Pirate runes and cartilage earrings

My fiancé makes me laugh. When I mentioned how pleasantly surprised I was that my cartilage chain earrings are such a hit, Josh joked that there must be a whole lot of Bajorans who shop on Etsy. You know, that race from Star Trek famous for their earrings?

This just supports my theory that there are only so many ideas in the world, and they'll hit whoever is receptive to them. When I first designed these earrings two years ago (or was it three?) I came up with the idea because I wanted something to decorate my multiple ear piercings but in a way that looked kind of Elven; I was definitely not a Trekkie and had no idea even that Bajorans existed. It wasn't until this month when I saw an episode of TNG with Ensign Ro in it that I knew what Josh was talking about. Obviously I was receptive to the same general idea that whoever designed the Star Trek costumes also got hit with; that earring muse sure must be busy!

Here's my most recent earring:

It's a Halloween kitty- I love this one! :D It's here in my Etsy shop and here on Artfire. Like all my cartilage earrings, if you want a cuff and/or a clip on earring instead of the pierced posts, I can switch those out for no cost (I only charge extra for sterling silver posts, since those cost a bunch).

Woah, and in the time between writing up this entry two days ago and queuing it to post, I got two more requests for custom chain earrings! People really do love them and I really love my customers! You guys rock!


The other thing I want to blog about is my latest set of runes. I'm so proud of this set; a lot of work went into them- I hope they'll go to a good home! I am so tempted to keep them, but I don't need another set of runes, lol.

Yarr! Here be their pouch; it has a skull and treasure map design, perfect for a pirate diviner.


And here be the treasure! 26 gold and silver coins and I shall vow that none be cursed. (Unless you count how long it took to make them!)


These coins also have the runes on the back, of course!

These were my first try at stamping things into clay, and I think it worked out well! :) First I shaped the coins by hand, then stamped them; the coin design is from a large jewelry coin I have (there are actually two slightly different designs on the runes for this, since both sides of the coin are different), the dragon is from a pendant like the one on my Underwater Wyvern necklace that I then poked a design around, and the ridges on the back are from a real seashell. The polymer clay is actually grey (you can sort of see this in the stamped designs) that I rubbed with silver and gold Pearl-Ex powders after the designs were stamped on; a few of the runes also have glitter on them, as well. After I baked them (that took a while with 26 runes larger than I usually make them; I could only do about eight at a time in my little clay oven), I painted on the runes and when that was dry, painted a layer of varnish over them. When all that was done, I handsewed that pouch (I still haven't learned how to use a sewing machine because I like sewing by hand, but it's definitely time consuming so I'm going to have to learn soon) and added the ribbon and beads.

See- lots of work, but it was definitely worth it, and they were so much fun to make! I need to get more colors of those powders because I really enjoyed working with them.

I'm having a love-hate relationship with crochet

I was going to do a post about my latest finished projects (runes and earrings), but right now I want to rant about the elf poncho I'm working on. It's such a cute design, and the pattern was pretty easy to follow to the start, but now it's just turning crap.

My main gripe about clothing patterns is that they always call for wool yarn (at least all the ones I've tried or want to make), so you can block the article of clothing into shape. I can't wear wool because it makes me itch, and I'm poor, so I always use acrylic because it's non-itchy and cheap. You can't really block acrylic, or anything not natural, so I always end up with a project that is misshapen and doesn't fit right. It just seems so darn cheap to me that in order to get something pretty, who cares about the work put into making it correctly; it's all about soaking it and tugging it into shape. Can't there just be a pattern where what you crochet is what you get? That works for the things I've designed- granted I've never designed a sweater or something big yet, but crocheting the actual size and shape works just fine for the acrylic sleeves, gloves, and waist cinchers I've made.

I guess tugging it into shape works for if you're making a design that conforms to your body shape, but a poncho is a one size fits all thing- the tie in the back determines the tightness.

So now I've got a poncho that doesn't fit right (maybe I can try sewing the neck down so it doesn't stick up so much?). To make it worse, the pattern completely loses all comprehension when it gets to the hood. How the heck are you supposed to turn a giant rectangle into a round hood shape? (Whenever I've made hoods for dolls, I always start with a circle- because, you know, heads are round.) The pictures of the pattern don't have anything with the front of the hood, so I can't see how they got the hood to not stick out all pointy and angled over the face. And I'm lost as to how to attach it- I still have no clue what the difference is between "front" and "top" and "back" and "bottom" on a hood. Isn't the bottom the back? And the top, which you'd think would be the top of the head (or the "right side" of the crochet), is actually an end that I need to crochet around, but I can't figure out what end. It's driving me nuts!

So basically unless I can guess correctly for the hood and/or sew the neck down so it isn't sticking up, I may have to frog the whole thing. I'm going to try crocheting my own round hood, but I've only ever done those for dolls, so I'm not sure how different it would be for human sized. If that works, and if that'll keep the neck from sticking out so much, I may be able to save it and end up with something pretty. On the plus side, if I'm doing my own thing for the hood, I may be able to make it pointy, which would look cool on an elf thing. ;)

Ugh, and this is why I so rarely use patterns or make clothing; the finished product always makes me look so incompetent when I'm really a good crocheter, just because I can't block it into shape. Maybe I can do my own thing to what I have so far to make it prettier and to make it lay right- that's what I usually do, anyway, so I'm hoping it'll work this time, too. *crosses fingers* I know I want to add extra rows to the bottom, too, so that might help weigh down the neck.

Long rant, but I've been having a bad week, so I'm getting annoyed at little things at this point. Heh. I'll try the pattern again in the morning and hopefully it'll all work out. :)

Can you guys do me a favor?

Can you all look at my Artfire shop? I just did a major edit and made a new banner and links, but I'm getting mixed comments about the font in my banner. On my monitor I can see it fine (the "n" in "Elfling" is a bit thin, but it's not hard to see), and the majority of my friends are telling me they can read it fine. However, some can't, so I'm wondering if it's a monitor thing, like my contrast is higher or something.

I don't really want to change it because I really like how it looks against my tree photo (and I love that font), and so far most can see it fine. The problem is those who can't read it- I don't want my shop name to be illegible, you know?

Would making that "n" thicker so there was more brown help? Is that the main problem with it? I just don't know how to make it crystal clear to everyone without either changing the font or using a plain background, neither of which I want to do. I'm just torn because I spent so many hours on this and I really love how it looks. :(

Edit: Okay, I made a few more up- they got compressed by photobucket, but hopefully they'll be clear. Are any of these better than what I currently have up?
1.) Yellow and green
2.) black and brown
3.) light green and black
4.) green and brown
5.) green and brown, but more green
6.) yellow and brown

I think that last one is the clearest, but I really hate yellow, lol. I guess if I change the font, I'll edit the blurb underneath to match, as well.

Having a bad week, but art makes me happy

Josh and I went to Big Lots the other day when I saw they had yarn and beads on sale; there wasn't much of a selection, but I did manage to get a few beads and some yarn for cheap. One of the yarns I picked up was a green suede-y kind of thing with the intention of using it for the elf poncho I've been planning for a while.

I was going to put this off for a bit longer, but I've been having a really crappy week (I've ranted enough on Plurk- sorry to all my friends there who have to hear about it!), so I decided that darnit, I'm going to work on something for myself. The yarn I picked was tough to work with to start since it's so thick and floofy that I couldn't see the stitches, but I've been crocheting for so long that at this point I can pretty much guess the distance between stitches and where to put the hook. :)
It doesn't look like much so far, but this is what I got done as of last night:

Yup, green and brown; the brown is leftover yarn from the scarf I made my future mom-in-law for Christmas last year. I can't wait until this is done; it's going to be so cute! :D


And since this is an art post, here are my three most recently listed items:

It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop. My sister was the inspiration for this one because these are her favorite colors. She doesn't wear this kind of earring, though, alas.


This one is here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop. Yup, another pair of crocheted elf ears, this time on a black headband. One of these days I'll get to work on the halfling ears I want to design. (I had made these ears two or three months ago and completely forgot that I hadn't listed them yet. Oops?)

And here's a long awaited (well, maybe not awaited but certainly long since my last one was made months ago, lol) pair of dreadfalls:

Yup, continuing on the Halloween trend; I'm trying to get a bunch of Halloween and Autumn things in my shop this year. :) These dreadfalls can be found here in my Etsy and Artfire shops.


I'll leave you with this picture I took of my kitty yesterday because hey, cute kitty makes me happy. :)

I love that the flash accentuates her tummy pudge. Poor pudgy Clara and the indignity. ;)

Trove Thursday- Fantasy Books

This Trove Thursday's theme is inspired by my favorite fantasy books (thanks for the idea, Cecily!). Some are directly related to the books, but some are just things that reminded me of them.

The Fantasy Novel Inspired Trove Thursday.


1.) "Bag End -8x10 fine art print Hobbit Hole of Lord of the Rings" by darklingwoods on Etsy.
(This one is obvious- it's Lord of the Rings.)

2.) "Rune Godess Personalized Portrait Picture" by MyMagicMe on Artfire.
(This pick is much more obscure- this picture reminds me of the wards that the main character of The Warded Man tattoos on himself. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go read the book now; it's great!)

3.) "Gods 17 x 13" by chetart on Etsy.
(This one has one of my favorite quotes from the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett.)

4.) "Puck Midsummer Nights Dream Leather Mask" by UpfromtheAshes on Etsy.
(A Midsummer Night's Dream is definitely fantasy, as well as being literature.)

5.) "Pegasus Winged Horse Original Drawing ACEO" by NatureVisions on Etsy.
(Another obscure one; this drawing reminds me of the Windrider from the "Heralds of Valdemar" series by Mercedes Lackey.)

6.) "Set of 4 Mini Prints - Narnia Variety" by Kecky on Etsy.
(I love these drawings! They're of some of the more obscure scenes and books from the "Chronicles of Narnia" series.)

7.) "Harry Potter Inspired Hufflepuff Pendant" by DesignsByLluna on Etsy.
(Yes, I'm a "Harry Potter" fan; I guess that's my guilty pleasure, although it's been a while since I read them. And no Hufflepuff jokes, please. Nothing wrong with being loyal, fair, and hard working!)

8.) "Earth Walker - Bead Woven Necklace - Elements 4" by RoseWorksJewelry on Artfire.
(You knew somehow I'd get a good friend in this Trove. ;) Ruthie's Earth necklace is the perfect pick to represent the "Elemental Masters" series by Mercedes Lackey.)

9.) "Caliban's Coins Necklace" by RoughMagicCreations on Etsy.
(And another Shakespeare thing- I was so happy to find a Caliban-related item on Etsy! He's my favorite Shakespeare character, and he's also in Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams, which is one of my favorite fantasy books, as well.)

Showing off lots of art I won :D

I've been having a very lucky summer, blog prize-wise! I joked to my mom that I should play the lottery but I'd only win if it was announced on a blog. ;) I want to share the three things I've won most recently- they're gorgeous, and you should check out the shops of the talented artists who made them!

First is the anklet I won from my good friend Ruthie- she's roseworksjewelry. Well, actually I won a gift certificate to her shop, but I used it for this custom anklet:



She made it so perfect (I love those green beads and the white hemp together!), and it's so comfy. I even wear it even with long pants and socks, as you can see from that photo, lol.


Next up is this lovely lovely purse/clutch I won from Karen (mysticwynd)'s blog giveaway- it's by TiLTcreations. (This was amusing because she won ears from me a few months ago- it's like a delayed trade.) ;)

It's such a cute bag! Everyone knows how much I love leaves, so I was very excited to win this! It's going to be part of my Elf costume, as well as a regular purse, since it'll match perfectly.


And the other thing I won recently is this very pretty and intricate necklace by Luthien, my new blog buddy:



(Pardon the crummy photo- I know it's rather blurry.)
I've been admiring her jewelry for a while (her polymer clay skills amaze me- that pendant is clay!), so I'm so happy I got one! It's so pretty and I love the colors and the dragonflies. This, too, will get special treatment as part of my Elf costume, as well as being regular jewelry. ;)

And that little plastic bag filled with shinies? Luthien also sent me a whole bunch of charms! How sweet was that? :D

Thanks so much, Ruthie, Karen, Theresa, and Luthien!

Fun Harvest Treasure Hunt (with prizes!)

Here's the fun hunt I talked about in the last post. :D It runs until late November (9 weeks!), so there's plenty of chance at winning one of the prizes! Below is the blurb about it- if you click the banner, it'll take you to the blog post with pictures of the items. Please spread word about this (obviously you don't have to copy and paste this long thing- just steal the banner or something). ;)



The EarthPath Artisan's Street Team (EAST team) on Etsy invites you to participate in our Harvest Treasure Hunt! Since, for so many of us, this is a time of harvest and thanksgiving, we have chosen to begin our Treasure Hunt today, September 22 (the Autumn Equinox). Each week, for the next 9 weeks, through Tuesday, November 24th, we will be giving away a different prize to one lucky treasure hunter each week - and then on Wednesday, November 25th, (the day before Thanksgiving) we will be drawing one lucky winner from all entries who will receive an amazing Bounty Basket filled with an assortment of wonderful items from a variety of EAST team shops!

As our "Harvest Treasures" we have selected an item (or items) from our participating shops that we feel represent the Harvest theme. These items may be representative of an actual harvest of fruits and vegetables or a harvest of personal/spiritual nature. When searching through our team shops, look for item titles you think are harvest related! Not as easy as it sounds when you consider how Earth friendly we all are! Designated treasures will change throughout the prize period and will contain one of the following phrases in their descriptions:

"Look EAST and harvest the fruits of our labor!"
"The EAST Team wishes you Bountiful Blessings!"
"Treasures abound when you follow your EarthPath!"

We'll also be sprinkling around a few clues to direct you to our treasures, so be sure to check out our shops and follow our blog to help you on your way to winning!

You will receive one entry for every 5 items you locate! Each entry must contain 5 different treasures. Limit of 3 entries per person.

An additional entry will be given to anyone posting a purchase of an item from any shop designated with an asterisk on the list below! Once you have gathered your "treasures", post your list of page addresses as a comment to the blog post on our team blog. Comments for this promotion will be moderated for approval, so the answers won't appear there! Be sure to include your Etsy name/contact information in the post as well!

Happy Harvesting!

Participating shops:

*ArabesqueArtsByDarcy ( http://www.arabesqueartsbydarcy.etsy.com)
*Cobaltquilter ( http://www.cobaltquilter.etsy.com )
*dismissie ( http://www.dismissie.etsy.com)
*divapixie ( http://www.divapixie.etsy.com )
*DivineDesignsByForet ( http://www.divinedesignsbyforet.etsy.com )
*Foret ( http://www.foret.etsy.com )
*ForetTwo ( http://www.forettwo.etsy.com )
*Howling Caterpillars ( http://www.howlingcaterpillars.etsy.com )
*Generationstiedye ( http://www.generationstiedye.etsy.com )
KarinLorenc ( http://www.karinlorenc.etsy.com )
*Merigreenleaf ( http://www.merigreenleaf.etsy.com )
moodyandsanguine ( http://www.moodyandsanguine.etsy.com )
Mountaindreamers ( http://www.mountaindreamers.etsy.com )
*Mysticwynd ( http://www.mysticwynd.etsy.com )
*Rainfeather ( http://www.rainfeather13.etsy.com )
*RainSews ( http://www.rainsews.etsy.com )
*Ravenshold ( http://www.ravenshold.etsy.com )
*Sagehealer ( http://www.sagehealer.etsy.com )
*RoxieZ ( http://www.SpiritedWoodland.etsy.com )
*SoulyStones ( http://www.soulystones.etsy.com )
*TheOmIntention ( http://www.theomintention.etsy.com )


Weekly Prizes: (In no particular order! Prize will be selected randomly - one per week!)
Golden Sunshine - Baltic Amber Earrings
Nordic Rune Pendant - winner's choice of rune designs
Autumn Pumpkins - Cartilage Chain Earrings
Petrified Wood Nugget
Autumn bracelet
Shimmery Earrings
ACEO- In the Light of a Celtic Moon
Faded Red Key Fob
One item to be announced

The Grand Prize Winner will receive a Bounty Basket which includes ALL of these goodies:

1) "Harvest" Bookmark
2) Glittery Fall leaf pendant
3) Orange and Grey Crocheted Wristband Bracelet
4) Oh My Aching Feet - Handcrafted Herbal Foot Bath Tea
5) Altar in a jar (representative example shown -actual design may differ!)
6) Smudge Sticks - Exceptional Energy, Fragrance, Color (2)
7) Tea Towel Embroidered with Harvest Mother Design
8) Tarot card pin
9) Earth Harvest Tote Bag

Happy Harvest and Good Luck to All!

Start of the Autumn crafting

I know I haven't blogged much in a while; still feeling kinda crummy and now my back is also hurting from the quick shift to cold weather. Not fun! I'll be posting my actual review of The Silmarillion soon (rather than the random thoughts from my last book post) because after over a month I finally finished it this week. Hooray!

This weekend I added a chat box to my Artfire shop and my website in case anyone has any questions they want answered live or something, but I'm not sure how long I'll leave that up because I'm notoriously bad at signing into my IM messengers. Do you think this is something worth having up?


I have been slowly working on some art lately, so that's the main point of this entry. :)

I finally finished a crocheted pair of Elven bracers for my shops- they're identical to the ones I made for my Elf costume. (They're here on Etsy and here on Artfire.) I'm tempted to make these in other colors; do you think people would be interested?


The other two things I listed this week are earrings:

This one is here on Etsy and here on Artfire.


And this one can be found here and here. I really like this one; I'll have to find more of these leaf charms!


Yup, as you can tell from that second earring, it's time for me to work past my aversion to warm colors and start making things for autumn and Halloween (I'm determined to finish fall things by October for once! Usually I put it off until too late). For the past few days I've been working oranges, blacks, yellows, reds, and purples, and I'm really itching to be able to get back to my comfort zone of blues and greens! I'm determined to finish these things, though; I don't need more WIPs!

Here's a sneak peek of some of those autumn things I'm working on; I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos. Apparently imps have been into my camera batteries and even the ones I haven't used since charging them have gone dry. (Note to self: punish imps and buy new rechargables.)

Very blurry peek at two pairs of dreadfalls; one is largely purple, black, and a bit of orange, and the other is white, black, and orange. I still have to add some beads to these, but they're almost done- finally, a use for all that Fun Fur I got on sale over the years!


And these may not look to Halloweenish, but trust me, they are. ;) They're pirate coin runestones, and will go in a pirate-y pouch. I'm also working on another set of skull runes (I think those have to be my best seller, so I try to keep them in stock). Better pictures of these things will come soon!

Now I just have to finish this batch of fall things (and maybe make another set or two of dreadfalls; I still have some Halloween ideas for them), then I'm promising myself a break from these colors so I can work on some green runes. After that I can get back into the Autumnness, but I miss my greens! (If it wasn't for the fact that I know people like reds and oranges and yellows, I'd never work that side of the color wheel, lol!)


The next post I make (unless I get a book review in there first) will be about an awesome and fun treasure hunt one of my street teams is doing. There will be prizes for that hunt, so keep your eyes open for more info on that. ;)

Sale in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day

I have a lot of stuff to post about and works in progress to share, but I'll do that soon. Right now I just want to mention the little sale I'm doing in my Artfire shop for tomorrow only, in honor of "Talk Like a Pirate Day":

SAVE 10.00 % On Select Studio Items

Use Coupon Code:

PIRATE-DAY

during checkout.

Earth Friendly Gifts

(That link under the coupon thing is an Artfire SEO thing- not related to my links, lol.)

I'm doing 10% off all items in my "Pirate Day sale!" section, which consists of all my skull and water-related items. At first I wasn't sure what to do since I only have four skull things, but then it occured to me that water things work for pirates, too. :) I totally stole this pirate day sale idea from my Plurk friend Cecily of 28SidesDesigns, so go check out her sale, too! She has some lovely Renfaire costumes (that I'm constantly drooling over, but don't mind me).

I had so much trouble getting that coupon widget to work in my shop, though! It's working now, but I can't type anything around it or it makes it disappear (annoying because I wanted to write about the sale section above or below it). If I have to see another widget or even the word "widget", I may just throw something. ;)

Luck, jewelry, and some ears

Sorry for the lack of updates lately; I've been feeling pretty crummy (a combination of catching something and my usual SSRI withdrawal problems kicking me around). I haven't even scribed the D&D blog after our last game yet. Anyway, I know I had a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to post about, so I'm hoping I can remember some of it!

-I want to pimp the fact that one of my Createability teammates cindylouwho2 included my autumn runestones in this lovely leafy treasury.

-I won another blog giveaway! I'm amazed; this is like five over the summer and before that I never won anything! I joked to my mom that I should play the lottery, but it would only work if the winners were announced in a blog. ;) I just won a very lovely leaf clutch by TiLTcreations- that amuses me because she won ears from me a few months ago. Yay for prizes going around! And it has leaves on it! I love leaves! ...gee, there's a surprise. ;) I'll blog about it more once I get it.

-I've been working on more cartilage earrings recently, and I finished a dozen yesterday. Lets just say it took far too long to photograph all those today. I need some camera imps to take photos for me. ;) Here's a peek at them:

A pile!


And here they are lined up- better pictures will come later when I list them. The orange and green pair with the cuff are going to be part of a giveaway one of my teams on Etsy is doing- I'll blog more about that later.

-The other thing I finished recently are these crocheted ears:

The headbands are really more brown than that, but when I took the photo it was nighttime and I couldn't get good light. Those are actually kid-sized (the headbands are slightly shorter and thinner, and the ears are a bit closer together than the adult size) that I made for a custom order.

And I think that's all for now. I'm sure I have something else to add, but I can't think of it at the moment.

The Silmarillion... my nemesis

Josh and I just watched the Rifftrax of "Fellowship of the Ring" last night (while I crocheted elf ears; never has my art matched what I was watching at the time so well!), and once again, the guys are hilarious! I don't think it's quite as funny as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", but then again, that's been the funniest one so far, so it set the bar really high.

In my opinion the best lines from the FotR Rifftrax were when Frodo is reading a book at the start of the movie, and Kevin and Mike make these comments:
"Ah, he's reading The Silmarillion and trying desperately to pretend he's enjoying it."
"Ughh... 'Fëanor imprisoned the light of the two trees that illuminated Valinor'... oh god, I can't make it through this thing."

That just had me laughing so hard because I'm in that boat! I've found that The Silmarillion is nearly impossible; it's... well, the Bane of an English Major. I can read anything, no matter how dry, and enjoy it (and usually want to write a thesis on it, but that goes with the English degree and is to be expected), but The Sil is giving me so much trouble! Never in my life have I been working on a 400 page book for a month; usually it takes me three days, tops, to finish a book that size. I'm determined to finish it, though (I already gave up halfway through once, years ago), but between the Elvish names for people and places that keep running together and sounding the same (yes, there's an appendix with all the definitions of said people and places, but it annoys me to have to keep flipping back every paragraph), not to mention how each character and place has at least three names, and it being especially dry- well, it makes for very slow going. I just want to finish it so I can move on to something else! I would have started the next book in my queue, but then I know I'd never get back to this one and I will have forgotten what little I'm retaining from it.


The only other book I had this much trouble with was the first Twilight one that I started on the recommendation of one of my friends. I only got about 1/3 of the way in before I abandoned that one in disgust; the difference, though, is that The Sil is well-written (verbose, but well-written) and something I want to finish, even if it is my nemesis, and Twilight was extremely poorly written and edited. It made my aforementioned English degreed self cringe and want to break out a red pen to do corrections. Of course, the fact that everyone is head over heels in love with vampires and I just don't get it (seriously, was there brainwashing going on that I somehow missed?) could be what's making me even more cynical about it; I never did like popular things and I just don't get the appeal of vampires, especially poorly written ones (I have read Dracula and a lot of the Anne Rice books, though).


...except now that I think about it, I don't think I ever finished The Iliad, either, which is weird because I've read a lot of ancient Greek plays and stories. That one, though, I put aside for something else saying that I'd get back to it right after, but never did, so my short attention span and memory were to blame. ;) I'll have to finish that one of these daysyears.

Trove Thursday- Inspired by my love

What's this? A Trove Thursday post on a day it's supposed to go on? ;) This one looks rather random, but it does have a uniting theme; my anniversary is next week (the 15th), so I decided to make this in honor of my fiancé and fill it with things my love would love.

"You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice


1.) "Mr. Darcy Proposal Mug" by Brookish on Etsy.
2.) "Donkey Kong Magnet Set" by MagnetGames on Etsy.
3.) "Super Mario World, Megaman, Metroid and Link Cubes" by PixelBrush_Designs on Artfire.
4.) "Rob The Robot R.O.B Nintendo Robot Button / Badge" by monsterkittydesigns on Etsy.
5.) "Pacman, Blinky and Pinky Small - Wall Decal" by VinylDesign on Artfire.
6.) "Megaman Wall Hangings" by lostmitten on Etsy.
7.) "Dungeons and Dragons game dice BAG of HOLDING" by sparrowhawk9 on Etsy.
8.) "Felt Sabre-toothed Lime" by PsycheDanyellic on Etsy.
9.) "Aerosmith Steven Tyler vintage 80s recycled T-shirt throw pillow" by oakboston on Etsy.

I suppose I should explain why I picked these:
-Josh really likes Jane Austen (he was in a class on her books with me, too), and names his familiars on Kingdom of Loathing (see lime below) after the male characters in her books. I love that I can talk literature with Josh; his intelligence is so attractive!
-Donkey Kong, Megaman, and Pacman- some of his favorite video games (he loves old Nintendo and 8bit games; I think he owns more NES and SNES systems than anyone else).
-The cubes- he's really good at Rubix cubes; I think he can finish one in under a minute.
-ROB (the robot on the button) - he has a ROB robot for the Nintendo, and ROB is also one of his mains in Smash Bros.
-Bag of Holding- a Dungeons and Dragons item; they're bags that you can put an endless amount of stuff into. They're quite useful! Josh is our group's Dungeon Master, so he runs the show (and does a great job of it; he's so creative!).
-Sabre-toothed lime- one of the familiars in the Kingdom of Loathing online game. Josh plays that game obsessively, and he has a sabre-toothed lime in the game.
-Aerosmith- his favorite band.

Happy early anniversary, Joshy! If I had the money, I'd buy all of these things. *hugs!*

New hemp necklace and some treasuries

Now for a piece of jewelry that's completely opposite from my usual Elf fixation- my "Dwarven Delving" necklace:

It's being modeled by my shoulder dragon; appropriate since it's named after jewels. It's here in my Etsy shop and here on Artfire. It's crocheted from black hemp cord and has dark beads that reflect different colors.

Well, I guess Dwarves are opposite Elves. Perhaps Orcs would be since those were made from Elves, but that's really only in LotR and not regular fantasy (hey, SwampFox, what are your thoughts on this? ...Wait, I'm Meri, not my D&D character; I can't ask my henchman. Wrong alias!). So yes, I'll go with my original comment. ;)


The only other thing I have to share tonight are that I'm in two treasuries- yay!
-One of my FAST teammates MyLab included my runes in this really pretty blue treasury.
-And my dreadfalls are in this stunning "Unseelie Masquerade" treasury by my FAE friend ErtheFae.
Thanks for including me, guys!


I've been feeling extremely lethargic and run down today; I know I'm spent from the trip to the faire yesterday, but I think I've also been fighting off a bug for the past week. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow. I hate feeling this crummy because there is so much art I want to make and I just have no energy- hopefully soon I can get to work on crocheting feathers for wings and some bracers for my shop.

Yay for a day at the faire!

Well, only a few hours at the renfaire since neither Josh nor I felt too well, but a few hours there is better than no hours. :) First, we hit the bead shop since that's my favorite shop at the faire and they always have a great selection of fantasy beads and charms that I can't find anywhere else. They're so expensive, so I was only able to get this many (and it still came to about $60, which Josh, being the perfect guy, bought for me).

(Click to view larger)
Dragons, a faerie, a leaf, Celtic knots, shamrocks, trees, and cats were my selection this time.

After I ended up spending most of Josh's money (sorry about that, love! I had no idea they'd come to so much!), we grabbed some food, then wandered around a bit and got to see our favorite act- Don Juan and Miguel (they're so funny, and the whip and sword stuff is awesome!). Josh took a whole bunch of pictures of them, but I won't bore you with all of them so I just uploaded my two favorites.



Swords, whips, and humor? Of course they're our favorite act. ;)

We didn't get any photos of us at the faire, but when we got back my mom took this of us:

(I don't know why Josh never smiles in pictures.)
I decided not to go all out with my costume today since I wasn't feeling too well, and just wore what was comfortable. (I didn't even wear the circlet at the faire- it was starting to give me a headache; I get nauseous easily.) I carried a parasol at the faire, but didn't bother putting that in the photo since it didn't match.

I made the bracers, circlet, hair jewelry (you can't see it, though), and the chainmaille pouch (yup, that's a triforce on it. I'm a geek), and the leaf bag came from DELdreamart on Etsy. The ankle brace really makes an Elf costume, but I needed it, lol.

I didn't wear my Elf ears (they, too, were giving me a headache), so instead I just adorned my human ears:

The point of this picture is just to show off the awesome earrings I wore- the dangling ones are from RoseWorksJewelry on Artfire and the swirl one is from Thyme2dream on Etsy. The other two are just my random earrings I wear all the time.


So I had fun, even though we weren't feeling too well. Hopefully the next time we go I'll be having a better health day. :) Sorry we didn't get many pictures- hopefully we'll get more next time.

Costume things and a barrel of yarn

This is apparently Elf week here over at Elbit Blog. ;) I finished two more pieces for my Elf costume for the renfaire (I'm hopefully up to going tomorrow *crosses fingers* but if not, I'll go sometime soon).

First, the bracers:



They're a bit darker than the second photo; the first is more accurate. I decided that my costume really needed some bracers, but since the only ones I had were black and that really didn't match my green/white/brown ensemble, I had to improvise. I crocheted these up in an hour or two using acrylic yarn, then laced them up with some suede/leathery cord. Tada! Cheap and quick bracers! They actually look pretty accurate, so I may start selling them in my shops, too. :)


The next thing is a circlet I finished tonight:

(Click to view it larger.)
After not being able to find the green circlet I bought last year anywhere (I swear I bought one! It must be in storage in one of my other jewelry boxes), but really really wanting one for my costume, I decided to try my hand at making one. I don't normally work with wire, so it's not perfect, but it'll do. :) I threw this together in about an hour- it's plastic, glass, stone, and wood beads with a lampwork leaf charm and smaller plastic leaf charms all on green wire with a silver colored chain. I got the large leaf bead from StudioMarcy on Etsy ages ago; I bought two leaves along with lots of random sculpture beads, but hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with any of them until now (yeah, I could put them on things to sell but I want the beads). ;)

I do love how all the colors look on this, but I think if I decide to put this kind of thing in my shops I'd have to spend more time on them to make sure all the loops are the same size. I'll admit to not being too great at that kind of thing, what with usually only using hemp and jump rings in my jewelry.


The last thing I wanted to share tonight isn't art, but it's certainly art-related. My fiancé's mom was helping someone move things (I think it once belonged to the person's mother?) and they asked her if she knew anyone who could use yarn. My future mom-in-law is awesome and knew that I would love it, so she snagged the yarn for me. :D
What she got me was a barrel of yarn! A barrel!

So yay, free yarn! It's about 21 balls of various sizes, and as far as I can tell it's acrylic (I'm pretty good at judging fibers by this point, lol) in colors I didn't have, so it'll be great for my plushies! The way to my heart is through free art supplies, but that's probably obvious by now. ;)


The overskirt I crocheted the other day is still drying after being blocked; I'll get a photo of how it looks finished soon.

Featuring more elven goodies!

For the first time in months, I managed to snag a treasury on Etsy (seriously, I stink at this; even using the tool on craftopolis.com that tells you when they open, I'm never at the computer at the right time). I decided to continue my elf theme I used for my last Trove Thursday, but this time I only included members from my six street teams, rather than everyone on the site (when I make treasuries, I fill them with teammates to help promote the groups).

My "Elven Enchantment" treasury can be found here until the 7th, but I wanted to include a screencap on my blog, as well, so you can see the alternates that are hidden on the Etsy page.

As far as I can tell, I included members from EtsyFAST, EtsyHookers, FAE, EAST, POEST, Createability, and ABST- whew, that's a lot of teams!

Click the image to view it larger; that way you can see the usernames of everyone in it. To find those individuals on Etsy, just type the username before ".etsy.com". For example, the first one (my friend Julie, by the way ;) ) would be mermaidencreations.etsy.com and just enter that in your browser's address bar.

Trove Thursday- Fit for an Elf

Sorry this is a bit late, but hey, at least I started putting it together on Thursday night? ;) Since I've been working on my elf costume, I decided I'd make the theme filled with lovelies fit for an elf. And once again, there are some friends in this Trove. (Psst! Check out the first one and the bottom middle, especially.)

So without further ado, the Elven Apparel Trove Thursday:

1.) "Embroidered Cotton Cincher Skirt" by 28SidesDesigns on Artfire.
2.) "ELFBOOTS/HANDMADE MOCASSINS" by earthgarden on Etsy.
3.) "Tree Sprite Wood Nymph Mistletoe Tiara" by Thyme2dream on Artfire.
4.) "Bardic Cuff Bracers" by CraisfrodLeather on Etsy.
5.) "Olive Green/Gray Light Cloak" by RivervaleTreasury on Etsy.
6.) "Leaf Pouch" by ButterflyEffect on Etsy.
7.) "Unique clip on Elf ears" by CreaturesbyChelsea on Etsy.
8.) "Mistress of the Secret Forest -- OOAK fantasy necklace" by ErtheFae on Etsy.
9.) "Woodland Elf Skirt" by KreativeMindz on Etsy.

Needless to say, I'm drooling over all these things and want them all! I do have a pair of elf ears by CreaturesbyChelsea, though, and I love them. :)

Celtic necklace, custom earrings, and elf costumes

Yup, I forgot Trove Thursday for two weeks in a row. I was so busy working on my costume things today (see below) that I forgot to post it. I'll try to do that tonight or tomorrow or something, though; I miss picking out pretties!

Right now I want to share my most recently finished art. Yay, art, especially when it's finished! (The WIP bars on the side of my blog just keep piling up, LOL!)

First, things I made for my shops.

(It's here in my Etsy shop and here in my Artfire shop.)
This beaded hemp necklace/anklet is called "Sidhe Draoi"; I normally name my jewelry after Greek mythology and creatures, but since this one has a Celtic knot I thought a Gaelic name would be more appropriate. After doing a google search I found the Sidhe Draoi and they fit this necklace perfectly; they're androgynous and playful tree spirits like dryads, and are seen as wisps of pure light high in the trees. The light fits the clear beads, the leaves represent the trees, and this is pretty much unisex.

I wanted originally to name this after Pan because the tube beads reminded me of pipes/flutes, but He didn't really fit with the Celtic feel of this necklace; I'll have to do another one for Pan later.


The next art I made for a custom order; she wanted a pair of chain earrings in blue and purple:

Those pictures don't do them justice- they're so much brighter and prettier in actuality.


And now for something I'm making for myself. I've been working on my elf costume in the hopes that I'll be up to going this weekend or next weekend to the faire (I didn't get there last year so I'm really itching to go!). I fixed my bodice today; I'd lost about 35 pounds since I bought it so it was really loose. It's still kind of loose and now under the arms looks a bit wonky, but it fits better.

The main thing I've been working on, though, is this skirt:



I know it's a bad picture and it looks stupid with normal clothes (although all my clothes are elfy colors, now that I think about it), but I wanted to give you a sense of the length. I'm going to be wearing this with a long green skirt or my brown suede elfy pants- I'll get better pictures once it's with the costume.

I got this yarn last year from a swap but didn't know what to do with it since I loved the color so much and wanted the perfect project for it. I lucked out because it was just the amount I needed. :) If you're on Ravelry, it's this pattern only shorter and with a trim on the bottom that I added instead of following the pattern. I'll be wearing it with some sort of belt, probably one of the brown ones I have (it has to be a small one to fit through the belt holes).

I really should block this so it doesn't get all weirdly out of shape (and to give it a better shape, lol). I'm not used to blocking much, though, since I usually use acrylic yarns, so I hope I can get it to work.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to make a functioning pair of clay elf ears. *crosses fingers* I'm so close to getting the design right! I'd also like to make some clip-on dreadfalls (my hair is still too short to wear the kind I made on the elastic ties) to match.