Soul's Fire Designs: March 2012

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

And the winner is...

Hello, everyone! Finally, the random generator has selected the lucky winner out of all of my soup comments! Ignoring all of my response comments, there were 62 comments! I feel very privileged to have had so many comments! Thank you for each and every one, they meant so much!

Without further ado... the winner was...

#51!!! The wonderful Lola :) of http://beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

Yay, Lola! I will be emailing you momentarily! Thank you all of you! You all make my world a brighter place!

My birthday yesterday was lovely :) My husband and children let me sleep in (a rare treat) and brought me breakfast in bed! My sweet friend Karen brought over a DQ ice cream cake and had dinner with us. I was absolutely spoiled rotten and it was wonderful. I have never gotten so many well wishes in all my life on FB and Instagram. Just goes to show, there are some true advantages to the internet being part of our lives, being able to have friends all over the world and to be able to speak with them often!

Here is my latest creation, which I feel is appropriate to show, as this necklace was inspired by my bead soup necklace.

It is called, "Heart of Spring" :). If you click on it it will take you to the listing where you can read more about it! (JLynn Jewels heart and Marsha Neal Studio silks :) ).

And for those of you who missed it, I'm having 25% off in my shop as a birthday celebration! (anything non doll sized ;) ). Even sale items are fair game, so go take a look :) The coupon code is: MYBDAY and I will leave it up another couple of days.

I hope you are having a beautiful week!

~Jennifer

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

You're Beautiful...

I know, you are probably asking yourself... where in the world did she come up with the title for this posting and what is going through her muddled mind? I just was listening to my Ipod on shuffle, which I do a lot when I'm creating, and the song from James Blunt came on... and I started thinking. Frightening, no? How many of us are told that we are beautiful on a regular basis?

Over the years my idea of beauty has changed drastically. I'm sure yours has as well, how has it changed? Can you remember the first person you thought was beautiful? Why? What made them beautiful? Mine was my mother, when I was a little girl I thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. As I got older... I still thought that... though I admit, I admired actresses, singers, and models as well. But my mother has always been beautiful to me, not because she's a model, a beauty queen, or any of that. She's beautiful because her soul is beautiful. She is warm, funny, sweet... one of those people who glows with the beauty of a real woman. One who will stop and help a stranger, who will do anything for a friend, drop everything for a loved one who needs her... Beautiful.

The last year or so, since I've become a member of this blogging/crafting/beading/artisan community... I have met so many women with that beauty. That soul beauty. That incredible warmth, that joy of spirit, the generosity... and they have all been so inspiring to me. They make my world a brighter place, give me a reason to be glad, help me keep my Pollyanna spirit up (as one of these ladies, the wonderful Janice of JLynn Jewels) and I like to call it.

So, as my mind has been pondering this this evening... I have decided I'm going to attempt to share with you all throughout this year... some of these beautiful souls I have met. The first one I will attempt to get up this week. I already know who I want to feature, but I think I should probably ask first ;).

I should be sleeping right now... my kids get up early! I'm going to leave you with a handful of my new pieces :) Sweet dreams! (Or Good Morning! )

~Jennifer

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Still hopping!

Bead Soup is HERE

Bead Soup hopping that is! I am so sorry I am running so late this time around, last time I finished in like two days, but this time... just too much going on! I will keep going! I went from the bottom up, and am only, shamefully, at around #58. So if I haven't gotten to you yet, I will!!!! Thank you so much to everyone who commented, you were all so kind! I had so much fun and am loving seeing all of these creative and beautiful pieces!

Have a wonderful weekend! I will try to get another post up with some new work soon!!!!

~Jennifer

Friday, March 2, 2012

It's Bead Soup Time!!!

If you are searching for my Challenge of Music post, go HERE

I have to say, I wasn't certain if I was going to be able to pull everything together in time for this one! I was not counting on my entire family (including yours truly lol) being sick off and on for over two weeks! But, somehow, I did it! :) I didn't quite use up all of the incredible bead soup my sweet partner Kari Carrigan of Wee Gems and Charmed Pennies sent me, which you can view HERE, but I made a good effort! And things are still swirling about in my head what to do with the last bits!

My biggest challenge this time around was... which focal to start with?? Kari was so incredibly generous and I had so many possibilities that it was hard to choose where to begin! But after sleeping on it one night, I woke up the next morning with an idea... I pulled out the sweet little acorn that she had made and stared at it. Then I began pulling things from my stash, faceted pale blue jade, czech crystals, stainless steel chain... and finally Marsha Neal Studio silks. Here is what I came up with and I personally LOVE it, I have already worn it a few times (I couldn't resist).

It's really long, the longest necklace I have ever worn and I love it! The next piece that I came up with was another necklace, I could not resist the "J" pendant... it made me think of something from the Regency period. So I set out to make something with a vintage flair...

And came up with this :) Simple but a bit sparkly, elegant, I think it will be perfect for an evening out!

Then it took me time to decide what to do with those gorgeous Charmed Pennies she sent me... Of course the logical thing to do was make necklaces, right? But no, I had done two already.. and this was supposed to be a challenge... hmm... then one day it hit me... I remembered seeing the wonderful Rebecca Anderson of Songbead had done really cool little bangles! Now hmm, I didn't have pre-made bangles... but I did have some fabulous 14g Fallen Angel Brass wire. I'm one of those, if I don't have it I will try to find a way to make it myself girls these days! I also didn't have a bracelet mandrel which presented another problem, so the first try (the red one) I simply made to fit my own (rather small) wrist by simply bending and shaping the wire around my wrist. After I finished I thought, hm, well, that's alright... but I bet I could find a better way... and I stared at that coil of 14g wire for a while and then it hit me! The wire was already coiled to the perfect bangle size! I tried to fit my hand through a loop and it was no problem! I was giddy! So, I quickly whipped up two more bangles for the last two pendants and was pleased as punch!

And the last that I have to show you I made with the incredible lampwork beads Kari gave me, they are so very beautiful!!!

Please excuse the pics if they are a bit off, it was icy out and my fingers were cold LOL. Ok, ok, I know you all have a ton of other hopping to do , so I'll close up for now by saying, my son's birthday was yesterday and I'm having a sale in my shop (20% off anything except Blythe jewelry) using the code: BIRTHDAY Also, I am giving away the gorgeous earrings above to a lucky person who comments (by random number generator but you MUST leave me an email to contact you at, otherwise I will have to redraw!). I will announce the winner on my birthday, March 26th :). Make sure you visit my partner Kari's blog to see what she did with what I sent her! http://weegemsdesigns.blogspot.com/

Thank you so so much, Lori, for making this blog hop possible, for having this amazing idea.. and for bringing us all together as a creative community!! You ROCK!

I had to take Linky thing out LOL it was driving everyone nuts! Here is the list instead:

Hostess, Lori Anderson
Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer

1. Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)

2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)

3. Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)

4. Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman

5. Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6. Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7. Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8. Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9. Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10. Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery

11. Andra Weber and Christine Murrow