Garnets and Freshwater Pearls

I love the difference in textures between glossy polished stones and freshwater pearls. And in this necklace and earring set I've added in another element, the sparkly of the Swarovski crystal. The colors in this are so nice and relaxing borderline neutral so they could easily be every day pieces. I have a lot more new stuff coming up so be on the lookout!

And for those of you wondering about the almost year long gap in posts, I had a crazy year with weddings, work and now we are expecting our own child. I'm due at any moment so if there is another break with posts you'll know what happened. Other good news? My sister made it home safe and sound from her deployment. It's been a good month.

Earrings Galore!

The other night I was feeling creative so I decided to sit down, go through my beads and make a few pairs of earrings. Well apparently I was feeling very creative since I was able to make new pairs!  They are all very different and I'm very happy with them and glad that my online shops will be getting a fresh look with a few new items. Here are 2 I just listed and there will be many more to come.

Paper Business Card Holder

I wanted to share with you the very first thing I ever bought on Etsy since it is still one of my favorite and most used items. It's a paper business card holder by DearSukie. I know what you're thinking, how durable can paper be? Well a clear plastic covering was sewn around the pretty scrapbook paper so it's a lot more durable than you would think. I carry this around with me everyday, filled with my business cards just in case I find an opportunity to pass them out. It's very thin and snaps shut so cards won't come falling out. The seller was great and it was a perfect transaction, so check out DearSukie (www.dearsukie.etsy.com) on Etsy if you're looking for a new card holder or wallet!

Spring Flowers...

We never did seem to have spring this year so it never seemed the right time to list some springish items on Etsy. But now that the weather is behaving and we're supposed to have beautiful weather with out humidity, I'm feeling the need for color and fun. So tonight I uploaded some fun glass flower earrings with crystals. I have a pair of these earring that I made for myself in pinks and purples and they are really cute. I also have a pair in light pink, if you're interested in those check out the sale section in either of my shops. Hope you're having just as nice weather wherever you are!

Oh, and here's a terrible joke I heard today on this subject: If April showers bring May flowers, what to May flowers bring? Pilgrims!  :)  (I know, I know, my sense of humor is terrible).

Backyard Bliss

One of the best things about having a single-family home as opposed to a condo or townhouse is that we have a backyard with a pretty big back deck. It's a lot of yard work but we're not sick of it yet. The deck needs to be refinished, which is a project for next summer, but I didn't want to wait until then to use it so I went ahead and decorated!

We bought a patio set at Sears, 6 chairs and a table with an umbrella that you can angle. The umbrella is quite handy because we get a lot of sunlight in the afternoons here. I also added little pots that hang off of the railing and filled them with different colors of begonias. Pete said they looked like something a kindergarden would have since they were such bright colors but with our beige house and beige patio furniture I thought a little color was nice. I also got a big pot of some pretty purple flowers, 

although I have no clue what they are. I haven't killed them yet so they must be something hardy.

The best thing about my nice relaxing backyard is that the wireless internet reaches out there so I can sit outside and enjoy the nice weather (when we have it) while still getting some work done. And I've had a lot to do recently moving all 74 items I have in my Etsy shop over to my ArtFire shop. I love my macbook but sometimes it would be really handy to have a nice big screen for things like that. Anyway, back to the backyard. We also have lots of great plants actually planted out there. I'll have images soon. Until then, I'm going back outside to soak up some sun and get some work done on ArtFire. Hope you're having fun enjoying the holiday weekend!

Official Hoop Earring Day!

I made a pair of cute hoop earrings with small red crystals dangling off of them a while ago and am constantly surprised by how few views they get when I put them on to Etsy or ArtFire. Just the other day I put them on ArtFire and they got 1 view while everything else I uploaded at that time got 5-10. So you can imagine my surprise when I took a break from emptying my kitchen for demolition to check my email and found that they had sold! I love getting that "you made a sale" email, it's very exciting. 

And since my cute hoop earrings are now on their way to their new home I decided to list another pair of crystal hoop earrings (photo on left) in honor of them. These earrings have pink and red crystals and are quite pretty. I hope they find a good home soon!

Home Sweet Home

Well, here's my house! Our house, I guess. We looked at 9 houses before picking this one. It just felt right and my husband said it was his favorite before we were even in the front door (which we fixed up and painted a pretty blue). It has 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. There is an attic on the 3rd floor that has been converted into a family room, which is nice. It is heated and with the new carpet we put in it's going to be great in the winter time. 

It's a old house (built in 1924-1926) and the previous owners didn't do too much upkeep on it so there has been a lot of work to do. My husband and father-in-law rebuilt the stairs to the attic, they put in new lighting in the basement, they basically re-did the downstairs bathroom and there has been lots of smaller projects in between. Next we are going to start a kitchen remodel (yikes!) since the current kitchen was last updated in about 1969 with it's faux wood countertops, faux tin ceiling and faux brick backsplash. Classy. The kitchen will be a lot of work and money but will be well worth it when it is done. We really love this house and it feels like home even though we've only been here a few months.

And here's a picture my husband took of the water tower in our town. Yep, apparently Boonton isn't in NJ at all. It's in the U.S.A. What an odd town...