ZNet Shows and On-Line 'Zine

I was able to be creative recently and it's something I haven't been able to do in a long time. First because I had no ideas, no desire, no Muse speaking to me. Second, when I finally felt I was going to hear from my long-absent Muse, I went and broke my ankle (in three places, no less) and had to have surgery on it. I wasn't confident/controlled enough on my crutches to get down into my craft room (even if it was only one step) because, the one time I tried, I lost my balance and fell again (without the same consequences as before, thank God!) so I wasn't about to try until recently.

That said, I was one of the group of designers for ZNet.com asked to participate in designing some jewelry for their upcoming on-line 'zine and received a bunch of lovely beads to work with. Me being me, I made earrings. I love earrings. I think I've mentioned before how much I love earrings because they are so feminine and swing-y. Here's what I managed to create using ZNet's recycled sea-glass beads (and some of my own). Enjoy! )Also, here's the link to the On-Line E'Zine and a link to the sea-glass page on ZNet's web site)

Clockwise from top: Dolphins, teal sea-glass
tubes and sea-foam pearls, light blue starfish
 and baby blue tulip-style beads all of
recycled sea-glass and a few of my own beads.

Top right; black recycled sea glass, multicolored
findings, orange sea glass.
Bottom left; teal sea glass tubes, orange sea glass,
garnet pearls on copper wire.

Top right;  pearls in black, gray, & white with
red sea glass and red crystal accents.
Bottom left; red and blue sea glass, white
pearls, & green crystals.

Top to bottom; two green sea glass squares,
teal sea glass tubes; green sea glass square,
yellow Czech glass squares; green sea glass,
white pearls on copper wire. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them.

(addendum) I wrote this right after I made these and I've since made several more earrings from ZNet's sea glass. I'll post them later.

Weekend Bangles

This weekend I spent only a short time in the craft room (still have a puppy to take care of!) but I managed to make these memory wire bracelets. I'm not usually a bracelet person so I was a bit surprised at (and pleased with) myself.

moonstone chips, pink & white square beads, one
murani style glass bead (just peaking from under
the moonstone in the center, there) and sea blue
glass beads as accents. I like this one. I'm actually
wearing this right now. 

 

made with crystal pearls from ZnetShows.com, silver
spacers from Michael's and a faceted black rondelle
as an accent. Like this one, too, but I let Saner Sister
have it, along with the one below.



black beads, square silver spacers, and one black swirl
glass focal bead. Really, I'm going to have to do this
again.... do I have enough beads? Hmm....

rose quartz chips, pink round beads, hot pink pressed
glass beads and a few glass moonstone beads as
accents (the glass moonstone are also from Znet)


And, suddenly, PUPPY!!


at 12 weeks... He's a Weimaraner (or Weim if you
want to shorten it) Also called the Gray Ghost
because of their coloring and style of hunting
(they're sight hunters)

1st visit to his new vet. He did SO well!

Waiting to see the vet... who came out and said,
"Oh! I see you have a pair of ears with a puppy attached!"
(snork) Yes, Weims usually have huge water absorbers
on either side of their heads.

 

exhausted from a hard afternoon chewing end tables



Learning that sleeping with Crazier Sister does not mean
IN THE SAME BED as me. Crazy, maybe, but not
insane! He's gonna be over 100lbs one day!!! Train 'em
now in the way you mean to go on! (13 weeks, 36.5 lbs)


And now you know what's keeping me busy!
What about you?

New Family Member

I got nothing done this weekend and I blame it on the animals in our lives.  This past week we had to put our 10 year old Weimaraner, Jack, to sleep due to a cancer that wasn't caught until it was too late. It was a little hard but what was harder was the silence in the house. Quiet as he was, he filled a spot in our lives that wasn't noticed until he was gone.  We decided we needed a puppy to at least fill the spot (but not replace Jack, of course) and we did a search.  We wanted to stay with the Weimaraner breed because we loved Jack so much and he had SO much personality (they say Weims are as smart as your average 10 year old child... they're not far off, believe me!)  And, just for your personal info, Weims are in the sight hunter class of hunting dogs and, due to their coloring and style of hunting, are nicknamed The Gray Ghost.

Von Greyson Weimaraner's is the breeder that caught our attention. He breeds to the old, original German standard of Weims so his dogs, especially his males, are huge!  Up to, and over, 100lbs. We spoke with William and decided (mutually) that one of his puppies would have a good home with our family.  He invited us down to his ranch (in the desert!) to see his... well, the only way to put it is "herd!"  Counting the puppies, that man has twenty-one (that's 21) dogs on his property! They're well bred, well behaved and well cared for. And they LOVE meeting (and being petted by) new people. 

We chose our puppy, a very healthy 22lb (at 8 weeks!) little boy and brought him home. 

That was Saturday.  Needless to say, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening mooning over our new little addition.  He's aDORable!  We also spent the rest of the day making sure he went OUTside to do his "business".  (snerk!)  He seems to be settling in okay, although there's a lot of sleep involved still (he's still a puppy, after all, just a rather large one) but he's following us around and beginning to play more with us.  Oh, yeah, and today he became an escape artist. He's very proud of himself for getting out of his pen.

Anyway, here's our newest family member. Please meet Zackery "Zack" Tillar Sears.


He wasn't going to be allowed on the furniture since he's
going to be so huge... You see how long that lasted!
And Saner Sister is giving him snuggles and cuddles while
he naps....  and naps.... and naps some more after playing.



Close up of that adorable face

 As you can see by his paws, he's gonna be a moose.  And we're gonna love every minute of it.

New Year, New Work

Okay, I've been working this last week on some more jewelry for my store and was finally able to take pictures.  Happily, I was able to use my new Canon Rebel camera for the pics and they look pretty good. Semi-happily I was able to set the items up in my table top studio. Sadly, only part of the studio was in working order (one of the lights refuses to work which means we're going to need to take it back and get a new one... which may need to be ordered... which means I won't get to use my studio for a while longer... sigh)

Oh, well.  It'll get here eventually.  Until then, here are some of the pics I took.  I'll work on some more this weekend and see what I can set up outside, around the house, etc.  You never know! :)

I kept these, but I'm going to make
another pair to go into my store.
Cute, eh?

~Earth Metal~
Now in my Etsy store

My first attempt to play with copper
tubing and some wire I had. Debating
whether to put this in the store or wait
until I've made a few more attempts at
any kind of wire/metal work.



~Forest Wisdom~
Again with the Autumn colors. This
is the necklace I restrung with the
cute little hooty-owl. Going into my
Etsy store soon, too.



I bought these from Lima Beads. I tho't
they made cuter earrings than they
did necklace or bracelet embellishments.

Set 2, this time with a
little blue dangle used from
Michelle Mach's snowflake
challenge box. Cute, eh?

Pearl Fans - simple pair
of earrings made with gray
and charcoal pearls.