Pastel Pastime

VintageLegacyStudio created this lovely Spring-time palette treasury, featuring my Jade and Pink Lariat:


Just in time for Easter gifts!

Black & White and Handmade All Over

I love the graphic sensibility of this Black&White treasury from lynliao3.etsy.com of The {NewNew} Etsy Street Team. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she features my Tuxedo Earrings...

A Handmade Passover

Blue and White Bird Dessert Plate by OneClayBead

One of the most attractive aspects of a handcrafted existence is how personal mundane tasks can become when you realize, and appreciate, that a pair of hands just like yours are responsible for the book, dish, lamp, earrings, pillow, or shirt, you're currently holding.

Especially around times of holiday and communion, incorporating handmade craft and art into ceremony and celebration adds another layer of depth to an already rich experience. I like that every ornament on my Christmas tree has a story. Or that the salad bowl I used for Easter dinner was carried by a dear friend in a backpack across Tanzania after a robust negotiation with its maker. Or that the place mats I broke out for my sister's birthday last year were made by a neighbor who has since moved to North Carolina to spin yarn. No kidding.

So for all those who celebrate, Happy Passover. May your festival of freedom be bountifully crafted and may under your table be crowded with many feet.

Seven Species Hamsa by mishmishmarket

Star of David Tealight Holder by LimorYaron

Natural Pomegranate Rattle from Peelapom

Handcrafted Passover gifts from Etsy.

Last Saturday at Indoor Brooklyn Flea

After this weekend, the Brooklyn Flea moves outdoors to it's regular summer spot. Catch persuede and melody's addiction on Saturday, March 27th at One Hanson Place. I have some great Easter jewelry gifts and a host of new designs!


Also, don't forget to become a fan of persuede on Facebook. Fans get access to all kinds of special sales and free goodies. You can sign up here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/persuede/30062638458

See you at the Flea!

I Heart Terrariums

The Hipster Home has a great tutorial on making your very own tiny terrarium in a light bulb. Sweet!

Spring

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

- e.e. cummings

True North 18K Gold Vermeil Charm Necklace

Studded with tiny gemstones the color of clouds, this delicate chain holds the possibility of wonder near your heart.

An 18k Gold Vermeil charm, shaped like the center spoke of a compass pointing true north, swings gently from a 14k Gold fill chain. Small, perfectly round Amethysts ground the charm and the clasp, enhancing personal spiritual awareness, while the syncopated clusters of hand-selected Labradorites pave the way for new levels of self exploration.

Gorgeous from the inside out.

A Real Rosie the Riveter

Most people are familiar with the iconic image of a woman in a blue work shirt, head wrapped in a red scarf, rolling up her sleeves to get to work under the slogan "We Can Do It!" This image, and many others like it, were prevalent during WWII, urging woman to support the war effort by working in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and material. These women sometimes took entirely new jobs replacing the male workers who were in the military.

I found the above image of a real Rosie as part of a Library of Congress slideshow on Flickr of Women Striving Forward from the 1910s to the 1940s, in honor of Woman's History Month. These are wonderful images, showing women on the front of strike lines, organzing, voting, and, yes, working.


I just wish we didn't have to wait until March to see these.

Thanks, maryruffle.

I Must Admit to Loving This

There are many ways to do this, but this is the simplest how-to I've seen for making a tin can luminary. Filling the can with water and freezing it to retain the shape while punching is genius!

Click here for detailed instructions and pictures from craftzine.com

Interstellar Silver MoonRock Necklace

I finished this necklace last night.


The best/worst part is that I'm always falling in love with things I've made and then I don't want to sell them. But I still want to share. And the truth is, it will just sit on my dress form as I admire it. So even though I love it, what I really want is someone else to love it and WEAR IT.




Go Gorgeous.

Irish Soda Bread with Fennel & Cinnamon

Everybody Likes Sandwiches (what a great name for a blog) has this terrific recipe for Irish soda bread, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. I have to tell you, it looks so good I was tempted to start making it when I first read the recipe -- even though it was at 11 p.m. last night!

As the recipe says, it's the perfect vehicle for butter. And really, what more can one ask from a slice of bread?


Thanks to craftzine.com for the link.

Modern Silver and Celadon Earrings

I've been playing around with new shapes for earwires. These are my newest favorites - modern, yet organic. I love how the silver of the earring plays off the delicate celadon of the mini Flourite globes. And then there's that rich pop of Garnet, placed just so.

Go Gorgeous.

Glittering Hot Rods

From the crafty chica herself, one of the best uses of glitter EVER:

I saw a clip of a Japanese car show and they had a Mercedes that was 100% covered in crystals. Of course I had to drop what I was working on to make something just like it. Problem - I didn't have enough crystals in my supplies. The horror! Well, they say glitter is the poor man's bling, so glitter it is!

Read the complete how-to here.

Be A WhistleBlower for Peace

Falling Whistles started as a journal written about boys, armed with only a whistle, sent to the frontlines of our world’s largest war taking place in the Congo. The journal took on a life of its own, forwarded from reader to reader with the same kind of urgency in which it was written. Inevitably, the question was asked – what can we do?

The Falling Whistles campaign launched with a simple response - make their weapon your voice and be a whistleblower for peace in Congo. Read the story and buy the whistle. Proceeds go to rehabilitate and advocate for war-affected children.

persuede Jewelry @ The Brooklyn Flea This Saturday!

Just in time for Spring, I’ll be at the Brooklyn Flea this Saturday, March 13th with my cohort in jewelry design, Melody's Addiction.

Join us at the fabulous One Hanson Place for an incredible collection of handcrafted goods, delicious foods and lots of local flavor in the landmark Williamsburg Savings Bank building.

Plus, it's indoors. So if it rains, you're covered!

The Evil Peanut Super Villian and Other Finger Puppets

This made me giggle out loud.

The 24 Craziest Finger Puppets on Etsy
Urlesque Editor-in-Chief Stephen Lenz recently stumbled upon an amazing website: Jersey Shore Finger Puppets.com. As you'd expect, the website sells -- for money, real money, the kind that you are paid at your job -- finger puppets of the characters of 'Jersey Shore.'...Luckily, Etsy manages to hold its own in terms of sheer weirdness, especially with its particularly mind-blowing celebrity finger puppets.

Charles Darwin

Martha Stewart

Finger Faces


The Pernicious Peanut

Read the full post here.
Find more finger puppets on Etsy.

Craftastic!

Security (Envelope) - Upcycled Black and White Bangle Bracelet from Paperelle

Over at The {NewNew} blog, there's a post about the wonderful world of decoupage (and a give-away from the fantabulous Wabisabi Brooklyn!):

Decoupage, derived from the French word decouper, meaning to cut out, is the creative art of assembling, pasting and varnishing paper cutouts for decorating objects. Techniques for decoupage are actually quite simple. If you can cut and paste, you already know most of the techniques involved. Basically, you cut out pictures; you glue the pictures onto an object; and then cover the object and pictures with a few coats of glue/decoupage medium to protect it. You can decoupage anything! From furniture to dishes to jewelry to home decor...the decoupager is limited only by his or her imagination.

Many wonderful Etsy artisans are featured, including one of my personal faves, Paperelle. Lauren, the woman behind the magic, has created line of eco-friendly origami and decoupage jewelry made with recycled papers.



Visit paperelle.etsy.com

For a Sunday Afternoon

I love to cook and bake on weekends. No pressure, no deadlines -- just me, the kitties, the big guy, and time to make the kitchen really messy.

Brett Bara over at Manhattan Craft Room just posted this super simple and delicious recipe for homemade Chai Almond Milk. It's actually not that messy and you get an added bonus of ground almonds for cookies or granola. It's a kind of two-for-one Sunday afternoon in the kitchen.

All you have to do is soak one cup raw almonds in 4-6 cups of water overnight. (I prefer to use 4 cups, which yields a richer drink.)

Then, you blend the almonds and their water in a blender till liquefied. Pour the mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth, then squeeze out any remaining liquid from the pulp. (More on the pulp later.)

I made mine into chai by adding agave, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, cardamom and ground ginger. (I sort of winged it with the spices - probably about 1/2 teaspoon each, and a couple tablespoons agave. I'd suggest starting with small amounts, tasting, and stirring in more if you think it needs it.)

Read the whole thing, including what to do with all those leftover almonds!, here.

My New Favorite Typed Witticism (TWit)

Courtesy of twitter.com/sesamestreet

Winter Whites

My girl Nordea's Soaperie (sudsy delights!) has included my Tuxedo Earrings in her lovely Winter Whites treasury, featuring all kinds of goodies from the {NewNew} craft collective. Check it out!

Something Delightful

I don't know why things in miniature are always cool. But they are, and this video (thanks for the link Facebook Etsy!) is charming. New York is still as big and as hectic as its always been, just a little more sweet. Which, as a native New Yorker, is how I think about my city anyway.

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Original Music: composed by Human, co-written by Rosi Golan and Alex Wong. Please view in HD and full screen for best effect. For a description of the shoot, camera, lenses and work flow, checkout the aerofilm website.

Paper Craft

I know I don't have either the patience or the knife skills to pull this off. But it's so cool to watch...



See more amazing FailleSummerbelle creations here. Thanks to BlackEiffel for the link.

The Final Frontier

You probably have seen the famous photo of Earth taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972, which shows most of Antarctica, Africa and the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Well, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released some new, beautiful images of our gorgeous planet to the public, updating the Blue Marble.

The amazing images don't stop with planet Earth. Goddard's Flickr blog includes technicolor vistas of all the planets, incredible renderings of spiral galaxies and jaw-dropping nebula landscapes. These images put the awe back in awesome.

Jupiter's Red Spot

Saturn's Rings in Ultraviolet

Barred Spiral Galaxy

Crab Nebula

I feel some intergalactic planetary inspiration coming on...