Wintertime Frostivities Contest!

Well the winter has certainly settled in quick! We are getting sub-zero temps, frozen pipes, and it amazes me how some people try to drive in these conditions. I have seen more sideways vehicles than I can count on one hand.... yikes!

But tis the Season! These are busy and hurried times for most of us, hustle and bustling, finishing up last minute shopping, trimming the tree, putting out decorations, baking, and for us Artisan's, busy creating!

This year I decided to take on something totally new. I entered two of my creations in a Etsy Wintertime Holiday Frostivities contest! The contest runs from 12/13 - 12/19/2008. I would like to thank all of my family and friends that have voted for me. I really appreciate your loving support.

You can see my two items at:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18468813 (Currently in 1st Place)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18482108 (Currently in 2nd Place)

If you would like to vote you simply heart these items.

I would like to wish everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous New Year. Stay warm, dry, and most of all stay safe out there.

Peace and Blessings,

LV

1/1/2009 Update: The Nativity Scene won 1st Place and Baby Bear came in 2nd! Wooohoo!

Just a blue-sy day......

Oh those days.... everybody has them. You can never pin-point any specific reason why you are in a funk, so you just have come to learn to chalk it up as one of those days. I think the cold weather and thoughts of winter setting in might have something to do with it. For the life of me today I just couldn't get warm. I tried to light a fire as I knew that would help. Even the wood wouldn't cooperate.......

So I decided to create! That always helps. Is it any small wonder the pendants I ended up with?

Yep, both are blue. The breathtaking blue of the Blue Lace Agate and equally as beautiful, the Blue Lapis Lazuli. I absolutely love both of these semi-precious gemstones.

Here are my blue-sy creations.

Ammonite Fossil Pendant and Beaded Necklace

Thes are two of my Ammonite Pendant Necklaces that are available at my Beads n' Things Etsy store: lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com

Ammolite! Awesome!!!!!

I have to tell you, now that I have actually worked with the Ammolite gemstones, I am drawn to these incredibly beautiful stones. I love both the Ammolite and Ammonite, as both are equally beautiful in their own way. The Ammolite looks like the prehistoric that it is. The Ammonite is so beautiful the way the colors are ever changing, like a Kaleidoscope as you move it from side to side.

This particular pendant necklace is my favorite piece. I am seriously thinking of giving it to myself for Christmas, so I will not be too heartbroken if this one doesn't sell.

Too see more of my Ammolite and Ammolite necklaces, that are currently available, see my Beads n' Things Etsy store: http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com

Ammolite

Ok, for those of you that know me, you know I just can't resist buying rare, unusual, or stunning gemstones. Up until now Opals have been my most favorite gem.... that is until I ran across Ammolite.

Ammolite is similar to an opal and some of the Ammolites that I have seen are opalized giving them even more beauty than their original state. I have been most fortunate to find a wonderful seller (on Ebay) who has been so kind and patient with me and educated me a bit about this rare and precious gemstone.

Ammolite is the rarest gemstone in the world! In 1981, ammolite became recognized by CIBJO, (the Colored Stones Commission.) It is the latest of only three new gemstones introduced in the last 50 years. It is also only one of three organic gemstones, (including amber & pearl.) It has been compared to opal and has a superficial similarity to the Austrian mineral lumachelle whose iridescence is also provided by the fossil ammonite carnites floridus.

Ammolite is also known as aapoak, (Blackfoot for small, crawling stone,) calcentine, korite, ammonite shell or gem ammonite. Ammolite is the fossil shell of the upper cretaceous ammonites: Placenticeras meeki, Placenticeras intercalare & Baculites compressus. Ammolite is only found in the Bearpaw formation that extends from Alberta to Saskatchewan in Canada and south to Montana in the USA.

Ammolite comes in various sizes, shapes and forms as you can see by the pictures above, but one thing is for sure. In any form Ammolite is the most beautiful stone that I have ever seen. I have seen these stones easily sell from $100 - $600 and a whole shell sell for $3000 - $10,000. Ammonite is increasing in value at a rate of 40% a year because it is becoming more and more scare. Because of this, naturally I had to get some Ammolite gemstones and fossilized shells and will be making up jewelry pieces for loved ones. I don't think you can give anyone a finer gift. Native American's carry one in their medicine bag to bring not only wealth and prosperity, but also for grounding.

I will be offering some Ammolite pendants at my Etsy store, http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com so check out my store in mid to late November.

A Tisket a Tasket.......

A TISKET, A TASKET.. Win What's In Our Basket - Win over $100 worth of goodies! Ten Etsy Artisans have gotten together and are offering prizes to one lucky winner. Make any purchase by October 24th and get a chance to enter this drawing. It is a great way to get an early start on your Christmas shopping.

There are OOAK (original one of a kind) gift items, handmade soaps, bath salts, Christmas cards, custom coffee cups, jewelry, so many wonderful things to choose from.

To see the list of the stores and more details click on the link below:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5853018&page=31

Autumn Tree of Life Pendant Necklace

I created this tree of life pendant using sterling silver wire, seed and bugle beads, bicone crystals, and miscellaneous glass beads. The finished pendant is stunning and perfect for complimenting your fall outfit. This would make a really nice Christmas gift or a present for that special someone. It's available in my Etsy store.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16093774

Boo!

More Halloween items!

Well alrighty then......

Ok, so the October Fest was a bust! It rained the entire day and I thought surely they will cancel it, but they didn't. Only 12 of the crafters toughed it up and set up in the rain. I was going to turn around and head home but the promoter talked me in to staying and set up a tent for me to put my table under.

Although sales weren't fantastic, I sold more than I expected to, given the conditions. I was amazed anyone came out at all, but Priest River folks are used to knarly weather and it was an October Fest after all. People were walking around on the streets checking out the booths, with their cup of pumpkin ale and brats in hand.

In spite of the crap weather I did have a fantastic time. They put another artisan in the tent with me, Bill from Cusick. He made canes, walking sticks, and sling shots out of tree branches. Shortly after noon I headed off to the liquor store and got us some Bailey's and we sat around and chatted like two old friends. His girlfriend was a hoot! I traded Bill a magnetic bracelet for a walking stick for my Brother for Christmas. We exchanged cards so we could hook up again at other local craft fairs.

I love it when a bad day turns in to a positive one. I made new friends, made a little money, and met a lot of town folks.

And now it is almost time for Halloween so I am busy making up Halloween spiders and a beaded witch to sell here locally. I have a few of them listed at my Etsy store.
They really are prettier than they look in the photographs! Perfect for gift giving. :)

Ok.... back to creating! Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!

First Ever! Priest River October Fest!!!!

Priest River, ID is having it's first ever October Fest. This gala event is happening on Saturday, October 4th on Main Street. There will be live entertainment, craft and food booth, beer and wine tasting.... oh boy! I have a booth reserved for the event so if you live nearby, come stop in and say hi.

I have been making up all kinds of things to sell.... jewelry, Christmas ornaments, snuggle bears, dream pillows, soy wax candles and melts and hand painted wolf and husky soaps. Today I went to our second hand store and got some neat containers to put the soaps in. It kind of dresses them up a bit and also helps to protect them.

Here is my finished soap project.

I will take pictures of the October Fest and post them afterwards, so check back and see how well we did and what kind of turn out we had. So far no one seems to know anything about it so I am making sure I spread the word. I don't think they are advertising it very well, although it was in the past two weeks newspaper, (our news is published once a week.) They should have flyers up all over town but so far I haven't seen a one. :(

Anyway, wish me luck!

Ciao,
LV

Bracelets Galore!

This past month I have been so fortunate to come across some exceptionally beautiful semiprecious gemstones. I made a couple of bracelet sets, but mostly I have been making custom orders for my High Quality Magnetic Bracelets. Here are just a few.
I am making them out of Turquoise, Fancy Jades, Mookaite, Jaspers, and Blue Opal. I love the colorful hard to come by stones. I am making some up ahead of time for our winter craft fairs. I am not waiting until the last minute this year.

These should really be good sellers here locally.

Oooooh look at those wonderful stones!

Hi everyone. It's been a busy and productive month for me. Besides keeping up with the website, two Etsy stores and the huskies, I have been getting lots of customer jewelry orders.

One in particular was a request for a Topaz set. The gal had a general idea of what she wanted to get for her teenage Daughter for her Birthday. Here is the finished piece. It really did turn out nice.

Jack the Needle Felt Raccoon

I had a request to make a needle felt raccoon for Amanda at AWBAR, A Wild Baby Animal Rescue, http://www.awbar.com/. AWBAR lost 14 of it's baby raccoons to the deadly Parvo virus before getting the virus controlled. I was making some commemorative polymer clay picture pendants and pins of the babies who succumbed from the virus. One of my favorite pictures was of Jack and Sophia. I used the picture of Jack when I made this needle felt raccoon.

I am a member of Team AWBAR and donate a portion of my Etsy sales to help the wild babies.

Any items that I have listed that have EFA - AWBAR in the title, have donations to help animals.

http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com/

You can also buy items from the AWBAR store. 100% of these purchases goes to help buy food, medications, toys, blankets and cages for the wild babies that are brought to the wild baby animal rescue. http://awbar.etsy.com/

Hatchling Dragon

I had so much fun making Steve's dragon, that I just had to make a wee-one! This little dragon is just hatching out of the egg. This one will be hard to part with as I have gotten pretty attached. It is hanging out by my computer and keeps me company while I am computing.

Green Eyed Monster

This is the green eyed monster, Steven's Dragon. Steven has always loved Dragon's ever since he was small. At the age of 17, one day he asked, "Mom, can you tattoo a dragon on my arm? He now has 3 dragons and is going for full sleeves. He also has one on his back. He loved his dragons so much he showed them off to all of his friends. Before long I was doing tats and dragons on everyone he knew.

He grew up (has a Son of his own) and he eventually outgrew Mom's tattoo's, .... but evenso, one thing he has never outgrown is Mom's magical dragons.

To my loving Son, this bud's for you! XOXO'S

Now we're talking beads... lots of beads

If you ever want to test your patience, try making a project out of seed beads. Although beautiful, little, teeny, tiny beads, they are not easy to work with. Even so, many beading enthusiasts just love working with seed beads. Why you ask? The completed creations are just beautiful and like no other.

Here is a beaded amulet bag that I recently finished. This bag took me over 25 hours to make (including the matching earrings.) I used almost an entire hank of the dark colored rainbow beads. By the time I added the contrasting beads I probably did use that amount. You do have to admit, now that IS a LOT of beads!

Penguin Power - Polymer Clay Sculptures

I thank God that I am diverse in my creations. I never tire of crafting this way. Each form of craft is relaxing and rewarding to me. All of it an art form. My latest niche has been polymer clay sculptures. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE all animals, large and smalll, winged, finned, hoofed, furred, scaled.... lol. I think you get the picture.

One of my all time favorites is penguins! I have loved penguins since the first time that I saw them at the zoo. There are right up there with otters. Both are playful and fun little creatures that I could sit and watch for hours.

When I woke up this morning to rain my first thought was today is a good day to create. Here is my completed rainy day project.

The Lavender Festival is coming to town

The annual Lavender Festival is coming to town.... well, almost. It is being held in Newport, WA. this year, which is only 5 miles from here. I am going to set up a booth there so I am busy making lots of new things. I am making clay sculptures, jewelry, felted animals, cat and doggie toys and treats..... well, like I said, lots of things.

Needle Felt Hummingbirds

I just love hummingbirds and soon they will be coming to the feeder that I have put out for them. I enjoy creating needle felt animals and Twisted Whiskers "Critters." It is so amazing to watch a creation come together simply by poking wool roving here and there with a special felting needle. It does take a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears. I still can not complete one without managing to wound myself in action... and poke myself!

To see some of my other felt creations please click on the link to go to my Twisted Whiskers store at Etsy.com

http://lvsbeadsnthings.etsy.com/

Spring has Sprung in Idaho

I believe spring has finally arrived here in No. Idaho. It hasn't snowed in almost 3 weeks now. Of course it still gets down to freezing at night but the days are getting warmer. Soon it will be time for the Lavender Festival and I am looking forward to that.

I have been busy creating lots of new things for the Twisted Whiskers store. My latest creations are needle felt hummingbirds and polymer clay sculptures. If you are interesting in buying any of these you can click on the link on the right.

As always, thanks for your interest in my LV's Twisted Whiskers Creations.

Hand Painted Wolf Soap

Well I am still snowed in here in No. Idaho, but I keep reminding myself that spring is just around the corner and soon flowers will be in full bloom. Thank God for my Etsy stores and the craft projects! It helped keep me sane for the 3 months that I have been socked in.

The Twisted Whiskers site has really taken off since I introduced the soy candles, melts, tart warmers, and Puppy Poppers. Ready to take on a new project, I bought a melt and pour soap kit from Ebay with the original idea that I would make some soap on a rope and got some wolf and husky soap molds. Once I got the molds, although gorgeous, they were really too small for that plan, but I decided to go ahead and make some soaps out of them anyway just to see what they looked like. When I removed them from the molds I was amazed at the incredible detail.

I decided I wanted to try to paint them. I was pleased with the way they turned out and for my first attempt, they looked pretty good. I decided to list them at my Etsy store and sell them as a gift set. What a unique gift they would make and certainly a great conversation piece!

To purchase the soaps you can click on the following link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5278310

If you have any questions or would like more information please email me. Thanks for taking a look.

Ciao,

LV

Nick the dragon

Now, I did say that I am hooked on lampwork glass art, right? Well..... Michael Dean steered me in the direction of a glass artists blog, and "we love Etsy site. While I was cruisin' around on these sites I ran across a glass artist that makes cute little lampwork critters. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love animals and there was one little guy who cried out, "buy me, BUY ME!" His name was Nick the dragon. After I had completed the transaction and Nick was officially mine, I got to thinking..... I know, look out, lol. I wondered if she could make me a husky, and I decided to contact her and ask. She was happy to take on the new project and seemed to look forward to the challenge. She is working on making me Yukon as I type this post. I can't wait to see her finished project and I will post a picture once he is done. Luanne's Etsy store is Sheltie's Lampworks. Yes, the name did give her away. To see more of her work click on the link below.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5278310

Egads!

Gawd I HATE Vista! Who at microsoft designed this ungodly software? I have been using windows since version 3.1 (now that is dating myself.) Never have I been unhappy with a windows version.... until now that is. I am going back to XP until they impriove on this OS. Talk about an unstable, sluggish, program.... and it tries to take over everything. As far as I am concerned? JUNK!

Ok, now that I have fumed, as I wrote a blog entry and had it just disappear before my eyes. I so hate typing twice, especially when I am tired and have had a long day....

But, enough of the bitching and on with the latest in the jewelry and beads n' things updates.

What's new? Lampwork glass art. While I was looking around some of the other jewelry sites at Etsy (and God, I love that site,) I stumbled upon some unique and very beautiful beads. As I checked into them further, I found out they were called lampwork beads. They are made of molten glass and let me tell you, this is really an art all of it's own.

I am not even going to try to attempt this craft, as I leave it to the glass artists, I knew I just had to have some of these beads. I hunted high and low for something that got my attention.

I feel so fortunate and blessed to have found Michael Dean (Protege at Etsy,) and marveled over his beautiful work. I originally ordered three and my finished creations using these beads are all listed at my lvsbeadsnthings Etsy store. My favorite, Prairie Winds, was the hardest one to bring together, because I had a specific design in mind. As I worked and worked, then reworked, and worked some more, the design in my head did not come out quite like I had visioned. It is almost laughable now that its' done, and I am finally happy with the final revision.

Here is a picture of the finished project.

To see more of Michael Dean's lampwork click on the link to go to his Etsy store.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5229300

He is Protege.etsy.com