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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Advent Deals of the Day

Advent calendar.  The concept:  For each day from December 1st through Christmas Eve, you get to open a new thing on your calendar, and you get a little present each day.  What fun!  I really wanted the Lego Star Wars one this year but it wasn't in the budget.  Ah well.

So I had this idea to do an Advent Deal of the Day calendar on my website.



Each day December 1-24 there will be a new awesome deal of the day on the site.  You can keep up with the deal via email (signup is on the site), or on my Facebook page.  Since I got started late, if you head over there now there's an entire week's worth of deals!

Expect to see a little bit of art and fun stuff not in my normal jewelry repertoire, as well as some holiday items.

Happy holidays everyone, and thanks for being great customers!

Saturday, November 30, 2013

'Tis the Season

O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine blatter!
O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine blatter!
Du grunst nicht nur zur sommerzeit,
Nein, auch im winter, wenn est schneit.
O tannenbaum, o tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine blatter!


Nearly everyone who celebrates Christmas does SOME kind of Christmas decorating.  A tree, a string of lights, a wreath on the door, hanging a few Christmas cards.  For lots of us religion doesn't matter; Christmas has adopted everyone.  That's pretty fitting because it's been stealing traditions for a very long time.

Chainmaille Ornament - Click to Purchase
Evergreen trees have had deep meaning for people for ages; they resisted the darkness of winter and refused to shed their leaves.  They seemed magical when everything else withered and died.  So naturally, they became associated with solstice celebrations and the return of longer days.  

Saint Boniface was a dude that lived in Germany, where there was a tree that was holy to the pagans who lived there - Thor's Oak.  (sometimes called Donar's Oak).  It was associated with Yggdrasil, the World Tree.  Boniface talked smack about Thor and started to chop the tree down.  Suddenly, a wind came (legend says) and took the tree down before he could cut it... and immediately an evergreen sprang up out of the four parts of the tree.  Since Thor did not strike Boniface down, the people converted to Christianity. 

For this the dude was sainted.  

I read this an entirely different way than the ancients probably did, but whatever.  Miracles are always open to interpretation, right?

Awesome Ornament Hooks - Click to Purchase

Martin Luther is also reported to have been so inspired by the pretty stars twinkling through the branches of the pines that he chopped one down and took it home and put candles on it in an attempt to recreate his experience for his family.   Fire hazard, right?  I am very thankful for LED Christmas lights.  

The Christmas tree as we know and love it really didn't come into vogue until the middle 1800s, that age that we take sooooo much of our tradition and weird hang-ups from.  Also lots of terribly skewed history  (Longfellow, I'm talking to you).

Clear ornament with Wire Wrapped Tree - Click to purchase

No matter.  Christmas is cool.  I spent a lot of years not celebrating and I am currently doing my best to make up for it.  I LOVE Christmas.  I love putting up my tree, hanging ornaments and telling stories about each one.  Seems like every one has a story.  (Which is why I think those fancy, heavy-gauge ornament hooks are awesome... check those out.  I don't know about your ornaments, but mine deserve the best).  

My hubby is usually not terribly enthused about the tree-putting-up ritual, for two reasons:  1)  he's a mailman... I haven't met too many who love this time of year and 2)  he despises glitter.   So my son, now in college, comes home for the tree decorating, and the two of us put up a tree while listening to lots of Nat King Cole and similar sappy old favorites.  Lights, garland, strings of beads, bows, star  (no tinsel... cats and tinsel baaaaad).  And then we turn the lights down, cozy up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate, and reminisce.  It's absolute magic.  And I get up early the next day to look at the lights softly twinkling before I turn the room lights on.  And I do it again when I play Santa on Christmas morning, admiring the sparkling packages under the tree lights, dozing there until my family wakes up.

Martin Luther, I think I get it.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Where I've Been!


Short answer:  still here, still making jewelry.

Longer answer:  Prepare yourself for longwindedness.

I took oil painting lessons 3 years ago and ever since then I've been telling myself that I'm going to paint more.  But I didn't.  Until this past January, when I particpated in a 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge (and did it!).  I've been dividing my creative time since then between painting and making jewelry.

If you'd like to check out my painting, you can do so at Om Is Where the Art Is.

I'm a little better about keeping up with my fans on Facebook, so if you're not a fan of You've Got Maille on Facebook, you definitely should be; I do regular giveaways for my FB fans.

But, I have been making tons of jewelry for my upcoming show at Ketner's Mill Country Fair, and I want to share it, and I also want to share more about the intuitive aspects of making jewelry, so there will be more here, I promise.

Also, I plan to do a series of articles on the healing and metaphysical properties of different stones and metals, so if you'd like to be in on that you can sign up for the mailing list on the front page of my website here (toward the bottom).

"Galadriel's Mirror" Labradorite Necklace $62 - Click to Purchase
Thanks for dropping by!

Friday, January 4, 2013

The Best Thing About Snowflakes






My friend and wonderful fae artist Aquariann is hosting a snowflake blog hop!  Personally, I love snow (much more so now that I live in Tennessee than I did when I was in Cleveland, Ohio!).

What's the best thing about snowflakes?  If you ask me, it's that they sparkle!  I love the sparkle of newfallen snow.  You can go HERE to purchase this Ice Queen chainmaille snowflake choker.

And be sure to go to Aquariann's blog to look at all the snowy lovelies.


aquariann's Snowflake Blog Hop