Peaceful Surroundings

We recently had our patio extended by my brother-in-law, who also put in a lattice patio cover and replaced our bedroom window with an arcadia door. Then Mark & I, along with 2 of our nephews, removed the grass and installed granite. Oh, and of course added more rocks & small boulders that we've collected over the years. You know me and rocks - love'em all.

Our favorite place to relax is out on our bedroom patio (above). The view from our bedroom is absolutely gorgeous with the blooms of our Bougainvillea's and other blossoming plants, the pool and the sounds of the waterfall. Now with Kuan Yin overlooking our yard, it makes it even more peaceful and relaxing.

This is a view from our main patio. I can't express enough how peaceful it truly is, at least to us. We like the simple things really. We are humble and enjoy making the most of what we can with what we have. Being able to fix up our home is a good feeling, especially when we do it ourselves. We can sit back and truly enjoy what we have accomplished with our own two hands.

Kuan Yin is known as the Chinese Bodhisattva of Compassion, a female deity (also known by other names). In Mahayana Tibetan Buddhism, Avalokiteshvara (hard to pronounce at first, but trust me it gets easier) is recognized as the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

May everyone have compassion, love, peace and happiness.

☼ Rocki

Back to the real world

I have many things to blog about, such as our fabulous vacation with our little family/best friends! But first I need to get caught up around the house, create some custom orders, grocery shop, rest, clean, relax and .... NAW! I wanna go back to SEA WORLD!!!

Well, Danny's first treatment was today (7 hours!) and that part went well. Now we have to see how he handles it to see if he can continue with them. He & Margi want his story told and they have given permission for me to do this for them. So, in between my blogs about silly things, featured Etsy artists, my creations, weird vegetables and other happenings, you will get to 'meet' our incredible friend/brother Danny & my best friend/his wife Margi (a.k.a. Cobra & Tweety)

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering if we really did color our hair while at Sea World... yep - we sure did! Danny wanted to do it before he looses his so he made us do it too. Okay, so he didn't have to push too hard or twist our arms - we had fun doing it!

Even though we're glad to be back, it sure would be nice to be back in San Diego right now.

Peace to all,

☼ Rocki

Ouch! They Really Can Break!

I have some sad news about tator dude... I really didn't mean to do it and it was a TOTAL accident! Honest! (if you don't know about tator dude, read my post here to get the whole story: Weird. That's all I can say and then again here on my MySpace blog titled "Pierced it")

No - I did not eat him.

As you may know from my previous blogs, the sticky in the sticky pad no longer worked and he was propped up on one of my soy pudding cups in the fridge. I had my last pudding cup last week so I propped him up against a container of Tofutti Sour Supreme.

The night before last while getting something out of the fridge I bumped tator dude.

(insert shocked look here)

He fell straight to the ground.

In horror Mark & I gasped at the sight! Mark said "wow, guess they really can break" (hmm, that would make a good blog)

Ouch!

I tried to see if I could repair him, but didn't think a torch would be the right tool to use.

So, it is with great sadness that I must tell you of his demise. I have never met a tator dude quite like this one before. They broke (oops, sorry about the pun) the mold when this dude sprouted.

I removed my old stud & cleaned it up real good - it's back in my jewelry box. Not sure if I'll ever where it again as the memory may be too painful.

Tator tot, um, I mean tator dude is still in the fridge. I know I need to let him go as he's pretty mashed up, but I have other plans for him.

Gotta go now, the water is boiling.

☼ Rocki

P.S. I'm on vacation as of now. We are going to San Diego with our good friends on a long deserved trip. We are going to have a blast and just go wild at Sea World! Yes. There will be pictures!

Gold n Desert

I'm pretty excited to say that I am now adding Gold Filled wire creations to my shop! You may notice that the handmade earrings above look like my Elfin earwires... yep, that's right! These are a bit smaller than my standard 1" size - these are 3/4" in size.

Funny thing is that I've always loved gold over silver, but ever since I picked up a torch it's been all about the silver. Okay, and MAYbe it's due to the price of gold is WAY too expensive to play with. But not Gold Filled!

I'm also terribly in love with these beads! Gold Plated (also have silver plated) beads that undergo a process of coloring and then firing to make them crack and see the plating underneath. Totally cool! I've titled these creations "Desert Romance" and you can see them in my Etsy shop for more details.

Off and running today - many errands to run before our mini vacation this Friday!! I'll let you know tomorrow where we're going.

Happy Hump Day!!

☼ Rocki

p.s. Gold Filled supplies coming soon!

ANYTHING you want to be!

In the beautiful East Tennessee valley of the Smoky Mountains, you’ll find the most amazing sculptured art – seriously - it will take your breath away.

I recently ‘met’ Renee on Indiepublic and became an instant fan. I was immediately drawn to her work, especially the tree sculptures. Each time while reading the descriptions and gazing at them, I feel the emotions and feeling of each piece – I am simply mesmerized by them.

Creating for as long as she can remember and inspired by her mom, fairy tales (her first tree sculpture was inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth), music and nature, Renee creates her one-of-a-kind whimsical art. Her mom is also a part of her Etsy shop and mainly sculpts Christmas Elves (she states her creative gene came from her mom – yeah mom!) Combined, their work is both funky and folky, so coming up with her shop name, “Funky Folky”, didn’t take a rocket scientist.

Music seems to play a big role in Renee’s work as she “ALWAYS” listens to music while creating. In fact, music that is feminine and sexy is what she likes to listen to while creating her tree sculptures – which is usually Sarah McLachlan or Goldfrapp – “if you see this kind of kooky video my work may make more sense: Goldfrapp." Let me just say that I watched this video – twice - and I completely understand. Okay, and am now a fan of Goldfrapp – that video rocks.

Renee hasn’t done any craft shows yet, but she has created a lot of custom orders, plus has her own website with her mom selling soap, candles and a mixture of their sculptures at The Ragtree Co.

How did she hear about Etsy? Through her “dear friend Nikkii” and she’s been addicted ever since! (Addicted? I have no idea what she’s talking about…wink wink). She enjoys the “wonderful community of artists and crafters. I get so inspired by doing random searches to see what everyone else has created!.... I don't want to create my art to sell, per say. I want to create what I am inspired to create... sculptures that I feel passionate about. I don't want to create items that I think buyers will like so Etsy is the perfect place to show items that are out of the mainstream."

I asked Renee one last question - I love her heartfelt answer: “I guess the one thing that I would want others to know is that I believe creativity is so important in every day life. I know many of us must trudge off to the salt mines to make a living every day and in most of our jobs, we can't be creative and do what we want to do. Through art, we can be ANYTHING we want to be and do ANYTHING we want to do without any rules. Art is a way to live life on your own terms and to be a true individual. Aside from that, I have a wonderful hot hubby who likes to streak around the house when all of our retired neighbors go to bed and a gorgeous son who always like to remind me that I'm "not quite right" and that my sculptures give him nightmares ;)"

If you are looking for that unique piece of art for a gift or for yourself, please check out Renee’s Funky Folky Etsy shop where you will find art sculptures in a variety of ways: trees, magnets, art dolls, wall hangings and more. Also visit her blog to see what she is working on next!

Happy ANYTHING Monday everyone!

☼ Rocki

P.S. Okay, so are you curious about the hot streaking hubby too?

Joyful Heart

The other day, Jen, a very sweet new buyer who is aware and doesn’t mind that I’m blogging about this and gave the okay to use her name, contacted me to see if I could make her a custom sized pinky ring from one of the rings in my shop, specifically “From My Heart To Yours."

Now I create custom orders all the time and thoroughly enjoy them for a variety of reasons, but mostly because the buyer wants something meaningful to them, needs a specific size, is a gift for someone special, holiday, birthday, etc. In any case, custom orders are very rewarding.

Jen’s request was a challenge (insert “Rocky” theme here), but a challenge that I wanted to take and create her special sized ring. I told her I would most definitely give it my best shot and if I couldn’t, then I would refund her money. She wouldn’t have that and told me that she would spend it on something else in my shop for my time and effort. This, in itself, truly touched my heart and was ever so kind of her. That made me even more determined to make her ring.

So why, you ask, am I blogging about creating this heart ring when I’ve made several custom sized ones already? Because it is the size of the ring - size 1. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not meaning for this to come across as something of an oddity and Jen knows this. Besides, I wear a size 2 pinky ring and have to wear children’s watches. Here, let me explain briefly.

When you make the ring shank (band), you have to make it smaller than the actual size you want. Why? Because you have to hammer it into shape which in turn makes the shank bigger. So in this case, I had to start at the tip of the ring mandrel at 1/8” from the top to hammer it down to a size 1 at ¼” down the mandrel.

I won’t go into all the other details of making this ring, other than the heart itself also had to be made smaller, which I always make by hand with my round nose pliers.

With love in my heart, I shipped the ring out yesterday and am very pleased with how it turned out. It is the tiniest and cutest ring I’ve ever made! I’ll admit that it was hard to part with, but she did pay for it - besides I have the pictures. The best part - it honestly brings such joy to my heart to be able to create that something special for others to enjoy and be happy with.

This is rewarding. This is why I do what I do. My heart is smiling.

Thank you Jen!

Have a happy, safe and enjoyable weekend everyone!

☼ Rocki