Elemental Clay Studio

I'm getting these in the mail this week! I got the set of four in hydrangea, fungi, durian, and lichen. It's Seth's anniversary present to me.

Bijougirl Designs

I have a new necklace in the shop!

August Art Crawl at The Rymer Gallery

I was so excited to see the invitation go out with Seth's painting on the front!
The Rymer's small works show:

Seth Conley | Cold River | Oil on panel | 5.25 x 17" | $450



grab & go: fine art that you can take with you

featuring small works from

dan addington | seth conley | amanda crandall | susan maakestad | ryan ras | susan roberts | frank webster

at

T H E R Y M E R G A L L E R Y

Saturday, August 2, 2008
6 - 9 p.m.

233 Fifth Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37219
615.752.6030
www.therymergallery.com

Give a book, get a book

In light of the hundred top book list, I thought I'd pass on this new book source I found. The best part about it, is that the books are free as long as you have one to give too! Sign up at BookMooch.com.
(Image from here.)

Now Do This:

This is a handy way to focus on one thing at a time. Make your list and everytime you hit done your next to-do pops up.
My most recent list (from two days ago):
Fix necklace,
solder earrings,
watch Project Runway

Happy Anniversary

We've been married 9 years today. It's gone by really fast.

Safari life

I want to go on safari after seeing the photography of Nick Brandt. Look at the rest, here.

Underwater Update

Well, Seth's completely (re)obsessed with our aquariums...I'm enjoying them and learning a lot. Since I posted last about them we have acquired several more pieces of live rock with interesting creatures growing on them (below is some sort of anemone standing up and that flower-like shaped thing is a mushroom anemone,) and three new pieces of coral (in the back is a green coral, to the left is a banded coral.)

We also bought a juvenile Kole Tang. This is a variety of "Dory" (which is how we explain half of the fish to our younger kids...they're Nemo's friends.)

We also bought a dozen Tropheus Dubosis for the African Ciclid tank. These are really pretty little fish but none of them would stand still long enough for me to get a good mug shot! Seth is hoping to breed these. I'm excited for that. We've bred fish before and it is so cool! African ciclids keep all of their fry in their mouths! They take care of them and protect them, which is really rare for fish. I love to watch it, so I can't wait for some mating activity!

Hop, hop, hopping

All work and no play for me today...catch ya tomorrow!

In the mean time, this is an interesting collection of photos.

I mean...FINALLY!

I thought I would have green tomatoes for, like, ever!

The Circular Life

If you enjoy time lapse, check out this site.

Seth Conley; prints and cards

Seth has made some of his work available for purchase as prints and as cards. He'll have more available soon, just make sure to bookmark him just in case you need interesting gifts for a modern art lover or for yourself!

Some of my favorite blog links:

3191
A Holy Experience

A Little Sussy
ali loves curtis

All the Mountains

BlackEiffel
Bloesom Kids
Design mom
Design Sponge
Oh Dee Doh
Oh Happy Day
Oh Joy!
Poppy Talk
sfgirlbybay
the sartorialist

Passing on "The Big Read"...

Jana did a post about the Big Read list. Below are 100 books that were nominated as the people's most favorite. It is estimated that most adults have read 6 out of the 100 nominated. I've marked mine below. Now it's time for you to take the challenge! Let me know how you did! Here is the oiginal link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

These are the rules:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read.
3) Put a ! next to the books you LOVE.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. !Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. !To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. !The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. !The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. !Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. !Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. !Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. !Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. !Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. !Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. !Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. !Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. !Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. !Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. !Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. !!Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

So, I've read 35 out of the 100 (if I counted right,) which is pretty good, but now I've got a bunch I feel I need to read! Some of these I hadn't even heard of! Time to go to the library!
(stack of books image from Flickr.)

Etsy Metal Artists:

I'm a proud member of Etsy Metal.

and so are these folks:

Beth Cyr Jewelry

Brooke Arin

Chris Parry Jeweler
Elizabeth Rosas Jewelry
Clare Stoker
Ashley Akers Jewelry
Sara Westermark
Danielle Miller
Disco Medusa
DuckduckGooseStuff
Erica Stankwytch Bailey
ES Designs
Metal Musing

Kirsten Skiles
Kathryn Riechert
Nina Dinoff
Nina Gibson
SeeSeeBe (Colleen Baran)
Tangerine Treehouse
Wildflower Designs
Kerin Rose
Lunasa Designs
Norsola Johnson
Nova Designs
Quercus Silver
The Gray Lodge
Experimetal

Pearl Everlasting

Inbar Bareket

Cindy Hoo

Kathryn Cole

K.M. Jewelry Studio

Esther Eve Metalsmith

Etsy Sellers Who Blog:

Lost Button Studio
becoming Jane...
Etsy Sellers helping Etsy Sellers
Pink Cupcake Vintage
The Finest Kind of Life
The Pretty Peacock

Throw Some Paint

I'm mesmerized by Jackson Pollock. Go make your own here. It's super cool!

Image from here.

One more thing today...Browsing...

Oh, and I have another treasury, which will expire tomorrow morning. So, if you get a chance go browse some super cool Etsy shops!

New Pics...

I've been revamping the look of my shop. I'm going back to nature. Not done yet, but go take a look-see at what I've accomplished so far...let me know if you like it better than the old white.

(P.s. I have at least one of Tiffany's photos in there. I love her style!)

Henna Me

I had a tattoo artist who also owns a henna business, henna my foot so I could have some cool body art for the remainder of the summer. It was a really fun experience to get it done, and it looks great with my flip flops. Tons of people have commented on it already. It's a fun thing, and I don't have to keep it forever! Which means I'll have to get it done again...
If you live in the Nashville area and you're interested in getting hennaed, contact Henna Blooming for a schedule of their set-up times or for a private home visit.

Lake Tanganyika at Home

Seth set up a brand new aquarium recently. Now we have a 75 gallon saltwater marine tank and a 110 gallon freshwater tank (pictured below.) The newest one will be focused completely on the waters of Lake Tanganyika in Africa. Lake Tanganyika is an unusual freshwater lake, housing many marine style creatures and fish that are only found in that location. If you're interested in underwater life, this is a great video! (Make sure you watch all the parts!)

A Quick Click, Save a Life

There are tons of organizations set up to send donations of food and water to hungry children as long as we are participating!
Click on these once a day:

http://www.worldofgood.com/sn/f

http://www.bhook.com

http://www.pajacyk.pl

http://www.porloschicos.com/PorLosChicos.NET/index_english.htm

http://www.clickbokin.ekokoro.jp/50.html

http://children.care2.com

http://www.feedsa.com

http://www.hungerfighters.com

http://www.hungrychildren.com
http://www.clickbokin.ekokoro.jp/floq.html

http://www.OneClickOneMeal.com

http://www.definition-of.com

http://www.thehungersite.com

http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?
page_id=2335

http://www.okruszek.org.pl

http://www.chintai.net/contribution/index.html

http://www.worldhunger.org/contributefood.htm

http://www.spendu.org/beta/index.php

Free Donation Search : http://www.helpuu.com/

Or play these fun games to donate:

http://www.freerice.com - Free Rice
http://www.freeflour.com - Free Flour
http://www.freepoverty.com - Free Water
http://www.helpthirst.com/ - Free Water
http://www.savetheworldwithmusic.com Play a day!

World Hunger: Interactive Map - Want to know more?
Click Here
World Food Inequality: Want to know more?
Click Here

Junie Baby

Welcome my good friends Amber and Jeff's new daughter Juniper Olivia Stamper into the world. These pictures say so much about those precious first moments that make me long for another one. But at least I got to be there to witness some them! Gettin' my baby fix...


(pics from Jeff Stamper)

Yummy Shoes

Oh my goodness...I have to get these Blowfish flats!

Stamped Tags

I've been switching over to new jewelry tags, and I finally got them all changed for the show this past weekend. I decided (after a lot of thought and research) to go ahead and buy custom stamps. It'll be more time consuming on the front end, but the stamps will be really versatile, because I can use them on several things, and I can change my colors whenever I want. I'm pretty happy with the new result:
(although these pics are pretty awful...)

Etsy Treasury

I curated an Etsy Treasury today! Yay! Go shop my favorites, and if you like it, leave me a treasury comment!
(P.S. Don't forget to click on the finds. You'll find new, cool shops and each click makes my treasury HOTTER!)

Craft Show!!

Don't forget about the craft show TODAY! I'll be there from 11am to 5pm! Come on over to East Nash!

Nashville Fireworks

We headed downtown an hour ahead of time last night to make sure that we got our $10 parking spot and a good clear place to lay our extra huge tarp, staking our place for the much awaited Nashville Fourth of July fireworks. And I have to say, despite the waiting (practically in the middle of the night for the boys,) and the masses of people and the awful, horrible, no good traffic afterwards, those 25 minutes of fireworks are something I wouldn't want to give up. As soon as it starts the children get really still and quiet. They sit mesmerized just like Seth and me, who can finally take our eyes off them and immerse ourselves in a shower of lights, because we know they're not going anywhere. I love the feeling of the boom of sound right at the base of my throat and the warm bodies of my kids leaning against me. It's truly magical.
Just to brag on my hometown, Nashville really does have a spectacular show. Anybody know how many millions they spend on it? I don't, but it's got to be up there.
I posted some pictures, and I realize that I've been less than judicial about the number of them. I'm honestly just too tired to choose...

Independance Day Explosion

I'm so excited about watching the fireworks tonight, but I was equally as excited to wake up this morning and see an explosion of new summer color in our yard! Happy 4th everyone!

Favorite Things Swap

I just got my package from the Favorite Things Swap hosted by Kelly. Man, I was blown away! My swap partner sent me all these lovely things, and if they're all her favorite things, then we can be BFFs 'cause they're all my favorite things, too! Not only is everything fabulous (and she made half of it!) But it was all wrapped so cutely (is that a word?) in cellophane bags with sweet ribbons and notes with super cool scrap booking details.

Underneath it all: a handmade (yeah, that's right) tiered apron.
From top left, clockwise: set of three hand knit kitchen cloths, soaps and bubble bath from Bath and Body Works, Everday Food Great Food Fast cookbook, a fortune collecting journal (which I forgot about when I wrote her thank you, so, thanks, I love it!), three handmade cards (this girl should open up an Etsy store!), a Starbucks gift card (ummm, so excited), and a set of kitchen towels.
If anyone signs up for a swap in the future, cross your fingers and wish on a star that you get my swap partner! If you're reading this, THANK YOU!

Otherworldly

I love children and I love babies...I mean I have three of them. But I have thought the thought, "Why bring another child into this world?" I mean, this is the world where random accidents happen, where a lot of people don't even want their children, where I battle my own thoughts every day and I'm sure my kids do, too. This is a place where I get my feelings hurt and where I can't help but sometimes hurt others. I was battling this very thought the other night as I lay tossing and turning in bed when I heard a voice in my the midst of my thoughts say, "I'm not bringing a child into this world, I'm creating a person from nothing but My own thoughts to be a part of this world and then forever with ME." I then envisioned the miracle of the act of creation, an act the gives God the name Creator. An act that gives Him glory that no one else can ever share because no one else can create in that way. It's so amazing, the development of a baby, but it only takes Him nine months to make one fully formed. It's miraculous, but I can expect that from Him. What is really amazing to me is the miracle that occurs after we are born. That a Spirit could teach us to depend on Him and walk with him in the midst of this broken world that we've come into. When we learn to love each other despite the hurt we experience. That God can change a soul from bent toward self to striving to be for others for the glory of God. That is an even bigger miracle, because it took 33 whole years of one man's perfect life and his willingness to give it away to make this miracle happen. God actually came into this world as a baby. He knows that mental battle. He knows that accidents happen. He knows that feelings get hurt and people sometimes just want to quit. But because of his life and death on this earth, each of our lives can reflect something that is... otherworldly. And that is just what this world needs.
Happy Birthday, Juniper.

Bijougirl Designs

I'll have a boothe here this Sunday! Come visit me if you get a chance!