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More Spooky Goodness

While my time for blogging is limited, I did give myself an assignment for October, didn't I? I can't believe it is already half over.

Enjoy a few more of my favorite items from the darker side of Etsy.

Memento Mori Doll by October Effigies




Church Graveyard by Virtually Forever




Queen of Sorrow by Anne Julie




the ghost's letter by Madelaine

It's Finally October!!!!!

Now that it is officially October I can start celebrating Halloween! Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I was a kid. Better than Christmas. Better than my birthday. I love love love it.

In order to get my blogging butt in gear, I am going to try to feature spooky art from some of my favorite artists all month.

Suzanne Gonsalez does amazing altered photographs, available at ravenwolf.etsy.com. A cool side-note from her profile is that she is the great-great niece of Pancho Villa. How cool is that?

Be sure to check out the Ravenwolf Gallery Website (shared with artist Ross Zirkle) for more of her amazing work.

Below are a few of my favorite pieces she has available on etsy, including one of her digital prints and three from her series of Creepy Children to help get you in the Halloween mood.

Metamorphosis - Digital Print - Limited Edition



Creepy Little Children no 7



Creepy Little Child no 4

Creepy Little Children no 10

Apparently I'm It!

As things at my day job have been crazy hectic lately I've taken an unexpected hiatus from etsy and this blog. Recently the lovely and talented pollyhyper tagged me as part of the Random 8 Meme, and now I absolutely MUST update the blog. Hooray for dragging me back in!

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

8 Random Facts about Me!

1. Both of my thumbs are double-jointed.
2. I am the third of four children. My oldest brother is about to turn 40, and my younger sister is...um...24? I think. And she's preggo! I'm going to have another nephew in January! I already have a 12 year old nephew and a 10 year old niece. I adore them madly. I can't wait to meet the new kid.
3. My day job is for a labor union.
4. It is rare (and frightening) that I meet someone who is messier than I am.
5. I often get along better with children than I do with adults. Kids make a lot more sense to me. Part of me still wants to go back and get my Master's in Education, but I am just not sure if/when I will be able to make that happen.
6. I have a small Buddha collection. It's a family tradition.
7. I despise cell phones.
8. I never learned how to ride a bike when I was a kid for various reasons, but have decided to learn! I am pretty sure that I am going to buy this bike (possibly this weekend) and just teach myself how to ride. It's about time, right?

OK, so now I have to tag some folks! They're fairly random as well.

1. Tantalizing Stitches
2. Vivica's
3. 3 Sisters Beads
   
4. Hannahmade
5. time2cre8
6. Kaskaad
7. Chickadee Beads
8. DL POM Handcrafted Expressions

Man, that was hard.

Carnival of Colors!

I have been at a conference for my day job for the last week and a half, and while I was away I was featured in a blog! Maybe I should go away more often.

Tantalizing Stitches was sweet enough to include one of my bracelets (pictured right) in her entry for the Carnival of Colors event put on by the Etsy Bloggers Street Team. Be sure to take a look at all of these amazing entries.

Get Out and Vote!

Today is election day in my hometown. We are electing a brand new mayor along with a bunch of city council folks. Good times. Voting is one of those issues I get all preachy and annoying about. In honor of that, here is a mini-showcase of items you can buy on etsy to help show your support of the process.

Are you registered to vote?

"Suffrage is the pivotal right."
Susan B. Anthony

"Lower voter participation is a silent threat to our democracy...
It under-represents young people, the poor, the disabled,
those with little education, minorities and you and me."
Nancy Neuman

"People who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected
and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests."
Marian Wright Edelman

"Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good:
'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers.
One who does not vote has no right to complain."
Louis L'Amour

Stump Pond Toys

And now for a completely different kind of toy from the last I featured!

Retired Merchant Marine Wyit Wright of Stump Pond Toys began selling his amazing wooden toys 25 years ago. Made from hardwoods without any harsh stains that could hurt the little ones, these toys are built to last! They are lovely enough to display on a shelf, but why would you want to? These toys are meant to be played with and withstand whatever abuse your active little one can put out. No worrying about little plastic bits or toxic chemicals in little hands or mouths.

Here are some examples of his work, but please visit Stump Pond Toys to see more of his collection!

etsyBEAD Theme of the Week for July 22-28

The etsyBEAD Theme of the Week for July 22-28 is Earthy Elements. You can find the Street Team's promo thread with all of the wonderful jewelry fitting this theme here, and all of it is on sale!

Here are my submissions, which you can order with FREE SHIPPING this week only!

Sock Horror!

Straight out of a sock monkey's worst nightmare comes SockHorror.etsy.com!

Charlotte, the proverbial puppet master of these creatures, shows us a glimpse into what happens when good socks are led over to the dark side into a universe known as the Doldrums.

Truly unique and often blood-stained (puppet blood, that is), these creatures fall into the categories of Doldrums (your everyday citizen), Gore (poor hapless creatures that often meet a brutal and untimely end), and Icons (mysterious human-like characters). Each Sock Horror also comes with it's own personalized toe tag and body bag.

You'll never view your sock drawer the same way again.

It is my distinct pleasure to introduce you to Urtha and Blarp. Visit Sock Horror to learn more about the Doldrums and its ghastly inhabitants.

Google Me Google You

I am pleased to announce that now, in addition to PayPal, Fresh Peaches Designs now accepts Google Checkout! Here is an excerpt from the new shop policy regarding payment.

Payment Options: I accept both Google Checkout and PayPal at this time. If you will be paying with PayPal, please select that option during checkout and proceed to PayPal to complete your transaction. If you wish to use Google Checkout, select Other during checkout and an invoice will be e-mailed to you. If you have a coupon code, please enter that in the Message to Seller during the checkout process and the discount will be applied by refund through PayPal or an adjusted invoice through Google Checkout.

etsyBEAD Theme of the Week

The etsyBEAD Street Team's Theme of the Week for July 14 - 21 is Summer Flowers!

My submission is this set of three Daisy Chain Bracelets. This week only I am offering FREE SHIPPING to the United States and Canada on this bracelet set.



Be sure to check out the list of other etsyBEAD offerings for this week's theme, available in the etsy forums here!

Kimberly at Stir

I happened upon Seattle artist Kimberly "Ella" Van Dyke's website today, and I completely lost track of time looking at the beautiful things she does! In a room by myself I actually responded out loud to several of her pieces. Do I call them paintings? Photographs? Really, they're both. She photographs these amazing tableaux she has concocted of nudes interacting with back-dropped paintings she's done in homage to classical works of art in her Muse series. Be sure to check out her take on Bouguereau's Evening Mood. In her Blot and and Personification series the nudes themselves are the paintings. I was particularly taken with Cello, featured below.



And I promise that the fact that she and I share the same birthday has nothing to do with how much I love her work!

Lone Ponderosa

One of the things I want to do with this blog is spotlight artists and craftspeople who do simply amazing things.

Grizzly Mountain Arts is offering this pine needle basket that is just incredible!



The Grizzly Mountain Arts website goes into detail about the methods used to make this basket, and it is truly a painstaking process. I tried to make a pine needle basket a few years ago, and my coil was about the size of a half dollar before I decided that the people who make these baskets are saintly, patient people (and that I am not one of them). For $50, this is an incredibly good deal for such a fine piece. Go check it out before someone beats you to it!

Fresh Item!

Delicious drippy droplets of peach-colored glass beads make this bracelet a pleasure to look at. Every bead is its own unique hue, glowing warmly in the light. This delectable bracelet is strung on wire and secured with a bar and ring toggle clasp and measures approximately 6 1/2".

This bracelet was listed just yesterday. You should really see it when it is held up to the light. It looks like it is lit up from within! I just love these beads so much. It's amazing how they all belong together, yet each one is an entirely unique shape and shade, ranging from soft peachy pinks to deeper amber hues.

Visit the shop to see more views of this bracelet or to make it your own!

Hello, Stranger

Welcome, and thank you for visiting my blog! Keep watching this space for news on upcoming pieces, ongoing projects, and spotlights of my favorite artists in the world of craft!

I've been working on a line of functional jewelry to help people like me who are FOREVER misplacing things. Glasses, tools, whatever. I've misplaced them all. Scissors are the worst! There is no telling how many pairs of scissors I have "lost" over time. I fully expect to find half a dozen pairs behind the couch when we move. I'm working on a set of embroidery scissors that you can wear as a necklace, making it much harder to lose them mid-project. Practical and stylish, you can always say you bought them because they're pretty, right?

Now if I could only find the remote...

In the meantime, here is a taste of the pieces you can expect to pop up in the shop over the next couple of weeks.







Don't forget to check in at the shop, FreshPeachesDesigns.com to see what lovelies I have set out for you!