It's been way too long...

I didn't think I'd ever go this long without having anything to say. I've been in a mood lately, just so many things happening and I'm finding it really stressful to work my way out of the bottom of this massive pile of stuff on top of me. 

First of all, thank you all for your kind words on Facebook about Niki. I have come to the conclusion, and I know that she isn't coming back. My heart hurts, and that's been really weighing on me. It's killed my desire to design anything because in some silly way...and you'll all think I'm nuts, but I don't want to have to take photo's of anything because she wont be there to sit with me. I told you that was crazy. But she really did sit with me for the past 6 years of me taking jewelry photos. More often than not. So to even think about doing that without her has been killing me. But the show must go on. And I think I'm ready... I think.

I did do something fun last week. I have a friend who asked me to give her some tips on how to use her new fancy Canon camera, and naturally I am happy to help...and of course get my hands on a hot new camera to play with! So I suggested that while she was practicing what I was teaching her, she should take pictures of me. What? Yes, you read correctly. I hate...HATE having my picture taken. That's why I'm a photographer, so I can be behind the camera. Well, I will be celebrating my 40th birthday this December and I decided that it was time to create a memory. My kids will have no pictures of me when I'm older to look back on. I'm really not ever in any of them. So, Lucy and I went off to Topsmead State Park and had an absolute blast!

This one is my favorite. It's now my new FB profile and my blog photo. LOVE it! :) It's a genuine smile, I was having a good time. I really needed some time to laugh and be goofy, so this was perfect. 

My other favorite:

and then there was this, which got the most comments:

LOL! Silly. But I like it! :) I did all the editing of course, played with my fun Photoshop filters and now I have something to save for my kids. This wont happen again for a while! ;) 

The next photo's I show will be of what I am designing this week. I'm hopping back on the bandwagon and getting my butt in gear. I need to put the sadness behind me, and honor Niki. She wouldn't want me to be so sad. I'm sure that she knew she was very loved here and she had a wonderful 15 years with us.

I also know that she will always be with me. :)

Working for a very good cause...

Last week I was asked by a very good friend to donate a piece to a fundraiser for Ovarian Cancer. Naturally, I said yes before I even read any further into what it was for. But once I read through the full email, I am even more honored to have been asked to help raise money for this very worthy cause. 

Here's the story:

In celebration of September’s National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, we are pleased to announce the upcoming Second Annual Volley for Molly tournament being held at Lexington High School on September 24, 2010. This event is in honor of a resilient and loving young woman who passed of this insidious disease at the young age of nineteen.  Our goal is to stop this disease in its tracks!

 I found out that the awareness color for Ovarian Cancer is Teal. So I pulled out my trusty bead boxes and went digging. Found a great set in Ann's box which she generously let me use. This is what I came up with. 

A gorgeous set of teal lampwork glass beads, which I accented with a variety of Swarovski Crystals, hand wrapped circles and Mykonos Greek Spacers. I added a Silver Volleyball Charm as well as a Cancer Awareness Charm near the clasp. 

Love how it turned out. I hope that this does well in the silent auction.

It's an honor to do my part for a good cause.

Down, Down, Down...

You'll have to forgive me. I've had a bit of a setback this week. I've been in such a slump and have not been able to get myself out of it. My cat, Niki...you guys know...the one that sits with me for all of my jewelry photographs. Well, she's been missing since Sept. 6th. I'm a total wreck. She's 15, never wanders away from the house and I have not seen her, or any trace of her so I'm just beside myself. I don't want to think the worst, although with each passing day, things seem a little more bleak. We've searched everywhere in our neighborhood. I made fliers and stapled them to the telephone poles around our immediate area. I'm hoping that if someone did find her that they took her in and are taking very good care of her and loving her as much as we do. 

We miss you Niki... please come home. :(

End of summer, beginning of "ME" time!

Well Summer is coming to a close around here. School starts back next Thursday, and the kids and I spent some time today dividing up the school supplies and packing their backpacks. We also finished up reading lists and homework packets and I believe that they are ready to go! I'm so excited this year because my littlest baby is going off to preschool! Although I am thrilled beyond belief that I am actually going to have a couple of hours to myself while they are all out learning, I am saddened at thinking how quickly they are growing up! I remember the day my oldest was born, and that was almost 12 years ago. Where does the time go? 

With all that free time I have coming up next week, I'm planning a few days of jewelry designing a week and I would LOVE to get out and walk while the summer heat ends and the crisp fall air hits! I love the fall, I love being outside in the fresh air, without all the humidity and just taking in all the beautiful sights. I'm hoping that by getting in a walk, it may inspire my creativity for the days that I choose to stay in and design!

I'm looking forward to sharing a lot more beautiful pieces with you soon! Thanks for hanging in there with me during this long Summer. We've enjoyed our family time and now I'm looking forward to getting back to business! :)

Holy Harvest Batman!

Sometimes I just kill me. LOL! I only have 4 words to say about this ring...

SHUT.THE.FRONT.DOOR!!

Seriously, could you just look at this ring?

I love Rachel Zoe, and she is the accessory queen, I would like to think that she would like this too! :) 

This goes along with my new room color choices, as I love the Fall. It's my favorite season. This ring is staying firmly planted on my finger, however, it will be available for custom order if anyone is interested in the color scheme. There are Burgundy, Olivine, Light Topaz, Copper, Gold and Light Olivine Swarovski Crystals in here along with some leaf charms. TO DIE FOR! LOVE LOVE LOVE this ring. 

It's my favorite to date!! 

I have to order some more leaf charms, but I'll be making another one like this to put up for sale later today, since I already have the colors out on the desk. I do think I have a couple other leaf charms... or maybe an Acorn...oooh, I just had a thought... :) Back later with more!

A fresh coat of paint...

For me, a fresh coat of paint gives you a whole new outlook on things. We moved into our house 9 years ago and it had all Navajo White walls. Slowly we added our own personal paint choices, some lasted longer than others. The kitchen for example, has been painted at least 4 times. I keep changing my mind as to what makes me happy. And right now, I'm very pleased with the majority of the colors throughout the house. With the exception of my bedroom. It was painted once, and badly when we moved in. One of those quick rush jobs, with one coat and more attention on the trimwork so you wouldn't notice. But I notice, and so does my hubby. I'm sick of it. It's GOT to go. My bedroom flows into my office, so with the changing of the bedroom colors, I must contemplate also redoing the office.

My office space is small, but I love it. It's very cozy! I painted it a few years ago when I claimed the space as my own in a beautiful light green color called Tennessee Haze. I still love the green, but I want to punch it up a little. 

So off I went the other day to Lowes, to grab some paint samples. I was immediately drawn to THIS:

I love the fall, and these colors just spoke to me. But how do I incorporate them into my bedroom which has a beautiful rich dark (Eggplant) purple carpet. The color palette on the inside was nice, but didn't quite have what I was looking for. So I pulled a lot of different things. Then I went back the next day to Home Depot to scour their paint color choices. Between the two stores, I have narrowed my choices down to these:

For the walls in the bedroom we chose the Mojave Gold, which is the third one down on the far left swatch. There is one wall that carries into my office as well. For the ceiling in my bedroom we chose the Tundra color,  which is the middle choice on the far right swatch. This will also be the new color on the walls in my office. And for a little accent color, I think I'm going to paint my closet door in the office in the gold and the Sun Dried Tomato color. So two colors in the bedroom which go nicely with the carpet and three in the office, because there's a wonderful dark foresty green carpet in there! I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself!! 

I hope I don't hate it, but in reality I know that my tastes change so quickly that I'm sure it will be painted again in no time. :) Must be the artist in me.

Good thing my husband doesn't mind!

Deck out those digits!

I'm loving the new cluster rings that I'm making, and they seem to be a huge hit! I had a whole bunch made for my show last Sunday and all but one sold, so this one will be up on Etsy later. 

I've ordered more bases and some really cool crystal colors to make some more fun combo's. Look out for them in the next week or two! I've received a lot of good suggestions for color schemes that you'd like to see, so please feel free to share your input by commenting here or over on my Facebook page! I love to hear your thoughts, so keep those comments coming! I really appreciate it and all of you. 

Scrambling can be fun!!

It's been a really hectic week here. We had lots to do and it seems like the time just flew by! We had a family get together last Sunday and we got to see our cousins that we had not seen in a really long time. It was fun! Thank goodness for Facebook, now we can all keep in touch! 

It was also nice that my Gram was able to join us. There were a few pictures that I've been wanting to take in the past few years and the timing just never worked out. We were never all together, or the kids were out playing or I forgot my camera, you get the idea. Sunday, everything just fell into place.  Although there was food on the stove cooking, and guests arriving, and a flurry of activity going on in every room, I insisted on TWO MINUTES of time. It was a well spent two minutes. 

My Grandmother is 87 years old, and the youngest great grandchild is 3, so this is exactly what I wanted to capture in our family Generations photo. This is our "Circle of Life". My grandmother, my mother, me, my sister, my daughter, and my nieces. There are boys in the family too, but this picture was important to me to take of just the girls. Thanks so much to my husband for allowing me to set it up and then standing above us on a chair to take it! :) 

Another favorite photo of the day was this one of my grandmother and her 6 great grandchildren. I'm so glad that they will all have this memory of her as they grow up! 

 

After the party, I turned my attention to jewelry designing to get ready for the Home show that I am doing on Sunday. Here's a few of the last minute things I designed for the show!

Both of the above bracelets are on HOLD for a customer. 

And here are a few that I did yesterday of my more simpler designs without lampwork glass. I like to have a variety of things available for people who are attending a show, that are not in the market to purchase glass art. 

But there was time for one more Glass piece before I gave up for the night! 

Surf's Up!

There may be enough time for me to make a few more pieces before the big day, but getting ready for a show is not all about the designing. There's a lot to pull together and I have a VERY MESSY designing space right now! I have to clean that up! Which can also be fun, because when I clean, sometimes I find more fun beads to play with! :)

Sunflowers

This weekend my hubby took the boys on a little overnight camping trip. So it was just me and my daughter! How fun! I wanted to do something besides sit around in the house, so we went out on Saturday night, hit a couple of stores to browse with Auntie Amy, and then went to On The Border for Mexican. On Sunday, we got up early to drive to Griswold, CT for "Sunflower's for Wishes"

WHAT A SIGHT!! Sunflowers (and Calla's) are my favorite flowers. I love everything about them. And to a Sunflower lover, this was the place to be!!

Here are a few of my favorite photo's from the day...

I played with this one in Photoshop... I LOVE this picture!! Both ways, color and Black and white!

Here's just a portion of the huge field, there was actually a whole other section on the opposite side of the road as well. 

We stopped for lunch on the way home too. It was some much needed Mother Daughter bonding time. And I know I had fun! She said she did too. We'll have to do this again sometime soon! :)

And the winner is....

Oh  my gosh, I'm so excited!! CATHY, you are the winner!

Cathy wrote: "I am inspired by my girls - they have such a huge curiosity for everything. They fascinate me!"

I couldn't agree more! My kids are truly an inspiration for me as well.  They look at things with such innocence and it's amazing what creative minds that children have.

They are all little artists in their own special way! 

And guess what else? It's Cathy's birthday today!

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Cathy!! 

Don't worry, I have your address...I will be sending out your necklace tomorrow! :)

Thanks so much to everyone for submitting some wonderful answers! I'm so honored that you took the time to comment and be part of this with me! 

I hope you can take away something from everyone else's comments and find a new way to inspire yourself to create something fabulous!

Another heat wave's headed our way...

Talking about the weather when you live in New England is almost inevitable. There's so much inconsistency that it makes me crazy at times! We had a heat wave last week, and it's working it's way back this week. Today we have pouring rain and thunderstorms. When it's humid outside, I like to be INSIDE with the air conditioner on. Yesterday I sat in my office with my Diet Coke, my friend Allyson (and Miss Reese, of course) and my CD player going and I HAULED on bracelets!! 

I made two custom orders, here's a look at one of them made with Jenelle's FABULOUS focals!

I can get more of these beautiful focals from Jenelle too if anyone is interested in a similar style. Available for custom order, just email me! 

Next are three bracelets that I made with Jena Fulcher's AWESOME beads! I decided that I could make one really funky wrapped charm bracelet or share the wealth. Each is similar but different in it's own special way. Here are some preliminary photos, to be retaken outside once the sun shines!

This one is called "Sublime Key Lime"

Here's the sister to this one "Sublime Key Lime II" (until I can think of something better)

And the last is called "Blue Hawaiian"

These will be listed up on Etsy tomorrow, once I get some outside pictures which will truly show off the sparkle in these awesome bracelets! 

I'm in the mood to move on to more fall colors now... so the other bracelet that I made will be posted tomorrow because the picture is too blurry. LOL! I'm a perfectionist! Can you tell? ;) It is made with some beautiful earthy colored Kazuri Beads and Swarovski Crystals.
Last chance to enter for the giveaway!! Get those comments in and check back tomorrow night to see if you've won! 

I tried something new, and you can win it!

Sometimes I see things flashing by me, either on the TV or on someone walking by on the street or in the store and I think to myself..."that's really cool, I'd like to try that". Sometimes I jot it down, or draw myself a picture of the way I'd like to try to design it myself and make it my own. Sometimes I rip pictures of colors, flowers, food and fabrics out of magazines and pin them up on the inspiration board in my office. I have them organized by season. Then I refer back to them when I'm stuck for an idea. I'm constantly inspired by the things around me. Flowers, paint swatches, food, the ocean. I pull color schemes and ideas from these things, and I find myself naming my pieces after them as well.

As far as designs, I subscribe to only two magazines. Step by Step Wire, and Bead and Button. Love to flip through them and teach myself a new technique. Sometimes  I go to the bookstore and look through Bead Trends and Stringing. Those are my other two favorites. There are so many different styles of jewelry and it's just so nice to see so many talented people all doing their own thing. 

I can't remember exactly where I saw something similar to this design I was thinking about in my head. I have that Wig Jig thing, and I never use it. I made this with my pliers. Ideally, to make this perfect for ME, I would add some of Jenelle's Lampwork Organic Seeds to this funky wrapped design, but for this practice run I used some really pretty Jade that I picked up at the Gem Show earlier this year. Then I wrapped the top and bottom loops with seed beads (which is my new favorite thing to do). 

I added a little drop charm to the bottom as well and strung it on a Steel Cable.

After I finished I reviewed it and made notes on how I can improve on it for the next time. It's not perfect but since it is really pretty, I thought that I could give it away!

Anyone think they would like to give it a good home? Here's what you have to do to enter to win it: 

1.  First you have to sign up to follow my Blog. I have over 400 followers on Facebook, but only 53 here so let's see if we can bump that up. (If you feel so inclined, you can also follow me on Twitter (MJMJD), and/or sign up to receive my newsletter - right here on the blog).

2.  Once you sign up to follow the blog, leave me a comment on this post telling me what your main source of inspiration is. You don't have to design jewelry, but I'm sure that people take inspiration from things for all sorts of different creative outlets. Tell me what your favorite is! I'm curious if people go about it the same way that I do and I'm sure there are many more ways that people use their creative minds out there. I'd love to hear your thoughts! You all inspire me too! :)

I'll assign all the comments a number and next Wednesday, July 14th at 6pm, I'll draw a winner at random and send you this cool necklace! (Free shipping for US residents only, please!). So go ahead, start commenting! :)

A Happy Fourth!

This is one of my favorite holiday's to celebrate. Good food, friends and FIREWORKS!! I've loved them for as long as I can remember. The big BOOM is my favorite part. I've taken some great firework pictures over the years but not this year. For the past few years, we've been enjoying my neighbors fireworks display (which he sets off in our yard). And this year, it just didn't do it for me. So next July 4th, I'm on a mission to see some good fireworks again! 

But the whole day wasn't bad... we went to my sister's house to swim for the day! The kids had a BLAST! 

Thanks to my sister for letting us enjoy this beautiful day poolside!