BACK ON THE ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN

So, I finally got caught up and get a semi schedule going and of course you know something is going to happen to derail all that!
My daughter who is about 25 weeks pregnant apparently came down with the swine flu.  She has also asthma - not bad asthma - but she does have it.  So, she ended up in the hospital.  And I ended up taking a trip to Colorado Springs to take care of my grandson.  She got out of the hospital the day I arrived, but, it's a good thing I went so I could hang out with my adorable grandson and she could rest.  She is doing better, but still tires pretty easily - so ladies if you are pregnant, please get the swine flu vaccine - what you end up on is much worse than the vaccine!  She was planning on getting her and her son vaccinated as soon as she could - but seems like the flu came 1st!   I'm just glad she is still around and baby seems to be doing ok through it all.

So, once again I'm playing catch up!
Where did I leave off?  Well, starting with LilBritKnits who makes some of the cutest handknit baby booties such as these Cowboy Booties

in blue and white yarn.  Aren't they just adorable!   Well, of course I'm into baby  booties right now! lo

And if you aren't into or need baby booties, she has some wonderful dish clothes, tea pot cozies, cup cozies and some other scrumptous knitted items.

Somewhat misleading is CatInALife who makes some truly awesome jewelry - from beaded jewelry to these amazing Egyptian Swirl bracelets.  And proves that if you have a great product, you can sell jewelry on ArtFire!  She is also very active in the forums.  Since Oct is Breast Cancer awareness month, I'm featuring this awesome Pink Egyptian Swirl Bracelet

and this very pretty Lampwork Pink Flowers Black Glass necklace and earrings set.

For the month of Oct,. she will be donating part of her proceeds to a domestic shelter. 

Nice variety today  We all need soap right?  So, why not pamper yourself with some awesome handmade soap by Cora's Blissfully Natural Products LLC

also known as Dragonfly.  I didn't read all of her descriptions, but the ones I did read have goats milk in the soap - what a luxurious way to pamper your skin.  One of my favorite scents is lemon so I chose her Lemon Cove soap

now, that would be a treat!

Or her Goddess By Baby Phat Goats Milk Soap - she has a nice variety of scents and even some body oils.  A very good thing for the cold winter months - milk is very soothing to the skin, and most of the handmade soaps aren't as drying as many on the market today.   Pamper yourself, and buy one or two for a friend too!  They make great items to keep on hand for gifts. I've also used many soaps in my drawers to add a nice scent until I'm ready to use the soap.

Hopefully, I'll get back on track here and do these blogs on a more regular basis again - at least until sometime in January when my granddaughter is expected to arrive.

Remember to get those flu vaccines - especially if you are pregant!!!!!

ROYAL DESIGNS ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN RIDER

It feels good to be caught up with the Crazy Train - hopefully I will be able to stay caught up!  It's been a crazy couple of days, I'll spare you all  the details - I'm ok - it has more to do with my daughter and her family, they will be ok, but yesterday was a bit scarey.  After a trip to labor and delivery, and getting checked out all is well - but it was good she went in and got checked.  They even called her up a little while after she got home to see how she was doing and scheduled a follow up appt for Monday am.  cool. Makes me feel a little better knowing they are keeping a good eye on her and the baby.

And now to today's ArtFire CrazyTrain Rider Royal Designs Handmade Unique Jewelry (yes, another jewelry artisan!)  See, I'm telling you, if you are looking for jewelry - don't bother going to the mall or one of the big box stores, go to ArtFire - you don't have to play in traffic, you can go shopping while sipping some tea, coffee, or whatever your favorite beverage is, put your feet up and peruse all the wonderful jewelry to be found there.  For instance this lovely Turquoise and Swarovski Necklace - wow that just pops on the black background, think of how lovely it would look along with that little black dress! 

How about this Blue Lace Lady Necklacemade with blue lace agate and Swarovski crystals.   Pretty pretty necklaces in this studio.

And this Just ForFun Necklace with these gorgeous Czech beads that are called Montana - no they aren't black - I thought they were at first, but look a little closer, and you will see they are a dark greyish blue - a lovely color, with a sterling silver hook.   Royal Designs has some lovely necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and well what do you think of when you see the word royal?  Expect something very elegant - and that is what you will you find in this studio.   

Do something good for yourself today, whether its' just taking a relaxing hot bubble bath, while having some nice hot tea,   relaxing by a fire, or putting your feet up and go shopping while sitting in your pj's and slippers!  

Thanks for checking it out and have a scrumptous day!

NEW ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN RIDERS

I am happy to announce, I'm now caught up - I'll see if I can stay caught up!
As a category, there is more jewelry on ArtFire than anything else - talk about competition!  A lot of the artisans are women, and women love jewelry right, so it seems like a natural item for so many in the handmade world to make jewelry.  Tough competition though.
It is very interesting seeing how different people use the same materials as other people and yet create something very unique with it.  Rose of Sharon has some very unique jewelry creations.  You can tell she loves playing around with metals, and actually bending it into a piece of art.  Here's a pendant that would be excellent for someone who is a musician or even a music lover

A Treble Cleff made with  sterling silver, and if you don't want silver, she has one in copper, or how about these Hammered Copper Earrings.  I really encourage you to check out the wonderful creations by this artisan, she has some very unique pieces. 

Magnets, magnets are one of the handiest things to have.  How many of us use magnets to hang our kids pictures on the frig.  or little notes, or whatever so why do it with just a plain ol' magnet when you can use something like these wonderful and humorous magnets by Picard Creative.  Almost everyone knows those Ruby Red Shoes and the phrase "there's no place like home" and she makes them with recycled tin can lids and quality pictures.   She has a huge variety, and the sayings she puts on them are just fantastic, they have such humor, and will bring a smile to your face.

I love this one! Yeah Kitty will have revenge, I'd want revenge too if I was a cat dressed up like that!!  Picard Creative has great prices and if you buy 3, you get one free!  Humorous, fun magnets, they will make you, your friends, and family laugh. 

Try and find that in a store! 

Just the picture alone is funny, but then you add the phrase, and it's even better.   Picard Creative uses mostly vintage type pictures and the sayings she has to go along with them are so fitting, you just have to see them.


As always, I encourage to you check out some of these unique handmade creations, they make excellent gifts for birthdays, Christmas, or just because.   
Thanks for visiting, and have a tremendously joyful day.

ARTFIRE CRAZYTRAIN RIDERS WONDERFUL CREATIONS

The hardest part of all this is well, 2 things actually, resisting the temptation to buy some of the items I find, and thinking up titles for each blog!

I am so close to being caught up!!

Starting out today's lineup is Maggie McMane Designs with her wonderful jewelry creations.  LOTS of earrings - if you can't find a pair of earrings in this studio that you don't absolutely love, I'll be very surprised.  And Pendants/necklaces - lots of fun jewelry - from some very simple but prettty designs to more dressy.  One of her featured items right now is this adorable Snowman Necklace

Nice creative use of those bead caps and beads I think. This is  a necklace that both big girls and litle girls would enjoy wearing.   And, it would go with just about anything you are wearing, from blue jeans to something a little more dressy.  Wouldn't this be fun to wear to a Christmas party?

Earrings, can you have too many pairs of earrings? A friend has about 200 pairs of earrings - more than anyone else I know. However, if you love earrings and having a large variety, this is the shop to visit.

These little Green Flower Dangle Earrings look like they would be fun to wear, I love dangly earrings.  This is one of the coolest features of buying handmade, even with all the jewelry sellers on ArtFire - there is such a huge variety of how people put their jewelry together.

Once again 2 out the 3 riders today make and sell jewelry.   Sweet Whimsy (love studio name too) has a nice variety of mostly glass tile pendants.  She has just added another pendant out of a different medium,

 but - can you guess? Her Palm Pendant is a OOAK creation, so nobody else will be wearing one exactly like this one!   Love the iridescent effect on this don't you?

Yesterday, I featured an original aceo of a flamingo - found another flamingo today!  Only this time, it's on a pendant - not by the same artist as yesterday.  Glass tiles are fun to play with and I'm always amazed at the variety of designs people put on these. This is Sweet Whimsy's Flirty Flamingo pendant.  What a great variety in this studio and on ArtFire in the jewelry world.  

Are  you wondering if the there are other creations besides jewelry on ArtFire?  Yes , there is.

A humongous variety of items, many of them ooak unique creations, and Harmon Art has some wonderful unique creations such as this Dark Red and Black Cannonball Gourd, not something you are going to find in your big box stores or the mall.  Besides, who wants to play in traffic around Christmas?  Easy Christmas shopping, sit in your chair in the comfort of your home and go shopping in your pj's!  Harmon Art has a wonderful variety of gourds and other creations, but I admit I'm fascinated with their gourds such as this Dark Red & Black Doodle Kettle Gourd, Handpainted, looks like they had fun painting this one! Just a sneak preview - check it out to see all the wonderful doodles on this unusual gourd. 

What's your favorite pick for today???

I'm off to work on my blog about my ornaments and other creations which you can find here http://lisianblue.com/ I just bought my own domain, there isn't much there yet, but I would love to have you come visit.

Thanks for visiting and have a super day!

AWSOME ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN

Life is like a bowl full of cherries!  Bright and beautiful, juicy and sweet and well a few pits along the way.  I'm loving this new blog editor.

And here are a few things I'm loving by a few of the Crazy Train riders.

Jewelry is big business on ArtFire - lots of competition there.  Today 2 out of the 3 riders make jewelry. The totally awesome thing about this though is that everyone makes something different!  It's not like walking into one store at the mall or the big box stores and then another finding pretty much the same thing in each store.  Jewelry Works by Kim has some very pretty jewelry such as this pair of carved wood Tiki and Turquoise earrings  those are really cool.  Can't say I've seen anything else quite like those anywhere else, and they have sterling silver leverback earwires.

And another wonderful pair of earrings, perfact for fall (as are the tiki ones) are Kim's Autummn Equinox earrings.  Something about browns and golds,  silver and similar colors for fall.  The little feathery leaves are pewter.  Not only does she have some pretty cool jewelry, she also has some really great prices.

And so as not to confuse the jewelry  shops, we have Cherilynn Fine Art with her original and reproduction works of art.  Although, personally I love working with oils, I truly admire watercolor artists.   There isn't much room for mistakes with watercolors.  Oils, if you don't like it, just paint over it, can't really do that with watercolors. I worked with a man once who just loved flamingos - everytime I see one, I think of him - and this wonderful original ACEO of one is delightful. Not into flamingos?  How about this very colorful Gorilla - check out those eyes.  Those are something else!

He looks like he is looking right into someone's soul.

And strolling into another jewerly shop, Trinkets and Treasures , with a great variety and different than Kim's (see that is one of the awesome things about buying handmade!!) This Green Sea Glass pendant is so cool, love the colors and the way she put this together. There's a couple of little sea shells along with the white and green pieces of sea glass - such a unique piece of jewelry.

This one, I don't know, I think I'd have a hard time selling if I made it. (I'd want to keep it) Alaskan Ivory pendant - with two pieces of ivory from two different trips to Alaska!  How cool is that!

See, two different shops, very different pieces of jewelry.  And I'm willing to bet you won't find many pendants like the ivory one or that sea glass one either!

If you are looking for a unique piece of jewelry for yourself or a loved one - check out these shops, and if jewerly isn't your thing, you can alway  get an orginal piece of art.   No pits.

Support artists, buy handmade! and have a lovely day.

RIDIN ALONG THAT ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN

So, I'm almost caught up and then I have another couple of days feeling like someone smacked me in the face! And then I feel half way ok. I am sooooo glad though that I haven't gotten really sick - and hoping I can keep it that way this fall!
As we were doing a "My favorite childhood movie"theme on Thursday Sweet Treat, I thought it would be fun to include this Fairy Godmother resin pendant by Luv To Sparkle - what little girl wouldn't love that? Probably even a few big little girls!

Being a big fan of bunnies, I had to include this Happy Bunny Resin Necklace. lo I just went back through this fun studio - there really are some cool resin pendants here - not all for little kids! You can just tell these pendants are full of glitter - and that's a hard thing to take pictures of - cute - cute - cute!

And more cuteness from Val Made with a studio full of some very cute cards. Christmas cards, congrats, Easter, get well, new baby, and more, along with some pretty handknit scarves, caps and other items. So, if you have a special occasion coming up that you need a special card for this would be a great shop to visit.

These are really cute cards.

I love watercolors- I don't do such a great job with watercolors so I really admire anyone who can paint with them - and I just love MyrnaM's sense of humor. I suppose when you are a grandmother of 22 you probably both need a sense a humor and have just developed one by that point!
Love this "Cat Art April Showers" ACEO - in case you don't know what an ACEO is, it is Art cards editions & original - they are 2.5" x 3.5" Most of the art in this studio is of original art. And at some great prices.

and one of my other favorite subjects - birds - in this case the American Kestrel - almost hard to believe that this sweet looking bird portrayed here is quite the hunter! Wonderful watercolors by MyrnaM.

I have been really resisting buying anything on ArtFire although there are a lot of items I would love to have - just because! But, with the limited income I have, most of my "spare" income that isn't being put towards bills has gone to supplies for my own artistic endeavors. However, I did purchase something from one of these artists today - not saying which one - I'll post it when I get it - oh oops - no I won't it's for a Christmas present!

Buying handmade is such a great way to have something unique to give someone you love for their birthday, Christmas, anniversary, or just because!

ARTFIRE CRAZY TRAIN RIDER AQUAURIANN

If you are into fantasy art and reading, this is the studio to visit. Or just into fantasy art! AQUARIANN has some really cool bookmarks, pinback buttons, njotecards, originals, prints, and ornaments with her totally cool fantasy art of fairies, pirates, unicorns, dragons and more.
This would make a great stocking stuffer for those pirate fans.

Sweet birthday present or maybe a solstice gift? She also has originals, so if you want to get something really special, you can do that too.

Really like the colors in this one of the unicorn. She has some pretty awesome dragons too.

Pictures link to the item!

Thanks for checking out my blog and have a wonderful day.