Grow Your Blog!

Another opportunity to see who is out there, and make new friends. 

Self Portrait taken for the Focus on Life Challenge.

Last year, I happened upon a blog hop aimed at helping us spread the word about our blogs, and maybe even get new followers. Vicki at 2 Bags Full hosts the "Grow Your Blog" hop, and it is quite an endeavor. 

So, here we are, and I hope that you are enjoying your hop! 

I started my blog when I decided that I wanted to communicate with more people who had an interest in hand crafted jewelry. I participated in my first jewelry blog hops, and joined several Facebook groups. Then I joined a photography challenge that went on for TWO years! Currently, I am participating in Shelley Graham Turner's CREATE. SHARE. INSPIRE challenge. 

Some of my interests include making Jewelry, Creating in Polymer Clay, Photography (especially birds and flowers) our Family, Pets, Cooking, and anything else that sparks my interest. 

How would you like this mug to hold your pens, pencils or paintbrushes? You can win it by leaving a comment below. The winner will be chosen at random on February 17. The mug is covered in polymer clay. 

You can read more about how it was made here. 

Here are some other recent projects. 

Jewelry Display at Christkindlmarkt, Port Jervis NY

Fruit Cake. 100% fresh fruit.

Polymer Clay Beads, Made to match the scarf in the picture.

Queen Ann's Lace

Orioles on the Apple Tree.

Holiday Pins, made of Polymer Clay!

More Polymer Pins. 

Colorful Fungus!

Old Clemson Bros. Building, Middletown, NY

Special order Pendant.

Focus On: Food

Nom Nom Nom!

This week's Photo Prompt from Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime, "Foodie!"

Food is one of my favorite subjects. The growing, preparing and eating of same - Nom, nom.

I have tried to photograph food, with varying results. 

Here's the progression of some green and red bell peppers, and also some yellow onions from crisp and fresh, to ready to be placed on a sausage sandwich. 

Crisp and fresh, ready to be cooked.

Green peppers first, they take longer because they are not ripe!

Then the red peppers, still in a very hot pan

As they start too cook down, the onions go in.

Cover and walk away...ooops, a little overdone!

The essence of cooking, encouraging a state of change!

See how others have interpreted "Foodie!" at Sally's Studio Sublime.

Focus on: Curves Observed

The geometry of life.

Last week, March 14, was Pi Day, highlighting the Greek letter Pi (π)which stands for the ratio between the radius and diameter of a circle. 

Today, we contemplate the curve, an important component of the circle, a shape, and a concept that is all over our lives, if we just stop and look. 

Sally Russick's Focus on Life, hosted on her blog, the Studio Sublime, suggests we "Observe the Curve."  Forgive me for being literal, but I saw these curves the day after we received our prompt.

And since it is our 33rd wedding anniversary I made a card. 

You never know what might be waiting around the next curve. Visit Sally's blog to see how others have interpreted this concept. 

Focus On: Endless Possibilities

 Looking at someone else's work with fresh eyes

This week, Sally Russick, of The Studio Sublime has challenged us to portray "The Possibilities are Endless" in our photography. So I went out and took some pictures of the tiniest hints of spring around my neighborhood. You can see them here: Hopeful Signs. Maybe I jumped the gun, maybe I just couldn't keep these Hopeful Signs to myself.

So I looked around for another subject. And here is what I found. 

A necklace and earrings from Jeannie Dukic's past!

This month I signed up for the 5th Do Over Challenge, sponsored by Jeannie Dukic of Jeannie's Blog. I just received a piece of jewelry that Jeannie made when she was starting out, which she had no intention of offering for sale at this stage in her design career. Rather than take apart these pieces, she offers them to us to "do over!"

As you can see, the piece is made of components with a lot of potential. One might say, "Endless Possibilities!"  There are a ton of Swarovski crystals, and some cute butterflies. Check back on April 21 to see what I have come up with. 

Click here to see what others came up with.

Focus on: Unexpected Hearts

Finding hearts, not Valentines.

Challenge number 5, from Sally Russick of the Studio Sublime is: Capture our Hearts. She asks us to look for heart shapes that we might otherwise pass by in daily life.

I found a few...

 One was the handle of an old milk crate. 

Another was part of the wire work of an old planter basket.

But the best one was at the tip of the remaining hand of my rusty, dusty grandfather clock face. 








Once again, I love this guy!

I can't wait to see what everyone else has found. You can too at The Studio Sublime.

Focus on : Making new art

...wherein I do the same scene three ways.

Sally Russick of Studio Sublime has challenged us to "Create Art." 

I took this opportunity to try my hand at watercolors for the first time in oh.... too many years. 

For a while, I have wanted to create art based on a sunrise or sunset. I have captured several sunrises with my camera, but that didn't quite portray the experience the way I wanted to. I wanted to show what was in my mind's eye, not the camera's eye. 

I played around with my photo.

But that was not quite what I wanted to do, I wanted to paint.

I tried colored pencil, because I couldn't find any watercolors. 

But I knew I had to do my final piece as a painting. Fortunately I knew I could borrow some watercolors from my daughter. 

But wait. Her watercolor set HAS NO BLACK!!!! 

Do you see my photo? Do you see my colored pencil sketch? 

After a bit of back and forth, I settled on using a dark blue instead of black. As I painted, I felt better and better about that choice. After all, I did not want a photographic representation. I wanted a painting!

In the end, I am pleased with my choice, and pleased with the medium. 

To see some of the other replies to this challenge, visit Sally's blog.

Cool Give-away

Oh my, another cool give-away, by Fusion Muse!

And to make sure we keep our skills up, we need to blog about what we do with our winnings. So it's a challenge, too!

I have been alternating between productivity (I made some new jewelry) and lethargy (I did not take any pictures.) So I hope my next posts will feature photos!