Some Thursday Inspiration

I saw this on a sign the other day and it stuck with me. So for a little inspiration today, here it is. Take it however you want or need to. I know how I'm going to use it.

Clearing the Cobwebs

Well, who knew "I'm not going to take it anymore day" was just what we needed?! Perhaps we should do that once a month whether it's the holiday or not. The blog was more than happy to be a punching bag for a day.

Oh, one thing before I get to my real post for today. If you have all of a sudden been getting my feed when you were getting them before, I apologize. It appears Blogger hates me sometimes and decided to switch my feed links. I have remedied the situation and so far so good. I'll keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Onto Thursday's post.... As I've said, I plan my bloggy month in advance. It just helps to get my thought processes down, and I'm not scrambling for ideas. I do leave days open for ideas that just come up or whatever. Today happens to be one of those days so I thought I would rather the method behind the madness.

Inspiration for my pieces comes easy enough. I find inspiration in nature, architecture, even headlights on cars. I love when the big car show rolls around, and I can get a glimpse of the prototype cars. Not kidding. I even carry a little notebook around with me for such moments when an idea walks up and slaps me on the back of the head. Even my customers give me inspiration with their custom pieces.

Then we move onto the times when I have the inspiration, but I'm not really sure how I want to use it. I am a member of the artist site, Ebsq. Each month they have shows based on different things. This month one of the shows is Alice in Wonderland/Through the looking glass. You make things based on one or both of these books. I'm loving this, but the problem is I'm so inspired I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm thinking a tea and crumpets ring, but is there anything else? There are just so many images floating around in this mushy brain of mine. What would you do? or What's your favorite part of the book? Maybe my lovely blog readers can help with my dilemma.


They are also having another show which corresponds with a line of jewelry I've been toying around with wanting to do. Their show is State Flowers, and I've been wanting to do a whole line designed just around flowers. There are so many beautiful flowers. I could seriously do a line like this my whole life and not do every flower. I had such fun with my magnolia earrings, and they were such a big hit. I know I'm asking for a lot of help, but what is your favorite flower and/or your state flower?

Well, I suppose that's enough rambling for one day. I must be off and filling the world with copper jewelry.

New Inspiration

Happy Monday! I hope everyone's weekend was good. Mine was icky so not much to talk about today.

Check out my new rhinestones/cabs I got in the mail on Friday. As soon as I saw them, I was in love. The first is a set of 6 tortoise colored rectangle lucite cabs. These are my favorites. I'm wishing I had bought more of these. I may have to go back. The second is a package of 48 white rhinestones. They have a cab top and a slightly pointy back. They remind me of milk glass. I have a particular project in mind for some of these. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it. It works in my mind, but we all know how that goes.

This week I'm finishing up my contribution to the LittleBlackBoxes monthly sample bag. I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I will give you a clue. It's in my shop. Do you think the packages are pretty? I worked very hard on these. The box is monogrammed with JSD. My new business cards are tied up with pretty ribbon. I hope they stand out. I'm hoping to send in about 25-30 pieces.

In other news... K's second week of school has just finished. So far, we have had two fundraisers. That's right. Two. Criminy. She's all ready gotten a cold with a nasty cough. Not good for a kid with asthma. And, they have sent home a list of their field trips with the total cost. They want half of 90 some dollars in a month and the other half a month after Christmas. Talk about timing. I really wish I could homeschool.

Winter Doldrums

Happy Valentine's, my duckies! I wanted to make sure I told all of my lovely readers. Won't you be my valentine? There would be a big red kiss there if I knew how to do it.

Well, as usual, I'm sitting in the dark drinking peppermint tea and thinking about all the things I should be doing. Notice I said peppermint tea instead of coffee. I have officially been off coffee for two weeks, and I only miss it if I get too close to one of Steve's cups. I fear this post may go out of control in too many directions so if it does please forgive me. I will try to hold it together, but I'm not promising anything.

So, we all know I'm tired of winter, and I'm sure those of you that just had that snowstorm probably are as well. I can feel the winter doldrums encroaching on my creative spirit. The cold and dreariness is bringing me down. In a way, I envy those of you that have snow. At least it's not brown or grey and miserable. Lots of creativeness in snow. Snow angels and snowmen and sledding and snowflakes. Yep, better than chicken manure being put on the fields.

The doldrums have me down, and it's hard to work out of it so I'm trying to find new things to inspire me. I've been thinking about my spring collection- Midnight in the Garden. I've all ready made a few pieces like the Asian cuff and my Dragonfly Sonata ring. Both pictured and in my shop. I have lots more in the works(like a Koi fish ring) but need to add a few more pieces to make it round out. I'm trying to let my wedding addiction inspire me too. Now, I have no urge to be married, but I love to see other people get married. Plus, I want all of them to be wearing my pieces. Selfish, isn't it? I just think brides on their wedding day can make everything beautiful. Sometimes, these new inspirations aren't enough, and that's when I have my worst time because when I get sidetracked that's it. I've fallen off the road, rolled into a ditch, and then down a hill.

Speaking of snow. The sun is just starting to come up across the back field, and I realized sometime in the middle of the windy night the pouring rain switched to snow. I have snow on the ground and on my magnolia tree, and it's beautiful. Plus, it's just enough that by later today it either won't be here or won't be much of a bother. But, it's refreshing to my poor old soul. Like everything is fresh and beautiful again.

If you made it this far, I applaud you. I told you I would be all over the place. Soooo.. On this special Valentine's Day(yes, I know it's a sort of made up holiday, but I think it can have really good intentions.), I send you big jewel covered hugs and kisses, and I wish you much love and happiness today and every day!