A little about canes...

Beads, bangles and other pieces like these are made by layering slices of canes onto premade objects or scrap clay and then shaped. Alice Stroppel made a fantastic video about canes. Check it out to see "behind the scenes" footage of a most accomplished polymer artist!

New bangle designs!

LOVE the production wave I'm riding right now :) These little beauties will be in my shop today. I am thinking about starting a collection anchored in black and white with pops of color. What is your favorite color to "pop" in with black and white?

Wordless Wednesday

Treasury feature!

Check out this treasury that includes one of my new bead sets! It's a gorgeous collection by Spontaneous Dots and there is a great variety of pieces and artists. I am also planning to add at least 1 new piece every day this week to my Etsy shop so be sure to stop over there when you get a chance.

The winner is...

Here is my super sophisticated/cutie pie selection machine.

Congrats, Damla!

A big thank you to all who participated!

Only a few hours left...

Don't forget to enter by commenting on this post! Also, FREE SHIPPING is still good in my shop until midnight tonight (MST).

Sisters with Style! (Finally ;)

Don't for get to enter HERE for a chance to win a free bangle! Entries close tomorrow night!Sisters with Style

Such a cute story!

My friend Mary comes from a big family and they have an annual family reunion. She asked me to make gifts for her mother and sisters to celebrate this year's event. I made a little show for them to see how their items came to be! Unfortunately I am having trouble getting it onto blogger. As soon as I figure that up I will share it with you. But until then the items in this awesome color combo have been added into my shop. I wanted them to get in in time for the SALE! Also, don't miss your chance to win this bangle! Go to this post and comment!

Hooray! SALE and Giveaway!

FINALLY I have been able to get started overhauling/updating my Esty shop! I uploaded 15 new items today and hope to continue through the weekend.

To celebrate I am offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders that are placed before midnight (Mountain Standard Time) on Sunday the 25th!

I am also going to give away this bracelet to one of my readers. Here are somethings you can do to win:

1)Leave a comment on this post.

Extra entries! Please leave a separate comment for each thing you do so that I make sure to catch all your entries

2) Become a follower (If you are already let me know that too)

3)Blog about this giveaway and link to it.

4)Tweet about the giveaway and include @kategardenghi

I will count up the entries and pick a winner on Monday the 26th. I will be leaving this post at the top of my blog until Monday but I will still post new stuff underneath :)

Elevators and getting peed on.

Marie over at Creative Sprinkle (which normally has NOTHING to do with peeing) wrote a post about "life peeing on your creativity". It's a great post and you should read it.

She starts off talking about an "elevator pitch". That is what you would tell someone about your blog in the time it takes to be in the elevator with them. I struggle with this somewhat because up until recently I don't think I really had a clear, focused direction for my blog. I started this blog originally to keep family and friends informed while we lived abroad but I have now switched to primarily focusing on my jewelry and I hope to keep it that way. So going forward my elevator pitch would be "I blog about my jewelry designs which are supposed to help other people express themselves" and pass them a business card.

Speaking of helping other people express themselves...I finished the custom order I posted about yesterday and tomorrow I hope to share the full story behind it. Here is a quick look at the results. Stay tuned for details!

The makeover has begun!

I hope you are loving my new look as much as I am! My fantastic webmaster (also my husband) whipped this out over the weekend. I hope to tweak things a little bit more by cleaning up the side column and adding a few more links to the navigation bar but for now I am thrilled to have it all up and running.

I also got a custom order over the weekend and the story behind it is so fun that I hope to be able to share it all here later (after I clear it with my client and actually finish the pieces). But here is a little peek of the theme :)

What do you think?

I am still alive! Barely. I have finally caught up on my Google Reader and read up on my bloggy friends, recovered from having visitors (loved seeing everyone) and am just now getting ready to overhaul this blog and my Etsy shop! Whew. Since I know that many of my followers are beading babes, polymer princesses or other jewelry related artists I am hoping to get some feed back from you guys on this post. I am considering adding a new dimension to my shop by selling beads (that I make) as supplies. What do you think? Here are a couple examples. Please take a second to let me know what you think of the idea in general (and these beads in particular too if you want!).

Isaac and his letters

Isaac tried to copy his name for the first time last night. The top is my example and the bottom is his!

3 for 3

Three cuddly cousins.

Three shade of blue eyes.

Three happy girls!

Hard to beat that!

So much going on!

Wow. So I meant to try and blog as we went this "staycation" we are having while I have my brother and his family here and my mother-in-law as well. You can see how that's going :P Anyway, we have been loving getting to know "Baby Rhys" (pronounced reese) and hanging out with family all week. I will post pictures later when I get them processed and uploaded. Meanwhile, the jewelry front has been surprisingly busy and exciting. I want to do more detailed posts later but here are a couple quick links to get you started...

Janeen, my bead soup partner, was featured here with her necklace showcasing my focal!

Sandy makes these Bottles of Hope and she donated one on my behalf as part of her commitment when we were doing OWOH. They are amazing and go to such a great cause! Check them out.

Also...stay tuned for updates on the Barefoot Sandal Swap. I got my set yesterday and they are AMAZING!