Earrings for Joy!

Hello All!

I thought I might share with you what I have been up to in my art room.

Just a little jewelry play! Do you make jewelry?

I began as a child with macrame jewelry, remember that?

Then in my early 30's I took my first wire wrapping course when the nineties were young.

Jewelry making has been an enjoyable hobby ever since.

Just sitting quietly, looking at all the colors and textures... 

I just play around until some combination looks pleasing to me. 

Earrings are pure fun to make and very relaxing. 

I love using natural stones, gemstones, vintage beads and crystals.

The above square pillow beads in lilac are fluorite.

This set I even tied in a little pink embroidery floss and it gave the design some nice texture.

 They can be so simple, yet so lovely to wear!

I hope you are all having a fantastic week!

If you haven't signed up for my Milestone Giveaway just go HERE to do so,

there are some really great prizes I would love to share with you!

Hugs,

Terri

Tea Cup Tuesday-Bohemian

Hello All!

Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday! 

I have a new cup to share with you today....cost me all of $4.50!

You may laugh at the title as it probable isn't European,

but it looks Bohemian to me because the design is unconventional and artsy!

 The coloring is gorgeous to me, and I am loving how paper thin she is.

She is a footed cup, her feet being detailed in green.

I do so love the sweet gold details.....sigh......

I have held the plate a bit off alignment with my camera to hopefully show you the hand painted gold designs.

 What a fanciful handle!

It has a tiny green thumb rest off to the outside near the top. 

The base has four feet, that I find interesting as well as the way the cup bumps out where the flower cameos are located around the cup. The lip of the cup is somewhat octagonal just like the plate.

As you can see it does not sport a backstamp...booo hoooo!

Just this tiny black dot.

I am sure some of you could tell me what country this cup was manufactured in.

Please do tell! Lol!

Here she is, sitting pretty in the golden afternoon sun.....

 I am hosting a Milestone Giveaway and have created a bracelet to give away as well as two fab other prizes. If you haven't signed up to win just yet, click HERE to go to the post where you can leave a comment to win! I will announce the winners on my birthday March 12th!

(Btw, some of you want to know how I made the above flower charm, thinking it was a piece of china....but surprise!...it is an image in a jewelry frame, sealed with Diamond Glaze...Totally easy to do.)

*Blogging Tip*

I have added Google translator to my site at the request of a sweet blogging friend. It was surprisingly easy to do in less than 5 minutes, and it will make it much easier for visitors to translate the page. You can see it at the top of my right side bar. I thought maybe some of you might want to do it too:

First go here Now go to:

Step 1. Choose "Add Translation To My Entire Website" (if I isn't already picked).

Step 2. Choose the language your blog is written in.

Step 3. Skip

Step 4. Skip all but look to the far right for an orange and blue button that says "Add To Blogger" and just click that. Automatically it is added to the top of your gadgets bar, usually on the right side of your blog!

Now anyone can choose another language at the touch of a button in moments!

If you would like to join in and share a tea cup favorite of yours, just go and create your post about your tea cup and then come back here and link that specific post below with Linky tools. Then we can all come over and visit you! Martha and I totally enjoy coming over to your place!

I want to thank each one of you for your visit!

Having you stop by and leave a comment really warms my heart!

Hugs,

Terri

Words to live by for 2012

Hello All!
Happy Saturday!
What a gorgeous day it is here in my little part of world!
I hope that you too are having lovely weather.

I have been contemplating my word or words for this new year...

And I have settled on two that feel truly right for me in my here and now...
Grow
and Fly. 

When I think of growth, I picture tiny shoots coming up out of the fertile ground in spring. The promise of more to come within it's fresh pale green delicate first true leaves. For me, this year, I am open to growth!

To Fly for me includes freedom to spread my wings and turn in new directions, seeing from a higher vantage point a bigger picture of my life, as well as new interesting places I would love to grow into. I am setting my intentions for joyful growth and soaring flight!

Creating in my art room is one of my most joyful pleasure where enjoy growth and new flight patterns as well. To aid in this intention, I am going to Art and Soul in Virgina where I am going to encourage myself to stretch with learning to Solder with Sally Jean Alexander. Anticipation is palpable! 

Here are a pair of earrings I have just finished making, to take with me on my trip. Rutilated Quartz is one of my favorite gemstones. Rutile is a major ore of titanium, it's golden needle like crystals shoot through the quartz like little threads of gold and look so beautiful. 

Wishing you all a very happy and creative weekend!

Hugs,
 Terri


I have a giveaway going on for some really lovely prizes, if you would like to check it out go to my
Celebrating Milestones Giveaway post.
I will be choosing three winners on my birthday March 12!

Tea Cup Tuesday-Valentine's Day!

Hello All! 

Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday!

Today is a day well suited to the romance of tea and a beautiful tea cup!

This is one of my very favorite cups. I bought it upon returning home from Paris, I thought it looked very similar to a cup displayed at Versailles that had belonged to Marie Antoinette.

I adore the swags of flowers!

The plate is just as gorgeous as the cup. I have held it at an angle as I photographed it as the light was shining so beautifully. Hence the two tones of color.

A very simple matte gold handle. Just perfect for this coffee can shaped cup.
The beautiful gold stamping around the edges of the cup is so sweet, and it is worn from use. 
The handle too show wear of being well loved. 
That makes this cup extra special to me.

Would you like a cup of Romance?

How about a romantic indulgence?

The backstamp on the cup has a few numbers stamped in...looks like 079, then the number 1 on it's side underneath. The two ticks in gold are likely an artists mark?

The cup is only marked with this little black squiggle that looks like it could be an initial?
I like to imagine that this cup was manufactured in France. 
It seems more romantic that way!

LOVE ALONE,

is capable of uniting

living beings in such a way as

to complete and fulfill them,

for it alone takes them and

joins them by what is deepest

in themselves.

 (Pierre Teilhard De Chardin 1881-1955
French paleontologist and philosopher)

I have a giveaway that has just begun!

Go here to enter to win a Spring bracelet made by me,

a free Altered Domino Book class

at Creative Workshops, or a Crafty Secrets Illustration CD!

Happy Valentine's Day to each of you!
May you all feel the LOVE that you are!

Hugs,

Terri

Celebrating Milestones Giveaway

 
Milestones....

My 53rd birthday is just around the corner....and I'm feeling good about it!

 Martha and I are heading up to 100 Tea Cup Tuesday posts next week!

Artful Affirmations has always been about my art affirming my life. Art is how I breathe happiness! I have been sharing my creations on this blog for almost 3 years now...time flies! And...three years of having the joyous opportunity to come and see your creations, whether it be an ATC, poetry, a banner, journal art, Collages, tablescaping, tea, cooking, raising chickens, and oh so many more ways of living creatively!

I have enjoyed everyone!

In fact, I am so inspired each day by all of you,

that I have a list a mile long of the projects I want to give a go!

Blogging has become a welcome part of my life. Visiting with you all everyday has been a treat I am happy to continue! I appreciate each and every one of you, all your visits, all your comments, all your wisdom, joy and support!

To Celebrate...lets have a Giveaway!

I used Springtime as an inspiration to create this delicious pastel bracelet. I squeezed as many charms on it as I could...enjoying the play of colors. There are new as well as vintage beads, and some natural stone too on this one, and an extra length, so it can be shortened to fit. To enter to win this piece, just be a follower and leave a comment saying you love the bracelet.

My next prize is a FREE DOMINO BOOK CLASS of mine at Creative Workshops! This class has 9 videos with 4 different style techniques that can be used in many art forms. If you would love to take this class for FREE, just be a follower and leave a comment saying you would love to take the class.

The third opportunity for you to win is a Illustrations CD by Crafty Secrets. This is the most amazing CD full of all kinds of vintage images, die cuts, templates, papers and so much more! I love it! If you would like to enter to win this CD just be a follower and let me know you love the CD in your comment.

And if you would like to enter for 2 or all three, just say so and I will put you down for it. I wish you all the best of luck!

The giveaway date is March 12th, which is my own birthday.

Thank you so very much for stopping by!

Tea Cup Tuesday-Mint Blue

Hello All!
Welcome to Tea Cup Tuesday,
time to reach into the china cabinet and pull out a cup to share!
Have a seat by the fireplace and I will pour you a cup of tea.
First off though I have two things to say:

Thank you all so much for your amazing comments from my last post!

You all showed up big and brave and cheered me up! I really loved reading all your comments. I too, felt inspired by the ladies of the video clip and look forward to aging more than I did!

Next I want to mention that I am starting a giveaway in a day or two, to celebrate my birthday in March, and to celebrate a new life stage that I have just entered. Two happy occasions! Yay! 

So come back soon and sign up for my giveaways...yes, more than one prize! Now onto the cup! 

This is a relatively new cup to me, and I am enjoying the beauty of the soft mint green coloring.

The cup is a generous size and easy to hold in the hand. It is not heavy, but not light like Haviland is.

Lovely...my favorite detail about this cup is the pattern in the mint green edges of the cup. You can see slightly darker lines in it. But what you can't see is that this gives the cup a bit of a 3D effect. It looks like the lines are in a layer below, so very pretty!

The handle is so elegant and feminine, I love the little jots of gold highlights.

This handle does not sport a spur, but a little gold line at the top of the handle kinda acts like it is one!

The floral bouquet in the bottom of the cup is lively and fresh. 

The plate is decorated just like the inside of the cup.

Surrounded by my second favorite detail, the gold pattern that looks gorgeous!

I swoon for gold trim like this!

(I sound so silly, and me a grown woman!)

Oh! 

And did you guess yet who manufactured this cup?

Royal Grafton! I do not have many made by this English company A.B. Jones and Sons Staffordshire potteries in Longton, Stoke on Trent. They made porcelain and earthenware from 1900 through 1972, and apparently had many different backstamps. This backstamps was first used in 1950 and an new fancy backstamp was chosen in 1957, so I feel safe to say that this cup would have been created somewhere in those 7 years.

Stop by and see Martha, my co host, at Martha's Favorites. She also has a wonderful site Pretty Vintage Things where she sells many of her great finds

Thank you so much for coming by to visit today, I am so glad you are here! If you would like to join in, just go and create a post with the tea cup you want to share in it and then come back and link that specific post to Linky Tools below.

Just a little Valentine Love.....

What Is So Special About Getting Old?

I am thinking about this question lately and wondering what is my part now that I am "older"?

I have only just begun to think of myself as

"older".

In my minds eye I am still about 28 years old!

My bathroom mirror tells a different story (Lol!) that is compelling me to stop for a moment and recognize where I am... and who I am becoming.

I love old things, and always have. I adore all things vintage, and above are just a few items I picked up recently on a little antique market. I appreciate the passage of time that these items show.

Could I see the same value in the wrinkles around my eyes and mouth?  One cannot buy the effects that time takes on books, fabric and paintings. Seeing beautiful crazing on an old tea cup, or the yellowing of a books pages, creates a appreciation within me for these items and their previous owners. 

Could I truly appreciate the effects that time have created in my physical form?

As my mindset shifts with this new stage of life, I am questioning what is truly important to me, what is my deepest wish that I have yet to grant myself, and what place do I have in my world now? Even something as everyday as what clothes to wear bring up new questions for me. So when my friend Sieglinde shared this Youtube link with me about the Artful ladies of NYC, I was thrilled to watch and hear what they had to share about the experience of getting older. Thank you so much Sieglinde!

I thought I might share with you this wonderful trailer for a new documentary "Advanced Style":

I would love to hear what you think...

I have two milestones to celebrate this Feb and March!

Sooooo of course that means I am having a GiveAway!!!

YAY!

You all know how much I love to have a great giveaway!

I will be posting it this week so keep an eye out, there will be 3 prizes to give away.

Thank you so very much for stopping by!

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

Hugs,

Terri