Christmas Shopping

So, this happens to me every year when I set out to begin my Christmas shopping ... I don’t have that many people to shop for, and I try to limit how many things I give my girls (still under the illusion of Santa Claus, right), so, it should be fairly easy, right? Right. With a lose plan I head to the mall ... or Etsy ... And I end up ...

“Oooh, I’ve wanted these for so long. I’m getting them. For me.”

“Oooh, I think I need these, so I’m getting them. For me.”

“Well, the girls need to think Santa remembered me, too, so I’m just going to get this. For me. Eh, I mean, for my new collection.”

Needless to say, I still have to go shop for my girls, and a few other people. And maybe I’ll just pick up that thing for myself. You know, that thing I really have to have.

Sigh.

P.S. You can find more lovely earrings by my dear, talented friend Ginger here. Check your local stores for memory blocks by Sid Dickens.

My favorite color: Pink

So, there is not a whole lot of creativity coming out of me lately. But there is a whole lot of pink appearing around the house ... but mostly just in the eyes of my children. We have been battling pink eye for a week now. Yeah, fun, not so much.


Here’s to a pink-free week to the rest of you.

Color Me Happy

This month, the lovely artisans of Etsy’s Best Kept Secrets is discussing color. Is it important to me? Does it influence my designs? The short answer is, yes. I’ll quote myself from my Etsy profile:

“I have always been fascinated with color and form. When I was little (just a few years ago, of course ... eh-hum!), I colored just about anything and everything. Since my mother was an artist, I was blessed to always have paper and coloring books, pens, markers and crayons handy.”

I love working with colors, and I’m blessed to have a full-time job that involves color and form. I have incorporated the same principles into my jewelry designs, pairing my favorite colors and stretching my imagination trying to color outside the lines. But not only that, I have gone from being a girl who wanted every room in her condo white to incorporating just about every color on a color wheel on the walls of my house.


Looking back at what I have created, I see that I tend to gravitate toward the same color combinations over and over again—the same colors I like to surround myself with on a daily basis: blue and green (both colors are in my bedroom), pink (my youngest daughter’s bedroom) and purple (the brand new color in my foyer), gray and black (this fall’s favorite colors to wear). But I also use more yellow in the pieces I make—and the layouts I design—than I would ever wear on my person (yellow is just not my color … and yet I just painted three walls in my dining room a golden yellow).


But, is color the only thing that inspires me? No. When I design pieces, I start with the focal stone and depending on the shape and the color, it may end up taking me in a completely different direction than I had first planned.


Take the gorgeous oblong kyanites below: Normally, I would have paired them with green garnet or Prehnite, but this time they were really calling out to be paired with yellow. Yellow? I must have been homesick at the time!


Is color important to me? Does color influence my designs? Yes, it certainly does. Even when it takes me in a surprising direction.

Something about cashmere

Yes, I could definitely go for one of these cashmere scarves from Restoration Hardware (I know, it’s a little funny). The two grays seem to be the colors of the season, and ones that I personally am drawn to more and more. But then, the black is classic, right? It would go with everything. And what about that garnet one? I have a winter white coat, need I say more. Decisions, decisions!