More Soup and a Unicorn if You Can Handle It!

Since my partner, Gretchen Nation, received her soup - I'll show you what I sent her. She said she intends to blog about it by tomorrow, I think? Since her style is definitely vintage and on the delicate side, I decided to send her a rustic / organic / nature themed soup.

I can't wait to see what she'll do with it! The leaf is by my friend Jessi who's made some other beautiful pendants I've used.

Now, here's some stuff I made over the weekend -- some of which derived from Heather's Big Box o' Vintage Goodness.

I bought that Sterling Unicorn head from Beadaholique some time ago, and I was just waiting for the right piece to come together. That drilled river rock has a purple tint to it that's hard to discern from the photo. I'll have to reshoot it if I put it on etsy.

The gold plated Aspen leaf, as well as the Mexican coins & some of the various beads and chain used throughout are from Heather's box. Now, I want to finish another piece I started the other night, and then I can start playing with my soup!

Finally! A Give Away!

Oh me, oh my. Yesterday I went to our quarterly bead and gem show. Having missed the past two, I went absolutely hog wild and spent twice my budget! Whoops! But there were SO. MANY. GORGEOUS. STONES. I even broke down and splurged on a few more expensive items. But, that will just inspire me to get busy, which is something I've really been trying to do lately. There's been so much going on, and this darn oppressive heat just saps the life out of me. The ideas have been coming to me though, so after I'm done with this, I will get started! I'll post pics of my new loot at the bottom after all the other important info.

Now for the give away part!!!

After having an etsy shop for ages, I finally managed to list a bunch of items! So in honor of the occasion, I'm doing this give away AND a coupon code for my shop! The code is: FINALLY and that gets you 15% off. US Shipping is always free (unless you want tracking/insurance), and International is only $3 (unless you want tracking/insurance). The code will be good through the end of July. Just type it in when you're placing your order and etsy will do the rest for you.

The winner will get to choose which pair of earrings she (or he) wants. But wait! The runner up will get the other pair! So we have TWO WINNERS! That's pretty exciting. Right? The winners will be announced next Sunday, July 17th.

Both pairs feature bead caps / dangles made by me from decorative tins.

And you all know the drill right?

1: Follow my blog (people who already follow - just comment, you'll be entered!)

2: Mention my give away / etsy shop on your Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Leave separate comments for each, and you'll be entered for each act of social media kindness :) 

Thank you all in advance for playing along. I could really use a few etsy sales to take some of the sting out of my gem & bead show binge!!!!

Short & Sweet

Because my computer's already crashed twice, and my lunch hour totally got pre-empted by work, I'm going to make this short & sweet. Here's my latest & greatest.

Red Czech glass beads, my own hand made red tin beadcaps, ice blue vintage semiprecious stone beads, gunmetal wire, chain & clasp.

Coconut shell beads & Czech glass.

Dyed turquoise beads & antiqued bronze owls and bead caps.

Antique bronze swirly drops & faceted garnet beads.

Recycled rhinestones and shell rounds.

Pink Lucite flowers w/ Swarovski crystals (request for a friend).

I've got something coming up soon -- I just need to figure out a clasp and one small detail, but it's my first necklace with a Green Girl Studios piece, and I'm pretty excited about it!

Bead Table Wednesday (BTW)

It's my first Bead Table Wednesday contribution! This week, I've been experimenting with making silicone molds, and then using them with paper clay. So far, it's turned out better than I anticipated - especially because I found this wonderful little silver pill case that had belonged to one of my grandmothers. It's got 5 birds perched on a branch. I have a feeling I'm going to make 100 more because I'm having many ideas about how to paint them. Click on the photo to see everything close up.

Some of the other things here include a few stamped paper clay pendants still not finished being painted, as well as some of my Lorelei style hand made decorative tin bead caps & connectors. They are in various stages of being hole-punched & domed.

My Salon Set Up

Yesterday morning, I went to my hair salon to get my flaming red hair touched up and to deliver Jeanne the necklace I promised her. If you read the previous couple of posts, you'll know how stressed I was while trying to create it. Turns out, she liked it a lot. I'll post some photos below, and they came out well, but it's one of those necklaces that looks better on. She said she'd had a slow work week, so she didn't have any sales for me. Hopefully this week will be better. While my sister was having her hair dried (we make appointments together), Jeanne's friend & lunch date came in. Turns out she was someone I used to know years ago. I told her about my jewelry and showed her a few things, and she immediately fell in love with a pair of earrings made from my home made tin bead cap/connectors. So I'd made a sale after all, and gotten to reconnect with someone from the past.

I asked Jeanne if she'd mind if I posted a photo of my display and of course she didn't. She then suggested I write a bio with a picture for her to post next to it. That's a great idea, and I'll work on that this week.

 The necklace

 My display - small, but it works.

The earrings on the right are the ones my old pal bought. I didn't have time to take pictures of all
my new earrings before my appointment, so I snapped a few in their bags just for my records.