Ode to the Summer Sun

Well, I'm finally back after a very long hiatus where everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. My computer seems to be working for the time being so I'm grateful to finally be blogging again.

School started today much to the chagrin of my 10 year old. Even though it is August, albeit the last day, I can all ready feel fall quickly approaching. It's a little sad really even though I do like fall. So, I figured I would do a little picture review of my garden in rememberance of summer.



My newest water lily. I was so surprised it actually bloomed the first year.



A view of my walkway garden in early summer with the lilies, hostas, and bee balm all in bloom.



My new garden on one side of my archway filled to the brim with nicotania.



And last but not least, my beautiful lavender rose in black and white just because I prefer it better than the color version.

Hope you enjoy the last days of summer. Girl Scout honor I'll be back tomorrow.

In Love with Spring

Spring is in the air! I can smell it, feel it, and almost touch it. I'm hoping that stupid little groundhog was wrong, and spring will come early. Even though, I know, technically, there really is more winter and spring will not be here officially until my birthday.



Even so, I am starting to plan my garden. I love to garden even with that black thumb I have. I'm thinking of adding more rows to my vegetable garden and debating what veggies to grow. Yeah, I know. I did this last year too. There are just so many veggies and not enough room. I like to grow enough to eat fresh but still have some to freeze for the winter. Boy, did that come in handy this winter! If you have just recently found my blog, I just started doing real veggie growing last year.

(On a side note, the Mr. Man has BBC america on, and they have some men doing some tribal dance thing, and it's really distracting.)

Back to my garden. I have had requests from K to grow edamame, mung beans, corn, peas, lima beans, peanuts, and some exotic watermelon. Mr. Man has requested potatoes, garlic, and peppers. I personally like fresh tomatoes, lots of herbs, and want to try some broccoli and blackberries and so many other things! Oh, the dilemma! I'm thinking of adding some veggies in containers to sprinkle throughtout the yard and garden as well cause veggies can be so pretty.



Then there is the planning of my flower beds. This is the department I need serious help in. I just don't know what to do with them. Some years they look so bare then other years it looks like a florist shop exploded in my beds. I want something gorgeous and well planned. Does anybody do landscaping plans over the internet? (I have pics!) Possibly for jewelry. Just give me a plan and tell me what to get and I'll be good. I'm so horrible at decision making.

Handmade Wedding Tiara

Last year I started a Wedding Collection. Since then, I have slowly but surely been adding to it with mostly tiaras and headbands. My latest wedding tiara is, by far, my favorite piece in this collection.

Introducing, the Snow Fairy tiara...

The design all stemmed from the carved mother of pearl centerpiece. It made me think of snow and flowers and thorns. The pearls in the piece represent snowflakes, and the copper represents vines and thorns surrounding the flower, and the heart under the flower represents love.

This tiara is customizable in other colors and would look lovely with an up do. My wedding designs are created to add to your dress but not take away. The dress is everything. My pieces just reflect and add to the beauty of the dress and you.

You can find the Snow Fairy tiara in my shop.

Let me know what you think or how I can improve the design.

Thoughts on the Weekend and Another Copper Cuff

Ah, it's Friday! The weekend has arrived. Yes, the weekend. When you can forget the workweek and the troubles at hand and just relax. Or so they say. I see it as the time when everyone is home and driving me nuts. I hardly ever get anything done, and the only good thing is I get to sleep late. The house will be a wreck by Monday morning, but that's secretly the reason I put K in her after school program. You'd be surprised at how much I can get accomplished with no one in the house. Now if only I knew how to do all the remodel jobs that need to be done, I'd be set. I'm typing all this while hiccuping and holding my breath to get rid of the hiccups so I really have no idea what I'm saying.

Did you all notice my new little gadget over there on the side? I have finally got a newsletter together. It's a once a month thing. Don't want anyone getting tired of me. It's filled with my latest happenings, secret sales, and lots of other special things. You know- the usual newsletter kind of stuff. I would be very appreciative and excited if you signed up for the newsletter, but only if you really want to. Although, I might get some kind of complex if no one wants to.

Latest item in my shop this week is an oldie but a goodie that some might have forgotten about. My Asian inspired, art deco Blossom cuff. How's that for getting multi-cultures and styles?! It is a copper cuff with the loveliest copper flower on top. Just the thing you need to keep gloomies away in the winter. It can be found in my shop.

Have a great and relaxing weekend, my duckies!

Tranquility

The latest addition to my Etsy shop and ring collection is my Tranquility ring. It's a copper band ring that has been accented with copper tube set sapphires. 5 of them to be exact! I've had these little sapphires laying around for quite some time but never had anything to do with them. I think they look magnificent against the copper.

The ring itself has been formed from copper sheet. The copper sheet was rolled over a copper tube to create a one piece effect. Originally, I had only planned for there to be two smaller tube settings on the other side of this roll, but I changed my mind. I decided there wasn't enough depth. I'm glad I did. Looks better with the three, don't you think? I then set the sapphires in all the tubes including either end of the roll. The name tranquility came about from the blue of the sapphires.

In other news, it's a very dreary day here. So much so, I am missing summer even though it hasn't completely gone yet. I will mourn it until it returns next year which seems oh so far away from now. I do believe I would be quite happy to live somewhere where it's summer all year. So, for those of you who are mourning the loss of summer like me, I will leave you with an original photograph by me to remind you of the joys of summer.

Misplaced creativity

Finally got my supplies in. Yay! It's sad to think how much money it was for not a lot of supplies. It's sad too that I still need more. Maybe this will give me the push I need to get back to jewelry creating.

You see in the spring, especially with this house, I have a lot of creative urge to be in the garden or working on the house. I want to get things done and work every minute. Perhaps if someone actually forced me to do that I wouldn't have anymore creative energy in that field. While this may be all fine and good, the rest of my creative life suffers. I've made one new thing in approximately a week which is a long time for me. I'm going to see if I can make my two creative lives share time.
With all this creative surge, I did manage to decide what was going in my garden at least with flowers. I don't know what they will look like together, but you know I don't care. At least, I'll have lots of pretty flowers and some seed pods to do electroplating with. I decided on chinese lanterns, globe gilia, ornamental grass, chamomile, bee balm, baby blue eyes, oriental red poppies, a mix of clarkias, crimson king, verbascum, maltese crosses, and a mix of columbines. I do have a slight fear of all these seeds because they will have to be started in the house so the birds and ants won't eat them. I've never had a seed actually grow outside. I should've built a greenhouse because my sunroom is going to look like one. I think it amounts to like 3 or 4000 seeds. I got good deals. What can I say?!

Well, I suppose I should get down to business. Orchid has been updated with that lovely owl pictured and a few jewelry supplies and a pretty frosted blue glass mini vase both not pictured. I even finished my challenge item at Jewel Street Designs which is also pictured. A lovely pair of earrings inspired by Art Deco design with birds flying from wire. It can be found in my shop.

Helpless in the Garden

Thank you for all of your fantastic comments yesterday. I really appreciated it.

It's almost spring. I know because my birthday is just after spring. Actually, this year Easter falls on my birthday. I don't like that. I don't know why I have such an aversion to Easter being on my birthday, but I do. I found out last night on the Etsy forums that the last time Easter was on my birthday was 1913. Of course, it wasn't my birthday then so that was okay.

Anyway, there's only about a month and a half until the first day of spring. I have started to wonder what I will put in my garden. You might no know this, but I have a garden serial killer. Last year was absolutely the first time I had a garden that lasted, and it looked beautiful. I hope I can do that again this year. I raised cantalopes(or cantaloupes as I sometimes like to spell them), tomatoes, peppers, and had lots of pretty flowers. Most everything I planted last year was annuals except for my lilies and irises. That's a picture of one of my lilies above. This year I would like to add some more perennials.

I have a thing about lilies so I will probably add some more. I was also thinking about gladiolus because I just love how big and beautiful they are. Tomatoes and bell peppers. I would love to plant a big old night blooming jasmine somewhere on the property, but I would have to find one first. I do have a grapevine to plant, but I was thinking about adding a blackberry vine as well. I remember picking wild blackberries with my father when I was little and my grandmother would visit from Florida. Is squash hard to grow because I would love to add that as well.

I just don't know what perennials to plant because I know nothing about plants much to my step-mother's chagrin. Japanese or Asian plants are my favorites and they do well in my garden because of the sandy, acidic soil we have being near the beach. It doesn't help that I have a big barren wasteland of yard and so very little money. I might go to the auction again this year and see what I can there on my list.

What do you have in your garden and do you know anything about peach trees because I have one and haven't got a clue?

Blog Envy

I know you know what I'm talking about. When you go read someone else's blog, and you're just like "God, why don't I write like that?" or "why is my life so boring that I don't have anything to write about?"

Okay. Well, maybe that last one was mine, but you still get the picture. We all have those blogs we want to be like- the ones that can write, the ones that always have fascinating things to post about, the ones that get all the visitors. I basically start thinking about what I'm going to post from the time I write my last blog. I never have anything interesting to say, and if I do, it never comes out in such a way as to be interesting. So, generally, I sit here with the sun glaring in my eyes from the sunrise contemplating what to write every morning. As you can imagine, that never goes well.

Why do I do it then? You know, because I just plain like it. I like writing my blog even if it's boring and no one wants to read it except my online buddies who feel the need to read it because I comment on theirs. It's good exercise especially since I'm almost a recluse and don't get much outside contact. This at least keeps my mind fresh and from me becoming completely shut off to the rest of the world. Maybe someday I will have something interesting to write, and for once, it will actually come off as interesting. But for now, I only write about blog envy and my newest piece in my shop.

My eternal flower ring that you see in the picture. (Like how I pulled that one off, huh?) Just listed it last night. I really like it, although, I might try another one with an extra row of petals. It's a sterling silver band ring with a sterling silver flower accent. I added a really clear and beautiful carnelian cabochon for accent. I like the carnelian in there, and it's just enough color. It can be found in my shop.

Mod Has It

I swear I'm going to do better at blogging. At least, it has only been a week since my last update. lol.

Got two new earrings to show you. These are my mod squad earrings. Both have been constructed from hammered copper wire and soldered together. They both have the same basic design but use different shapes. One pair has retro white plastic flower beads, and the other has retro baby blue plastic flower beads. I so enjoy these. They weren't hard to make, there isn't much to them, but they are just so much fun. Both can be found in my shop.

Nothing much going on around here. Need rain so if any of you are getting any send it this way. Last I heard we were 7.5" below average or something like that. I have also decided that I am very ready for school to start. I like staying up late, but I'm not at all on any kind of schedule. This is bad for me as I need schedules to survive. Oh, and I'm creating my own website which is taking a while but is going to beautiful when it's done. Well, tomorrow perhaps there will be an edition of Home Improvement Roundup.

Home Improvement Roundup- Garden Style

Time for another installment of Home Improvement Roundup. This one will be a quicky. Just a little peek into one of the things that I have been doing on my so-called summer vacation.

I have gotten a pedestal sink for my bathroom remodel so that will be coming sometime in the near future, and I stress sometime. Tiling and siding will also be future installments.

The pics are of my new and improved garden. One is a sort of before pic. It is actually the other side, but that is pretty much what it all originally looked like. One pic is what it looks like now, and the other is my new walkway that I am currently adding. Check out the awesome leaf stepping stones I got. The rocks are a great addition to any garden. I like them because they just have a really clean look about them, and they help hold the moisture close to the plants. I have some beautiful pepper plants, lilies, double impatients, a gardenia with the same name as me, musk melons, and some beautiful ornamental sweet potato vines. I'm really quite proud of myself because I have not lost a single plant. Most of the plants are annuals, but it helped to plan out where I wanted plant placement so I can add more perennials next year. I will definitely be adding more vegetables and herbs. Tip on the vegetables and herbs. Just add a few right in with your common flower beds. They really don't take much more care than your regular plants.

WooHoo!

Boy, it's been a long week, and I am so thankful that the weekend is finally here.

I hinted at a surprise a couple of days ago(I got sidetracked). Well, now to unveil my big news. We closed on our house on Tuesday so now it not only is officially ours, but now it officially has a mortgage. Only a ten year mortgage because we bought the place so cheaply, but it is still ours. Now if I want to take out a wall, I will have no problem with it. So, in light of my big news, I'm going to have a sale in my shop through the weekend. Get everything 25% off when you, my lovely blog readers, mention "House07".

You may have noticed that bright and shiny new cuff in the picture. That is my challenge item for this week. This week's challenge was to create something inspired by your first job. My first job happened to be a cashier at a local mom and pop grocery store, and every spring we would sell flowers. So, I created this copper cuff with three handcrafted copper flowers. There is a very light patina on the flowers to give them a more antique feel. I really love how it turned out. It reminds me of a corsage. It can be found in my shop and is called In Bloom.

Have a great weekend everyone, and stay safe! Now I'm going to go take a nap.

Mother Nature and Me

Who knew that picking up my daughter and running a few errands would be such an adventure?
It was a beautiful sunny day. There was even a hint of spring in the air. About 2 seconds after my daughter got in the car at her school, mother nature unleashed her anger. I don't know what we did to make her so angry, but I've not seen a storm like this in a while. The skies got black as midnight. There was thunder and lightning. The wind was pushing my monster car so much that I thought we were going to flip over. Then there was hail and horizontal rain. And, when I say hail, I'm not talking a little. I'm talking just shy of golfball size and enough that it was covering windshields. It was a monster of a storm. After the 10 minute torrent, we proceed to run our errands. So, we're sitting at the bank, and we see a drug deal go down. I actually had to interrupt it to get out of the parking lot. Of all the places! I'm telling you there is never a dull moment living in nowheresville.


Now down to business. This is my latest concoction- a headband which I think is quite fitting for my mother nature post today. I created this for the beads4you winter beading challenge. I got very inspired by the beads, and I am quite happy with how it came out. I'm even thinking of doing these regularly for my shop. The filigree is individually created from copper wire. The centerpiece is a carved shell flower accentuated with black pearls. I love it, and it can be found in my shop.