The smell of fresh baking bread.....

what a wonderful smell!!  A late afternoon shower and homemade bread baking away!  I cannot wait to drop a little butter on a hot slice when it is finished!!  I followed a recipe for hearth bread, nice and crusty on the outside and soft in the middle!!  Yummo!  I will be sure to share if it comes out deliciously!  It smells like it will be just perfect, we'll see or should I say taste LOL!
Enough with making you all hungry!  I just wanted to share my rainy afternoon.  I will also be working on a necklace that was won by a fellow crafter on the EtsyMom blog giveaway.  It is a great blog that is doing a giveaway each week until Mother's Day.  I was blessed to be able to kick off the giveaway and we are now up to Giveaway #3!  It is definitely worth checking out: http://www.etsymom.blogspot.com/ it is awesome.  We have a great group of women that work together to help promote our group and each other's businesses.  I attended my first team meeting last evening and it was such a great feeling to be involved with such an inspirational group.  There was a lot of energy in our virtual lab as we all met through our computers.  It is absolutely amazing to me how women can just come together and unite.  So in this blog I just wanted to give a shout out to my fellow members of EtsyMom Street Team and say thank you for welcoming me and for helping me feel that I can get this business of mine up and going and prospering in no time!!  Thanks ladies!
Oh yeah, I am going to be doing another giveaway here on my blog very soon!!  Details to follow!  Make sure you sign on to follow here and my Facebook page, and also on Twitter so you don't miss out!

Big hugs!

Faith Hope Believe

I am so sorry I am behind on blogging.  I am happy to say, however, that I have had some custom orders! days seem to speed by soooo fast that I realize "wow, I need to update my blog".  So here I am back in action with a great new picture of a custom bracelet I designed and hand stamped for a friend that I reconnected with through Facebook!  I use the words "faith", "hope", and "believe" a lot with my hand stamping.  I think that people have a tendancy to link these words with religion most of the time.  I know I do when the words come to mind.  I am happy to say that I do have a strong faith and a good relationship with God.  My children are learning that the Lord keeps them safe and how easy it is to talk to God from anywhere you are about anything you need to.  In fact my four year old Jack came into my room this morning and I explained to him that I wasn't feeling well and I had a migraine.  And he looked at me and said, "mom, why don't you talk to God?".  And right then and there we said a prayer out loud talking to God to help mommy's head feel better.  I then hugged him and told him he was sent to me straight from heaven!  Now I know religion is a touchy subject for some but these words also come into play when we are even speaking of ourselves and life in general.  There are times when I have wanted to just throw in the towel with starting my business because things may not have been going as fast as I would like them to go or sales weren't happening like I wanted them to.  But I stop take a breath and think to myself...I need to have faith in myself, hope that things will take off and start happening, and believe in my business.  I then, because it's what I do, I say a prayer and know that it is in God's hands and will happen when it is suppose to.  So when you have those feelings of despair or wanting to give in just take a breath and have the faith, the hope, and the belief in your heart!

Hope you enjoy the picture of my newest custom piece!!

Have a blessed day!

Pink Lemonade

Well it is another beautiful day in New Jersey!  My boys and I were outside today for I would say about five hours!!  I just absolutely love spring time!  Although I look around me and all I see is yardwork!  I just look past that for now and see all the beautiful things blooming.  In my last post I posted about these new beauties I got my hands on.  Well I paired them up with my shiney sterling silver handmade earwires and designed some simple dangle earrings!  I just love them!  So much so that I made a pair for myself as well as my Etsy shop!  I wore them yesterday and they are so comfortable and light in my ears.  The facets of the bead with the pink and yellow colors are simply smashing!! 
I am super excited to also tell you that I have now started designing and making my own beads!!  I have been using clay and have come up with some beautiful earthy combinations that I know will be a hit!  But of course you will have to wait until my next post to see them!  Sorry to make you wait but they are still in the works.
Another fabulous thing that has happened today in fact, is that one of my pieces is being featured in a blog giveaway for Etsy Mom Street Team!  I am a proud member of this team.  So please check out the blog, http://www.etsymom.blogspot.com/ there is even a little interview with me.  So happy to be given this opportunity.  It is a great bunch of moms there to help each other out!!

Have a blessed day!!
Barb

Warm sunny day!

As I sit on my patio enjoying the sunshine, breeze and my children's voices playing, I can't help but count my blessings.  How fortunate I am to be able to do something that I love and still be able to be at home with my boys, and crazy dog too!  This little heat wave we are having mid April cannot help but make me think of those summer days drinking lemonade and running through the sprinkler as a child.  Life's simple pleasures!  I can only hope that my children hold on to their innocence and not grow up to fast!!!  I sometimes want to sneak into their room at night and just bottle them up so they stay young and  innocent forever!  Then there are those nights after a long day of them being boys that I wonder....are they 18 yet!! LOL
We have spent some time this past week traveling and I must say, I just love springtime in New Jersey.  All the dogwoods and weeping cherry trees blooming.  All the grass turning green and the flowers opening up to show their gorgeous colors!  The pretty daffodils and tulips!  I will say my very favorite are the pink dogwood and weeping cherry trees.  So that is my reason for creating a piece with these beautiful pink beads I just got my hands on!!  I absolutely cannot wait to share it with you so please stay tuned for something stunning!  And it sounds like we will need it since the weather here is suppose to take a turn colder :(

Have a blessed day and please count your blessings!
Barb

Winner

Congratulations to Ribbitscraps!!  The giveaway winner!!

Giveaway Day!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! We had a great time in NYC with family. I was able to come home with some great inspiration for some new designs! I am so excited for my giveaway tonight! I am posting a picture of these beautiful earrings that will be my first giveaway piece. These are gorgeous green jasper beads with hints of brownish red hues. I handmade the ear wires from sterling silver and the beads are on a sterling silver headpin as well. I love these little beauties! Please leave a comment either here or on the next post for your entry to win! You have until midnight tonight and the winner will be announced tomorrow morning! Thanks and good luck!

Enjoy the day!
Barb