Gardening

OK, so I know it's still too early to do proper gardening, but with the weather up in the 70's and sunny, it's a good time to clean the debris away and maybe even do some bed prep. I might even try planting some left over arugula seeds, it might not be too early for them.

I'm currently taking a break as I had to climb around on a chain-link fence like a spider monkey to get rid of all the dead vines from the lot next door. Horrible vine, breeds mosquitoes. I figured tearing it down when it's dead would avoid some of the allergy and other problems, as when it's green it stings a bit like nettles.

And now it feels like my hands are covered in a hundred tiny cuts. But I'm happy about it and the fence is clear! :-) Plus, I really do enjoy climbing around on things like a spider monkey.

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So, what do we find on etsy for the gardener?

Well, first off, of course, I'm still thinking about my hands. And I found what sounds like an absolutely lovely hand soap for gardeners (or other people who are hard on their hands) by Sacred Suds. The soap is blended after the Greek goddess of the green earth, Demeter, and contains oatmeal, shea butter, wheat germ oil, jojoba and coconut oils, and castor oil. She has blended the scents of lavender, rosemary, and lemon essential oils to create a very fresh garden-like scent inspired by Demeter.

As an interesting point, all of Sacred Suds soaps are inspired by different deities of, as they put it, "Our soaps are inspired by deities of ancient mythology - Goddesses of love, peace, and prosperity, and Gods of action, nature, and joy - and each soap is carefully crafted in a focused effort to channel those energies." The blends are all very thoughtful and the makers set out a very clear guideline and quality for their products

Rain, Rain, go Away!!

One problem with being a Southern transplant to the frozen north is not coping real well with how long the winters are. By mid-March I'm in full cabin-fever mode and fidgeting to get out of the house. We had a small burst of days up in the 50's last week, but the past two days the rain pours and pours and it's cold and wet and nasty and it drives a girl a bit bonkers.

So, last night while trying to occupy myself, I busted out a new batch of Garnets I had picked up on one of the last pretty days out. Pictured is Magic Vial Pendant - Passion (haven't made one of those in a long time!) featuring the lovely new Garnets with a new gemstone to my rotation, a deep golden Topaz. Both gemstones associated with the fire elemental, passion, creativity, joy and energy.

At my etsy shop, I also made a "Lil Fire" vial in the straight miniature bottle with Garnet and Hematite.

Hopefully this year will have a bit more fire to it than its predecessors. (Or maybe there's too much Tori Amos on my playlist as I'm stuck inside - re: Take to the Sky lyrics - "I just want a little passion, to hold me in the dark, I know I've got some magic, buried deep in my heart, yeah.")

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So I looked under a few different words, but I just wanted something different. A continuation of the pacing mood, wanting something new, something different.

And that's when Bryan Collins caught my eye. The brilliantly flaming red background off sets the cool colors of the subject creating a very dramatic and aesthetically pleasing effect. The piece is entitled "He Loved Her Forever," and though the artist lists no such inspiration, it reminds me of the old fairytale Thumbalina.

The rest of his etsy shop is filled with other highly saturated, colorful and very graphic images in original, prints, ACEOs, t-shirts, journals and other merchandise options. As an extra bonus, he states that a minimum of 10% of all sales go to charity :-)

Fidgety

and restless. So, it's the second week since the mild foot injury and the weather got gorgeous over the weekend. Which means, instead of resting it like I probably should, I've been out traipsing all over creation, as much as I can bare. Went past Central Park yesterday and it's still to early to go looking for fresh spring blooms (I have no illusion that spring has come so early to NYC). But it is getting me antsy for spring. I want to be in the garden, I want growing herbs and budding flowers -and that means my spring line of Magic Vial Pendants (and, when the time comes, the return of the very popular Sakura vials.)

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So, as I sit, trying to rest, all fidgety and twitchy, let's see what on etsy has me dreaming of spring?

Oh, I'm bending the rules (my blog, my rules) and featuring a piece that's well out of my price range. But, it's just soooooo pretty!! The Paradiso Bracelet by Claire Pearse is a jumble or gorgeously colored and brightly faceted gems. Now, for format's sake, I have to keep the images kind of small, but you really need to go look at the full sized close up shots of this piece, HERE. It contains Grape Amethyst, Pink Topaz, Pink Amethyst, Green Vesuvianite, and even some Ruby accents. And I'm sure I've stated before, I'm a huge fan of briolettes. I shall have to console myself at 7-8" in diameter, that it would have been many inches too big for me, even if I had a proper day-job at the moment.

However, for those of you who have pierced ears, her shop has more easily affordable earrings all showing great creativity, quality and beautiful workmanship! There's even a Paradiso set to match the bracelet! Truly, a shop full of eye-candy!

Earrings!

I actually made real, honest-to-goodness earrings! Two pair, actually. I made a more "traditional" style, pictured here at left, all in sterling silver in swirls over freshwater pearls; and then a pair of muchly requested Magic Vial Earrings, at right.

As I've stated before, I don't have pierced ears (never have) so I know almost nothing about the ear wire parts of earrings. I bought sterling silver ones to better protect against allergies, I thought. The wires look awful tiny to me, I didn't think they might come in different sizes. I showed them to my sis (who wears earrings all the time, and she said the wire size was about right for how small my stuff is), but, if you have any questions, or I'm leaving out some kind of vital information, please let me know. This is all very new to me.

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Obviously, I'm going to be plugging earrings today :-) But goodness! That's 14718 PAGES. Yeah, obviously I'm not going to get to see everyone before I pick a couple of favorites. So, I shall go into the subcategory just for earrings, and look under "dangle" because those are my favorite kinds! (6709 pages, whew, that's better but still a long way to go).

I will make another addendum that there are some amazing earrings in the upper ranges, but considering my own bank account and the economy here in the US, I just don't feel right plugging jewelry that costs as much or more than my monthly rent.

At the higher end of the spectrum, Artwear by Mona really had one piece that jumped out at me. Her pastel pearl wire wrapped dangling earrings made from freshwater pearls and Argentium silver are beautiful and very unique! They are 3 inches in length and obviously required a great amount of time, thought and patience by Mona!

And with her etsy shop having 17 pages of goodies, ranging from $10 to almost $200, it's definitely worth the browsing to see if she's got something just for your style and budget.

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And in the $30 and under bracket, because I love briolettes, Nay Designs caught my attention with this simple but elegant pair of earrings. Plus, they are called her "Spirit Circle Earrings" and "Spirit" is the theme of my Magic Vial Earrings, so bonus ka for that. They're made with sterling silver and a 1" diameter hammered silver circle with dangling briolettes of onyx and opalite. Just lovely! She doesn't have a lot of traditional styled jewelry, but her shop has a very interesting variety of items including some very fun hair clips! Be sure to take a peek.

Ouchies!

So, I got the stuff for earrings, and immediately wish I had bought more ear wires, and maybe bigger ones? I really didn't know they came in sizes. . hrrrmmm. Live and learn.

But, earrings are being made!

In other news, had a fun weekend hanging out with a femme friend of mine, and she invited me to go with her to her Parkour class. Wow, had no idea how out of shape I really was! But it was a lot of fun and I hope to keep going.

I did kind of twist my ankle a bit, apparently. It didn't get bad until that night, and while today (the day after) it feels tons better, it looks sooo much worse. So, Ibuprofen, epson salt soaks, and R.I.C.E.

You'd think I'd get a lot having to sit on the couch, but I've also been having a manic spell the past several days, and I'm just too jittery to do the delicate focused work required for my jewelry. And with my ankle, I can't even go outside and work it out of my system!

Will continue to try and keep you guys up to date.

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I absolutely love this piece from Laurie Jordan. Fresians are one of my favorite breeds, and with the deep blues and pale colors of the moon, it really catches the eye. I like the attention and detailing to the manes as well, since Fresians can often look like the Fabios of the horse world with their extremely long and thick wavy manes.

The rest of her store covers a wide range of paintings and products made from her designs, ranging from these beautifully printed $4.00 greeting cards to laser-cut metal welcome signs for over $200.00. Definitely a shop worth visiting for the horse lovers!

Whoopsie-Daisies

Last week was a weird week. On a personal note, I just resubmitted a fresh resume to a new temp agency, since I'm still fighting with my last agency over a $100 check from NOVEMBER. In all fairness, I did get the check (in January) where it promptly bounced. Twice. I even got the $20 check reimbursing me for the bouncing fees. Just not my actual paycheck yet.

Oh, and after some interest written to me on etsy and DeviantArt, I decided to order a couple of sets of Sterling Silver ear wires and try making some Magic Vial Earring sets. I don't have pierced ears, so I can't wear most earrings, but there's been interest so I'll give it a go and see if there will be buyers.

Nothing yet, though, still waiting for the delivery of the ear wires (with some extra new sterling silver wire and maybe something else in there as well.)

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So on to the gratuitous plugging of etsy sellers!

By the way, I did buy some earrings as a gift for a friend just a few weeks ago, so I think I'll plug that seller, as I was very pleased with what I had bought.

Funny Sky has 30 pages of goodies! It took me a while to pick out just the right ones for this friend (needed something that looked sharp and pointy and was red, with hypoallergenic, nickel-free ear wires). So, I bought a pair of the origami crane earrings pictured left.

They were brightly colored, well made, well packaged and bigger than I had imagined. They are one of those "so cute" kind of items that I would wear them if I wore earrings. They were also only $5.00! And while there are many other shapes besides just cranes (just happens to be a favorite of mine) and the shop is not exclusively earrings, there are 145 entries under the "origami crane" section, so there is plenty of variety so you can find just the right color and pattern!

The only thing I would note, however. Is that there is no location listed on the shop page, so do be aware that they are shipping from Asia and to expect a bit more of a wait in the mail because of this. Otherwise, a very highly recommended seller!

Xin Nian Yu Kuai!

Happy Chinese New Year! (a day late, I know, but I was out celebrating the Lunar New Year all yesterday).

It is now the year of the Metal Tiger! The Tiger (or Lao Hu in Mandarin) is associated with power, royalty and good fortune, often symbols of wisdom and protection. Some people are interpreting the Metal Tiger to be the Gold Tiger (gold is a metal) and therefore, sales in gold have gone up and many are seeing this as a prosperous year. Meanwhile, others know that "metal" is also often associated with "white" in the Chinese Zodiac and are afraid that the White Tiger will be a bad omen for the year to come.

Me, I'm hoping that the Gold Tiger people are right, because I could definitely use more business.

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There's actually a few pages of goods and stores that come up on Etsy.com under this theme. Because, unlike those ridiculous 2009 glasses you wore only once on New Years a while back, it will be the year of the tiger for the whole year, and maybe trying to channel a bit of the spirit of the tiger will help things go a bit smoother. Besides, tigers are always cool.

Cynthia VH Ehrlich had the piece that caught my eye today. This pendant is a beautiful example of Asian art featuring the tiger made wearable with layered glass. Her shop is filled with many other examples of beautiful Asian art made pendants, and also links to her other etsy shop where she sells her original painting. There's even a link to a third store where she makes more glass pendants, but in more "teen/tween" friendly designs.

Blizzard?

That's what the man said. I can't say I've ever been in anything even remotely called a "blizzard" before; but the man on the news did use that term tonight. "All of New York City will be under blizzard alert until 6am tomorrow morning." Really now? Granted, I haven't stepped outside today, but the view from my window hardly seems "blizzard" like. Yes, there's lots of snow, and yes, I don't think it's stopped since I woke up, but I don't think the accumulation in my backyard is even a foot deep. In my mind, blizzards are things you get lost in while running, yelling, looking for your runaway horse, Wildfire.

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Onto the thematic etsy plugging. So, let's see what we find when we search "blizzard" on etsy, anyway.

I can't even say exactly what it is about this piece that made me stop. Simplicity, when done well, can be amazingly elegant. That would be my best guess. This piece is simple, but beautifully so, maybe like that sheet of white outside. This piece is by Faerie Glass, and is made of stained glass and lead-free silver solder.

She has a few other pendants in the exact same design but with different colored pieces of stained glass, as well as many other designs of stained glass jewelry. Very much worth the browse!

February and Forward

I really admire the dedication of people who manage to blog everyday. I think the hardest thing about these is writing even when you feel like you've got nothing to say. I find that's really been how I've felt the past week. I had to visit my doctor again today for a little lingering problem, which he said as long as there's no fever, it should pass in a couple of days, but if fever starts, to call them immediately. I had a nice long soaky bath and that helped the aching quite a bit.

I do not blog about retail chains, but I had hand mixed a scrub for the bath by blending kosher salt, table sugar, oil (depends, sometimes I use coconut, sometimes almond, or jojoba), sometimes honey, and a perfume oil from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. I fully admit to being an absolute BPAL addict. And while they're not an etsy seller, they are a small, independently run business. I will contain myself so I can move on to the real etsy seller plugs, but if anyone ever has any questions, I can talk with some good deal of emotional attachment to all the reasons why I love this brand.

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So, in reference to my bodily aches and the relieving bath, I thought I'd go revisit a category I haven't plugged in a bit: etsy's extensive bath and body sellers.

Things have changed a bit since last I browsed! I love solid bubble bath bars, but I always feel better when I buy from etsy sellers direct. And Candied the Bath Bakery has quite a few options!

At first, with the cupcake shaped bombs and the name, I was afraid everything might end up being entirely too sweet and too foodie. I can appreciate some of that, but it's not normally my go-to scent category. But she's got everyone covered! The Violet scented products list notes of lilac and carnation as well as the namesake. There are even masculine scented products like Bamboo and Teak that also include notes of cedar, musk and sandalwood. Me, I love the sound and look of this Margaritaville Bubble Bar (shown).

But, I love options! And another etsy seller definitely caught my attention in the same category, though she calls her solid bubble bath bars "Bath Taffy." Moody Girl Aromatherapy has a completely different aesthetic and scent range. Her "taffy" are simple and elegant with the cute wrappings of a saltwater taffy candy. She also carries one of my favorite scent/drink combinations: MOJITO!! (shown) and the Coconut-Lime sounds like a closer runner up!

Hey, it's the winter, it makes me crave citrus.

Huffs-Huffs

Sorry I vanished for almost 2 weeks, had a small medical thing - same thing from last September, if anyone remembers that.

I think I'm just about over the worst part of the recovery. To give a little example, I thought some light walking might help a few days afterwards, so I thought "oh, a friend and I will go see the Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA! Museums are easy, leisurely strolls, and MoMA has escalators." I didn't even finish the Burton exhibit before I had to find a corner and sit and rest, my insides yelling at me for pushing to do too much, too soon. GREAT exhibit, by the way. If any of you will be in NYC before April 26, 2010, I highly recommend it! If you want to go on a weekend, buy your tickets in as far advance as you can! Trying to buy tickets for Saturday on Tuesday will most likely result in a "SOLD OUT" for all time slots. During the week, it's crowded, but specialty timed tickets aren't necessary.

Very inspiring, however! I loved the small glowing oils on black velvet paintings under black lights. I know. . . but ever since I was a child at a flea market back in the 80's

and saw the paintings of iridescent unicorns on black velvet, I've been a fan of that dated and corny format. I really should do some of my own, one day.

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and so she became curious and entered "velvet painting" into etsy.

There still exist a certain amount of the traditional vintage paintings being recirculated through etsy, but 2BlackBirds is actually doing new work on velvet. Lovely! I think Girl With Fox (pictured) is my favorite, but her interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood is also a nice piece.

However, if velvet isn't your thing, she has many more paintings on standard canvas, as well as a variety of other merchandise.