Cake

March & April were pretty busy for me. I wanted to share a cake I made for my co-worker's daughter.

Sea Horse Earrings

I think these earrings look like a sea horse. I have never posted any of my wired designs for sale online, but I think I'll post these on my etsy site.

Precious Metal Clay

Last night I worked on a beautiful heart piece, it WAS so pretty... but it didn't last. My 2 year old niece saw me working on it with a paint brush, and while I let the design dry, she went to look at it with, grabbed the paint brush and ruined the design. Oh well.

Here is a picture of one of my pmc pendants that I did about two weeks ago, Its currently my favorite piece, reminds me of water and I love it!



Have a great day!

Spring Flowers

I love photographing flowers, I found these at the San Antonio Zoo this weekend:





From my garden, one of my tiffany rose bushes produced it first flower this weekend:





Have a fantastic spring!

School....

I sure could use a break from school! Spring Break wasn't very relaxing, I had guests over and I made a Quinceañera (15th) cake - I only had 3 days off from work and that time was spent buying stuff I needed for the cake. Didn't have enough time to study for my Biology exam that I took last night... I'm worried that I won't do too good... I keep telling myself I need to focus on my classes, but sometimes it's hard when I'd rather be playing with beads or PMC.

I need to work on updating my website my website.

I worked on my nephews website a little bit, http://www.rgvgreenhouse.com. I hope he does great!

I also need to work on a new website for Crystal Box Studio.... She has great stuff, but her website doesn't reflect that.

Busy, Busy Spring

Spring Break? Ah I wish I could relax, well not just yet. I still have to work. The college I work at will only be closed on Thursday and Friday for Spring Break and Monday for Good Friday.

I have been so busy, I haven't even posted about how great my PMC class was, my instructor Lisa was great... check out her website at http://www.crystalboxstudio.com/. Irene (My sister-in-law) and I took the class. It was so much fun! I now find myself dreaming up new designs in everything I do.

At work, my supervisor has had to resign her position for medical reasons. I am going to miss her so much. She has always encouraged me in all of my projects. If it wasn't for her I would of never tried making marshmallows from scratch. But, at least our friendship will last. We are going to plan a trip to New York for just the two of us, hopefully early next year.

On other news, my husband got a website. Its called Local Guide SA (San Antonio), he will be posting his own reviews from local San Antonio restaurants where he likes to dine at. He works downtown, adjacent to the Alamo so he has a good insight as to where to eat downtown. I hope he gets a lot of visits to his site; that is all he is looking for.

As for my jewelry, it has taken a back seat to school. I need this semester to be over so I can concentrate on selling my Jewelry. This past weekend my mother-in-law and I designed a few PMC Silver Pendants, and last night I made an Onyx and Sterling silver 3-piece set to give my niece who is turning 23. I hope she likes it.

I am making a debut cake for a 15 year old (Quinceañera). She is the daughter to the minister that performed the wedding ceremony for my husband and I. I find makings cakes so stressful, even though when I’m done I enjoy seeing what I have accomplished.

Tati

This weekend was my niece, Tati's 15th Birthday, I promised her a cake with chocolate covered strawberries. Here is what I made her:





Here she is with her parents:

PMC Class

I’m so excited!!!! I signed up for a PMC class! YAY!!! I have wanted to take the PMC class for a long time, but things got in the way. The class is in two weeks at Wired Designs Studios. Here is their blog!

Class Description:
"Have you ever wanted to work with silver but thought it might be too difficult, time consuming or expensive? Now you can, using Precious Metal Clay® (PMC). PMC consists of microscopic particles of silver or gold suspended in an organic binder to create a pliable material with a consistency similar to that of modeling clay. PMC can be worked with fingers and simple tools to create a vast range of forms. When heated to a high temperature, the binder burns away and the metal particles fuse to form solid silver. PMC assays as pure silver that can be sanded, soldered, and polished like conventional materials. Students will learn the techniques to create multiple pieces of handcrafted silver art jewelry."

I love their store and I can’t wait to sign up to take more classes with them.

Unfortunately my sister-in-law (Irene) doesn’t have a sitter for her daughter that day so only mother-in-law (Hope) can take the class. But I have a feeling my Mother-in-law will want her daughter in the class and volunteer to stay behind and take care the baby. I am thinking of ordering the PMC kit from Fire Mountain Gems because it comes with a video; just so she get an idea plus we can show her also what we learn. I can’t wait!!!!

Bracelets

Photographing Jewelry is one of the most difficult tasks I have ever encountered. I have to change the contrast in photoshop just to get a decent looking image. Not to mention I have to resize them and make sure I leave enough space around the jewelry as a cushion incase etsy chops some of it up... which they always do even though I make sure to get a perfectly square image.

Here are some of my recent photos, I haven't uploaded them to etsy yet, because I was working on uploading all my green jewelry for St. Patrick's Day.

 

 

 

Valentines Day = Chocolate!!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!
How I've spent my Morning:

Here are my homemade marshmallows:

Then I added chocolate:

Finished Product:


Then we made:


Final Results:



Couldn't stop there, so we made:



Final Result:


Extras:



Here was the setup for the luncheon my boss was hosting:


I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day!!!!

Homemade Marshmallows

In January my boss came in with a box of homemade marshmallows that she wanted me to cover with Chocolate. She had bought them at wholefoods. After seeing how easy they were to coat with chocolate, she went home and made some for her family. Last night she went looking for more handmade marshmallows because she wanted to give chocolate covered marshmallows for Valentines day to her friends... but couldn't find them.

I volunteered to try and make them. I have never made them before. But tonight, I'm pulling my trusty kitchen aid mixer from its hiding place and going to attempt this! I've got a few recipes I found online, I'll be reading through them 'til I find the one I want to use.

Wish me luck.

****** UPDATE ********
They looked great, I had to wait 10 hours to cut them, so I waited 'til this morning and wow, they look and tast great!

I have class tonight so I was in a rush this morning to get to work and cut them. But my Boss loved them and tomorrow she wants me to cover them in chocolate at work for her. I'll take pictures.

I am so happy with the way they turned out.

New Banner!!!

I spent most of my morning working on changing my banner. I had been wanting to update it because I want to get some business cards to match. Reading the thread on the over user of the Papyrus font, prompted me to update my banner. I really like it.

Here it is what do you think?



or visit www.imagebeads.com

BEADS to the rescue!

Last night after my Economics exam, I was so exhausted I needed something to help me unwind. BEADS to the rescue! I sorted and arranged my beads by color… now I can’t wait to start some new creations. I’ve got some beautiful jasper and amber. I also have some agates in spring colors that I’m planning to mix with some light green and light pink pearls for spring. I also have some beautiful glass bead pearls; they are huge at least 14 mm, maybe larger.

Here is a quote to get you in the creative mood: “Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art… we need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.” By Mary Angelou

This weekend after I catch up with my Biology reading I am going to focus on taking pictures of jewelry that I have in stock and then I can dream up some new pieces.

Have a great weekend!

Etsy Shopping!!!

I spent my morning shopping on Etsy for my husband’s niece (2 1/2 years old) & his little cousin (she will be 1 year old in a few weeks).
The Vendors:
marymarsh.etsy.com
  


littleladyboutique.etsy.com
  

MindysEmbroidery.etsy.com
I got 2 of these, because the 2 year old always has to have her lip balm w/her.


Craftysignsandbows.etsy.com
 

What fun I had finding these little hair clips for the girls. I'm sure they will look so cute w/them... I'll post pictures of the girls when I get these in.

Making Earring Cards

What did I do this weekend? Earring cards! I got my supplies from Michaels where I found some mega craft punches in the shape of a square, they worked perfect. When I had my squared done, I used a small round hole-puncher to punch holes then half an inch beneath those holes I punched a tear drop hole so that I could hang my lever back earrings on it. It worked great!


I also bought the large gift tag puncher and stamped thank you on it, the gift tag puncher also works great as an earring card holder, which is what I will be using to send free gifts (earrings) with any purchase from my etsy site during the months of February and March.

January... Busy, Busy, Busy.

January proved to be a busy time for me. And wow was it full of Birthdays... My Brother Hector on the 14th, Sister Liz on the 16, Sister Oli on the 17, Husband on the 22, nephew on the 23... Geeze, glad there is only one birthday in Febuary. My beautiful niece Tatianna who turns 15.

School started, I'm taking two classes this semester, Biology and an online course (economics)... both classes are taking up so much of my time. My online course requires online postings every Wednesday & Saturday; a weekly quiz and homwork due Tuesday. Thankfully Biology is mostly reading, though in the last 7 days we have had 2 pop quizes, the lab assignments are fun though we meet twice a week from 6:45 to 9:45pm. yuk!

To top it all off, I fractured my left wrist on the 17th.

On the 22nd I had to meet with one of the consignment stores because they were needing more jewelry. YAY! Thats always good.

But at work I had a software deadline on 24th, which thankfully I was still able to complete, though its not one that I wouldn't be very proud of, but still it turned out nice... I will be twicking it some more until its where I want it to be.

I need to work on 2 other websites for some friends; take pictures of my jewelry and update my etsy site.

I guess Feb. will also be a busy month.