Day Thirty, Time to Party!

Cheers from both myself and Hubby~!

  ...Okay, so it's not a perfect rhyme, but it's more fitting than anything else I could think of.

Today we celebrate the (almost) end of my month of earrings. I have one day left, but I couldn't think of a more fitting time to throw a mini-party with my readers. See, I have reached over 1,000 page views to this blog. I am almost up to 50 posts. And I'm starting up a new post-a-day challenge as of Sunday!

Today's post kills two birds with one stone, metaphorically speaking. My earring-of-the-day is part of the special giveaway that I've been hinting about for a while now. SURPRISE!

 

First, the materials. The black beads are glass (the smaller ones) and ceramic (the REALLY small ones on the earrings, and the larger round ones), and the colorful beads are made by myself, out of comic book paper. Archie, to be specific-- I wanted that "retro" feel. Coated in Mod Podge, of course, to make them a bit more water resistant. The ear wires are made from Sterling Silver, so you can wear them without fear of the dreaded "green skin" syndrome!

One lucky winner will get both the earrings and the bracelet. Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win-- I'll be choosing the name at random on Sunday, April 8th, around 12 PM (aka "Noon") Eastern Standard Time, so be sure to put your name in before then!

I'll be announcing the winner on the blog, so I STRONGLY recommend that you follow the blog in some way (either Google Friend Connect or Linky Followers or RSS or whatever you choose). If the prize remains unclaimed after a reasonable amount of time (I'm not talking one day late, guys!), I'll draw a different name.

I'm super excited to be offering these items to all of you. Please don't hesitate to ask if there are any questions about this. Good luck, godspeed, and thank you for helping to make this blog as amazing as it is! I "luff" you all, as one of my friends often says <3

Day Twenty-Nine, Time to Shine!

Wow... you all must have been hitting the refresh button HARD... I'm almost to 1,000 page views! Which means I'll be posting all about this special giveaway tomorrow. I can't wait!

To tide everyone over, here are the earrings of the day:

Trusty old teacup~! This one probably shows off the color best...

But THIS photograph probably best shows off the marbleized detailing in the agate.

The color of the square agate is actually more of a deep purple, and the round agate is more of a bright pink/magenta.

So as you may have surmised through my comments under the photos, this pair was made with two tones of agate-- pink on the top, and purple on the bottom. Both of them have a marbleized effect; the pink sphere has undertones of red and purple, and the purple square has accents of tan and deeper purple.

I'm hoping to get to do a great deal of artwork tomorrow-- earrings and jewelry and clay and resin, oh my! And most importantly, I will almost assuredly be posting all about a special giveaway tomorrow. Keep your eyes and ears peeled~ as I frequently say, stolen from a favorite show of mine~ same Bat Time, same Bat Channel~!

Day Twenty-Eight, Moving Along at a Fantastic Rate!

So, I have an exciting bit of news. I'm getting awfully close to 1,000 page views for this blog! While these are mostly repeat views from my faithful viewers, it's a very exciting milestone for me. When I reach 1,000 page views, I'll announce a special giveaway. It should be very soon, at the rate we're going on this blog!

Keeping this blog entry short and sweet. Here's the latest and greatest earrings:

Side By Side By Side, to quote a musical~

I love my trusty old teacup and piano bench...

And a new photographic surface emerges-- the cherry wood silverware box!

 Back to the pearls, I know-- it's just so hard for me to stay away! These ones are two different colors and shapes of freshwater pearls-- golden and dark brown, imperfect and oval and irregularly round. I made these to match a necklace that I designed a while back...

A matching pair of pearls-- shades of brown, just like autumn!

This is one of my favorite sets! My mother-in-law wore it to her church's Lenten Bible Study meeting tonight, and got *MANY* compliments. I have four sets of pearls that are similar in style but different in color, that one of my friends described as a "set for all seasons"-- this includes the green one previously posted, as well as this brown one, and two sets that I haven't shown yet on this blog, one of blues and another of browns and pinks.

Since this set (and the green one) turned out so well, I'll have to do the same for the others another day. See you all tomorrow~!

Day Twenty-Seven... Learning Resin!

I want to start making my own beads and jewelry components. The other day I picked up a kit to make resin jewelry. I have all the necessary supplies... now I just need to feel well enough to do it.

If it turns out well, I'll post the results (proudly) on this blog. If not, well... there's a site for failed projects that just might be calling my name. If it comes to that I will probably be very upset.

Anyway, I'm still under the weather, but I'm proud of myself for being so productive today. Here are the earrings:

I nicknamed these "Double Jade", since the two beads used are two types of jade. There's teal jade for the bottom, and blue jade for the top!

Now, I usually try to get at least a few different views of my jewelry, to show it off to the best it can be. Unfortunately, this is all you're going to get for now.

The camera did not pick up the color of the jade as well as I'd like. The one on the top-- the smaller bead-- is a dark blue, and it came out more of a black color. The one on the bottom is teal and white, and came out looking like a gunmetal grey-blue.

Today's earrings have been a complete Color Fail.

At least they're gorgeous in person. And at least the photo doesn't look *terrible*~ it just doesn't show up the colors as well as I'd like.

If I ever get a better photograph of these earrings, I will gladly show these earrings off again. In the meantime, have a great evening, and I'll see you all again tomorrow!

Day Twenty-Six, Still Taking My Licks...

I'm starting to think that perhaps I'm doomed to a life spent in bed...

Oh well. At least I've had some great television to keep me company!

Today's earrings are incredibly simple-- no frills, nothing elaborate, nothing overly fancy.

These earrings remind me of a pair I had as a teenager-- I got them as a souvenir when we went to Disney~

 Nothing but sterling silver and blue freshwater pearls. They're not baby blue or sky blue-- more like a cool grey-ish blue. But those who know me, know that I love everything blue, no matter the shade!

They're so simple, it's ridiculous!

 Personally, I like my earrings to be a bit bigger, to have a little more "heft", but I know that not all my customers and clients feel the same way.

Tomorrow's pair, I'm going to try to stay away from pearls. I promise!

No matter the design I end up creating, I have some big announcements to make over the next few days. Can't wait to let you all know about my big plans-- see you on the flip side of the moon!

Day Twenty-Five, And I'm Still Alive!

... but barely. It's been a rough week or so...

This post will be a quick one, since I'm feeling majorly under the weather.

I love the details on the stones!

Those who read both the personal and business blogs can recognize the Chrysocolla beads that I posted about just the other day!

I remember the name of this stone, for one reason only-- because I have a friend named Chrissy, and all I have to do is pretend that she loves Cola!

I love the way it seems to change color in different lighting~

These earrings are quite simple-- sterling silver spacers, plus the Chrysocolla stones, all hung by a sterling silver wire on sterling silver ear hooks.

They sound all fancy-schmancy when I list all the component parts! Seriously, though, I love today's earrings. They're the kind of style that I would wear every single day, because the stones have enough shades of blue and green that I could easily match 3/4 of my wardrobe~!

One more day down. I can't believe I'm almost done with these personal challenges!

Day Twenty-Four, It Never Rains But it Pour(s)

So much has been going on with me lately, not the least of which has been my health. Endometriosis is always a yo-yo... sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down. I've spent over a week now with elevated pain levels, and there's nothing to be done about it. I'm still making my earrings every day, and I'm still putting together posts every day, but it's hard for them to actually get put *up* every day.

Thankfully, I have an amazing family and supportive friends, who understand what is going on and have been giving me some LOVELY recommendations for things to watch while I'm bed-ridden! I just finished watching every single episode of "Bones" available on Netflix, and am working my way through the first season of Downton Abbey. Next up, I'm going to finish "United States of Tara"~ is there anything else out there that you think I absolutely have to see?

Anyway, onto the earrings.

A friend suggested that I name them after her-- "Yosie's Choice"-- because they're her kind of style~!

Sterling Silver spacers surround and separate two delicate pink beads-- one perfectly round freshwater pearl, and one cool and smooth rose quartz.

Still experimenting with different photo surfaces...

I don't know what I'd do without this teacup!

I have some exciting news to post, both on here and the business blog. Stay tuned!

Day Twenty-Three, A Shopping Spree!!

And by "shopping spree," I mean that we got some new stones-- some stones I've been looking at for quite some time with wistful longing!

I was feeling quite down-in-the-dumps about a few things today, all of them related to one thing~ my health. Things are getting more complicated with my Endometriosis; my "bad days" now outnumber the "good" ones, and I'm spending an increasing amount of time bedridden and nauseous from the pain. Which means I'm missing out on life's events, both big and small.

Hubby knew I was upset about this, and came home with a FABULOUS "care package" for me. Most of it was consumed with great deliciousness; the beads (which are beautiful but not quite edible) will be posted up on the business blog as soon as I'm done over here.

In any case, onto the earrings!

I think this officially counts as a "streak" of pearly posts...

These lovely pearls were designed to match the necklace that was posted on Valentine's Day:

Honestly, while this photo isn't horrible, I'm glad to see that I've improved my photography techniques quite a bit!

The set is made from freshwater pearls; shades of green and gold meet an irregular white oval at the focal point of the necklace. For the earrings, I chose to use only the "accent" pearls, as you can see below:

I'm experimenting with a different background for the earrings-- this one shows up fairly true to color~!

I love these earrings, and I love the set they belong to. However, tomorrow I am going to try my absolute hardest NOT to make another pearl earring set. As much as I love working with pearls, I think three days in a row is quite enough of that, thankyouverymuch.

Until tomorrow, faithful readers~!

Day Twenty-Two, I'm Feeling Blue!

... blue earrings, that is!

Those who know me, know that my most-favorite color is royal blue, but there is a place in my heart for all the colors of blue-- the bright sky, the dark rolling ocean, the brilliance of a sapphire, the softness of a seashell, the serenity of a Caribbean sea-- each and every one of them is special in its own way.

These earrings are inspired by the warm seas near the Equator:

They remind me of something "Ariel" from "A Little Mermaid" might wear, if she were all grown up!

I used sterling silver spacers to create a "balled" effect on the bottom; both stones are freshwater pearls. I love the color of the blue pearls, and the interesting shape of the white squares!

This photo shows off the colors much more accurately than the first~

These earrings are the kind that I wear-- very much a reflection of my own personal style. They were originally planned to be a black and white pair, to match some necklaces I made recently, but I couldn't resist throwing in the dash of blue. Like I said earlier, my all-time favorite color. Perhaps I will create a necklace to match these earrings, instead of the other way around~!

Yet another day of my challenge is complete. See you all tomorrow~

Day Twenty-One, A Tale Has Been Spun

As much as I love making a pair of earrings every single day, there are some days when I'm sick and only have enough energy for a single project. I am very happy that I challenged myself in this way, and I'm even happier with the results~ but I'll be glad to have the time to make other things!

Today's earrings were created to match a necklace that Hubby made, called "Fish Kisses." I'll post a photo of the necklace when he stops holding all the jewelry hostage...

As my high school Spanish teacher would say, it's all about the "Escoochi Smoochi"~!

With garnet hearts, and freshwater pearls that are shaped like fish, this whimsical design is equal parts classy and fun!

Hubby and I have crazy nicknames for each other-- it's truly a long story as to how they came about, and even if I had the time to tell you, I'm pretty sure it's one of those "had to be there" moments. Perhaps one day I'll figure out how to explain the story... but for now, suffice to say that one of the pet names that we call each other is "Fish."


It's a term of endearment.

I'm not going to lie, I had WAY too much fun "posing" the earrings for this photo!

Anyway, Hubby found these beads at our supply shop, and he knew right away that he had to get them. The hearts, he knew, could be used for many designs because they coordinated so well with many different stones and colors. In fact, you all saw them the other day, matched up with the rose quartz beads!

The fish, on the other hand, he knew would be used for something special-- as he told me the day he got them, they are just as fun, and almost as unique, as the woman who would be using them. Such a charmer, he is. And so smart, too~ he knows which hand is going to toss pellets into the tank, metaphorically speaking!

This design is special to me, because it is an enduring symbol of our love for each other. Like the fish in the earrings, I want to stay together forever as a pair, showing our love and affection until the end of time itself.

Thank you for all the love you give me, my darling Fish <3