Posts
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| Bead sculpture by Vera Orlova |
Jewellery masterpieces by Paul Gabriel Liénard
Friday, October 30, 2015
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| 'Forget-me-nots' tiara, designed and made by Paul Gabriel Liénard (born 1849), Paris. About 1905. Horn, gold, diamonds and pearls. Qatar Museums Authority |
Jewellery history. Mustard seed jewellery
I am always searching for the interesting topics on the jewelry history subject. I looked here and there and found (somewhere) a mention of the mustard seed jewelry. It looked like granulated jewelry at the first glance, so I did not expect to find a story behind it... At least a story of granulation that would be different from the one I have already written in my blog here.
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| CORO Vintage Mustard Seed Earrings 1950s Jewelry |
Symbolic "mustard seeds" can be represented with the tiny gold granulation in the jewelry pieces. However, there is a wide variety of jewelry pieces that contain actual mustard seeds. FYI, the seeds look like tiny yellow spheres 1-2 mm in diameter.
Why do people want to wear the mustard seeds? The mustard seeds are a symbol of faith, as they are mentioned in the Bible a few times. Those tiny little granules grow to become a tree that is up to 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. It also grows in dry hot weather. The mustard seeds are the best symbols of faith because of this. You can read more about it in wikipedia.
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| Faith Mustard Seed Miniature Bottle |
It looks like the mustard seeds have become a jewelry trend about two hundred years ago during the Victorian era. However, they were most likely worn in the glass vials before. The next time they have become popular was the 1940 's during the World War two, when people needed a strong symbol of hope. The mustard seed jewelry stayed popular till the 1960's.
It is not a big fashion trend now. However, the mustard seed jewelry will always be popular among people who like jewelry with the meaning. It is still a symbol of hope, faith and good luck. You can find many designs to chose from, either modern or vintage.
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| Mustard Seed Necklace All Things Are Possible |
Fashion set for a Halloween party
Thursday, October 29, 2015
I love the idea of dressing up for a costume party while still looking elegant. This is my vision for a Halloween party. I would wear a nice dress that I could wear any other time too, not just for a party. Then I would accessorize it. In fact, all items here can be worn any other time too! The only thing that you could not wear on another day is the eye makeup.
Throwback Thursday
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| This is 2009, my first Christmas craft fair in Vancouver! (I think it was the first one) Do you even remember the long necklaces being in fashion? :) |
Behind the scene by the VZBRELO girls. The process of creating a wooden leaf bowl
This is one more guest post by the VZBRELO girls. You can find a list of all their "behind the scene" post here.
Tatiana tells a story of making this nice carved bowl:
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Hello all! Today I would like to invite you to watch what is happening "behind the scene" and show you how I made a decorative wooden bowl.
This is not a traditional wood carving process. We call it a transitional step between the traditional carving and chainsaw carving :)
I've chosen the beech wood for my project. My tool for the job was a Dremel multi-tool with a flexible shaft and my favorite cutter. I loved it ever since I used it for my diploma project at school. It served me faithfully all this time despite the repeated use on all sorts of hardwoods.
Wood is a natural material, so it always inspires me to create natural motives. I've come up with an idea to carve a bowl in a form of a curved leaf. I have not sketched my leaf hoping to give it a true free form. I wanted to challenge myself as usually I am not good at working with no sketch. I outlined my leaf straight on my piece of wood.
I took a smaller cutter for a more precise work after the rough shape of the leaf had been cut out.
At that point I realized that I needed a visual before I could continue. I used a piece of plasticine to make a model for a better understanding of what to do next.
I noticed my mistakes right away. Let's see if I could fix them...
Safety is not as useless procedure as it might seem at the first glance :) Beech wood has a large number of beautiful shiny medullary rays... which are very painful when fly off into your eyes!
In fact, it would be a good idea to wear a good mask too (that you can see in this picture that I did not wear).
Here you can see that I achieved the desired shape. Next step was to start leveling the surface with a sand paper bur.
The next step could make a perfectionist happy :) I used a bur with a polishing stone first, and then a fine sandpaper to manually polish the bowl. The process was nice and almost endless!
We carve our logo not because we want to brag. We sign all our works to prove that we take responsibility for our products' quality.
Let's begin the magic! I oiled the bowl. The beech wood changed its color. It became saturated from pink to red-brown. Then I polished it and the bowl started to shine and shimmer in the sun.
Then it needed to dry well, get more polishing and more oiling. This bowl is a great item for a person who likes to touch things (I am one of such people too, so it was hard for me to let it go and stop touching it!)
This project is finished, thank you for watching! Off I go to work on my next project :)
Tatiana
You can visit us at:
Our VZBRELO community (Russian)
Online shop (Russian), another online shop (Russian)Stocking stuffer gift ideas
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
This gift guide was not easy to come up with as, to be honest, I would like to just google and find an article with the ideas somebody else has already thought of and listed for me. This is not what I usually do, though. I went to Etsy and researched the stocking stuffer gift ideas. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. Many Etsy sellers used the tag that I needed and gave me some nice ideas. I tried to keep the price in mind. These gifts are for the ladies and maybe you do not want to go too expensive, but you should not go too cheap either.
A bright or a modern looking smartphone case would be nice!
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| Pretty Flower Cell Phone Stand by PhoneTastique Personilized Leather Smartphone Stand by AliOBrienDesigns iPhone Stand by WoodWarmth iPhone Stand Modern Style by myPhoneStand |
What do you think of this idea? I chose the funniest cup warmers for my blog, but there are many mug cozies out there that are a lot more humble :)
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| Mug Cozy by WarmCharm Fancy Cup Cozy by RBKNITS |
I am very picky about my fingerless gloves. So picky that I could not find anything that I would want, so I knitted my own! (Maybe I will show them one day). If I could not knit exactly what I wanted, I would go with one of these:
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| Knitted Fingerless Gloves by nbGlovesAndMittens Fingerless Gloves by lovelycrochet Fox Fingerless Gloves by Pomber Ceam Fingerless gloves by IvetaStasiulioniene |
I love headbands! I knitted some too! :) I was not as successful with my headbands as the choices you see here. They are really lovely!
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| Braid-Knitted Headband by JackiBean Gray Double Braided Knitted Headband by SistersandStories |
I personally have a small collection of scarfs. Women love scarfs! If she has 5 (or 10) scarfs already... giving her one more will be a good idea anyway :)
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| Circle Scarf by pixiebell Men's Charcoal Scarf by ChambreRouge |
Those are just cute or sexy! (I know, not all of them could be called sexy :)
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| Boston Terrier Pom Pom Nose Socks by ogood Boot Socks by ScarfLovers Leg warmers by FashionShop19 Dark Grey Cable Knit Lace Leg Warmers by bstyle |
Eyeglasses case is an awesome idea! Not any eyeglass case will make a woman happy. These two can, though :)
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| Peacock Pattern Large Sunglasses case by MiZenDesigns Handmade Leather Eyeglasses case by KJsKraftKorner |
What do you think of a teapot cozy? Once I got a cozy like this from a coworker of mine for Christmas. That was the most useful gift ever! (I am not sure why people need apple cozies, but they look nice for home decor!)
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| Fall Tea Cozy by TheHotBobbin Handmade Felted Tea Cozy by jannio Felted Te Cozy by FeltyPretties Apple Cozy Set by knoodleknits |
If you often have wine on your table then a wine stopper might be another good idea!
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| Hand Turned Wooden Bottle Stopper by RossHandcraftedPens Chrystal Door Knob Wine Stopper by AgaveTradingCo |
If you think of a keychain make sure it is very special. I've found a couple here that could make a day of a receiver... every time she looks at them!
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| Toy Keychain by mymimi Avocado Halves Keychain by agatsjewelry |
I personally do not do any sewing, but many women do. These pin cushions are just delightful!
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| Pin Cushion with Cross Stitch Strawberries by RedPin Felted Cactus Pin Cushion by FabulousFelties Tea Pot Pin Cushion by BlackTulipQuilts2 Vintage Pin Cushion by TheAntiqueGatherrers |
Usually I am not a big fan of the soap idea as a gift. All depends on the soap, though. This soap is just too cute and happy. It would make a great stalking stuffer gift!
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| Snowflake Soap by CedarCreekSoaps1 Strawberry Candy Soap by TailoredSoap |
This gift idea is really small, but cute. Women love having pretty nails!
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| Snowflake Nail decals by VibrantVinylsShop Snowflake Nail Decals by DowningStDesigns |
A nice jewellery box:
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| Wooden decorated box by KatyaCoil Wooden decorated box by KatyaCoil |
And nice jewellery to come with it :)
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| Maple Leaf Necklace Gold Plated Seahorse Necklace Amethyst Earrings Pearl Necklace |
Blog hop! Have fun!
Welcome to this week's blog hop!
This blog hop runs from Monday 12:00 PM through Friday 11:59 PM EST.
Meet your co-hosts for the Month of October:
Featured posts of the week:
Posted below is the featured blog post of the week. I love to find unique blogs and post to share about and write little comments on their writings. I try my best to give every blog a chance to be chosen, so make sure to enter your blog every week!
The Rural Economist brings a good point on the education system and how it has changed over the years, He even has a podcast on this topic. So many of my friends are homeschooling their children, and this is one of the reasons why this is happening more. Thanks for sharing, Gregg!
Congratulations to the featured blogs!
The Rural Economist brings a good point on the education system and how it has changed over the years, He even has a podcast on this topic. So many of my friends are homeschooling their children, and this is one of the reasons why this is happening more. Thanks for sharing, Gregg!
Congratulations to the featured blogs!
Don't forget to check out the other blogs from last week!
What have I been doing?
Natalia's post: Sunday Home Decoration Guide: Christmas!
Sara's Post:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now it's your turn! What have you been doing this week?
- Please post the link to a specific blog entry, not just the blog. I look at every link posted, and I comment in every entry. If you don't post a specific entry I can't comment!
- Adding your email address will add you to my blog hop email list. I will only send you an email once a week informing you of the blog hop. If you don't want to be emailed, just let me know.
- If your blog is featured on this blog hop, I will be using the picture you posted on the linky.
- All blog posts will also be pinned on my What Are You Doing? Pinterest board, so others can see the awesome things you are doing!
- Family friendly posts, please!
- *NEW* I also added a LIKE feature to the list, so make sure you check out the other blogs and like your favorite! Help me choose the featured blogs for the week! You only get one choice for a favorite though, but if you have other favorites, let me know in the comments!
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