Vintage Tea Collection/Giveaway from Jennifer Rizzo

http://www.jenniferrizzo.com/2011/10/welcome-to-vintage-tea-collection-and.html

Please visit her website for an amazing giveaway. Her Tea Towels and In Flight pillows are darling. Her design sense is beautiful and I am glad I stumbled onto her blog.

She is giving away $400 worth of merchandise from her store plus an extra $100 gift certificate for jewelry.

The Winter Nesting Giveaway includes a vintage picnic basket filled to the brim with goodies. The winner will receive:

1- in flight pillow cover

1-white linen La Parisien pillow cover

3-number towels

3-french inspired tea towels

3-tea time tea towels

1-set of vintage inspired cloth napkins

1-hat and fingerless glove set

1-set (4) of tea plates

1-set(2) of vintage ironstone mugs

1-vintage book

organic tea

lavender sugar

Duplicating Your Designs?

Do you? As an "artist" do you duplicate your own designs? If you make something you really love, but don't keep it, are you tempted to replicate the design? Small tweaks but essentially the same or do you completely change it up? Or are you ok with replicating your designs even if that means they are no longer "one of a kind"?

This is my dilemma. I gave my mom a necklace that I took with me to Washington because she really loved it. I really loved how nice and chunky it was. It was comfortable to wear and provided an interesting focal for plain t-shirts. I am contemplating redoing one for myself...any opinions?

Updates...

It's amazing to me that time gets away from us so fast anymore. Here is what we have been up to for the last few months:

• We started to look for a house to buy. Viewed probably 50-60, offers in on 10, no dice. Financing is in place, pre-approved, but with all the short-sales and bank owned houses in the areas we are look at, it's usually 2-3 people bidding on the same house. We keep missing the deals by 1 hour, 1 day, we are 2nd or 3rd highest (because you are told to bid your best price offer and it's a gamble as to what the other people are bidding).



• The buying not working out, we have started to look to rent again. We are doing excessive traveling to stay where we are at, plus it is about 2-3x's cheaper if we move. We may have just found a place and they may want to sell in a year, so this may be the deal we are looking for. We are waiting for the application to be approved as we speak.



• Our current lease is up at the end of this month, so I've been packing up the house. I have too much stuff! I've spent 2 full days in my "craft studio" and I'm still most likely another day or so to finish packing in there. This does NOT include my bead supplies. Those have spilled over into our bedroom office nook.



• I quit working full time and I now work 2 10-hour days in the office and 1 10-hour day at home. This way I can keep my benefits.
  


• I have dedicated 20 hours a week to my already busy life to charity work and helping teach people about the bible. My husband has been able to work his schedule to do this for the last 2.5 years and this has been a wonderful experience for him. I finally have the circumstances to be able to join him!



• We just got back from visiting my family back in Washington State. It was my parents 41st Anniversary, my Aunt and Uncle's 9th Anniversary, and my brother and sis-in-law's 11th Anniversary!
  


• We celebrated my husband's parents 40th Anniversary with them (they live here in AZ near us).


• Some dear friends of ours are moving to Florida for health reasons. Their kids are like our own, in fact their little girl calls us "half-mom" and "half-dad". We are going to miss them sorely.
  

I'm sure there is more, but these are the highlights. I might be missing in action for a bit longer as I finish packing/moving/unpacking/settling in. This always takes time! I seriously hate moving.

I thought I would share some of the fun stuff that I aquired in Washington. My dear husband toted me to Shipwreck Beads (my first time) and to Fusion Beads (my second time). He didn't even squak (much) about how much I overspent;). I found some pretty beads that I haven't found in AZ or they were priced very good. I also found some Humblebeads spacers, urchin pendants, and dandilion pendant, Diane Hawkey ceramic locks! Very fun stuff, I can't wait to create, but I think I will have to wait until after the move.

Cocktail Ring

Just wanted to share really quick this fun ring I made last night. C-Koop enamelled flowers with a beautiful lampworked bead by Lara Lutrick.

http://www.artfire.com/users/lutrick

Pardon the old lady hands, I just turned 37! When I realized not too long ago that technically I could be a grandma by now, I want to sit down and knit. I still feel 20ish inside, I wonder if that ever goes away? When I am 75, will I still feel like I'm in my 20's in my head?

The Mother Lode!

Sorry I've been non-existent on my blog, but don't take that to mean that nothing is happening and I don't have anything to share. Quite the opposite, we have been so busy that I just haven't been able to work in a post.

So today I will share with you two awesome surprises that have happened over the last two weekends.

The first one was a friend of mine was unloading her "scrapbook supplies". I thought she was just bringing my some excess paper...Never realizing that she was bringing over what amounted to a small store that ended up in my entry way. I went through and gleaned what I could you, added some items that I no longer wanted from my own small-medium "store". There are now 6 large paper boxes in the entry to let my other friends shop for items they can use.

And as if that wasn't wonderful enough, I just received a "care package" from my mom and dad. So what do you think it was?

Well, here is the background of how it came about. My dad had a hip replacement this last winter and was bored. Bored and can't move too much I might add. So what does a person in this predicament do to amuse themselves? You can only watch so much TV before your brain is mush! He already knew about the wonderful world of E-Bay, however he only previously bought "man stuff". He didn't need anything else, so he thought he would buy a few beads for my mom. She likes all things crystal. So he bids on a few items, get hundreds of bi-cones for about $0.75, so he thinks that this is pretty fun. Now mind you, he is under heavy pain medication at this point. He finally understands the term "RETAIL THERAPY".

He is blinded with E-Bay madness and starts to tell me each day the items he bids on and wins. To his credit, his frugalness kicks in and he will only bid on items with free shipping and no more than a few dollars for the lot, so everything he bought was well under wholesale prices. He starts to ask me what kind of beads I like, since he is bored with crystals by this point. I have a penchant for gemstones and larger bead sizes, so I give him a few names and colors to look for.

Well after getting in most of his haul (I think he has a few items still in the mail), he sent me home a package. Now mind you this is about 1/4 of what he bought. My aunt got a 1/4, and my mom 1/2. So you can only imagine just how many beads he bought. By the way, those strands are the 14 inch strands, just so you can get a perspective.

And he's my DADDY, and no I don't want to share!

New Look

So I changed up the look on my blog. I was feeling in need to spruce up a little and wanted something more summery. Why the bees you ask? Well the guys at work call me the Queen B...I prefer to think of it as "busy as a bee", however I'm not 100% positive (more like 5%). So to go with the flow and show them I can take a joke, I have a little door hanger at work that says "Queen Bee" and my hard hat has a crown painted on it, with the saying "Who's a princess?". Construction isn't exactly conducive to dressing up and looking cute, but I try my hardest:). I have been known to visit a job site to look at the ditches being dug in my work boots, hard hat, safety vest, and skirt before. Ditch digging isn't pretty, but who am I to sneeze at what pays the bills and is steady work! I'm just thankful that for the most part I get to work inside when it's 120 degrees outside.

Rainbow Love

Rainbow Love by nayamcd featuring cross body handbags

Sorry I haven't posted lately. My aunt's 6 week stay is coming to an end next week, (didn't she just get here?) and we have been so busy creating jewelry that we haven't stopped to take any pictures. So in the meantime, I'm craving a new pretty purse. I was just compiling away and then I noticed I spotted a theme...buckles, flaps, straps, pockets. HMMMMM....at least I'm consistant and know what I like (or is that called a rut?). Have a great day and I hope to post some pictures soon.

Summer Bling

Summer Bling by nayamcd featuring flower jewelry

Turquoise jewelry
$40 - amazon.com

Flower jewelry
$14 - belk.com

Mood jewelry
6.40 GBP - debenhams.com

Elizabeth Showers layered bracelet
$451 - maxandchloe.com

H M ring
hm.com

All Saints chain jewelry
$60 - allsaints.com

Bangle bracelet
$1,950 - jennifermillerjewelry.com

Irene Neuwirth diamond jewelry
$6,310 - barneys.com

Crystal flower ring
$50 - jewelry.hsn.com

Samantha Wills earring
12,600 JPY - hfm.co.jp

Yes please, one of each...

So I just found out about Polyvore, I know I'm sadly in the dark ages. Here is my first collection, just in time for summer to start soon. What you're still in a deep freeze? I'm sorry, but it's starting to get warm here in the Valley of the Sun.

I'm thinking little white dresses, sandals, sun-kissed skin, and umbrella drinks by a azure pool. What kind of jewelry do you like to wear in summer?

Bead Soup Part 2

See the previous Soup Post for all the links to hop. But since I was having a problem with Blogger today (I already had to redo my post from this morning), I decided to post the close-ups separately, as everytime I uploaded a photo, it would create havoc with my spacing and formatting. My post this morning was a milling miles long with all of the extra spaces it put into it.

I hope you enjoy what I made! I had a lot of fun working with the two beautiful pendants that my partner, Dana James, sent to me. One of them is reversible, and both pictures are very different in color tones, one bright and the other dreamy. So it was a challenge to make something that would compliment both sides. I decided to put it on a chain by itself and then to create another shorter necklace in the blue and green tones that seemed to be in both of them. I really like how it turned out and how different it looks depending on which side of the focal is out. She also sent me this pretty floral clasp. And I, of course, had to make matching earrings. I'm very big on always having things as a "set". I know some people are good at mixing and matching different things together, which I admire, but I also like the option of not having to think too hard early in the morning by figuring out it those earrings go with this necklace.

Here is a close-up of the focal pendant, both sides:

She also sent me another beautiful, handmade pendant. I used some of the new gemstones that I picked up at Tucson a few weeks ago. I really like how this one turned out too. Chunky, but not overly large or bulky.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT...

Do you know those people who every time they call the radio station they win, or if they enter a raffle their number is picked, or they enter a drawing on a blog and they are the "random number"? I know several. I envy them. I am so NOT one of those people.

EVER.

But guess what?

I actually won something!




I was just catching up on some of the blogs I read and I went to Cindy Wimmer's http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/ to see what the outcome of her book giveaway was. To my SURPRISE it me! I don't' ever remember winning anything before. I'm especially excited because I almost purchased this book yesterday down in Tucson at the To Bead True Blue show.

Why didn't I you ask? Did I have a premonition?
Nope.
Did I remember that I had entered her giveaway?
Didn't even cross my mind.

I really didn't want to have a guilty conscious. I had already gone over my very generous budget (thank you honey) and I didn't really want to explain to my husband why I needed ANOTHER book, being as I probably have hundreds (not just on jewelry). What can I say, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE books. I've been obsessed since I could read.

Look what is coming my way soon:

Thank you again Cindy!

I will post my loot that I bought yesterday soon. All I can say is I met Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire fame, and I am now the possessor of a torch and all the goodies to learn torch-fired enameling.

Soups On!

http://www.danasjewelrydesign.blogspot.com/

My Bead Soup Swap partner is Dana James (see above link for her blog). I don't think that Lori Anderson could have matched us up any better. Dana and I seem to be on similar wave lengths. We gave ourselves a deadline to mail the beads by and we both ended up mailing them early and on the same day! I just love what she sent to me. How did she know that blue-blue and cobalt blue were the colors that I was lacking and was in the process of adding to my stash?

She made many of the charms from found objects, including a cute silver bullet bell that has the cutest tinkling sound. I think she also made the beautiful pendants, and I fell in love with the soldered two-sided one. I think that the lady is suppose to be the front, but the floral is to die for so that might be the front for me. She sent me two clasps, one a heart shaped toggle, and the other a floral design (which by the way happens to be very similar to the very first toggle I purchased for my very first necklace I made).

We both sent each other ribbon, had a heavy blue theme, sent mother-of-pearl items, gemstones, and they both had Scrabble tiles involved. Talk about a meeting of the minds! It must be that she lives in Washington and I'm from Washington...

I couldn't be happier with what she sent to me especially since many of the items have been on my wish-list and just haven't been able to justify getting them yet, like the lapis. Check out her blog to see what I sent to her. I can't wait to see what she does with her soup. Keep checking back for possible sneak-peaks and the Blog Hop on February 26th.

Side Note: On the bead swap that I am doing with my family, the main beads are called "Crazy Horse Jasper". (see prior post for pictures).