Invisible Me

Hello all,

Hope the last two weeks have been kind to you.

I want to thank all of you for your input with the blogger issues.  Don't know if I'll still be invisible with this post, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I might be.  A special thank you to the very kind Tracy of pipnmolly for mentioning my illusive blog post on her blog.  Really appreciate it!

I've had a lull in the craziness and found a bit of time for making some more box lid jewelry.  woohoo!  How exciting is that?!  I know, actual box lid jewelry.  Doesn't get much better than that, eh? 

 

First how about a little local wildlife?

Cuz you know I love showing you the critters.

They let the newly promoted most interesting man in the world get pretty close.  But as that picture is dark, here's a better one from a little farther away.

We saw these guys, well gals and babies to be precise,

 at a local park a few minutes from where our new house will be.

 

 

And this weird little show is at our temporary abode

 

 

 

 

Your eyes are not deceiving you.

The bird is just hanging out on the rock wall.

There were four of them but I wasn't quick enough

with the camera to catch all of them.

 

So there are birds in Texas to make good use of my

trusty old birdbath, which by the way,

developed a very cool patina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snapped those before it got packed up.

 

 

Speaking of birds, check this out.....

 

 

 

 

 

For a broader perspective.....

 

 

 

Yikes!!!

No idea what the draw was.

Yes, we did feel like we were in "The Birds"

 

 

Since we're still on the subject of living things,

lookit what the orange tree is up to....

 

 

 

 

We're not the only ones enjoying the sunshine here.

What about the little baby oranges, you wonder?

 

 

 

 

Pretty soon all of those blossoms will be little bitty oranges too.  yay! 

Those blossoms smelled so incredibly good.

 

 

Ok, now you want to see some box lid jewelry, eh?

 

These Turkoman Goes Modern earrings had a good start back in Illinois

 before everything got packed up.

The tin had been cut and texturized and oxidized.

I just had to do some assembling....

 

 

 

 

Turkoman Goes Modern-Eye of the White Tiger

 

The connectors are a bit different on this pair.

I used Blue 'eye' headpins

and thick twisty wires for added texture.

 

 

 

 

 

Turkoman Goes Modern- Aspens Ablaze

 

These have curled headpins instead of the usual balled headpins.

Why?

Because I forgot to pack any of my balled headpins,

even tho I made a ton of them before the move

 just so that I would have them in temp housing. 

And because I don't have access to a torch.

Wasn't sure how I would like these, but turns out, I like them ALOT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are currently titled "Long Cones"

hahahaha, yes, I know.

Decoupaged, aged and waxed long metal cones with bumpy hollow

black and clear blown glass beads with clear and black eye headpins.

Yup, had the cones all  ready to go before the move too.

 

 

 

 

 

Nailed hoops featuring venetian blue headpins by numinosity beads

and ceramic nails by Scorched Earth On Etsy 

Already spoken for.

 

 

 

 

 

Kuchi buttons with beadcaps by Scorched Earth.

I loooove these!

 

 

 

 

 

Simple blue-eyed nailed hoops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lace and nails with itty bitty ivory seed beads

and headpins by havana beads 

Just finished these up.  Liking very much.

 

 

I also made a couple of bracelets......

 

 

 

 

Bezel set white druzy, kuchi bells, a venetian blue bead, vintage buttons,

lampworked beads by Numinosity,

 a cloisone (yes, I'm sure I spelled it wrong) cone from Numinosity's vintage shop,

a lovely white stick pearl and a freshwater pearl.

 

 

 

 

 

"My Love"

 

This one has upcycled tin as the scalloped focal piece.  Adorned with a copper charm that I've stamped with the Italian words for 'my love', a black horn charm,

 fossil mammoth bone beads,  two strands of black gemstone chip chain

and a faux bone scrimshaw piece I made.  I carved it (if I can call it carving after seeing what Pipnmolly carves.  Ok I can't)  er, I cut it out, incised the design on it, aged it, then broke it.

I repaired it, so that it looks like a found and reclaimed treasure from long ago. Yes that was done before the move too.  But the coolest thing is the clasp....

 

 

 

 

An antique cufflink.  To take it off and on, you

simply rotate the small part of the cufflink and either insert it or remove

it from the twisted link. 

 

 

and I finally finished this one....

 

 

 

 

 

"XO"

 

decoupaged, aged, with type letters from Pipnmolly,

another of those I can't spell cones from Numinosity

and a bumpy headpin from Havana Beads. 

A bit of silk sari fabric and wooden beads and there you have it!

 

 

 

It doesn't seem like so much on here, but it took all

I could muster to get these things completed.  I really don't

love my boxlid workbench. 

The countdown continues until I have an actual studio again.

 

I'm waiting with baited breath....

 

and I'm also holding my breath hoping someone can actually see this once I hit publish....

and if you can, thank you for visiting!

 

Please don't forget.....

 

 

 

 

 

 there's a giveaway to win a personal wellness package through the end of the year over at

 

Enlightened Lotus Wellness

 

 

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy.

 

 

Ciao

 

 

 

 

 

 



Snakes on a Plane, Snakes on a Train, Snakes in a.......

You guys certainly rose to the occasion on this giveaway!  Thank you all for your hilarious comments, stories and wild ideas.   LOVED THEM!  It's a blast to see how a little thing like this picture can get your creative stories flowing.

 

I appreciate all of your comments, ladies.

Thank you for taking the time.

Here's the highlights of the comments;

Ellice -  Yes, you are a total success if grossing me out is your aim.  And the orange tree is LOADED with more blossoms.  Smells incredible. Very happy here in the hot Texas sunshine.

Kathy- Welcome!.  You absolutely should get your ears pierced.  Though that explains how you're able to part with all of those amazing earrings you make.  And yes, you're right, thankfully, those snakes aren't real.

Lela- ewww, I hate snakes too!  You came closest in reality to what TSMIMITW was actually doing  But Texas sun tea?  Um, sounds tasty, but no, sorry.

Skye- What are you talking about?  I tried to contact you via your blog to find out but got nowhere.  Waaaait- are you just messing with me?  But hey, even though I didn't knowingly do anything I'll gladly take credit for making you laugh.

Alice-HAHAHAHAHA!  You've done away with Mr. First?!  Guys- she murdered off the Most Interesting Man in the World! Totally cracked me up. You do tell a good story with that twisted thinking. TSMIMITW appreciated the promotion, btw.

Greer-  Hissed on one sip of Texas Tequila!  Hilarious! I'm asking...how do you know?  Fried a bit, have you?

Tracy- Yes, yes to everything you said.  I'm loving the lack of all things football.  You have no idea just how much. Or maybe you do.

Juliette- You're so right....what a fantastic studio that little stone building would make.  We can dream, can't we?

Marina- A prop for a tv show maybe.  An Arts and Crafts segment with the SMIMITW hosting, showing 101 things you can do with a dead plastic snake.  hahahaha  But nope, no magic, witches or occult shenanigans around these parts.

Cynthia- Well see if there was 50 of me it would explain the massive amounts of organic ice cream I can consume.  I like your idea.  "no, it wasn't me who ate that gallon of ice cream. It was one of my 49 alter egos!"

Willow Janet- Welcome!  Thank you for the awesome tip! We're not far from there at all.  Looking forward to checking it out.  Are you near these parts as well?

Super Petra- Your beads do look wonderful because they are wonderful!  Yup, gorgeous sunsets and the occasional foot-rub.  Mr. Wonderful 2 stumped you, did he?  hahahaha

Kimberly- YES PLEASE!  I very much do want to see your pictures of real snakes in jars.

Flotsam Kim and "E"- E, your hopping snakes story is very funny.  It made me laugh to think of it!  Kim, my pleasure to mention your beautiful new shop.  Wishing you every success with it as well as with FlotsamTide.

Quisnam-  HAHAHAHAHA  what makes you think I'm coherent and not a mess?

Coffeefreek53- Where to even start with replying to your comment?  hahaha.  No backing away slowly for me, I will turn and run like crazy, screaming like a hysterical girl the whole time.  Well, no, I usually keep a cool head till after the fact but then I'll scream like a girl.  They do BBQ everything in Texas, everything! Will let you know how I like BBQ snake when I've had a chance to try it. :)

Bond girl-  Are you saying that keeping the first pair of every new style (the prototype) isn't standard practice?  I've been doing it wrong all this time?!  Ok, so now we all want to hear the second grade snake story.  Please do tell.  And if I thought a jar of fake snakes would keep real snakes away, you can bet I'd have a fence of them!

Melinda- Thank you for the helpful info on poisonous snakes of Texas.  hahahaha.  I did Google it!  Ewwww who wants to eat green snake?  ack. Oh, Texans, that's who!

Snakes on a bun!  Too funny and fits perfectly with the theme.

Lucie-  You know I hadn't even thought of making molds from those snakes.  Thank you-  good idea.  Maybe a bracelet that wraps around your arm.  A room full of monstrosities?!  Yikes! No wonder that still creeps you out.  Actually, that sort of thing creeps out TSMIMITW too. He has no fondness for mutant anything.  So not to worry.

Crankypants- Welcome! I will mess with Texas, I promise.  How could I not?  Snakes in a jar, the latest teenage fad, eh?  What will they come up with next?  hahahaha

Gretchen- Welcome! hahahaha if you only knew how completely unlikely it is that TSMIMITW would go to a gypsy fortune teller, you would be on the floor laughing.  But the idea of snakes in a jar lowering our mortgage rates could help me quickly learn to love me some snakes!  Then I'd get the hubs out there wrangling a bunch of snakes that we could take to our real estate closing.  Oh wait, the people might all run out of the room screaming (like girls) and leave us with a pile of unsigned papers and snakes.  Yikes!

  Now for the real story. 

 Not nearly as entertaining as those you guys came up with.

See these pretty hanging baskets.....

 

They graced our front porch at our Illinois home.

Every year the birds would make nests in the pots, 

meaning we had to chase the birds away or drown the poor little nest when watering, 

which clearly wasn't going to happen.  So we put rubber snakes in the pots.

VIOLA!

Problem solved.

Upon moving, I never gave those snakes a second thought, 

I mean, why would I?

Until that romantic moment on the balcony.....

this ladies, is a man way of cleaning dirt off of rubber snakes.

hahahaha.  I find it hysterical.

Yes, he was quite pleased with himself for a. fishing the snakes out of the pots and

b. thinking of a no fuss way to get the dirt out of all the little textured snakeskin crags and crevices.

Guess this actually demotes him down to the third most interesting man in the world, eh?

So it's actually

Snakes on a Plane

Snakes on a Train

Snakes in a Flowerpot

(so not scary at all, eh?)

Oh winners?  You want to know about the winners?

For those of you around for my first giveaway,

you might remember that I let you all choose the first winner.

The commenter who gets the most reaction from the other commenters is the

winner of prize #1 

we all know who that is....

Congrats Greer of VintajiaAdornments!

You will receive the earrings made with Petra's wonderful components. 

Ladies, I just couldn't decide between the rest of you.

Loved the variety of scenarios.

Thanks so much for sharing your creativity about those snakes.

To be fair, I thought the only solution was to resort to the tried and true method,

of names in a hat.

Or a stainless steel bowl to be precise.

No, I didn't photogragh it.

Trust me, I didn't cheat.

Though only the commenters who specifically commented 

on the snakes got their names in there.

The first name drawn....

Alice! 

You will receive the bracelet.

The second name drawn....

Melinda!

You will receive the glass necklace

last, but not least, the third name drawn....

Bond Girl!

You will receive the cocoon pendant.

Ok Ok, you know I always have a bonus winner.....

This time it's "E"

Just because any time a sweet first grader

concocts a story as charming as hopping snakes,

she's a clear winner in my book.

There'll be a surprise prize for little miss "E".

Please send me your addresses via email or convo

and I'll get your goodies out to you next week.

 Now onto other things.

Imagine my delight when we got internet service set up in our

 temporary digs.  

I was (and am) soooo thrilled to be able to give some sorely needed

attention to my neglected blog and etsy store.

Then to my horror to discover as I attempted to post a picture to my blog,

that I have used up all of my space on blogger and was unable to 

post even one more picture!

What?!

I didn't know there were any restrictions to how much space you have 

available to you on Blogger.

Did you guys know about this?

One of my blog mentors, fanci mentioned to me when I first started out

to use small pictures. She adjusts the size of pictures taken in her camera settings.

I'm thinking it was merely for ease and speed of uploading pictures.  Not so.

Anyway, I'm giving you all the heads up to be aware of the size of pictures you're posting 

before you too run out of space and can't upload one more picture.

There is an easy way to deal with it if you do run out of space.

  $5.00 a month buys you more.

I am also now resizing my pics to a smaller size in a photo editing program

 so they use less space when posted.

And maybe I won't post 1,239 pics in each blog.  Disappointing to you, I know.

Well, we'll see about that.  You all know I'm all about the pictures.

Well and the words.  Always lotsa words. 

I'm inserting this little update in here just in case any of you 
somehow discovered I blogged..........
 arghhhhhhh 
 I discovered after posting this that I'm not showing up on anyone's blogrolls
where I normally show up.
Wondered why, 6 hours later I hadn't heard a thing.
Hours and hours of research and I still don't know how to fix that.
Possibly something about my feedburner.  Huh?
What's a feedburner?
So I'm putting it out there- 
A PLEA FOR HELP!
Do any of you know why I've disappeared
from blogrolls?
Waaaait, did you guys remove me from your blogrolls? 
Ack, now I'm frustrated and embarrassed.

Update 2-  It's been a number of days since I posted this.  I've tried everything
I can think of to correct the blogroll situation on this end.
Obviously nothing has worked.  Sigh.
It appears that when I ran out of blogger storage space
and purchased more, that something changed
  in the way my URL is recognized in the existing blogrolls. 
Looks like if you would like my blog to continue
appearing in your blogrolls, that you might need to re-add it to your blogroll list.
Much obliged if you choose to do so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Random side point-This is what my nails look like when I'm not working alot.

And the reason I'm showing this picture is because it's 

uber (oober for Numinosity Kim)

important to use up some blogger space on this pic

let's pretend that the cuticles are in better shape 

and that I don't have those funky irregular nailbeds.

Please just take note that all the nails are looooong and the same length!

All 10 of them!

Wowee.

Of course, they don't look like that now, though,

 cuz of this....

 Boho Chic Hoops with Pink Drop

You might recognize these hoops as the tin pieces in my box lid studio photos of a previous blog.

Sterling earwires, headpins by Havana beads, slightly oxidized with dimples.

Discoveries of Ancient Pompeii

Three shades of Baltic amber, luminous light aqua teardrops, embossed brass, 

wired up, oxidized and sealed with micro wax.  

I am so pleased with these it took all my self control to list them,

even though technically, they are a prototype and I could keep them with no guilt.

Right Bond Girl?

Bits and pieces of stones, shells and glass.

I know!  What's with all this color?

They are already spoken for. 

You Nailed it Salsa Hoops

with Petra's ceramic nails floating in beaded multi wire hoops.

Color color everywhere.  Could it be all this sunshine? 

 

   Cool Waters of the Grecian Pools

These are some of the luscious labradorite beads from the

Bead and Button Show.

Yes, they really do have that amazing blue flash! 

The faceted briolettes are also labradorite,

 but with interesting inclusions along with the flash. 

 

Travels Through Time Assemblage earrings

Vintage watch rounds, not faces, dials, maybe?

Upcycled tin, aged acrylic floral beads, embossed brass,

red headpins by Havana Beads and

the cool double headed speckled headpins

by Numinosity beads.

Oxidized, waxed and colorful!

Nailed Double Hoops with Ceramic Nails and Garnets

Petra's nails adorned with wee bits of highly polished garnets 

to provide visual contrast with the highly textured nails

and grungy hoops.

Now those look a bit more like my usual dark fare, eh?

Hands of Time Upon My Ivory Rose

You saw these last post.

I added some matte olive green seed beads

 and wrapped antiqued copper wire round about the bullet casing

to provide texture and contrast to the smooth cool casing.

Now they look done to me.

As do these...

The Thorn That Pierced My Heart

The addition of wire wrapped pyrite beads

and vintage petal headpins made these look complete to me.

Love Birds

Adding the beaded green leaves finished these up too

since the last time you saw them.

Pods of Porcelain

I decided to wire wrap some antiqued wire around the bottom arches 

and it added just the right amount of texture to make these look done. 

 I like how that texture compliments the texture of the upper discs 

and ties the design together.

Born With a Silver Spoon in Her Ear

More of that fantastic embossed brass which has the feel of antiquity to me,

paired with faceted briolettes of rutilated quartz, one of my all time favorite stones,

and tiny little silverplate spoons.  

The color of the mixed metals 

combined with the complimentary textures is so pleasing to my eye.

Simple yet elegant.  

I also made a set of 5 simple stacked bangles

Amazonite, pyrite, labradorite, agate and glass beads.

I made these bracelets oval, which is my preferred shape for comfort and wearability.

The wire is not so stiff that they can't be re-shaped though if someone prefers round.

Photo taken on my creepy new manne hand which I am kinda loving.

It's a man hand with gold paint flecks all over it so I had my doubts.

But I think it looks pretty good in the pictures, 

which of course was the whole point of a new manne hand.

That's it for giveaways and box lid jewelry.

Phew.  Did it seem like it took forever to get through all the words?

I know blog words are all ya'll's favorites. 

(notice the Texas speak? eh? eh?)

And now for some blog news.

Wanna win a free Personal Wellness package?

I sure do!

So I'm entering the giveaway for it here

at Enlightened Lotus Wellness

I'm just hoping if I win one,

that I can have wellness and eat organic ice cream.

Shouldn't be a problem, right?

In honor of the first, second or possibly third most interesting man in the world's romantic nature,

 which inspired this giveaway,

I shall leave you with this

so long for now.

enjoy