Birthdays and Blue

Sorry, I've been MIA the last few days. It has been a busy week. My daughter's 9th birthday was this week and we had a lot of activities the last few days.

Last night we had her "friend" birthday party. She decided to have it at our local "paint your own pottery" place. The girls got to make their own charms to put on a bracelet. It was a lot of fun to watch their creative process. I love that they got to be part of each step of the process - picking stamps, cutting the clay, and painting. They even learned how to make roses out of clay. It was very cool. They were very serious about the whole thing. They were working so hard that they were really quiet. Not your typical birthday party. When the bracelet are done, I'll take some pictures to share.

I actually finished these earrings last week, but am finally getting around to posting and sharing. An amazonite cabochon and a blue pearl are the focal points. The earrings are embroidered with size 11 pale blue seed beads and size 15 blue metallic seed beads. A metallic blue drop hangs from the bottom. The earrings are backed in slate blue colored ultrasuede and hang from sterling silver ear wires. You can see more photos here.

I made these as part of the Thursday Sweet Treat theme "It's Going to Be A Bright Blue Day". You can see what other artists submitted here.

Tiny Flower Earrings

Since, I've obviously been focused on flowers the last few days, I decided to relist my Tiny Flower Earrings on Etsy. These adorable earrings are perfect for any occasion. Two glass flower beads are surrounded by seed beads and hang from sterling silver ear wires. The earrings are backed in black ultrasuede. These bead embroidered earrings are so light weight, you won't even know your wearing them.

Texture and Shape Inspiration

Yesterday when I took the pictures for color inspiration, I was also took the pictures below. I thought they were really interesting examples of texture and shape. They also looked like alien life forms, but that's another blog post. Anyways, I'm really interested in textures. Maybe that's way I like beads so much. I love the way beads feel and how I can change the texture of a beaded piece by sewing the beads in different ways. Now I'm thinking how I can interpret these textures into beaded pieces.  

 

Color Inspiration

Nature is a great source of inspiration. Right now I can take a quick little stroll and see so many colors, shapes, and textures. Today was no exception. Our gardens and field are filled with so much color right now, it's hard not to find something to spark a new idea. I thought I'd share some color inspiration with you. 

Where do you find inspiration?

 

To Fringe or Not to Fringe?

Last weekend was rainy and rather cold for mid July in Western Pennsylvania. With that in mind, I created this one-of-a-kind art pendant. The piece was inspired by large raindrops. You know the kind that are huge and make a huge splat against your wind shield. 

Although I am really happy with how it turned out, I can't decide whether or not I should add fringe to the bottom. To fringe or not to fringe, is the question. So what do you think?

France on My Mind

I just finished reading Julia Child's "My Life in France" and I loved it. I remember seeing Julia Child on PBS when I was a little girl. She had a really interesting voice and distinctive manner. I had recently seen the trailer for the new movie "Julie and Julia" and decided to pick up "My Life in France".  Julia had such and interesting life. I love that she moved to a foreign country, couldn't speak the language, and ultimately decided to master the art of french cooking. Amazing and brave. I love that she had a incredibly supportive husband. I love that she was interested in even the smallest details. (I'm into the details.) She had to convert the French recipes into American recipes with American ingredients and measurements. She adapted and worked hard, but most of all she never felt sorry for herself or at least she didn't mention it. And she did this all after the age of 35!

I'm now reading the book by Julie Powell, "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously". In a moment of weakness, she decides to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in a year. She started a blog so that others could follow her progress. I would say that this was equally amazing and brave. I pretty sure that Julie Powell, also had an incredibly supportive husband. After reading about some of the recipes in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," I'm not sure I'd have the courage to even try to cook them. Let alone feed them to my family. 

I'm all about pictures and I needed some to post with this blog entry. So I went to Etsy and found a few things that caught my eye. These items are distinctly French to me. 

Enjoy!

Paris Monument Map Journal from moonlightbindery

Eiffel Tower Glass Paperweight from prettyoriginals

Fleur-De-Lis Scrabble Tile Pendant from IMCreations

A Lot of Green (Beads and Garden)

I am surrounded by green. Green beads and green garden. I thought I'd share a little of that green with all of you. 

I finished these sweet little earrings awhile ago, I just haven't gotten a chance to take a lot of photos and prepare them for my Etsy shop. (Boy this sounds a lot like my last post.) The small cabochon in the center is an amazonite. I surrounded it with three different colors of green seed beads. It reminded me of all those great green colors you see at the beginning of summer.

And here's one of my garden's. This is the one I call my "house garden". Just because it is closest to the house. In this garden, we have tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, basil, cabbage, and a lot of beans. I love it right now because it is a sea of green. Everything is full and flowering and hopefully we will soon be picking. Well, technically we have been picking lettuce, but nothing else yet.