The Crazy Creative Corner

I have actually gotten into the Craft Room to play with creating earrings. I love earrings, I believe that's a well established fact by now. So, preferences aside, here are some pics of what's been happening lately. (as you can see, I was having some serious fun ~snork!~) (I believe it's also been established I love Halloween!?)



A beautiful mix of Spring colors to work with



More....



More....



Bet'cher wondering what THIS is all about!  Welp! I've been reading, lately, on several of the blogs I follow (as well as number of FB pal's pages) that there is a dearth of creativity. Mental blockage has occured. The Muse has gone on vacation. The heart rending question of "what do YOU do to counteract this inspirational drought?" has popped up everywhere. Well, here's what you do; something else.

No, really, something else that exercises your creative muscles, but has nothing to do with your normal creative exercises, will (usually) bring the inspirational rains. Draw. Do some Creative Writing (with a limit on # of words). Play an instrument (that's usually soothing). Take photographs of odd things you wouldn't normally take. Dance.

Here's my contribution and a Challenge to all who read this: this week, you must write a short story about the above pictured ring and post it to your blog. Here are the rules; 1) no more that 250 words. Period (I will count!)  2) It can be any genre of creative writing you want except erotica (this is a family friendly blog, keep it G or PG).  3) You must post it to your blog or FB page by Friday, the 7th of February (yes, short time frame, but it kick-starts the inspirations). 4) You may put a link to your blog or FB page in the comments section of this post for us to follow and read.

That's it! Hope y'all take up the challenge. I'll do the same and we'll see what the Muse inspires. Have fun! And see you Friday Evening for the Creative Writing Reveal!

Sally over at The Studio Sublime challenged us to a hop wherein we made jewelry using only the colors of black and white (not counting wire). Y'know, I've got black beads and white beads all over but I've never (except once) sat down with the express purpose of putting them together. So, here's my contribution to her unique (to me, at least) hop challenge:

had some black chiffon that worked beautifully I'm really getting more into mixing in ribbon or fabric into my jewelry. Love it.

                                           top to bottom: grayish crystals, milky grey/white

                                              Going for simple with these: the longer pair,

                                                 these are major shoulder sweepers! again,


                                           recycled white glass/sea glass from ZnetShows

                                          top to bottom: black bead, end caps from a small

So, that's my contribution to this challenge. Thanks, Sally, for the kick in the pants to get the ol' Muse thinking and creating again.  Please visit the other participants to see what they've done!
 

Sally Russick  (HOSTESS)

Monique Urquhart

Patti Vanderbloemen

Veralynne Malone

Duane Clark

D Lynne Bowland

Michelle Buettner

Pam Sears  (**YOU ARE HERE**)

Therese Frank

Dawn Doucette

Nicole Rennell

Cynthia Machata

Alice Peterson

Carolyn Lawson

Evelyn Shelby

Ailsa Cordner

Michelle Escano

Mischelle Fanucchi

Jess Green

Adrienne Berry

Lynsey Brooks

Kashmira Patel

Ann Schroeder

Marlene Cupo

Susan F.

Susan Kennedy

Kathy Lindemer

Paula Kramer

Lisa Johnson

Sandi Volpe

Donna Bradley

Karin Slaton

Jasvanti Patel

Stefanie Teufel

Liz Engriser

Christine Altmiller

Kristi Bowman is one of the blogs I enjoy following. I can get so inspired by her work! So imagine my excitement when one of her sets of earrings ended up in and issue of Step by Step Wire Jewelry magazine? Her earrings are titled Aladdin's Lamp and I just loved them!  Since they were in the magazine as a tutorial, I know it's ok for me to create these earrings with my own twist, but I give TOTAL credit for the inspiration to Kristi. Here are my two interpretations of her original work:



This pair is called Scheherazade's Dance. I used large hole purple glass beads, recycled gold sari ribbon and copper wire. They're a little on the long side, but I love them!



Another view of Scheherazade's Dance

This pair is called 1,001 Nights. I used a pinky/purply sari ribbon and the beads are from Javabead.com by the very talented Russ Powers. I had been hoarding these beads until I went back and saw Kristi's tutorial again and knew I had to make these!

 

View II of 1,001 Nights. Aren't the colors in those beads just gorgous!?

So that's all I managed to do this weekend. We've been very busy with our church and a Revival meeting we're having the rest of this week.  I highly recommend you follow Kristi for great inspiration (and drool-worthy work) and go check out Java Beads for handblown glass beads that will melt your mind.

...and the best lift I know of is laughter.  And the best laugh-inducers I know of are animals.  Whether they're our pets, others pets, or what-cha-ma-callums from Nature, animals can cause us to smile, giggle or just fall over laughing (occasionally peeing ourselves just a little from laughing too hard).  Animals know when we're down but don't get the why's and wherefores of it so they do what they can.  Beg for a scratch or a treat, behave in a silly manner, invite us to play or simply lay their head on our lap.  But they can always bring a smile. 

There's a web site called I Can Has Cheeseburger that allows people to post pics of pets and/or other animals caught in... uhmm... unique poses.  It also allows us to caption them.  Sometimes, those captions are just dead-bang on and you can't help but giggle (or "snork").  Anyway, here are a few pics from the LOLDogs side of the house (go check the site for what else they have altho', be warned, it's not all pets and some of it you may want to avoid... like, maybe, the one's labeled NSFW ~means Not Safe For Work~ as well as the tattoo section... if that sort of thing doesn't bother you, fine, but you've been warned!)
(p.s., I only put in doggies, but they have cats and whats-its, too)



who could say 'no' to that face? huh? uhm, well, me! (snerk)




And now you know, clearly, what the word "snark" looks like!

 

No. And neither does the drooling. Do you mind?



And I no longer have an opinion.  I've been out-opinioned by this cutie!



guess even dogs can get tickled, eh?



I just set off the "awwwww" in everyone, huh?



Laugh! Or we'll bite your butt!

     p.p.s., I'll be back later this week with some more pics only, this time, of my jewelry instead. Hope you enjoyed the smile!

We took my table-top studio set back to the camera store my Mom bought it from and found out it was just a little short in the back of the lamp itself (not the cord). The guy helping us said he had a technician that worked in the store who could very likely fix it if we wanted to try that route first. Well, I'm all for the simple solution. He promised to call us when it was done (this was about 10:30 yesterday morning).

No calls.
All afternoon.
SO bummed. :(

Then, today, I get a message from Mom that the camera store had called her.  MY STUDIO LAMP IS FIXED! YAY!!  They'll get it for me this afternoon and I can set up some shots again tonight.  Woo HOO! Yes!  We'll see how things go, now.  Hopefully I'll have some creative pics to share soon.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEAL!

Santa brought me not only a brand new Canon Rebel T2i EOS 550D (digital) camera, he brought me an RPS Studio Pro Style Desktop Studio ("take pictures like a Pro!")  Now, nothing against my iPhone3GS, it's taken some pretty darn good pics for me to post, but I am so STOKED about getting to use my new camera and new Studio set up for my photos I can hardly stand it! (~does the Happy Hamster Giggle-Shimmy~)

Speaking of pics, and iPhones and such, I have a new necklace that will be going into my Etsy store as soon as I can set this studio up and get off some shots (hopefully, tomorrow night... depending...)  Anyway, the necklace is made from two clasps I bought from Melinda Orr over at Melinda Orr Designs with the copper one being the closing clasp and the metal & stone one becoming the focal piece.  I paired them with some GORgeous handmade beads I bought from Pam at Ferrariorginalbeads on Etsy.  Here's the iPhone version and I should have it posted on Etsy by (as I said/hoped) Thursday night.

Hope everyone else had a great Christmas and plan on having a Happy New Year.

Well, I went back to Pier 1 Imports last night and bought out all the daisy wine glass tags I could find. THEN, sadly, I found some cute little butterfly tags.  I say "sadly" because there were only two sets so, six pairs of butterfly earrings.  I also found some great lampwork flowers that I'm turning into earrings, too, and I have plans to go back and buy up the glass bead tags as well.  On the negative side, it cost me a little over $80 to buy all those (about 14 boxes of tags).  On the plus side, almost all of them were on sale so it only cost me a little over $80 to buy all of them.  On the plus-plus side, half of the ones on sale were on a better sale than the red tag led me to believe!  I just LOVE saving money! (if I only don't go broke saving it ~HA!~)
Anyway, here are three more pairs I made from last nights' haul, but they're not daisies this time.
Enjoy! (and, as always, feel free to share this link with anyone! *wink*)

Blue Swirl

Flowering Hope ~for my Spina Bifida line~

Hope Floats ~also for my SB line~

To paraphrase my Etsy description, those with SB aren't really that different from the rest of us.  They're no less fun-loving or any more serious than we are.  I want some of my SB line to reflect more than "serious" jewelry, I want fun and funky as well.  Hope Floats and Flowering Hope start that portion of my line.  Enjoy them, too. There will be more!