What I made today...

I spent a few hours this afternoon while Carlos was napping catching up on some bead work, mostly custom orders...

Custom order bridal earrings
(Rainbow moonstone, labradorite, Swarovski pearl, aquamarine, & sterling silver)

... and matching necklace

Custom order kyanite solitaire necklace

Custom order labradorite earrings
(which I'm considering adding as a regularly stocked item...)

And a colorful tourmaline bracelet, which I will be listing in my shop tomorrow.

Big Honkin' Pink Tourmaline Ring

I finished this custom order today... it uses an enormous pink tourmaline cabochon (14mm x 16mm; 16.5 carats) - very bold!

Etsy front page today!

What do you think of these?

Possible color inspirations for painting my studio...

Okay, time to spill.

Obviously this will not come as a huge surprise, but yes, Willy is building me a NEW STUDIO!!!!!! Eek! I am so excited. Thanks to everyone who guessed. And this month's winner is - Lotta! Yay Lotta! Email me to let me know what you'd like to use your $25 towards.

I was kind of surprised at how unanimous the guesses were - I don't know what I was expecting - I guess maybe I thought more of you would guess that we were adopting again or something. {We're not.} But then I realized that all of you who guessed probably don't know how small our house is, so you wouldn't necessarily know that enlarging the family would require enlarging the house... :-)

Anyways, construction is coming along fabulously. The sheetrockers are delivering their supplies as we speak and if all goes according to schedule, I could possibly be painting the interior walls by next weekend! And I haven't chosen colors yet so if anyone knows of any good inspiration sites for that kind of thing, please share. I want to do something colorful and pretty. It's the only place in the house that's 100% *mine* so if I want to get all girly-girl, this is the place.

A couple of days ago, we went and bought some super sexy workbenches for the studio at Costco, and today or tomorrow I'm going to order my new desk. We'll be moving our current computer out to the studio and getting a laptop for the house. One corner of the studio will be devoted to office space and processing bead orders (my current setup is woefully inadequate) and there will be separate work areas for beading and metalwork. There will be a sink, a heater, an exhaust fan over my soldering area, and as you already saw, a window with a nice view. Heaven!!!

More rings again...

'Dewdrop' Ring - Rainbow moonstone over blue resin, size 7.75

Charoite & sterling silver, size 9

Labradorite & sterling silver, size 6
{I have a hunch this one won't be around for long; whenever I find labradorite this intensely blue, it seems to sell right away...}

A couple of custom order rings I finished today (finally)

Ruby & sterling silver

California pink tourmaline & sterling silver

More Vegan Bridal Jewelry

Another custom order for an upcoming wedding...

{for the bride}


{for the bridesmaid}

Yes, more beads.

I need them like I need a hole in the head. Soon to be listed in Ye Olde Bead Shoppe...

Andalusite briolettes

Aquamarine (beryl) nuggets
{just a bit smaller than those I've had in my shop recently}

Andalusite rondelles

Garnet briolettes

Green garnet briolettes

Smooth labradorite ovals

Faceted peridot rondelles

Tundra garnet briolettes

Teeny-weeny tundra garnet briolettes

Oh yes, and I have some labradorite cabochons to de-stash... anyone want them?

Assorted round labradorite cabs, 12.5mm - 17.5mm, $30 for the batch

{another view of the same cabs}

17mm labradorite cabs, $20 for all four

Cabs, beautiful cabs...

New cabs! I went shoppin' yesterday and here's what I found... (all are available for custom order rings unless noted otherwise)

The biggest pink tourmaline cabochon I've ever seen
(14mm x 16mm, 16.5 carats, and tentatively spoken for)

{another view}

Aquamarine {these cabs are so luminous! very pretty...}

Triangular pink tourmaline

Brazilian blue-green tourmaline

Brazilian pink tourmaline

Peridot

Afghan tourmaline

A room with a view, and some cute duckies too

Our mystery construction project is coming along nicely. Framing is done, plumbing and wiring is just about finished, and the window opening got cut out today - very exciting!!!


The window itself also got delivered today and I'm hoping it might go in tomorrow...

{view from inside - you can't tell in this picture, but you can see all the way out to the ocean}

Sheetrock and siding should be happening soon. I'll probably spill the beans any day now about what the project is, so if you haven't already made your guess, time's running out!

I can't believe I haven't posted about this yet, but we got ducks! I haven't been able to get any really great pictures of them yet because they are really shy; they seem pretty comfortable in their pen but don't really like to venture out. We've opened the door up several times so they could go explore the larger yard but even the promise of fresh green grass and big juicy slugs doesn't seem to tempt them; they just stay in their cozy little pen even when the door is open. Maybe when we get our chickens they can teach the ducks to be a little more exploratory.


So, between the difficulty of photographing them through the wire of their fence and trying not to scare them, and my embarrassment over the fact that we haven't thought of names for them yet (any suggestions?), I guess that's why it took me a week or two to show them off. But aren't they the cutest? I love watching them swim and bathe and peck in the grass, and it's so nice to have that quacky background noise to listen to when we're out in the yard.


Any suggestions on how to befriend shy ducks? For now I've just been giving them their space, and today Carlos and I fed them little pieces of bread. Carlos is being really good with them - he knows not to chase them or scare them. Pretty cute, all three of them.

The matching necklace...

...to the earrings I posted a while back. Here's the necklace I made for my friend to wear at her wedding, which is coming up this Saturday. It contains Swarovski simulated pearls, sterling silver 'stardust' rondelles, aquamarine, rainbow moonstone, and plenty-o-labradorite of course!

How could anyone not think turkeys are beautiful???

The magnificent Melvin (photo from Peaceful Prairie's blog)

One of the blogs I subscribe to is Peaceful Prairie's. They don't post often, but when they do, look out - each essay is packed with emotion and insight, and likely to cause tears. This latest one really got to me, seeing as how I have such a preoccupation with turkeys...

I finally joined YouTube...

I was thinking how nice it would be for Carlos' foster family back in Guatemala (who we stay in touch with via email) to see videos of him, rather than just still photos, so I went and joined YouTube. So far I can't get the recent video (the one I wanted to show the foster family) to upload but I was able to load this one from back in November 2006. This was during my third visit to see Carlos during the long adoption process, and this little clip shows him playing with my Dad in our hotel room. As it turned out, this was the only good day we had during that whole trip; Carlos got really sick and was throwing up the rest of the time - poor baby.

A couple more rings

Custom order four leaf clover ring
(Rainbow moonstone over green resin)

Distressed rose quartz ring, size 6

{backless!}

Custom order faceted rutilated quartz ring