Canadian Artisan Jewelry and Vintage Finds

Let it snow....winter in The County.

I save all of my metal scraps from different projects - I don't throw much out.  I find that scraps are perfect for those days when you want to try something new.  Sometimes I have just enough to make little charms.  This time I had enough copper wire to make a cute bird pendant and two pairs of stud/post earrings.  The first pair are twisted wire sticks the second pair are braided hoops.  The earrings are a test project that I'll keep for myself.  Hmmm, I may make another pair in bronze and list them.

I made another tree of life necklace - this one is made with bronze wire.  Bronze wire is a stiffer wire to work with - a lot stiffer than copper.  The colour of bronze is a lovely warm gold that will gradually acquire a brownish patina.  For this particular piece I used tiny peridot stone chips.  I really enjoy making these pendant and I'm sure that I'll be making more - and with bronze - even though my fingers were sore at the end of the project.  Now I need to decide if I'll list it on Etsy or start a dedicated section for these pieces here on my site.  Or, just mix them in with my other necklaces. At the moment I can't decide which... Anyway, here are some photos of the pendant being made and the finished product. 

I completely forgot that I made these pieces.  I tend to go through spurts of designing/making jewelry and then stashing what I've made in a container in my little corner of the basement.  The bracelets and blue necklace and white crystal earrings were made several years ago when I was going through a Swarovski crystal faze.  And the purple necklace....well, I'm always in the mood for something purple.  Sometimes I look at pieces that I made years ago and I think "holy cow, why did I do that.  It looks terrible."  But I actually still like these pieces so I have to make time to photograph and list some here and at our Etsy Shop .  Two of the bracelets are listed, here's the blue crystal bracelet  and here is the peridot green crystal bracelet.

I'm finally getting around to taking photos and listing the tree of life necklaces that I made in the early part of the summer.  I'll be listing one here today.  The cooler weather will start at the end of the week which means we'll be wearing longer sleeves and these necklaces are a great accessory for swing t-shirts and long relaxed sweaters.  They're a nice gift idea as well.  Maybe I'll gift one to myself.

Instead of going for a run today, TP and I decided to hike the dunes at Sandbanks.  Since TP loves the heat and wide open spaces (and it wasn't busy with tourists), he was in his glory.  Me, not so much - it's 32 celsius today!  But I did it anyway....phew, and we'll be back when it's a little cooler because it's such a great spot.

Last Friday TP and I decided to take advantage of these exceptionally warm September days and packed our folding chairs into the car and drove off to Little Bluff.  We had the pebble beach to ourselves and it was fantastic.  And. to top if off, someone built these wonderful teepee sculptures out of driftwood on the beach ( I don't know if it was someone from the conservation authority or some really energetic person).  Whatever the case may be, I like it.  We had so much rain and stormy weather in the early summer that the beach must have been littered with driftwood and this is a great way to clean it up.

"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile." William Cullen Bryant

So, I've made changes to my site again. Since I made the decision to go back to blogger I wanted to have my website there/here as well. There certainly is a lot more in the way of templates available to Wordpress users, and not so much for blogger, but I kept on looking and came across BlogrCart and a template called SeVen.   It looked like what I wanted but I thought about it for a while and finally made the leap and I so glad that I did. I modified the template for my own purposes and I had a couple of hiccups, but the staff and/or Irsah were always available to help me work through them despite the time difference. They were great!  The last thing to do was to link my domain to blogspot.   I now have a simple, clean looking website that I am happy with....Now I'm a happy camper!

It's Saturday, and it's almost cocktail hour.  Time to enjoy a strawberry banana daiquiri with TP on the patio.  Cheers!

I think this chubby little guy (he's well camouflaged against the tree trunk) is an American Toad.  The insects are plentiful this year because we've had so much rain.  All of that fine dining has made him fat.

I haven't been sitting idle, even though the weather has been humid, which I dislike because it makes me sticky and sleepy.  Anyway, here are 5 copper rings that I've made - one with a purple swarovski crystal, two with czech seed beads and two more with stone beads.  I'll be taking more photos later and will probably list them in my Etsy store.

It's Canada Day and it's still a little gloomy outside after the rainfall last night. The weather forecast indicates that the sun will shine later this afternoon and hopefully it will because we will be walking into town to enjoy some of the celebrations. Happy Birthday, Canada - we're proud, strong and free.

Here's a beautiful summer quote for today is the summer solstice. "Smell the sea, and feel the sky.  Let your soul and spirit fly." Van Morrison

Yep.  I'm back.  I gave Wordpress a try.  I had a website up and running and recently moved from http to https when "bam"- all of my images were gone.  My hosting company says that everything is fine on their end.  In the meantime, I have been searching and searching and trying and trying for days all of the recommended plugins to correct the problem.  But I haven't had any luck.  So, I'm back to blogger.  I will gradually be adding posts and a shopping cart to sell my products and hopefully stick around here for awhile because I don't want to be spending all day on working my site. I want and need time to be creative. In the meantime, I'm digging my new socks boater socks or no show socks that arrived today.  I found them on ebay.