Weekly Word Picks - Delicious

Nothing much happened between my last update and now, just some family drama. But I will spare you the boring rant and go on to the delicious stuff - this week's word feature!

Oh did I say delicious?

DELICIOUS

Suggested by the lovely Sarah Kelley from The Beaded Lily's Sketchbook. :) I decided to narrow it down to a strawberry/apple theme.

Strawberry delicious lampwork glass bead - Debra Kallen

For the complete Treasury, please follow this link : Delicious

It's nearly 2am and I still need to wake up for work tomorrow yikes! So, any suggestions what word I should use next for next week?

Necklaces

I've been meaning to make some necklaces for the shop for a while now. You know sometimes you want to do something but you just drag it on actually STARTING it? But when you do, you're done in a jiffy. Anyways, I finally got a necklace display and made a few necklaces to be listed into the shop eventually, so here's some quick first peeks.

Title : Black Pegasus

Price : USD20.00

Someone wise once told me, that majority of our ideas hit us when we are sitting and doing our business in the washroom. That couldn't be far from the truth for this necklace. (Although I assure you I washed my hands thoroughly before I made this hehehe) This is mainly inspired from the black Pegasus in the new Clash of the Titans movie.

Title : Pegasus

Price : USD20.00

This is the traditional form (or color) of Pegasus, white. :) They both measure at about 45cm (17.6 inches) in length. And below is how they would look like hanging from a neck.

Looks like the Pegasus is flying, simple and elegant!

Title : Dew Drop

Price : USD28.00

I also made some pendants with the chalcedonies I got. They are such beautiful gemstones! I really love the little blue one here.

Title : Belladona

Price : USD28.00

And here is a bigger chalcedony. This is the biggest one I got I think, it measures at about 1.3cm at it's widest point. :) I had recently fell in love with the color combinations of yellow and teal~ I'm soooooo tempted to keep this for myself lol!

Title : Raindrops On My Ears

Price : USD28.00

Omg is this the only earrings I made the entire week? Lol yes! I decided that I should give it more effort and actually make more bracelets than 'cheat' with earrings hahaha. Plus there's the thing with new necklaces too.

Title : Fluttering Dreams

Price : USD17.00

Can you tell I love the aqua blue color? Oh yes I do! I also love navy blue but alas, I don't have a lot of supplies in that color. :(

Title : Summer Flowers

Price : USD17.00

Attempted to try out a new idea I had with the flowers, and I wanted to make something bright and summer-y too. Which is how this came into being.

Title : Fields of Gold

Price : USD21.00

Inspired by the song with the same name, one of my favorite songs from Sting ever! Just reminds me of a wheat field. (and to some extend, the 300 movie lol)

Title : Carnival

Price : USD21.00

This is actually inspired by three cars parked together. One was red, one was white and there was a teal/blue one in between. I truly believe that inspirations are all around us :)

Title : Poppies On Grey

Price : USD23.00

I don't know what motivated me to make a third bracelet with the red + monotone colors, but made them I did! At least they aren't all the same, and red + black/grey are always very easy to match. :)

Title : Royalty

Price : USD21.00

In Malaysia, purple and gold are the colors for the royalty. Now I'm not very sure if the throne are in these colors, (though I won't be surprised if they are) but they make a very striking and beautiful bracelet. :) Wear them and feel like a royalty yourself!

You may have noticed that I raised the prices for the pearl cluster bracelets a little. I just felt that the pricing difference between the cluster bracelets and the beaded ones are too small, although the cluster bracelets involved more work. It is just a small raise though, so don't worry!

Weekly Word Picks - Sponge

The pass two days was so busy I barely had time to update the blog, and I was busy feeling burnt out and miserable during the weekend to do much. But this totally made my day on Sunday night!

My Dream Room treasury made it to the Etsy front page!! :D It was soooo unexpected and I was so surprised! I made that treasury on a whim on Friday evening and even didn't bother to contact all the artists because of my moody self. I thought for sure that treasury was forgotten in the humongous sea of Treasury East. (I swear that place is FLOODED) So I didn't bother about it for a while. Until it reappeared before my eyes!

Am still excited about it eventhough it was already two days ago, hahaha. But anyways, back to the post's main topic. This week's word feature oh yes! I had a very very dear friend of mine do the picking this time, and she picked...

SPONGE

Her rationale for choosing this word : I was trying to squeeze my brain for a word and thought how a sponge could absorb it all back in.

Genius!

Floater, Ceramic Sculpture

For the complete Treasury, please follow this link : Sponge

While making this treasury, I find it so difficult to make these treasuries without jewelry in them. Do jewellers like to add strange tags to their pieces? Or are there just too many jewelry shops on Etsy? Ahaha. So, any suggestions what word I should use next for next week?

The Colors of Summer

Since a couple days ago I've been feeling rather 'blah' and unmotivated. I'm not sure why, maybe my lady time is creeping near, hmm. But nevertheless, here is the huge update that I promised a while ago. There weren't 14 items in total unfortunately, because 2 of the items I haven't got the photos right yet, so I will add them in the next update.

Title : Coral Teardrop

Price : USD30.00

The wire small enough to fit into the hole had finally arrived! So I can finally do something with my chalcedony briolettes :D I just love the bright coral color! These are the only pair I have too. (I bought a multi-color strand)

Title : Toffee Candy

Price : USD17.00

I found these gorgeously yummy looking lampwork glass beads the other day, I just loooove them! So here's something simple to show off their beauty in their simplicity, the beads were carefully hand picked by your's truly. :)

Title : Pink Lavenders

Price : USD27.00

A friend commented these look like flowers in a pink glass vase, and only then did I see the image. It was rather amusing to say the least. The flower and wire are tarnish resistant.

Title : Tropical Flowers

Price : USD15.00

Experimented with layering the acrylic flowers. I'm running out of them (the frosted ones) and I have a couple of odd colors, maybe I should make asymmetrical earrings with them hmm.

Title : Celtic Green

Price : USD15.00

Laziness strike! This is a different color variation of another earring I made a while ago ahaha. I sold that some time ago, so I figured I should make one with another color scheme lol.

Title : Rainbow Drops

Price : USD20.00

Made with carefully picked light-colored Czech fire polish glass beads. These earrings dangle gorgeously from a long fine chain. I love going through my bead collections to find nice color schemes and picking out little treasures! It's like a mini treasure hunt.

Title : Fruit Platter - Breakfast

Price : USD15.00

These brightly colored citrusy earrings are cute and perfect for summer! I decided to make these not OOAK, since I figured I should have a couple of common line of items in my shop. Although stock is only limited until my fruit beads run out. Depending on how popular they are, I might or might not restock my beads and make more.

Title : Fruit Platter - Dinner

Price : USD15.00

Same series as above, this is how they look like when dangled. :) This one has a green and red color scheme. Lunch to come later when I figure out what fruits to use hahaha.

Title : Gold Sakura

Price : USD20.00

This gold and pink color combination is surprisingly sweet. It's not something I would wear (too sweet!) but it would definitely be suitable for girly girls that looooves pink. I kinda like how the photo turn out too, like the pearls almost have a semi translucent quality to them.

Title : Drops of Blood

Price : USD20.00

This predominantly red bracelet with accents of black and white was actually inspired by the poppy flowers, which for some unknown reason reminds me of blood most of the time. I attached a crescent moon charm on the end in hopes of attracting some Twilight fans hahaha. Personally I had not seen the movie or read the book, and not really interested to, to tell the truth. However, I am interested to watch True Blood, lol.

Title : Blue Lemonade

Price : USD17.00

A simpler version of the Blue Martini cluster bracelet. I like the blue/yellow combination, so refreshing and bright!

Title : Traditional Values

Price : USD17.00

A simple bracelet with the humble colors of brown and white, accented with wood and with an exotic vintage feel to it. I really like the intricate wooden bead I got from my friend from digging through her beads collection.

So conclusion? I am a treasure hunter that hunts for pretty beads! :D

Weekly Word Picks - Tornado

Weekend getaway was fun and relaxing, I haven't lounge around on the bed all day in front of the TV in a while. Just spending time chatting, laughing, playing games. It was a nice break from my usual busy schedule. Now that it had passed, I better get back to work ahaha.

The giveaway that Mel so graciously held for me on the Lisbonsky blog had finally ended and a winner was chosen as well. Congratulations to Sarah T for winning my first ever giveaway :D I will send out the items later in the week. Hmm... perhaps I should just do it tomorrow since I have the day off. I will be free (hopefully) in the afternoon as well so I would be able to take some photos of the new pieces I made up till now.

Anyway, it is time for another week of word pick feature! This week's word was picked by a friend of mine and it is... *drumroll*

TORNADO

I like how surprising it is every time someone suggests a word :)

Tornado at dusk in watercolors

For the complete Treasury, please follow this link : Tornado

That was fun. :) Any suggestions what word I should use next for next week?

Fears, Top 3 Phobias

There won't be a weekly update on pieces I made weekly, because I'm spending the weekend at my friend's place, which means I wouldn't have the opportunity to take pictures of my pieces. So maybe next week I will update the blog with a big update like the one a couple weeks ago :D

Speaking of updates, I redid my blog design! Well... kind of. I found out about the new blog template designing thing just today and decided to try it out. It's pretty cool! Now I can make 3 column blogs without anymore hassle with html. Woot woot!! And there are just so many background designs, it was just so difficult to choose one. But aren't this utensil pattern cute? Though I still need to redo the blog banner since mine is a bit too long to fit in there. In due time perhaps.

Anyways, I recently encountered one of my worse fears, which is what inspired me to write this post. My top 3 phobias and fears.

Number 1 : Spiders

These creepy crawlies actually send my skin crawling YEUCH!! For me, I absolutely hate how they move! Their long spindly legs, slowly rising so slenderly moving forward, and their SPEED hogawd. I think it started from this childhood trauma where my parents were watching this horror sci-fi show, I was only about 8 years old that time. I didn't watch the movie per se, but I saw the TV commercial for it and it crept the fuck out of me. There was one scene where a huge spider with an actual human face on the abdomen bursting out of someone's stomach and slowly crawled out the side. I still remember it clearly.

Spiders are also one of the few creatures that creep me out even in virtual form. I used to play World of Warcraft, and in one of their expansions they introduced this new model/design for a spider. And the first time I encountered them in the game (where I need to kill them for a quest) I got soooo freaked out I almost abandoned the quest! But I did it anyway with goosebumps crawling on my skin all the time. It's the way they move I tell you!

Even if you look cute, you're still evil! And these buggers can jump like no other!

Although I hate them with my guts, they somehow still manage to find their way into my life. In not one but TWO occasions, 2 small spiders managed to get into 2 of my cups somehow. One was even tightly sealed, and it built a small web in my cup when I found it. The other time (which was very recently) I had filled it with water and gulped down once or twice before I realized it had drowned at the bottom of my cup, eew! Thank God they were only small spiders. But still...

Get out of my cup!!

Number 2 : Trucks carrying tree logs

This one was no thanks to this movie...

I've been afraid of these damn trucks ever since! Whenever I saw them on the high way, I am always reminded of the stupid scene in the movie. I would get away from them as far as possible (if they are at the left most lane, I would overtake them on the right most lane) and most of the time I will accelerate faster. The other day I saw one much like the first picture there and I couldn't help but notice how rusty the chains were. I quickly overtook him and run as far as I could.

Number 3 : Illegal Immigrants

I have the unfortunate fate of living in a neighborhood populated with these freaks. Where did the sunny days of friendly and happy neighbors went? Where did my school friends that live nearby went? Oh right, they moved out after the flood incident more than 10 years ago. It doesn't help that there are a lot of factories around my area, and there's like two industry areas next to my housing area.

Technically, they are not all illegal. I'm pretty sure some of them are legal immigrant workers. But they still do illegal stuff like robbing, raping and stuff like that. The marketplace is flooded with them and you should see the bus stops on weekends, it was FREAKY! And they would stare at you one kind, especially if you're a girl. Once I had to bring my brother to a clinic around the marketplace at around midnight because he was sick, when I was driving through a dark alley when we're leaving, I saw this dude with his shirt open and he was putting on his belt. I freaked (quietly though) and quickly rushed home.

I blame them all for the high crime rate in Malaysia, and for my chase dreams. I have a lot of dreams of me being chased by a variety of different people or vehicle. Homeless people, serial killers, the headless horseman, yellow buses. I read somewhere that it means that I have a fear of being attacked, which is probably true. And I am thankful that nothing like that had happened to me yet.

Illegal immigrants ahead eep!! Drive faster!

Weekly Word Picks - Hungry

Last week was Indulge, this week it's Hungry. Whether it's my jewelry or the blog features, it will eventually evolve around food somehow. Maybe I should write a food post lol. (or maybe I should not ask my friends for random words around lunch time)

Anyways, without further ado here is this week's word pick feature! :D

HUNGRY

Original ACEO -- Time to Eat

For the complete Treasury, pleas follow this link : Hungry

I am feeling hungry now lol, about an hour's time until dinner. Anyways, I am accepting suggestions for next week's word pick feature! Post them in the comments if you have one :)

First peek for next week

I apologize for the spam with my work lately, but I figured that if I want to showcase my work on my blog, perhaps they should be a sneak peek of what's to come in the coming week as I list them up over the week.

It was a fairly productive week even though I was swamped with sorting out my new supplies. Although I was suffering a little from inspiration block as well. Maybe the inspiration rush last week had drawn out my motivation, or ideas, or something. Anyways, I will be off to get some boxes tomorrow to store my supplies properly, my shoe box is looking pretty overflowed and tattered right now...

Now on to the sneak peek! Pearl cluster bracelets first!

Title : America All Stars

Price : USD23.00

I had the idea for this since I made Patriotism a couple weeks back. I used a different red and blue for this though, so it looks more vintage and the colors are not as bright. Inspired by the USA flag. Although... there are only 32 stars and not 50... I'm not sure if I should add more stars since there are already quite a few on there.

Title : Blackberry

Price : USD25.00

Made with some of the new supplies I have. The faceted crystals on this is just gorgeous! The czech fire polish beads are very beautiful too, they look light purple under sunlight, but a refreshing light blue under fluorescent lights, I was pleasantly surprised. I am sooooo tempted to make one of these for myself too! Ah decisions, decisions~

Title : Sweet Nothings

Price : USD17.00

Finally, after identifying the gemstones my mom gave me, I could use them for my pieces in peace. This bracelet has some rose quartz chips on the further side there, which I would have a clearer picture of when I list it on Etsy. Just something simple and girly :)

Title : Secret Garden

Price : USD18.50

This is going to be a favorite for people that loves the color green. I personally love this myself! I hung some little flower and butterfly charms on it, so I guess this is considered a charm bracelet? Hehe.

Title : Under the Sea

Price : USD17.00

Another blue bracelet! I have far too many blue materials hahaha. (it's one of my favorite colors after all) This one has a cute fish charm on it :) I need to get more from my friend.

And the rest of the post will be just earrings. Thinking I should make more bookmarks next week.

Title : Heart of Ice

Price : USD14.00

I guess you could say these are the earring version of the Iceberg bracelet from last week. Part of a small series with the glass cube beads.

Title : Violet

Price : USD14.00

Part of the glass cube mini series, this one with a flower dangle. I'm running out of flowers! Which would explain the lack of flowers in my recent pearl cluster bracelets, because I don't have enough for even one bracelet. :(

Title : New Shrub

Price : USD14.00

Part 3 (also the last part) of my glass cube mini series. Personally, the green cubes are my favorite among all of the three colors I have.

Title : Rose Cluster

Price : USD15.00

Made with the rose quartz chips my mom gave me. These look very beautiful and organic. Both earrings are different because the chips are all different sizes and shape, impossible to make them exactly the same.

Title : Shrubbery

Price : USD15.00

We want... a shrubbery!! One that looks nice, and not too expensive. Lol I can be such a geek sometimes. These are made with prehnite, which was also bestowed to me by my mom. (she has far too many of these bracelets that she don't wear!) My camera still really sucked at catching green colored objects, especially if it is very pale or pastel colored. :(

Title : Cherries

Price : USD15.00

Last one for this week, ALSO made with materials given by my mom. The dyed quartz just looks so bright and vibrant, so I decided to pair them with the prehnite to make cherry earrings. They are quite adorable!!

That's it for this time. The next update will probably be some ways away, probably two weeks from now, since I won't be home to take photos next week, going on a little holiday~ Although I will still be bringing my laptop along, so I'm probably still going to be blogging hehehe.

New Range of Bracelets

Last week I really outdone myself, a 3-day weekend really did good things for my motivation. I made enough items for a total of 13 listings! Although this week I had only done 1 piece so far hahaha. It's because not one, but THREE of the supplies I ordered arrived at once! One via plane (air mail), one via ship (surface mail) and one via truck. (domestic mail) The one via surface mail finally arrived after a long one and half month wait and I spent FOREVER sorting everything out. My room is a mess now and I am in desperate need for more storage space.

Anyways, I tried my hands in making a new range of non-cluster bracelets last week, something more simple, scouring over the many variety of materials I have.

Title : Tropical Swirl

Price : USD17.00

I'm not sure how to categorize this type of bracelets aside from being beaded. Am quite fond of the colors actually, the dark teal color with shades of yellow really pops. They are really fun to make if I have enough variety of materials too. I hope/think the pricing is right for these, maybe when I list them in the shop I could ask for opinions in the Etsy forums, hmm.

Title : Iceberg

Price : USD17.00

A friend commented this blue/white bracelet looks very icey, and coincidentally I hung a whale charm on this as well. (which you can't see because it's at the far side of this photo) Hence the name.

I might need to scour some lampwork glass beads from a friend to make more of these bracelets. :D The earrings are next!

Title : Tree Vines

Price : USD14.00

I have some leaf charms, and some vine connectors. It's not difficult to do the math :D Reminds me of tropical rainforests.

Title : Golden Teardrops

Price : USD25.00

I actually really like this one, they are long and gorgeous in shades of gold. Such a luxurious and elegant color!

Title : A Week of Pearls

Price : USD35.00

Something new that I decided to try out. A set of 7 pairs of earrings, one for each day of the week! Each comes with their own sterling silver hooks so you could just pick them and put them on without the hassles of changing the pearls on interchangeable hooks everyday. The pearls are all nickel free. :) Next up, bracelets!

Title : Cold Hearted

Price : USD23.00

For those that are cold hearted! Lol, I'm joking. These are actually really cute, I'm very fond of the color combination. I'm going to make a similar one (without the hearts) for myself because I recently bought a lot of blue colored clothes. This will match perfectly!

Title : Berrilicious Grapes

Price : USD20.00

Inspired by grapes and wine. This really reminds me of vineyards, and when I think of vineyards I am reminded of Sims 3 and the vineyard in France. Perhaps it's because I've never been to a REAL vineyard, hmm... makes me wonder if they are really like the one in Sims 3.

Title : Strawberries and Cream

Price : USD20.00

I was trying to pick out colors that I haven't used for bracelets yet, and that's how I picked the pastel pink pearls. They look so sweet and cute!

Title : Key to Her Heart

Price : USD23.00

Bracelet version of that phone charm I did (and sold) a while ago, because I have so many of those key charms!!

Title : Pastels

Price : USD20.00

Sweet pastel pinks and blues, reminds me of My Little Pony too somehow! Those sweet days of childhood~

Title : Black Beauty

Price : USD12.00

Another horse inspired bookmark. I loooooved the Black Beauty novel when I was little, it is such a sad and beautiful story. I used to love horses and draw them all the time when I was a kid. Not anymore though, I wonder what took the horse loving out of me? :(

Title : I Love Whales

Price : USD9.50

Phone charms! I haven't made these in a while. This one reminds me of a project I did back in college with the 'Save the Humpback Whales' theme. It is still one of my fondest projects, although I don't have a single piece of the project left to show. Oh wells~

Title : You're A Star

Price : USD9.50

I believe everyone is a shining star on their own. Everyone is unique, no one are the same, we are talented at different things. Which then reflects the concept of my store. I normally only make one of each item because I believe that all items should be exclusive to their owners. That and... I don't like making repeat items. It's always more exciting crafting new items and admire the finish product.