Mother's Day and Baby Babbles

On Sunday, I had my first OFFICIAL Mother's Day! Yay! (Last year I was pregnant) Here's me and my 6 month old daughter, Nora.

I had a wonderful mother's day. We had a delicious brunch at this restaurant, Finz in Salem, MA. Yum!

Here we are again. Nora's in her pretty pink dress from earlier in the day. She looked so sweet! Through spit-ups and diaper changes this outfit didn't last long, though. lol! Welcome to motherhood, Erin.

I'll leave you with this cute video of Nora talking in her baby babbles(and other funny things she does.) Enjoy! :)

Springtime Frills

The beauty of Spring is truly amazing! I'm captivated by it every year. The weather is warm, the birds are chirping and the flowers and trees are in bloom. There are bursts of color everywhere and the air feels light and uplifting. It has me feeling energized and wanting to create things, like this bracelet I'm calling Springtime Frills. I stayed up way too late last night in the studio, but I couldn't help myself. I was feeling inspired by these Spring components from Earthenwood Studio.

Springtime Frills

Birds nest charm and new crackle egg component by 

Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio.

Are you feeling that Spring fever yet?
You can find Melanie's new crackle egg components for a limited time at her Etsy Shop and bird nest charms on her website.

Earthenwood Design Team - Key to My Affection

It's been quiet on the jewelry front around here. Every spare second I have is being devoted to writing our upcoming jewelry book. I tell ya, I've never worked so hard on something in my entire life. It's all I think about and to tell you the truth, it's all I want to think about. It's the highlight of my life, my jewelry-making career to be creating this publication with Lorelei. I can't wait til we are able to share more. ANYWAYS. That's not what this post is about! lol! I'm rambling off topic here.

There's been no time for ordering beads or going to the bead store these days. Luckily for me, I have Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio! She sends me her gorgeous handmade creation every month and for that, I'm grateful. Melanie has started a new line of components called Earthen Oxide.

 

I got to play with this red resin heart key with a love description on it. 

Here's the piece that I made. I'm calling it "Key to My Affection".

A long, simple necklace. I love these brass heshi African trade beads! They give this necklace a cool vibe. I wish I had more of them in my stash. I strung the brass heshi up on some rust color waxed linen cord. I made a knotted bail for the key pendant. The turquoise beads add a shot of color, along with one of Melanie's new crackle-glazed ceramic links. You can find Melanie's crackle items in her Etsy Shop right now.

I love being apart of the Earthenwood Design Team! 

Thank you to Melanie and thank you to you for being here with me.

Here are the other fabulous members of the team: 

Andrew Thornton

Gaea Cannaday
Denise Yezbak Moore
Erin Prais-Hintz
Heather Powers
Lorelei Eurto
Lori Anderson
Jean Yates
Marie Dodd

A Visit with the Grandparents

 We had a visit with Nora's Grandparents a few weeks ago. Nora is 5 months in these pictures. She's almost 6 months, now. The time as flown by so quickly. Here is our day...in pictures!

Sitting on Mommy's lap...

Grandma, Nora and a Daffodil...

Reading a story with Grandpa...

Playing on the floor with Daddy...

Bead Studio-WIP

The bead studio is coming along! I have a few more things up in my room. 

I got this great pegboard installed! This is so functional! I love having everything out where I can see it all and just quickly grab any tool or supply I need. The pegboard comes as a kit with different kinds of hooks, attachments and accessories, like these clear bins and the cups. I found these pegboards on Amazon.com.  

Here's the link to the one I bought. The price on Amazon was a little cheaper than on the manufacturer's website. The pegboards are made by this company called Azar Displays. They make all kinds of pegboards and displays for retail stores. They have a variety of different accessories that can be used with the plain pegboards. Definitely check out this company!

I put these painted wooden drawers behind my laptop. They hide all the wires in the corner from my electronic devices. Plus, I can store a few things in the drawers. They also hold a few jewelry displays on top, which I hope to fill with newly made creations soon!

Here's my wall art for the room! Well, it's not really finished yet. lol. It will be a cherry blossom branch once I put the flowers up! But even just the branches are pretty! Can't wait to see it finished, it's going to be sooo pretty! It's a vinyl wall decal I ordered from The Kinky Wall Studio on Etsy. It is really the perfect solution for the slanted in walls in this room!

Here is more pegboards on the opposite wall. I started to put a few things up. These are most of my cords and ribbons. A great way to store and display these materials, don't you think? I just love this! Everything is well organized and each material has a place to live! I love it when things have homes.  As you can see, I'm a big fan of having everything stored out in the open. I find it much easier to design jewelry that way. If I don't see it I forget I have it. I can't take full advantage of the beads and supplies I have if I don't know I have it or I can't find it in boxes full of random things. Am I the only one with this problem? I think not.

 Well, gotta get back to this cutie right here.

I'll show more later! Thanks for stopping by! Let me know what you think of my space so far and the pegboards and wall decal!

Bead Studio-WIP

Beady playdate with Emma Thomas

I met a new beady blog friend yesterday! I just LOVE meeting friends! Especially, beady ones! Here's me and Emma Thomas of Fredbean's Nook. We met at the Riverwalk Bead Shop and Gallery in Amesbury, Ma. Emma makes some WAY cool jewelry! I love her seed bead work mixed with metals and other elements for stylish, modern jewelry. Check out her creations here.  Emma came all the way from her home in Rhode Island  to have a little beading session with.....ME?! I felt so flattered she wanted to do that and so very glad she did! I had a lovely time with her and I really enjoyed chatting! We have lots in common, of course, beading and being apart of this online beading community. The conversation just flowed as if we were old pals getting together. It just felt so natural! Anyway, back to the beading! I showed Emma how to make my braided waxed linen cord necklace. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see our necklaces on the beading table in the background there! Here are the necklaces we made in our session below:

Emma's is on the left and mine's on the right. Both necklaces featuring Gaea hearts! I swear we didn't plan that!!! I didn't call her the night before. It just happened! I had planned my necklace before our meeting and Emma showed up at the shop with her heart pendant ready to go. I'm sure Gaea will be thrilled! It was a day for her hearts apparently. My necklace also includes a Miss Fickle Media antiqued silver ring and headpins.

I had a blast with Emma and I hope she'll want to get together again sometime!