The goods...

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays! I know Milo did...

Yesterday, Hubby and I went out to spend some of our gift card cash and had a delicious sushi dinner. Today, I got ALL of the wrapping paper and bows out of my studio and have been putting away the beautiful beads I received from Santa Clause! Here's a quick look at some of the new things I have to work with:

Jade drops

Crystal, Ceramic and Acrylic bead mix

 

Charms! 

To All,

Winter finally got the memo...

Brr! It's starting to feel more like winter in my area! I spent the weekend setting up the tree and decorating the house for Christmas, as well as some quality girl time with fellow jewelry maker and my good friend, Kate. Here is a picture of the pair of earrings she made while I was working on some custom orders.

Earrings designed and created by Kate Dufour. Photo by me.

I absolutely love these earrings; hence the feature on my blog.  I could just see myself wearing these beauties. This morning, while sipping my coffee and browsing Pinterest, I saw this great tutorial for a cute diy ruffle shirt. And then suddenly, I had the perfect outfit planned in my head ;)

Photo and Tutorial by Tea Rose Home

Treasury Time!

I am a bad blogger. Not because I've been slow to update, but because I had my very successful home show on Saturday and I did not take one single photo to share with you all! I charged my camera, but then got swept up in the day and completely forgot. I apologize for not being able to share my wonderful experience with you through pictures. It's such a shame too, the house was decorated so beautifully and the food was so pretty, you almost didn't wanna eat it!

It is Wednesday, but my desk is far away at home and I'm working my admin job today, so there are also no photos of my bead table. Instead, I've put together an Etsy Treasury list for the jewelry lover on your holiday shopping list  ;)
Enjoy!

Along the streets of Paris

I have only 3 more days until the open house show, so I have been working very hard to make lots of jewelry. Here are some Bead Table shots from this week.

Beautiful pearls and an Eiffel Tower charm.

Working on more chandelier earrings!

Some amazing Red Creek Jasper beads I recently picked up.

Flowers in winter

This necklace is made with Serpentine and Purple Agate gemstones and pewter findings.

 

{Tutorial Love} Handmade Gifts for the Holidays

My top 5 favorite handmade gifts for Christmas!

1.  Vintage Bookmarks

Marci from The Vintage Lemon has a great tutorial on how to make vintage styled bookmarks. These are easy, fast and inexpensive to make. Great stocking stuffers!


2. Infinity Scarves

Sweet Verbena featured this Single Loop Lace Infinity Scarf Tutorial on her blog. This looks like something even I could sew! The single loop scarf is cute and easy to wear.


3. Hex Nut Jewelry

Whether it's a bracelet for your man or a chic necklace for a friend, these hex nut jewelry designs are easy and inexpensive to make! Bracelet tutorial is from Honestly WTF. Necklace tutorial is from Infarrantly Creative.


4. Gifts in a Jar

 

These gifts are really neat. Choose a theme, choose a jar and fill it with small objects fitting your theme. The options are endless! For tutorials and ideas: Ashley Ann Photography | Frugalicious Me | The Gunny Sack


5. Gift Cards

Kinda seems like a cop out but, honestly, who doesn't love gift cards?  So give them what they want and a little extra surprise too with this is cute Gift Card Box. Heather even includes a free downloadable template!

From out of the darkness

With it being completely dark by 5 o'clock now, I'm having difficulty finding a chance to take photos in the natural light. Today's shot was also effected by laziness ;)   Trust me though, these earrings are cuuute!

Sterling Silver. Turquoise Czech glass and brown Swarovski AB finish crystals.

A belated gift

Last year for Christmas, I received a Visa gift card from one of my aunts and uncles. I had been saving it for something special; a treat for myself. When I was cleaning out my wallet the other day, I noticed the card stuck in one of the pockets and decided that I should probably use it already! So, I logged onto limabeads.com and got myself some gorgeous new beads! I got a few gemstone strands, including Russian Amazonite. The color is incredible in these stones! I also treated myself to some great art beads, something that I rarely spring for. Below are pictures of the cute owl bead and fantastic green pendant made by Gaea Handmade.

 

Sparkle and shine

 

Bead Table View

There was just something that I loved about this crystal covered bead, and wanted to keep the design simple to show it off.
Happy Wednesday :)

What I made

This time of year I am just swamped with shows and what not, so I can only give you a quick post today! Here is an 'upcycled' necklace I made last night. I'm still exploring the two-toned thing, as you can see :)
Happy November everyone!

Pearls, Glass beads, Silver toned and Gold toned chain.

An Autumn Snow

 

Autumn Snow

 I can't believe it's snowing before Halloween. The beautifully colored leaves are still visible, but soon will be all white... and cold! Yuck!  My studio is the smallest of the rooms in our apartment, but that means that it is also the warmest, so I escaped the chill and spent my Saturday afternoon working on some new jewelry.
I have been using a lot of reds, greens and browns because of fall, but I decided to put those away today and let the snow influence my work :)

 Swarovski crystal, Moonstone, Labradorite and Sterling silver

 Pink pearls, Lapis, Rhyodacite, and Sterling Silver

Close up of Rhyodacite pendant

In the evening, Hubby and I ignored that crazy white stuff outside and had some traditional Fall fun: Pumpkin carving! We toasted up the seeds for a tasty treat and then caught up on our DVRed shows.

Project Accessory {Upcycled Jewelry}

There is a new show called 'Project Accessory' on Lifetime that is all about jewelry and other accessories. I was giggling like a little girl when I sat down to watch the premiere Thursday night! As you all know, I am I huge fan of upcycled jewelry, and this episode's challenge was all about that! So, I thought I'd share some of the amazing designs these guys came up with and to let you know about the show, if you don't already, because it was awesome! (Btw: you can watch the full episode on myLifetime.com!)

{The Show} Project Accessory is a spin off from Project Runway, in which 12 accessory (jewelry, handbag or shoe) designers compete in various challenges. In the first challenge, the contestants had only 15 minutes to search through piles of storage unit junk. Using the materials they chose, each designer had to create three accessories, a necklace, belt and accessory of choice. These three pieces would have to be cohesive and complete the classic 'jeans and white tee shirt' look that their models were wearing. 

{The highlights} I was really impressed with most of the designs when they finally came down the run way. Every one of the contestants has amazing amounts of talent. These are some of my favorite pieces from the collections:

Necklace by Christina   |   Necklace by Shea     

       Belt by David   |   Clutch by Kelly   



Necklace by Nina (the winning designer for this challenge)

  

All photos belong to myLifetime.com