Have returned from my wedding / Honeymoon!

Well, the wedding was positively fantastic. It went a thousand times better then I had anticipated. I'm officially Mrs. Armstrong and I couldn't be happier. People really weren't kidding when they said the day would go by in a blur. I just remember feeling so incredibly relieved that the stress was finally over, that we're now married, and I can breathe again! 

The dress was beautiful. A lovely lady on Etsy made me a bell sleeved bolero to go with my dress:  ( http://www.clkeerins.etsy.com ) 

My mom had made the floral arrangements for myself, my bridesmaids, and for the ceremony. Those came out beautiful as well. The bird cage center pieces were beautiful with tiny white lights, they just made the table twinkle and sparkle. Once my photographer sends me the proofs I will be able to post pictures of the ceremony. 

My mom did my hair that morning in hot curlers, and I used her head piece from when she got married in 1979. The veil was a cathedral train and the head piece was a wide band with tiny white flowers. I added my own touch with a crown that fit well under the band. 

Lets not forget the beautiful sparkle that the earrings that www.kerrihale.etsy.com made for me, added such a wonderful touch to my dress, hair, and bolero. 

I must say that my photographer Rich Alborn was amazing, funny, personable, and reliable. He drive out to PA all the way from New Jersey to join in my special day. He is highly recommended and does a wonderful job. His site is here:    http://www.heirloombridal.com/

So, the day went off without a hitch! I was happy with most everything - but must say - glad it's over! I never imagined getting married would be so much stress. 

Upon our three tiered cake sat our lovely custom made by www.cbarjcrafts.etsy.com bunny cake topper. The cake was beautiful, and the bunnies truly added a personal touch:

After the honey moon we stayed at a BEAUTIFUL bed and breakfast in Wilkes-Barre, PA - The Sign of the Rose b&b. www.signoftherose.com  The room we stayed in was the blue velvet room. Gorgeous, comfortable, and so completely what we needed after so much stress. The bed is to die for comfortable - and lets not even forget to give props to the two person walk in shower! Vesta and Terry are great people, and so welcoming. The next morning they cooked us a fabulous breakfast of pancakes with banana's foster, tea, coffee, and sausage. $85.00 a night for this wonderful charming place. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get away for a weekend!

   The Blue Velvet room. 

So, while away on our honeymoon to Salem, MA - we visited the Salem village, and took many tours. While I'm really glad for the experience I must admit, I was slightly disappointed with how commercialized it had become, and hardly any of the buildings remained in original condition - and NONE of the buildings were you allowed to go in. Pretty much it was all just spooky fun houses and really bad food. lol But, aside from that, we did take a candle lit tour at night thru the town - the person leading the tour I felt did a crappy job but we did manage to catch orbs on camera in the grave yard. That was really the highlight of the trip. I'm happy I went but I don't think I'd ever really go again. 

  Salem's most visited museum.

After our trip to Massachusetts - I came home to a surprise. In my email was a letter waiting from Bead Trends magazine - our Tropical Puzzle Piece necklace has been accepted for publication in their April 2009 edition! I will be mailing out the piece this week for them to photograph. I am near speechless on this great honor. I will definitely keep everyone posted on what all happens after they receive my piece! 

Please check out this site!

Hi all! 

Just wanted to share this link for a site that was posted on Etsy today - the host is offering free advertising space, and I sent her my graphic banner with URL to my shop! Check out her site!

 

Wedding update

The count down is at 10 days! This whole experience has been one wild roller coaster ride. First it was on, then it was off, then on again, then off again. And here we are, only days away from "the big day" and I'm finally finding some peace and less stress. A lot of that I owe to my mom who has taken most of the stress upon herself to help make all this happen. And to show off her awesome floral talents, my mom has made my bouquet, along with my brides maids bouquets for the wedding:

Mine:

Brides Maids:

Other then that - we did end up losing the house we were planning on buying. I will never

in my life ever recommend the company Lend America to any person looking to buy a home.

BJ has really taken off with this puzzle piece jewelry. He's made a few more pieces and they are amazing. I've been working on wooden tile pendants. As soon as I get my bails in, I'll be able to complete them and post them up for show and tell. :) 

We're rearranged our apartment now that we won't be moving any time soon - and all the bunnies are now located in my craft room so I can be with them while I'm crafting. I think they are happy there. They are just the most adorable things. 

These are my babies Peanut and Mischief - they are the sweetest out of all the bunnies, and love to be with people. Infact, they have spent the last three hours running around my living room. :)

Well, that's really all the updates I have right now! I will be sure to post more after the wedding.

Are you a Rock Star?

Hey, if we can't all be rock stars, we can accessorize like them, right? 

A friend of mine from New Jersey has a daughter that is a country singer. Her name is Nikki Britt. Nikki released her first CD "Cowboy" in September. Her mother has been purchasing jewelry from my for years, and I was given good news the other day that her daughter was wearing all the pieces I had made for her during her photo shoot, some of which ended up on her CD album cover pictures! Visit her myspace with three of her album songs posted: http://www.myspace.com/nikkibrittrri 

To celebrate I've made a fabulous new Rock star necklace, that I'd like to promote today! This fabulous piece is made from foiled silver stars, on a multi strand glass seed bead weave. The piece is finished off by a sterling silver clasp. 

    http://www.AngelHeartBeads.etsy.com

Also, my wonderful husband to be (in just 18 days!!!) has started a new gorgeous line of jewelry - made completely of puzzle pieces!

     http://www.AngelHeartBeads.etsy.com

This weeks featured Artists

This week I'm featuring some very talented artists that deserve some spotlight. Please take a moment to check out these fabulous people and their shops. 

Sheltered - smoky quartz and gold leaf earrings:  $17.00

http://www.bunnyroca.etsy.com

These are beautiful and perfect for fall. Sparkly, dangly, and feminine. 

Jack O Lantern Bracelet: $15.00

http://www.AllegroArt.etsy.com

Add a little spunk to your wardrobe this Halloween with this cute and fun pumpkin bracelet. Cute little Jack O Lantern faces will make your holiday attire special!

Autumn Warmth  (SOLD)

http://www.alkdesigns.etsy.com

A lovingly hand crafted autumn inspired quilt by Alk Designs. This piece is currently sold, but such a magnificent piece I had to share this with everyone. 

Keep the Pride

My wonderful fiance BJ has been making jewelry with me for the past three years - I'm sure I've mentioned this in the past - and he has made some incredibly beautiful pieces lately that I just have to share. This is our new "Pride" selection - which will be added to. 

Rainbow Crystal Choker: $28.00

I especially love this piece because of how creative he was with the use of Swarovski crystals and the black glass spacer bars - he alternated the use of large and small to give it a more interesting look. The piece measures approximately 16"

Over the Rainbow Watch:  $45.00

Love this piece - beautiful watch with rainbow swarovski crystals and hematite. The piece is made on a firm flex stretch line that allows give for larger wrists. 

Dragonfly Rainbow Quartz necklace:  $22.00

Beautiful rainbow shades of dyed quartz crystal chips, hung together and separated by swarovski crystal gems. The sweet little dragon fly adds such a nice appeal to this piece. 

Additional Rainbow / Pride items will be added to the site, so please keep checking back for more listings! We try to list a few new items daily, to give a nice selection. We are also upgrading some of the existing listings with better photos. 

~*~*~* CONTEST *~*~*~

I will be holding a contest next week which I will be posting more details on later. I will be offering up one of my fabulous bracelets for free to a lucky winner. Pictures of the chosen bracelet will be posted next week.  The requirements to participate will be to view my shop, and post a comment on my blog under the designated posting which will be posted next week, with your favorite item. Names will be placed inside a container and a lucky name will be drawn and posted on Friday the 26th. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Favorite recently posted item in my shop of the week is: 

Emerald river necklace and bracelet set:  $42.00

Moving forward in all things great!

Well, our house inspection is complete! Everything pretty much came back A-Ok on the house, with the exception of the Radon test. The sellers will have to install a Mitigation system from the basement to filter out the ground gases. There are just some minor "house repairs" that we will handle on our own (reconnect a down spout, install a cover plate for an outlet, etc). So, we are still on schedule for moving into the new house by the end of the month! Yay! I'm so excited to finally have a HUGE work area for all my crafting habits! 

BJ and I were supposed to do a show in Brielle NJ this month. However, due to Hurricane Hanna it was cancelled. :( No rain date, and no refund. A little upset about that. However, we do have tons of new stock for our web store! Here are a few beauties that we were bringing to the show, but have now listed on line instead! 

Autumn Leaves Necklace:  $45.00

This piece my fiance made with a beautiful carved stone leave, and matched it with carnelian stone, goldstone, unakite, swarovski crystals, and glass. The piece is finished with a leaf toggle clasp. I think this piece is just stunningly beautiful. He truly has an eye for color combination, and is really proud of this piece. 

Fancy Girl Necklace:  $55.00

This piece is so fun and funky. I took grey and orange blister pearls (dyed), and combined them with orange and purple glass brios, smokey quartz crystal, coral nuggets, and swarovski crystals. I LOVE how this came out. It reminds me of late fall when the leaves are scattered all over the ground, and the air is cool, and crisp. 

Oh Josephine bracelet:  $30.00

This piece was also made by my fiance. He's used beautiful glass dagger beads, foil lined pink seed beads, and dangled two facet cut heart Chalcedony stones to dangle from the wire ends. Bracelet is made from memory wire for easy wear. This piece is so flirty and fun, what girl wouldn't love it? 

Aside from making jewelry - I've also been working on some decorative art. I painted this on a paper craft bag for some lucky trick or treater!  Hand painted decorative Halloween bag:  $6.00

Hand Painted pumpkin photo album (leather): $12.00

Now, as always, there are MANY Etsian artists that I just absolutely adore. Here are some items that I've come across that I feel need a little spot light!

Lotus Tomato pincushion by www.sushipie.etsy.com - this pin cusion is just *too cute*. Such great hand made quality, and I just love the colors:

Pretty Girl Rose Blossom necklace by www.theluckyrose.etsy.com - this is absolutely stunning. This has been formed from clay, and mounted to hang from a chain. The artist of these beautiful roses truly has a gift - they look like once live roses that have been cast in glass. 

These earrings I purchased from www.kerrihale.etsy.com and she is an AMAZING artist. These earrings are so gorgeous, the picture does not do them justice. I asked Kerri for a pair of earrings for my up coming wedding - and she accommodated and made me these beauties. If you are in the market for high quality sterling and gemstone, fancy and sophisticated jewelry - Kerri will amaze you with her talents!