~ Long Weekend in Chicago ~

It's been a while since I blogged. Holiday season is always busy! Well, I am still recovering from my Chicago trip. Finally unpacked after 2 days. I was in Chicago for a long weekend and I met up with so many elementary, high school and college friends. It was awesome! Thanks to everyone who came out and ate with me, shared your stories and wisdom, picked me up and drove me around, drove back from Canada early to have breakfast with me and just made me happy in general! There was only 1 thing missing...my fiance couldn't go with me.

Anyway, just a little bit about the trip....I didn't sleep the night before I went to Chicago, so I needed a little tea. Good thing we decided to stop by our favorite bonding spot: Dunkin Donuts.


We eventually got into a few disagreements. But, it was ok. We worked it out.



Ok, just kidding. I thought it would be funny to take some candid pictures :) Anyway, I ate a lot. It was great catching up with old friends and my family over good food.






Looks good right? I'll be going into details about these meals later. So, come back and check it out! Lastly, the coolest Christmas tree in Chicago! It is so big that it goes through the house!

~ What? Another Giveaway? ~

Yes, that's right. Another giveaway. Why? Well, Cheryl from Couture Nerd contacted me a little while about doing a review of my jewelry. I have never been "reviewed" before, so I figure I would give it a try. Of course, I just had to do a giveaway along with it! It's holiday season! I am feeling generous! :D

So, please go to Couture Nerd and enter for a $20 gift certificate to my shop and check out what she had to say about these Joyeux Noel Earrings!


Keeping it short today. Lots going on! I am so sleep deprived that I practically look like a panda. But, I have a flight at 7:30 and I basically have to leave my house at 5am to ensure I get on that plane. I am not going to sleep just for a few hours. Oh well, sleep is for wimps right??

~ Giveaway Winner ~

Thank you for all the support everyone! The giveaway was a lot of fun and I loved reading everyone's comments! There were 8 tweets and 120 comments! Wow! I certainly feel very loved right now.

Pearl announced the winner on her blog yesterday. Random.org picked #115 and that's Anne J!! She already placed her order! Good choices Anne! Congratulations!



There were a few orders today! Which coincides with my day job's software release. There's also a bunch of other stuff going on and it's a little bit stressful. So, trying to finish up and head to bed early. Have to wake up early tomorrow to run lots of errands! I am so ready for my trip to Chicago!

~ Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood ~

With everything going on nowadays, my hours devoted to anime has dropped significantly. I haven't watched Bleach since Ichigo and gang went to save Orihime. But, every chance I get, usually when I am brushing Momo, I watch an episode of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood on Hulu.

I saw the original series about 4 years ago and the movie. It was good...at the beginning. Then, it got all crazy and deep and I had to read Wikipedia to fully understand what was going on. But, Brotherhood is so much better. Everything makes a lot more sense. I think the drawing is better too. Of course, if you have seen the first Full Metal Alchemist, you may want to skip the first 15 episodes of Brotherhood, since it's just about the same. I watched it to refresh my memory though.

The one thing that is missing from this anime? A tall, handsome hero! Edward is handsome, but too short. He does have yellow eyes that I like though. And it is funny that they kept making fun of his height. I noticed though, that in the original anime, that seemed force. But, in Brotherhood, it's much more natural and funnier.

Roy Mustang is tall enough. But he's such a goof ball sometimes. Though, that's part of the reason I like this anime. It's serious sometimes, but very light hearted too. I love it when he realizes that he can't use his powers, like when it's raining. His reactions are always funny.

There are some tear jerker moments in Brotherhood. For some reason, I don't remember having those moments in the first FMA. I thought the Elric brothers were just whiny. But, they seem more mature in Brotherhood.

Overall, I am enjoying Brotherhood a lot. I noticed that Hulu has a few more anime series too. So, I will be watching those when I am done with this one. I hope it ends well! A lot of animes have sad endings and it always make me sad.

~ Fairy Tales on My Mind ~

I am a big fairy tale fan. I love the magic and the romance. So, as I make jewelry, sometimes I make up my very own fairy tales. Here's a short one...


Once upon a time, a girl was lost in the woods. As tears silently flowed down her cheeks, she wandered amongst endless identical trees. In her despair, she didn't even see the old well till her hand brushed up against it. Perhaps, it just suddenly appeared. As her tears hit the weathered stones of the well, she heard a strange, but familiar gurgling sound. It sounded like the river by her house. She looks down as the well overflowed with clear blue water that sparkles like stars are within its depth. When she looked up.....

She was home.

Not the greatest writing, I know. I always struggled in my English class. So, this is one of my newest creations, the Wishing Well Necklace. I spent a lot of time on this one, to figure out how to put crystals within the well and for the chains to flow out. I thought about making these as earrings but I think two is too much. I may make a pair of asymmetrical earrings, with the well on one side and something else on the other.


I also made a few pairs of earrings. These are all unnamed and unlisted at the moment. Let me know if you can think of any good names for them. These following earrings all use Swarovski 5020 Helix beads. I love these because they have a very unique shape and facets.

First, a pair of the evil witch. This is the first time I used oxidized sterling silver components.


Of course, the innocent princess gets a version of these earrings too.


Or maybe the princess likes bows more?


These are for the grown up princesses, when they have to attend a ball to meet Prince Charming. These are fun! I dangled a small helix crystal from the clutch of the earring to give them some depth. But that also means that you can wear these in a few different ways. You can wear the long part without the back crystal by using a regular clutch. Or wear them together. Or use the clutch with your other earrings to add extra sparkle.


I have been watching Full Metal Alchemist too. So, I came up with these simple dangly heart earrings. This one is called Envy because it's green and I just watched the episode where Envy was fighting with Edward in his green monster form. I will be making more of these for Wrath (blue), Lust (red), Gluttony, Pride and the ones I forgot.


See, a clean studio makes me so much more productive! :) Did you notice that I haven't taken pictures by the window sill? Winter sunlight is totally not working for me. I have found a new location. Not completely happy with the pictures at the moment though. I will share once I feel more comfortable in this new photo studio. Now, time to switch gears and do some programming.

~ A Clean Studio Is So Motivating ~

I have been busy, going out of my mind with javascript, custom orders, packing supplies and...well...shopping :) So, I have been neglecting my little studio. Things were everywhere!


Not a pretty sight. But, I finally cleaned it. After an hour, I am ready to work again!! All the post-its are custom orders and what I need to order for supplies.


Most of my crystals are organized by shape, size and color in the little 10-sections plastic containers.


They go neatly into these yellow organizers. I love those yellow organizers! If I need to travel, I just stick the containers I need in there, grab it and go. It has a sturdy handle. Look at the rainbow of crystals!!! I love organizing by color.


I didn't get too many of these though because I figure the containers are fine if I just stack them up.


Here's what a container look inside. I use little post it flags to write down the name of the colors. Some of them are so similar that if I don't write it down, I will have issues remembering which is which.


When the box is closed, the tags conveniently bend to show the text! Yes, I am very proud of myself. And notice that I use matching color flags :)


A clean studio certainly puts me into a good mood. Well, it also helps that the sun was shining and for the first time in a few weeks, I got 8 hours of sleep! Glorious sleep! I am feeling good and I hope you are too ;)

~ Don't Use Default Blogger Backgrounds! ~

As great as blogger is, their basic backgrounds...suck. If you have 5 minutes and you know how to copy and paste, you can have an awesome background, for free!! I love picking new backgrounds for my blog. There are a few sites out there that have really good choices.

HotBliggityBlog
This site has a good layout and it's super easy to navigate! It just shows you thumbnails of all the backgrounds. The code is right on the page, so all you have to do is find one you like, copy the code and put it in your blog. Awesome. Want to see a bigger picture before you pick? Just click on it and it'll show you a bigger version right away. No going to a separate page. Looks like they have about 120 backgrounds and have backgrounds for both 2 columns and 3 columns. Here are my favorites:



Shabby Blogs
Shabby Blogs has a definite vintage, feminine, soft feel to it. Not only do they have backgrounds, they also have buttons for Twitter and other extras. They also have 2 and 3 column backgrounds. The one I have right now is from Shabby Blogs. Also, very easy to install. You click on the install button and it shows you the instruction and code. It's so hard to pick favorites but here are a couple that are really festive.



The Cutest Blog on the Block
Again, lots of free backgrounds for 2 column and 3 columns to pick from. This site also has Twitter backgrounds, buttons, and banners. To me, who is a quite snobby when it comes to sites, it is not as easy to use as the other sites. Here are some I like at the moment:



So, don't let me catch you with the default backgrounds!! You put a lot of effort to write the content, so compliment that with a great, FREE, background!