Sponsor: Bright-Eyed Bear

Today I'd like to introduce you to Rosemary of Bright-Eyed Bear. She was kind enough to do an interview with me! My questions are in bold with Rosemary's answers underneath. Enjoy!

First off, please share links to your shop and other relevant sites so peeps can check them out!

Bright-Eyed Bear website

Art blog 

Facebook page 

Tell us a bit about yourself, Rosemary! Aside from creating jewelry, what are your interests?

I love creating anything! I love knitting, baking, photography, drawing, planning events, anything I can get my hands on! I love to read, I'm a huge literature and art history nerd. My art nerdiness is actually what go me into fashion/jewelry. I love seeing fashion as a form of art and self expression. :) I also do a lot of volunteer work for my local library, which is something I recommend to all bookworms!

What do you sell?

On my site I sell handmade necklaces and earrings. At craft shows I try out different things too, like hair pins and keychains. I've also done some photography and some logo design, but I don't consider myself accomplished enough to offer either online yet.

I really like the variety in your store-- everything from lovely Catholic medals to cute, indie jewelry such as bright owls and feathers. Where do you get your ideas? Do you "find" your creations as you make them, or do you plan them carefully before putting them together?

My ideas come from everything I love and find beautiful–and I guess that's why there's so much variety! I also love putting my own spin on trends and making them more affordable.
My jewelry definitely comes together as I go. I usually find some element that I love (like a certain color or charm) and work from there. I currently have a bag of Guatemalan worry dolls, a bunch of plastic cowgirl boot charms, and some vintage buttons lying on my desk. We'll see what happens!

Do you have any particular favorites?

Definitely the Our Lady of Guadalupe earrings. I think the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is so beautiful, and the earrings are so bright! Also the Maria necklace in gold. It is so shimmery and perfect for summer. I've been tempted to keep one for myself!

Where did your business name come from?

It's kind of a long story! I had started making jewelry and had just bought a table at a craft show and I desperately needed a name so I could make business cards and a website. I made all these huge lists of words I liked but everything I thought of was taken or felt forced. I was currently reading The Odyssey for school (and not enjoying it!) and I really liked the description of Athena as "bright-eyed." To me it's a description that refers to both wisdom and beauty.

I felt I had to add another word to it and the first thing I thought of was "Bright-Eyed Bird." I experimented with logos and kept drawing cute little owls. But it didn't feel right. As much as I love owls and birds, they were really popular at the time and not especially personal. Once I realized I was missing something personal, something that had to do with me, I knew it had to be Bear. Bear has been my family's nickname for me ever since my parents brought me home and my sister called me "Rosebeary" instead of Rosemary! ;) Because of that, bears have always been my "thing."

Bright-Eyed Bear alliterated, was personal, and I liked that it kept the nature-y theme. So I drew a logo and that was that. I still don't know if it's the perfect name. It might seem really weird to someone who has never thought of bears as cute or pretty. But it's very me! :)

Do you have any fave blog reads?

Yours of course!
I'm also really inspired by this crafty homeschooled girl: http://aslipperymaiden.blogspot.com/
For tons of crafts, tutorials, and recipes, and thoughts on running a business, I recommend: http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/
I also read waaay too many fashion blogs! Here's one of my favorites: http://www.kendieveryday.com/


Thanks, Rosemary! Guys, be sure to visit her lovely store. It's definately worth a look-over!

(Interested in sponsoring? Info here.)

Smaug T-Shirt {Guest Post}

Hello and greetings, serendipitous readers of Shealynn's equally lovely blog! I'm Marlene E. from over www.thetouchofwhimsy.blogspot.com way, and I'm absolutely delighted to meet one and all!


I've officially hijacked this blog for a day, so now you must bear with me as I share my little tutorial on how to make a positively geeky and utterly fashionable shirt inspired by everyone's favorite-book-soon-to-be-an-amazing-film, The Hobbit. My inspiration was simple. You know those coolio maps the good ol' Professor drew at the beginning of the book...? Not sure? Don't know what I'm talking about? Here's a convincer:

Okay, said map has a little dragon drawn on it. See it...? Oh, you don't...? THERE.

Now that we've got the inspiration clear, onto the shirt!

Here's what you're going to need...

ONE Cream T-Shirt, blank and ready to be turned into awesome sauce
ONE skein of DMC floss in red... if you can't find this particular color, that's okay. Any burgundy will do just as nicely.
ONE needle
ONE sheet of transfer paper*
ONE ballpoint pen*
*If you have another method of transferring designs onto fabric, by all means, feel free to substitute!

With these trusty tools, you're good to go. Now, the more astute of you may be shocked, but I didn't use a hoop. I thought it would stretch the shirt in an unsightly and irreparable manner.

I also couldn't find my hoop. Hem

Take the following design...

...and transfer it onto your shirt. About 3 1/2” below where the pit of your neck should be when wearing the shirt.

Now, my dears, take your NEEDLE and FLOSS, and go at it with a simple split stitch! Nothin' fancy, nothin' big... just make simple, plain old split-stitches all along the outlines of the design. You can substitute any other stitch you think would look better, I just chose this one because I wanted to. So there.

And... really, that's that. Really. Oh, I did forget a step... go rock your new Smaug shirt in a place where all can see your awesome geekiness.

Oyez.

Thanks a bunch, Shealynn, for having on your lovely blob. It's been a most pleasurable experience!

T-shirt Ruffle Scarf {Tutorial}

Please excuse the horrible picture quality! This is what I get for trying to do a craft tutorial after dinner on a winter evening! 

My best attempts to get pictures of me wearing the scarf.

I saw this project on Pinterest and decided to give it a shot, because I love scarves. Scarves = yayness!

And this requires NO sewing skills. :)

I used two old soccer t-shirts (women's medium). I think that if you had a plain-colored t-shirt, you could use a single shirt to make a scarf. 

However, I wanted to avoid the vinyl-like lettering on both the front and back of the tees, which meant I had very little material to work with. My final result was a little skinner, flatter, and shorter than I wanted-- three shirts would have worked better for me.

The first step is to cut off the bottom hem and cut out a bunch of circles from the tee.

Cut each circle into a spiral.

Lay these ruffly strips out in a row. As I said, my scarf turned out short and limp. You can tie or glue strips together to make extra-long ones, and add in more strips from other t-shirts.

Tie the strips together with another strip of material.

The infamous self-portrait-in-the-bathroom. 

This is probably the fastest and easiest thing ever! We have a giant pile of old sports and event t-shirts out in our rags box (families of eight tend to get a lot of those things), so there may be more of these in store. :) We'll see how often I wear this first, though.

Sponsor: Blue Skya Studios

As many of you may have noticed, I have some lovely blog sponsors at the moment-- their ads are on the sidebar. (Having blog sponsors allows me to pay for extra hosting space on Blogger and hopefully brings the sponsors lots of exposure.) Today I'd like to introduce you to Maddie of Blue Skya Studios. She was kind enough to do an interview with me! My questions are in bold with Maddie's answers underneath. 

First, please share a link to your website(s) so that we can check it out!

Blue Skya Studios

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hello! My name is Madeleine, and I am the owner of Blue Skya Studios. I try to live everyday to its fullest, be cheerful all the time, and be an inspiration to others, but I usually fail at all three. I am a Catholic homeschooler and come from a big family. Photography is my passion. I love the emotion and memory captured in a photograph. Just one look at a picture can take you back in time, its so cool!

What do you sell?

I sell nature photography and, soon, duct tape bows. I also used to sell handmade greeting cards, also, but it was too hard to measure/take pictures that show how the cards really look/upload the photos of them, so I recently took those off the website

What are your favorite items to photograph?

I really love taking portraits of people, bright flowers, and the sun.


Do you have any particular favorite photos?

 I don't really have a favorite....

Where did your business' name come from?

When I was little, my dad used to call me "Skya" (Don't ask why, I don't know myself). When I was thinking of names for my business, I wanted something that meant something to me, not just a random named that sounded cool. Thus, Blue Skya Studios.

What are some of your favorite blogs/websites?

I like too many website to count, but some of my favorites are  Love Sissy and (Life's too short not to) Wear Red Shoes.

Thank you so much, Madeline! Dear blog readers, be sure to visit her website. Her photos are lovely-- which is your favorite?

Hiatus

I'm stepping away from the internet for a week or two. Don't worry, I have several posts scheduled to publish, so you won't be missing me entirely.

The Shoppe is going on vacation mode-- I won't be checking it or shipping until the first full week of July.

I also won't be moderating comments. Lately I've been getting a lot of spam (and primarily in Greek and French with links to what appear from the URLs to be porn)-- please, please don't pay attention to those comments, don't click the links, etc. I'll delete them when we turn the modem back on.

I'm looking forward to a relaxing time with my family, finishing up most of Junior year, and overall just not bothering with any computer work. Lately I've let myself become overwhelmed with computer activities, to the detriment of my art and my prayer life and my overall sanity.

A moment to breathe and live and smell the flowers.

If You Write or Draw...

If you like writing or drawing, you'll love this fiction contest! Ink and Fairydust is holding a competition for short stories, art, or poetry, and the winners from each category will be published in the November/December issue of Ink and Fairydust!

Can you believe that the holiday season is only six months away? In an attempt to keep the festive spirit and to encourage creativity, all short stories must include the carol "Ding Dong Merrily on High" in some way.

If you like poetry or art of any kind, you can submit pretty much anything! I think that artsy photographs might count for the art category.

If you have any questions, email ask@inkandfairydust.com. I'd really encourage everyone who is interested to submit! I can promise you that we don't bite. :) Deadline is July 31st. This is geared for writers in the 13-25 age range, give or take.

Please feel free to save this image, print it out, email it, share it with your friends and family...

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Also, if you have a writing knack and would be interested in writing one article every two to four months, please email submissions@inkandfairydust.com to inquire about becoming a regular contributer. You'll have the chance to be published in a growing online magazine and the ability to work closely with our proofreaders and a young newly-professional editor, Ellianna, who is the sweetest person to critique articles, period.

The May/June issue is slated to be released within the next week or two! :)

Oh, and have I mentioned that I love my software? I discovered four spectacular features in Illustrator and InDesign while working on the fiction contest poster. Thank you, Mom and Dad!

Ear Cuffs and Other Wares

Just a bit of peddling and some shameless self-promotion today, but it comes with a bunch of eye candy, so come along for the show! *starts humming a festive tune*

Firstly, don't forget that my summer clearance sale is only good through Monday, May 21st!

25% all items in the sale category!

Use code: SUMMERCLEARENCESALE42712 at checkout.

Here's a link to the sale category. (Everything with that orange sale tag).

I finally got around to perfecting my recipe for ear cuffs. Turns out all I needed was a dash of pixie dust and a sprinkle of aha! seasoning.

I've listed several ear cuffs in the Shoppe, including a pair of cuffs-- perfect for anyone looking for an alternative to earrings or clip-on earrings. Click through for more pictures, to see how they are worn.

Ear cuff set with interchangeable dangles, well over 10 ways to wear...

This one gets a touch of whimsical steampunkery.

This weekend one of my friends invited me to the Six Flags amusement park. I wore one of the tiny ear cuffs (like this one, only brown), and it stayed in all day, except for the times when I took it off so that other people could wear it. I had sooooo much fun.

In response to those who asked me here on Blogger or via my Twitter and Facebook: do I plan on making an ear cuff tutorial? Yes. Just not right now. Tutorials can take me up to five hours to make, and I still have several weeks of school left.

I also made some more copper hair forks! This is another thing that stays in all day when you wouldn't expect it to-- one hair fork will hold in a bun of my shoulder-blade length hair for hours.

Czech glass leaf beads are some of my favorites. You've seen me use them in the Evenstar Necklaces and Enchanted Forest Earrings, and now I'm weaving them into flowers galore. I recently uploaded three floral necklaces and two earrings!

Personally, I don't wear big, dangly earrings on an everyday basis. This might come as a surprise, considering that I love making big dangly earrings and would make them on a daily basis if I could. I don't have the supplies to make stud earrings, so I once again put those Czech glass beads to work. The pictured earrings are extra-delicate, made from miniature leaf beads that I recently discovered. :) I made pairs in six colors for myself,! One for every day of the week, with big earrings for dressing up on Sunday, lol!

There's tons more but I don't want to bore you-- and I'm off to study for a History test and finish up Ink and Fairydust and maybe find time for some more crafting. :)

Vlog

We got a new video camera that I had to try out. This one is digital!!! No more broken tapes and humming noises!

I'm rubbish in front of a camera. Please pretend that I actually bothered to fix the half-bun that fell out while I was exercising, and that I put on makeup. Please also pretend that I don't have blue acrylic paint all over my arm. (Does anyone know a good way to remove acrylics? It's been two days and soap isn't helping. It's strange.)

I'm not sure why, but if I open the video with Google Chrome, the colors are severely distorted. Let me know if the video is behaving oddly for you.

I think I've convinced myself to never again wind up in front of a camera; I probably just wasted five minutes of your life. *ears turn red* On the other hand, you got sneak peeks for some new jewelry!

I'm disappearing from the blog for about a week in order to work on Ink and Fairydust and final exams. Wish me luck!

P.S. That cute brooch on my cloche (cloches are way cooler than fezzes, tell me you get the reference!) is from Mary's shop, Snowflakes and Clockwork.

Post-post-script: THANK YOU all so very much for the lovely comments you've been leaving me. I rarely say thanks-- so thank you, thank you, danke schoen! Each little note makes my day lovelier and you all have given me so much support and encouragement!

The Road Goes Ever On and On

I've done some Lord of the Rings artwork lately. Here's a "triptych" (actually, just three paintings in a series, I just want to use "triptych" because "triptych" is a cool word and I like cool words. Triptych is cool. *adjusts bow tie*), a triptych of Tolkien's brilliant "Roads go ever on and on" poem.

Each drawing is based off of different verses or versions found in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I'll send you off to my DeviantArt pages for more info ( "The Road from Bag End", "The Road Back Home",  and "The Road to Mordor").

There is one last version of this poem that I could find, spoken by the elderly Bilbo at the end of all the adventures:

"The Road goes ever on and on

Out from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

Let others follow it who can!

Let them a journey new begin,

But I at last with weary feet

Will turn towards the lighted inn,

My evening-rest and sleep to meet."

I'm dearly tempted to paint that one, too. But then I wouldn't have a triptych.

The scanner wasn't kind to my paintings, so here's some photos for comparison.

While working on this, I listened to my favorite versions of this walking song:

My favorite version. 

I can't sing well, but this is an easy tune and I memorized it so I can sing it while walking the hiking trails... yes, a total geek here!

LotR the Musical version.

Not so fond of this one, but love the musical's version of "The Cat and the Moon."

Tolkien Ensemble version.

Again, not as fond of this particular version, but love the band's other songs-- and their version of "Beren and Luthien" is incredibly haunting.

The movie version (Gandalf humming/singing it)

Which version do you like best? And which verse of the poem is your favorite?

If You Have My Blog Button

I know that several of my blogging friends have my button on their sidebar. If you do, please take a moment and see if it has gotten blown up to a strange size. You can replace it with the button below.

Lately I've been haunted with technical failures. Being the computer geek that I tend to be, you'd think I wouldn't have difficulties with things like uploading images.

For some reason, Blogger and Picasa won't recognize image files that I design in Adobe Illustrator, even if they are saved a JPEG or PNG image files. All of my logos, ads, banners, etc, are made in Illustrator.

I used a website called ImageShack to upload these images. Recently, however, I've noticed that several of the images hosted there have grown to disproportionate sizes. I've been systematically deleting these image or uploading them to Photobucket.

(Why didn't I use Photobucket from the beginning? I'd seen too many of those "Photobucket: We're sorry, this image or file has been moved or deleted" error signs on too many blogs before. Plus, they have video ads with loud noise. Nothing is quite so lovely as waking up early to work on the blog and then waking up the whole house with a blaring commercial about some new cell phone.)

Today I was writing a new post when I realized that my blog button image was messed up. I apologize very much to everyone who was kind enough to put this image on their own blog.

Do any of you happen to know why Blogger won't accept certain images? Images edited or built in Photoshop or Corel Paint Shop work wonderfully. However, anything built or edited in Adobe Illustrator is hit and miss. My error code is: "File must be an image or video." I've tried exporting .ai files/artboards as JPEG, PNG, and GIF, to no avail. Taking these images into Photoshop, Corel, or Windows Paint and re-saving or saving under a new name does not help. The only solution I've found is to open the image in Windows Paint and save it as a GIF under a new name-- but that loses a significant amount of color information and it completely unwieldy.

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