Designs by Stephanie

Issues with scheduling a routine

2010-03-02T12:37:00.003-05:00

I want more than anything than to have a day to just create, pound metal and get my hands dirty. However, I am having issues. My life is pretty out of whack right now, and am working on getting it to make sense again. I truly am excited about all the new endeavors and good things coming my way. I am just struggling with channeling all of these things to make my new life make sense again...I like a good routine, ya know?! My first step is to get back to running. I really miss it. I miss my running buds too! Running is a great outlet to make all those things come together and make sense for me. Another big step is learning time management, and coming to terms that I can only do things in little bits. Baby steps...that's what it's all about...and having great friends & family helps too!

A Come Back!

2010-02-02T11:33:00.002-05:00

It's been ages since I blogged. I owe this reunion of blogging to a new friend, Laurence. She has a really cool blog about her home life and her country of origin...France. Very cool!

AMAZING RACE!!

2008-11-05T05:44:00.001-05:00

What an exciting moment for our country. It's about time we had a dramatic change. Congrats to Barack & Joe!!

How does YOUR garden grow?

2008-10-05T21:07:00.014-04:00

Well...I have been up to my elbows in dirt. The family & I have been working on getting our garden going. So no time for designing jewelry...just designing our garden space. Building raised garden beds, potting bench, herb "stairs", butterfly garden. This is just the beginning! We are going to start our second raised garden bed....but it has to be built first! Oh how I love tools! :) We have started the very large project in becoming more enviromentally savvy and GREEN! We have a "worm factory" that is taking care of all our kitchen fruit & veggie scraps. Worms? Yep. Worms. Red wigglers to be precise.....these hungry critters are going to town and creating some very rich "soil" that will eventually be added into our garden. Here are some pics of our work. It's still in progress, but we are on a roll! I can't wait for some fresh tomatoes! Yum! We are growing all kinds of goodies: savoy cabbage, broccoli, lots of herbs, onions, tomatoes (4 varieties), arugula, okra, green/red/yellow peppers, jalapenos...oh man!

That's our rottie, Bear....he's posing for you. He's quite the ham. He even winks! LOL Nah...that was just a freak accident....but too cute!

Ok...that's it for now. I have take a break from this blog thing. I don't have the hang of posting just yet. All these pics took forever to line up right! Uggh! LOL

Thanks for reading!

~Stephanie

HEY! New Hair Thingies coming soon...

2008-06-23T00:14:00.002-04:00

I have 7 new brass Hair Thingies© waiting to be photographed for my shop! Woohoo! I have a few new ring styles coming soon too. Stay tuned!! With all the nasty thunderstorms circling Florida lately...it was a perfect time to create. :)

On the home front....we are currently working building 2 raised bed garden beds. We are gearing up for our Sept. plantings for winter harvest. This is a new endeavor for the Arner household...we are so excited! AND VERY tired of paying ridiculous prices for fruits & veggies at the grocery store.

We are on the verge of beginning our vermiculture composting project as well. What the hell is vermiculture? Uhhhh.....composting using worms. YEP! Worms! How cool is that!? The boys are stoked to have some "new pets". LOL I am looking forward to less waste personally. It's amazing what those little worms will eat! ALL our food scraps & newspaper etc!! Which of course means less trash from our household going to a landfill. This is important to us for our environment. Do you know how hard it is to find local worms for composting?! It's ridiculous!....we are going to have to take an hour and half drive to get some. Guess I shouldn't complain...as least they can be found locally. :)

As for me, I have been a freak for great vintage finds. I am totally obsessed with 50's & 80's dress lately. I don't do shorts, so dresses are a perfect alternative. AND did you know that buying vintage is a way to be environmentally friendly!? That's right! That's a great reason, but my other reason is....I LOVE to be original....so having a one of kind sundress is makes me happy! LOL

anyway, I have been jamming to vintage Madonna....think "Lucky Star".....while typing....please forgive any typos...I have been bopping like a maniac. LOL

Chat soon!
♥ Steph

So out of touch...

2008-06-10T13:03:00.003-04:00

I have been quite the busy bee! I love it! I have a new line of cool things in my shop....Hair Thingies ©!! I will get some pics up here soon. I have met some really wonderful customers that are in love with their new hair accessories. :) Thanks to all that keep me creating!

I have about 8 or so that are in the works, just need to come the sticks, get photographed, then get them up in running in my etsy shop. Sounds simple huh? Well, with kids home for the summer and a demanding household to run....there are not enough hours in a freakin day!

Do people actually read blogs? I have yet to understand how people find these...other than me listing the link in my shop of course. I am blog illiterate I suppose. I feel like I am talking to myself when I post here. Is this the case? If so, I guess I shouldn't answer myself, huh?

♥ Steph

A crazy week

2008-03-30T12:59:00.004-04:00

This week was a crazy one....work wise, home wise...you name it. I spent Thursday evening in the ER with my youngest son (hubby and older son as well). He fell while riding his scooter...he got hit in the face and wound up with 7 stitches on his cheek. Yikes! He was brave though. :)

Creatively, I had to do something to take my mind away from the stressful week. So I pounded on some metal Friday night and then finished up Saturday morning. Oh man is that a great feeling! I made a charm bracelet and a couple of pairs of hoop earrings. I need to get pics done. I'll post them as soon as I can. The bracelet I am totally psyched about! Something very different for me....but oh so therapeutic! LOL *evil laugh*....just wait and see! Let's just say, I kept humor in mind when creating.

Gotta run....

No more ebay...

2008-03-19T23:35:00.003-04:00

I finally finished transferring all my "wears" to my Etsy shop from eBay. I just couldn't justify the fees any more. Not that I could justify them before, but you know what I mean. OH well, such is life.

I am so excited to be full force into Etsy now. It really is a wonderful venue for artists that have a lot of creativity to share. I adore tons of the people's work I have come across. There are not enough hours in a day to really look at all that I want to see!

This a cute little ring I threw together the other day. Just thought I'd share. It'll be in my shop eventually. :)

~Steph

Gallery Pics

2008-03-16T20:35:00.003-04:00

Well, my piece is officially in the case! Woohoo! My boys are taking an art class up at the DFAC, so I took them to view my ensemble in the case last Tuesday. The grins on their faces was sheer joy....I could feel and see how proud of me they were. It was enough to make my heart melt. My biggest fans are the smallest ones. ;) I let them be my little critics too (they love that). Matthew (orange shirt (last pic)...stops to admire his brass ring I made him. Isn't that cute!?)

They totally enjoy designing their own creations as well...some on their own, some made by me with the strictest specifications. LOL Seriously, Stephen just designed a "surfer dude" necklace for himself (but I made it). His twist on his new copper necklace was that he didn't want it antiqued. It's in the tumbler now...he wants to wear it to school tomorrow. Pics to be posted eventually.

TTFN...more pics soon.

~Steph

My First Art Showing...

2008-03-04T19:53:00.013-05:00

I have my first jewelry ensemble showing at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center in Dunedin, Florida. It is the Member/Student Show for 2008. The show was brought to my attention by a great friend and fellow jewelry artist, Stacy Perry of Hodgepodgerie . She is the wire jewelry artist that teaches classes at the art center. (Click website link for class schedules.) Her work is absolutely amazing and I am thrilled to be a part of any show that she is part of as well. Lucky me, she's taught me a thing or two!

The jewelry ensemble I created specifically for this exhibit is a step outside the box. I always like to take what is normally an "ordinary" design and push it to make it even more special and unique. The pictures are not great...my fault for being the procrastinator I am and completing the set the day before entries were due....AND as luck would have it, the weather was not cooperative for my usual Florida Sunshine photos.

The special thing about this super chunky charm necklace...it is a multi-tasker (story of my life as a busy Mom of 2 boys)...the pearl necklace "extender" can double as a 16" necklace and the large link charm part doubles as a charm bracelet. OR put it together for a whole new look with a long charming unique necklace. The handcrafted matching hook clasps really make a statement of completing the overall look. The aqua lampwork bead was the lone inspiration. The entire design stemmed around that little bead (made by me at my torch).

The earrings are an unusual design for me....asymmetrical. Normally, I have a really hard time with anything being out of symmetry. So, I embraced the challenge I gave myself to try something out of character for my designs....they turned out better than I could have hoped.

And lastly, the materials I used were nothing but the best....all sterling silver components, genuine aquamarine, Swarovski crystal, freshwater pearls, cubic zirconia & my own lampwork. The ensemble is for sale at the museum. The show starts March 7 and runs through to April 27.

Schools almost back in!

2007-08-18T10:25:00.000-04:00

*Yawn* Boy has it been an exhausting Summer. School starts back on Tuesday! Woohoo! I have so many cool Fall ideas in my head I could go crazy if I allowed myself. :) Though, my days unfortunately won't be filled with exclusively creating once the boys are in school. More to do in DH's office will consume most of my daytime. I plan on working on fun stuff for him though....the marketing part. :) As for me and creating....well, if you know me at all, I will manage to work it in. It IS my sanity, ya know! LOL Ciao for now!

New Photos

2007-08-11T15:50:00.000-04:00

I have been experimenting with my latest gadget. I received a small light cube photography set with 2 lamps for my birthday (thanks Mom!) I have been testing different colored backgrounds to achieve the most appealing results for each piece.

Here's the entire necklace

2007-08-08T19:33:00.000-04:00

Oopsie....I forgot to post the whole shebang!
The S clasp turned out so nice. I was excited with this piece when it was complete. :)

New Jewelry Creations

2007-08-08T19:25:00.000-04:00

This is a custom set for my sister's birthday gift. My hands were beat after this one. That copper wire kicked my butt! That's ok....it was for my sister...I'd do anything for her. :) That includes beating up my poor fingers for the sake of great accessories. LOL I am totally crazy about how the lampwork focal came out. It was the starting point of the whole ensemble. I was excited about the bracelet because I made my first toggle. As for the earrings.....totally LOVE! She really enjoyed her new set....which of course, makes me very happy.

Birthday

2007-08-08T19:19:00.000-04:00

Wow...did I sound pathetic or what on my birthday?! LOL It wasn't that bad, turned out nice actually. It was just a very long work day and hard to enjoy the fun part of my day I suppose. So, I'll quit the bitchin' now. DH bought me some beautiful original art from his DC trip from a favorite artist of ours. I also got a couple of gift cards to go shopping with, some really hot jeans, a chi straightner, a new lightcube photo ensemble, a kick ass olive green "croc" wallet, some clothes. See? Wasn't so horrid. All is good. :)

It's my birthday!

2007-08-01T16:43:00.000-04:00

Well, it's my 33rd birthday. Yippee. Big whoop, blah blah blah. LOL I have spent my day working in the freaking office, caring for kids & doing laundry....sounds fun, huh? Not really. Just another day I suppose. Sure feels that way. Geez, I need a margarita....don't I?! :)

Latest Custom Order

2007-07-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

Faux Mother's lariat with children's birthstones

A few of my latest lampwork beads....Hollows!

2007-07-23T23:41:00.001-04:00

New Blog!

2007-07-23T22:28:00.001-04:00

New blogger here....this is pretty cool! Still learning the ropes. Hang in there!