Inspiration and Eye Candy

I've been in the midst of catching up on all the things and that includes going through my feedreader, e-mails, digital files, and every other location that I've stashed and saved links. At the beginning of May I mentioned sharing the interesting that I find every so often. As with that post and any other ones I do like this remember - {{If you're going to Pin or Tumble or share these yourself in some way, PLEASE make sure you go to the original source and do so!!}}

Let's start with these tin can lanterns.  These looks super simple to make and how great is the recycling aspect of them!? I think they're perfect for summer, and wouldn't they be great to put some citronella candles in to shoo the bugs away?

Summer Lantern Tutorial from Whee! The People

These 'bits and bobs' collections from Vintageologie are so very inspiring and beautiful. You can find more like this at the Vintageologie facebook page.

This turquoise, blue, and green collection was my favorite of the three collections.

How simple and yummy are these Strawberry Waffle Parfait bites from The Painted Apron? She combined some great breakfast items with pure delicious-ness to come up with a unique breakfast/snack.

Breakfast YUM from The Painted Apron

This guitar and bass bangle from Erin Siegel is awesome! It's rock-n-roll, but still nice enough to be worn to work. The link will take you to her tutorial for it, including how to make the chic tassels.

Guitar and Bass Bangle tutorial from Erin Siegel

Lastly, this short and sweet list from Handmadeology of some of the most common photography mistakes for your products had me really thinking about my own photos and how to improve them. I hope it helps you too.

Handmadeology's list of 10 Common Photography Mistakes

I think there's a little something for everyone in this list so I hope you found something to inspire you over the weekend. Have a great one!

You'll Like This

Way back when I started blogging (ages ago), I shared bunches of links to just some of the cool stuff I found on the internet. In fact, I shared so many links that I had daily themes as to what I shared. (Seriously, check out April 2008. It's full of linky goodness.) Somehow, I let those posts fall to the wayside. I want to bring my link-sharing back. . . kinda. Now, I promise I won't be doing this daily like I used to. And, I can't promise that I'll even post links weekly. I just want to make sure you get to see some of the awesome, inspiring, and helpful things I find. {{If you're going to Pin or Tumble or share these yourself in some way, PLEASE make sure you go to the original source and do so!!}}

This collection of slightly creepy, but stunning photos is simply called Bothers Grimm's Homeland. Here's just one of them.

Brothers Grimm's Homeland by Killian Schoenberger

For something a little lighter, here's 10 Light & Fresh Spring Dips from TheKitchn

10 Light & Fresh Dips for Spring Snacking from TheKitchn

Isn't this colorful boho bracelet from Three Trees just dreamy?

Colorful Boho Bracelet, Tribal Jewelry by ThreeTrees

How fun is this light up paper mache garland? Too cute, right? And, looks easy enough.

Paper Mache Lit Garland from Oh Happy Day

I'm swooning over these Rustic Polymer Clay Beads/Headpins. I might just have to break down and get them for myself.

Rustic Polymer Clay Beads/Headpins from BeadsByEarthTones

For my geeky girl side, this image that includes each of the first and last lines of each Harry Potter book is just too awesome.

First and Last Lines: Harry Potter from Slow Robot

I suppose that's plenty enough Internet awesome for one Friday. I'll keep my eyes open for lots more! Have a happy day.

Tidbits and Bobbins

I know I've been a bit absent here lately and I feel like all I've had to share was what I am eating. I do apologize. I've been really busy on a project and can't seem to focus on much else. While relaxing a little this morning, I've been going through my neglected blog feeds. Since I don't have much of my own stuff to share with you, I figured I could at least share some of the other online bits that caught my eye. (Many of these are Christmas related so I apologize to those of you who don't celebrate the holiday.)

Free printable Christmas gift card box from Claudine Hellmuth

Twine-wrapped wire trees from Landee See Landee Do

Pantone's Color of the Year 2014

Strung Out has started its 12 Giveaways of Christmas

Make Wire Angel Ornaments from Adventures of a DIY Mom

Handmadeology presents 10 Real Tips for Successfully Selling on Etsy 

 

Nutella Eggnog Cookies. . .need I say more? Oh, the recipe is from Roxanna's Home Baking

This Electronic Waste Jewelry is just too, too cool!

How amazing is this Vintage Ornament Wreath from Lisa Loria!?

So that's what's caught my eye so far. . .and now it's time to get back to my busy-ness. 

Thanks for bearing with me. 

Giveaway Winner and a Little Link-a-palooza

Do you ever have those days where you're absolutely distract-able? When everything going on around you or just the thoughts in your head have you turning away from what you should be doing. . .I'm totally feeling that today. My to do list is just not holding my attention and the busyness of the upcoming weekend has me skittish.

As such, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. I'll start with the announcement of who won the giveaway of my old magazines.

Shirley Moore . . .come on down!!
Actually, Shirley I don't have your e-mail so can you please e-mail me with your information (address). My e-mail is CraftyHope at gmail dot com.

Since it is Friday, I don't feel like I could get away without posting a few links for

• First is Fat Mum Slim's recommendations on How to Get the People to Your Blog. I just love the way she writes. It's humorous and straightforward.
• Over at the Ice Queen E-zine is a video of Jen Crossley sharing her favorite tools and showing off how to use some of them as well. It's a shame Christmas has passed because I think I might have found some tools I could have asked Santa for.

 I can't leave without mentioning that a few items in the Etsy shop just got marked down and are now in the Sale section.  There are deals from 15 to 30% off!!

Now before I get distracted again let me wish you a fabulous weekend.

Renewal Reveal and a Link-a-palooza

After a late night on Wednesday, I was moving super slow yesterday. Even with my snail's pace I was able to finish my The Year of Jewelry Project design for this week. The prompt was "Renewal".

Now, my design is nowhere NEAR as impressive as some of the other designs in the album for this week, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out. It's very near to what I had imagined.

When I read the prompt, I saw in my mind's eye a blank canvas of white with a little bit of color starting to seep into it.

I was also struck with the notion of Springtime and the renewal of plants and flowers as winter's chill begins to lift. With this image in my head, I knew I needed to incorporate a flower.

The pendant is made from a Tim Holtz tag fragment and a piece of cardstock that I altered with paint, embossing powder, and distress crackle. I'm quite pleased with how well these worked together.

In addition to revealing this week's Jewelry Project, I thought I'd also share some links for

• If you saw my goals for 2013, you may remember that one of my goals for the year was to operate Analytics better. I haven't really figured out the best place to start on this goal, but did find that I had this link from Problogger saved on 5 Goals Every Blogger Should Set Up in Google Analytics. Now. . .I'm not positive that all the words in that article make sense (to me) when put together in that combination, but I think with some re-reading and actual hands-on experience I'll figure it out. I hope you do too.
• I had no idea you could use a high temperature glue gun and silicone molds to make awesome jewelry. Ashley at Lil Blue Boo shows you how with her Glue Gun Cabochon tutorial. See for yourself.
• Michelle Mach at Beads and Books always has some great information. Back in August (I KNOW, I'm wayyyyy behind), she shared some tips on SEO for Jewelry Shops. If you can believe it, I actually used to do SEO as a job for a little while. However, I've let all that information just slip out of my head. This was a fantastic refresher and so, so easy to understand.
• Over at Cheap Crafty Mama there's an awesomely simple tutorial on making your own Air Fresheners with items you probably already have sitting around the house. Go take a look-see.

Now I've got some photos to edit, some to take, and some XBox playing to get to later so I'm headed out. No worries, I shouldn't be gone long as I'll be revealing my Focusing on Life photo tomorrow. Eek! See y'all then.

Lazy Friday and Linkage

My to do list is taunting me today. It doesn't look like much, and it probably isn't. However, it just feels like it's dragging me down. Of course that might just be the weight of my own body urging me to go get back in bed. I'm not sick. . .no worries about that. Just tired.

And I will get to the items on my list. . .soon.

Let me delay the inevitable just a bit longer with a Link post

First, Catherine at Not Dressed as a Lamb has some tips for creating professional looking product photos with (almost) no equipment. I know I'm always looking for ways to improve my photos. I'm definitely going to have to go through through this post of hers thoroughly.

I'm often stumped over what to talk about here and am always looking for new ideas. Daily Blog Tips has offered up this great list of content topics and ideas for your blog. It's a list of 15 topics and has really opened my eyes to some new subjects. I think this one's getting printed out!

While we're talking about blog posts, here's a article from Spice Up Your Blog with 28 ways to write reader-friendly posts. Looking down this list. . .I see that my blog still needs some improvement in order to be more reader-friendly. Oops! Sorry y'all.

My sewing skills leave much to be desired. In fact, I think learning to sew is going to be one of my goals for next year. For now, I can just save up links like this one from How About Orange with a list of cases, bags, and buckets to sew. Aren't those just spiffy? One day my friends. . .one day.

It's time for me to hit up that list before the day slips away from me. How's your Friday looking?

Link-a-palooza

Thanks to those of you who made it through my goal review yesterday. I'll make it a little easier on you today with a simple

• First up, Malin de Koning filmed a few videos as a tutorial on how to make her gorgeous beaded beads. Wasn't that nice of her!? Now I just need to get the time to watch her videos. For now I'll just drool over these beads.
  

  

  Aren't these just gorgeous!?

• Speaking of videos, here recently I stumbled on the BAMF Girls Club on YouTube. If you are a fan of fantasy and comedy, you may like this online series. The theme is a reality show where Hermione, Katniss, Lisbeth, Buffy, Michonne, and Bella all move into a house together. The shows are only about five minutes each.  Here's the first episode.
• Completely unrelated, but check out this tutorial on How About Orange for making an Origami Business Card Holder. I could totally replace the rubber band in my purse with one of these super cool holders. 
  

  

  Origami Business card holders from How About Orange

• Lastly, here's a funny that a friend sent to me especially for you beaders. Make sure you read the words under the picture to the tune of MJ's "Beat It".

Two more quick things and then I'll let you get to the rest of your Friday.
1. My Purple Earrings were featured in this really gorgeous treasury.
2. I made some earrings out of paper. . .they're now in my Etsy shop.

All the Frills Earrings

 That's it for me. I've got loads of plans for the weekend and am totally looking forward to it. What's your weekend looking like?

Link-a-palooza

Today's post will be short and sweet. . .I hope. Sometimes these blog posts just spin out of my control. I don't know how that happens.

For you, it's

• Over at How about Orange is a recommendation for a site that has Free fonts and web design resources. I just love fonts, don't you? And free ones are the best!! Well. . .economically speaking.
• After my mention of wanting to get published the other day I swapped e-mails with several of you who commented. I got lots of support and I THANK YOU for that. One person who I went back and forth with was Kashmira from Sudafulee...always in bloom. I was reminded that she recently wrote a post on how SHE found her way into Jewelry Stringing Magazine. Her encouragement, a link from her, and her post about how nice the Stringing staff are have me prepping to send out a few items next week. It's a big step and I'm nervous, but still so very excited! Thanks to all of you!
• Mill Lane Studio wrote a tutorial on how to make Triangle Jump Rings.  What a really cool idea! 

  

  Just one of the steps to make triangle jump rings

This post has already taken my quite enough time. The internet at my house is still being a pain and I've already had to rewrite half of this once. It looks like we'll be getting a new router over the weekend. Blarg.

I did get these awesome earrings listed this morning.

Electricity Earrings

And. . .my post for the Sequintastic September reveal is just about ready for tomorrow's blog hop. Make sure to check back by!

Link-a-palooza and Cleaning Up

This week I've been all kinds of out of sorts. My energy's been waning, there's been wackiness a-plenty, and I've simply wanted to catch up!! I'm trying to take a break from swaps and blog hops and challenges because they seem to be eating up a large portion of my time. I'm not getting anything else made for staying busy with all of that. Right now, I'm involved in a domino swap with a friend as well as the Sequintastic September Challenge from Saturday Sequins. The end date for both of these is the end of this month, but I want to be done with these pending projects NOW! Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying the challenge of them both, but I'm ready to start something new and totally me, not something that has rules and perimeters and required supplies. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I'll be picking up youngest niece in a few hours to spend the weekend with us. Before she gets here, I'm determined to have the house clean. So, I'm busting my butt today to get quite a few things out of the way. You should see this list!! GAH! In fact, I'm using my timer method but with 15 minute intervals instead of 30 to speed things along. I hope I can knock it all out before it's time to head out and get the rug rat.

In the meantime, I figured I'd better pop in since I've been MIA almost all week. Plus, it's time for another

• First off, have you seen the Spring 2013 Fashion Color Report from Pantone!? I'm in love with this selection of colors. I can't put my finger on it, but I find it so dreamy! I know I'll be getting plenty of inspiration from this set of hues. Aren't they dreamy? 
  

  

  Spring 2013 from Pantone

• Michelle Mach always does such a good job of compiling information and sharing it on her blog. Last month, she made a list of Ten Photo Editing Programs to Try. I tend to just use Photoshop on my computer and am addicted to Instagram on my phone. I should really break out of my shell and give some of these others a try. Thanks Michelle for the great list of options!
• I'm fairly sure I've mentioned The Bloggess a  time or two, and if I haven't I'm so sorry. She writes one of my favorite blogs to read for fun and usually has me in absolute stitches. Here's a post that has me CRYING I was laughing so hard. Be warned, her humor is a little . . .hmmmm. . . different.
• I've always wanted to go on a bead/jewelry-making retreat. Heather Powers may have just made it easier with her Tips for Picking, Prepping, and Partaking in a Bead Retreat at Art Bead Scene Blog. Thanks Heather!



Easy Sequin Bracelet tutorial

• Lastly, I found this cute tutorial for an Easy Sequin Bracelet. I took the tutorial and made the design my own. But, you'll just have to wait and see how I did it as well as my other sequin creations on September 29th during the reveal for Sequintastic September! 

I'm rushing to get the house cleaned and have already gotten the kitchen and both bathrooms done while writing this too. Litterboxes are next (aw dangit!) But, I am looking forward to a clean house and a fun visit with the niece. Here's hoping your weekend is full also!

Link-a-palooza

So, so true!

I've got a long list of chores and an even longer list of creative/business tasks. But, here I am. Don't worry, my timer's going. 

I feel like I should talk about how I am/have been feeling the last few days. But talking about the weepies and my desire to just watch episode after episode of Buffy is pretty boring. Seeeeeeeee.
Instead, let me share some fun, informative, etc. links with you in a full-on

• Jessica at How About Orange has once again discovered a cool website. This one is called PaperMatrix. I'm directing you to both sites because Jessica's has some really beautiful pictures of the array of things you can make from PaperMatrix's tutorials. Just go see!
• Speaking of cool tutorials, Shel over at MiShel designs has a wonderful tutorial on how to make hoop earrings. Her pictures and directions are clear and easy-to-follow. Included in her post, are some different options for embellishing the hoops.
• I keep saying that I'm going to include international shipping in my Etsy shop as soon as I get it figured out. Well, Tealwater Designs may have just made that easier with this post on 7 Simple Steps to Cheap and Easy International Shipping. Now to study up and actually take that plunge!
• Problogger has another post on how to use your social media effectively. Actually. . .this one is more on how to manage it if you DON'T want followers. It's called How to Lose Followers and Alienate People. 

It's a shame really.

I've added a couple new items in the shop this week if you're interested.

Hoot Owl Bracelet

Falling Leaves Necklace

And re-listed a necklace

Bright Daisy Necklace

Now it's back to that darn to-do list before the weekend starts. The Crafter's Devotional Group will be having the first blog hop (again, kinda) tomorrow. So make sure to check back in for that! Have a great weekend.

Link-a-palooza and other Randomness

Today I just want to share a bunch of randomness with you. S'alright? I apologize for the rambly-ness of  my recent posts.

First, if you're looking for my Bead Soup reveal, there's a link to it just up there /\ below my banner. . .see it on the left? Next to the Home button? There ya go! I thought that might be the easiest way to keep it available.

Fruit at the local Farmer's Market

I don't think I've outright mentioned that Pat and I are doing this whole healthy diet thing. He's the researcher for these things, I'm just the planner. I didn't post my menu for this week because it took me a little longer to get in the mindset and since we were preparing for Issac, I wasn't sure if we would actually get to eat the meals I planned. By Tuesday afternoon we weren't in the direct path of the storm and I had it worked out. Here are the basics of what we're doing (I think).

• We're cutting back on our animal product intake. I cannot go full vegetarian or vegan. . .I like cheese, bacon, and butter a little too much. (Probably how we got in the shape we're in to start with.)
• As well, he says we want to eat as much 'whole' foods as possible. Basically, we want as little processing to go into our foods. So, fresh over frozen or canned. No problem. . .I think fresh tastes better anyway. 
• The processed bread/cracker/pasta items we DO eat need to say 'whole' in the first few ingredients. . .or something like that.
• We've also continued to juice for at least one meal a day (breakfast or lunch work best for me). 
• Oh. . .and there's something about cutting back our sugar intake. Whatever.
• We had planned on trying to be more active, but have gotten cooped up inside because of the storm. Now that it's passed, we hope to work on that a little more.

So that's the general gist I have of it right now. I haven't completely figured out all the rules, but I'm trying. Pat bought  me a vegetarian cookbook (I like books) and I actually cooked Tofu earlier in the week. It was. . .okay. For now, I'm feeling kinda crummy, but I've been told that it's a fairly normal feeling when all those toxins start to leave your body. I'll ride the wave for now.


Since I'm going with randomness as today's theme, this seems a fitting time for a

• This is a little late, but Michelle Mach has a list of Beading & Jewelry Making contests for Summer/Fall 2012. Shoot. . .some of the links she has go into 2013. What a helpful gal she is!
• GIVEAWAY: Anne Gardanne of Gardanne Beads is having a giveaway of two sets of her beautiful wares. Check out the rules and how to enter on her blog. 

  

  Just one of the yummy sets available to win

• If you still haven't seen Lesley Watt's (The Gossiping Goddess) cool tutorial for these little bracelets you must have been hiding under a bush. Welcome back to the world and check out this fun bracelet  tutorial now!
• Social Media is a topic close to my heart. I plan on writing up a post at some point on how I determine if I will follow you on Twitter. In the meantime, this post from ProBlogger on the 10 Rules of Social Media Engagement is a really great overview on how best to use social media.

Now let me share just a little shop news and I'll be out of your hair for at least the rest of today.
Some of my Shabby Beads were featured in this brightly hued treasury.

Hot Pink and Blue Treasury

On Sale

Unearthed Necklace

 New

Heavenly Earrings

I just have to mention how excited I am that the College football season has started up. I'll  be rooting for the Alabama Crimson Tide tomorrow night and I cannot wait!! Roll Tide!

With the sun FINALLY out after the storm, I'm hoping to soak it up and get my creative juices flowing again. . .and get my butt OUT of this computer chair. What are you hoping to accomplish this weekend?