Handmade Tuesday

I'm not sure if this qualifies as handmade, maybe hand-blended, hand-mixed? Or how about homemade. All good food is homemade and today I want to talk to you about some tea I recently bought from teaman on etsy.



First let me tell you about my quest for tea. It all started five years ago when I had my first cup of earl grey. I loved it, but the friend who gave it to me bought it while in England and I could not find this particular tea online. So I started shopping for tea. Over these past five years I have bought every new brand of tea I could find. some were pretty good, most were not. The majority of them were weak and needed two to three tea bags to make a strong cup of tea.

So a couple days ago I was clicking through etsy looking for new things and I came across teaman. I had never thought of looking on etsy for tea, but decided to give it a try after looking at all the wonderful feedback teaman received. My tea arrived yesterday and i could smell the tea through the lovely tin. Most teas I can't even smell through the little box they come in. I promptly made a cup and it was fabulous. This tea actually surpassed that first cup I had all those years ago. Only one teabag made a wonderful cup of tea.

Great tea from teaman, if you love tea give him a try, best tea ever!!

Monique

Are You Ready for a Treasure Hunt?!!

I recently joined an amazing forum called The Handmade Artists Forum. This is ana amzingly supportive forum full of talented artists. We recently started an etsy team and the HAF team is having a treasure hunt!!

Follow the clues in our Treasury and you could win a beaded bookmark and phone charm from Suzies Armoire

Here's the Treasure Hunt

Start at the Crazy Moon Pendant and see where you end up! Then send a convo to Handmadeartistsforum.etsy.com with the ID# for the item that contains the clue that led you to the end of the hunt. Everyone who finds the correct ID# gets entered in a drawing to win the prize!!!

Have Fun!

Handmade Tuesday

I'm late!! I'm late!!

Would you believe I totally forgot it's Tuesday? Well I kind of did until right now, good thing I had my stuff ready.

I've been designing jewelry for some time now and I never thought of using wood. I'd seen wood used in jewelry, of course, but it never appealed to me. Then I joined The Handmade Artists Forum and met the jewelry designer who runs Jewelry by Janelle50 and saw her amazing work with exotic wood. Check out these two beautiful pieces and then go check out her shop.

Finding Jump Rings In Odd Places

I lose a lot of jump rings, sometimes I knock them off my workspace. Sometimes I drop them. Sometimes I fling them across the room in frustration. So I also find them all over the house. I find them on the floor a lot. I find them in my clothes, in my bra and in my hair. I've found some in my driveway. i even found one in my daughters diaper, not recycled, but still.

Perhaps, i shouldn't have been surprised when I found a jump ring in my sandwich. Or rather in my mouth compliments of my sandwich. I don't know if I happened to fling said ring into the kitchen and it somehow stuck to my peanut butter. Maybe it landed in my hair and fell into the sandwich. Maybe I flung it so hard it flew down the stairs where the cats played with it, thus flinging it into the air at the exact moment i was making sandwiches, so it could land in either my peanut butter or jelly. Maybe I should just be more careful with my rings.

Now I'm going to have to shake out my clothes and hair before preparing food. And keep an eye on those cats.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures


Monique

Handmade Tuesday

I'm going to try and feature a different handmade artist evry Tuesday. Tell you a little about their stuff and why I like it. Today allow me to introduce Paw and Claw Designs.

I'm a total geek so I love this stuff. My favorite are The Answer to Life, The Universe & Everything earrings. If you've ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy series by Douglas Adams you can appreciate the brilliance behind these.


I also love this Die, Die, My Darling Pendant. I love Magic: The Gathering, and have a whole box full of these twenty sided dice. This pendant is such a great geeky statement and this ones in pink!!


Lot's of other geeky wondernous abounds in this shop from earrings featuring elements from the periodic table, to guitar pick earrings, to retaining ring pendants. Check them out you'll love 'em!

Monique

New Stuff

Here's some new stuff I've recently listed in my shop. Starting from top left and working my way around clockwise we have: Stretchy Half Persian Bracelet, Purple Crystal Romanov Necklace, Rosettes Bracelet and Double Spiral Necklace. The stretchy bracelet can be customized with twelve different colors of anodized aluminum.
I'm loving the double spiral necklace, I almost don't want to sell it. If the crystals in the heart were blue I'd never be able to part with it.


I also finished my elfweave bracelet with the lapis lazuli. I love how this one turned out. The bronze of the rings really brings out the gold streaks in the stone. It's just amazing.

I'm working on a lot of earrings right now. I made some polyhedrons and some tao 3. I'm going to do a few pendants and then some bracelets. I've got a pile of pictures to get ready to post and then in a few days I'll list some new items. For now I'm off to bed, right after I finish this next bracelet.

Monique