Heavenly Things Found Around Etsy & ArtFire # 2

I am a bit behind in this entry that I had intended to add over the weekend. This will be weekly or bi-weekly as time allows. I think it's wonderful to discover new shops and things that people create & I continuously come across new and wonderful things created by some pretty talented and incredibly nice people.

I am going to start with Etsy's Heavenly Things.

The first is from DanielleTodd.- For the morning on the way to work coffee or tea these are a must and so much nicer than the cardboard ones you get. There are many different designs and the shop offers many other unique items as well.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=36277098&ref=cat1_gallery_7

2) buybackthefarm - A gorgeous selection of pillows, These would look great in any home or make wonderful gifts. Many designs that are all equally as beautiful.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=36244822

3)pennysbykristie- Everything from redwork, pincushions, penny rugs, needle felted items and lot's of primitives Some very gorgeous items in this shop and in many themes.

 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=35974148

4)Kjskwilting- Gorgeous hand quilted coasters and potholders that are gorgeous many many themes in this shop and each one equally as nice.
 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28923947

5) manGoavocaDo- I saw these and loved them! They would go so well with a sweater, the perfect pair.

 http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16362306&ref=cat2_gallery_9

Now For Heavenly Artfire Finds-


1) DenizeDesigns- very unique works of art absolutely perfect as gifts or for your home
 http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=196277

2) BuggyTownCandles- who doesn't love candles whether received as a gift or within your own home this shop has some heavenly scents.

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=874142

3) CozyMoments -This shop has many scrumptious looking body and bath treats that look good enough to eat.
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=697253

4)Impressions express- many unique items This mouse-pad really got my attention it looks incredibly good!
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=239615

5) LilBDesigns-  If you have kids that love to draw this is perfect for on the go easily contained carried and beautfiully done! Wonderful idea

 http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=425769

This has been alot of fun searching out new items and I am very much looking forward to it on a regular basis. Let me know what you think and feel free to leave comments  I would love to hear from you.

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Heavenly Things found Around Etsy & Artfire

I thought it would be fun especially with the holidays coming to continue to find great things in wonderful etsy shops and on artfire while supporting handmade and hand altered and maybe giving people some great ideas for the holidays.

I thought posting new found items a couple of times a week would not only let you discover new shops and artisians but just a hint of what s available in these wonderful shops.

My first Suggestions are from artfire shops

1) Handmade By Sheri-mentioned in my last blog entry her knitted work and she are amazing a must see shop with unique items
http://www.artfire.com/users/Handmade~by~Sheri

2) Curious Robin A great selection of unique jewelry items & photographs  http://www.artfire.com/users/curiousrobin

3) boygirlboygirldesigns- if you have a little one in your life this is a must see shop very unique items hand painted hand dyed and unique.            http://www.artfire.com/users/boygirlboygirldesigns

4) Char Spirit - hand made book covers,totes and purses notepad covers wonderfully unique items and definitely worth a look.    http://www.artfire.com/users/CharSpirit

5) glassworks northwest- wall art ornaments jewelry glass is made into stunning & pieces  http://www.artfire.com/users/glassworksnorthwest

Now for Etsy Shops I have chosen not to include my own but please feel free to visit:)

1) 19 moons - if you want unique and one of a kind steampunk jewelry look no further one of my favorite shops to look through gorgeous one of a kind things. http://www.etsy.com/shop/19Moons

2)Artbyregant- a self taught artist her work is gorgeous and the little details are perfect http://www.etsy.com/shop/artbyregant

3) hand made blank journals and sketchbooks beautiful and something for everyone http://www.etsy.com/shop/WeeBindery

4)woolcrazy- ohh lala I saw this penguin and was in love, beautiful unique items I think any child would love to receive something from this shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/woolcrazy

5) These are gorgeous quilts, rag quilts are something I have always loved the more you wash them the softer they get and are so warm! This is a great place to see some gorgeous ones. http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaDolceBoutique

Thats my 10 suggestions to check out for today I will post another 10 or so by the weekend I hope this gives everyone some great ideas for gifts as well as for new places to shop for wonderful things.

Have a wonderful evening.

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by Bravenet.com

HandMade With Love

It has been much too long since my last entry I need to make my new years resolution early and just do it like Nike on at least a daily basis.
I always need to have this idea of a specific topic to talk about for inspiration or I get classic writers block. I need to learn to just write freely. If you ask my Husband he will tell you I have plenty to say:)

Tonight blog entry is about this really wonderful person I have gotten to know but more about the wonderful shop she has on artfire. Please take the time to check it out.

Hand made by Sheri on Artfire you will find a link to her shop below

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=34642

I met Sheri in a crafting group we both belong to http://www.mycraftcorner.com/. I saw her shop and her beautiful hand work and was in awe. Her attention to detail shows through even more in person.

I was in need of a pair of fingerless gloves to allow me to work (warmly) on a daily basis and I knew seeing her work I wanted her to do them. I wrote to her and asked her she got a pattern took measurements and made me pair number one and like lightning they were finished and shipped. seeing her beautiful work in person was even more endearing she literally puts herself into the items she makes and has amazing attention to details. Below is a picture of pair number 1

 I have since ordered my second pair and they are as we speak on the way. I picked out the yarn online sent her the link she ordered it made them to order. I have worn the first pair on a daily basis and every evening remember how wonderful her handwork is as my hands are warm.

I have seen may other pairs of these in retail shops and from other sellers and I will never go anywhere else now.

She makes strands of wool and cotton into very beautiful things. Something that fascinates me is her mobius scarf she has listed that is seamless. For someone like me that can not get my head around knit one purl 2 this is amazing. My father is a mathmetician and maybe he could explain it to me, but I am certain it would also fascinate him it is exquisite.

The energy that goes into each piece she makes is positive as I believe she lives her life.

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to meet her and to have her beautiful hand made items grace my hands.
If you are looking for something unique incredibly well made & exceptional service please take the time to check out her shop she does take custom orders and right now has a pair of fingerless gloves listed that makes me wish with everything in me that I could wear wool

Thank You Sheri!



The button below please also take time to check out the wonderful blog by Fae and the contest it runs the month of december and has great prizes to win. I am lucky enough to be one of the contributors to this and there are many very talented and generous people giving as well.

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Halloween

Today was an eventful day and a great one all rolled into one.
We didn't take the kids trick or treating this year for many reasons but I did plan a whole day of halloween themed things for them.
Morning started with atc cards from their NaNa she makes beautiful things and they always appreciate receiving them it always brings excitement for them.
I made each of them a card and a skull ring pink with pink glitter for my daughter classic white for my son. To set the spooky mood.

At lunchtime came treat bags i hand painted My sons a pumpkin man,My daughters a witch, Filled with goodies and treats vampire teeth with chocolate oozey centers boo bars candy corn candy pumpkins etc.

They enjoyed much of this. Dinner time brought pot roast with potatoes and corn followed by cupcakes I made for them with decorations spiders bats ghosts candy corn orange cupcakes with black frosting. They were in awe:)

After dinner and clean up they had their baths got into their jammies and watched Tv for a little while during this I decorated my craft room simply with faux spider webbing spiders etc and set the seats just so.

Ahead of time hubby and I had found a kids ghost story online and had the props ready 2 frozen latex gloves filled with water and candy eyeballs. (The story can be found here)www.kaboose.com  It's called One Halloween night and child appropriate.

We opted out of the spaghetti , spaghetti sauce and peeled grapes props and just stuck with the simple.
My daughter screamed when my husband put the frozen hand in her lap in the dark just as it was mentioned in the story my son laughed, The worst was when the chocolate peanut butter eyeballs that in the light the wrappers do look like eyes went flying from my daughters hands across the room. if you read the story you can as they did appreciate the humor in all of this.

After the ghost story when the lights came back on and the props could be seen and laughed at I heard in Unison "This was the best Halloween ever" We decided We wanted something that for them would last throughout the day and be a bit more meaningful than just simply maybe remembering what they dressed up as this year. The fact that we managed to do this for them and they didn't feel like they were missing anything said we succeeded.

It truly was a great day for all of us and one that we will definitely remember and we believe they will as well. I hope everyones halloween was as wonderful as ours.
Below are the creepy cupcakes I made and a photo of the eyeballs used in the story they are sitting on the halloween card that the kids ATC cards from Nana Were in.

Blessings

 At a time when we seem to have been hit harder then many and not as hard as some by the economy & financial issues. A time when literally monetary wise we don't have any extra.
I find myself thinking about things that mean much more than material things.
Sure enough money to pay the monthly bills, fill the oil tank, groceries, the holidays etc would certainly be nice and alleviate the stress we all feel.


We have so much that many just don't. I have wonderful children that give me new insight into values and life all the time. They show me the appreciation of small things on a daily basis.


A husband that loves us all more than life itself and is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure our happiness.


I have been blessed with wonderful people in my life and have met a couple of new wonderful additions recently.


I believe that people are brought into our lives whether long term or short term for a reason whether or not we may know what it is at the time. Most of the time we eventually realize there may have been more of a reason than just a chance meeting.


Most recently some have taught me that I am not the only one going through  issues with children,special circumstances that we deal with on a daily basis as moms & parents and things that make parenting a little more of a challenge but in the end it makes it more special,unique and our appreciation grows evermore.


a support system is important and the kindness of strangers a few nice words a little time can make all the difference in the world.


I get up each day and try to remember only the positive things and keep moving forward. Not that the rough things aren't still there but the positive certainly make them more bearable by far.


This weekend is surely going to be a time for reflection of this for me and lots of time with my children & My husband the things that keep me grounded and focused.


I think it is so important that we all slow down from day to day life and the busy that can consume us and get back to the important wonderful things we sometimes tend to take for granted. A walk in the woods , a game with the kids, a movie with your spouse a simple thing to get us reconnected. The bills the house the errands aren't going anywhere and will still be there when you have spent some quality time.


Remember your blessings we all have them if we really stop & think about it.


Please check out the button in my blog it's an Excellent blog that is doing a  wonderful contest with lots of great prizes through the month of December I am fortunate enough to be donating to this with many other people that are incredibly talented. The 31 Days Of Yule.

It has been much too long since I have written. I spent all this week paiting and crafting and starting to get some items listed on Etsy with the up coming Holiday season fastly approaching I needed to focus on Christmas items even though Halloween isn't even here yet.

Last Saturday (The 17th) We took our 7 year old to the mall she has been promised she could have her ears pierced for quite some time now and for one reason or the other it hasn't been able to happen. We decided regardless of anything else it was time for her to have it done.

It has been a very long time since I had mine done at 12 and I guess still had that same price range in mind when we got there. I had the young sales person kindly show me the choices of earrings she could chose from out of the 14KT gold section so it reduced the chances of infection and told those are what I had to choose from for her "first time"

My 7 year old was ecstatic as the case twirled and she saw big sparkly white colored stones she saw the biggest ones and said those I said no, 80.00.......But the ear piercing is free with the earrings the sales girl said i nodded and smiled and was thinking and she's 7 lol

finally the case twirled and she found sparkly pink hearts 35.00 and yes the ear piercing was free:)

My next fear was that she would get through the first ear and not the next. she got through both with only the word oww uttered after the first. and she was happily skipping to her and her brothers favorite thing about the mall 3 minutes later The escalator we must go uo and right back down just once lol

It was part of her Christmas present and she was happy with this she has a list a mile long already of all the earrings she wants me to make for her. If i did she would be 80 before I finished them all:)

Her brother was asked by the sales associate(he's 10) if he was going to get his pierced  NOOO was his reply.

I have decided that this may be the last decent weekend with a temperature suitable for being outside and not bundled up in 6 layers so I am going to collect  some leaves while they are peak colors dry them and next weekend attempt some child friendly art projects with the kids. along with my usual collection of cat tails, berries,birch bark and a few small miscellaneous branches i generally rescue before winter.

Living near a lake there is usually plenty of all of that through the trails and it's so fun to collect all of it and find inspirataion the kids love it.

Hubby is usually chosen to wade through the trenches of the marshland to get the perfect few cat tails and later on pussy willows but he does it without complaint. I tell him at 6'4 water lever is ankle high compared to my 5'4 waist high that and his reach make it a considerably easier task for him to complete.

I am finally off to bed for some much needed sleep after this very long week.

Blessings

Life

Although I have graced this earth for going on 40 years now, It never ceases to amaze me how things change over time and I find myself wondering more and more about how the world is "evolving" each day.

In my grandparents day and my parents day people helped each other out without expecting anything in return and we were taught to do the same.

Today theres some social aspect embedded in our minds that if you help someone or do something nice you must either want something or have an alterior motive. i find this incredibly sad the exact opposite thing I teach my children.

I understand completely that "in this day and age" we need to be a bit more cautious of things etc but the fact remains even in my grandparents age there were those same kinds of people you needed to beware of or watch out for but their worlds didn't revolve around it nor did they live their lives that way. They lived with a basic philosophy that people are generally good.

I am certainly not going to stop doing nice things for people because my house got broken into a few years back, I certainly don't feel like everyone that comes to my door is just like the person that did that. Nor will I ever judge others and assume everyone is out for themselves.
I have been blessed with many wonderful and good people in my life and I hope that people would feel that same way about me.

I will continue to teach my children to be kind to others to do good deeds and look beyond themselves as I hope other parents are as well.

A few bad apples doesn't mean you have to burn down the orchard and I believe thats how we should all live our lives.