Bragg Creek Fire

Last night in our little hamlet of Bragg Creek, one of two gas stations burnt down. The gas station is located next to the strip mall that has  the local shops and restaurants, and luckily no one was hurt! Firefighters came from several surrounding communities, and managed to get it under control quickly. One of the local fellows took this photo and emailed it to us. We were totally safe, as our home is a few miles from the center of town. However...quite sad to see this local landmark and business destroyed. Pin It

Spring 2012...new pieces!

Well, I finally finished the first pieces of jewellery for 2012! These are all being packaged up and heading off  for the opening of a brand new boutique in Coaldale, Alberta,  called La Tada!

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Kitty Bling!

This was on my calendar today, and I knew that several of my readers that are cat lovers would appreciate this cute handbag. Apparently "Jinx the Cat", is entirely hand beaded with Swarovski crystals! Isn't he cute? Pin It

Fine Arts Day

Yesterday, was Fine Arts Day, at our local school. Several artists, (about 21) were invited to come to the school and teach several classes to the students throughout the day on their field of expertise. The students selected their choices in advance and signed up for classes that they were interested in. Among the artists involved, were floral designers, painters, potters, photographers, one man did caricatures, there were instructors for highland dance and Latin dance, another man taught improv,  and one of our local celebrities taught a group songwriting and then performed the song at the assembly at the end of the day! My son was one of four boys who worked with a professional videographer, that went around the school, capturing the entire day on camera. They will work to edit  their film and produce a video for the school. I taught jewellery design to several groups of grade 7 and 8 students. It was an amazing day, and what a fabulous opportunity for students to be able to create and learn from the artists in their community. All of the children in the school, from kindergarten to grade 8  attended the classes, and it was exciting to see how all of them used their creative brains! There was a fabulous lunch supplied in the school library for all the volunteers, and teas, coffees, water and cold drinks were available all day long. I was absolutely thrilled to be involved in this wonderful day! I think every school should have the opportunity to hold  a Fine Arts Day  during the year. 

 I was way too busy to get photos, but these are pictures of the projects that my students were able to choose from. The top piece was a project that could be used as a key chain, belt/backpack clip, or attach the design to a chain for a very cool necklace. The second photo is a pendant necklace.  They all chose their own beads, buttons and ribbon, so every single one of them turned out unique. They enjoyed hammering the metal tags, and each student chose what word to punch onto their tag. Some put their names, one girl put "dance" onto her tag, and one boy designed a necklace for his Mom, and put the word "Love" onto his tag. How sweet is that?! One very thoughtful girl designed a necklace for one of the schools volunteer Moms, who lost her  young son in a tragic accident last Spring. She put the boys name on the tag, and hung a pretty pink heart amongst other beads. That woman was very touched. 

It is days like that, when I feel very blessed to be able to introduce my passion to kids, and see the thrill and enjoyment in their eyes when they make something with their own hands that they can be proud of!

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Upcycled Mason Jars

They say that with the right lighting, any mood can be achieved. I just discovered the coolest light fixtures on Etsy by BootsNGus, and just had to share with you!

  How cool would these be in a country kitchen?

Great conversation pieces for your shabby chic decor!

 I love this rainbow colored piece.

Check out their shop on Etsy for more vintage finds.


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Two, two, two necklaces in one!

One of my daughters, who attends the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, is organizing an event to help raise funds for future field trips for the environmental engineering program. I offered to help out, by donating a prize. Since the event is taking place near Valentines day, I decided to go with a bit of romantic heart theme, and created this necklace, which is actually two necklaces in one! This is a long style necklace, created with a mix of vintage and new chains, an assortment of wonderfully textured brass beads from days gone by, and genuine Swarovski crystals. The large heart pendant is awesome!

 With a quick flip of the brass clasp, the lucky recipient can switch out the pendant.  The second pendant consists of vintage brass ball chains and  lilac colored Swarovski chain suspended from a pretty brass petal flower bud.

 So there you have it...two necklaces in one. I think, in the future, I will make other necklaces with this option!

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Grandmas Jewels....reinvented.

I have a customer who recently gave me a bag of jewelry, that once belonged to her Grandmother. She has requested that I design 4 sets of jewels for her,  from a wonderful selection of vintage beads and baubles.

It was a lot of fun going through the bags and boxes of  necklaces, bracelets and brooches, and playing around to see what beads and sparkly gems went together. After taking apart several necklaces, a few old earrings, chains, and repurposing a rhinestone brooch into a pretty pendant, I came up with the first of the four matching sets. I am really happy that I have managed to create  "new" fashionable pieces  that this lady can wear, while still keeping the sentimental value of the vintage jewels and most importantly the special memories  of her Grandmother . Pin It

Dreaming of Dressing Rooms

I need to reorganize my closet. Or should I say OUR closet. I think my husbands stuff is taking over, and I just realized that he has more sections of the closet than I do...and that is just wrong! Now, he is certainly not a follower of fashion, so I am not quite sure how this happened, but it needs to be rectified soon!
I love a neat organized area for clothes, shoes and accessories, so that got me to dreaming of having a glamorous dressing room. 
Something like this would work nicely. I love the ample storage of the white cabinetry and how neat and tucked away everything is.

traditional closet design by newark interior designer Kingsley Belcher Knauss, ASIDI

 This one would work nicely as well, love all the mirrors.

http://zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com/

http://www.houzz.com/photos/closet

However, this room  has the shoe storage that I am looking for AND the gorgeous chandelier!



I really love the vintage style of this mirrored vanity.......

http://ffffound.com/image/8e551a8dc3689e1d271e4305650e6ff1cebe09d9

This one is stunningly beautiful...a bit over the top perhaps, plus I would have to take shares out in Windex to keep the room sparkling clean!

http://cdn.freshome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Walk-in-closets-20.jpg

You never know when you need an island in your dressing room! Great for displaying your jewels!

www.google .com

http://www.taylorhannaharchitect.ca/gallery/interiordesign

Here we have it all, the hidden storage, lots of  space for shoes, boots, hats and bags, mirrors, a makeup vanity, the gorgeous chandelier, AND a chaise for napping!

I'll let you know how it tuns out.

 

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Hot Rocks on Sale!

Today is the first day back to the routine after the holidays, and I just realized that the next month is action packed! I have several custom orders that I will be working on, on Jan.25th, I am teaching a jewellery making class to the grade 7 and 8 students, at the local school, I have a necklace to make for a fund raiser at the University of British Columbia, and a line of jewellery to design and create for a new boutique opening in southern Alberta! Whew....I am exhausted just thinking about it! Needless to say, that new designs for my Etsy shop will have to wait a bit longer. So in the meantime I am having a big clear out sale in my shop. Everything is 35% off, my biggest discount ever! To get the discount, just add this coupon code at the checkout Clearout35.
Happy Shopping! Pin It

Handmade Christmas Review

Sorry I have been absent for the past week! We took a little  mid week break, and went to Banff for a few days to visit one of our daughters, and to partake in a little R and R. As of Monday, everything returns to the normal routine, the husband goes back to work, and my son, much to his dismay returns to school after the Christmas break. As the holiday break comes to a close, I wanted to share with you, some of the amazing handmade goodies that I purchased for gifts before Christmas. This past Christmas, I set out to buy handmade as much as possible, and I had great results with all of these gorgeous items, from some extremely talented and creative individuals!

From Rockitbot, I bought this cool all  in one iPod/iPhone Nerd Herder wallet for my son.

Several people  received these fabulous handmade french inspired soaps from DancingMooney,  located in Oregon. I kept one for myself, and this is honestly some of the nicest soap I have ever used!

One of my daughters  was the lucky recipient of this deluxe camera strap from Phatstraps , for her DSLR camera.

  From Ireland, the talented Kate Ramsey of FeltFieltroFilc, made this stunning silk and felted wool scarf for one of my other daughters.

 The same daughter also received these cool fingerless gloves, from BonzieDesigns, also located in Ireland.

  Seriously, some of the best tea I have ever tasted came from Wildroot, in  Bellingham, Washington, where the ingredients for this awesome tea are organic, locally grown, ethically wildcrafted and fair trade certified.  I bought 5 different flavors, and gave 4 away to the kids, and once again, I kept one of these for moi!

 

My husband was totally spoiled, with this beautifully handcrafted leather messenger bag, from RusticLeather  located in Texas. As you see...I managed to get in on a sale price during Black Friday!

Daughter number 3, got a turquoise Sassy Scarf created by Michaelah Polegato of Calgary, similar to this one.

 

Two of the daughters got these extremely cool bags, (which make super beach bags or shopping bags) as well as wallets, made by recycling the material from  billboards!  Designed and created by  the very creative Canadian artist, Jill Lennox.  Her website Recreate It is coming soon.

 

Of course, Christmas gift giving would not be complete  without all 3 daughters,  receiving some of Moms handmade Hot Rocks Jewellery!  I made each daughter a personalized necklace, featuring the color of their birth stones, their initials, and I was  lucky enough to have found a couple  of dog tags made in the year that they were born that I embellished, and added into the mix. Unfortunately I could not find a dog tag with  the birth year for daughter # 3, so she got a pretty locket instead. 

 Well, I hope to get back into my regular routine starting on Monday, and I also have a lot of reading to do catching up with all of my bloggy pals!

 

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Happy New Year!

                                            Happy New Year to you all! 
I wish you the very best in the coming year. 
One of the memorable moments of 2011 was seeing these amazing fireworks next to the Eiffel Tower! I was fortunate enough to go to Paris this past summer, and these photos were taken on  Bastille Day, which is a huge  holiday in France.

 One of my biggest accomplishments in 2011,  was managing to keep off the 40 lbs that I lost in 2010!

I am  continuing to control my diabetes with exercise and diet alone.....yay!

This year,  one of my personal my goals is to continue to stay fit and eating healthy, but to challenge myself even more with more weight training.

I also plan on learning and adding adding a few new  techniques to my jewelry designs. Riveting, working with embellished metal,  trying out some resin pendants and incorporating  leather into some of my creations...are all in the works for this year.

What are your goals or plans for 2012?




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