Autumn Sale and Topaz

Beginnings Bracelet in Topaz is now available for your Autumn and Holiday needs.
I love how the light shines through this particular color of Swarovski crystal.

Topaz is the birthday stone for November, and this slender bracelet is perfect for birthdays,
anniversaries and holiday gifts.

I'm having a nice, big fat sale on Autumn jewelry in my Etsy shop. Aren't these glass acorns awesome?
They are the colors of candy caramels and oh so pretty.

I have plenty of pumpkin jewelry as well.
The beads are so pretty that the jewelry turned out quite elegant rather than just another novelty.
You'll be very pleased with how pretty they are.

So come and enjoy the sale to pump up the volume on your holiday wardrobe!
Shop HERE.

Chocolate Pink Cupcakes

Chocolate Pink Cupcake necklaces are now available!

Nicely sized cupcakes of 18x18mm
are suspended from an 18 inch
.925 sterling silver ball chain.

See if the matching earrings are still available.

Click HERE to shop.

Pumpkin Bowling

Finished off a great week's vacation by visiting our godson's family in Napa. Just a few miles down the road we stopped by the Suisun Valley Pumpkin Patch and had the best time. The weather was warm with a cool breeze (my favorite mix) and we were so happily surprised by the fabulous setup they had.

There was a $3 admission fee, but they waive it if you purchase a pumpkin which is why we were there! They had a scarecrow contest set up in front of the corn maze, 10 acres of u-pick pumpkins and the most amazing array of pumpkin varieties...they had pale gray pumpkins...I couldn't believe it. My Halloween this year is just a few pumpkins in white with black details. Very stark, dramatic and beautiful. I will post photos later of my finished vignette at my front door.

One of the cutest areas was the pumpkin bowling. Bales of hay were set in rows to create the lanes and corn cobs were placed on top of holes in a strip of plywood. Nearly perfect round pumpkins in kid sizes were the bowling balls. My 3 year old nephew stayed there longer than any other area. It was so fun to watch him set up the corn cobs.



It took a few minutes to find the "perfect" pumpkin. The fields near the game area had clipped pumpkins but further out you had to snip off the pumpkins with your own knife which is what my bro-in-law did. We ended our fun with him giving his son a wild ride in the wheelbarrow. We had so much fun and the prices were really good, like 4 little punks for only a dollar. The owner really made it a pleasant experience.

I'm putting together some Chocolate Pink pendants & earrings and will photos in a day or two so be sure to check back to see those.

Happy Halloween!

Surprise Revealed

Here is the finished product from the previous post. It was a surprise birthday gift for my sister.

Aren't the beads amazing?

I created the bracelet and then wanted to give it a musical flair since Sis is co-owner of Lightning Joe's Guitar Heaven in Arroyo Grande, CA. So I added polymer clay music beads. Not sure which way I prefer the finished look, so if Sis likes the first version best, the clay beads are on a jump ring & can be easily removed.

Of course, it looks different laying on a table for a photo than it does on the wrist.

Nice surprise, huh?

Surprise

I had a computer virus situation for a couple of days so this is late and I can't stay on long. My husband is on a week's vacation and we are going shopping! Yes, toGETHer, how nice. Just wanted to show you a portion of an amazing bracelet I made for someone special...she has NO idea it's on her way to her tomorrow. I'll let you see the entire piece once she receives it.

Sorry about the quickie post, but at least I left you something, right? OH, and by the way, on the previous post, Lezlie was right when she guessed the mystery photo as a slice of a leek. I made potato and leek soup and had never cut into a leek before. It had such pretty detail.

Punks & Hips

We have blessed cool weather here in the bay area after several days of extremely rare and very high humidity and hot weather. Not even the cool breeze provided relief. I've lived here for over 20 years and can only remember one other time this occurred but the air was still and that was just before the Loma Prieta earthquake that came a few months after we moved to the east side of the San Francisco bay area.

Well, no surprise, this time around the thick, heavy air came the day AFTER an earthquake in our area. Interesting twist. Before I forget, this Tealight Glow Punk necklace just sold from my Etsy shop, but I wanted to show it to you because it is so pretty with its inner core creating a soft glow like a little tea light. I just love it. It worked surprisingly well with sterling silver.




Now, let's enjoy the first photo, which is the view of my dad's neighbor's yard when we were tucked away beneath Dad's liquid amber tree. So Dad I were chatting away under the shade of his liquid amber tree, when he mentioned munching on a rose hip. I said you can EAT them? I've not done that. Well he just happened to have a few on his rose bush so I plucked one and gosh, what a time we had with it. I was fascinated with its star shape and pretty autumn colors.


I took a breath, wondering what it would taste like and then nibbled. It was hard and crunchy, not bitter, and reminded me somewhat of a kumquat. It had a little bit of juice, but certainly wasn't an item of which you'd eat the entire thing but it was fun to try it. Here's what it looks like inside...



My husband is on vacation all next week which means I am too since I'm lucky enough to have my own jewelry design business here at home. Yay for self employment!

Now, before I go, I'm leaving you with one more photo and am wondering if anyone can guess what the item is. I'm sure many of you have seen it but might have rushed past it and not thought about it. I'm so "into" detail that I just had to stop and be in awe of it thinking about the hidden design of this beauty.

I'll divulge its secret next week.

Copper and Gold

Incredible work by Lisa Kan resulted in this electroformed aspen leaf.
Over 3 days this artisan puts a real live leaf through a series of processes that slowly eats away at the leaf between all its veins. Then copper is applied to the remaining material and voila! A copper leaf. Amazing.

I handknotted lampwork glass beads onto a burgundy satin cord to create this necklace. This fabulous "Lena" bracelet from my Jazz Series captures the same colors to make a glorious set. You can see more photos and detail HERE.

Loves Cupcakes

Welcome to San Jose's newest Cupcake Shoppe! Gourmet Cupcakery Loves Cupcakes opened this summer in California in an historic downtown building. My friend April and her family worked long & hard to get this shop up and running so I visited her last week. Just the exterior of the building is pretty, let alone the interior. I love the brick and wonder...who lives up top?

Well, come on in and let's look at some cupcakes! Isn't this entry door beautiful? It's so detailed and welcoming and very tall, reflecting the incredibly high ceilings inside. I like that with this door and the front window, the entire storefront is flooded with light, but because it's constantly shaded by the new "The 88" condos across the street, you never get blasted by sunlight. This will make for a perfect display window once a few faux cupcakes make their way there to draw in the foot traffic from civic buildings and the university nearby.


The red door is also the first hint to the color theme of chocolate, cream & red. I met April over a year ago when she was working on the shop and requested custom cupcake jewelry in these colors. Well, since she opened and placed her bracelet in a display, she's been getting requests for more jewelry, so I took down about 10 pieces to add to it. This was my first time in the shoppe and it was wonderful! The pendant lighting is placed just so and the cases April's husband built are old fashioned, simple and beautiful, like a picture frame for the incredibly decorated cupcakes. I felt like I was in an old candy shoppe, but everything is new, so they have created a warm and inviting ambience. Nice job.


Now, speaking of cupcakes...April was icing these Red Velvet cupcakes in the bright, clean kitchen and just the tip and design she used gave them such a ....well.....velvety texture! I thought, wow, it really does look like if I touched them they would feel like velvet...quite an illusion.


What impressed me most about the cupcakes is the intricate detail in the icing of all the cupcakes. I have never before seen such work. There isn't a ton of frosting, which can adversely affect the tasting experience. Just intense detail and obvious love in the design that makes you drop your draw. This Mocha-Java icing was my favorite...see the little coffee bean up top? Here is the website description: "Belgian bittersweet chocolate cake flavored with coffee finished with Italian meringue mocha butter cream garnished with a chocolate coffee bean".


And last, but not least, is the Fleur de Sel: "Intriguing interplay of sweet and salty caramel cake finished with caramel swirl Italian meringue butter cream garnished with a chocolate dipped caramel & fleur de sel".

Okay, so now to make you laugh...I was so excited to finally visit this shoppe AND put my jewelry on display that I totally FORGOT TO EAT A CUPCAKE!!! What a big goof! I just had to laugh in my car on the way home when I realized it.

Remember to request a frequent customer card and visit the website at www.LovesCupcakes.com.

Thanks April, for letting me sneak back into the kitchen where it all happens...and "hi" to Katie & Vanessa!

Just Drivin'

Just a drive by....had a super busy week and should have told you that sooner.

I'll blog in the next day or two about a new cupcake shoppe!

Check this out...I chose this photo from a clip art site...it was real small...and when I made it larger to see if I liked it, I realized it is sitting in a plaza located in my home town. How cool is that???

Evening in Paris

I know I've been posting a lot of cupcakes, especially for my Think Pink breast cancer awareness series (I'm donating a portion of every sale of pink jewelry to research).

This color combination for "Evening in Paris" is so different from my other cupcakes, I just had to show you. In the popular Parisian triple color theme of pink, black & white, it's just fabulous, especially when suspended from this hand dyed silk ribbon.

I decided I should be making necklaces rather than just pendants after a mini survey of family and friends today. As one sister said, "I want the whole enchilada!". This way it's a completely finished piece, and the pendant can always be purchased separately if you prefer. I just ordered some sterling silver ball chain as an alternate to ribbon if that is your heart's desire.

You know...this frequent blogging isn't difficult like I thought it would be. Short bursts of info and excitement beats long waits in between long posts. I'm glad I changed my ways.