creative juices

They are a'flowin'! Today has been a great day for creativity for me...but before I discuss that I need to update everyone on my Grandma's health.

Grandma is doing great in the hospital. She had a procedure done in her neck to clean up some blood clots blocking her carotid artery, and is now in recovery. Yay, Grandma! She, my aunt and my mom are all in Charleston, WV relaxing and waiting to come home to Eleana and I. They will probably be there until at least Sunday, if not Monday.

Which is why I'm here, being lazy and playing with my art stuff! Nothing to do but keep the house warm and the animals fed (and potty train E of course).

This morning (more like 11) I took my other aunt to town to run some errands and took myself to the post office to mail off a little summin summin to miss Amy (holla!). We've been home since about 1, and I got some really sweet, exciting mail today! You should've seen the mailbox, nothing else would have fit (because my mom also got 2 packages today).

First came the necklace I ordered for myself on behalf of Joe. It's lovely, and meant to be my anniversary gift (5 years!). He wasn't here on our anniversary (January 24th) and he also won't be here for the big day-O-love, so I had to pick my own gift out. I had my eye on this seller on etsy for a long time, and any of her jewelry pieces would have been perfect...but the one I got spoke to me strongly.


I really DIDN'T mean for this picture to be so big (I'm not this narcissistic!), but at least you can see the necklace pretty well. It's a tiny sparrow flying "home" to it's branch and a tiny red swarovski heart. Cute right? Sparrows have significance to sailors, and since the sea takes my husband away from me frequently I figured it was perfect. This necklace was created using vintage findings by the lovely Bombalurina.

The other great package I received came from an awesome etsy shop called Sun and Moon Craft Kits. She sells great little kits for making your own scrabble tile necklace charms as well as glass and chiyogami paper charms. She also sells the componenets needed to craft these items separately in bulk, which really comes in handy! I ordered silver plated bails from her during the summer to aid in creating the necklace charms I sold at the local town social. And it must be said that she sneaks little extras in every package she sends like a worther's original and extra bails!

So in my little kit I received a 2oz. container of Diamond Glaze (which I've desperately needed for months but nobody carries it around here), a small tube of E600, 5 pieces of square glass, 5 scrabble tiles, 10 small silver plated bails, and a bunch of little chiyogami paper pieces to use to create charms for myself, friends and family!

So today I have already created one scrabble tile pendant covered with chiyogami paper and glaze (it's still drying, and will get its bail later) and a chiyogami glass pendant, which is also still drying.

PLUS I've been working on honing my wire wrapping skills for these teardrop beads I bought the other day. I'm really trying to create lovely jewelry for gift purposes first, and later for something a little grander (wink!). And I'm making a necklace for my sister-in-law as a very late birthday present. It was supposed to be made by her b-day (Jan. 8) but stuff just interfered with that whole plan.

Now, after this bloggy interlude, I am going to go eat my Werther's original piece of candy and get scrappy with it! Something I haven't done since Christmas! Which page/project should I do first???

The second piece of mail I got was from