Simple Joys

Thank you to Shop to Adopt for adding my Hello Fox card to this lovely treasury celebrating the simple things in life!

It's time for the pine pollen

Soon, our cars will be coated with that lovely shade of yellow, letting us know that the world is in bloom.

And I will be well-stocked up on Zyrtec! I love Spring, but boy, I do not enjoy my allergies. As long as I remember to keep the ol' allergy medicine in me, I will be fine.

Thank you to Donna Elizabeth Designs for adding my Loblolly Pine card to her newest treasury anticipating all that Spring brings!

Never More

Thank you Kitschy Kitchen for adding my necklace to this lovely treasury themed on Edgar Allan Poe's brilliant Poem The Raven.

Whispers of warmer weather

It is likely common knowledge that Texas is a big state.  Along with being a large state, there is no one dominant climate.  We live in the hot and humid part.  In the part of east Texas where I live, we pretty much skip Spring and go straight to Summer.  Less than a month ago, we had snow.  This weekend, the temperatures were in the mid to high 70s and the air was humid.  We have to enjoy the five minutes of Spring we get.

With that in mind, I put together this warmer weather themed treasury.  This treasury features items that are colored in warm, enriching tones, mostly reds, oranges, and ambers.  There are some pretty amazing items in here!

Tell Me Muir

I love this treasury created by floofball of Team Treasury Island! Aside from having a special tenderness for the theme, I absolutely love the picks!  Thank you Elizabeth for featuring my Loblolly Pine card in such a gorgeous and thoughtful treasury!

I heart Green Things

Kara of Ever & Anon created this awesome Team Pay It Forward treasury featuring my Loblolly Pine card.  Thank you Kara!

Random red, black, and white

Thank you to Hell0Z0mbie for adding my Hello Fox card to this wonderful treasury featuring red, black, and white items! 

Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!

More spring picks!  This latest treasury features several members of the Pay It Forward Treasury Team.  Aren't these all just gorgeous!

The Beginning of Spring

The countdown to Spring is well underway on Etsy!  There are just so many beautiful items to be found on Etsy that will get you in the mindset to shed the wool sweaters, the coats, and the mittens and look forward to the arrival of mild, sunny weather.  The awesome folks at Those Alaskan Girls kindly added my Studious Owl card to a lovely new Spring-themed treasury.  Thank you so much!

Underwater treasures

Team Treasure Island is spotlighting one of its fabulous members today - Alphabetty Monster.  This is one fun shop!  I love the colors and each of the prints is just full of imagination!  You definitely need to check this shop out!

Little acts of kindness

My neck was killing me yesterday!  It just started hurting spontaneously yesterday while I was at work writing a report. It was as if a kink just suddenly appeared at the base of my skull.  It was all very strange.  Fortunately, a co-worker had a rice heating pad from when her neck hurt (we are a sorry bunch, aren't we, with all these neck pains!) and she was kind enough to let me borrow it.  She even heated it up for me!  That soothed it for a little while, but the ache was still there.

Last night, my neck was still achy and I am sure I was a bit whiny about it.  But my sweet hubby, always the better caregiver than I am when he is under the weather, rubbed my neck and tried his best to make it feel better. And that just got me to thinking how lucky I am to have someone willing, actually asking, to rub my neck for me, to let me be whiny.  These little acts of kindness are part of the reason I love this guy!

So, here is a little drawing I did for my super awesome, lovable hubby!

For the love of spring

In the last week, the world has become a little greener.  Buds on some trees have began to bloom, the daffodils are in full force, and patches of green have suddenly appeared on lawns.  We are almost there! 

Of course, I have to remember to be careful of what I wish for.  Spring is short here - summer tends to edge in about a week after spring begins.  And then follows several months of wishing for cooler weather.  But even though I know this, I still cannot wait for spring to finally get here, to have that lovely shade of new green cover everything.

With that in mind, here is my latest treasury featuring items that I think signal the beginning of spring.

Toasty warm brown tones

Take a look at this warm and inviting treasury beautifully curated by Becca's Beauties.  Thank you Becca for adding my Loblolly Pine card to this wonderful treasury!

Hot Red

I love red!  And I totally love this treasury!  Thank you to Inbar Shahak Textile Jewelry for adding my Hello Fox card to this gorgeous treasury!

If we could talk to the animals, just imagine it ........

I can only imagine what goes through the minds of my fabulously unintelligent (but highly lovable) dogs Punky and Scout.  Probably a lot of thoughts concerning food, sleep, food, treats, toys, and food.  Thank you to Bates Mercantile Co. for adding my Hello Fox card to such a fantastic treasury!



 

create to live

What a great mantra to live by - Create to Live! Thank you to Mani & Lou for adding my Good Idea card to such a lovely treasury!

All the world's a treasure

To celebrate my newest team membership, I put together a treasury featuring awesome handmade and vintage items by my fellow Team Treasury Island members. 

Amazing Craft Cult Products!

Erin of Bona Fide Chic outdid herself with this lovely, lovely treasury featuring work from team Craft Cult. Thank you Erin for adding my Landing Pigeon necklace to the mix!

Woolen Wolves & Felted Foxes

Foxes and wolves, oh my!  All together in such a lovely treasury curated by gravityforge.


Aren't those little fox booties just the cutest?

She dreams in technicolor

Here is the latest Subtle Acts treasury featuring items with the bold and bright colors of the Technicolor days.

O D D I T I E S O F E T S Y . . .

This was a fun treasury to make!  I love all the wild and wonderful things you can find on Etsy! 

Need a caterpillar baby sculpture?  It's on Etsy!

A needle-felted brain in a jar?  Etsy!

E. coli soap?   That's right...Etsy!

Oh, Etsy...I love you!

B&R Craftcult

Oh, lovely shades of red! Thank you Rachel Heath!

HEART ANIMALS

Who doesn't heart animals? Thank you RESSAStudio!

Two green thumbs

When we moved into our house a couple of years ago, I was so excited by the flower garden left behind by the previous owners.  They obviously were quite dedicated to maintaining a lovely garden.  And I worked hard to maintain what they had worked so hard to establish.  But looking at the garden now, boy have I done an awful job lately!  I have made a promise to myself that I am going to get it into control...starting tomorrow. :)

For now, I will have to settle for this treasury of lovely garden-inspired items.

Spring Line 3

Thank you to Ayca for adding my Loblolly Pine card to her latest spring-themed treasury!  So lovely!

Wrinkles in time

I love the way that the old mixes with the new, the way vintage and handmade things complement one another. My newest treasury shows off some wonderfully handmade items paired with some really great vintage finds. Take a look, make a purchase (I did!).

Lost in the Woods

Thank you Brianna at Mrs. Peterson Pottery for including my Landing Pigeon necklace in your beautiful treasury, Lost in the Woods.  Aren't these GORGEOUS picks!

Mathematical Quandaries

Math...just the word alone can make some people run for cover.  But these Etsy sellers have managed to bring out the beauty and quirks of that often difficult subject.

Everything Handmade Treasury

A big thank you to Sevims Design for including my Loblolly Pine card in the Everything Handmade treasury!  Check out the Recipe Gift Card Set by AshleyPahl!  Too cute, right?

New! Fox Necklace

I think pairing the same design in different items is a fun way to show the diversity of the design.  I have been working at incorporating some of my hand stamp designs for cards into designs for necklaces.  I think that my fox design has worked out well.  Check it out in the pictures below or at my Etsy shop.

We can just stay home

Today has been a lazy day for us.  However, we did manage to do some glass etching on some drinking glasses - I did my Hello Fox and the hubby did a powerlifter - two very different styles.  We spotted a coyote running through our woods as we worked on cutting out the stencils for the glasses.  Luckily, it was running away, not ambling around toward us. And also, our dogs did not see the coyote so there was no indoor bark attack.

In between, I made some yummy chai and made a treasury celebrating the joy of staying home. :)

Little of this, a little of that

Here is the latest treasury, this one featuring sellers in the Pure Handmade team.  Take a look at that team and you will find more talented artists than there is space in a treasury!

pureH team....falls into spring!

Sweet! Look at this latest treasury one of my cards is included in...isn't it just too sweet?! I love those pea soup leaf felt earrings! Thank you leebweeb!

All hands on deck!

Here is my latest treasury celebrating all things nautical!  Aren't these great?

Olive u Treasury by ALD Designs

Oh, what a lovely treasury to have my Hello Fox card included in! What great picks! Thank you ALD Designs!

As a side note, one of my most favorite restaurants in Seattle is Olive You.  Yummy spanikopita!  That just makes me love this treasury even more!

Impossible things

So many cute things on Etsy, it is hard to choose for treasuries.  But I managed to pick 16 awesome items out of about a gazillion awesome items that I think you will like.  I like each one of them...heck, I might go as far as saying I absolutely LOVE each one!

Pure Handmade

The kind folks of Pure Handmade featured my latest treasury on their site. 

http://www.purehandmade.com/2011/02/pushing-the-boundaries/

Doesn't it look great?

Pushing the boundaries

My newest treasury features post-modern, avant garde clothing, art, jewelry, and home decor.   While I favor more of a natural look to my clothing picks (read that as t-shirt, jeans, and Merrell slip-on shoes), these are all quite beautiful and wonderfully designed.

Armadillo!

Major pandemonium struck our house today...in the form of a juvenile armadillo a little too close to the fence.  Three dogs barking right in the little guy's face did little to deter it as it nosed around.  Only after a fairly steady three-minute bark fest did the armadillo decide to retreat into the safety of the woods.  But that didn't stop the dogs from barking.  Nope.  They just kept barking.  Punky wanted to play with it, Scout wanted to murderize it, and Marley wanted to scare it then love it. 

They are still looking for it.

Sunshine on my shoulders

It has been seriously cold (and snowy) here for the past two days, leaving me to wonder - when did east Texas suddenly have a winter?  So, to bring out the sun I created a treasury celebrating its warmth over the Southern Hemisphere.  I know that, come summer time here with its 110 degree scorching days, I will be wishing for winter.  But for now, I just wish it wasn't so darn cold!

Sunshine on my shoulders treasury

Heat Embossed Stamps

I tried out using heat embossing powder on my stamps tonight.  Wow!  What a lovely effect!  I was not sure how difficult it would be, but it really is not hard at all!  I think that I might add this as an option for my cards once I perfect it. 

Where do we go from here?

Here is my newest treasury, inspired by the photo from Heather Evans Smith Photography Where Do We Go from Here photo.

Where do we go from here




The photo makes me think of my newest favorite movie, Never Let Me Go, based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro (which I highly recommend).  If you  like very well-made movies set in England starring brilliant young English actors (Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield are particularly wonderful in this movie), then you should definitely take a peek at this movie.  A word of warning though - be prepared for one of the most heart-wrenching endings ever made.  The scenery in the movie is just gorgeous (for lack of a better word).  Don't read too much about the movie before you see it - reviews will likely spoil too much of the movie for those who have not read the book.

Snow Day

The great winter storm affecting the western half of the country dropped a few inches of snow in our area yesterday.  Our little country road was too difficult for our car to manage, so we stayed home and enjoyed the beautiful landscape.  The garbage service did not even run, the postal service worked a limited route, and area schools were closed. Even tow trucks were having a rough time! We could literally count the number of cars that drove down our road.  I only remember it snowing two or three times the whole time I grew up here.  It has snowed every winter we have been back from Seattle and we have now been back over 2 and a half years now.  What I would have given for snow days as a kid!

The dogs enjoyed the snow, especially little Punky who looks likes to hop around and dig her nose in the snow.  We are up to three dogs this weekend - our two (Punky and Scout) and a friend's dog (Marley).  Marley is a labradoodle and is twice as tall as our largest dog Scout, and our dogs don't know what to do with such a giant of a dog.

I used part of the day to work on some new necklace designs that incorporate the same designs from my new hand carved stamps.  So far, I have added the loblolly pine and the hello fox to the necklace designs - I think they look great so far!  They are still a work in progress.

Newest Treasuries

Since I am just getting the blog started,  you can take a look at some of my latest treasuries featuring a handful of talented Etsy sellers.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump



The Secret Art of the Brush Pass



Let's Go for a Walk

Welcome to the New Blog

So, I have been meaning to get this blog started for some time now, at least since I signed up to start selling my resin pendants on Etsy.  That was in October.  Well, here I am now, ready to start sharing all of the shop's exciting news.

Etsy is full of very talented artists offering a variety of very unique products.  I have been very happy with the positive feedback my shop has received so far from fellow sellers and buyers alike.  It has truly been a very positive experience.  It has also broadened my crafting horizons.  When I started the shop in October, the idea was to only offer resin pendants using my own designs.  I was not certain how well the shop would be received and so I naturally kept my expectations low - after all, I am a self-taught artist and the folks on Etsy are just so darn good!   I am happy to say that my expectations have been exceeded and I now want to go at it with all I've got!

With that, I have moved into other areas while keeping up with creating resin pendants.  I am now offering hand stamped cards using stamps that I have hand carved.  So far, the cards have had a remarkably good reception, having been featured in treasuries already and added as favorites for several folks on Etsy.  I have a few more ideas up my sleeve and I hope that more than a few of them work out.