challenge of literature blog hop

i had such a hard time choosing my piece of literature. i wanted it to be something that really spoke to me. something that had deep personal meaning for me. so i decided to do something totally different by choosing one of my own poems. i hope that's not cheating!

i wrote this poem about my sister. she's a gifted writer; a poet, playwright, and fiction writer. but while she was in graduate school, she wasn't able to write. i think she just had to choose what she had time for and extra-curricular writing got dropped. i was heartbroken about it.

so here it is.


becca

you are a poet in the quiet
moments, a whittler of
words, slowly paring down
to the meaning of it. don't

silence your voice with the busyness,
errands and agendas of little
consequence that will
or won't get done. breathe
and it is of more importance
than anything else you've ever done.


i wanted to convey a sense of peace. to create a space to breathe in and rest. i chose sea glass in this watery tone. breathe in.

i created this focal using a piece of discarded copper from the recycling bin. i just love the patina. i added the pearl cabochon in a sterling bezel and stamped breathe. i used a fine tip brown sharpie to color the letters and my dampened finger to remove the excess, so as not to disturb the patina. then i punched two holes at the top.

i chose this patinaed circle from the recycle bin, as well. i don't know how whoever created this got the green. isn't it amazing? i left it exactly as i found it except for adding the holes to create the link.

but i also wanted to tie in the idea of busyness. that push/pull of conflicting priorities. and i happened to have in my stash this amazingly perfect clasp by earthenwood's melanie brooks. love love love her work! check it out! the little bit of tag chain is meant to represent all the items on our agendas.

and here's another view of the back of the necklace. sea glass and freshwater pearls. don't they just whisper, "breathe..."?

here it is all together. i just love how it turned out! i hope you do, too! i was excited to not have to buy a single thing for this piece. i was able to pull everything from my stash!

remember. breathe. take the time to find some space today to be at peace.

now, go visit the rest of the hop!

update
several people have asked what my sister thinks of the necklace. yesterday i gave it to her as a gift and she said, "thank you so much! i really wanted it but didn't want to ask you for it." so, yay!!!!

Erin Prais-Hintz  -our intrepid hostess!

Rebecca Anderson

Rose Binoya

Lori Bowring Michaud

Shannon Chomanszuk

Marlene Cupo

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Kim Dworak

Beth Emery you are here!-

Therese Frank

Amy Freeland

K Hutchinson

Jennifer Justman

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

Lisa Lodge

Lisa Lowe

Kirsi Luostarinen

Beth McCord

Melissa Meman

Sharon Misuraco

Tracey Nanstad

Melinda Orr

Kashmira Patel

Alice Peterson

Sally Russick

Niky Sayers

Pam Sears

Amy Severino

Tracy Stillman

Emma Todd

Melissa Trudinger

Lesley Watt

Shai Williams

cocktail blog hop

Lemon Drop Martini Recipe

1 1/2 ounces vodka (use a good-quality vodka)
1/2 ounce orange liqueur (Triple Sec, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, etc.)
1 teaspoon superfine sugar or to taste*
3/4 ounce freshly-squeezed lemon juiceIce cubes
Superfine sugar for dipping
Twisted peel of lemon
 
Preparation:
Mix the vodka, orange liqueur, sugar, and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice; shake well (supposedly the cocktail is to be shaken 40 times to make sure the sugar is well blended).

Pour strained liquor into sugar-rimmed martini glass and garnish with a twisted peel of lemon.

To create a sugar-rimmed glass, take a lemon wedge and rub the drinking surface of the glass so it is barely moist. Dip the edge of the glass into the superfine sugar.

Makes 1 serving. 

note: i didn't write this recipe or take this photo. it's from 'what's cooking america' by linda stradley.

so i've never tried a lemon drop. i'll just have to take a good friend's opinion; she said, "it's delicious!" i'm thinking it's like a zingy lemonade. i'm just imagining that. so fresh. so summery. mmm.

 since i couldn't base my creation on the taste, i thought i'd go with the color. when i was looking through my stash i was thinking about the color of lemons, rather than the color of the drink, which is, as you can see from the picture above, the color of lemonade. i had only a few beads in that color, which i grabbed, and they ended up in the necklace.

i chose for my focal a wood disk that i had previously wood-burned with one of my own drawings. i colored it with prismacolors and thought it would be perfect for this summery piece.

i wire-wrapped a vintaj twig with little yellow seed beads and created a connector with it.

this little yellow crocheted disk i made about a year ago and thought it would be perfect.

so here's the complete necklace.

for the bit at the back, i wove a piece of silk through some brass chain. i used a vintaj toggle.

i added the sodalite briolettes and the mother-of-pearl stars thinking that i would want to drink my lemon drop on my porch, gazing at the stars. and it gives my little birdie someplace to fly, which birds really like to do.

so that's my lemon drop-inspired necklace. now go enjoy the rest of the hop! by this time you've probably gone through several cocktails or maybe a bottle of wine. may i suggest this "delicious" summery drink for the next round? ;)

Hostess: Copper Diem

Stefanies Sammelsurium
Beads by Breul
Lorelei's Blog
My Bead Journey
Adventures with Kelly
Mama's Got To Doodle
Sadafulee
Wait Just One More Bead
Cynth's Blog
Palm Coast Art
Green Shoot Jewellery Designs
Cianci Blue
Dreamin Of Beads / SAS Jewelry Designs
Beads for Busy Gals
Oregon Made Jewelry
My Addictions...Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti
Moods by Mari
Soul of Mine Embodiment
Uniquely Yunikua
Fabric of My Life
Firefly Visions
Bahama Dawn
Indigo Heart
Living La Vida Low GI
Casa de Everly

happy birthday to me!

it's my birthday today. i don't know how i feel about birthdays, now that i've reached adulthood. they were such big deals when we were little, and now it's like, 'ho, hum'.

maybe i'm not celebrating them right.

so today i'm going to drink a diet coke (yay!) and read 'the applause of heaven' by max lucado and steep myself in God's love for me. i'll go for a walk and notice all that nature has to offer. maybe i'll do some business related stuff, maybe not. and i'll breathe.

wish me luck.

humility

i've started a new job. i'm driving around a friend who lost her license due to a dwi. it's an... interesting job. it's most certainly a lesson in humility. and frustration. but this is where i'm supposed to be right now. i wonder what else i'm supposed to learn...

one nice thing about it is that i'm getting time to read and work on my jewelry. it's funny how much i love making jewelry. there's something so immediate about it. creating beauty i've always been drawn to, but creating something so intimate, so tangible, so beguiling... it's humbling to know someone will wear my creations. to know they will feel beautiful because of what my hands made... mmm. that's a smashing feeling. i'm helping someone feel beautiful! wow. that just feels *good*.

it was the new moon last night. i hope, wherever you are, you look up in the sky tonight and are inspired by that fickle creature; the moon. oh, how she inspires me! blessings on you, my friends.

collective creative canape reveal day!

so i showed the soup i got from cheryl foiles a few weeks ago, and now it's april 1st, the reveal day for the ccc! i'm so excited to be a part of this little group because i love love love lori anderson's bead soup blog party, but did not make the luck of the lottery draw. so keri lee sereika organized this little group for a few of us, and here we are!

let me remind you of the soup i received from cheryl.

gorgeous, right? all that ivory and brass with a touch of red. i've not worked with ivory much, so it's exciting to push beyond my boundaries. that's what these challenges are all about. exploring unexplored territory, pushing back the edges of what we do as jewelry artists. i love pushing myself. it makes me a better designer, and that's always where i want to go.

as i was looking at my soup i realized how simple it all is. simple and clean. so i decided to go with that feeling. i love nature, and that's what this soup is all about. my dad was a botanist and a rockhound, so we spent weekends in the forests of oregon, the beaches of the pacific ocean, the deserts of california, the tundra of the far north, and the wilds of interior alaska. i'm deeply inspired by the sea, the forests, trees, animals, the sky,  the desert, weather, and all that good stuff. so this soup was perfect for me in that, and reflects what i sent cheryl. go see her blog here to see what i sent her and what she made of it!

i decided to stick with simple wire wrapping and let the focus be on the lovely cleanness of the colors. i pulled only two elements; the nest and the bird, both of which i made. i also love the look of mixed metals and so i thought i'd do all the wire wrapping in silver.

the bird is pearl polymer clay with a lovely sheen. love that clay. the eggs in the nest are freshwater pearls. the two ivory rounds are fossil coral, the red is agate, the little brown guy up there above the leaf focal to the left is a seed pod, the ring is mystery stone, and the oval up at the top is petrified wood, which was my father's favorite stone, so it's especially special to me that cheryl sent it. the rosary chain on brass are glass pearls and that gorgeous clasp was made by cheryl herself. and most special of all is the ceramic diamond by elaine ray herself, which cheryl picked up from ornamentea. cheryl lives close enough to the famous store to visit often. i'm so jealous! here's a close up of the focal.

i loved getting to be a part of this little group of intrepid explorers! and this summer everybody that wants to be a part of the original bead soup blog party should join up, because lori anderson is staggering the reveal days so it's not too overwhelming to visit them all. i'm so excited! lori is the most awesome hostess on the planet!

and don't forget to visit all the blogs in the collective creative canape. here's the list. but first go visit my partner. i can't wait to see what she's got all done. thanks so much for visiting!

Keri Lee Sereika www.pinklemonade.typepad.com
Beth Emery www.storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com -you are here
Niki Meiners www.nikimeiners.wordpress.com
... Karan Parker www.karanskrafts.blogspot.com
Liz DeLuca www.facebook.com/pages/Creative-Arty-Facts/162737703562
Lynne Bowland www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.com
Judy Turner www.silver-rains.blogspot.com
Erin Grant www.Erinsjewelrycreations.blogspot.com
Bryna Lumb www.brynasbeadbox.blogspot.com
Rochelle Brisson www.acreativechelle.blogspot.com
Linda Youkman www.lindysdesigns.blogspot.com
Carmen Lau www.littlemake.blogspot.com
Cheryl Foiles www.getyourbeadon.com
Kelli Jacobson www.CreativeMoonJewelryAndThings.com
Elena Gianni www.ilmondodipucci.blogspot.com
Tania Hagen www.pelimadesign.blogspot.co.nz
Cindy Muse www.cindyshandworkcrafts.blogspot.com
Stephanie Woods www.skwds.blogspot.com
Lisa Lodge www.pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com

echo creative club march reveal day!

so today is the reveal day for jeannie dukic's echo creative club's march reveal. let me remind you what she sent.

i love the color, the leaves, and the gorgeous peeled paint art beads. i have no idea how she makes these. she's brilliant! go visit her store here and get some of your own!

so i'm really inspired by nature. nature is pretty much my theme. and this collection made me think of a magical forest, so i went diving in my art beads and found the perfect focal--a fairy kissed tree!

i drilled the bottom hole and added little dangly bits of nature and those beads. love those beads.

then i focused on wire wrapping various beads in my color scheme of grey, blue, cranberry, brown, and silver. i wanted the wire to be brass, and the elements silver to reflect my silver and gold focal.

i pulled in a brown diane hawkey 'harmony' bead. i thought that would be perfect for my fairy wood. and of course i had to have a bird for my forest, so i grabbed my trusty green girl studio beads and dug in them to find this soaring birdie. yay!

i love the look of steel wire, so i wrapped a couple spots of the brass with it. love that black, steely look.

at the back i did some simple stringing.

i've got mother-of-pearl, wood, labradorite, jasper, and tiger's eye back here, all on brass beadalon. i kept the clasp simple since so much is going on in this necklace.

now, go see what the rest of the team did. and don't forget to visit jeannie's store and get your hands on some of these fabulous beads!

Beth Emery http://www.storiesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com -you are here

Birgitta Lejonklou http://www.lejonklou.blogspot.com

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com

Courtney Breul http://www.beadsbybreul.blogspot.com

Erin Prais-Hintz http://www.treasures-found.blogspot.com

Kristen Stevens http://www.kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Molly Alexander http://www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com

Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com

small break

so i'm going to be gone from the internet world for a little while. i have a big thing that i may or may not be able to talk about when i get back. i'm not trying to be mysterious, i just don't know how i'm going to feel when all is said and done. it's another bend in the road and i'm just not sure what the road is gonna look like when i get around that bend. little apprehensive, little nervous, little excited, little scared. okay. a lot scared. but i am never alone. no matter where i go. i am never alone.

i hope you will join me on march 25th for the echo creative club reveal and april 1st-ish for the collective creative canape. i have those posts scheduled, so never fear that i will miss those.

expect me the second week of april. that's when i'll be back. i'll miss you, beautiful internet world. you have taught me the beauty and depth of my fellow jewelry artists, which is a lovely thing.