Wire Wrap Stud Earrings Tutorial

I have another tutorial found on the website Slideshare for House of Gems.

This tutorial is for wire wrapped stud earrings.  Very pretty.  The tutorial is called "Mulberry Post Earring Tutorial," and it is by Colette Kimon.

You can find more tutorials by Colette Kimon here. 

How to Make Wrapped Leather Bracelets

This tutorial is from the blog Rings & Things.  I just love the contemporary feel to the bracelet.  And it could be made for a man or a woman.   I, personally, have seen these bracelets on different shopping sites retailing for $120. to $150.  But with these instructions, you can make them for a whole lot less.  Make one for yourself, or two, or three.  Or make them as a gift.  That is what I am planning to do.  I have a friend's birthday coming up and I all ready have the beads and thread and cord picked out.  I can't wait to give it a go.

How to make wrapped leather bracelets

The Most Handsome Boy Kitty in the World

Of course, it's my Tiger! I also tell him he is the most handsome boy kitty in California, and the most handsome boy kitty in our house. The later is probably the truest since the only other cat in our home is female. Oh, see what true kitty love can do!

I haven't had Tiger on my blog for a while. Well Tiger just turned 3. His birthday is around the end of August. I'm not sure of the date. As you can see, he is a BIG boy.

My favorite time at night is when Tiger settles down for the evening and decides to sleep on my legs. He sprawls out full length, and lays the full length of my legs. This is especially great on a cold night. It's like having a warm, live, fur balnket.

These are some photos I took last night after I got up from him sleeping on me.





Who couldn't love that face?

A Successful Open Studio

This last weekend was Open Studios in my local area. I had my home open to visitors from 11:00am to 5:00pm on saturday and sunday. The attendance seemed rather slow both days. I am used to it being slow on sunday, but not on saturday. I think gas prices and the economy were both factors in the low attendance.

But even still, I feel I did all right. I sold some earrings and necklaces, and large floral painting. Yes, in the end, I did decide to display my paintings again. People in my community still identify me as a painter, probably because I was for over 20 years and displayed my paintings in galleries here for almost the same amount of time.

I took some photos of my displays that I thought I would share. I purchased the white necklace displays right before this show and they really made a big difference.









And of course, you cannot hold a successful Open Studio tour without your favorite cat laying on the jewelry displays and coming into to greet all the visitors. That was Tiger's very special form of "helping."

A Frustrating Weekend for Tiger

Today is Saturday, March 1st. We are starting out with a beautiful sunny day, but it looks like the clouds are moving in for rain soon.

My cat Tiger is very frustrated with me this morning. I wouldn't let him out yesterday and today he will be indoors too. He really likes to be out whenever possible. The problem is that yesterday, when I let him out in the morning, as we were going out the back door, a racoon a little larger than Tiger was coming out from under our deck. They both looked at each other and froze, then the racoon turned around to go back under the deck and my Tiger charged him. You can guess the rest. While I am freaking out, the 2 of them are fighting under the deck. They stop for a quick rest, and then go at it again. Tiger finally came out with his fur all standing up, but not harmed.

So until we can get the racoon out from under our house, Tiger is an indoor kitty. This is as hard for me as it is him. He gets ornery when he does not get his way, biteing me and clawing at the furniture. Ugh, I hope I can survive the weekend with him.

Tiger Helps Again

I have been working on updating my jewelry photos for my Etsy jewelry site to make them more interesting. A lot of time I will just scan them on my scanner but I wanted to learn how to use my digital camera better.

So on wednesday, I spent most of my day taking lots of photos, and about half of them worked out well. Oh the joy of digital-no film wasted! You can see the difference if you visit my jewelry store. I think the first 5 or 6 listings have the changes to the photos made. I will be updating more, and all my new listings will be photographed with my camera.

On the days I work at home, my cat Tiger likes to wander in and out of the house to see what I am up to. So I had my whole photography set up arranged on my kitchen table and Tiger decides he needs to get a close look at what I am doing, and then he needs to get inside the photo box and lay down. This is Tiger's way of helping, laying on top of what I am working on.



So then I figure, if he is going to get in the box on me, I am going to try to get him to model one of my jewelry pieces. Here are the results.





And my favorite photo before he had to run off...



Tiger is the best. He was so patient and actually stayed with that necklace on for about a minute or two. I was amazed that he let me do that. I was sure that was the quickest way to get him away from my work area.

I'm sorry the photos are a bit fuzzy. In my excitement to get him photographed, I forgot to change my camera settings. I don't know if he will give me this opportunity again, but if he does, I will remember that time.

Tiger and the Cheetah

So after 3 weeks of waiting, Scott and I finally got our new flat screen TV. It is wonderful. We saved up a portion of any unexpected income we had made for about 6 months. And since we made enough right around the holidays, we decided it would be our Christmas present for each other.

We've been watching concerts, DVDs, the election news, etc. It all looks better, bigger. The other night when we were flicking through the channels, we came across a nature show about wildebeasts and their yearly migration across Africa. I love nature shows. This one was extra special. The film producers had many cameras on the ground and in the air and water disguised as other animals so that they could get very close-up shots of all kinds of animals-the wildebeast, hippos, lions, cheetahs, mongoose, etc. It was truly incredible! I am a lover of big cats. Have been since a child. The photography of the lions groups, and the cheetah mom and baby was amazing.

Tiger has watched animal shows with me before. With the added size of the new TV, though, he was amazed also. He practically watched the whole show with us. A couple of times he had to get right up to the screen and watch close-up. That was just the cutest site. Especially when he was watching the big cats. I have one pretty good photo of him watching a cheetah.

Let's Start at the End

My husband and I just got back from a week long vacation. We took a cruise to the Mexican Riviera for a winter holiday.

The hardest part about leaving town was leaving my Tiger. I had to put him in a cat boarding place for the first time ever and I was very upset about that. I cried for 2 days and had my husband bring him because I just couldn't do it. So these are the first pictures of Tiger coming home. Not the happy pictures I thought they were going to be. He was a bit freaked out as you can see that in the photos. All he wanted to do was get down and run and hide.
















Why I was so upset about leaving him at cat boarding is because I believe animals have feelings. I thought he would be afraid in a new, strange environment, and wonder where the heck his mom (me) was. And feel abandoned because he and I are so attached. And then the space he was staying in was a small space, whereas he is use to going in and out all day long. I don't think this was the best experience for him, or for me.

Today is the second day that he is back home. Tiger is a bit more relaxed, and I am very happy to have him home.



I have many more photos and stories to share about my cruise. When I get organized I will share more.

Hard at Work or Hardly Working

Last saturday when I had my Open Studio, my helper, Tiger, was hard at work. Here he is, checking out the landscape.



And he needed to do some proof reading to make sure I spelled everything right.



Here he is, looking cute socializing with the folks.



And then, here is Tiger, exhausted after a good day's work. Phew! What a day! It's hard work being a host.



My boy Tiger really is a social cat. He did come in and out and check my guests out for other kitty or dog smells. You know, that is an important job. But seriously, he is great company, when he is not being ornery.

Tiger has another event to host this weekend. We are doing my first Home Jewelry Show. There will be lots of pretty jewelry, much more than I have shown on my Etsy site. So if you are local and interested in seeing what's new, stop by. We will be open from 10:00 until 3:00.

Back to Blogging

My last entry was done in the evening and Tiger made me quit writing. I have Tiger come in around 8:00 and if I am still on the computer, he will jump on my desk to walk on the keyboard, or create some other havoc by knocking things off my work table, anything to get attention.

I had another jewelry piece to share. A pair of earrings made with sterling silver wire and Russian ruby jade brios.
















I made another necklace with sterling chain, some turquoise crystals and a large turquoise drop. Very nice. And I got some new beads in called green grass jade that I love and made another necklace with. Check my store at www.LookStylishFeelBeautiful.com for these lovelies.

Scott finished designing my business card yesterday and it is off to the printer. It looks great!! If the printer does as good a job as Scott did, it will be one beautiful card. It is 2 sided and one side is for my jewelry and the other for my bead store. I will share it when I get it back from the printers.

Got lots of new beads in this week. If you are a beader, keep checking out www.TigerBeads.com as I list them on my site.

A Very Creative Day Today

After taking my cat Tiger to the vet today to make sure he wasn't sick, I got right to work in my studio and got a lot done.

I finished my flyer for my Open Studio event next weekend. I like how it turned out. I now have to print it and mail it. That's a lot of work on its own. Hope to get them out by monday.

I made 3 different necklaces today, and 1/2 a pair of earrings. I'll share a few of my goodies from today.

The necklace I call Lemon Ice. It is made up of roughly cut lemon quartz. green adventurine round beads and streling silver spacer beads. And the pretty closing clasp is sterling also. This necklace is 16" long.

A Beautiful Sunny Day

Today I woke up to sunshine coming in through my bedroom windows. That is not a common occurrence here on the coast. Many times we wake up to a white sky as I like to call it. But it is gorgeous today. No wind and warm. It's the best we can hope for here. Gotta love it!!

I decided that I am going to open a 2nd Etsy store and sell gemstone beads. I am doing my research to see where I can get the best prices. I found my first dealer yesterday and bought my first batch of beads. They are beautiful to look at all together. Photographing and getting the store set up will take a while. It just seems like a natural addition to my jewelry making. Hope I am not biting off too much.

I had Scott take some photos of Tiger and me this week. I've been wanting a sweet portrait with him for a while. I think this photo really expresses how much I love my cat.

Friends for Life

I have decided to donate 10% of my jewelry sales profits to Friends for Life. They are an animal adoption agency in my local area. This is where I found my cat Tiger. My husband and I were coming home from a walk and we both knew I wanted an orange kitty. Because we have an older cat, K.C. (short for Kitty Cat-how clever!) I wanted to make sure that the cat we introduced into our home would be compatible. I was told by someone, I think at a pet store, that a young male cat would be better than a female for this reason. So, on our way back from our walk we decided to walk to our local pet store to ask more questions. So what do you know? Friends for Life were outside the pet store with some kittens and older cats. Tiger was there with another sibling. Of course he wasn't Tiger yet. But I kept going back and forth, holding him, putting him back, asking lots of questions, until I decided we would take him home. And the rest is history. (Tiger's sibling was being adopted at the same time so I felt OK, that he was getting a home too).

Tiger has brought so much love into my life. And more of an awareness about conscious care for a pet. I knew if I adopted a cat, I would be committed to taking care of him for the rest of our days. I think a lot of people do not have the awareness that pets need attention, time and care each and everyday. It makes me sad when I see an animal that is neglected or abused. It breaks my heart.

So, this is why I want to give back to Friends for Life. As I said, Tiger has given me so much. I know there are many cats right now that need homes and I would like to help Friends for Life with their expenses for the care of the animals they are helping.

Oh, and as for K.C. and Tiger getting along, no way. Tiger is jealous and gets noticably angry with me if I give her attention. They live on separate floors of our home. Not what I was hopeing for but it is how it all turned out.

This is our K.C.