A Plea to Ellen DeGeneres about GLITTER!

I fully support Crafty Chica in her campaign!!!Here's a couple of photos of me using her glitter at the Sac Craft Mafia Meeting (thanks Yoli for the pictures! ):

Gleeful!

So I just signed up for this:

And I'm so excited I can pee! (Not really, but you get my drift!) ;D

Now I have to get busy making beatiful jewelry to sell so that I can make all the payments!!! Did I mention I have an etsy store? (Shameless self promotion, I know!)

OH to Dream!

How I would LOVE to join this retreat! Sadly, it's all booked! Besides, I doubt I would be able to afford it!
Such beatiful things that you could make in their workshops! I'll keep dreaming until the day comes that I could actually attend! ;)

Check it out! (http://www.anahataart.com/page/page/5750828.htm) Their artwork is phenominal!

Hey Folks! The Sacramento Craft Mafia is having a fundraiser/rummage sale! This is your chance to pillage through our old oddities and craft supplies! Please come and check it out! Also, please tell all your friends/family who live in the Sacramento area about it!!! Thanks!

Craft Alongs!

(Copied from the Sac Craft Mafia Blog:)

With the overwhelming response from our community, Sacramento Craft Mafia is looking to connect with all of our wonderful supporters.

To that end, we are really excited to announce "Coffee N Craft Along"!

A monthly "Craft In" where we can post up, get cozy, enjoy the delicious coffee and eats at Java Lounge, and get our CRAFT ON!
You DO NOT need to be a Craft Mafia member-and the events are free, unless you feel like donating a lil somethin' to the Sacramento Craft Mafia. All you need to bring is cash for coffee (NO CARDS at Java Lounge, my friend!) your craft supplies, friends if you want to and your crafty self.

Java Lounge is a cozy, anti- corporate coffee house HEAVEN and is the perfect location to inspire your creativity! Please visit the myspace of JAVA LOUNGE.

Everyone is welcome to participate! We are planning to have one our Mafia members on hand to do a craft demonstration of their choosing. We will have a list of suggested supplies you can bring with you if you would like to attempt a "mafia" craft. I will continue to post each month's theme and list of supplies here on our blog, so stay tuned.

Otherwise, bring whatever YOU enjoy crafting in the company of other craft enthusiasts and MAFIOSAS!

These monthly craft events will be held ON THE SECOND TUESDAY of each month starting at
6pm. Craft demonstrations will start at 7pm and you are welcome to stay till the Java Lounge closes!

Java Lounge, being the fab gem that it is, is also working up on some great entertainment/music
to craft to with their arsenal of DJs!

Our very first CRAFT ALONG will be on Tuesday, June 10th, starting at 6pm.
It will be a fiber-themed craft along and I (Shonda/Ignition/Mafia Prez.) will be on hand crocheting baby hats. You are welcome to sit with me and my bag of yarn! Or bring whatever craft you like!

I hope to see many of the crafty friends we have made along the way in our first year-and with this fun new venture we hope to meet many more!

Sex and the City

Oh My Goodness! I just saw one of the new trailers for Sex and the City : the Movie! All I have to say is that on May 30th, I will be at my local movie theater with my best girlfriends!

I remember the night of the final episode...I left work that Sunday with just enough time to get home and start watching the special extras followed by the last show. I got all dressed up (in an old bridesmaid dress...shhh!) and sat in the dark living room of my parents house to say goodbye to one of my favorite all-time shows (to those of you who know me, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a much "big"ger deal! I was literally besides myself when that last episode aired; but just imagine how I would be if that movie came to theaters!!! I'll just keep praying to the Joss Whedon gods! But I've veered a bit off topic... :D ). It was beautiful and spectacular and she (Carrie) ended up with the guy I wanted her to be with: BIG!

I can't wait! I'll probably make some ridiculously large flower brooches for my friends and I to wear, a la Carrie. Make Cosmos and dress-up to see the movie!

And now, I will leave you all with some fantastic pictures to drool over!


XOXO!
Rain

I really don't mean to neglect my blog...

...time just gets away from me and I forget to blog!

I sold a necklace on Etsy this week! It was awesome because I had just literally put it up there the night before!

I got covered in glitter today, which is always fun! We made matchbook shrines at the Craft Mafia meeting tonight.

Before I forget, I'll be at McMartin Realty's (21st & K) 2nd Saturday this weekend! See you there!

Okay, time for bed! I promise to blog more later this week!

I'm teaching classes!

Hey Folks! There's a new summer class schedule out at The Bead Shoppe. For those of you that don't know, I'm a beadaholic! Not only do I make my own jewelry, I also work (manage) at a bead store! Going with that, I also teach a fair amount of classes at the Folsom shop. Class attendance has been a little low for a while, so I thought I would blog to see if I can get some of my friends to attend (hint-hint, wink-wink*) ;)

Now for the dirty details:
Yes, there is a class fee which ranges from $15 to $35.
Supplies are extra! You can bring your own from home or buy anything you need at the store (we have hand-outs for supplies).
You MUST sign-up in advance! Either classes fill up too quickly and you miss out, or no one signs up and they get cancelled!
You can view the complete list of classes online at http://www.thebeadshop.net/
You do have to call or come in to sign-up for all classes (no online sign-up)

Here are some pictures of my more favored projects:

Casual Chic Necklace

Vintage Flower Bracelet

Zigzag Flower Necklace

Flower Pins

Yes, I do love flowers! There are several other classes offered ranging from beginning to advanced. Please sign up and keep me company! Again, I only teach at the Folsom store, but you are welcome to go to Roseville to take classes there if that location in more convenient for you!

When baking goes WRONG!

It was my boyfriend, Chris', birthday this week. I decided to bake him a cake...an angel food cake. Mind you, I've never made one before; but I bought the Betty Crocker mix and I figured it would be a cinch! I scanned the directions and poured water in a large metal bowl, added the mixture and then whisked it all together. I thought that I had found a large enough baking dish for it, so I poured everything in it and threw it in the oven. About fifteen minutes into baking, this is what I found:

It had already started to ooze over the top and around the sides of the dish onto the oven rack! I decided to shave the outter ooze off and let it bake some more!
Chris, of course, had to take pictures of me trying to salvage his cake! I allowed it to bake some more until the outer edges seemed nice and golden and crispy. Sadly, as I removed it from the oven it was still moving around like jello! Deciding to bake it some more I stuck it back in the oven with foil over the top so that it wouldn't burn at a slightly cooler temperature. Unfortunately, it made the top sink into the rest of the cake! A bit broken-hearted I took it out of the oven to cool.
Pathetic and concaved, I stuck twenty-eight candles in it, gathered the friends and roomies to the kitchen to sing "Happy Birthday" to Christopher. He blew out all the candles at once and everyone had a good laugh at my failed attempt of baking an angel food cake! Luckily, I had strawberries and whipped cream and peanut butter cup ice cream on hand!
After serving up the berries and cream, everyone (including myself) poked at the sad cake! Now I know to find a much larger dish for next time! Also, I'm seriously going to work on my cooking and baking skills!

What a weekend!

It's always great when my weekend starts out good! Friday night I went out with one of my best girlfriends, Amanda! We had our favorite girls night out of dinner and a movie - I know, I know, it sounds kinda boring, what can I say, we love it! First we went to CPK and then we saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (which was hilarious!).


Saturday morning I had to teach Bead Knotting (http://www.thebeadshop.net). I made this necklace in class:

I used these awesome enameled and lucite flowers I bought from Etsy! Of course I had to play some more after class, so I made these:

The wonderful, Miss Hana, was kind enough to model for me! ;)

Then on Sunday, I vended at the Earth Day Festival in Southside Park. I was there with my Mafia sisters Amy, Antoinette, Sofia, Deb, Monica & Ruby. It was freezing cold, but we made the most of it! Unfortunately, all my pictures are in my film camera! Fortunately Amy has some awesome pictures on her Flickr page (http://flickr.com/photos/peptogirl/sets/72157604656521476/). Check them out! There's some great stuff to see!

All in all, it was a pretty great weekend!

Etsy Feature!

Check it out! I'm featured in the etsy treasury! Yay! I'm so excited!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=39906

Thank you so much artbylisak!!!

Accomplishment

At work we usually take in repairs. A few days ago I took in this one inch topaz drop cabochon. My customer wanted some sort of wire wrap with a bail. So I thought it would be easy enough to just do a four prong wrap with a loop at the top...Wrong! After four failed attempts which included a variation of pronging, hammering the wire, swearing, etc...I finally brainstormed to doing an all over zig-zag prong - And it worked! I felt so happy with my final result! I just wish I had a picture to show!!!

Taking a break!

Last week I walked into work to find DISASTER!!! They just started doing remodeling to the store next door! Here is a picture of some of the damage (bead chaos):

I had to clean up most of the damage, which is so tedious and time consuming (such a pain in the you know what!) that I was more than happy to find out that I got part of this past weekend off! My boyfriend and his buddies decided to make use of me finally having a real weekend day off to play disk golf! The guys usually go out to the local course off of Oak Ave. and Hazel. Yesterday, however, we made the trip through the Golden Gate to San Francisco park!

To any of you who have never heard of disk golf, it's basically the traditional game of golf played with "Frisbee" disks, and you aim towards a basket instead of a hole in the ground! (For more info check out http://www.pdga.com) I've played a few times with them and have one disk of my own, but I still need tons of practice! I have to throw a few more times than anyone else to get towards the goal! It also becomes a bit of a hike...a hike for which a crafter who does a lot of sit down work is feeling today! (Seriously, if I played a few times a week I'd be in a lot better shape!) I still had fun and getting out of town, for even a couple hours, was fantastic! Plus, the course is beautiful and woodsy that you don't even feel like you're in the city!
Here's a few pics of everyone in-between shots:

Chris

Dominic

Tiffany & Curtis

Just a random picture of one of the many beautiful logs of wood on the course!

Sorry, no pictures of me!

Neglecting my Blog!

So I haven't written a new blog for a few weeks...and for that I apologize! Here's a little bit about what's been going on! (Just as a disclaimer, I don't have a digital camera so all the following pictures are from my camera phone!)

Getting ready for the Fibertastic show ended up being a bit stressful because I really did not have too much time to work on my projects because of other personal commitments. Nevertheless, it was an awesome show! My sister, Angelica & I shared a table (I will have pictures by next week. They're being developed & then I'll scan them into my computer - I so need a digital camera of my own!) Anywho, I did make this cute little owl necklace that I sewed this adorable owl fabric into a stuffie pendant! It didn't sell so I gave it to my niece, Marianna, for her birthday! She loves it and that makes me happy! :)

Speaking of making my niece happy, I put together a little Easter basket for her - including a bunny I made using one of Missy's patterns (http://missyballance.typepad.com/crafty_carnival/2007/01/bunny_pillow_tu.html) They're too cute! I also included some little chickies and "peeps" along with a necklace I made using this little lampwork bunny we were selling at my bead shop (http://www.thebeadshop.net).
Meanwhile I've had swap projects. Here's a couple of pictures of my felt sugar skulls:
This one reminds me of my grandma's embroidery!
Last, but not least I busied myself the Saturday night making chocolate-dipped strawberries to which my roommates enjoyed eating!

Fibertastic Flyers

In the wee hours of this morning I read Shonda's blog (http://www.myspace.com/ignitiongirls) stating that the flyers were ready for Fibertastic! After I dropped Chris off at work I drove over to The Coffee Garden to pick some up (...along with buying a nice cup of yummy Chai tea!)! Here's what they look like:

Aren't they so cute!? So after dropping some off at my parent's house, the fabric store, the Java Cities on CSUS campus and then saving a few to mail out to friends and family I'm almost out of flyers!!! I'll have to pick some more up later this week! Please pass the word along to everyone you know who loves fiber art (knitting, crochet, fabric, paper art)!

Beautiful Silk Ribbon!

Silk! Beautiful Silk! (Along with a cute ball of yarn from Shonda's bunny!) Ahh....Now I have some great stuff to make necklaces with for the Fibertastic show! My excitement is building! Now I have to go and finish some last minute Valentines! Happy Valentines Day everyone! Muchos Besos y Abrasos! XOXO ~ Rain

So, I am doing this fantastic Fibertastic Art Show on March 8th! The lovely, Shonda of Ignition,Honey!, is the coordinator that talked me into doing it! She made it sound so terrific I couldn't pass it up! And now I have to get to work making some more fiber jewelry! The stress begins!...and my craft supplies will quickly be all over the living room! Here's a preview of some of my fiber beads:

Sold!

Yay! I finally sold something on Etsy! (confetti is thrown...chanmpange is being uncorked...cheers of excitement!) Granted, it was my cheapest listing, but I believe it is good karma for my future sales on Etsy! It was my peacock feather earrings:

So three cheers to Janice for helping support Rain's Embellishments! Thank You & Muchas Gracias!!!

Craftiness!

So I just thought that I would share some craftiness with everyone today!

What do you think about this skirt? Well, I love it! My very talented mother made this for Miss Hana...she was so excited to see it that she was dancing! For all those who can't quite tell what the print is, it's a Dia de los Muertos print of dancing skeletons! Plus it has inserted pleats of black lace!

How great is this purse?! My best friend, Amanda, made it for me for Christmas! She has been expiramenting with pattern knitting this past year and succeeded! She also made a fabulous scarf for our other bff, Erin!

I forgot I had this blog!

I need to start organizing Rain's Embellishments this year! To begin my evolution to organization I am writing this blog!
Not too many exciting things are happening right now with the jewelry. Tons of ideas are in my head, but nothing has come into creation. I've been working on several other projects right now, mostly swaps (for Valentines Day). Perhaps I should post some pictures of those creations later on this week! As for now, I'm going to try to get my profile out there so I can get some visitors to encourage me to write more!
As for now I should be packing up boxes because I am soon moving! Oh yeah, and my birthday is a little over a week away! So here's the countdown to lucky number twenty-seven!

Here's a picture I took with my camera phone after I got all made up for pictures!

(hair and makeup done by the lovely Shonda of Ignition, Honey!)