Happy Mother's Day

Here are flowers for the mothers out there.

These are "Olivia," named after a character from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. She is made of vintage white glass flowers, glass leaves, and Swarovski crystals. I am also debuting my new signature earwires, handmade by me! They are hand formed from 22 gauge sterling silver wire.

Olivia is now available at the shop!

I hope everyone has a wonderful mother's day.

New shop item: pink glass necklace

This pretty piece is the matching necklace to the "Elizabeth" earrings. She is made of the same opaque pink glass briolette wrapped in sterling silver wire, and I've added a Hill Tribe silver leaf charm and a Swarovski crystal.

The "Elizabeth" necklace is now available at the shop!

Brrr...it was an insanely cold day today. All I wanted to do when I got home was get into my pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

Although, I'm cautiously optimistic because this morning I noticed that my neighbor's tulips are starting to come out of the ground. Every year, this is one of the earliest (and most welcome) signs I have that spring is just around the corner. Soon our cherry blossom tree will burst into bloom, and then spring will truly be here. I'm waiting with bated breath...but 'till then...brrrr!

Pastel clusters

Here is a cluster necklace consisting of yellow aventurine, blue amazonite, opal glass beads, and Swarovski crystals, on a 16" sterling silver chain.

I ordered a whole slew of boxes and organza bags yesterday, and also picked out my new business cards and gift box tags, in preparation for my store opening. I really like the style of the business cards - tomorrow I will post some pictures of what I picked.

Pajama Sunday

It feels like I've been running around non-stop for the past two months or so, and I'm exhausted. So today, with no plans for the first time in as long as I can remember, I stayed in my pajamas until about 3 in the afternoon.

My day went thus: I woke up when Mr HD had to get up to feed the cats, at which point I promptly fell right back to sleep. I woke up a second time hours later, and had munchkins and a mug of hot chocolate. I then plopped myself on the couch for a couple of blissful hours reading and watching bad TV, from where I didn't budge until hunger pangs forced me to scrounge around for some lunch (seriously, whoever thought that Little Black Book was a good idea ought to never work in the movie industry again. And what is up with Brittany Murphy? She looks like a heroin addict on crack).

I then bestirred myself to make this necklace.

Being in my pajamas must be good for my creative juices, though, because I think this turned out well. It is approximately 16" long, with three different kinds of sterling silver chain, adorned with one focal Swarovski crystal roundelle that is 12mm in size, and seven smaller crystals hanging off a second chain. The crystals really sparkle in the light, making this whole piece come alive.



It's a good thing I have a three-day weekend, because the fridge is empty, the house is a mess, and the laundry has piled up to the point where Mr HD was forced to do a load himself (this is typically my chore) - but hey, I'm in my pajamas, please don't disturb!

More cameo

I came home from my commute from hell today and immediately started working on this piece to decompress. Usually my commute is pretty smooth and even relaxing (I sit on the train with my e-book and my iPod, enjoying myself) but today there was some kind of a delay, which caused the whole world to converge at my stop at the same exact time. It took me almost an hour to get out.

This necklace is asymmetrically arranged and composed of a sterling silver chain and pink velvet ribbons, with a pink cameo pendant and a charm made up of one white nugget pearl and one Swarovski crystal. The ends are sewn shut, and the whole thing can be slipped over the head. It may not look it, but this was pretty labor intensive (somehow I find that working with ribbons has turned out to be this way.)

Here is a close-up.


TV TALK

Last night's Heroes was really exciting...I think the show is finally over its slump (at least I hope so). I won't spoil the ending here except to say that it was a thrilling surprise and I can't wait until next week!

Vintage charms

The result out of those vintage-looking keys I bought at the craft store a few weeks ago. I took two of them and fashioned a cluster charm consisting of the keys, a white nugget pearl, a clear swarovski crystal, and another swarovski crysal in "vintage rose", hanging from a silver chain of approximately 16" in length. There are two additional crystals worked onto the chain and above the charms.

It has a vintage-y feel to it that I really like. Below is a close-up.


FIRST DAY BLUES

For the most part, the first day at the new gig went okay today, except for the fact that I felt extremely discombobulated all day long. My routine was interrupted, I didn't have the usual familiar faces around me, I didn't know where anything was, and there were a lot of strange faces. I miss my old morning routine that consisted of 1) my morning commute 2) my morning hot chocolate 3) goofing off with my coworkers. I know that my discomfiture is a product of first days being just weird in general, and I expect that it will get better once I get used to new routines and new faces. As one of my good friends told me, I will look back at what I've written today and wonder why I was so upset. But for now, I dearly, dearly miss my old job and the people there!

Yellow aventurine

Just completed this one! I've been working on it for a while, rearranging the placement of the beads and playing around with using green and white polka dot ribbon instead of the silver chain. In the end, I think this is the final verdict: a half strand of yellow aventurine beads, with an asymmetrically-placed white swarovski crystal on the side and a cluster of charms hanging off of it, made up of a sterling silver filigree charm, a white nugget pearl, and a smaller white swarovski bead. They are all finished off with a silver chain, with a total length of 22".

A MUSICAL NIGHT

On Saturday night I went with my sister, her husband, and Mr HD to hear the symphony pops orchestra play tunes from John Williams' movie scores, with the highlight being the Star Wars music. It was wonderful. Aside from Star Wars, my favorites were the themes from Super Man and Schindler's List, the latter's solo violin part performed by the concertmistress herself. It brought chills down my spine! They also played the main theme from Jurassic Park, which took me back to when I played the same music as a violinist with the youth orchestra I belonged to in high school.

At the end of the concert we took pictures with some of the costumed characters from Star Wars who were milling around the lobby, including a Stormtrooper.

A good time was had by all!