Magical Musical Mondays - #4

Holy Macarony Morrissey - I get tingles! I love you Morrisey!

You have to see it til the end! Live at the Move Festival in Manchester '04

Some new jewellery by me!

I call this necklace "Psst ... Love Matters". Awesome pieces by Jade Scott and SwoonDimples. It is the one I made for the English wedding I went to a couple of weeks ago. I have not yet got any photos of myself with my whole outfit on, but when I do I will post them here, promise. Now the necklace is for sale in my etsy shop. A couple of more photos there.

The two lampworked boro beads by SkaraMouche in this necklace are absolutely gorgeaus. The blue one looks just like my husband Mark's eyes. And I do love his eyes and him a lot. So therfore the necklace is named "I Love Your Blue Eyes". This one is also for sale in my Etsy shop right now.

Floridity Give Away on Pretty Thing's Blog

Can you believe it! Just the other day I was looking at these beads in Floridity's shop on Etsy. I marked them as favourites, to hopefully be able to purchase when I get in to some money. And now Lori Andersson of Pretty Things has a give away for these beauties. Go to Lori's blog and find out what you should do to have a chance to win. Floridity is Barbara Bechtel, and her blog is called Second Surf.

Maria Grimes has a GIVAWAY

Lampwork bead artist Maria Grimes is having a great giveaway. Check it out on her blog:

MariaGrimes. If I would be the lucky winner I already know which word I would choose.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton: Thursday Giveaway...

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton: Thursday Giveaway...: "This week, one lucky winner will claim an assortment of goodies courtesy of Sue Kennedy of SueBeads. She has generously put together a grou..."

Magical Musical Mondays - #3

The Knife - Girl's Night Out

This is not my typical taste of music style, but gosh they are good. Such catchy tunes. And they are SWEEEEDISH! Proud I am too. I wanna go to a club and do some serious dancing now. Who wants to come along?

Out Of Africa. And I am in need of some advice!!

Bracelet "Out of Africa". With 3 kinds of gemstones:

1. Beautiful, wonderful and rustic dark purply brown Pietersite, from Namibia. (I loooove these beads. I ordered the last 9 ones left in the shop of StarEyes yesterday.)

2. Light opal green Prehnite sidedrilled irregular tabs, from South Africa.

3. Facetted rectangular Pink Quartz.

Copper Toggle Clasp

Giraffe charm in copper

Peace charm in copper

One czech square glass bead in brown picasso

Oxidized copper wire for all the wire wrapping

Advice me please:

Now, I listed this bracelet in my Etsy shop yesterday. I chose this photo above as the main one, the one that will show up in the searches. But even I, at first, couldn't spot my own bracelet among the other things when I was doing a search. Too pale and uninteresting, I guess it just kind of dissapears in the crowd. It is a big shame, because the bracelet is truly beautiful if I may say so myself. The colours and the shapes work so perfectly together. So now I wonder if I should choose another photo as the main one. And should I take away the peace charm and only leave the giraffe one?

Below you can see a few more photos. Which one of these would you choose as the main one for the Etsy listing? Or should I choose another one all together?

And look at this one: This morning I took one of the other photos, and I enhanced the saturation just very slightly. Should I do that to all the pictures? It actually gives a more true picture of reality.

Thank You so much for all opinions!

Blog Awarded - My updated list of "Versatile bloggers"

Hi again,

Here is my updated list of the blogs I have recently discovered and that I wish to give MY blog award to (listed in no particular order):

• BlockPartyPress
• Abalorios Ababeads
• Beautifully Broken Me
• SongBeads
• LaBellaJoya
• Manekis ParlBlogg
• Fanciful Devices
• Nicki's Reef
• The Next Bend
• Stefanies Sammelsurium
• Wandering Spirits Designs
• Sabella

I received this blog award from Barbara Lewis of PaintingWithFire. Thank you so much, Barbara!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.
4. Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award!

7 things about myself:

1. I am very tall, 6 foot and 2 inches, or 184cm.
2. I have a rather childish/immature personality in some senses.
3. I used to be a real party animal in my younger days.
4. I am crazy for cheese, especially blue cheese like Stilton or Roquefort.
5. My husband is 9 years younger than I am (he is mature, I am immature, so we are mentally the same age...). And he is the love of my life. Big time.
6. I have MS - Multiple Sclerosis. Have had it sinse I was 20 at least, from what I know now, but I only got the diagnosis about 2 years ago, when I was 42. MS sucks!!!!!
7. I have never been to the USA ... yet ... But I have traveled for 6 months, backpacking style, through South America in 1990. A great experience!

Blog Awarded

I received this blog award from Barbara Lewis of PaintingWithFire. Thank you so much, Barbara!

Here are the rules:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous.
4. Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award!

7 things about myself:

1. I am very tall, 6 foot and 2 inches, or 184cm.
2. I have a rather childish/immature personality in some senses.
3. I used to be a real party animal in my younger days.
4. I am crazy for cheese, especially blue cheese like Stilton or Roquefort.
5. My husband is 9 years younger than I am (he is mature, I am immature, so we are mentally the same age...). And he is the love of my life. Big time.
6. I have MS - Multiple Sclerosis. Have had it sinse I was 20 at least, from what I know now, but I only got the diagnosis about 2 years ago, when I was 42. MS sucks!!!!!
7. I have never been to the USA ... yet ... But I have traveled for 6 months, backpacking style, through South America in 1990. A great experience.

Okay, here goes! I'd like to give this award to the following blogs:

• Kristina - Manekis ParlBlogg (It is in Swedish, unfortunately for all you english speaking out there, but an absolutely great blog packed with useful information about beading)
• Marina Rios - Fanciful Devices
• Nicki - NickisReef
• Claire Maunsell - The Next Bend
• Stefanie Teufel - Stefanies Sammelsurium
• Aja Vaz - Wandering Spirits Designs
• Sabella - Sabella

Oh, it ended up being only 7 in my list right now. Hope that is OK.

Magical Musical Mondays - #2

OK. Now, connect your computer or surfing device to the best speakers you have. Place yourself right in front of the speakers but at a good listening distance for maximum stereo effect. Turn on volume LOUD. Press play. Get blown away!

Enjoyed that? I can't help but crying from amazement when I hear this piece. How can anyone write such extraordinary good music? David Arnold can! I love him for that.

More Gaea - Yes Please!

I have developed a new need.

It is just another one really.

This time it is Gaea!

Gaeas Lovely Heart

Perhaps you remember that I was the incredibly lucky winner of all the beads from the June monthly challenge on Art Bead Scene. Beads from Natural Touch, HumbleBeads & Gaea Cannaday, who all were sponsors that month.

About a week ago I recieved a really nice parcel from Gaea with a variety of handmade ceramic beads. I loved them all. But I have to admit that the big heart with the scull and the roses stood out as something I would most likely not have purchased myself. What on earth was I gonna do with that? I am not a "sculls person", you see.

But the funny thing is that if something bothers me I just can't leave it alone. So the heart has been laying on my work desk ever since I got it. And then my daughter, 7 years old Arabella, came in to my studio last night to say goodnight, directly picked up the heart and asked if she could have it. "Hm, I don't know darling, let me think about it. It is a valuable bead, you see." So after she had left I stared at the heart. Ok, it would have to be a necklace of course. How about a light blue silk ribbon? Wow, that looks really nice colour wise! I was really surprised, and suddenly really excited. That heart that I had had difficulty seeing in a piece of jewellery made by myself, was suddenly something very interesting and challenging.

I ended up sitting there for a couple of hours testing variations and putting the piece together.

So much FUN! I love it when things just happens like that. Unexpected inspiration. The three other beads are also made by Gaea. I started on a pair of really nice earrings too, that could go with necklace if you would like to. With some gemstone beads that arrived along with some other beauties from StarEyes yesterday. The end of the story is that my daughter will not get the heart after all. I will have to come up with something else for her. And the necklace will be listed for sale in my Etsy shop. I have named it "Gaeas Lovely Heart".

Thank you Gaea for a wonderful, unexpected and fun creating experience!

Links:

Gaea on Etsy

Gaea website