Etsy Favourites - Autumn

Decided on a seasonal theme for this week's Etsy Favourites feature, now it's September already and it's starting to get dark by 8 o' Clock. I find it such a depressing time of year, but these beautiful items are enough to get a smile on anybody's face!

Blue Heron

This shop features hand made Jewellery, Pottery and fused glass items, such as the lovely item featured which is a glass sculpture, which can either hang in a window to catch the light or be displayed on a stand.

Little b Bunny.

This lovely shop is the place to shop for some gorgeous handmade cards. I liked the cat on this Halloween themed card. The seller named her shop after her daughter's nicknames, which I think is soo cute. It's little personal details like this that make shopping somewhere like Etsy so nice. The shop features a wide selection of cards for all occasions and in a wide range of styles. Little b Bubby also has a blog: http://littlebbunny.blogspot.com/

Radiant Mind Designs

I love this shop. It is full of absoloutely gorgeous beads and also has stunning photographs. Definitely on my list of Etsy shops I will be purchasing from! This shop features handmade lampwork glass beads in small co-ordinated sets or larger focals. Some are one-offs to purchase before they're gone, others are from the custom line that are re-made when sold. They also sell lampwork recipe e-book tutorials for those who fancy trying their hand at making their own beads. Radiant Minds also have a blog: http://www.glassmuse.blogspot.com/

Humblebeads Gaden Party

Another lovely handmade bead shop. Humblebeads is owned by Heather whose beads are inspired by textures and colours in nature. Her beads are made from polymer clay and hand buffed to a matte finish. The shop contains smaller disk beads and really nice focals and pendants, including things like hedgehogs and owls! Another shop to add to my shopping list! Heather also has a blog: http://www.humblebeads.blogspot.com/

Lavender Cottage

This shop features handmade metal Jewellery, using fine silver, sterling silver, copper, brass and occassionally gold. The findings are even handmade as well! The pendant i've featured is hand drawn and cut from sterling silver, resting on a background of hammered copper. The stone is a carnelian. It measures an inch across, so is a pretty delicate little piece. Lavender Cottage is a blogger: http://lavendercottageoriginals.blogspot.com/ and also a Twitterer: http://twitter.com/lavendercottage.

I hope you enjoyed this week's autumnal favourites and have been inspired to do a bit of seasonal shopping.

Productive Day

Wow, if only every day was like today! I finished a Pet Portrait commission, just waiting for final approval from the customer and then it'll go in the post.

I also turned my Golden Retriever Puppy drawing into a card:

And made a pair of Byzantine Weave Chain Maille Pink & Black earrings which will be a perfect match with my necklace I created yesterday:

The Earrings will be listed on Etsy later along with the necklace and a card will be listed on both Etsy and Folksy.

I also had a very exciting phone call about a project that may be happening later in the year. I don't to say too much about it now but to say it's exciting is an understatement!

Monday's To Do List

Our visitors are going tomorrow and whilst i'll be sad to see them go and have had a lovely time while they've been here it will nice to get back to work on Northern Dawn bits, especially seeing as I am on holiday from my 'day job' until Thursday.

So I have already written my To Do List for tomorrow so thought I would share:

• Order some packaging boxes
• Make the Golden Retriever Puppy ACEO card and put one up on my Folksy Shop and one in my Etsy Shop
• Make something with my new goodies (don't know what yet but think it may feature pink chain and plaid beads)
• Order some wooden beads and some suede thong

I ordered some very nice natural wooden pendants but didn't order anything to go with them, hence the need for wooden beads. Beads Unlimited also do some cool coloured wooden beads which I think will go well with my fabric tartan ones. The Suede Thong is to go with some of the new pendants I've ordered. I want something rustic looking and think Suede will be a good look.

As always, I may not get all these items done but at least I will start tomorrow with an aim. Tomorrow I should have something new and funky to show you.

Original Art - Golden Retriever

I did a little coloured pencil painting today of a Golden Retriever Puppy. All puppies are irresistable and who could not melt at a Golden Retriever Puppy:

Isn't he just gorgeous. It's in coloured pencil and is ACEO sized at 3.5" x 2.5". I am not going to sell it as an ACEO though, I am going to add to the collection and do a selection of popular dog breeds and use the images on cards to sell in the shop.

This one took me about 3 hours to do, so if I get off my bum and knuckle down I should be able to do at least a couple a week, so should have built up a decent selection in a few weeks time.

To Do List

I have finally got my Wedding photographs through from the official photographers and they have put them online and issued us with a username and password and printed them on little cards. I am planning on putting them in my Thank you Cards in case some of my guests want to look. My hot air gun has also been repaired so tomorrow will see a start in on Thank you Cards. It's unlikely I will get them all finished (I have 22 to do) but a start is better than nothing.

Tomorrow I am working from 7am to 11am so have plenty of time for working on Northern Dawn bits. Seeing as I am adding to the blog every day I thought it might be interesting to put my To Do Lists on it (and it also gives me something to write!). So, anyway, tomorrow's list:

• Hour or two on Pet Portrait commision
• Start the Thank you Cards
• Start writing the HTML & CSS code for the Northern Dawn website
• Create a necklace from my Pan Chang knot.

Hopefully by tomorrow evening I'll be able to cross these items off. It's going to be a busy day!