Spring Show this weekend in Austin, Tx -- May 2nd and 3rd

This weekend is the fourth annual spring show for Handmade Austin Women. Handmade Austin Women are dedicated to unique design, and the highest quality in handcrafted work.

The Handmade Austin Women Spring Show is an annual market that presents unique artisan design and outstanding handcrafted art. They organize the show to promote the profound benefits of sustaining women artists at work here in Texas. They support Austin's cottage industry and the growing character of our local, independent economy

Since it's the weekend before Mother's Day, this would be a great time to get out there and find some cool stuff for Mom (or if you are a Mom, find some much deserved cool stuff for yourself~!).

Hosted by: Ginko Studios; Located at: 800 Gullett Street, Austin, TX 78722 (512)389-1920

I heart Steampunk~!

Actually I heart Steampunk jewelry by one particular etsy artist, www.CatherinetteRings.Etsy.com. And Catherinette Rings is having the best giveaway ever. I mean it. EVER. These are the coolest rings I've ever seen. And right now, you can enter to win a ring. Seriously. I can't say enough about these jewelry pieces. They are super fab~! So, click on this link and go sign up...or at least take a look...because I love them so hard, and I know you will too~!

Monday is National Hairball Awareness Day ...

How gross is that? I know. It is gross. I was at PetSmart today and was chatted up by a sales associate. I literally laughed aloud when she told me about the upcoming...holiday (?). Not because I think hairballs are funny. They are not. They are awful. I am not trying to belittle their awfulness. I do, however, find it funny that there's an awareness day for it. Because that's just silly. And seems invented...by....I don't know....maybe a company that has a product that helps with hairballs. Which, in this case, happened to be Science Diet pet food who the sales associated just so happened to have coupons for. But, then again, I did find this link where they are celebrating the "holiday" in Washington, DC. You know in case you want to "touch an actual animal hairball." (Gag.) But, I digress. The REASON I even know about this is because we got a cat! He's so precious!

Jazz-Purr

I've been thinking about cats since I held some kittens at a pet store a few weeks ago, and I happened to be at an animal shelter last week with a friend. And there was this sweet kitty who was King of the Day and a VIP at the animal shelter. Considering that this is NOT a no-kill shelter, I think those are both dubious honors. Also, he had been at the shelter for over a month. He's 5 years old, and his former owner said that they surrendered him because he was spraying everything in the house. But...he was soooooo sweet at the shelter. And very cute. And he was older, had been neutered, and was declawed. (I KNOW the declawing thing is cruel, but I have leather furniture so, I figure if I got a cat that is ALREADY declawed, then it's not as cruel or something.) Anyway, I decided to take a chance on this little fur ball, and I am so glad I did. He's awesome! And he hasn't sprayed anything at all..not even once. He's just a great addition to the family.

So, helping kitty adjust to his new home, has taken up a lot of my time. But, I did have time this week to add two new jewelry designs. I've been thinking about Mother's Day coming up next month. And I found some charms and chain that I really love. I think they are a great mix of vintage and contemporary. I found some awesome 1960s brass chain. It's heavier than I usually work with it. But, it's not too heavy. When I bought it, the seller had it listed as the "perfect chain", and I think it lives up to it's name. So, I added a vintage brass scripty Mother charm and a semi-precious blue lapis stone, and came up with this:

blue lapis + vintage brass

I also stumbled upon a brass locket that looks exactly like one my Mom had back in the 1970s. It's a double-sided oval locket with an art nouvaeu design on front and back. I paired it with the vintage 1960s chain. I absolutely love it. I made one for myself to keep and one to sell.

art nouveau locket + vintage brass chain

FREE JEWELRY GIVEAWAY from Love and Lust Designs

Love and Lust Designs is giving away a free Gaia Necklace and Earring giftset. Click here to enter in the drawing.

This giveaway will end April 30th and the winner will be announced May 1st!

FREE ART PRINT GIVEAWAY

Allover Art has a special giveaway from j. brown Art. Click here and follow the instructions to enter for a free print of your choice. Some very cool artwork!

The giveaway runs from Thursday, April 23rd to Thursday, April 30th at 11:59pm EST. One winner will be chosen and the prize will be the winner's choice of any 4x6 fine art print with free shipping from j. brown Art!

Wordle

Have you seen Wordle? It's a time suck, but it's a little fun one. You can type in your blog site or you can just type in words. It will randomize the words and art it up for you. Here's the one that I did for my blog.

image courtesy of http://www.wordle.net/

What the pho?!

A friend of mine just turned me on to an amazing Vietnamese beef noodle soup...Pho! It is delish...pho sho~! I ate it for lunch at my friend's house and then I served it again for dinner. The same day. It MORE than fills you up. And if you make this, you'll be in awe that I could eat it twice in one day, as filling as it is. Here's what's in it. There's really not that much to it...and best of all...it's a very inexpensive, great tasting meal!

Ingredients:

• 6 c. beef bouillon
• 1/8 c. minced scallions
• a splash of rice vinegar
• 1/4 c. fish sauce
• 1/4 c fresh springs washed and chopped cilantro
• (If you eat meat, you can add flank steak, chicken, or shrimp to this soup too!)

Add:

• chili sauce (add depending on your tastes)
• soy sauce (add depending on your tastes)

Finish with:

• rice stick noodles (boil water in a separate pan than the other ingredients...and then toss in your noodles for 30 seconds only, drain, and pour your soup over them in a bowl)

Serve with:

• lime wedges

Also, for the first time ever, I have started my own little potted garden on my patio. Things are JUST starting to grow, but I'm really, really excited about it!

tomatoes

chili peppers

cilantro

In jewelry news, I am working on more new pieces that feature that amazing vintage brass chain that I got in. I'm designing some new necklaces with it. (Stay tuned for those.) And I just added some new designs with shell and copper. I love the earthy tones of copper. These earrings are modern and chic. I love them!

Random awesomeness

I swear. I'm not always going to do product reviews, but I HAVE to share about this awesome lip stain that I just tried last week! I am forever looking for that perfect balance of long lasting color and good feelability on my lips with a lip stain...and I found all that and more with Covergirl's Outlast Lip Stain! Love it. It comes in a pen form so that you can be really precise with your application AND you can put lip balm or gloss on top of it without messing up the color. This. Is. Awesome.

Also, I received an email from a friend this weekend that made me really happy and made me feel really stupid all at the same time. So, I've been using Reynold's Wrap aluminum foil for like forever. And she sent me an email telling me that you can push the tabs in on both ends of the box to secure the roll and keep it from coming out of the box. It's ALWAYS been on the box. But, because I've been so freaking crazy fighting with my foil that rolls out on the counter, I never even noticed it. Same thing with the Saran Wrap. So. Um yeah. Am I the only one that missed this crucial piece of info?

In jewelry news, I've posted several new designs up on my etsy site. I did some hand wired beaded necklaces. Those are new for me. And I got in the best vintage brass chain...ever. It's gorgeous. I used some of it to make this super fab earrings~!

blue lapis + vintage brass + gold filled earwires

APRIL GIVEAWAY!!!

~ FREE ~

We Blog Artists is giving away a customized Once Upon A Time watercolour! Deadline for entries is April 6th. Click here to register!

Some things might be worth it ...

At the mall, do you have those super annoying kiosk people trying to lure you in and buff your nails and sell you their super expensive Dead Sea nail kit? I do. And I hate these people. Loathe them. I have never stopped at their kiosk. I refuse to make eye contact with them. I blow them off. Sometimes I pretend that I can only speak sign language. Just to get them to leave me alone. WELL...a friend of mine gave me one of these nail kits as a birthday gift. Oh. My. Word. This stuff is awesome~! My nails look amazing. I mean. Seriously. Amazing. It looks like I had a full on, professional manicure when I spent not a ton of time on them all while watching tv in the comfort of my own home. So, would I now stop at one of those kiosks, deal with those pesky kiosk sales people, and pay a lot of money for the experience? Um. I can't say that I would. But, I can say that I am super grateful to my super sweet friend and her awesome bday gift! :)