My Sasha Girl

I know I've posted many pictures of all of my kids, both 2 and 4 legged, but I went down memory lane last night after posting a pic on Pinterest of the tiniest little pup.  It reminded me of how itsy bitsy Sasha was when we brought her home at 8 weeks old so thought I would share and post these as well. 

 Sasha always had (still does) to rest her chin on one of her million toys.  She's not spoiled, truly she's not.

We fell instantly in love with her, as with all our kids, but couldn't get over how tiny she was.  We even put a cat collar with a bell on her so that we could hear her - didn't want to step on her!

Here is my happy Sasha girl now.  I just love her smile - melts my heart.  Oh and if you are wondering, she is a Yorkie Maltese.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Rocki

Love Barbara's Feet!

Oh gosh, the first step is always admitting to it... I have a foot fetish!! There, I said it and I meant what I said.

The other day I came across the cutest little feet EVER (and then some!) on Barbara's new Etsy shop "Barbies Best", but she is not new to her craft at all. In fact, Barbara has done it all, sort of: sewing, candles, macrame, tole painting and pretty much whatever is popular at the time. In the 1970's, she even owned a shop in Ohio that sold local handcrafted items on consignment and taught some classes as well.

Barbara discovered polymer clay 3 years ago on a TV show. She finds the clay very soothing to play with. In the beginning she was covering everything she could find with the clay - eggs, vases, wine glasses, candle holders, bowls etc. After watching a show about beads, Barbara was hooked - "Instant gratification. I love the colors, shapes and feel of beads." The details in her creations show how much she loves her work. Like the Red Hat Charm above - love it!

Barbara sells her handmade creations in bead shops and thought she would give Etsy a try. This is how it all began, in her own words: "I was showing a friend some bracelets I had made with my beads and she suggested I take them to the local bead shop and ask if they would sell them for me. The regulars in the shop loved them so much that the owner instantly agreed to take them in on consignment. Every time I walk in the shop I am swarmed to see what's new. Since then I've showed them to other beads shops that now sell my beads. The gals who hang out at the bead shop give me most of my inspiration. I watch what they are making and they always have ideas for me. I also look at patterns on clothes, other jewelry and pictures of just about anything in magazines."

Barbara & I are practically neighbors. Well, sort of. I live near Lake Pleasant and she lives in Lake Havasu City, AZ - a "boating and tourist town where Flip Flops & sandals are the most common footwear as the summer temperatures are usually pushing 110."

I asked her how she came up with those adorable little sandal feet with the perfect little pedicures and here is a snippet of what she said: "One day last spring while I was hanging out at the bead shop I noticed one of the girls wearing a very cute pair of sandals and another one had on a T-shirt with flip flops on the front. The lite when on in my head." The rest is history. You have to see the variety of these adorable beads/charms! There are different sandal styles, colors, etc. She also has a variety of other fun handmade beads.

When she took her little feet to the bead shop, they sold like sunblock on a hot sunny day at the lake! A best seller. Her second most popular beads are the skulls with red rhinestone eyes. She plans on listing more of those soon. I cracked up when she told me what her hubby said: he "wants to know what I do with the rest of the body once I shrink the people and use their heads and feet." Guess only time will tell Barabara ;)

My name is Rocki. I'm a feetaholic and I don't want a cure. I love Barbara's feet!

Now run to her shop and pick up a pair for yourself.

Rocki

It's New & Mini!

I just adore Mini Me! He's just the cutest little guy and reminds me of my brother Chris. Well, Chris is a little taller actually.

Some of the creations in my Etsy shop have been by the suggestions of my super fabulous customers. They have great minds and ideas and I truly love it! So, the other day one of my customers asked if I could make my Baby Elfin's a little smaller. You know me, it's hard to say no - well, most of the time anyway - so of course I said let me see what I can do.

Without going into all the details, let me just say that I have a new member of my Signature Elfin family. I now present to you, Mini Elfin!

Mini Elfin weighs in, er, I mean measures in at a petite 3/4" length. Don't let this little guy fool you though, he may be little but he can handle dangles & drops just like the rest. I just added Mini Elfin in my shop last night and I'll be adding other packages in different quantities as well.

I'm off to start my day. Hope you all have a terrific Thursday!

Luv,

Rocki

Short & Sweet

My oh my. The other day I came across this adorable little shop and just had to ask if I could blog about them! So, here I am to share Charlie's Unique & Fun Jewelry with all my friends. You may fall instantly in love as I did.

I know that normally I go into all sorts of details, but this time I'm going to make it short and sweet. Get it? Short... and sweet? (points up at sweet 'little' cake)

In Charlie's shop, you can find handmade earrings, necklaces, pins, etc., made from teeny tiny miniature beads/charms from food to every day items. I checked out the sold items - wow, so many cute things!

This cute cupcake ring is so realistic (as are all the pieces) that I would probably want to take a bite of it while wearing it... or maybe just a lick or two. It was so hard to choose which pictures to put in this blog and I completely forgot to insert a pic of the Ouija Board Pendant Necklace, but you can find it, along with a big variety of other miniature pieces, in Charlie's shop.

That's it. My short and sweet little blog feature has come to a close. Now go and check out this adorable little shop and have fun!

Happy Miniature Monday!

Rocki

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