Hello, I really do have some jewelry to show y'all..fun beaded bracelets and a couple of fall necklaces I'm really excited over...but tonight I wanted to share what I"ve been working on: My new website and my new blog. Like, follow, join, whatever you want to do!

New notecards, minicards, necklaces

Good Sunday afternoon! What are you thankful for today? I am thankful for my family and the ability to work on my art, which I love. Today I have some new items to post in The Perfect Jewel 4U. Mini notecards, 3X3. I stamped them with tiny dogs. Aren't they darling?

And this card goes into the shop but also into a challenge at the Papercraftingstar. The theme is "girly". I can do girly!

And I have 2 simple necklaces, FISH charms (y'all know how I love my fishies) beaded with silver and blue / silver and green beads.

Not Jewelry but more Art

OK I admit it. I haven't been showing you jewelry because, umm, there isn't anything to show. I actually believe it's a vision issue; it seems like if I do small beading and then school work, my eyes are way fatigued. Also I find myself looking UNDER my glasses a lot! And they're bifocals!

So those are my excuses. In the meantime, I doodled another pic, this time for The Bright Owl's challenge #20. Warning: If you start doing these, they are very addictive.

It desperately needs some shading. I may update with changes later.

Using blogger, pictures, and iPad

Wow what a lot of trouble I went thru last week trying to upload a picture of my work via the iPad. First I worked in blogger, but I guess it is flash-based because it seemed I couldn't click the buttons (SAVE, PUBLISH, PREVIEW). So off to Google the various apps that work with it. It seemed to be between blogsy and blogpress, according to CNET, until I found a 3rd or 4th page post recommending Pages. At $9.99, it's twice the price (and I despise paying much for apps) but OK. I thought I had picked a good app, but decided to go ahead through the picture process before actually purchasing Pages. I was doing just one short post on one blog, after all. I had to write out my own html (remember, I couldn't click the link or photo button). Then it informed me I couldn't upload a picture from my library. Back to Google to try to find an app that also would help me get the pics up. So now I have decided to buy 2 apps: Pages ($9.99) and flickstackr ($1.99). I installed flickstackr with no problem and easily created an accounted & uploaded a picture. Flickstackr is destined to be a favorite. Then I went back to the app store to try Pages. No good; it said I don't have the right operating system. Apparently, my first-run iPad has become obsolete already. Sigh. You know, I really was hoping to hang onto it til it fell apart; I didn't want it controlled by obsolete OS. For now, I'll just blog from the desktop. Please leave a comment if you've had similar problems.

Celtic Knot Doodle Challenge

I drew this doodle art for a challenge at Creative Doodling. I just got back from the mountains, so I wanted to incorporate some outdoor color... A little became a lot... Enjoy!

Handmade notecards and tags

I've gone a little card crazy lately; adding quite a few notecards to the shop. I'm putting them in The Perfect Jewel 4U. Here's a sampling:

Wedding Banner With Many Layers and Options

So -- daughter Holly needed a banner for her friend's wedding, and I offered to make one. Many trips to the craft store later -- here's what I came up with.

It says Alicia's bridal bash, but I realized I have a bunch of ways to do letters, really, so it could say anything you could dream up. The crown and ring (left end and 3rd) are popped out with pop dots for a 3-D effect, and everything is all blinged up with glitter, flowers, and tulle/ribbon. All in all I was happy with it ANNNND I have decided to start selling them in my etsy shop.

You could pick your own colors -- this one's chocolate and blue with some pink. The cool thing is there are matching crowns, rings, lingerie, and boxes to match, in bigger sizes so that you can use them for centerpieces. Since I was flying, I cut them out but gave them to Holly and said "You're an engineer. Figure out how to assemble them."

Here are some close-up shots: