Under the Sea

The inspiration for a necklace I made for my daughter just before she left for Australia, was from a beach find during last years vacation. We were on holidays in Tofino, on the West coast of Vancouver Island. During our holiday, we met up with our friends for a few fun filled days by the sea, and while we were taking a stroll on the beach, my girlfriend and I found the "Seaweed Thing"! It was a mass of seaweed entangled with shells, and stones and we just thought it was really neat! Here is my friend holding our find, it is the long mass that she is holding in her right hand which I call the Seaweed Thing!

So I finally got around to making a necklace inspired by this bit of ocean nature, and this is what I came up with:

I decided to call it "Under The Sea", which is a Disney song from the movie Little Mermaid, which was one of my daughters favorite movies when she was little. I used sterling silver chains, freshwater pearls, a silver sand dollar, Swarovski sea stars, a lampwork bead that reminded me of beach glass, copper rings and a pretty silver hammered heart, all wired together.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say thank you to all my friends who left comments for me in my last post regarding my daughters move to Australia! Your wonderful comments meant a lot to me, as the last few days have been difficult. Yes there have been many tears, some shed in private, so that no one could see me cry, and of course I sobbed my heart out at the airport when she left on Friday. She called me Sunday evening, to let me know that she had made it to Brisbane safely, which made me feel a little better. I also hope that all of my American friends had a super July 4th holiday weekend!

The lovely Nicole, at Beadwright, felt I needed cheering up and awarded me the "One Lovely Blog Award". To accept this award I must nominate another 7 blogs, so here are my nominees:

Duck and Wheel with String

Splitrock Ranch

Sand and Sea Designs

Sweet Bead Studio

Sundown bead Designs Rhetoric
KS Jewellery Designs
Crafts and Cooking


Tag you're it!

I was also tagged by my furry friends at Beaded Tail, in a game in which I am to post the 6th picture in the 6th folder, of my photos. So here is the photo, which is actually a favorite secret spot of mine, located about a 15 minute drive from my home. It is along the banks of the Elbow river, in a wonderful wilderness area,called Kananaskis Country. I named this spot Mystic Canyon. It is a fantastic place to go to relax and reflect on life and nature.
I am tagging the following friends to play this game.
Please feel free to play along or not..you are not obligated,it's just a bit of fun.

A Rose by Name
Lenox knits

Storybeader

Sweetwater Designs
ChatElaine Jewellery
Cinnamon Spice and everything Nice

Off Down Under

On Friday, Daughter # 2 is leaving for Australia. Daughter #2, is the brunette in the photo, I am in the center, and Daughter #1 is the blonde. Last year, she met a wonderful guy while she was living and working in Banff...and yes he is from Australia. They fell in love, lived together for 9 months here in Canada, and now she is off to spend some serious time with him in his country. She will be gone for about a year....and there is a strong possibility that if all goes well, that she will make Australia her permanent home. She has sold her truck, and most of her possessions, so this is a big deal for her. She is almost 29 years old, and if I had been in her shoes at her age, I would probably do the same thing. What an adventure! I am going to miss her terribly, and even although she has lived on her own for 10 years, she has always been somewhere here in Canada, usually close by. Australia seems so far away, the other side of the world...it is not like you can just pop over for a weekend visit! I am totally supportive of her decision, and I love her boyfriend, and I have not cried in front of her...yet!

Here is a photo of the 3 of us when they were little...and I was a bit younger too!

Another photo of them as little girls.
I just know that seeing her off at the airport is going to have me balling!
"I love you, and will miss you, Chipmunk!"
Love Mom

Sweet Bead Studio and Canada Day

Yesterday I discovered a great new blog and wonderful talented jewelry artist, Cindy Wimmer, at Sweet Bead Studio. Cindys' unique designs are created with copper, sterling silver, wire, stainless steel and artisan beads. She is celebrating her blog makeover with some fabulous giveaways, including a metal embossing hammer, one of her mixed metal pendants or a fabulous lampwork and copper bracelet! Wow, it doesn't get any better than that!!

There will be three winners, so you have a great chance to win one of these fabulous prizes! Check out her blog to find out how to enter.

Also I would like to wish all of my Canadian readers a very happy Canada Day tomorrow, July 1st! Get out in the sun (hopefully its a great day for everyone) and celebrate!

Teach Your Children

This is a custom order bracelet that I recently finished. I was contacted by a kindergarten parent, representing the class Moms, who wanted to purchase a bracelet for the teacher as an end of the year gift. The teacher, has actually purchased several of my pieces in the past, and they knew that she liked my designs. They wanted to somehow be able to represent the 19 students in the class, and also have the year, 2009, incorporated into the design. I found some fabulous beads by lampwork artist, Christy Howard, in these gorgeous bright crayon colors, and made them my inspiration. I wanted to the finished piece to have a playful, childlike feeling, as it was a gift from her kindergarten class. I made 19 lampwork glass bead dangles, to represent each child, and added in some sterling silver heart charms, one with "joy"...which is actually her name! I then added a fabulous sterling silver keepsake tag, custom designed by LillyEllen Designs. I had her stamp the year into the center, and the words "teach, inspire, dream" around the bottom edge. It turned out fabulous, and I was so pleased with the final result. This one had to be called "Teach your Children", by CSNY.


"Don't you ever ask them why
if they told you, you would cry
so just look at them and sigh
and know they love you. "
Graham Nash