Time for the snow to go . . .

. . . or is it? We've had a few mild days recently which have prompted me to remove the snow "effect" from my blog. In fact, it's 60 degrees here in Central Illinois this afternoon and the sun is shining. In honor of the spring bulbs which will soon be poking their little heads up out of the dirt I've created a necklace which is listed in my Etsy shop.
Like the St. Paddy's day widget above? I would love for it to fit in one of the sidebars but I've already spent way too much time looking for one. For those of you less lazy there are whole St. Patrick's Day themes out there for your blog.

How do you celebrate? Or do you? We like to do the corned beef and cabbage thing, homemade Irish soda bread (without the currants or raisins!) and green beer. And, whoa, I might have to put the snow back since I'm remembering many midwestern St. Pat's celebrations IN THE SNOW!

Jewelry Challenge - Project 4

This is my version of Project 4 of Deryn Mentock's jewelry challenge based on Mary Hettmansperger's book, Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet. I have been collecting watch parts for several years and have recently started incorporating them in my jewelry. For this project I didn't use the Liver of Sulphur nor did I stitch -- I riveted. The background piece is heat-treated German silver, the front piece is hammered sterling.

Payin' It Forward

For anyone out there who doesn't know, "Paying it Forward" is a movement to do something nice for another without expectation of any payback. When my husband and I were traveling last New Year's Eve we were driving on the Illinois Toll Road system and stopped at the last toll booth to pay our dollar. Much to our surprise, the toll collector said "The person in front of you paid your toll. Happy New Year!" How cool is that?

Recently I noticed an item listed on Etsy.com as a "PIF." Upon reading the listing I saw that the item was offered at a nominal price, a much lower cost than you would expect to pay for this item typically. All that was asked of the buyer is that he or she then take the opportunity to "Pay it Forward" as well, thus hopefully creating a chain of random acts of kindness.

Upon searcing the Etsy site for "PIFs," I found MANY such offerings and decided to participate. I listed a batch of earrings at $.20 per pair to cover the cost of the Etsy listing fee. Those earrings were gone like a shot! Today I'm in the process of posting more - here's a photo of what I've done so far

One of my buyers purchased a pair of the pearl PIF earrings for her sister then emailed me that she would like to PIF by sending me one of her fused glass pendants. Karma!

The only change is that this time I've had to raise the price slightly to cover Etsy's and Paypal's fees. Etsy charges a listing fee and also takes a commission on each sale; Paypal charges a percentage of the entire transaction, taxes and shipping included, plus a $.30 fee per transaction. I've stated in the listings that my gift is my time and materials. Sound good? Check out Etsy -- search on PIF to see what's out there!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The Prize

Here's a quick photo of the One World, One Heart prize I'm sending out:



Contents include pearls, blister pearls, seed beads, Swarovski crystal, jasper, ceramic, Czech glass, aventurine, hematite, Bali silver, horn, porcelain, lampwork, Green Girl pewter and my handmade copper bezel. Thanks to all who participated!

And the winner is . . .

Cindy at http://grouchywhitecat.blogspot.com. Congrats, Cindy, you are going to receive the mystery packet of beads and one of my handmade bezels. I'll post a photo of the "prize" just as soon as I can take one!

Cindy's comment on my One World, One Heart post was number 151, chosen by:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:151
Timestamp: 2009-02-12 10:23:20 UTC

Thanks to everyone involved!

One World, One Heart UPDATE

Well, new and old friends, the end is near. Comments on my previous OWOH post will be accepted only until 12:00 a.m., that's midnight, on Wednesday, February 11, 2009. And that's midnight in the USA, central time zone (think Chicago). The winner of the fabulous mystery prize will be chosen by use of a random number generator on Thursday, February 12th. The winner will be notified as close to immediately as possible and will be given three days to respond with a mailing address. If there is no response within the three days a new winner will be chosen. Still need to leave a comment? Leave it on that post only please or you won't be included in the drawing.

And now on to another topic. Our lovely friend and caretaker of our Florida home, Andrew, has sent photos to show us how our landscaping is behaving in our absence. There are definitely some turf problems. I say "turf" with a smirk on my face since those pokey green things that stick up from the dirt are about as far from grass as a Milky Way is from real chocolate.

The putting green aside, we're happy with most of the rest. In the following photos please note the bouganvillea that is eating the house as well as the two potted robellini palms by the pool that have never looked better. But the biggest surprise of all -- our recycling of the holiday pointsettia of 2007 -- has yielded wonderful results!

Looking forward to my spring break visit . . .