I said no more dogs after Cassie was gone, I really did...and I meant it...for about 2 days. It was so lonely and quiet here neither one of us could stand it . So I went on the search for a reputable breeder in the area. Usually most only have a littler once or twice a year so I was sure we would have to wait until spring. I think I must have sent out about 20 emails . Most would let me know when they had a litter available..but one..one had a litter ready to go and we could come visit.
So we did and left with Annabella..who I must say as I sit here and write and she's in her puppy corral..is VERY vocal. I haven't had and sleep in days and caught the flu yesterday but we're happy! We'll be even happier when she's a big girl with a big girl bladder!
Our little bully went over the rainbow bridge last night. She was the most faithful, lovable dog I've ever had the pleasure of calling my own. She came into this world on June 21,2000 The longest day of the year and summer solstice and left this earth December 21, 2010 the shortest day of the year. My only consolation is she's up in heaven with my parents taking care of her silly face right now. Here's to all those mourning the loss of a pet this holiday....
Rainbow Bridge
There is a bridge connecting heaven and earth It is called Rainbow Bridge because of its many colours
Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills, valleys with lush green grass
When a beloved pet dies, the pet goes to this special place There is always food and water and warm spring weather
The old and frail are young again Those who are maimed are made whole again
They play all day with each other There is only one thing missing
They are not with their special person who loved them on Earth So each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up !
The nose twitches ! The ears are up ! The eyes are staring ! And this one suddenly runs from the group !
You have been seen, and when you and your special friend meet, you take him or her into your arms and embrace your face is kissed again and again, and you look once more into the eyes of your trusting pet
Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together, never again to be separated
I'm so grateful to everyone who signed up for the last giveaway! Quite an overwhelming response to say the least.. considering the giveaway before that I only had 8 people sign up for!
Good news is I'm having one more giveaway! I'm not hosting this one though. It's at Cafe Handmade and they have a few different rules and you have less time to dilly over putting in an entry ;) Here is the link to the giveaway Cafe Handmade Giveaway and here's what you could win!
This is a solid sterling silver cuff (that will fit pretty much any wrist) with a sea glass stone bezel set in fine silver. The stone washed up on the beaches of Hawaii after many years of tumbling around in the sea!
Congratulations goes out to Bob Fedoruk for winning the 1st ever Bully Beads Blog Giveaway! Send me a message with your snail mail addy Bob and I'll get your necklace out to you Monday!
Thank you everyone for participating! Stay tuned for another great giveaway!
Without further ado and to not keep anyone in more suspense... Starting today I will be having a blog giveaway to celebrate the re opening of bullybeads blog. I've sorely neglected her :(
This is the prize!
The sterling silver chain is 34 inches long and has 2 pink puffy cubes of pink quartz. The circle pendant is made from fine silver and hammered for texture. I've wire wrapped 3 fantastic briolettes to the circle.The first is a beautiful gold flash onion faceted labradorite, the second is a lovely mystic blue topaz flat pear briolette and last but certainly not least is a humongo large double concave mystic pink quartz! The entire piece was heavily oxidized to make the colors pop!
There will be several ways you can enter and each will count as it's own entry should you choose to enter more than once :)
1. 1 entry for posting a comment below
2.1 entry for following my blog
3. 1 entry for fanning (liking)me on facebook CLICK HERE
4. 1 entry for tweeting about this giveaway
5. 1 entry for posting a link to this giveaway on your facebook page.
6. 1 entry for posting about this giveaway on your own blog.
Please leave a comment here with an email address so you can be contacted and how many entries you had and and what you did to enter. The winner will have 72 hours to respond to the winning announcement and give me their shipping address. If not, there will be another winner chosen . The giveaway will run today August 14th until August 28th midnight EST.
A winner will be chosen using random.org on August the 29th!
So the big news is I've finally had a shop want to carry some of my items!! I know it's not like I have terrible things, but I've never known how to approach anyone to carry things. Thanks to facebook and Susan Rosenblum I got connected with American Craftsman Gallery . I've been working feverishly for two days now! I don't carry a ton of extra stock and I wanted to come up with some fresh ideas to send to the shop!
These are a few of the things I'm going to be sending in... I have a ton more *whew*
I did get to have some time in the yard to unwind and think about what I wanted to make next. Caught this little beauty on the hosta.
So if you're in New Platz, NY on August 27th , they are having a fashion show with wine, cheese and other goodies at the Grand Opening of the American Craftsman Gallery from 6-8 pm. Stop by and see some of my things at the fashion show!
I'm not a vegetarian..not even close, but occasionally I like to feel like I'm eating healthy and make one of my dear friend Sharons recipe for veggie pizza. Keep in mind you can use any combo of your favorite veggies these are just the ones I like.
1 -tube 13.8 oz. pillsbury classic pizza (usually in dairy case with crescent rolls) 1 -1.0 oz package Hidden Valley Ranch dips mix 1 -8 oz package Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese ( I used 1/3 less fat..more healthy lol)
2 TBS. Mayo 2 small bunches of broccoli handful of petite carrots sliced 1/2 medium green pepper diced 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1/2 small jar sliced spanish olives
Mix cream cheese,mayo and half the package of hidden valley ranch until well blended, set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Bake pizza dough according to directions... 425 degrees for about 8 minutes. Make sure to poke some holes in the dough to keep it from getting huge bubbles (lesson learned) Set aside to cool.
While crust is cooling chop all veggies. When the crust is cool, spread with cream cheese mixture. Top with your chopped veggies...make sure you take your "clean" hands and press the veggies into the cream cheese mixture...makes them stick better and you don't end up with a lap full of veggieness. Top with cheddar cheese and cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors meld ;)
These can be cut up into small pieces if you are having a party. They make an awesome appetizer or like me, cut in big pieces and try to consume the entire thing in one afternoon...hey, it is 1/3 less calories right?!! Notice I got out the good china for this photo =D
I've always been envious of other gemstone buyers for one simple reason...they post pictures of the package they get from India! I know it's trivial, but I can't help it. I've always wished for my very own package wrapped in linen, hand stitched shut and a seal in red wax all over the outside. I never thought I would get my very own linen box....
...but I did today!!! Almost missed the mailman! He never comes this early in the morning..ever. After a late night with hubby playing "world of warcraft" getting my level 29 night elf hunter to a level 30 so I can finally have a mount, I was pooped and stayed in bed till 11:30. Hey, I'm a second shifter, what can I say?
I peeked out the window to see who was disturbing my beauty sleep and see the mailman leaving the porch ...with my package from India in tow! OHMYGOD!!!! I sent hubby outside after him...in his pj's hahaha!! This was my reward
It was just like christmas day, I could hear the metal box inside making thunking noises as I pressed my fingers around the package. After taking several momento pictures, I cut into that sucker quicker than you can say "bob's your uncle" (don't know what that mean's, but I've heard people from the UK say it and always wanted an excuse to say it :) )
All wrapped up and nicely packaged
Getting a little closer to the contents...just peeping out...
After all these years of waiting..just a bit more packaging...oh! Like a kid in a candy store I ripped it all out and examined each and every stone *sigh* Only one bead broke from the fancy rock crystal quartz, but that sucker was loaded with stones. One snapped top isn't going to make me sob with grief..now two maybe??
But this is the end result of all my waiting and wishing. The prices were fabulous and it didn't take very long at all to get them. I must say the quality is really good too. I hate not being able to pick and choose, but there were only minor inclusions in just a very few of the pink amethyst (but they sent me two strands instead of only one!)
Seriously ...and her name is Donnamarie! But..I'll get to her later :)
So set up day was Thursday. It all went smoothly and I met my booth partner Michele of Tomboy Tools. I noticed the place smelled kind of funky...it is the Harrisburg Farm Show Complex afterall, so it was a sort of barnyard smell...GREAT! Swine flu...barnyard...pigs...swine flu. It should have been an omen for things to come...
Here I am all set up and ready to go friday morning.You can see how excited hubby is trying to hide in the fake trees of my neighbor.
This is the view down my isle...and it pretty much looked like this all Friday!It was just vendors walking around buying and taste testing...lucky me I had a casino 2 doors down with a spinning wheel that made a lovely tick tick tick tick sound with each peg that was hit...joy...
Here enters Donnamarie :) and the heavens opened up *enter angel chorus* Everyone was so bored that we pretty much left our booths and wondered around. This is when she found my booth..and bought my favorite pair of london blue topaz and ruby earrings! Half way to paying my booth fee YAY!
Saturday was supposed to be the big drawl, Jon and Kate minus the 8. Where Kate signed copies of their new book. It drew a whopping 1,000 people.
...but, once again Donnamarie visited and made my day...TWICE!
Sunday, we had to be there early for a vendor meeting. Many vendors were calling the show coordinators and complaining of the poor attendance. I saw so many packing up saturday and leaving. Many more left sunday morning. They were sorry and apologized for the poor attendance, but had no idea why it was so poorly attended. If word got out how awful the farm shows food was, that could be one reason..bleck! The coordinators had no control over the food or the $8 parking fee 0_o Sunday was the day Andrew Dan-Jumbo showed up..poor guy! He walked down my isle while I was packing up and said "hi" to me! AHHHHHHHH!
We packed up early because I was just exhausted and hubby ended up getting sick sunday morning.But not before Donnamarie visited and bought more and asked me to custom make her a pair of "Let them eat cake" earrings and wire wrap a stone for her :D
I only had one negative experience with a vendor on the other side of the curtain I guess thinking they had a dome of silence curtain...saying to a customer that "They were true artisans and silversmiths unlike the crafter wire wrappers" Not sure who she thought she was.. I left in the black..she was still in the red...guess it pays to be "just a crafter". I did make several sales besides Donnamarie and overall it was a great learning experience and I won't be so freaked out next time.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart Donnamarie for making my first show worthwhile!
So at the beginning of the month, I was contacted by the show coordinator for the 1st annual Pennsylvania woman's show I knew there was no way under God's green earth I could afford the booth fee, But the very sweet lady told me she would see if she could find someone to share a booth with me. After several days of not hearing from her, I breathed a sigh of relief thinking "she forgot about me...who am I kidding? I'm a huge introvert.. I'm not doing a show!" ...she got back to me saying she found someone to share a booth with me! Oh snap! Busted...now I have to do it. So , here it is, the day of set up. Can I just say I'm scared to DEATH! Not only do I have to worry about people not liking my things or having to compete with mass produced Lia Sophia jewelry..now we have the swine flu *possible pandemic* Now all I can think of is no one is going to show for fear of getting the pig virus *rolling eyes* can anything else possibly go wrong?I did do a pre show set up just to see how it would look set up..here's a preview (keep in mind I have a small space to set up, so the table to the left won't be that close)
The big draw is Jon and Kate Gosselin from Jon & Kate + 8. I'm really hoping they show, I would love to meet them!Hubby said , it's all a learning process and atleast I'll get some experience even if it's a bust. Maybe I should have shot for a smaller show to start with?!
Oy Vey...it's going to be a long weekend! Wish me luck!I'll come back later to update as to how it went.
I said I wouldn't do it this year..I promised I wouldn't have the mess of last year...I swore to heaven I'd keep on top of it....hell..that all went out the window...
Tax time again and once again, I've fallen sadly behind. I wish I could have been more like my mother..or even my brother and be a more organized person, but it just wasn't ment to be. I think those genes passed me by on the gene pool highway.
I'm such a procrastinator infact that I took some time to make tea with orange cranberry scones,pear tarts and devonshire cream with my favorite lady grey tea. Guess it's time to suck it up! Wish me luck!
This holiday season, many of us are on a tight budget. What better way to get more bang for your buck than to shop with sellers on Etsy participating in the Etsyfest Holiday sale!
Each seller will have their own shop sale listed clearly in their shop. I will be having 20% off all items in my shop! The sale runs from Thanksgiving to cyber Monday December 1st.
Here is the complete list of sellers participating in the Etsyfest sale:
I also have a brand spankin new web site up and running! You can visit here I'm also having 20% off there if you add the word "holiday" in the coupon code box at the check out.The sale on my personal website lasts till January 2nd.
I didn't want to do it,I feel odd talking about myself,who would want to read about me,would anyone really care??!!! All my excuses in the past for not jumping at the chance to have someone actually blog about me.
I'm a terrible introvert and not very confident that anyone would even care to look at my work. Lately, I've been getting a lot of compliments from total strangers just wanting to tell me they love my work and I even had a great conversation with a lady (whom I had never met before) tell me she believed in ME! Imagine that!
The lovely Kristy of Shiny Adornments on etsy has been a friend for about a year now and approached me about doing a feature on me.I finally said "what the heck harm can it do?" So I said YES!
You can see the great article Kristy did on her site here Shiny Adornments
If you ever get asked to be featured on someones site, don't turn it down! You never know who will see you and fall in love with your work ;)
Just a few pics for this beautiful sunny day here in south central Pa. We get a ton of dragonflies every year and this one was just hanging out on the hosta flower.
A few more pictures of the fish and frogs..they were very prolific last year! Lots of new babies :)
Due to our crappy economy,housing market slump,rising cost of groceries,health care,gas,supplies, yadda yadda..... I have been layed off from my job this week. I'm sort of happy and sort of sad. I badly needed a break because it was getting really stressful always wonder when I would finally get the lay off word and getting bumped from shift to shift and building to building, but darn it! I worked HARD to get into that place waiting for 3 1/2 years to even hear from them after I put in my application..getting tested,back ground check and physical like no other physical ever known to man kind...
So right now, I am going to focus on my two shops and build up as much inventory as possible.I'll be starting a new sale beginning August 1st through the entire month. 10% off any one item 15% off any two items 20% off any 3 items or more The discount will only be on the price of the item and not off of shiping.
If anyone would like to get on my mailing list to hear about future sales and special discounts only for people on my mailing list, please send an email to mdharlin@gmail.com
Time to get rid of some inventory (and justify all those gemstone purchases I've made lately!) so from now until I get tired of it I'm having any one item purchased and receive 10% off.Purchase 2 or more items and receive 20% off. Simply add SALE in note to seller and I will send you a revised invoice or refund if you would like to purchase the items immediatly. Sale is only on total of item and does not include shipping charges.
Some of my newer pieces are going for a bargain ..especially if you purchase more than one item.
Sofies Night Out Necklace
Blue Butterfly Day Earrings
and the Abbra Kadabra Necklace
These are just a sampling of what's in my shop, so stop by and check it out. I also do commissions :) Lissa Harlin Designs
The very first Earth Day was held on November 30, 1969 and founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson as a way to bring environmental issues and awareness to the public's attention.
Our Wire Artisans Guild on Etsy is participating on this earth day by coming up with a theme challenge of "au naturale". My submission was just completed.. I just can't tell you how many hours I put into wire wrapping this piece while laying in bed with a cold from hell. I named it Dogwood Blossoms after the poem by George Marion McClellan~
O dreamy languors and the violet mist Of early Spring, the deep sequestered vale Gives first her paling-blue Miamimist, Where blithely pours the cuckoo's annual tale Of Summer promises and tender green, Of a new life and beauty yet unseen. The forest trees have yet a sighing mouth, Where dying winds of March their branches swing, While upward from the dreamy, sunny South, A hand invisible leads on the Spring.
His rounds from bloom to bloom the bee begins With flying song, and cowslip wine he sups, Where to the warm and passing southern winds, Azaleas gently swing their yellow cups. Soon everywhere, with glory through and through, The fields will spread with every brilliant hue. But high o'er all the early floral train, Where softness all the arching sky resumes, The dogwood dancing to the winds' refrain, In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms.
We used to have wild dogwoods growing behind our house in the woods when I was growing up and I just thought they were the most beautiful flowering trees still growing in the densely lush oaks and pines.
I bought these amazing prehnite marquise beads at the last bead show in York and I think, put them to good use in this piece along with the lovely crystal clear rose quartz briolettes. I chose to oxidize this piece to make the pale pastel colors stand out more.I'm going to be making more flower necklaces in the future...if they never sell, I'll have a great collection!
Please check out the Wire Artisans Shop on Etsy April 22nd to see all the fabulous entries by some awesomely talented wire artisans! Be sure to give them lots of heart love!
Music is my life, it is not my livlihood...maybe not music, but jewlery. Just a little back story.. When I create, sometimes I might not have a clue what I'm going to make ...some days I don't even want to make anything,but I turn on the music and I'm inspired. Both of my parents have passed away back when I was in my 20's so I have a tendency to listen to music that they enjoyed and it makes me feel closer to them. Neither one was alive when I started making jewelry, so it's my little ode to them :)
Back to Mr. Tanner... One of my father's favorites was Harry Chapin..I don't think he ever really forgave Mom for not wanting to go to a Harry concert right before he(Harry Chapin) died in '81. Dad would blare it down in the basement and I'd yell downstairs for him to turn it down! He'd always yell up "Miss, I like my music loud and my women quiet" That always got a grin out of me. Mr.Tanner is the name of a Harry Chapin song about a dry cleaner who sang a beautiful baritone and everyone in the neighborhood told him he needs to sing professionally. Here are the lyrics and a live video of Harry performing.
Mr. Tanner by Harry Chapin
Mister Tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest. And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best. But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes. He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows. His friends and neighbors praised the voice that poured out from his throat. They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats.
But music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.
His friends kept working on him to try music out full time. A big debut and rave reviews, a great career to climb. Finally they got to him, he would take the fling. A concert agent in New York agreed to have him sing. And there were plane tickets, phone calls, money spent to rent the hall. It took most of his savings but he gladly used them all.
But music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.
The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile. And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle. But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause. He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws. But the critics were concise, it only took four lines. But no one could accuse them of being over kind.
(spoken) Mr. Martin Tanner, Baritone, of Dayton, Ohio made his Town Hall debut last night. He came well prepared, but unfortunately his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards. His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it consistently interesting. (sung) Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order.
He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends. Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again, excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed. He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes. Music was his life, it was not his livelihood, and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.
I can so relate to Mr.Martin Tanner..jewelry is my life, it is not my livlihood....but it makes me feel so happy and it makes me feel so whole. Never let critic's get you down as long as you love what you're doing.
