Playing with Beads and Personalities

teal and sterling silver hoop earrings

I have been a busy bee this morning pottering around in my bead boxes. Not a huge amount to show but I'm very pleased with the two pairs of earrings and the two bracelets I managed to put together this morning. The jewellery items listed here will be added to my etsy shop unless I get any offers in the mean time. H will be home soon from preschool so thus ends my creative time but for your amusement I have added a personality quiz at the bottom of this post. Well it amused me anyway!

yellow jacket- lime jade and onyx bracelet

punk rocker- pink candy jade and onyx bracelet

tourqouise seed bead hoop earring

I found this personality quiz linked on SewtoBed's blog and I must admit this is me.

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. In love, you tend to have high (and often unrealistic) standards. You are very sensitive. You tend to have intense feelings. At work, you need to do something that expresses your personal values. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist. How you see yourself: Unselfish, empathetic, and spiritual When other people don't get you, they see you as: Unrealistic, naive, and weak

What's" Your Personality Type?

Peridot, Cherries, and Twigs

peridot and cherry adventurine commissioned bracelet

twig painted page

p.s. don't forget to leave a comment on the illustration giveaway for your chance to win an original or a print.

The Trouble with Earrings

purple seed bead and sterling hoops

can you guess what I have been up to this morning? Aside from drinking copious amounts of caffeinated liquids, i.e. coffee, and quite large quantities of the stuff. I have been fighting with seed beads, to create some purple hoop earrings for my next door neighbour. I hope she likes them because I'm pretty happy with house they have turned out so far, especially the ones with the faceted purple jade beads. Sadly I will not be keeping any as I don't have pierced ears, what my neighbour doesn't want will be going in my etsy shop on Friday.

purple jade beads and sterling silver hoop earrings

Next on the crafting front I'm going to design some labels for posting as M has made the mistake of telling me he has a pack of blank sticky label paper for printing. I'm pretty sure that's not its official name but its what I'm calling it.

update: I'm going to let the giveaway run till Friday and see if I get any more comments before I do the big draw. Thank you so much everyone that has left a comment so far, its been really lovely to read your comments and cheered me up on yet another dismal grey day.

purple seed beads hoop earrings

A Love Song, a Giveaway, and Some Painted Pages

a love song

This post is my 240th, and though I was going to wait for my 250th post for a giveaway I want to give something away now.. I have had a phenomenally good week, 3 of my bracelets have sold in the framing gallery, I won two giveaways, the adorable fabric bookmark from Sarah at pink-petal-designs, and the amazing retro cups gocco print from junecrafts.

Two of my closest friends gave me presents yesterday, a lovely cupcake notebook from my friend Ali, and my friend Frizbe gave me a Supernatural (tv show) latte cup.

So I would like to spread the good karma around and do a giveaway for this original painting of two little birds on a vintage Brahms tea stained music page or a print of any of my previous painted pages. all you need do is leave me a comment with your e-mail, and I will draw the winner next monday.

p.s. I will be doing another giveaway for my 250th post, so keep checking back and leaving comments.

-----------------------------------------

the redhead

So what else have I been up to today while the house is empty, aside from some random jobs about the house I dragged my paints out and along with the love bird painting I did this one of a redheaded woman that looks oddly like Dana Scully. It must be a subconscious thing from seeing the trailer for the new X-files movie that will be hitting theaters sometime soon.

argus camera

M has a collection of old cameras, some work, some are for display purposes only, I filched this argus out of the cabinet this morning and painted. I have the feeling M may lay claim to this painted page, or request I paint a Leica instead. In fact I best put the camera away before I get paint on it.. or coffee.

yo ho whoooo

Oh and I have found little owl playing pirates and stealing my jewellery this morning as well. Naughty Owl!

thanks everyone for visiting my blog, looking at my illustrations, my jewellery, and genral craftiness.

giveaway now closed... thanks everyone!

Junecraft

Retro Cups Print from Junecraft

A week or so ago I left a comment about the art of organizing the creative mind for a giveaway on the blog Junecrafts , and I won this amazing little retro cups gocco print that arrived in the post not half an hour ago. I love it to bits, it couldn't be any more me could it? a print of some coffee cups! Thank you so very much K! I can't wait to have this framed and put up in the new house.

Please stop by her amazing little blog and her junecrafts etsy shop, I love her things and I'm sure you will too.

espresso got framed

espresso vintage painted page in frame

Doesn't it look fantastic? I think so anyway.. although it won't hang on the wall until we move. I had it framed for M as a gift.. then gave him the invoice for it as well... He was most amused, but can you blame me? he does get a discount with the framers via the studio. A bit of good news as well, three of the bracelets I took in for display and sale at the same framing gallery have sold! I am so very pleased at that, unbelievably happy, and she has requested some more bracelets at the end of the month to mix with whatever is left. I was so happy, but I was not going to spend my heard earned jewellery money on the framing of the pic for M.

beautiful bookmark and crocheted brooch

A little while ago I said that I never win anything, and apparently that is not true because I won this beautiful bookmark and crotcheted flower brooch from Sarah at Pink Petal Designs, that the postman delivered to me yesterday morning. Thank you so much Sarah, the book mark is on its way to nestling between the pages of my latest book purchase, the new Laurel K Hamilton Anita Blake novel.

and last but not least this is one of the little purple peppers growing in my green house, I shall miss that greenhouse when we move.

espresso and flowers

espresso shot glass

red flowers on teal

Sorry about the slightly odd angles these pictures were taken with. The light was very poor this morning, and I was in desperate need of more coffee. This is the second painting I have done of one of M's espresso shot glasses, its such a simple image yet I adore it and I really really want a cup of coffee now. The red flowers on a teal painting is so vibrant, I love red and teal together, I may just need to order some more beads and made some red and teal jewellery... mmm yummy.

I have some lovely beads that I purchased at Spellbound Beads in Lichfield on Saturday, we went to the Medieval Fair, and got utterly soaked, at one point I had to help hold down a jewellery stall, because the wind was gusting so fiercely that some of the stock was blown to the pavement. It was still good fun, H loved it but was a little disappointed that there was no jousting or strawberry stall like last year.

Space/Sci-Fi A Craft Challenge

a bit Marvin isn't he?

Space/Sci-Fi Crafting Challenge

Space the Final Frontier.. These are the voyage of a brave few crafters....
The theme for this crafting challenge is space and science fiction. It’s time to think about rocket ships, princess Leia jewellery, Dr. Who dolls, aliens, stars, astronauts, robots, alien landscapes and far distant planets. If you need help then drag out all the old cheap B-movie sci-fi flicks like Space Camp, or the more cherished Star Wars, Aliens, and Close Encounters (can you hear the music?) . Watch cheesy 80’s tv shows like Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Alf… well maybe not that last one but you get the drift.

The universe is yours to craft with.

So go get crafting and may the force be with you.

Challenges are not mandatory, they are just away to find a bit of inspiration and get your crafting mojo on. When you have finished you challenge craft blog it and link back to the challenge if you find it inspirational. If you have an idea and the time then do it today, or tomorrow, next week or next month, all challenges are open to interpretation and time scale. If you go on holiday and find that your crafting has gone kaput on your return perhaps a crafting challenge is in order to kick your brain into craft gear.

Dark Cherry Cheesecake

dark cherry cheesecake

Ingredients:

For the crust:

1 1/4 cups biscuit(digestives/grahm cracker) crumbs

2 tablespoon caster (white)sugar

1/4 cup butter melted

For the cheese mixture:

2 tubs ( 250g each ) mascarpone cheese
1 tub (8oz) cream cheese

1/2 cup cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract (I used the one with vanilla seeds*)

For the cherry topping:

1 package (480g) frozen dark sweet cherries

2 teaspoons cornflour

1/2 cup sugar

¼ cup water

Method:
Combine the ingredients for the crust and press into the bottom and sides of a 10 inch spring form pan. Or into 8-10 small glass ramekins as I did.

Soften cream cheese and the mascarpone at room temperature and stir in the cream, and the vanilla extract. Mix until smooth then carefully top the biscuit base with the cheese mixture. As I used the ramekin dishes I left a small indent in the cheese mixture so that there would be somewhere to put the topping. Leave cheesecake to set in the refrigerator.

For the topping, place the frozen cherries into add the sugar, vanilla extract, and water, stir well until the mixture boils and thickens, then remove from the heat.

Spoon the cherry topping over the Vanilla Cheesecake once it has cooled and place the cheesecake(s) back into the fridge to chill. I spooned the cherry topping over the cheesecake while the topping was still warm just prior to serving.

Enjoy your freshly made Dark Cherry Cheesecake!

Cook’s notes: first of all the vanilla extract with seeds in was my treat to myself, well my treat to my kitchen, I may not have this whole treating myself thing down right. It is lovely, though and I’m not quite willing to go to the expense of using real vanilla pods though that would be truly lush. The mini cheesecakes turned out quite divine with only semi-posh vanilla extract. And I must say a big thank you to Gu puddings for providing me with all the little glass ramekin dishes.

Cinnamon Scones

cinnamon scone

ingredients:

1/2 cup cream
2 cups self-raising flour (all purpose)
½ cup light brown sugar
½ cup butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
For icing
½ cup icing sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3-4 tsp water

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
Grease baking sheet.

Combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in another bowl.

Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Combine egg with cream and gently stir into flour mixture until moistened.

IMPORTANT: knead dough briefly, no more than 10 times.

Shape dough into an 8-inch round loaf. cut into 8 wedges and separate slightly. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

In a separate bowl, start with the icing (confectioner’s)sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon and add a little bit of the water at a time until a smooth icing is formed. Brush or drizzle the icing onto the cooled scones

Cook’s notes: these are the first scones I have ever made, they turned out really nice, although M didn’t listen to me and though I had made really large soft cookies, then wondered why I put butter on the one I gave to him. The recipe is my own based on dozens of recipes for different flavoured scones. I was desperate for a Starbuck’s Cinnamon Chip scone that you get in the US but not here so I went my own way and I think it turned out pretty good and the house smell of cinnamon, fantastic.

p.s. sorry about the poor image quality, it was too dark to get a proper picture.

Red

Red Riding Hood

The Button Thief and other Characters

The button thief is now hiding in a willow tree. I think she is perfect now... the willow branches fill the rest of the page and compliment one very cheeky pretty little thief. I shall be adding some prints of the button thief to my etsy shop tommorow, along with the original multi-media illustration, and things are in the works to get some button/badges made, and possibly some cards as well..oh and some jewellery too. so keep an eye out.

the contessa

The contessa is greatly displeased with me, for reasons known only to herself, I have messed about with this painting four times she has gotten better but something isn't quite right yet. And the 80's chick was inspired by an ad in a magazine, the add didn't look anything like this, and it wasn't from 1985 either but apparently she just couldn't live without permed hair.

80's chick

Spilled Coffee

Flapper Girl

I posted the flapper girl image a few posts back with a half dozen or so other painted pages, but I wasn't very happy with her something jsut wasn't quite right so the other day armed with a cup of black coffee I restained the page, and I think she looks finished now. Then I was doodling a skull while watching that show about the real crystal skulls with out Indiana Jones attached, so I painted it and added some black vines as you do.

skull and vines

And last but not least I have dragged out poor Lulu again, and added a little detail to her eyes. I think she looks alot better now, and the painting looks much nicer than the colours have come out in this image. I still don't know what I will do with her, I can't see putting her up in the house any where, especially with this move in the future. I haven't really had many sales recently so I'm not sure about putting her up in the etsy shop though I could do with the craft money she might provide if she sold. Though What I would price her at I don't really know. She is 11x14 in and is acrylic and ink on a canvas wrapped board. any offers?

Lulu

Rhymes with Orange

orange agate pendant

I put together this pendant a little while ago in the blissful quite of H being at pre-school for a few short hours this morning. It made with a large facet cut focal bead that was labeled "agate" but I have no idea if it is natural or dyed, I'm assuming it is dyed because its such a fantastic orange color. I have also included a few onyx beads, and a fire opal, I think its lovely... if only I had something to wear with it.

the back of the pendant

the ghost flower and the faery

ghost flower

I'm tired I want to go to bed but M is working late, and I can't settle and be happy till he is home and accounted for. I have all ready written the post once and accidentally deleted it, so I'm afraid you will have to do with the far less witty and slightly substandard version which is this.

I painted the flower last night while M watched something boring about rockets. Not that rockets are that bad but when it comes to educational shows I prefer antiquities, bones, crystal skulls, mammoths, and all things generally ancient and crumbly, while prefers to watch How its Made, rockets exploding, or some horrendously mind numbing show about WWII. yawn. I finished the flower this morning with my favourite black ink pen, the flower wasn't meant to be white but just turned out that way, it has a sort of 70's feel that I quite like.

The fairy has been giving me trouble, its a sketch that I stained with tea and added a few details in ink. She was meant to only be a sketch, but when I tried to paint her on a music sheet she went all wrong, and didn't want to be a painted version so for now she is just another picture on my amassed pile of pictures I don't know what to do with.

more beady things, and recipes coming soon... and who knows I might even drag out my knitting again.

faery

Classics for the Modern Consumer

Starbucks hunts the great white whale

Moby Dick

Yarn Woman

the un-knit woman

Having yarn for hair might bit a bit high maintanence, jsut imagine the needle expense, and stitch markers are not cheap these days.

My inspiration for this piece was the box of yarn that I have been staunchly ignoring in favour of painting, playing with beads, and baking up a small storm. Sorry the image quality is a little poor the light was bad.

The Button Thief

the button thief

Here is the work in progress form of my little button thief... her name is Martha but that's a secret so shhhhh... She should be finding worms in the garden, and storing seeds but she has a button addictions. So best mind your buttons ladies, because Martha is very good at being a very bad little birdy.. Buttons are her currency and she means to steal them.

Don't Fear the Reaper

Death and Instructions

The Button Thief

the button thief (a sketch)

For some reason, unknown to myself, the words "Button Thief" popped into my brain and have plagued me at odd times over the last week or two. It all started when I was playing with some buttons displayed in a basket in a charity shop, and again later I picked up a button on the ground near the park, and I wondered who would want a little lost button? Why a button thief of course.

I imagined a little mouse or squirrel but while sketching in my notebook today a little birdy decided she is the button thief, and a pretty little one at that. She may just need a little black mask, after all she is a criminal, and as such she must keep her identity a secret.

If I get the chance over the weekend I will try and paint the button thief, on vintage book paper, but for now she is just a little doodle in one of my many note/sketch books. H has a cold today so has stayed home from preschool which means the house is a tip and he has been like a poorly little leach stuck to my side all day. So aside from ten minutes frantically sketching ideas in my notebook I have nothing to show for myself today... maybe tomorrow... or the day after.

Have a happy weekend!