Friday, October 31, 2008

Getting Ready for Christmas

I always try to get an early start on my Christmas ornaments so here is one that I now have in my shop. It's a Brussels Griffon Christmas!
Brussels Griffon Christmas Ornament
This Brussels Griffon is holding her very own ornament to put on the Christmas tree. She can't wait until the tree goes up so she can place her ornament in a very special spot right on one of the front branches. The last photo is my pup -- she just popped in to wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season. Happy Holidays!

The Brussels Griffon is holding a large green crystal ornament. She has a sprig of holly at her ear and sits on a red base in a silver cameo setting. The ornament hangs from green satin cord.

Hand-sculpted with polymer clay.

Approximate size of the ornament is: 2-1/4" long (with satin cord 4-1/4" long) x 1-1/2" wide.

Thursday, October 30, 2008


Isabelle

These darling creatures are irresistible. They each have their own story to tell that leads you into their world of fantasy. Meet Isabelle, she is a Sayer and if you'd like to know more about little Isabelle hop on over to Morning Glori to read about her, she's a fascinating creature! I think you'll fall in love with these critters, their distinct style and personality, as I have.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Windsurfing Bugs!


Autumn Windsurfing Bug
These little Juicy Bugs™ from Dream A Little are adorable! So tiny and so precious. They are truly amazing in every way, not only are they precious and oh so tiny but the attention to detail is amazing! Like the Autumn Windsurfing Bug -- he's even got a little leaf and straps for his feet. I guarantee if you take a look in her shop, you'll fall in love with these wee ones -- keep a look out for the bed bug -- now that's one bed bug I'd love to have by my bed every night :) You can see many more of these adorable creations at her website.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Fine Art Prints


Gotcha
I love these bright, whimsical art prints by Gudonya. The colors are amazing and the critters, well who doesn't love the critters. This kitty print is especially cute -- this kitty has caught himself a mouse -- he's such a good little hunter, you just might want to bring him home to do some hunting around your house.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Maltese Treat Jar


Maltese Treat Jar
This little Maltese is sitting on top of her very own treat jar. She can't wait until it gets filled up with Scooby snacks! The jar can be filled with small dog treats or any other small objects.

The glass 13 ounce jar is topped with a hand-sculpted Maltese with pink bows in her hair, hugging a large pink bone. The front of the jar has a large white bone cutout with pink hearts stamped with dog bones, paws and 'woof'. The neck of the jar has pink ribbon tied in a bow centered with a heart charm.

Size is:
13 ounce jar which stands approximately 7" tall.

Boston Terrier Christmas Ornament

Your last week's favorite was Tokoharu - Everlasting Spring by Nasseh-Ya. And now onto this week -- I think I'll start off the week with one of my creations, a new Boston Terrier Christmas Ornament.

The ornament is hand-sculpted from polymer clay and set in a gold tone setting, it hangs from green satin cord.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Week in Review, Pick Your Favorite


1) Tokoharu - Everlasting Spring by Nasseh-Ya


2) Sterling Silver Wire-Wrap and Citrine Earrings by Silver Moon Crafts


3) Catfish SnipPet by Snippets


4) Steamed Artistic Steampunk Wire Ring by CatherinetteRings


5) Sophia and Gracie by Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!


Sophia and Gracie
I love these sweet adorable dolls by Sugar and Spice. Can't you just see a little girl running around with one of these dolls tucked under her arm? These are the type of dolls that little girls never want to put down, they become a pal, a best friend, a great sleepover buddy and an all around companion. Sugar and Spice is full of these type of dolly creations and it makes me dream a bit about going back in time and being a little girl again.
Holiday Annie

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Rings, Rings, Rings


Steamed Artistic Steampunk Wire Ring

Here's a wonderful example of incorporating wire wrap into ring making. These rings from CatherinetteRings are fascinating and the whole shop is full of wonderful handmade rings. I spent a good part of yesterday browsing through this shop and had to finally force myself to break away because other things needed to be done. These rings remind me of a great fantasy, each one tells me a story of mystery, a story of intrigue and great escape. I do believe while wearing one of these rings, you may just look down at your finger, stare at it for a while and take a much needed escape into your own fantasyland.

Artistic Wire Ring with Mood Bead

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The What?


Catfish SnipPet

The Snippets of course -- and what exactly is a SnipPet?
A snip~pet is...
1-PET art created with SNIPS of paper, paint and clay.
2-a PET that has been spayed or neutered...the kindest SNIP of all!

And that is how the Snippets shop describes these wonderful, whimsical creations. I love mixed media and absolutely adore polymer clay so the all of these mediums mixed together makes for a wonderful piece of art!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Snowflakes are Kisses from Heaven


English Bull Terrier - Snowflakes are Kisses from Heaven
Today I'm going to show one of my new Christmas sculptures that I have made for this season. This sweet English Bull Terrier is sitting patiently waiting for Christmas. She loves Christmas and can't wait for the snow to start falling and the season to begin.

The Bully sits with a silver plaque between her paws that reads "Snowflakes are Kisses from Heaven". She wears a large, bright red jingle bell tied at the neck with green ribbon and has two sprigs of holly at her tail.

The English Bull Terrier is hand-sculpted from polymer clay. The approximate is:
2-1/4" tall
1-1/2" wide front to back
1-3/4 wide side to side

Wire Wrap


Sterling Silver Wire-Wrap and Citrine Earrings

I came across Silver Moon Crafts in the forums the other day and just so happened to click on her avatar to see her shop. What I found was beautiful wire wrapped jewelry. Wire wrapping is another technique I love, although I'm guessing I say that about every craft I talk about and that's because I love all of these techniques, but don't have the patience to sit down and try them myself and I always admire people who learn a new skill, stick to it and make it their own as with these wire wrapped earrings. I love these earrings, these are just a small sample of what is in her shop. I just look at them and marvel at all of the hand work that must have been done to create them.

Wire Wrapped Marquis Carnelian Earrings

Monday, October 20, 2008

Nasseh-Ya

First let me say congratulations to last week's favorite LilWitchy for her wonderful miniature creations and thank you to all who voted for your favorite of the week! Now on to this week:

Tokoharu - Everlasting Spring
I'd like to introduce Hatsuko Mitsumori, the talent behind these creative toy dolls and plushies. I first met Hatsuko in my Flickr Group Dogs and Art when she introduced me to Antoinette - a miniature blue teacup Chihuahua and I was smitten. I fell in love with this one-of-a-kind handcrafted pup. She is made from an original pattern created by the artist. After seeing little Antionette I wanted to see more so I stopped by her website Nasseh-Ya to take a peek at more of these adorable critters and creations. While I was visiting I also fell in love with Tokoharu, among many others -- all of her creations are truly worth the visit!

Antoinette

Friday, October 17, 2008

Week in Review, Pick Your Favorite


1) Halloween Dog Dress from Jazzie's InsPAWrations


2) Glow in the Dark Skull and Crossbones from urbbody


3) Jack-O-Lantern Felt Board from Dots and Daisies Boutique


4) Recycled Crayons for Halloween from Talk Tagz


5) Halloween Jewels from estanciadesigns,


6) Miniature items from LilWitchy

Small Things for your Favorite Witch


Miniature Set of Witch's Spell Work Powder
I love miniatures, especially handmade miniatures. Now, I create small sculptures, but these miniatures are even smaller, tiny actually and I know how time consuming it is to make things on a smaller scale so I totally appreciate these little creations. I think a lot of times people don't realize how difficult it is to create things in miniature, I believe it's actually much harder than full size. In order to get quality detail in pieces like these it takes patience, talent and loads of imagination. I just love these miniature items from LilWitchy, it's a shop full of great miniatures for your favorite witch.

Witch or Wizard's Spell Work Cupboard

Your Real Age

Age is something I think about now that my journey through life has brought me to the age that I am. I am a baby boomer and have reached a time in my life where my real age does not always fit the age I feel in my mind. There are days when I feel like I'm that 18 year old girl going to a rock concert for a fun filled weekend and then there are days when I feel like I'm 90 and can barely get out of bed with aches and pains that I think will never end. So I guess that gives you an idea of my real age, which falls somewhere in between :) -- and if I'm a baby boomer that gives you a bigger clue.

But really the thing that I start to think about is how my health compare to my age. When you're young you really don't care too much about these things or think too much about this stuff, but like I said now that I'm getting older I do wonder. How healthy am I? How fit am I, do I exercise enough, eat enough of the right foods? Do I stay mentally active? Do my parents have anything to do with my health and life longevity? Both my parents died at a fairly young age, both of cancer so does that have anything to do with my life?

There's a site where you can find out the comparison from your actual age in numbers to your real age as far as your health and activities are concerned called the RealAge Test. It's a test where they ask you questions about your health, your family history, your habits, etc. I took the test and found it quite enjoyable and can't wait to get the results. So why not stop over and Take the RealAge Test! It's free! -- and fun!!

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

Jewels for Halloween


Spiders and Pumpkins Halloween Watch
Here are a couple of great pieces for the Halloween lover in all of us. The jewelry in this shop is beautiful, made with high quality materials including lovely glass beads, Swarovski crystals and the best in sterling findings. I especially love this watch and these earrings for Halloween. If you want to check out more great jewelry pieces head on over to estanciadesigns, she has great use of color in her designs and her pieces are drool worthy -- if I wasn't sticking to a Halloween theme this week I could fill this post up with tons of images from her lovely jewelry collection!

Steaming Black Cauldron and Witches Hat Earrings

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Share a Scary Story


Okay, for our blog carnival October 27th one of the choices we had was to share a scary story either real or fake and boy do I have one. First let me just say that my neighborhood is going down the toilet, there have been a lot of shootings in the area, but this story tops the cake. I walk my dog to this park every day and the body was found in a sewer right underneath sprinklers where children play, I'd say that's a little too real and too scary.
__________________________________________________________
From the newspaper:
A decomposing body was pulled from a sewer on the North Side this morning, police said. The body was discovered on the block of North Clarendon Avenue on the border of the Uptown and Buena Park neighborhoods. No further details were immediately available.

__________________________________________________________

YIKES!!

Great Fun for Kids on Halloween


Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Felt Board


There are two items from a couple of different shops that I'd like to mention today, both are for kids. I fell in love with both of these items when I saw them not only because they are great ways to get your kids involved, keep them busy for hours and have some fun with Halloween but also for the simplicity of each item. Today in the world of computer games, high tech equipment and cell phones, we've taken a lot of the simpler games out of our lives and it's nice to see that some folks still realize how simple it really is to put a smile on a child's face.

First up is from Dots and Daisies Boutique, a pumpkin felt board with lots of cutouts so kids can dress up their pumpkin with any number of eyes, nose and mouth pieces -- adorable!

The next item comes from Talk Tagz, these are Halloween shaped crayons that are made from recycled crayons -- what a great way for kids to have fun and get to know a little bit about recycling. I love this idea of taking something used and recycling it into a brand new product -- wonderful!!
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Recycled Crayons - Halloween Fun III


So kids, have a safe and happy Halloween!!!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Glow in the Dark Soaps


Glow in the Dark Skull and Crossbones
These great soaps are available at urbbody and such a treat for Halloween. I can't think of an easier way to get kids to wash their hands especially after all that trick or treating and if it's more than a wash of hands that's needed, it'll be a breeze to plop a few of these into the tub and let your kids have fun bathing!

Not only are these soaps glow in the dark -- they come in two wonderful scents, the Skull and Crossbones are available in Jolly Rancher® or Green Apple fragrance and the brains are available in Green Apple or Bubble Gum fragrance -- now those are fragrances kids can relate to. Have some good clean fun and Happy Halloween everyone!

Brains Glow in the Dark Soap

Monday, October 13, 2008

Halloween Handmades for Princess


Hello Kitty Trick or Treat Halloween Dog Dress

So we're starting off another week with some great Halloween treats and why not start off the week with this little princess showing off her mommy's handmade Halloween dresses. Jazzie's InsPAWrations is a shop with some adorable handmade dresses for your little princess or prince and as you can see from the photo the models are too die for, how cute is this little one in her new Halloween dress -- who could ask for a better top model! Don't you just love the little details on this dress, the pretty bow and the tulle underneath, oh my!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Etsy Bloggers Street Team Feature


Aquamarine and Apricot Baby Friendly Beads Nursing Necklace

The Etsy Bloggers Street Team feature for October is Baby Friendly Beads, a shop full of great jewelry with mom and baby in mind. There are one-piece necklaces designed for the nursing mom. The necklaces keep baby's hands busy while breast feeding and are one continuous piece of cord so there is no risk of the pendant breaking off and scattering beads. There are also bracelets with the breast feeding mom in mind -- such beautiful jewelry with mom and baby in mind -- how sweet is that.

The Favorite for Last Week was ---

Halloween Hi Tops was the favorite for last week. Thank you all for voting and we'll be starting a new week of wonderful handmade items so stay tuned.......


1) Halloween Hi Tops by Boy Girl Boy Designs

Afghan Hound Cameo

Afghan Hound Cameo
Afghan Hound etched into clay and set in brass setting

Greyhound in Profile Etched Pendant

Greyhound in Profile Etched Pendant
Greyhound in Profile Etched Pendant

Greyhound

Greyhound
Etched in Pink

I-Love-Dogs

Dog, Dogs, Canine Wonderland! - Discover all you could ever want to know about dogs, get lots of free dog stuff, and interact with dog owners from around the world in our informative dog forums at I-Love-Dogs.com!