Suddenly Summer

Summer is here in all its hot, humid glory. Yesterday morning Kevin and I went to the park with friends before it got to unbearably hot. We encountered lots of cool things!

Pollywogs

(aka tadpoles)

Red dragonflies

I have since learned the red ones are the male of the species Celithemis elisa - Calico Pennant

hundreds of tiny toads (or are they frogs?)

You had to watch your step, they were everywhere along the edge of the lake!

and the kids had a lot of fun

Such a lovely day.

~~~~~

Last week was Kevin's scout camp. He had great fun and it was such a pretty place.

The camp had a medieval theme complete with knights, swords, shields, etc.

Kevin made his own shield


and had a sword fight!

(not real swords of course)

He liked the slingshot


and the BB guns


They did some fishing


and when it got too hot, there were popsicles


He had a great time! Definitely a memorable experience.
I hope he gets to do it again next year too.


~~~~~

We'll be making our way to the mountains later in the week. It takes a couple of days for me to get things ready and packed. But hopefully we'll be there by the 4th of July!


I'll write again when I can!
Hope everyone has a fantastic summer!


Until next time....

Epheriell Designs Blog Feature

I'm so very flattered that my citrine dolphin briolette earrings were featured on a lovely blog.


Every Sunday Epheriell Designs' blog features 5 fab Etsy finds in her Superb Sundays post. I was very honored she chose my earrings for this Sunday! Thank you so very much for making me one of your fab 5!

So go check out her blog! It's full of wonderful Etsy finds as well as her own beautiful jewelry! I think you'll like it!

~~~~

Tessa has made a return to my shop after a very long absence.

These are some of my favorite earrings. I love filigree as well as amethyst, and together it's a combination you don't want to miss!

~~~~~

That's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and a great week ahead!

Until next time....

Gems!

My local bead shop, Beadlush, had a very welcome visitor over the weekend. His name is Arun Shah of Bollywood Beads and he brought all his goodies for a trunk show! It was great to see him, and delightful to see his pretty beads!

There were all shapes and sizes, colors and cuts.

Loads of rondelles

Huge briolettes

and these massive onions!

Never seen any that big before

Kevin even had a great time

He loves to look at all the beads.

You can see all the pictures I took in a set I created on Flickr. There were more beads than I could get pictures of!

These found a new home

with yours truly!

Oh, one of the best parts...the Mimosas.
I only drank one but it was yummy!

Next time the trunk show comes to Beadlush, make sure you stop in. You won't regret it (but your wallet might!).

~~~~~

Finally, late today (around rush hour EST) I found myself on the Etsy's front page!

My new whiskey quartz made a brief appearance!

Thank you Etsy gods! :)

~~~~~

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a terrific week!

Until next time....

"findings found" Blog Feature

I was so very surprised and thrilled tonight to learn that my "Twirly Slide" earrings were featured this past Friday on a beautiful blog for jewelry lovers and jewelry buyers. It's called findings found, and there are some wonderful items featured there that I bet you'll love. Go check it out!

Thank you so much for the feature! I really do appreciate it!

~~~~~

Tomorrow I'll show you what I did this past weekend! It's all about gems!

Until next time....

New Items in My Shop

I thought I'd pop in and let you know about a few new things in my shop. I still have more to list but with the boy out of school now, listing may be few and far between I'm afraid. I'll try to get as many things listed as I can in the next couple of weeks before we head to the mountains for the summer. (Yay!)

Dark whiskey quartz briolette in oxidized sterling

Yummy color!

Smooth polished chrysoprase briolette with hand hammered circle in 14k goldfill

Such a pretty fresh green!

Prasiolite solitaire baguette necklace in sterling

Limited edition, customer to choose length.

Crystal quartz puffed diamond necklace in sterling

Also limited edition. Beautiful faceting!

Black tourmalinated quartz briolette earrings in sterling

Absolutely gorgeous stones!

Citrine faceted coin and textured domed disc necklace

Oxidized and highlighted sterling

Rose quartz briolette leverback earrings in sterling

Such a lovely blush pink


And here's what's to come

Look for these in my shop in the next couple of weeks!

~~~~~

I'm really enjoying my new dapping block and punch set.
So far it's a whole lot of fun!

I'm loving my new texture hammers too. They're turning out to be major fun! Lots of possibilites. I'm hoping to get a few more somewhere down the line. Kevin's little play hammer provides a really wonderful texture that I just adore. It's a real hammer, just in minature form. He's beaten and banged it against so many things (including rock) that it's gotten quite a rough surface on the head producing quite a unique and interesting pattern. Thanks a lot Kevin for letting me use it!

Well I'd better skidaddle out of here. I have lots of work to do tomorrow.

Hope you have a great day!

Until next time....

A Very Special Day

For the past couple of days, I've been in an very teary and emotional state. I couldn't really put my finger on why, not able to attribute it to any event that I was aware of. I thought it was probably just the full moon. Then it dawned on me: Kevin will no longer be a first grader after today. He's growing up. He's reached a milestone and it's unconsciously getting to me I suppose.

I've been finding things in his backpack over the past few days, things he's done in school such as artwork, assignments, even love notes from his girlfriends! He brought home an award in literacy and made the honor roll too! Then yesterday he brought home some items he and his class had done since the beginning of the school year. I was so very touched by this one in particular.

There was also this outlined hand print

and this poem

Even though the poem says blue
is the best color in the world,
in comparing the following two lists,
his favorite color is still pink!

So with all these precious little mementos reminding me how big he's getting, I've been a weeping wreck!

I'm so very proud of you, my little man. You're my 'sweetpea' and always will be. That's what I called you the very first time I saw you after you were born. You'll be my sweetpea forever and always. But for now, it just seems you're growing up way too fast. I love you.

~~~~~

Something else that makes this day very special is that I have been featured in a blog! Thank you so much to Shiny Adornments for the honor. I'm thrilled and grateful! (You can visit Shiny's shop here. She makes beautiful jewelry herself!)

~~~~~

I was recently asked to participate in an article by the Style Campaign blog in which 10 Etsians share their photography tips. (we all know how much I grumble about doing pics of jewelry). You can find some good tips in this article.

Along those same lines, more good jewelry photography tips can be found on Jasmin's blog. She has several posts about jewelry photography techniques and tips that I found fascinating and very educational. I'm trying some of them out but haven't yet quite worked out what I want to do. I really admire her photos though. They are totally droolworthy! Thanks for all your tips Jasmin! (I want your camera!)

~~~~~

So today has been a special day. Tearful and happy, it's these moments that make memories. I'm sure I'll be in tears when I pick up my little man for the last day of first grade. I'm hoping he won't cry too, but I bet he will. We'll see who cries first!

Until next time....

Thanks for stopping by!

I Made a Treasury!

I finally grabbed a treasury! This is only the second or third one I've ever made. I was in a peachy mood so tha's what I picked.

I hope you like it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Etsy Front Page!!

Apparently I made the front page of Etsy twice on Sunday. Wow!

Even though I missed it both times, I wanted to extend my appreciation to the curators and to Etsy.

Isn't this a pretty one? I love the subtle hues.

Thank you noblegnome!

And you have to love this one too!


Thank you southernvtsoap!

And thanks to the Etsy gods for allowing these
to grace the front page!

Many, many thanks!