What Makes Your Heart Flutter?

     My little article in Jewelry Affaire magazine is published and the magazine will be available on newsstands or to order online through Stampington on April 1st! I got my issue already and I am completely humbled to be included in this amazing and gorgeous magazine with so many talented artists...I don't quite feel like I should be there, you know? I have to remind myself though, that just because my work is fairly simple, it doesn't mean it isn't worthy of being seen.
I need to remind myself, and you today, that comparing ourselves to others that seem to be more than we are; more talented, more beautiful, more significant, more worthy, is a "sure fire" way to become quite unhappy.
There are days I look at my work and shake my head...and the voices rattle around in there saying things like, "who do you think YOU are?" "Anyone can do what you do." "You're wasting your time. This will never amount to anything." "You'll never be as successful as Nina or Stephanie or Kelly Rae or, or, or..." I literally have to tell them out loud to JUST SHUT UP! And I keep on creating.  I think we all probably have those nagging negative voices, don't we?
So don't let those voices take over! Sometimes, it is really hard isn't it? Have faith in yourself. I have faith in you!

So when I saw this come in the mail today:

and the voices in my head said, "well, you have no business in a great magazine like this." I took a deep breath and firmly told that voice. "I am worthy. I do have something to offer this world. My work is beautiful in its own way...a way that is my own beautiful way."
 I don't feel like my work is really "mine" though. I feel very much like it is a gift... and I truly believe that each of us has a special gift, unique to us, if we take the time to explore ourselves and find it.
What makes you loose track of time? What leaves you breathless? What makes your heart flutter? What brings you true delight when you do it? The answers to those questions will be your first clue. Unfortunately, the first answer that comes to mind for me, is eating chocolate cake....so you might have to move down your list just a little and that's ok....
I urge you to take a few moments today just to explore YOU.

My sister, Kelly Rae Roberts, has new prints that ask questions like these and more. This one is one of my favorites and it can be found here, with so many other new prints that she has added to her online shop!

Next Friday, I am giving away a free copy of the new Jewelry Affaire magazine (which is packed full of tutorials, beautiful jewelry and stories) trust me, it is a beautiful publication! I'm also giving away two pair of my best selling vintage jewel earrings,

lots of pretty vintage colors to choose from!

and also two pair of feather hairpins.....I am so amazed at how many ladies love these!

All you have to do is leave a comment to be entered. No hoops to jump through or anything....You can even leave an anonymous comment with your name (first name and first letter of last name please!) if you'd like. I'll announce the all of the winners next Friday, April 1st, so I'm really hoping for lots of entries! But please enter only once. There will be 5 chances to win something!
I just love doing giveaways and I appreciate you all so much. Thanks for being here today!
I'd also really love to thank Beth Livesay of Stampington & Co. for believing in me and my work....such gratitude I have for you Beth!

It's All Secretly Perfect

I've been away...in many ways I've been away, trying to recover from yet another illness...and trying to recover from some things in my life that have left me speechless. I simply can't form the words...and it just isn't something I can share here.
Life has become, for me, a stark contrast of light and of dark.... there is such amazing light, because I choose to live there in that space. But the dark lurks behind the corners of my eyes and brings tears of frustration and grief that I fight to tame....and more questions come as I cling to my core belief that it is, in fact, all secretly perfect.
So, here today, I just want to share some light....and a little peek into my home...a place that has become more and more a haven of rest and joy. Where the scent of Hyacinths, brought to me by my sweet K.W.,  just today, wafts through the air and light comes through the antique dresses and lace hanging in the windows.

I wanted to share a little bit of a before and after with you today.
K.W. surprised me recently with this antique (and very wonderfully shabby) cabinet we spied during one of our favorite pastimes: JUNKING. The price was so right that it was irresistible!
Here is the before:


Our youngest explores the new arrival...



Pooka and Alice explore the new arrival...

...and then I filled it with my personal treasures...I left all of the old, torn antique layers of wallpaper in tact....almost all of my treasures were found on our excursions to local antique shops. Sometimes I can even get my older kids in on the junking scene...it is always fun to hear their exclamations of surprise when they find something they think is "so cool!"

 a chamber pot from the late 1800's, bird s&p shakers
and parts of my "old bird stuff" collection



my most favorite treasures are the really stained
and chipped and uber neglected ones.
my prize is the old pitcher on the top shelf without its handle. 



blue willow vintage child's plate and crystal is one of many
very shabby Christmas ornaments I made this year
that I couldn't bear to put away!

 I've begun writing in favorite journal again today. I never seem to find time to write unless I am writing here. My journal is by one of my favorite artists Sabrina Ward Harrison.
This is the journal I chose because it spoke so loudly to me recently. (and I love the happy colors) On the cover is says "It's All Secretly Perfect"...and I need that reminder sometimes. You can see it or purchase it (or one like it) by clicking on the journal. It is on sale now for 11.00 at Papaya, one of my favorite sites. Quite a bargain! It is reversible, opens up flat, and has nice thick pages for painting and gluing and such.

So now, at almost 9 p.m., I close the curtains against the night as I type in front of this huge picture window on the world. I have some work to do...earrings to make and orders to wrap in pretty blue boxes....
Here is a sneak peek of what's coming to the shop tomorrow...



more wedding jewelry from vintage elements, I love
the super shabby elements of the hair comb...

See you all again soon...thank you for being here and reading these words...sharing your life and your time with me means so much. Love and Light to you all.

A Letter

Dear God,

The brief darkness inside of me has given way to light. It doesn't take long for the light to come....I spend a lot of time within myself, working things through....and praying.
You know that, right? I try not to bother you too much, because I know there are people with much bigger needs, but lately I've been talking to you quite a bit and you help me work things out in ways I know I should. The sadness and the anger gives way and I feel your presence as always. Sometimes it just takes a day or two. Thank you for listening to me.
By the way, I like for you to be a "him". I'm ok with that. I like the idea of a heavenly father, and I don't get hung up on whether you should be a man or a woman. I just find comfort in you....and joy in your creations....I revel in them, really..... How do the tulips know when to rise?  I do enjoy the questions....

Oh, and I was just talking to my husband today about a quote by Einstein



“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

I think I'll still keep choosing the "everything" option.

Though there were still  patches of snow on the ground today, Jeremy and I went out to soak up the sunshine and do some sidewalk drawing...he chose to draw a rainbow...a sign of hope and promise.

Such sweetness and joy in his inside-out shirt and clunky snow boots...thank you for him. Thank you for all of my children. They have brought me such joy and they have truly been my greatest teachers.

I know that you know sometimes I loose my focus on what is good and what is deserving of thought and thanksgiving and what is deserving of just letting go. There are things I have simply just given up to you. So, I'll just let you handle the big stuff and the hard stuff and the tough questions that I can't answer, and the things that I just don't know what to do with anymore. Because you make life so much lighter. So much simpler. So much easier. So much softer. More joyful. More manageable.

More miracle.

I always come back to you.

I Am Brave

I received my locket weeks ago. It was perfect. The colors of the beautiful blue Czech glass beads... the perfect font of tiny letters lovingly hammered into into it that claimed, "I am brave." After much deciding about which locket spoke to me, I felt so strongly that I needed it, and I so adore Liz Elaine's work.

But I gave my locket away two days after I received it to someone I felt needed it much more. I gave it to my youngest daughter when she decided at 17, to go out on her own...and now, now I feel the desperate need for another locket. I need that reminder again that I too, am brave. I need the locket with the words lovingly pounded into it with Liz's loving hands....with her intentions of peace for the wearer.

There is such a duality to my life. The joy I feel about my hearts work and my marriage and the myriad of blessings so present in my life...and the joys that being a parent of five children (four of which still live at home) brings to me. The laughter, the silliness, the noise, the love, the dancing....
but lately I feel like I'm crumbling. Crumbling under the pressure of physical pain once again limiting my life and the way I want to live it; but mostly, I'm crumbling under the pressures of being a mother to three older teenagers and a little guy who just turned six.
I feel like life keeps throwing such tough things at me...I get cynical and think maybe to see how much I can take before I break. I have been reduced to my knees in prayer...prayer in thanksgiving, but also so often in tears. I feel I am at war with myself in many ways.
I ask the questions of myself that some parents might ask..."Have I done enough?" "Was I supportive enough?" "Did I make too many mistakes?" "Is it my fault my child has gone astray?" "What should I have done differently?" "Should I have been more strict?....less strict?....more expectations?....should I have made more money?...less of this...more of that..."
 I have truly learned to love a lot of the questions about life...about God....about spirituality....but I am not loving the questions I've been asking of myself.
I know in my heart that I've done my very best for E. It is the hardest thing I've ever had to do...witnessing the destruction and chaos and tears. And I am not unaware of how hard it must be for her to tell me things that disappoint and sadden me. I have had to tell my own mother things that I knew would brake her heart, and make her question her own parenting.

I encourage you to write about your struggles here. Or even send me an anonymous letter...or leave an anonymous comment if you'd like. Talk to me about your heartache, your joy, your moments of clarity.
Because this blog is so public, I cannot reveal the specifics of the experiences I am having as a parent in this moment that are causing me such heartache....I am not anonymous! but I am ever hopeful....ever hopeful still.

I think instead of the "Brave" locket, I'll choose this one:

Yes, I need this reminder...I need this one now.

Dearest Liz, I thank you ...for your healing works of love from the Little Room... for your words....for your gentleness through the many years I have followed you....for your amazing new BOOK,which I adore......thank you for you.
My daughter, E. is back home now. She is wearing her "I am brave" necklace. and She needs it now more than ever.

Birds and Blossoms on my Brain, vintage assemblage jewelry

ice drops on the big tree out front
taken just this past week

It has been such a looooooonnnnnnnggggggg winter. There is still snow on the ground here in Michigan and I hear birds singing (FINALLY) outside, which means that spring is coming. It is a welcome relief from the subzero windchill that has been happening lately. I haven't been outside much this winter...I'm happy to watch it from the warmth of our home, which I am so grateful for.
I've been thinking about spring and weddings and flowers and little girls and buttons lately among other things. It helps to keep my mind off of my defective body parts and yesterdays visit to the ER (instead of going to church as planned) at the insistence of my dear husband, who was concerned for me. I'm having back trouble again...the kind that makes me afraid to move. It has been awhile since this ol' spine of mine has misbehaved so badly....and I had forgotten all about it really, until yesterday. I'm thinking it must be the change in weather...but I am recovering.
Anyway, I've been working on some new things here and there. I so adore these antiqued brass birds I've acquired and I want to put them on everything! (though so far I have resisted.)
I am so excited to be working on another order for Declaration Boutique this week. It is an amazing shop in St. Augustine, Florida that carries my vintage assemblage hair combs and earrings. I am so grateful to Heidi for her trust and confidence in my work.

Flight of Fancy Necklace

gold plated feather hairpins



antiqued brass bird hairpin
 with antique mirrored glass cabochon


Stay tuned for another giveaway, OK? (I love doing those!) I'll be back again sooner this time, than later.
THANK YOU for being here, and for taking the time to read my words and such. It means so much to me. it really does.

Atlantic City Assemblage Necklace and a Little Story Too

When I was a child, I spent most of the summers with my dear grandparents in  New Jersey. I hold young memories of Atlantic City, softened with age...riding the huge ferris wheel and the far flung swings...the fortune telling machines and the smell of the salty ocean air...the drifts of sand along the boardwalk...the smell of the wide sun-baked planks under my feet. I remember the sweet cotton candy (always the blue, not pink) and the welcome respite of cool shaded booths filled with cheap touristy things...I imagine where this little pin has been, but I do know where it started out...in the hands of a hopeful, smiling tourist...maybe a couple on their honeymoon... or maybe in the fist of a little girl just like me.

I just had to make this necklace when I came across this wonderful vintage tourist pin in a recent purchase of "junk" jewelry....and it has been so long since I've told a story associated with my work.

I like this one...Yes, I like this story.

WINNER WINNER chicken dinner!

Thank you all who left amazing poetry comments and such on the blog for the giveaway! I wrote all six names on little slices of paper and put them into my favorite vessel....swirled them 'round and had my husband choose the names out for me to be extra fair!
And the winners of the 20.00 gift certificates are (drumroll please):

SUSAN and EMILY!!! (*will you send me a message so I can give you the details?)
I love each and every one of you for taking the time to write and share your poems and favorite words. You are each and every one so special to me.

I got a most amazing and inspiring Valentine email from Magpie Girl today and I want to share the links with you right here:
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-the-single-people/
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-the-separated/
http://www.magpie-girl.com/a-blessing-for-those-with-partners/

I don't know how her blog escaped me, but I have found a new daily read. Her words inspire me and the above blessings are so incredible. I hope you enjoy them as well.

with love,
me

A Special Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Well, I am keeping my graphic design (almost but not quite yet) degree warm with a little practice, but this didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to. Might look better in print...anyway, this is my Valentine to you!

Enter a line from your favorite love poem for a chance to win a 20.00 gift certificate for my Etsy Shop! I'm giving away two of them on Valentine's Day.

IN OTHER NEWS, I have opened a separate shop for my children's line. I a very excited about the things I have planned for this special venture. Making the sweet hairpin sets and necklaces just makes me smile huge, and melts my heART. Here is the banner and link (just click on the banner) for the new Etsy site if you'd like to visit:

SPECIAL THANKS to The Graphics Fairy for all of the wonderful free Valentine images and such!

Black and Blue and other Stuff

I try to post more often, but where does the time go? I am finding it hard, still, to balance work with play with blogging with twitter with website with etsy with relationships with laundry with raising kids...and on top of it all, exhaustion is back again and not feeling so hot these days (again). I forget, when my health is pretty great, as it has been for exactly ONE month out of the past 7 of them, that I have this damn disease. I forget that I can't push myself too hard. I can't stay up too late or eat bad food or get less sleep or forget my medicine. To be honest, it kinda pisses me off. And yup, I'm getting older. There is so much I want to do and time seems so limited....and then I feel so dumb and ungrateful for uttering a single peep about my life when so many folks out there have it far, far worse. So what's an ungrateful, overwhelmed, sick and sometimes, angry gal to do? She makes pretty things in black and blue.

(click on the picture above if you'd like to see more)

(getting pretty good at photos with my trusty old AA battery powered Sony Cybershot 7.2 megapixel, eh?)

AND what else does she do?

She celebrates the moments that make life so incredibly beautiful. Moments like this:

My youngest with his birthday PIE. Key Lime to be exact.



Love, Your Typewritr

I opened my front door Friday to a tall stack of packages...a welcome sight.I always enjoy opening the vintage treasures i use for the shop. But there was one package I was not expecting.... I knew from the sketch on the cover that it was filled with goodness and love. I knew it was from my dear friend and artist Carissa Paige.

I was so overwhelmed and touched to see what was inside! I had just asked her several days before receiving this amazing gift if she'd like some vintage erasable typewriter paper that I had brought with me years ago from Seattle. She didn't respond and I just thought she was busy...little did I know that she was giggling to herself! The most touching part was the typed note that came in the typewriter...

I have always loved to send unsuspecting people small packages of simple blissful things. Random acts of kindness in boxes filled with my love and sent out into the world...I just don't often receive things like that, but I love love love to give them. That is the best part...the giving of thought manifested in physical form. This was such an absolute unexpected joy. I had to share it with you too.

She even enclosed a vintage typewriter brush wrapped with a large feather and soft whispy things..as if to say that any mistakes I made would be effortlessly brushed away. Lord knows I make enough mistakes.

Carissa my dear friend, thank you for your precious self and the precious gift. I can't look at that machine without smiling wide....

 p.s. Dear readers, if you'd like to see Carissa's work, you can visit her etsy shop!

Won't you share an unexpected joy in a comment? I'd love to hear it! and by the way, when was the last time you used a typewriter?

New Vintage Assemblage Wedding Jewelry

butterfly collar

vintage crystals and tiny celluloid flowers

I've been almost obsessing on a neutral palette lately. Toning the shiny golds down to antiqued tones...and relishing the new tiny antique glass flowers and leaves I recently bought to play with (more about those soon!). My mind is very much taken over by jewelry for little flower girls and on weddings and spring...maybe it is a way to relieve the constant chill that the thick snow leaves in this Florida semi-native's bones...(I was born in Jersey but I'm mostly from Florida, and a little from Seattle and Michigan, if that makes sense.)

ah, but I love the idea of creating something that someone will wear during one of the most precious days of her life...yeah....I think it is more about that............it's really much more about that.

By the way, Layaway is now available at my shop. Just stop by and ask about details on something you might like.

The World's Best, Not So Best Kept Secret

Well, I wanted to tell you I'm having a Valentine's Sale in the shop. 15% off of everything in the shop, including vintage items, with coupon code "VALENTINE2011" at checkout.
and I made a new banner and profile square for such an occasion:

 

What I really wanted to tell you about was this amazing site that I've found that has amazing FREE downloadable vintage and antique graphics!

I used quite a few of her free images for my Etsy banner and icon.

This site is a load of fun if you enjoy playing with graphic design elements. I have an almost degree in graphic design, and though hands-on creating with vintage and antique things is my passion, I still thoroughly enjoy making the occasional banner or add, or card. This website makes it so easy to find things with cataogories and such.

Here are a couple of quickie banners I've made for a couple of my favorite Etsy shops:

(Click on the banners to be taken to the shops!)
I hope everyone has a great Sunday! See you again soon.

A Surprise Sale and Vintage Assemblage Jewelry for Little Girls

I'm having a sale in the Etsy Shop...
look for the items marked "SUNDAY SALE" for 15% off lots of things. I'm kinda diggin' pink lately...apparently it is the Pantone Color of the Year as well...a color called Honeysuckle, which is a reddish pink. I like happy colors like pink.

I'm also starting a small jewelry line of lead and nickel free vintage jewelry for little girls. Thinking about doing  "mommie and me" earrings and such. For now I have made up some sweet little vintage earrings and hairpins. (I'm listing them today)

teenie vintage porcelain studs

sweet vintage rose hairpins

Would you mind leaving a comment  telling me what your favorite color is to wear? I'm always curious about what colors you like. Do you like the vintage jewelry for little girls idea? No need to sign in. You can leave an anonymous comment with just your name! No passwords and word verifications and such.

Oh, and I have new boxes...kind of like faux Tiffany blue...it was kind of an accident because I ordered white and ended up with these instead...and I like the color, so I bought some ribbon to compliment it and have lots of these vintage millinery flowers on hand....and Voila!(did I spell that right?)

So, this is my new wrapping these days...I mix it up a little with monograms and such. I love for my sweet customers to feel like they are not just making a purchase, but they are receiving a gift of love...sounds a little corny, I know, but seriously this is what I do.
I create the jewelry and then I place it on my little "altar" above my table for the night before I photograph and list it. I thank God for the gift of being able to create and I ask blessings for my readers and my dear customers and I say a prayer that goes something like, "may those who wear the work of my hands, and read my words feel the love I put into each and every piece."
Thank you, each and every one of you for being here today. For reading my words. For leaving such heartfelt comments. For your prayers for healing. I am so grateful for each and every single one of you. So grateful.

A Portrait of Self

I want to remember this day. I want to remember this bedhead in bright red with dark roots and makeupless face and wearing all of my spring clothes in the middle of this Michigan winter. Putting on her amazing springtide earrings, and a favorite necklace given to me by my mama years ago by Mati Rose. I put it on when I most need it. I need it today. Bright colors on one side and on the other it says "There is nothing wrong with you." If I can't hear anyone actually say it to me, I need to wear it close to my heart.

redheadbeadhead

I have painted myself with color today...in the brightest I have. Red shoes, green pants, blue shirt bright green sweater....my kids still make comments even after almost two years of it.  I come from literally years of wearing all black...a throwback from working at Eileen Fisher and living in a Seattle suburb years ago. I guess I thought it was easier and more "chic". It was. I desperately wanted to be chic. But that was then. I'm not worried about "chic" anymore. Now I paint myself in layers of color whenever I can. I don't much care anymore even if it really "matches". It lifts me. It was my 40th year resolution and I've kept it going. Quite possibly the only resolution I've ever kept.
Yes, I want to remember this day. The sounds of my little boy playing in the other room. Patty Griffin station playing on Pandora. Jewelry waiting to be finished on the table.
Hope in my heart.
And the feeling that there is really nothing wrong with me. Sometimes I allow others to make me feel terribly terribly flawed. I'll be 42 soon. I like myself. I heard about this revelation when I was 30. How when you turn 40 things change. They have. I've let go of some stuff...some clutter in my heart. I like the light in my eyes and the new big wrinkle in the corner of my left eye that I discovered the other day. (I don't spend much time in the mirror, so it is always a surprise when I really look!) I do, however have issues with my chin. Still trying to make peace with that......
uh-um but anyway, what do you do when you need to be lifted?
Aside from wearing lots of color, I love a big  cup of double-spice Chai tea and take maybe take in the scent and sight of lemons. (I keep lemon oil on my table and sniff it...sometimes even putting a dab under my nose and inhale deeply) I prefer lemons to fresh flowers (they're cheaper too.) Sometimes I keep one or two on my table to feel and scratch and sniff until they loose their lemony-ness.
and I read this poem called The Journey by Mary Oliver that I want to share with you:

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Je t'adore

Isn't this just lovely?!
Thank you to RewElliott for including my luscious Cobalt blue French perfume bottle. (at the time it is still for sale!)

Mamma, the Beach and Edgar Allan Poe

When I was 16, my mother presented me with this book.

I was a young novice poet, writing and brooding about broken hearts and love and wounds and teen angsty things...and I loved the dark words of my (then) favorite poet, Edgar Allen Poe. I learned from a friend that today he'd be 201 years old. My little antique book was published in 1882...I don't think I own anything else that is quite that old, or a possession that I've had quite as long.
My little Poe book has moved with me more times than I care to count. Packed and unpacked. Darkness and light. And always in the first box  I opened in the new place. My Poe book and my children and I have criss-crossed this country from cities and towns in Florida to Seattle,Washington, and then finally landing here in small town Michigan where we live our days celebrating each unique season. Though my three teenagers would disagree, there is something very charming about living here for the past seven years.
In each place I've ever lived, my little old Poe book became a reminder of my mother and from whence I came. It grounded me. It has always been there, resting quietly until I take it down from its place and gently turn the brittle pages and run my fingers over the lines of my favorite Poe poem, Annabel Lee.

I once recited it in High school English class, bringing with me my red "boom box", and on it, a recording of the ocean waves (I crept out that night before the assignment and traveled with a friend to the beach to record them.)  Barefoot and skipping in the shallow waves and twirling in the darkness, I practiced the poem aloud with the ocean mist in my hair and recorded the gentle rushing forth and receding of the waves. Yes, I was quite the romantic then and the world was wide open. Quite the dreamer at heart...and I suppose that hasn't changed much.
There was something about those last lines of Annabel Lee that resonated within me and furthered my love for poetry. For the past 28 years I have written off and on, sometimes going years uninspired to write...but always, my little antique Poe book was there waiting quietly for me. And my mother, never too far from my thoughts.

So, Happy Birthday Edgar...and thank you for your words pressed into the yellowed pages of a little brown book that made everywhere I lived a home, and inspired me to write. And thank you mama, for the very first gift of poetry...and the little old book that holds the memories of my young-ness and my spirit....and always reminds me from whence I came; of you mama, my forever home.

Resolution gone BAD....and maybe it's GOOD?

OK, I didn't write down any resolutions or words for the year yet...I only know this: I told myself I'd be more organized. I wasn't really specific. I made myself a notebook this year to keep track of labels and receipts and such, so I got that much done....and well, that's about it. I clean my work desk at least once a month and it takes A LOT of my time to do. I always feel better afterward....and then two days later it looks worse and worse and worse...........and I am surprised I get anything done. I really do have a great little space  and I am planning to paint the ugly tannish-brown colored walls soon. Anyway, an excersize in humility brings me here to show you where I work. Where I spend serious blissful hours making things for you...infusing them with joy and with love...in an organized chaos. Is there such a thing?
Thanks for being here today and sharing your time with me. I really enjoy sharing my life here. It is very cathartic for me; but also, someday my children can come here and see where their mama came from....
(my apologies for the video quality ahead of time.)

Off the Cuff...Well, I guess really it's ON the cuff..but it seemed clever enough...

I'm smitten these days with bracelets. Particularly cuffs. I have a large amount of vintage Art Nouveau stampings,shapes and swirls, little leaves, religious medals, vintage earrings, rhinestones...oh my. I've been collecting vintage and antique "supplies" for a couple of years now. It's time to use more of them. I've found the versatility of the brass cuff...

The Beekeeper's Daughter

Wedding Song

My Baroque Valentine

Oh, and for the rest of January, I am giving away free button or rhinestone or button-rhinestone hairpins with each order.
Thank you for being here.
Blessings and Light,
Jennifer