Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Back To School

Today marks the day in Michigan where most schools have there first day of class. My amazingly still sweet and ever so funny son is starting the 7th grade. I always ask myself where the time has gone, it just seems like yesterday that I was still able to hold and cuddle him. He is a good boy as he still loves to be hugged and is not yet embarrassed to be seen with his mother like most kids his age. So this post is wishing him a fantastic first day of Middle school.



The last two pictures are from last summer and the first picture is from this past winter and let me tell you he has grown even more. Mind you he is only 12 years old and is already 5'9" tall and wears a size 11 1/2 in men's shoes. Unreal and he still has many years of growth ahead of him. When he was young I used to call him midget (I know not politically correct) or mini because he looks just like a miniature version of my husband (i swear my genetics are in there somewhere),but he was always so short. Not long ago I called him mini and he just gave me this look and then said "really mom? I should me calling you mini". Which is totally true because I am only about 5'4" tall so he is already almost half a foot taller than his mama.

No matter how tall,big or old he gets he will always be my little sweet angel boy, he is and has always been the best thing that has ever happened to me!! I will always be his biggest fan!


Sunday, May 12, 2013

Fabulous Finds And A Happy Mother's Day...


The implementinof Fabulous Finds....

I get super frustrated that my life is always so busy and don't seem to have enough time to do the things that I want to do, I.E. work in my studio,blog often,clean,sleep.  I adore tag sales,rummage sales,thrift shops and swap meets. So In the spring and summer I try to carve out a little time to try to go to these above said things. 

So I thought that I could kill 2 birds with one stone shop these places and then share my finds with you on my blog.

So this is some of my booty (yup I said booty) I am so juvenile that it made me snicker just writing the word,maybe I should use the word finds or loot instead, from this past week....
 


I was elated to find all these vintage jewels and If I told you how much I paid for them you wouldn't even believe me,they were a steal!! I have a slight compulsion issue I feel that if it's unique or a good deal I must purchase these vintage jewels to add to my stash. I will show you said stash,well part of it. This is only about half or maybe a little less that half of what I have. I am on the hunt for more of these printers trays to display the rest that are sitting in vintage jewelry boxes and vintage cigar boxes. Okay here goes....


These are mostly vintage earrings I have a ton more of these in boxes

These are mostly vintage brooches I would need at least 2 more trays to display all that I have

Random vintage jewelry pieces,earrings,brooches etc I actually filled this sucker up after I took the picture so now it's also full.


 I can and will use these pretties in my jewelry designs If I had some time to actually design things. I am a bit jealous of those who are able to create all day instead of wasting time at that place called work... Oh well such is life I just need to carve some time out and say screw the dishes!!

And to all you mom's out there I wish you all a wonderful,happy mother's day, cuz we deserve it!!! I hope you have special plans or at least get to enjoy sometime with your children. My husband and son always take me to the Mother's Day Flower show out at our local expo center It's my second favorite part of mother's day, of course the first is, being the mother of my charming and funny son, it has been truly an honor being blessed with him.

Till next time.
~Maria Rosa 

 

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Joey's 12th Birthday Celebration

My sweet boy turned 12 years old on March 16th. He is now a pre-teen heaven help me if he starts with that crappy teenage attitude problem that I have witness from kids his age. So far we have avoided it and keeping my fingers crossed that he will continue to be attitude free.

 Every year I try to make his actual birthday itself special so every year I let him choose what he wants to do on his special day,this year he chose to go to a movie,I can hardly sit through and still for 2 hours at a movie (God love him he chose The Great and Powerful OZ,in 3d of course,because he knew that I wanted to see it and that it would make sitting sorta of still bearable for me). What a wonderful sweet kid to think of his Mama. Then we went out to his favorite restaurant Red Lobster.

This year due to an entire weekend work conference That I had to attend and Easter falling so early,we had to postpone his actual birthday party until last weekend. Each year I let him choose his party theme, this year he had a toss up of either a walking dead party or Minecraft party. Thankfully he chose the later. I was so glad that it was easy to work with and make happen for him.

Every year we purchase a cake from a local baker Cakes By Stephanie, the yummiest cakes on earth,I swear it must have weigh 10lbs,the only issue was that for each character she charges $15 yeah that's right I thought that was a bit too high the cake would have cost me a jaw dropping $175. So I had her make the cake and I made all of the minecraft characters out of fondant. So here goes..........
So I Made TNT, a Gast,Creepers,A zombie,a pig and the main character Steve






He loved it!!!  I can't even tell you how many times he thanked me. It's nice having a thoughtful and great full child. We even made Mine Craft party decorations.......
Here he is blowing out his candles and making a wish I hope it was a good one because he is so very deserving of his wishes coming true. Oh and every year I obsess over finding cool and unusual candles for his cake,this year I found candles that the flame itself burned the color of the candle,unusual things like that make me Happy!!
Of course then opening his gifts...... He is NEVER short on gifts!!!

Since he now is so tall that he dwarfs most of my family he had to have a pictures to witness just how tall he is compared to everyone.....
Him with my sister whom is also his Godmother


Him with his Nona (my sweet mom)

 And the next picture is his goal of height,he won't be happy until he is taller that his cousin Toni who is one of the tallest in the family standing at nearly 6' tall I think 5'11" tall. He's almost there!!!
And of course I couldn't leave out a picture of my feisty little grand niece Madi Rain. Joey adores her,he is such a sucker for her. When they are together it looks almost comical because he is so big and tall and she is so tiny,but the one who bosses him around and he loves her so much he just let's her.


I just wanted to share the celebration of  My son Joey who has brought such meaning,light and joy to my life,he has made me a better person just by being blessed with him. The day God gave you to me will always be the best day of my life. I love you Joey and am so proud of the young man that you are becoming,you mean the world to me. As Madi would say "you are beautiful like diamonds in the sky"!

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Jaspers Gems Color Challenge...

I am not so sure what I was thinking when I signed up for this challenge as it's only one day after the Bead Soup Blog Hop. It was fun and I guess I work well under pressure and with deadlines. More info can be found here.  

We had three color pallets to choose from so I chose this one.....

Not only did I choose this pallet but I was also inspired to use a bird as my focal and a tiny sparrow clasp. I hope you like what I came up with!





 Here is a list of the others who participated in this challenge. I will finish up my Bead Soup blog hop tomorrow and then start this one too.

Alicia Marinache
Leah Curtis
Cheryl Dunham
Andrea Trank
Shai Williams










Friday, March 29, 2013

Bead Soup Blog Party 1st Reveal Here It is....

7th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Hi all, I again have had the great fortune to participate in the lovely, ever so talented and kind Lori Anderson.
She is the hostess of the most awesome Bead soup Blog party. This is the 4th time I have participated in the festivities and look forward to participating every time!

I was very lucky to be paired with Kat Barron Miller.
Her work is amazing! You can check out her Etsy sight here MKP Jewelry.  

This is what I sent to Kat....

2 of my handmade butterfly wing pendants a pewter toggle clasp and matching crystal beads.




And this is what Kat sent to me.....

 Lamp work fairy bead,silver butterfly toggle clasp some vintage beads,crystals and lamp work floral beads.



The little lamp work fairy was too adorable for words. I am obsessed with gnomes,mushrooms,fairies and  flowers. If you have ever read my blog I have shared pictures of my garden which have all of the above scattered in my flower beds. So I was elated to get a cutie gem like the fairy. I knew that I must keep her for myself which is where the problem began.

As much as I like making necklaces I never and I mean NEVER wear them. Bracelets yup, earrings absolutely necklaces,nope. So my dilemma was she's too big and fragile to use in a bracelet. And If you haven't gotten it by now necklaces are out of the question for me. So what's a girl to do?

The gears started moving in my brain, my first thought was to make her into a fan or light pull, but my living room decor is pretty modern and stream lined and my kitchen is loaded with slate and has an Modern Asian flair to it. So that wouldn't work.
 When we bought the house a few years back my intentions were to keep things as zen, uncluttered and to a minimum as possible (my house is very modest in size). I decided the only option I had left was to make something for my studio.  My studio is in my finished basement. That's where I keep all of my fun,funky decor, which is so full of color and whimsy that it always feels like an over the top party down there.My Perfect muse for creating.

So my fairy was made into this  **** warning image heavy.....








 I twisted and wired together this frame and made each of the beaded flowers,leaves and sprays (mostly crystals,so it sparkles to high heaven) and then I decided to add an inspirational plaque which reads what? INSPIRE and she dangles right in the center. I know this is not a conventional use of a focal and that most people will make jewelry out of their focals,but I'm not really all that conventional. This piece includes my love of fairies and flowers and is a perfect fit for my studio.  I love how it turned out and am going to hang her up tonight!!!

I did challenge myself to try to use every bead Kat sent me. Lamp work beads are generally not my thing, love the looks of them they are tiny pieces of art,just not my style, but I made this set, which I gifted to my mother as part or her birthday gift. This includes my use of the toggle,some crystals and the lamp work floral beads.
 She loved it. Not only does she like lamp work,she also loves the color red and flowers. How perfect is that!

Then I made this next piece using a vintage brass clock key which I added one of the crystals to the end (clock keys have a hole in the bottom to wind clocks) hung the key from round brass links,then to a large link brass chain,and on the one side of the chain I wire wrapped a couple of the vintage glass teardrops from my soup. I wish I wore necklaces that's how much I favor this piece.

I do have 2 more pieces that I made, a pair of earrings that are made to be worn with the above necklace and also a bracelet but I will show them at another time.  I knew that this was going to be a long post and people need to hop to so many other blogs so stay tuned for the rest.

Here are the other participants of the 1st reveal I hope you make it to each and every one of them! I know I can't wait to see what these talented jewelers have worked up!




First and Last Name
Blog URL
Alicia Marinache
Amber Dawn Goldish
Barb Solem
Bev Breisinger
Birgitta Lejonklou
Breana Fry
Brenda Sue Lansdowne
Bridget Torres
Carol Dee Myers
Carolyn Chenault
Cassi Paslick
Cece Cormier
Cheryl McCloud
Cindy Wilson
Crystal Thain
Cynthia Riggs
Dana Hickey
Dana James
Darlene Fortier
Deana Hager
Deanna Cox
Deb Brooks
Debra Behrends
Denielle Hagerman
Denise McCabe
Diana Frey
Diana Welte
Dini Bruinsma
DiYana Alcalde
Dolores Raml
Donna Millard
Dot Lewallwn
Duane Clark
Dyanne Cantrell
Eleanor Burian-Mohr
Elisabeth Auld
Elizabeth Owens Dwy
Emily Greer
Enikö Fabian
Erin Grant
Eva Kovacs
Eva Sherman
Gina Hockett
Grace Rotenberg
Gretchen Nation
Hannah Rosner
Heather Davis
Heather Marston
Heather Powers
Ingrid McCue
Jacqueline Marchant
Jan Petek
Janeen Sorensen
Jane-Michael Stallings
Jasvanti Patel
Jayashree Paramesh
Jayne Capps
Jean Yates
Jennifer Cameron
Jennifer LaVite
Joan Williams
Jodie Marshall
Judy Riggs
Julie Anne Leggett
Kat Barron Miller
Kathy Lindemer
Kim Hora
Kim Houston
Kim Sparks
Krafty Max
Kris Lanae Binsfeld
Krista French
Kristen Stevens
Kristi Harrison
Kumi Fisher
Laren Dee Barton
Laura Bracken
Laura Demoya
Laurie Hanna
Laurie Keefe-Cecere
Lea Avroch
Leanne Loftus
Lee Anne Messerschmidt
Leslie Schenkel
Linda Anderson
Linda Djokic
Linda Murphy
Linda Sadler
Lisa Liddy
Lisa Suver
Liz DeLuca
Liz Engriser
Lola Surwillo
Loretta Carstensen
Lori Anderson
Lori Bergmann
Lori Bowring Michaud
Lori Poppe
Lori Schneider
Lyn Foley
Maddison Langford
Magdalena Sikora
Mallory Hoffman
Marcella Austenfeld
Marcy Lamberson
Maria Clark
Maria Rosa Sharrow
Marianna Boylan
Marie Covert
Marti Conrad
Mary Ellen Merrigan
Mary Harding
Molly Alexander
  Nan Emmett
Niky Sayers
Pam Chesbro
Pam Farren
Pam Sandy
Pam Traub
Pamela Gangler
Patricia Buchanan
Patricia Johnson
Patty Miller
Paula Hisel
Peggy Gabrielson
Perri Jackson
Rachel Baron
Rachel Stanley
Rain Hannah
Rana Wilson
Renetha Stanziano
Robin Reed
Rochelle Brisson
Rose Rushbrooke


Ruth Szapa
Sally Russick
Sandi Volpe
Sandra Pendragon
Sandy Richardson
Sarah Small
Shannon Hicks
Shari Replogle
Sheila Daniels
Sheila Davis
Shiraz Biggie
Shirley Moore
Skylar Bre'z
Staci Smith
Stacie Florer
Stacy Pomerleau
Stephanie Weiss
Sumi Rani
Susan Sheehan
Suzette Bentley
Tamera Norris
Tracy Choy
Tracy Stillman
Valerie Norton
Vicki Holliday