My Latest Creations

Here are a few pics of my latest jewelry.

Green Amethyst Silver Chain Necklace


Green Amethyst Gold Filled Necklace


Green Amethyst Silver Earrings


Green Amethyst Gold-Filled Earrings



Iolite Gold-Filled Bracelet


Iolite Gold-Filled Earrings


Labradorite Gold-Filled Necklace

My New Fave Morning Tea!

I usually start the morning with a cup of tea-usually something caffeinated like black, green, or yerba mate which has a natural caffeine. Recently, I stopped at the Numi tea booth at the Green Festival and picked up a few free teabag samples and some info about Numi. Within this info was a advertisement for their new line of Puerh teas and I thought they looked pretty interesting. A few days later I was at a World Market and saw the Numi Puerh teas and decided to try one. I picked up the Emperor's Puerh which is a black tea and the description on the box said it was rich, bold and malty-those three words are what made me buy it. Also, I thought it was $5.69 which is less than some other teas I have bought. Then I found out later (when I got home because I was not paying attention when the cashier was scanning) that it was 8.99. Oh well, buy the time I looked at the receipt, I had already had a cup of this tea and I really liked it a lot. I like it enough to buy another box although there is only 16 bags per box. Plus, I saw it for cheaper (about $7.59) at Whole Foods so I will def buy it again. And maybe I will try one of the other options too (Chocolate Black, Mint Green, Magnolia Black). Here are a few health benefits of Pu erh teas.

Green Festival Weekend!

This past weekend the beau and I went to the Green Festival at Navy Pier. I was able to get free passes and we took the CTA Orange line (public trans.) downtown instead of driving because parking (especially garages) is just too costly and finding a park is a game of chance it is the eco thing to do. It was the beau's first time on CTA so he finally got a taste of my frustration with public trans particularly on the 29 bus (orange line train was rather quiet) which goes to Navy Pier-it was pretty crowded.

Anyway, we got to Green Festival and walked around a bit or a lot rather. We picked up plenty of free samples, coupons, and pamphlets. We also saw a few demonstrations including the AOK Alimtox ( detox foot bath) which was pretty darn gross. And I say gross because the AOK Alimtox is suppose to draw toxins out the the body and the water or solution in the foot bath changed colors depending on what toxins were coming out of the person. Needless to say there was some pretty funky looking water in those foot baths.


We were both determined not to spend much money so the only things we bought a Green Monkey brownie and cup of Kombucha. And I also bought a Blissoma sprayable lotion and some raw vegan Cru Cacao truffles which were really, really, intense.
Cru Cacao


Blissoma Spray Lotion


That was pretty much it. We walked a little more, picked up a few more samples, and got more information on some local organizations with green missions and then we left.

I love These Soaps!

I love soap and I always have. Especially pretty, handmade, natural,organic and imported soaps. I am one of those people who never runs out of the stuff. In fact, my dresser drawers are lined with bars of soap from all types of health food stores, apothecaries and online shops. You know how people make grocery lists or to do lists? Well, I make to buy and to try lists and soaps take up quite a bit of space on this list. Oh, and I have heard about that soap scum stuff but I just ignore it. Anyway, my latest soap finds come from a couple of etsy shops (2 of which are on vacation now-sorry but I needed a blog post) that I have been eyeing for a while. One shop is called Savor and I bought two soaps from this shop which were great: Red Lychee Bubble Tea -- Olive Oil Soap and Hawaiian Orange Alaea -- Salt Bar

Red Lychee Orange Hawaiian


Another etsy shop that I bought soap from is naiad where I bought Cardamom Vanilla Marshmallow Cream soap (which smells awesome).

Cardamom Vanilla


Lastly, but certainly not least is a shop called dirtysanchez where I bought noncommittal which is a sampler (5 ample slices) and you get to choose which samples you want. The samples I got were hay, pollinator, special delivery, irish wedding and nostalgia. They all smelled wonderful and I will definitely be back to dirtysanchez to buy full sizes. Plus this shop and cool, funny and full of sarcasm.

Noncommittal

I'm Taking a Day Off!

Yup! A day off and I need it. I have spent the last couple weeks making new jewelry for the trunk show I had this past weekend and I need a break. I stayed up many nights into the morning trying to come up with new and interesting one of a kind pieces. Some nights were successful and other nights resulted in good ideas gone wrong and gnarled up (and snippets of) wire everywhere. However I did manage to make some pieces that I really like.
The trunk show went just as well as the others I have had. I made some sales which is good and I got some contacts too. Plus, I got many good compliments and promises from people planning to come to my next show. So I am pleased overall and I am just gonna chill today. I might go see that Star Trek movie too-we'll see.

Trunk Show This Weekend!

I'm having another trunk show at Bloomingdales in Skokie, IL (Old Orchard) this weekend. The show will take place on Saturday, May 9th from 11am to 4pm. That's one day before Mother's day so hopefully I will get some Mother's Day sales.

Eco Furniture Ideas From Milan!

Check out this very cool slide show from Treehugger.com. It features items from a Milan furniture fair that are truly revolutionary and earth friendly. I only wish that my mind would come up with such brilliant things. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Motion Sensor Chandelier made with
recycled PET bottles and LED lights


Partition made from recycled PET
bottles


Green Pockets-Planters in walls


The Ombrello (I was honestly trying to figure out what to do with old umbrellas just the other day. Honestly!)


Flat Chair


Table made from leather scraps

My Wish List on My Handmade Registry!

I just posted my etsy wishlist on my myhandmaderegistry.com page. I have been eyeing some of these items for a while and others I have just found. I hope to make some purchases soon (soon as I get some spendin cash that is).

I Was Included In a Front Page Wish List!

I received a convo. message through etsy today letting me know that one of my items was included on the front page of myhandmaderegistry.com. The item listed was a pair of orange shell earrings and the wish list was created by Maryum K. who has a beautiful etsy shop full of lovely knitted and crocheted items (www.yarncoture.etsy.com). I was and still am very happy to be included and I also joined myhandmaderegistry and will be sure to share my favorites soon. Thanks again Maryum.

Two Down-Five To Go

I had my two trunk shows over the weekend at Bloomingdales at Old Orchard in Skokie,IL. Now I have one more this week (Thursday 23) and two in May(9th and 23rd) and July(3rd and 25th) . I had plenty of people stop by and browse and I had a few sales (some is better than none). Plus I gave out plenty of cards so hopefully people are gonna come calling for some of my pieces!

Upcoming Trunk Shows

I have three trunk shows coming up within the next 10 day so I am crazy busy. I am making new one of a kind pieces and a few pieces that have done well in the past. I have plenty items in stock but I am making more in hopes of selling lots. All three shows will take place at Bloomingdales in Skokie, IL (Old Orchard Shopping Center,4963 Old Orchard Center,Skokie, IL 60077).The dates and times for the shows are 4/17, 4/18 and 4/23 from 11am to 4pm. Here is the link to the event from the Bloomingdales website:
http://www1.bloomingdales.com/store/event/index.ognc?action=search&storeId=50012&Go=Go
I have also seen my shows listed on some around town sites!YaY!
http://boutiqueville.com/style-events/

http://www.stylechicago.com/Invite.asp?ID=6705&PID=7054

Check Out This Cool Etsy Shop!

I came across a very cool Etsy shop on another online craft community ( Mycraft.com). This shop, blaisedenvy.etsy.com, is filled with beautiful, handmade earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made with semi-precious stones, precious metal, feathers, ribbon,etc... There are so many great pieces in this shop and I especially love the ribbon bangle bracelets which are cute, colorful, and VERY reasonably priced-so you can buy more than one. Here are just a few of my favorite ribbon bangle bracelets from this shop- visit the shop to see the others:

Argyle Ribbon Bracelet


Gold Bracelet


Flowers


Multi


Brown


Sripes

Yummy Food Blog!

I have been drooling over the pics on this food blog lately(http://vanillakitchen.blogspot.com/). There is one post in particular that has really got my sweet tooth tingling-dark chocolate peanut butter cups. These cups look so divine. Mmmm!

They Had Me Fooled!

I was checking out the seriouseats blog when I came across a post about squeeze bacon. Yes, you read right-squeeze bacon in bottle. This product is called Squeez Bacon and you can get it from ThinkGeek.com. It is supposedly 100% real cooked bacon that has been processed into a paste by some special blending process. All while I was reading this I was thinking this sounds pretty gross and it can't be real- but there are so many unbelievable products on the market right now so maybe it is real. Then I clicked the add to cart link (just out of curiosity of course) and surely there was a big Gotcha April Fool message . And somehow I am really glad this was a joke.