The Beauty of Spring Challenge

Lately everything I have created has a spring theme to it! I am taking photos of bulbs coming up, creating greeting cards in shades of pinks and lime green, and creating jewelry with the same inspiration. Even though fall is my favorite season, nothing beats the anticipation of spring!


I recently received this gorgeous selection of beads from Artbeads. What inspiration! I fell in love with floral glass pendant first, then selected other beads I thought would complement the pendant. When I received my order, I was not disappointed!

Here are some pics of my final creations. First I created the necklace using the floral bead as my focal point/pendant. I added some Swarovski peridot bicones to hold it in place on the decorative headpin. The necklace was created with 4mm faceted glass rondelles in pink and olivine and matte glass beads in white.



I created some coordinating earrings from some pink and white swirled glass bellflower beads, peridot Swarovski crystal and a decorative headpin. They are finished with fleur de lis motif leverbacks. I think this makes a nice set.




Disclosure: The Kalera floral glass focal bead, peridot Swarovski crystal, pink glass bellflower beads and the 4mm pink and olivine glass faceted beads were kindly provided free of charge by Artbeads.com, as part of the Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

To see more selections from Artbeads you can click on these links: lampwork glass beads and pressed Czech glass beads .

Inspiration by HGTV

Last week my husband was off work for the holidays and we had some relaxing down time. We watched ENTIRELY too many episodes of shows like Bang for Your Buck and Househunters on HGTV. Since I have this new found "free time" I am really scrutinizing things around the house and looking at things with a different perspective. Before I never had the time to do these things. Now I maybe have the time but sure don't have the money since I am laid off. So to compromise I am looking at projects that won't break the bank. Unlike the couples on some of these shows, we don't have a $50,000 budget to redo the kitchen or $100,000 to finish the basement and install an Irish Pub. LOL! Let's be realistic. But I am hoping that I can just use a little elbow grease, some spackle and paint to spruce things up a bit. That's the plan anyway...

So much of the wallpaper in this house is not to my liking and I'm pretty sure there are two layers of it in most places. And I am pretty sure there are teal colored ducks under the top layer. I've peeled back a corner to peek. Super icky. Not a big fan of the wallpaper. It was here when we moved in. I am really itching to start ripping it down after taking a really long hot shower to steam up the bathroom. And since my son moved out, there is major work in his room to patch the walls, repaint and attempt to clean the carpet. And we still have brass in the house and hollywood bulbs in the bathroom. And there are ugly mirror strips in the living room that are very dated and glued to the wall. Not sure about that...think that's a job for my husband.

See, the more you watch these shows, the more you will want to make changes at your own house! Damn you HGTV!

I am pretty sure that I'll start with a bathroom first. It's one of the smallest rooms and dealing with the walls should be the hardest part. I think.

Wish me luck!

Happy Week - Day 1 - Inspiration

A fellow blogger, curiousgirl-lisa came up with a cool theme for us to blog about this week. The topic is Happiness.

I think for the most part, happiness is a state of mind. The power of positive thinking is critical. I find that reading quotes helps me keep my focus. I keep ones that I like in a folder and reach for it when I need motivation or to get back on track. One of the best that I can think of (from memory) is the saying that people are only as happy as they make up their mind to be. How true! Each day is what you make it.

Here is a quote from The Dalai Lama -

"The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy."

One must keep working hard to remain positive. Sometimes its easier to fall into negativity, especially when those around us are that way. It does take work to stay optimistic in a negative environment.

One of my favorite motivators is Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, also known as SARK. If you have not seen her work, you must check it out. I love all the color and artistic elements tied with themes of happiness, creativity, and living a "juicy" life! See if the library has some of her books or sign up for her newsletter on the web. Here is a link to her fan page on Facebook.

Smiles everyone, smiles!

112 Year Old Artist - Inspiration for Everyone who Creates

I found a great article at CNN about an elderly artist named Frank Calloway, who admits to having just a 3rd grade education, is diagnosed with dementia and schizophrenia and who is still creating at age 112! He has lived in different mental facilities since 1952 and is currently in a nursing home in Alabama. Apparently he is getting a lot of attention and people now want to buy his unique folk art which is sometimes drawn on butcher paper that is 30' long. I may have seen his story on CBS Sunday Morning. It sounds very familiar.

Here's the link to the full story along with a picture of him, some audio and a slideshow with photos of his art. It's a very good read.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/07/20/elderly.artist.ap/index.html