Mad about - earrings

I am mad about earrings!
It's how I started along this crazy path 16years ago.
Are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin....

We'd been living in Tucson, Arizona home to the biggest bead and gem fair in the world and there was no shortage of fine creative types producing lovely and wondrous earrings.
Then we returned to Australia and nothing - no earrings! It's hard to believe now when there is such a flood of jewellery designers, but I just could not buy earrings that I liked. There were no earrings at the craft markets or gift shops. There were no on-line stores like etsy and madeit.
So I wandered down to the local Spotlight store and found some beads and decided to make my own. Of course I didnt have all the things I needed to make earrings and the beads were pretty awful, but that is how I started.

I still love earrings from the most splendidly simple and classic -

rocket earrings by finchbird

through enormous handformed porcelain discs with the look of ancient relics -

porcelain earrings by Round Rabbit

to dainty enamel studs -

enamel studs by rmdjewellery

Sometimes all you need is a beautiful handmade glass lampwork bead -

soft blues lampwork earrings by andyjusty

or a luminous little cabouchon of glass that you have made yourself (if you have a glass fusing kiln!)

bright and transparent sky blue studs by RadicalGlass

None of those?
How about using little beads to make a bigger bead for your earrings -

fountain of seeds earrings by fredbeansnook

or different types of beads combined with cabouchons -

celeste earrings by triz

or go wherever the beads take you -

oysters with pearls freeform earrings by KristinsSilverStrand

Do earrings have to be matching?
I dont think so - but they can tell a story -

the perfect fit by ReneeLoughlin

or share a theme -

flit and fly by leaestella

they can be incredbly lush and decadent -

kyanite, ruby and apatite earrings by Maykela

What are your favorite earrings?

I feel I have only touched the tip of the earrings iceberg.
I think I'll have to bring you some more another day, but for now please leave a comment because I'm going to give away a pair of earrings at the end of the week!

My creative space

I was hoping to bring you pics of my newly sorted and tidied work room - BUT, due to big hotness and much procrastination it isnt finished yet.
It is on the way and I've thrown out stuff I've collected over the years for projects that I've totally forgotten about - you know - all the UFO's*.

So instead I've been playing with little beads -


A portable little project to take when I'm playing shops at The Nook, Leura.

One of my portable creative spaces is shown here -


A plastic shoe box from chain store.
I put a bunch of bags of beads, some thread, needles, scissors, whatever.
I cut a beading mat in two and it fits in the lid giving me a nice no-slip work surface.
And heigh-ho it's off to work I go!

For more creative spaces please visist kootoyoo's blog.


* unfinished objects!

Tuesday's treasuries

Phew! so many treasuries - I'm finding hard to keep up!
Anyway I'll start and get to the end of January.

A very big, big thanks to all these wonderful curators who take the time and trouble to put together such wonderful collections.

First of all thanks go to Buffalogirls for including my mossy czech glass earrings with all these other gems!

Buffalogirls is incerdibly creative and talented - you have to see the moss collesctions and wonderful photography.

I love the quirkiness and packaging of card and earrings - what a great gift -


My destash shop doesnt get featured in treasuries very often.
Is it because destash and supplies are not good objects for a treasury?
Or because I dont promote planetdebris very much and it doesnt get noticed?
So I am very thankful to nihanatakan for picking some of my cardboard pieces in a shiny cornucopia

nihanatakan makes beautiful silver jewellery and I love pomegranates so I just couldnt go past this sweet necklace and what's more it's on sale!
Go check it out.



I love the quote from Winnie the Pooh that inspired ZiBagz and am I so totally respect ZiBagz!
They popped BoosTees brooch in here -

ZiBagz upcycles an eclectic mix of materials into covetable treasures.
Look at this darling purse!


Our northern hemispheer friends must have had enough of winter already, especially after the horrible snow storm recently.
Their thoughts turn to spring and colours other than snow white!
What a gorgeous colourful treasury and uplifting to see my bracelet here -


Grackilee has a great idea to make personalised jewellery.
You could get a pendant like this made with your own photos on.
Or it would make a great grandparents gift.



BrookeHowie must be dreaming of warmer brighter times -

This one makes me smile - fun and sunny!

BrookeHowie has a shope filled with wonderful colourful art works. They make me smile too!


Maybe Sealmaiden is a country girl at theart?
Certainly there are great picks here and the composition is eyecatching!
I dont think my bronze pearl earrings look out of place - do you?

I love tshirts.
Sandmaiden has amazing tshirts!
Look -


Blushie chose a very dramatic colour scheme -


Also some great new sellers for me to investigate.

And blushie makes drool-worthy soaps - mini works of art!


Come back next week and I'll get started on February!

This is what Cyclone Yasi did.

A picture is worth ten thousand words *

Sign in Tully

Tully home peeled open

Cardwell's foreshore is washed away

Banana farm inundated by cyclone Yasi floodwaters

Trees felled in Townsville

Destroyed banana plantation

Homes destroyed in Tully

Toilet is all that is left of a house at Mission Beach

HELP!

Etsian Disaster Relief Appeal

Red Cross

Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal

* quote by Frederick R. Barnard 1927

Photos from ABC website

What I've been (not) cooking

It's been so hot this week and despite having airconditioning I really havent felt like doing any cooking.
Anyway I love salads in the hot weather.

One night I made an asian noodle green papaya salad, which I was so hungry I forgot to take pictures of!

Why is it that asian food is so condusive to the hot weather?
Maybe because they have had centuries of developing cooling food.

The next evening I made rice paper rolls filled with leftover rice noodles forn the papaya salad, shredded carrot, sliced cucumber, bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, thinly sliced red capsicum and finely chopped shallot.
I mixed it all together with a litte sweet chilli sauce.
Rolled into softened rice paper rounds, dipped in soy sauce and yum!



OK, so this next has a bit of cooking - but I used the mirowave for all of it, so that I didnt have to cook over the cooktop.
Gado gado!

I never make enough peanut sauce I should double the amount.
Peanut butter, tablespoon of soy sauce, crushed garlic clove, tablespoon sweet chilli sauce, some water.
Heat until combined and hot!

I confess - I cooked hard boiled eggs in a saucepan on the stove top!
But still a sweat-free dinner.

What are your favorite hot weather meals?

My creative space

- is a train crash!

OK, in my defence I am in the process of have a big sort out, clean up and get straight!

My deadline is to blog about my newly organised space next week - I promise!

If you would like to check out some more creative spaces, that are a lot neater than mine, pop over to Kootoyoo's blog.

Tuesday's treasuries

What inspires you to make a treasury?

It's always so interesting to see where inspiration comes from.
Some use their street teams as inspiraton.
Allthepreciousthings used the double whammy of street team plus special occassion to make this great treasury -


Allpreciousthings has an amazing array of vintage and retro goodies.
I just couldnt go past these wonderful cups -

orange melmac cups by allthepreciousthings

Valentine's Day is of course a great source of inspiration.
And many curators have lots of fun with this theme, including NofkaDesign -

NofkaDesign has lots of Valentine digital downloads - what a great way to buy printed stuffs!
I'm enamoured of these little sweeties -

digital backgrounds by NofkaDesign

LiseWinne selected one of Boos Tees shirts for her Valentine's collection -

Lise is incredibly an talented artist working in many mediums.
How cute is this owl card?

birthday owls by LiseWinne

fivelittlegems was inspired by people she met in the etsy forums!

I'm so in awe of anyone who does things with wire!
Take alook at fivelittle gems wirework here -

necklace by fivelittlegems

CharmedAsAlways chose a selection of pretty, colourful accessories here -

CharmedAsAlways - what a great name!
I love the section headings in this shop too.
Here you willl find lovely beaded wonders such as this -

5 strand necklace by CharmedAsAlways

Me? I was inspired by the tennis!

A very big "thankyou" to all these wonderful, generous curators.