Lovely Giveaway of Vintage-Style Jewelry!

I was just looking through Facebook, when I chanced upon one of the many giveaways. Mostly, I do not find them interesting, but this jewelry designer has some rather lovely styles! For my entry into the drawing, I had to choose my favorite necklace, and it was very difficult! Take a look at some of these choices:

Have I posted too many good choices? It's ridiculous to try and choose, right? Personally, I chose the coral and white one, but if I win, I might see if I can change my mind to the top one with the black and white swirly beads. As I said, tough choice!

Go here for all the rules on how to enter! Artistic Blend Designs Vintage in Color Giveaway!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I do hope you are all having a lovely Valentine's Day! I decided this year to have a Zombie-hunting theme to my Valentine's gift giving. My Valentine's card is from noncomposcards on Etsy, created by the hilarious and talented Erin Appledale, author of an ACTUALLY ENTERTAINING (as opposed to what I'm doing) blog, here.

To save space, I'll give you the punchline on the inside--it says, "If I were a zombie, you'd be the first to die."

Right after I found that, I chanced upon a fellow WePAY shopkeeper who was offering up some pretty awesome, hand-cut signs, one of which looked like this:

I thought this was pretty romantic, so I had to buy that as well. You can get your own sign, or other nifty items, like etched glassware, in Desolation Allie's WePAY store.

The last part of my Valentine's gift we're just going to have to agree to pretending like it goes with the theme, which it might, if you consider the realm of Zombie hunting or Post-Zombie-Apocalypse survivalism, or something. I was on Groupon (totally addicting, by the way), and they had an online deal on some Night Vision Recording Stealth Goggles, and I knew I had to buy them immediately. I figure, if nothing else, my husband can finally find Bigfoot, and put the whole issue to rest already. He'll have a carcass to the local Game and Fish by the end of the month.

For anyone following along on my 30 Day Drawing Challenge, I'll get back to that tomorrow. I've been keeping up with it, just needed a break for today.

Win a $20 Gift Certificate Towards Lovely Handmade Jewelry!

One of my favorite jewelry makers, Bits 'n Beads by Gilliauna, is having a promotional blog contest on a blog called IndieSpotting. I just clicked out a bunch of entries for myself, but now you can too! Gilliauna makes some lovely jewelry with semiprecious stones, silver and gold. Go check out her lovely shop and perhaps you will find something you would like to spend your $20 gift certificate on.

Here's the link to the contest:

http://www.indiespotting.com/giveaways-sales/win-bits-n-beads-by-gilliauna-giveaway/

New Christmas Card and Cleaning My Desk...

Not sure what the one thing has to do with the other, but they were the two subjects I took pictures of today. For years now I've thought that my electron micrograph (that's a photograph of something taken under an electron microscope) of crystallized stain reminds me of branches and the little globs in some places looked like berries, so I finally turned it into a Christmas card! Here's the original image: The original photograph was created on real film, creating this odd sized negative (something like 4" x 5") which wandered around the country with me for years and years before I finally got around to and found a place that could scan it and produce it in digital form. From the digital image, I was able to use The Gimp to colorize it a nice Christmas-y green, then I picked out some of the little clumps of dark areas and turned them into red berries. After printing it onto high quality photo paper, I mounted the photo onto a 5" x 7" card:

I have listed this item for sale in my Etsy Shop.

I have also been working on several other things today, even though it has been a relatively quiet day. I took a snapshot of my desk, because it was looking decidedly picturesque:

The picture shows the bunch of fall leaves that my friend sent me from Ohio, my Day Planner from an Artful Agenda, my buttercream scented, handmade soy candle in a hand-thrown pot from Mad Hatter Pottery, the return address labels I just got from Animal Humane of New Mexico (They spelled my last name right! I think I'll send them money!), my yummy, warm cup of coffee with sugar-free hazelnut creamer in it, and the drawing I've been working on, entitled "Miasmata." (For anyone too lazy to go to dictionary.com to look it up, miasmata is the plural of miasma, meaning the noxious exhalations from putrescent organic material, or a dangerous, foreboding or deathlike atmosphere.) I thought this photo made a nice little snapshot of my day, plus, I cleaned my studio the other day, so you can actually see the surface of my desk in places, which impressed the hell out of me, if no one else.

Oh yes, I took pictures of one more thing today, the adorable pile of mammals on the bed this morning--Mimi, Cassie and Sean: