Contrariwise ramblings

I'm tired.

I came home early from work because 2 kids are sick and we have an impending snowstorm. (The kids phoned me and begged me to come home. Why did I bother? When I got home, they were either asleep or engrossed in the computer. Sigh.)

So now the kids are fed. I played cards with them. My husband is still working and I'm holding his dinner for him. He won't be home for a while so I'll thought I'd post in the blog. Here goes:

I started these earrings last night and there wasn't much left to do to get them finished today. The gemstones are wonderful; really large faceted lemon quartz that I bought a couple of months ago and never got around to using: I took the photo on a window ledge to take advantage of the last bit of the winter's light. Otherwise, it would have meant me taking the photo in the dreaded "light box of doom". (Da da da DUMMMMMM.)

Day 3 is already planned. Stay tuned!

FEBRUARY 1 Update: These are now listed in my Etsy store.

I made these earrings last night, although I had been thinking about this design for a while. In fact, I bought the pearls this past weekend with the intent of making these particular earrings.

Very simple yet very elegant. I used three different sizes of cream-colored pearls, connected with sterling silver loops which are lightly oxidized. I'm really surprised at how well the photos came out. Usually I have to take dozens of photos to get some that are tolerable. I think I can actually list these earrings on my website soon.

Notice the headpins on the bottom pearls? I made them by melting the silver wire using my gas grill. (Check out my adventure about making them here!) I've been saving them for a while to use for something.

I really don't know how I'm going to make a new design everyday for the next 29 days. Tonight I had to work late at my regular 9-to-5 job. The only reason I was able to finish these earrings is because we had leftovers for dinner and my kids weren't in the way. (One was in gymnastics, the other had the day off from school and was contentedly vegging in front of the TV all night. Am I a bad mom?)

Not too bad of a start but, oh yes, I can definitely see these "designs-a-day" deteriorating rapidly.

JANUARY 31 UPDATE: These earrings are now listed in my Etsy store.

Gemmafactrix, a wonderful jewelry artist, has started a flicker group called Design a Day. Here is her challenge:

"Your challenge is this: make something new every day for a month. You can continue on for longer, of course, but the idea is to create a new design, however simple, every day for a month. Often I get so caught up in selling my work - taking photos, packaging, shipping, updating my website - that I forget to just enjoy creating. Hopefully this group will help me - and you - do that. :) "

Hey, I submitted Underroos Sock Zombies to BoingBoing a couple of weeks ago. And guess what! They've been featured!

Link to boingboing.

A zombie made out of socks is better than an ACTUAL zombie in so many ways! I mean, can you put an actual zombie in your backpack?

Sure, but just that one time.

JANUARY 30 UPDATE: Yesterday, underoos sold 31 Sock Zombies because of being featured in BoingBoing! She even made top sellers in Etsy Tools . Yeah!!!

First thank you to Tizzalicious for mentioning me in her blog!

She bought these earrings from my shop for her mother's birthday. --->

All I have to say is that she must have a really cool mom. My mother would never wear anything like this!

Tizzalicious has got a great shop on Etsy and she even has her own website! Lots of cute stuff.

In fact, if you like to gamble, I think that this matching brooch and necklace that Tizzalicious makes would be great to wear to the casino and might even bring you luck!

This is NOT your mother's crochet. If you want to see doilies, go elsewhere.

The crocheter goes by the moniker, KnotByGranma. Knot By Gran’ma is a one woman enterprise, where she basically crochets herself silly.

Her shop is full of random stuff. Like the Hyperbolic Caterpillar of Doom.

In Granma's own words:

"I'm not really sure how I came up with the Hyperbolic Caterpillar Of Doom, but I'm glad I did. He turned out pretty neat. He has a lot of caterpillar personality for not being able to move or eat anything. He's great at starting conversations, hanging from the wall, or quietly guarding your coffee table. He also likes to be hugged, even though his name might not make you think to hug him. His one eye will gaze at you lovingly for all time and he likes to be given as a gift too. He's totally one of a kind. "

And then there's the Singing Land Siren.

As Granma says:

"She’s lured in many a biker, weary from being on the road, riding with the wind in their hair. Her melodious voice can be heard from miles away and to each man she sounds a little different. They are entranced by her beautiful melodies and never see the end coming, while their bikes continue down the road, less the men riding them, until they crash and burn somewhere on the shoulder.Singing Land Siren is crochet out of cotton yarn and thread. "

I think the extra eyes on top of her head and the beaded tentacles are a nice touch, don't you?

I'm not exactly sure what to say about her The Guitaresses Art Doll, (or why the title is singular).

But apparently Granma knows all about her/them/uh, it:

"Influences such as Zeppelin, Hendrix, AC/DC, and Joan Jett help spur on the creativity of these very special conjoined girls. The Guitaresses are quite the pair and they lead a fantastic life. They are your ordinary rock and roll guitar players... even with having to share a body. Each girl in The Guitaresses controls one side of their body. Their polyphonic shredded guitar riffs are legendary. They tour constantly and basically enjoy life on the road. They are pretty awesome.The Guitaresses were crocheted from acrylic yarn. Their little eyeballs, Flying V Guitar Replica, lips and top are crocheted out of cotton and then sewn on afterwards. They sport a flirty pair of white cotton panties too. [You'll have to click on the above link to see those. ] They are stuffed with new polyester filling, which is hypo-allergenic, and flame resistant. "[Because no one wants their conjoined rockers going up in flames, am I right?]

Granma used to have a Hyperbolic Hooha for sale. (Yes. That's what it was named. I kid you (k)not.) I was hoping I could post a picture of it but I don't see it in her shop anymore. Perhaps it was banned from Etsy. So, instead, I'll post a parting picture of one of her crocheted eyeball ornaments.



KnotbyGranma's shop can be found here.

No matter how many beads I have in my stash, I can't resist a few more. When a local bead shop got a new shipment, I just couldn't help myself. In the picture of my new purchase, below, the faceted grey beads are quartz, the blues are chalcedony, the orange-red beads are coral. I just fell in love with the coral. The colors in the beads range from yellow to orange to red, with amazing striations and a matte texture. They have such a contemporary look that I knew I had to create an earring to match that modern feel.

I didn't think the coral needed any accompanyment because I thought that they could speak for themselves. The earrings I created have a simple, elegant, but edgy feel to them. And the sleek shiny silver contrasts with the matte beads.


But you have to admit that they are an incredible contrast to the earrings I posted yesterday!

JANUARY 28 UPDATE: The coral earrings were just listed in my shop today.

I've got tons of beads that I have stashed away in boxes and bags. Right after Christmas my local bead shop had a sale on all briolettes (teardrop shaped beads) in the store so I bought even more: some gorgeous bright chalcedony, peridots, and bi-color lemon quartz. My favorite was the quartz. The gemstones are wonderfully faceted and an interesting shade of brown/grey and pale yellow.

I pulled out the strand and starting sorting out the quartz. When I bought them, I didn't realized that there was a lot of variability in the beads. I expected differences in color since they're bicolor quartz. But there were subtle differences in size and cut - some were rounded teardrops, others were almost marquise shape. It took me a while to sort them into matched pairs (with a few unmatched singles).

I was happy to find that I had a couple of elongated stones that matched up. They were so pretty that I knew I would have to make earrings that would emphasize the stones. No fancy wirewrapping for them! So I decided to try a style I had never made before: gemstones hung from chain.


These are 2 inches long and are quite a departure in style for me, but I really like them. Very elegant, don't you think?
Just to show you the differences in cut, I have a pair of stones that are almost triangular! I just started these but realized I didn't have any more silver beads to finish them. Aren't they a cool shape!

Check my online shop for these earrings. I'll be listing them once I get some decent photos. (Photography - hate it, it takes forever to get a shot good enough for a listing!)

BTW, if you'd be interesting in subscribing to my blog and receiving it by e-mail, just click Subscribe to Contrariwise ramblings by Email.

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I can't believe it! Tonight, one of my posts actually made Neatorama! I was so freakin' excited that I called a bunch my friends and family.

And you know what they said?????

"What's Neatorama?"

/sigh


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Well, somebody wants to make it easier for you to do so.

I don't know if you noticed, but the color scheme of my blog has changed. The background color used to be white, but now it's black. Why?

It's my daughter's fault. She suggested that I would be saving energy.

Huh?

She showed me a site called Blackle. Now every one has heard of Google. But have you heard of Blackle?

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

How is Blackle saving energy?

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen."

How can you help?

Set Blackle as your home page ( set ). This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. (Remember, black is the new green!) You will also be reminded about the need to save energy each time you see the Blackle page load.

Take a look at their energy saving tips page for ideas on steps you can take to save energy.
There are a lot of great web sites about saving energy and being more environmentally friendly. They are full of great tips covering the little things that we can all do to make a difference today. Try Blackling "energy saving tips" or visit treehugger.com a great blog dedicated to environmental awareness.

"Blackle.com - Saving energy one search at a time".