Napa destash

I'm back in Napa visiting my godson's family. Gosh, he's so cute!

I'm in a country house on a knoll surrounded by a small vineyard and 8 huge oak trees. I heard wild turkey gobbling in the area yesterday but haven't seen wild animals other than several varieties of birds.

The sun is just rising and the air is still with a bit of coastal fog hovering in the distance. I love it up here. It's only a little over an hour's drive from the bay area so it's like a resort for me.

I'm finishing up a consignment order for a Manhattan hair salon this week and then focusing on posting spring jewelry on Etsy and RockerJewlz.com.

I will be adding a destash category to my Etsy shop as well, starting with a bunch of beads by Donna Mehnert of Blackberry Beads, so check back for that in about a week.

Cheers.

My cup runneth over

So much wonder has occurred in my life this past week, my cup runneth over and it all has its basis in love.

To begin, my husband was offered the job he was praying for! He accepted and today he filled out the paperwork and gave notice at his current job. And he is on vacation right now, so how great is it that next week will be his final week? Only 5 more working days. What a blessing.

Number 2: I haven't been very inspired to design jewelry and unable to figure out the reason. Well, my "studio" workspace is one third of our dining table in our small condo and the other day I realized that I just didn't want to work there anymore as I viewed the actual working area which is the size of a placemat! The rest of the third of the table is the tools, beads, components and miscellaneous items I need available when working.

I was so frustrated, so I sat on the sofa and was looking at our fireplace thinking we hadn't lit a single fire this winter which was unusual...and then I thought about that wasted space between it and the easy chair. That's when it hit me my 6 foot folding table could fit there as my studio. We tried it, and sure enough, it's just a perfect fit. We didn't even have to rearrange the furniture. I'm so excited! Now I just need to get organizer drawers from IKEA so I don't have to stack and unstack my current containers each time I need something.

In the first photo you see the small area and then the new table.

The third fabulous event was an invitation to Paris. My dad is looking for a home exchange situation for his place near the beautiful central coast of California so that he and any family and friends that want to visit can join him in a Paris apartment. He wants to be in the heart of it. Paris is the one city in the world I've wanted to visit my entire life. I even took French classes in junior high school...wasn't too great at it, but it was part of my dream. And now, if the exchange works, the dream will come true.

To finish, my new favorite film is "Love in the time of cholera" and I am in awe of the acting talent of Javier Bardem. I saw him in his Oscar winning role but in this new film his spirit captured my heart. From the little I've seen of him, when he accepted his various awards recently, I thought he was sweetly humble and attractive with a spectacularly sexy accent when speaking English. In neither of these films are his handsome good looks in play.

With that factor out of the way, in "Love in the time of cholera" his character shows the deep well of his full comprehension of the intensities of life's good and bad sides and how only the good is meaningful, important and worthy of attention. This full knowledge guides him to seek only beauty and to enjoy it and thrive on it as without it his heart could not beat.

This culminates in the giving of this love as an amazing offering which isn't even understood or noticed by most who meet or know him but they reap what he has to share. I finally figured out the meaning stated by his one true desire when she claimed he was not a man but an illusion.

I was also very pleased with the performance by Benjamin Bratt. I've always thought him handsome but nothing special as an actor. In this role, with a Spanish accent, he is immersed in the character...nicely done. The role of Bardem's mother and Fermina's cousin were filled with beautiful performances as well. As far as I'm concerned, all four are worthy of Oscar nominations.

And that ends my first attempt at a public movie critique!

My final thrill this week is that I'm on my own for 3 days so the kitchen will stay CLEAN the whole time and everything will be IN ITS PLACE like it should be and I get to design my butt off in my new studio with NO interruptions...woohoo! I love my family, I do, but....ya know???

Don't worry, one day I WILL have an actual room that is just a studio for me. For now, I'm happy to have a 3x6 foot table that is mine...allll miiinne!

Back to Silver

I sold my first batch of cupcake confetti in lavender, pink and blush pink for a girl's birthday party...fun.

Well, it felt good to get back to working with silver yesterday. I didn't make these charms this time around, but it felt good to work with chain and rawhide leather instead of glass.

I know I need to retake these shots under better lighting, but I just wanted to post, so here you are for now.

It's Friday and my husband is negotiating salary for his new job, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

This necklace was meant for the salon that requested lampwork jewelry from me. I didn't feel it contained enough lampwork so I have to decide if I should send it anyway to see how it sells there since it WOULD match the heavy textiles in the fashions there. If I don't, I'll post it on Etsy.

My World in Black and White

My bead world is black and white. After finding me through MySpace, a business woman invited me to consign jewelry at her upscale hair salon in Manhattan, aka New York City, that also features sleek, modern silver jewelry as well as clothing.

Fashion has always been my greatest inspiration for jewelry design and was immediately inspired when I visited the fashion designer's website. She works mainly in black and for this year's spring/summer line, white is the contrast color and the shape and weight of her designs will be a perfect backdrop for lampwork jewelry.

I love working with black and white in jewelry. When devoid of color, the beads become simply glass with texture and design that require an entirely new view of combining materials to best enhance them.

I've ordered several bead styles in black and white beads to round out my inventory, such as those above by Serena Thomas, so that I can assemble about 8 pieces and get them across the states in time for spring...of course, spring probably won't truly visit there until April, but it WILL come (really!).

I'm celebrating this new venture!

Calling all shoppers!

Have you seen this ribbon at Michael's craft stores? It's heck to find. Per Michael's, it's a ribbon that is exclusive for their stores and it's even MORE exclusive because it seems that my store never gets any!

My new friend has been selling it to me if and when she finds it so I'm thinking that if any of you find it, I would love to purchase it from you. It is the Sweet Treat line by American Craft. I'd love to have about 10 spools of this stuff for my ribbons on the boxes of cupcake jewelry I ship out.

If you can help me I would be very appreciative and have other cupcake goodies I might even trade for it if you prefer to barter.