Spring Break and Blogging Friends!

 

 

 

It's Spring Break this week for my son. We're usually in California walking along the beach in San Clemente, listening to the loud 'booms' coming from Camp Pendleton, taking in the waves, letting the salty air kiss our skin and enjoying fresh seafood.

 

 

 

This year we elected to have one of those 'stay-cations' every one talks about. Business wise (not my jewelry hobby/business but our Indoor Air Quality company the hubby owns) things are keeping us busy, so it was hard to justify stepping away (he never steps away and is always doing data review every single day for our associates) from some of the IAQ investigations that were coming our way this week.  Then there was the fact that my birthday is Friday and then Easter is Sunday and we usually spend that with family in another town here in AZ.

 

 

 

 

Plans got changed up a bit (having family in the Military, we're used to that!) and now "Easter" isn't going to be where it usually is and several members of the family are away seeing their kiddos and grand babies. And then, my boys said they would really like to go camping in the desert this week/weekend - and I thought that sounded nice, too - so that's what we're doing. 

 

 

 

 

Arizona's lovely in March - usually not too hot, not too cold - perfect weather!  We're hoping for some of that as we head out and enjoy the ruggedness of the desert and the awe-inspiring sunrises and sunsets our state is known for.

 

 

Arizona Sunset - Photo by Paul Hindman

 

While I'm away, I wanted to share with you a new Etsy shop set up by one of my blogging friends - Lynda Carson.

 

Lynda's one talented jewelry artists and her blog, Fresh Baked Designs, has been on my 'must read' list for quite awhile now.

 

I love how she regularly shares her creative process and shows her readers her 'adventures' in designing.  Lynda's opened an Etsy shop because everyone was asking where to get pieces of her jewelry and although she has designs in some actual boutiques/shops near where she lives, there was nowhere online for people to purchase her wonderful creations.  

 

Teal Leaf Bracelt by Fresh Baked Jewelry Designs on Etsy

 

 

I hope you'll hop on over to Lynda's Etsy Shop - which is called FreshBakedJewelry (because FreshBakedDesigns was taken!) - and see what she has to offer. 

Her jewelry is just wonderful!

 

Red Tin Botanitcal Earrings by Lynda Carson on Etsy

 

 

If you stop by Lynda's blog, Fresh Baked Designs, this week, you'll see she's got quite a nice give-a-way going on for those of you who pass along her info via twitter, FB or other social media outlets.

 

Kyanite Drop Earrings by Fresh Baked Jewelry on Etsy

 

 

I hope you're all enjoying your week and for those of you who are getting more of that icky weather with snow and the like when it's supposed to be Spring,....well, I feel for you, I truly do, and I hope you get  some "Spring" coming your way soon!!

 

Until Next Time,

 

Peace, Love and Enjoying the Desert in Spring!

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

~Shel~

This or That Thursday!

Linking up today with This or That Thursday

over on Deb Duty's Blog.

Also, I'm giving a big shout out and huge "Thank You" to Brandi over at Brandi Girl Blog for her lovely tutorial on

"How To Make a Color Palette".

I'm extremely techno-challenged, as you've all heard me tell you, so this was a great thing for me to learn.

I'm going to use it this year when I'm designing jewelry and hopefully it will help me to throw more colors into my designs.

Have a great Thursday!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Gorgeous Colors!

Cheers,

~Shel~ 

Urban Chaos VS. Mountain Air!

I've been up in the mountains on vacation for a few weeks now. We had a great family reunion (the bro's and sis's from the Fernandes - Portuguese - side), celebrated our Nation's Independence Day, enjoyed the parade and fireworks, had BBQ's, sipped drinks in the "Famous Tree House" and have taken care of the dogs, cat and our little love bird, too.

While all this 'back to nature' and family stuff is cool and relaxing, I find myself longing for the 'city' just a bit. I'm ready to re-watch 'SATC' the movie (the 1st one), Love Actually (can't get enough of Hugh Grant's accent - it's my English/Welsh herritage coming out here!) and some other fav movies.  I'm scouring the internet for the latest fashion trends and happenings and wishing I had an occasion to wear a couple of the new shoes I purchased before heading up here.

And, although I'm designing some pretty cool 'organic' items right now, I was browsing my "Urban Chaos" line from last year and thought it would be a good idea to somehow mix the two.

So, here's some pics of last year's Urban Chaos designs with a couple of 'organic naturals' thrown in and in the next couple of days we'll see what I can come up with as I mix and combine the two,........hmmmmm,.....Stay Tuned!!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and All Things Mixed!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Creating,...

I've been really into creating this past week! Sadly, though, I'm only wanting to create what I want and not what I'm supposed to be creating - funny how that works, isn't it?! LOL!!

Anyway - I got a new daping/doming block this past week and have been loving life while "tap, tap, tapping" metal into shapes and creating fun things.

This has spawned a new line of jewelry I will be coming out with by the end of September - if not sooner. It's a personal/sentimental, spiritual line of jewelry with symbols, words and stones of meaning. Very simple yet fun and cool!

I'm really enjoying creating this type of jewelry because there's such a 'shift' in the world right now (and it's been happening for awhile now) and we all seem to feel the need to 'be connected' to something/someone, to share our hopes and dreams, goals, feelings, emotions and many other things and "put them out there" for the Universe/God to take and shape from dream into something solid.

I'll keep you posted and give you a sneak peak here over the weekend,....

I'm also getting ready to post some *FREE* jewelry making tutorials over at jewelrylessons.com - so for those of you wanting to do some creating of your own, go check things out. There's tons of tutorials on this site from many talented jewelry artists and so many of the tuts are *FREE*!

Right now I've got an article that was posted over at jewelrylessons.com about teaching jewelry classes with something 'more' - go check it out under the articles section.

Hope your day is filled w/love, health and happiness!!

Until next time,

Peace, Love and have fun creating beautiful things!

Cheers,

~Shel~