Novica Boxing Day Giveaway

There are many stores online that offer gifts for the special people in your life, but one store stands
out and that is NOVICA  They are in association with National Geographic who have searched out
special artisans from impoverished areas of the world, and given them hope and a chance at a better
life through the selling of their handcrafted goods.   A real win win for all of us.
You get a chance to “meet” the people who you buy from, hear their stories, and then choose from
a wonderful array of high quality goods.

  They have recently added some new features to make shopping even easier... The Novica Gift finder.
Now you can dial in to what it is you are looking for...romantic gifts for her ...gifts for the man in your life hostess gifts and even by how much you want to spend gifts for under $25  This new feature takes the guess work out of selecting gifts and the time spent looking for them.

 Now, Novica has kindly offered a shopping gift certificate for $40 to one lucky person, who I will
choose in a random drawing.  Follow the link above to go to their homepage or one of the gift finder
links, come back here and tell me what it is that you would want to choose should you win.

So pop on over to Novica, read about what a fantastic company they are, look at cool
stuff ( I especially love their shawls and scarfs) and then come back here and leave a comment on
what you would select should you win.  Contest closes Christmas Day, winner will be announced on December 26...please make sure I can get in contact with you via email or Etsy store...

They send their items in lovely gift wrappings...you get a picture of the people who made the items, a chance to share in their journey and what Novica has done for them...not to mention the quality merchandise...hand crafted and on top of it all you are supporting the very real people who make them.

Gun Control....

  What more has to happen?  Why  do people fight so hard against gun control?  Where does

a 2o year old kid get semi-automatic weapons?  These guns are not for hunting...they
are for killing people.  And if the gov steps in and trys banning them all the pro-gun
idiots will be out there claiming its against their rights.   Would they feel the same if
it was their 6 year old kid that was killed? 

I feel sick today.  When will we learn?  when are things going to change.?   These kids have spent

their whole lives sitting at home playing violent video games and we wonder why this is happening.

They watch horrible, violent movies and Hollywood doesn’t want to take any responsiblity either...

they just want their millions.  Ask yourself why is this happening?  Violence is a way of life...so

let your kids watch and do what they want...heaven help you if you have to discipline them or say

no.  Music is the worst... I'm open minded and love a lot of current music.. I even like Taylor Swift now because I think she is a positive role model to young girls and gives them information in her songs how to take control of your life.  This wasn’t happening when I was a kid...unheard of!

More will come out but i betcha its a kid who was home all day without supervision and had violent

video games and a bunch of money to buy semi-automatic weapons...and oh yeah, they always wear

protective clothing....bullet proof stuff...why is that?  So they don’t get shot?   No I think its because
they are copying what they see in the games and movies.  Why does this young kid have the money to buy this stuff?  Does he have responsibilites at home?   Does he pay rent and bills?   If he  did he wouldn’t have money for such stuff.

  Something has to

be done...and it starts with a banning of semi-automatic weapons...period.

It starts with the makers of these games... take responsibility for what they are putting
out there.  Some are R rated but still the kids watch and play them.
And go out there and throw a ball to a kid...why too is it always boys?
You never see a young girl doing this...yet.   She’s to busy copying
the slutty stuff that they are being fed by the media.

Who needs the fiscal cliff...who cares about 12-21-12
we are already living a nightmare that seems to be
getting worse...

Think Peace...
xxc

More stuff...and not the pretty kind

Little boy Mr. Ginger was poorly for several days...no eating,

no drinking, bones protruding...well I thought, I’m loosing my

little guy.  He didn’t crawl out of his basket for days.  I played healing

Reki music, massaged him, lit candles...

In the middle of the night, he jumped up on the bed and barely breathing

snuggled oh so close as I cried and with tears streaming  down my cheeks

I said my good-byes.  He came up to die in my arms I thought.

I didn’t expect to see him in the morning still alive...  then we noticed a big lump on the side of his throat.  Mr. Beatnheart took him to the vet where he was rushed into surgery for

a puncture wound.  A puncture wound?  Now where in the world would this indoor cat get a puncture wound? I can’t even imagine.But after an overnight stay, he is back with us,

humiliated with his plastic collar...eating, drinking. even jumped on his

favorite chair in the window and stratched the couch for good measure.

So a big sigh of relief and maybe now I can get some work done as our little home

is back to a certain degree of normal.

He is 14 years old and since his momma died he is a different cat.

He is very “verbal” now...lots of talking and chatting.

A friend came over to play guitars and was wondering what a missing

chord was...Ginger just chirped it right out...pitch perfect...

That’s my boy...

Working away...

In my continuing search for something new and different

(well for me at least)  I have become infatuated with these long

dangly earrings.  I have realized that as you get older a earring

that hangs near chin level adds a brightness and sparkle to your face

and makes me feel more cheerful and happy.

These frames are fun to make but oh boy what a challenge for

me to try and make them alike and also balance the components...

They are like little mobiles for the ears... so they sway and move.

 I used vintage Czech beads on these from a broken old necklace from the 1930

 now brought back to life in a new form.

Here are some long simple “ dreadlocks”    I used tiny jasper, bone and

other natural beads on these.  I thought they were pretty cool and hip. They have sold so I guess someone else seems to think so too.  

I am also fighting the urge (big) to buy more beads..!

I just love looking at the beads in Etsy shops and my shopping cart is full of them...

They seem to inspire new ideas but really I am fully stocked...only problem is is

that my tastes have changed so much since I first started to buy beads that now

I’m not so jazzed about what I have...it is a continual problem...I just have to

find ways to use what I have.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am grateful for so many things...

every year gets better and better and for the first time

I am feeling comfortable in my skin.

This has been quite a year with tremendous

ups and downs...but all is all good...very good.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blog friends

and my lovely customers.

Thank you for making it so.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Well at least I hope so because boy have I been absent...It seems that once I got an Ipad,

this blog and me visiting others have fallen to the wayside.  It’s very hard to leave a comment

on an Ipad...especially when you have to do the two words (prove that your not a robot) well,

those words end up hiding underneath the “keyboard” so you can’t even see them to type them

in and I get easily frustrated so I just don’t comment.   And hey...I can’t see or read those words...it’s like Latin or something so I squint away trying to work out the words letters numbers and then just give up . So I have visited, to be sure, but often

times my comment visited the ether.

When I first started to blog, I had nothing much else going on.  I had just  gotten my uke...

I wasn’t making jewelry... I didn’t have an etsy shop...now I have so much more on my plate that

the blog has certainly taken a back seat.   It has been a gateway to so many things...my world has

done a 180 since I started blogging and I have met so many nice people from all over the world...

 But now I spend so much time on the computer doing my Etsy shops that the blog just sometimes

gets forgotten.  And hey...I am lazy and disorganized and easily distracted...why I can spend an hour just going through a box of beads and picking out the tiny seed beads as dirty dishes are piling up in the sink.  I see some women on some blogs do it all...and they have like six kids and a farm and are home canning and growing organic food and making their kids clothes from fabric that they loomed themselves from sheep that they raised and spun the wool and dyed it from roots and berries.  But

that is not me...and the truth is is that the older I get the worse I get...

Today is election day...I hope for our country...and no matter who gets in I wish we would just unite for the common good...and put aside our differences and focus on what needs to be done and what we can do as individuals to make our country, our world, our planet a better place.  

 Hope all is well with everyone.  Thanks for hanging in there with me as I separate the wheat from the chaff. xx c

Some New bangles.

Yeah...more bangles.

Making these are like knitting to me...

when I am stuck I go to the bangles to free me up...

I don’t have to think too hard ...just create and play...

add and subtract...I know how they will turn out (basically) and

the problem solving is minimal...so I am still working

without busting my brain apart trying to figure something out.

I’m working on new techniques and I have

to say...they are rockin my old standards.

What’s different?  The wrappage for one...

What I am aiming for is a bracelet that really looks

and feels like it came from some remote tribe

with not many tools and not a whole lot of things at

their disposal.  I wanted the wrapping to look thick,

like leather...old worn leather...used before but still

usable...I wanted more volume... more feel...so I 

wrapped it and then wrapped it again and then just

globbed on my secret potion of wax and scents and mojo.

It all started when I cleaned my workbench....I mean

really just swept the whole kit and caboodle into baking pans...

clean sweep...put those pans away and looked at just was left

in my table top “containers” and decided to work with what was

there in front of me...

I said to myself....use this stuff up...work with it...manipulate

it into something else...

and use the beads you have...Got this zebra one from a

gift package/ exchange...can’t remember who but dang so

cool....Thanks to whoever...wish i had a pile of these...

and my ever continuing journey of messing around with picMonkey

and now using photobooth on the Mac to get these shots of how

the bangles look on...and designing my beatnheart t-shirt and
playing America’s top model without a head.

Well...blogger is not letting me add more pictures and gee wiz

you just can’t  fight it sometimes...

The Universe is telling me to get back to the work bench...

But all is well...it’s hotter than hell

like 90 something but I’m feelin

good today...Husband is on his way

down the 405 South... from his LA Mid-town stu dee o...

maybe I can talk him into taking me out to dinner

cause i don’t wanna cook don’t make me no sinner

and after all it wouldn’t hurt if i ended up thinner...

(say that like you was (w)rapping...)

so peace out homies

till next time...

bh

Belle Armoire Jewelry September 2012

,

Well the day finally arrived.  The autumn issue

of Belle Armoire Jewelry magazine hit the newstands...

and yes...I was in it...well exclamation points galore

because who would have  ever thunk something like this would 

happen to me.

I was contacted by the editor herself asking me to submit seven of my pieces.

I thought someone was playing a cruel joke on me...

and beyond flabbergasted... just couldn’t believe it ...How did it happen?

So I got  to work and did my presentation...all the info on how I made the pieces,

what materials I used, took photos and shipped them off to the mag.

The magazine features articles and also has a section called The Boutique.

The Boutique shows a picture of your piece and your name.  I thought

that there was maybe a remote possibility of me getting in there...Remote...

very remote.

An article, is well pretty darn cool and so is being in the boutique section

but an article is,  well,  AN ARTICLE!!  with words and pictures and who

you are and your influences and all that cool stuff...you know like a movie star.

Well I didn’t expect anything...why me?  nothing like that ever, ever, happens 

to me.  I’m from Sheboygan for cryin out loud!  But low and behold, in about

two months I got an email from the editor saying congratulations you are getting

in and we are using all seven of your pieces and you’re going to have an article

and you have to write it!   Well geez I have to write a magazine article? 

WHOA!

So I set  myself to work and  wrote up my articles, but basically it was the same

stuff I did with my submission, so cool -not that much work left to do after all.

So, now that I am a famous celebrity Super Star will

I still talk to all you guys?  Will you start asking me to

lend you money?

But wait....there’s more...The sweet, adorable wonderful editor is putting the rest of the submissions

in the next issue.....so that means I’ll be in two magazines this year and since they are on the newstands

for 3 months I’ll be sitting around in Barnes and Noble and all the very fancy magazine stands for a  total of one half year.   I embarassed the crap out of my husband by waving the magazine all around
 the store, telling everyone in line I was in the mag, showing them the article, signing autographs...it was pandemonium!  

So yeah...life’s ups and downs eh? 

Thank you Belle Armoire Magazine for making my wildest dreams come true.