Winter Photo Contest

I entered this photo taken on a snowshoe hike of Pilot Knob Ridge into a local photo contest. It is a gazebo on the ridge from which you have a beautiful view of Lake George. Votes appreciated, especially since it requires you to make a username and password!



Also submitted, was this amazing picture taken by Sister of a waterfall at the Lake George Recreational Park. Vote for her if you prefer!

2010 Valentine's Day Collection

I've recently been busy making my Valentine's Day 2010 line, but even hard so, finding a day off in which there was good lighting to take pictures! I have finally listed all my heart items, just in time for February! So if you'd like to do some shopping for your valentine or buy some stuff for yourself to celebrate yourself, mention in your Message to Seller during Etsy checkout "Be Mine" and receive 10% your purchase of any Valentine's Day item listed in this post! Offer good through 2-14-10.

Heart of Glass Earrings made with ceramic heart shaped beads and gold filled findings:


Poisonous Love Bottle Cap and Glass Tile Pendants, each with a complimentary chain:



Hot Lips Bottle Cap and Glass Tile Pendants:



Triple Stranded Heart Necklace featuring a quote from Walden by Henry David Thoreau:


Have a lovely Valentine's Day!

Nico Designs: Home Decor, Crib Shoes, Totes, and More!

This month the EtsyBloggers are featuring our fellow member, Erika, of Nico Designs. She has been a member for nearly two years now!

I think what makes Erika stand out amongst the many other sellers of hand sewn items is not only her great talent, but her choice in fabrics as well. For example, check out this tote bag. While Christmas is over, it's not to early to shop for next year, especially since it's on sale! It shows off a mix of patterns in the stripes that blend perfectly together and a cute gift-giving snowmen fabric separated by a simple red ribbon.

How wild are these crib shoes? The Heidi Grace fabric was embellished with felt flowers and then was lined with flannel material. They are made without buttons, sequins, and seams with the safety of the child in mind. If only my feet were small enough...

This lady bug pin cushion, as well as other select items, will be shipped to you for free in her current sale which is ongoing for the next couple weeks!


Visit her blog!

It's a New Year...

... and the EtsyBloggers team is blogging about it. Given a choice between talking about 2009 or looking ahead to 2010 I chose to go forward, as this year will be much more exciting.

The fun begins with a late winter long weekend in Puerto Rico for a wedding. Unfortunately, I'll be going without my husband - but with a ride to the airport and a free place to stay, I couldn't pass the opportunity up. Plus I get to see a good college friend get married!

The highlight of the year will be in the late spring when we go to Ireland. We will have a little over a week there with a rental car bouncing around the southern part of the country and staying in bed and breakfasts, but our first night will be in a castle!

The remainder of the year seems unremarkable at this point. I'd like to climb at least 7 high peaks which will put me at a dozen, and of course Sister and I will have a party now that we have our Fire Tower Challenge badges in hand!

Now that I've gotten my first arts and crafts show out of the way, I hope to have another one under my belt in 2010. In a post holiday crash I have put jewelry making on a temporary hold. Time to get busy again...

CalKat Love

As a jewelry designer myself, I have great admiration for the work of CalKat. CalKat is actually a great duo, Kathy and Carrie, and they make one of a kind jewelry, beads, and pendants.

I especially admire their work with silver, such as this pendant on their Capricorn Zodiac Necklace. They carefully chose stones that are representative of the sun sign, complimenting the sterling silver pendant.



This gorgeous multistranded Citrine and Pearls necklace mixes citrine chips and ties in the matching sterling silver pendant with a faceted amethyst and citrine inlaid.


This bead is awesome! It is a bisque bead layered over several days with pure silver precious metal clay (PMC) striped with a 24K gold PMC swirl effect.


They have quite a variety in their shop such as book marks, bracelets, necklaces, and beads, each organized into sections of "love".

Check out what CalKat is upto on their beautiful blog, creatively designed with a great play list of music and useful widgets!

Soopsee!

I'm giving soopsee.com a try! It seems like a slightly more customizable website that leads your customer back to Etsy.

Pros:

• Helps get your name out there

• Easy set up for a more customized web page than Etsy alone
  

• One page can links to your Etsy page, blog, contact information, other websites
  

• It's free, to a point, and therefore worth a shot!
  

• If you don't know how to build a webpage, it is an easy to use web hosting program

Cons:

• You still must use Etsy checkout (meaning users must still create a username and account through Etsy)

• You must pay to use the more advanced options and obviously to create your own domain

• While there is an ability to slightly customize your page, it is less of a blank template than other web hosting programs.

• I don't really see how the free version is that much different than using just Etsy. Perhaps it will be just one more username and password to remember...
  

Unlocking the Color Combination

There are many arguments in the debate of Art vs. Craft. As discussed before, my stance is that there are elements of one in the other. One can say that making jewelry is a craft, because it is. It requires materials and tools. Anybody with some cord can string beads, tie it off, and call it a necklace; however it is the color combination, design, and inspiration that make it art.

If you browse my shop, you might correctly suspect that my favorite color is any variation of the color teal - turquoise, blue-green, aquamarine. I am particularly fond of a teal, black, and silver color combination. I'm also partial to blue-green with earth tones.

Pacific Horizon is a necklace that reminds me of the ocean. Russian Amazonite beads were used in combination of silver and black, making each blue green amazonite bead stand out.





Silver and turquoise go well together even without black. These tear shaped turquoise howlite beads were hugged with silver, and turned into Hot Air Balloon Earrings. Turquoise howlite is actually howlite dyed blue-green, in this case a little more blue than green.



My Betel Nut Stretch Bracelet uses bicolored beads - one side teal and the side black. It's a perfect color combination, and the beads are earthy by nature!



Turquoise colored glass beads were mixed with shades of brown in the Metamorphosis Choker. The pendant is made from a coconut shell and the choker is symbolic of metamorphosis from egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, to the adult butterfly.

Berry Pond - Lake George

I came across an article today in the online edition of the PostStar about the Lake George Land Conservancy receiving a grant to continue its efforts at the Berry Pond Preserve, which was acquired by the LGLC in 2008, and towards the Last Great Shoreline Protection Project of 2009.

This article reminded me about my quest to find Berry Pond this summer. I had heard of the recent acquisition by the LGLC and wanted to check out the pond. I explored the trails at the recreation park in Lake George with a coworker who had somewhat of an idea as to where the trail would start. With our cameras, and her grand-dog, map and compass, we went on our search. The wooded trail eventually ended at a dirt road which we continued to follow, wondering if we were even on track the whole time.





We finally conceded to the fact that we were not going to find the pond, but were content with checking out the wild flowers and playing fetch with the dog. At the sight of a possible clearing, we decided to take a side road off the road that we were on, and we came to what we figured must be Berry Pond.




At the pond was a great blue heron and a beaver dam, surrounded by swampy soft ground and plenty of evidence of beaver activity. I hope I can remember how we got there so I can find it again!

Black Friday Through Cyber Monday Sale!

☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★: HOLIDAY SALE :★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆


Handmade pendants on sale: BOGO! Buy one full priced pendant, get another for HALF OFF!
See my Handmade Pendants Section for all the pendants (both holiday and non-seasonal) included in this offer!


Discount applied to the lesser priced items, you MAY mix and match, you will receive a complimentary ball chain with each pendant unless specified otherwise. Limit to three half off pendants per customer. Your refund will be sent via PayPal after payment is received.


Sale runs Black Friday through Cyber Monday (11/27/09-11/30/09)
☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆★☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆


There are so many other great deals going on from knit and crochet items to handbags, children items to stuff for your pets. Click on the ad below to be taken to the Etsy Bloggers Team website for a complete list of participants!

Thanksgiving Dessert: Pumpkin Cake

This year we are driving about an hour south to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be the largest Thanksgiving celebration that I've attended in years - the good old extended family dinner with aunts, uncles and grandparents!

I don't have a token "dish" that I bring to people's houses for dinner; I'm more of a baker than a cook. I think I'll bring a pumpkin cake, and if I get ambitious, decorate it like this pumpkin shaped one I made last month.



I got the recipe from CDKitchen.com and since it you make it in a bundt pan, it isn't too hard to convert into a pumpkin shape.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, fresh or canned (I used canned)
1/2 cup applesauce (all I had was pomegranate applesauce and the cake tasted fine)
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
cooking spray
3 tablespoons dark or light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon skim milk
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first 6 ingredients; set flour mixture aside. Combine pumpkin and applesauce; set aside. Beat granulated sugar and margarine in a large bowl at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add egg whites and vanilla, beating well.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour batter into a 12-cup Bundt pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan.

Icing Directions:
Combine brown sugar, rum, and milk in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until brown sugar dissolves. Remove sugar mixture from heat, and add powdered sugar, stirring with a whisk. Spoon glaze over warm cake.

Instead of using their icing directions, I used store-bought cream cheese frosting and dyed it orange. The pumpkin stem was made with green Twizzlers. They actually packages of multicolored Twizzlers (I got mine at Walmart). I added some vines with green piping gel.