2007 ends... Thank you everyone!

Wow! Here it is, December 31st. I must admit that despite little setbacks here and there, 2007 was a fabulous year!

I experienced many great moments these past 12 months and I'm so thankful for each and every one. I must mention that, without a doubt, one of my best moments was 'meeting' my sweet friend Janell! She is the reason I set up my shop on etsy.com. Besides being a very talented artist, she is sincerely a sweet person and friend. Thank you Janell - you're a big part of my life!

I also want to thank my boys Jeremy & Jason who are the best kids a parent could every hope for! A HUGE thank you to Mark, my soulmate/best friend/hubby, who stands by me, supports me, encourages me, listens to me, and loves me unconditionally - even when I ramble, like now.

On that note, I have many goals for the coming year, both personally and professionally. In fact, my brain is swimming with so many new creations to, well, create, that I don't know where to start exactly. Well, actually I do know where to start and that would be with my list.

Happy New Year everyone and thank you all!

Rocki

p.s. The ring shown here is another fun creation of mine. Feel free to visit my etsy.com shop to see more :)

Wire Wrapped Rings

I am quite excited about my learning new techniques and mediums to broaden my expanding jewelry career. One, in particular, is my learning metalsmithing - which will be my next blog as it will be more detailed - for now, I want to share with you my new self-taught creations...

This Snow Jade Sterling Silver wire wrapped ring is my favorite, so far. I call it "Moon Glow" because it truly reminds me of the glow of the moon on a clear night. It was rather cloudy the day I wanted to take the photos and I just couldn't wait. So, I went ahead and took them outside like I normally do. I was happily surprised to see how cool and mysterious the photos turned out - plus it really fits the name I gave it.

Yes, I've been on a ring wrapping frenzy, but loving it. I'm also creating some for the younger gals - some fun & funky type rings. Funny, I never really cared much for 'rap', but I am totally into this kind of wrapping!

If you would like to check out my newest creations, visit my shop at:

http://www.rockisrocknbeads.etsy.com/

Have a happy day!

Rocki

Inspired by life - Creating with nature

Opposites Attract

I came across these new Poppy Jasper squares and thought they looked absolutely yummy - so I bought some. When I received them the other day and opened up the package, my mouth dropped, I had instant goose bumps, my eyes welled up with joy and I think I felt a tingling sensation - all over.

These stones are amazing in person and I wanted to create with them right away! Mark even commented on how beautiful they are - and that's coming from a guy who referes to my inventory as 'car parts'.

While sitting in my studio and looking at my other stones, it hit me. Gorgeous new Poppy Jasper squares with Poppy Jasper rounds! Yep, that will work. I didn't want to use all the squares, so I'm thinking up another creation to use with them. Feel free to check out the entire creation in my Etsy.com shop.

Have a happy day!
Rocki
Inspired by life - Creating with nature

Eclectic Organic Serenity

I'm inspired by many things in this life and my creations speak clearly of this. In fact, there are times when I feel like expressing more of my eclectic side - this was one of those times.

Being drawn towards more earthy and natural materials, this creation seemed to flow while listening to one of my Native American flute cd's. Very inspiring music.

Eclectic Organic Serenity was created with many natural materials. If you would like to see more of this creation with the list of materials used, or any of my other creations, please feel free to visit my shop at: http://www.rockisrocknbeads.etsy.com/.

I wish you all a very happy day!

Rocki

Inspired by life - Creating with nature

I have several topics that I want to blog about our vacation in Kauai - like the day we went 'Snuba Diving' (yes, I said 'snuba'), or how funny it was watching roosters and chickens run freely about the island, or sitting on our ocean front condo sipping on Starbucks (nope - no umbrellas), or the breathtaking helicopter ride over the entire island, or maybe the day I got bit by something with a nasty stinger that made my elbow swell up half the size of a baseball, or going snorkeling by ourselves and seeing some really cool fish, or .... pardon me, I'll have to get back to this at another time as I'm still in my island attire sitting on the patio basking in all the beauty of the island.... well, at least in my mind I am :)

If you're in Arizona you do not want to miss one moment of the Roosevelt Row Harvest Festival! I’ll be there with some of my fellow Etsy/Arizona Crafty Burrito Collective Friends as well as many more fellow artisans. Besides a wide variety of Art, Crafts and Exhibits, there will be Live Music, a Beer Garden, Food, Children’s Activities and much more!

The weather is absolutely beautiful this time of year, so come on down and enjoy it with us on Roosevelt Row! Hope to see you there on:

Saturday October 20th
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Click here for more info and location: http://www.rooseveltrow.org/harvest.html

~ Rocktober ~

If you are in Arizona, come join the Arizona Crafty Burrito Collective Etsy Team for Rocktober!

This will be a fun filled event that will be full of handcrafted items from local artist, such as jewelry, art, fiber, journals, purses, puppets and more. Yes, I said puppets! Oh yes! Plus a raffle every 30 minutes!

All the info is in the pic above, but here it is once more:

When: Friday October 5th, 2007 from 6pm - 10pm
Where: Great Puppet Theater, 302 W. Lathan St. Phoenix, 85003
Shuttle stop #34 on the green line

Speaking of puppets, please visit my friend Stacey at www.staceyrebecca.etsy.com and check out her fun shop - you can find out how to win a puppet too!

Hope to see you at Rocktober!

Aloha!

Mark & I are finally taking a vacation. Yep, and not just any vacation. See the little picture to the right? Oh yeah! We're going to Hawaii - Kauai to be exact.

This will be my very first time in Hawaii and I'm terribly excited! Mark has been there before when he was in the Navy, but that was many moons ago. We're making this our gift to each other in celebration of our 13th wedding anniversay - which is in November.

We have some activities planned, like a helicopter ride, snorkeling/boat ride and a luau, other than that, we're going to just relax, eat, shop, site see on our own, eat, shop, relax and shop (I have a suit case set aside just for beads, but don't tell Mark!)

This has been planned for months and now as I type this, it is only 2 days and a wake up away! We'll be there for 1 week - that's 7 days! Don't worry, I'm not going to count the hours and minutes - math is not my friend ;)

Better get back to packing now. I'll be blogging about this trip once we return home. Aloah!

Rock n Window

Funny thing happened the other day after having my car decal installed...

So we're driving home from Mark's work after having the decal installed... isn't it so KEWL?! ... I'm sorry, I'm just really happy with it.

We're driving down I-10...oh, if you're not familiar with I-10, it's one of the freeways we have here in the Valley that has no speed limit or driver courtesy laws .

La la la la la... nice drive home, talking about how cool my Rocki's Rock 'n Beads decal looks, thanking Mark for it and then BAM! Niiiiiiice.

The fully loaded-to-the-top gravel truck passed us & shot a ROCK into my car window. A ROCK... - now?! It left a nice size splintered, starred spider crack in my front window - where I was sitting.... me, ROCKI! of Rocki's Rock 'n Beads. Oh, and little gift too - a piece of the rock stuck in the window.

The entire crack was about 5" long, but it wouldn't take much for it to spread out quick with our weather.

We headed over to GlasPro to schedule the replacement of the window and they graciously offered to replace my Rock n Window right then (thank you GlasPro!) So we headed over to grab a bite to eat, discussed our upcoming vacation plans (that will be my next blog when we return) and the weirdness of being hit with a ROCK at that moment. It 'cracks' me up just thinking about it.

I wonder how much it would cost me to change my name, business, etc., from Rocki's Rock 'n Beads to Softy's Marshmallows & Cream.

If you want to see the actual rocknwindow pics, check out my MySpace Blog titled "Rock n Window: http://www.myspace.com/rockisrocknbeads

Finally setting up my blog

Hello and welcome to my blog!

(insert cricket noise)

Okay, so there's not much to read or look at right now, but give me a little time and I'll have this place up and running soon.

I want to give a big THANK YOU to my sweet friend DancingMooney for encouraging me to set up my etsy.com shop, which led me to FINALLY set up my blog. You can find my dear talented friend here in the blog world and also at: http://www.dancingmooney.etsy.com/

Okay, I told hubby "just one more entry" and then I would go plop on the couch and watch a movie with him. Guess my "one more thing" ended up to be, well, just a tad over ;)

Come back soon. You can also visit me at:

http://www.rockisrocknbeads.com/ (a work in progress)

http://www.rockisrocknbeads.etsy.com/

http://www.myspace.com/rockisrocknbeads

Thanks for stopping by and have a happy day!
Rocki

p.s. Speaking of time, do you know where I can buy some?