass beads are our numbers… mine has 13 total of course- 6 on one strand, 7 on the other. sarah’s has 10 total, because her best numbers are 5 and 28.

i made myself earrings with the leftovers.

on monday everyone from emmi beads had lunch and exchanged gifts.  i gave out my tote bags from the previous post, and i received some really great stuff.

lisa (kissing dog designs) gave me a bunch of really cool beads.  i’m very happy to have these in my stash!

denise (whirled peas beads) let me pick this bead out as an xmas gift (plus four more small beads for earrings- i haven’t used those yet)…

…and also gave me a goddess!

kim (emmi beads) gave me a beautiful whirled peas bead that i had been eyeing.  i don’t know whether she knew that or not, but either way i’m thrilled to own it.  i know the color isn’t actually in it but when i look at this bead i get a green feeling.  and it makes me think of turtles.

(i really love these czech glass petrified wood-looking beads! )

from karen (emmi beads) i received this awesome personalized beading tool pouch.  if i only had a sewing machine that embroidered…  and serged.  does that exist?  i am going to find out when i’m done here.

totes and pouches

i spent a few long nights putting together these gifts for the ladies i work with at the bead shop.  i didn’t make the actual totes but i put a different lining in each one.  i also sewed three small pouches for one person.  i hand-stitched the linings in and wow, now i know what thimbles are for.

books i read in 2008

i took this idea from my cousin erin.  so here’s what i read this past year…  mostly junk, all easy.  i have higher hopes for 2009.

 

naked – david sedaris 1

horseradish – lemony snicket 1

life in the fat lane – 2

busted – 2

what my girlfriend doesn’t know – 2

i am legend – richard matheson – 2

holidays on ice – david sedaris – 2

flowers in the attic – v.c. andrews – 2

petals on the wind – v.c. andrews – 2

if there be thorns – v.c. andrews – 2

seeds of yesterday – v.c.andrews – 2

garden of shadows – v.c. andrews – 2

madness – marya hornbacher – 4

the bfg – roald dahl – 6 (reread #infinity)

gone with the wind – margaret mitchell – 7 (reread #3)

are you there god? it’s me margaret – judy blume – 8

emily’s runaway imagination – beverly cleary – 8

my sweet audrina – v.c. andrews – 9

heaven – v.c. andrews – 9

dark angel – v.c. andrews – 10

twilight – stephenie meyer – 11

new moon – stephenie meyer – 11

eclipse – stephenie meyer – 11

breaking dawn – stephenie meyer – 11

harry, a history – melissa anelli – 11

good things for organizing – martha stewart – 12

dress your family in corduroy and denim – david sedaris – 12

the opposite of a maxx moment?

a week-ish ago, i saw this very nice necklace in tjmaxx.  but i didn’t think too much about it because it was $80.

then that night i went to work at my other job, emmi beads.  i was putting out new stuff when i found beads that looked pretty similar to what i had seen earlier, so i decided to recreate it:

not bad!  and this only cost $10-12.  the chain isn’t as fine, and the beads are glass (i don’t know if the originals are semi-precious or not, though they ought to be), but the look is the same and i love it.

2008 winter greeting card

i just finished making my cards for this year.  i don’t do christmas but i like cards and enjoy creating them.  this year i wanted to do something knitted and came up with the idea of tiny knitted scarves adhered to cardstock.  i wanted to do all 30 of them this way but since i didn’t start doing this in june, i knew it wouldn’t work.  so i created the second card with paper ribbon instead of the scarf.  

for all the cards i used two snowflake paper punches.  one just punches out part of the design- i thought this was such a cute idea when i saw them at the store.  the other punch was the traditional kind, which i used on white (semi transparent) vellum and the same paper ribbon.

i’m happy with these overall, and i got all the non-knitted ones done in two days.

my two favorite foods ever

and

(i prefer this old version, not the flashy new bag…)

 

need i say more?  are these not the greatest things to eat on earth?  one of them is not even horrible for your health!  i have to keep my hot fry purchasing to a minimum to avoid embarrassment.  at least i’ll go to different locations to get them to remain inconspicuous.

don’t forget the RedHot for those morningstars!

in this case, frank’s will always win out over sriracha, which is a close second.

 

wow, my face feels all cold-sweat-y from thinking about this!

VC Andrews books

i just finished reading heaven about 10 minutes ago.  i had pretty high hopes for it, since i’ve already read the dollanganger saga and my sweet audrina.  however, right now i need to say that book sucked.  by the end i was making faces, rolling my eyes, and sincerely wanted to give up and throw the book down.  heaven is really annoying throughout the entire story.  why does she have to cry all the time?  why is she treat logan and tom so badly?  does it really matter that she already slept with cal if logan would never have known?  why wouldn’t she want to see her father just to spit in his face or something?  why didn’t she tell cal how kitty was abusing her, and more importantly, why wasn’t it described in the book?  the only major thing that seemed to happen was the first night heaven was with the dennisons and kitty put her in the hot lysol bath and scrubbed her skin raw.  and then like a year later they finally mentioned that heaven got slapped around by kitty all the time.  and punched?  

and they always made it sound like something really scary and evil was about to happen, and it never did.  and oh yeah, if heaven didn’t really want to do it with cal, and he wasn’t gonna make her, why did she?  and then the ending… the ends are always so disappointing.  nothing is resolved. i know i’m supposed to read dark angel now, and yes it is sitting right next to me, but i just wish all these books could stand alone better.

my sweet audrina, which really is a story by itself, was still disappointing.  she really couldn’t figure out that she was the first and best audrina?  and then at the end when she was finally going to get away, and she turns back and looks at the house, and it makes her go back even though she knows better?  for real??  i would so much rather read another book about her getting away from her insane father, finding some guy who’s not so weak, and then have like her cousin vera come around and do something else evil.  or did vera die…. i don’t remember.  so many people died i can’t even keep it straight.  i know the mother died, and the aunt.  and supposedly the little sister sylvia(?) did it?  i honestly don’t understand that part.  because she helped audrina hide when vera was going to kill her, but didn’t she also blind her with the crystals and push her down the stairs like she allegedly did to everyone else?  or did vera do that after all?  

flowers in the attic is by far the best v.c. andrews book i’ve read.  the whole saga held my interest but it’s all about the original.  i want to read it again.  poor little corey… dead in the attic and they didn’t even know it.  and carrie killed herself in the next book.  as for christopher and catherine, well you know what happens there.  it’s all his fault anyway.  then also in the second book catherine seduces her mother’s boyfriend and OMG i just remembered how she went to her dying grandmother in her ballet costume and whipped her and put tar in her hair for revenge.  then in the third and fourth books her younger son is crazy too… i love it when everyone’s evil.  

i don’t think i’m going to read any more VC for a while though, especially if dark angel is as annoying as i’m expecting.  we’ll see in a couple days.  i don’t know what i want to read after that though… actually yes i do, i want to read some judy blume.  i recently realized that i’ve missed out on a lot of her stuff.  when i was younger i only read the tales of a fourth grade nothing and all the fudge books, and sheila the great.  and dear mr henshaw, although that might have been beverly cleary, i’m not sure anymore.  like a month ago i read are you there god? it’s me margaret.  i’m glad i didn’t read it back then, it was weird and i didn’t and wouldn’t have liked it.  so yeah there’s a lot left for me to read from her.

Festival of Baskets basket

if you don’t know what this is… 

“St. Louis Gonzaga Church of Utica annual “Festival of Baskets” will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, at Hart’s Hill Inn, 135 Clinton St., Whitesboro.

The event is similar to a silent auction, which allows attendees to place chances on a variety of gift baskets and gift certificates. Each basket is unique, includes handcrafted items and has a theme such as Christmas, Halloween, seasonal, collectibles or money trees. The gift baskets range in value from $25 to over $100.

To mark the festival’s 10th anniversary, a raffle will be held for a 50-inch plasma television.

The festival has grown from an offering of 30 baskets at the inaugural event to more than 200 baskets in 2006.” (source)

the other day we put together a basket.  this means that we picked out things, adam paid for it all, and i arranged them artfully.  if it’s not obvious enough, this is a clinton cider mill themed basket.

this was my first attempt at making a bow from ribbon.  i think it came out okay, considering i had the widest ribbon ever.  it helped that it was wired.  (not a print i would have chosen myself, by the way, but it works.)

so what’s inside?

an apple slicer
maple sugar candy
apple cinnamon pancake mix
pumpkin bread mix
mulling spices
sun-dried tomato and basil vinaigrette
strawberry rhubarb preserves
apple salsa
apple butter
maple syrup
$20 gift certificate

and for good measure, we included little pamphlets on apples and syrup.  

 

okay so at work today i was sizing/pushing mens’ underwear and came across… the iBoxer:

makes it hard for someone to steal your iPod, i guess?  or if you just want to rock out while undressed like this dude.

expired experiment

we have a couple rolls of very expired film, so i messed around with one to see what would happen.  by the way, i now have a nikon n65 regular camera.  they came out kind of grainy, i think they’re sorta old looking.  i’m glad i still have another roll to go.

 

ok and here are the digitals i took today at the laundromat.  i like doing laundry once i get there.  i listened to the first part of harry potter 1 and took pictures when no one else was around.

i guess those last two go together, cause that’s what i was looking at.

my lucky numbers

are in this picture i took of kitty:

i just love that cat.  she seems like a stuck-up bitch but mostly it’s that she’s starting to get old.  when she gets in the mood, she’ll run around and play like crazy.  sometimes she’ll cuddle up and be nice.  the rest of the time, she is totally defensive.

 

let’s get duncan in on this too:

he is a solid man, but very easygoing.  this was at my sister’s birthday.