Artist Spotlight: Part Ninety-One

You've met the talented Kris here before, but now she's got two shops at Handmade Artists!  The one from which I've shopped is Reflections, where she's got all her wonderful glasswork, ornaments, paperweights, wind chimes, vases, suncatchers, candle holders, and crazy amazing art.

Getting ready for Valentine's Day!

 

I love this tetrahedron!  I have one like it, but this is beautiful.  They're just so fun to look at and definitely a conversation piece for your desk.

I just love these wind chimes! 

The other is lisianblue, where she makes available her amazing knitted and crocheted items, quilts, and some other amazing things.

How cute is this snake?  It's a necklace, a toy, a lariat... all at once!

This piece, quilted, beaded, and collaged, just absolutely blows me away.

To keep up with Kris, be sure to follow her blog.  Never know what she'll create next!

My Handmade Holidays

I did a lot of creating this season.  A lot.  I'm tired, but still truckin' along.

I suppose I should start with Chanukah, which also happened to pretty much coincide with one nephew's birthday, so I include the birthday in this post too.

Both nephews, for Chanukah and Christmas, got these cute magnetic fishing games I made.

Eric helped too; he cut down the dowels for me to make the fishing poles!

And I knitted each one a fish like this one.

But not all the crafts were mine, and I really should back up.  First, there was one gift exchange with a group, and for my recipient, in addition to giving her my own candles, soap, and one of my washcloths, I gave her a beautiful bear ornament from Reflections, like this one.

And Kris, the shop owner, was so wonderful that she sent one for our tree too!

And no, we don't have a fake white tree, we get the real thing from the local EMS, generally.  It just doesn't show up as well on the dark green in a photo, so that's Kris' shop photo.  Here's how it looks in our house:

I also gave the same person this cool hot/cold pack in a racing fabric from Lil' Bit Sassy.  My recipient's favorite sport is NASCAR, after all.

Then in another exchange, in addition to one of our bath salts and one of our candles, I gave my recipient these incense sticks from Delightful Scents.

My office is also REALLY big on Christmas, so we had all sorts of gift exchanges.  For my boss, I got this terrific print of a watercolor painting, which I then framed for her.  It was from StartsArts.

It looks even more amazing in person, and Eric and I kind of want one for ourselves too.  The colors are so bright and vivid!

For the associate with whom I also work, I got this really pretty hanging tealight holder from Reflections.  Fall is her favorite season, so I thought it was perfect.

And for our office white elephant exchange, I got this awesome mug from River Rock Arts, and gave it with some homemade chocolates and a Dunkin Donuts gift card.

That mug is called "oversized" in the description, but believe me when I tell you it's HUGE and gorgeous, and I will own some at some point!

And to everyone in the office, I gave handmade snowman lollipops.  With 14 people in the office and three pops per person, 42 pops took me quite a while to do.  I admire chocolatiers, for sure.  But at the end, everyone got one dark chocolate, one milk chocolate, and one white chocolate pop.

For each other, Eric got me some amazing teas and other stuff, and I got him a dehydrator and some books and things.  It was a great Chanukah and Christmas all around!

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Artist Spotlight: Part Ninety

I think it might be faster to tell you what Rhonda of Lil' Bit Sassy doesn't make.  But I'll try to tell you what this creative woman from northwestern PA does make.  After that, you'll just have to visit her shop and blog to see what I missed.

So... dog coats, book covers, iPad cases,

cupcake toppers, bibs, and burp cloths,

dolls, teddy bears, and cuddle buddy blankets,

luggage tags and heating/cooling packs (the packs I can vouch for; I bought one for a friend and it was great!),

and last, but definitely not least, hair accessories and superhero capes!

Sassy, indeed!

Artist Spotlight: Part Eighty-Nine

This time around, I've got someone you've never met here before, Barbara of Lady Faith Jewelry.  Beyond that, though, believe me when I tell you that you've never seen jewelry like this before either, probably anywhere.

This woman has a unique and beautiful style all her own, and every single piece is a statement piece.

Barbara is a retired school teacher in West Texas who got her start when she was about 5 or 6 years old and her grandmother gave her a bag of broken jewelry to play dress up.  Well, creative genius that she was even then, she began putting things together and mending the broken bits.

She believes every woman should have pretty and fun jewelry, and she's at the ready to supply it!  You can really get to see her creativity by following her blog.

For more, check out her shop, 'cause this is but a small sample of her one-of-a-kind creations.