Ahh Summer Weddings-Customer Appreciation Photo

Hey Family;-)

You guys know I LOVE weddings and am no stranger to creating something for a beautiful bridal bash. As an admirer, I am inspired by the true glow of love and joy in a wedding couples eyes and hearts. Whether in person or captured on film or print.

As a seller, it is truly a humbling experience and honor for any purchase that comes from either one of my Etsy shops to be included a one of the most life changing and loving experiences in ones life.

Paula & Chris July 6th,2010 Photo By Colby Classic Photos

Here is a recent pic from a blushing July bride from Upstate New York with her handsome hubby. Besides their gorgeous smiles, I love the beautiful peacock feathered bouquet and accented lapel. These are the same blond bombshells that are sold in my feather section of my shop. WOW, they look stunning!.......oh yeah, the feathers are nice too;-P

Congrats to the both you and many long and happy yrs to come! Thank you for sharing this with me. OK, I'm getting misty-eyed..seriously... danggit, I hate when that happens;-)

Happy Birthday to me;-)

Wow times flies.....


By god's grace I am 37 yrs old today. I have no idea what I am going to do but whatever it is I will have fun doing it;-)


Hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend and remember our Vets today on the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Dad..where ever you are in heaven, thank you for serving our country;-)

The Grace: Motivational Monday Quote

"Losers visualize the penalties of failure. Winners visualize the rewards of success." - Rob Gilbert September"

"A strong successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions." - Orisen Marden "

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela

Stamping Up...

Hey Family,




Time to stamp I mean step it up a notch.Last year I blogged about going to Pratt to take some metal smithing classes. I finally finished the beginner series, but I also invested in some stamping equipment since I have received few order last month for personalized jewelry and engraving.


capital block and calligraphy upper case letter tools

I have also grown tired of not being accepted into a few of the better known craft fairs that are juried after looking at the jewelry that did make it and seeing a similar acceptance across the board:..stamped, engraved, and soldered metal jewelry make it every time.


So here is the kit I purchased to start me off. I will be getting a new soldering iron and materials later...I'll have the items next week so I can't wait to show you what charms I plan on making;-) This summer I am going back to the fairs so I'll be prepared this time as you know I create things on site..

Sorry I haven't had much to blog about otherwise- just taking a break with the family and stocking up my SwanRiver shop: -) I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Thanks for visiting,

DIY- Home Decor Peacock Feather Centerpiece -Video

I am currently working on a bridal idea for a peacock feather centerpiece. I'm excited;-)

Here is a centerpiece Adornyourself.etsy.com created with sample feathers she purchased from me;-) I love it!

Thanks for visiting,

DIY- Home Decor Peacock Feather Centerpiece -Video

I am currently working on a bridal idea for a peacock feather centerpiece. I'm excited;-)

Here is a centerpiece Adornyourself.etsy.com created with sample feathers she purchased from me;-) I love it!

Thanks for visiting,

Natural Inspirations-New Listings and Peacock Stems

Hey Family,
If anyone has the first album by Neo-Soul Artist India Arie- You will see her standing with her back turned holding a fan of peacock feathers behind her back. I got inspired and wanted to take apicture of me holding my man made stems in a similiar fashion.

I just listed some new Spring Green Peacock Stems in my Nyblaque shop.

Since the molting season is out for the farm -raised peacock feather I purchase from upstate new york and other organic sources, the feathers listed as made from man made materials and dyed with organic color fast dye. There are no animal tested or animal by products used to create the feathers.I don't know how they do it but the feather like soooo real in person are very good quality and come with easy care instructions.

I love the color contrast from yellow -green to lime green on some of the stems I have.

I even picked up some "swords" very cool;-)

I had a Mardi Gras moment when I laid out all the stems I have together.The Purple, Blonde, and Green look great together;-)

Speaking of color, I love pine cones and colored leaves- this was a nice decor mix I picked up from Michael's Craft Store.

I had no idea the colors would inspire me to create these necklaces:

I put together a wood embellishment disk with a nice Anaku tile pendant bail and a simple chain. Simple and  easy;-)

Channeled my inner Tao with this necklace:-) I love the shape of these Picture Jasper beads- I didn't know wheither to make the Ying Yang sign or the Pisces for Feb/March- so I made one of each LOL!

have a happy Thursday,

Be Well,

Ny

Wings Of Love -Wedding Greetings-Archive from June 6th 2009

Hey Family,

This is from an old post from last summer. I just wanted to show you the cards I donated to Heartsforhaiti.etsy.com


I was happy to see my "A thousand times yes" card go to a good home last week

I plan to donate the cards below to the HFH shop:

Happily Ever After

 

Congrats to The Groom/Bride to be

Each card measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". Each matching envelope measures about 4 3/4" x 6 1/2"

Here is the original post text below: Thanks for stopping by , let me know what you think of the cards, Should I make some more??

"As I was making cards for the fair tomorrow, I was stumped as to what kind of card to make for wedding greetings. Where I live we have a few huge community centers where folks hold lots of wedding receptions, bridal showers etc, esp during the Spring/Summer months

ClaudiaCreations.etsy.com creates "plantable"and organic paper from her own 100% post consumer waste paper pulp mixed with things such as flowers, thread, crayon, easter grass etc. In these designs I used the recycled set although there are some flower portions in there.

The butterflies by Porkchopshow.etsy.com -( the same genius behind those Wooden Typewriter Keys I used to make earrings) are made with 1/8" thick wood and cut with a laser cutting machine. Then gorgeous paper strips made from craft paper and soy ink add the finishing touch with each heartfelt phrase.

Of course this fair was a great opportunity to showcase some wedding sample cards. Then I received these gorgeous paper sets and my mind swirled into a whole new direction:

These are great for anniversary as well. In fact when I posted a sample of these cards through Twitpic, within 10 mins one of my Twitter followers wanted me to create a custom order of 150 of the same designs, but as Wedding Invitations instead!!!! OMG 150!! Can I tell you I almost fell out my chair.

Since each card is a limited one of a kind original- I will be selling these cards in the design format seen here in my Artfire shop ( this shop closed) as a made to order listing. Each component is completely handmade so no two cards will look quite the same."

Thanks for visiting

Go Green,

Ny

Pages and Progress

Hey Family,

Just wanted to share with you a few screenshots of the charitable organizations I am registered with that I have been donating portions of my Etsy sales and items to.

This is a recent screenshot of a video email I received from the President and CEO of the American Red Cross with video feed showing some of the devastation in Haiti but what ARC has been able to do to help. I nearly cried halfway through the end. It's really bad down there but hope is growing. I appreciated  receiving this as it is intended to keep contributors up to date with what's going on and where the donations are going.

This is my personal page with Team ACS where dontions can be contributed directly to help me with my personal fundraiser goal to contribute to Team Etsy Project Embrace's overall team goal.My goal is to raise $1,000 dollarsso far I have raised $200 

. As you can see I have a long way to go...

This is the email link to my personal goal page where friends family, supporters and contributers can see my personal progress page above for themselves. I have had a few customers ask me for this link that purchased ACS items.

And here is our Team Etsy Project Embrace Page- I omitted the teams names to protect their privacy. The beaming beauty is Laura Slocum, the inspiration behind the idea of EPE.

Our Team goal is to raise $9,000 dollars for cancer research and awareness.We are at $6.710.00 !!! We are sooo close;-)

You can find Laura's blog at http://staytuned09.blogspot.com/

HeartsforHaiti.etsy.com now has a blog! http://etsyforhaiti.blogspot.com/

and Facebook Page! http://www.facebook.com/heartsforhaiti

The love is pouring at HeartsForHaiti.etsy.com- Currently raised for Doctors Without Borders (after fees): $23,969.74 as of 11:25pm EST 1/30/10

Thx for visiting

Ny

Freetime Frenzy..Weekend Work

Hey Family,,, Pass me a tissue please.............

My eldest child came home with a brilliant cold..and guess who it was passed to..unintentionally of course. Yup, yours truly..now I am fighting to get rid of it fast so my toddler doesn't get it.


My best friend gave me a break today and took my baby to the Children's Museum while the big one spent time with best friends all day...So I had the whole afternoon to myself...wooo hoo! Though I feel kinda bummed because I wanted to go to the Red Cross today;-(

You would think I'd crawl under the covers and pass out but nooooooooooooooooo, I went bonkers and started crafting lol! I grabbed whatever bead or bauble that caught my eye and made a bunch of earrings and necklaces.at least 50 pieces! Something I never get to do with the children here without staying up half the night LOL! This post would be insanely long if I listed then all so here are the pieces I was able to photograph with the lighting that was available.

Earthy

Spring

Spice

and I finished two custom orders

That's just SOME of the simplier pieces I worked on. All the earrings I made will be donated to the Handmade4haiti section of my shop.


Coming up Monday:.. My idea to make bags for Haiti Relief....stay tuned;-) Ok, I am going to pass out now;-) Night.

be Well, stay strong

Ny

Donations to Haiti Part I

Hey Family,

Just wanted to share with you what I did as part of my efforts to help the victims of the disasterous earthquake in Haiti. I donated all these items yesterday. I will be making some care packets later on tonight.
I also opened a section of simple, conservative earrings in my shop named Handmade4Haiti- In this section $5.00 of every item sold will be donated to the America Red Cross.


I hope what I am sending will help at least one family in need. I really pray it.does
Ny

At home crafting - Recycled glass VBlog

Hey Family,

I made a video showing how I put together my recycled glass pendants;-) - I also have it posted on Youtube;-) Since I have low volume speakers on my pc- let me know if you can hear everything ok.

Thanks for visiting,

Ny

Spontaneous Crafting

Hey Family, I honestly didn't intend to make anything today- really I wanted to just pack and ship my orders and stay in bed. HA!! I was actually packing an order of these beautiful vintage Japanese glass beads today when the craft bug took over.

As soon as I came back from shipping the destash order. I got busy..and just couldn't stop--well, more like didn't want to..I really didn't have any particular direction with the bracelet not to mention I remember how tedious it is to hand wire wrap each bead to chain. But I loved the color palette so much I just kept going.

and going......

added some verdigris patina charms..a nice patina dragonfly.......

I'm still not finished yet LOL..but I won't add too much more. I stopped posting beaded bracelets in my shop because frankly, it's not cheap labor - if you catch my drift. The time and effort that does into these type of bracelets can go for hours if it is a more intricate design, but most of the time goes to the careful wire wrapping, weighing and setting of the chain.

So we'll see what happens with this beauty. I will list her in my shop tonight.

These cute little cubes are a late night earring project I'll finish.

Andromeda-Swarovski Crystal Wire Wrapped Pendant

This pendant was the easiest and fastest idea I worked on. I saw this Swarovski cosmic ring sitting on my craft table all lonely from an unfinished project. I am trying out different " self bailing" techniques on my pendants to eliminate the worry of losing a pendant from a popped or loose jump ring. I think of moms when I make these type of pendant as I have had many test pendant pulled of my old chain by my son on purpose just to see how durable they are.

This type of bail can be worn closed or set apart to have that "crowned bail look while threading the chain or cord through it. Ok...back to crafting.. Let me know what you think so far..

Happy hump day.

Ny

So that's what they look like.

Hey Family, I am sorry I haven't posted any Season Greetings or the like this past week. With the holiday rush- Hiring and interviewing interns & models, making new pieces for my new shop, attending classes, spending time with family for the holidays, raising the youngins AND.. fighting a cold with a touch of fatigue. I am exhausted;-)-- but feeling very blessed.

Whenever things get too busy to blog- I dig up some old archived posts to keep things going till I can blog again so I will eventually post some Christmas shots, my new videos and Kwanzaa before the New Year comes in. In the meantime. I have made up mind - I HAVE to feature live model shots in my jewelry listings. Old habits die hard and as a former street vendor I am used to my customers being able to have a real visual of what they are about to or interested in purchasing. One of the most difficult things I have experienced as a n online seller is trying to take photos that show the actual length and size of my pieces- In the end even with measurements, bust model shots and rulers and currency coin- I still get the question"What do they look like?;-)

I am glad I receive this question though. So I usually take a shot with the piece on a model or bust. I know the hygienic taboo behind modeling jewelry and clothing is that many worry about skin contact, infections etc- and RIGHTFULLY so.. But as I have said before. I NEVER ship a piece that was not freshly made before shipping. I clean the jewelry pieces and even the ears/neck/wrist my models wear-personally- yeah, seriously..create 98 percent of my pieces wearing latex or non latex plastic gloves and wash my hands before and after handling the finished pieces.

So I will have models from young and old, plus size to petite modeling my jewelry. I really wanted to get some local Etsy Shop artist to model my pieces while they were crafting... you know me promoting handmade artists as usual - but this way it's two fold for me and the artist- we'll see.

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday night. Going to get back under the covers and warm up. Let me know what you think. Thanks for visiting,

Be Well,

Ny