Thank You to My Followers

I have been blogging for some time now and I always take note of new followers and check out what they are up to online. Whether it's a shop on Etsy or Artfire, the Hafteam forum, or just blogging themselves, I like to take the time to get to know a little piece of who you are.

As a thank you for being a part of the "bits and pieces" of my life here on Chris' Comments I would like to showcase 2 more talented followers.

The first one is Sandy of Forbes Farm Gifts.

Sandy is a multi-talented artist that has several shops where she sells her jewelry and crafts. Honestly, it was quite difficult to choose a few pieces to share with you as I truly love her work and got caught up looking around in her shops.  But I think these give you an idea of some of the wonderful gifts Sandy makes.

Bell Flower Earrings:

Made from three acrylic floral beads. The outer purple bead is transparent allowing the yellow color of the inner bead to show through giving an dreamy effect. The third flower is Lavender and centers the piece along with a matching Amethyst colored Swarovski crystal. The entire piece is topped off with antique gold colored leaves and a second Swarovski crystal.
This is a truly a gorgeous earring.  The closeup gives you an idea of all the detail Sandy puts into her pieces.

Hardanger Doily (Simple and Beautiful form of counted-thread embroidery that comes in many patterns):

This doily is done in a traditional design using color fast red cotton thread on white linen material. It took approximately 30 hours to complete. Measuring 9" square or 23 cm, it is the perfect size for a small table or in a grouping with other delicate doilies.

Beaded Parrot on Chainmaille:

Hand beaded using seed beads, bugle beads, Czech fire polished beads and Fire Line nylon thread.  This is absolutely amazing to me how much work goes into something like this and how much it looks just like a parrot. I just love all the colors used too.

Watches by Helen can be found on Artfire.  These are truly beautiful and very unique watches that are custom made to fit just for you.

This is an adorable, beaded silver watch that has purple window glass beads with violet, swarovski crystal beads. These beads are further highlighted by charlotte cut purple seed beads. There's an easy-to-fasten magnetic clasp to fasten the watch.  The silver really sets off these luscious shades of purple.

This is a fun silver watch where the glass has been cut from the iridescent glass to show shiny, clear glass beneath. It makes it look like dots. If you like red you will love this watch but you not only get red but the iridescence brings out green, blue, yellow, and even purple. The red spheres are complimented with red Swarovski crystals to make this watch even more special.

Helen also designs earring to match her watches.  I chose this pair to show you as I love the leopard print and copper and black together is very classic.

These watches  with a matching pair of earrings would really make a wonderful gift for that very special person in your life.

Claude Monet Inspired Mosaic

I found some really beautiful dishes in Claude Monet's "Water Lillies" pattern for my newest mosaic and have been playing around with some new ideas in my layouts.

Lavender seems to be a big color this year so I have been using it quite a bit in my latest pieces.  It is quite subtle in this one and it's a nice change for me.

I decided to team it with aqua and a blue-green color that's just wonderful and very muted and I found a lovely enameled lid that worked perfectly as the focal piece at the top.

Boy, Are We Spoiled!

Our air conditioner went out on us on Friday night and we have been sitting in our house with an inside temperature of  85 degrees.  Thankfully we have ceiling fans in every room and a nice pool out back so we can stay somewhat cool.

Our last vacation we took a tour of Blackbeard's House and I remember thinking how clever they were to build them with breezeways to keep cooler in these dreadfully hot summers.  But I also thought about the layers and layers of clothing that those poor women had to wear in order to maintain their reputation and dignity.  Heaven forbid if any part of the neck or ankles showed.  Can you imagine?

So I do realize that we depend on our comforts each day and many times take for granted that they will be there.  I am just fortunate that it's only my A/C  that's out and that I still have a home as I know many are faced with much tougher problems with this recession.

Shuttle "Atlantis" Final Flight

At NASA Kennedy Space Center  space shuttle "Atlantis" launched it's it's 32nd and final flight today that occurred at exactly 2:20p.m EDT.  I was fortunate enough to be able to see this historic event right from the comfort of my front lawn and was able to click off 4 photos before I lost sight of it.

During the 12-day flight, Atlantis and six astronauts will fly to the International Space Station, leaving behind a Russian Mini Research Module, a set of batteries for the station's truss and dish antenna, along with other replacement parts.

This mission signifies the last days and final chapter for the space shuttle program and will forever change the state of Florida.

St Petersburg Times states:

 NASA hopes to launch space shuttle Discovery on Feb. 27, and people in the Tampa Bay region may be able to see its fiery glow on the eastern horizon. But such sightings are numbered. NASA plans to stop flying shuttles by the end of next year, ending nearly three decades as the centerpiece of the American space program. "The impacts on Florida, both tangible and intangible, are just really remarkable," said Pat Duggins, a radio reporter at an Orlando NPR affiliate and author of Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program. Although some are pushing to keep shuttles flying for a few extra years, only nine more missions officially remain on the books. After that, Florida is likely to lose thousands of space-related jobs, not to mention an icon that has become part of the state's image.

Funny Things in the Forums of Etsy

I try to get into the forums of Etsy at least once a day if only to comment in my regular groups, but today I was hanging out a bit longer and ran into SoInToIt who started a thread about "Suggested Shops" based on your listed favorites and I laughed so much I just have to share it with you.

To give you a little background first let me say that the question Pam posed was whether the Etsy Adm. would ever suggest a shop such as hers that has under 10 sales.

The overwhelming response and comments to that were "No, probably not". This was one of Pam's replies:

So....do we scramble around now trying to solicit hearts in order to get on the lists....sometimes I feel like a little hamster....oh off now to redo all my titles....oh, now I need to redo all my tags....oh, now I need to redo shop section titles.....oh, maybe I should sprinkle key words here, oh and there....don't forget the blog!!!! and the forums!!! and facebook!!!and do some advertising internationally!!! (yep I did that!) and create treasuries!!! and re order those tags again!!! lower prices, no better make them higher, list more, don't relist, doesn't help, somebody said it does , don't forget the analytics and get a spot on a showcase, no don't, just a waste of money and check in with craftopolis and statsy and craftweasel and craftcount and update etsy hacks...have you promoted lately???????......HA! and I'm just scratching the surface!!! (Yes, I still have a smile on my face cause I don't have to drive to work anymore and I'm good with that.....)

I just love this as that is exactly how I feel so much of the time, like a hamster on a the wheel of online selling. The other thing I noticed was that nearly all the shops suggested under my favorites had sales in the 1,000's. Guess I won't be one of the shops they list either, Pam.

Pam of SoInToit is a recently retired public school music teacher and band director and has a delightful shop on Etsy carrying an array of handmade note cards,  greeting cards, original artwork collage,  mixed media, and so much more. 

The one thing I hadn't heard of is "CarveBoardArt".  Pam's was selected to be featured in the May/June issue of Somerset Studio Magazine and this is the one they chose.

The process to make this is amazing.  In her words:  I use an exacto knife to carve the design in cardboard an layer the carving with many layers of acrylic paint and finish with inked designs.  Each one of these pieces takes many hours to complete.

"Arizona Sunset" Mosaic Mirror

This is my newest mosaic. I call it Arizona Sunset because the colors along with the designs at the corners remind me of watching those spectacular sunsets when I lived there years ago.




The floral tiles were the focal point of this piece as I just love the colors and pattern.

This is the best picture of the 10 different ones I took. It's getting harder and harder to find a place to get a decent picture without using the pool as background. Sometimes the foliage around the pool is overpowering and takes away from the design.