Christmas scents

Happy holidays!
Sirsnīgus un gaišus svētkus!

Favourites

It's time for the last window shopping on Etsy this year. Enjoy!

Memory of flight, ACEO, original mixed media painting/collage by kiwibird1:

Poppy pod trio by dkruegerbotanicart:

Vintage brass apple bell paperweight by sharingbliss:

Little bee earrings by rafya:

Felt Christmas trees

Have I mentioned that usually I wait with my decorations almost until the very Christmas Eve? Here's the result of some needle felting while watching TV. A small forest for that vintage plastic elk to roam through.

Just in time to reload the festive mood.

Monday moodboard - bittersweet

Hello Monday! I'm into that contemplative end-of-the-year mood today.

Time by krize
Pumpkin scarf by verityunmondoaparte
Rose carved quartz ring by toosis
Vintage pocketwatch ornament by lapomme

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale.

Simple pleasures

Wishing you a nice and cozy pre-Christmas weekend!

Gingerbread

Christmas scents on my blog. Happy window shopping!

Home for the holidays - fine art Christmas photograph by irenesuchocki:

Sweet couple - pink - bead embroidered gingerbread brooch by helmitarha:

Mr.Gingerbread. Hand drawn notecard by mariadiana:

Handmade felt gingerbread heart - Christmas ornament by TheFloatingWorkshop:

More Secret Santa fun

The other Secret Santa game I participated this year was organized by Etsy Project Embrace (EPE) team. My Secret Santa was Kim a.k.a. visionquest and she spoiled me with these loveliest gifts. Thank you so much Kim!

My gift for simplysuzula has also safely reached its destination, but Suz is going to open it only on Christmas, so I won't show you what I made for her until after that.

xoxo

Thank you Etsy!

Hello Monday! My treasury featuring gifts from the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) made to Etsy front page yesterday evening and it looks like there have been sales from it. Yay! Feels great to start the new week on this mood! Thank you Etsy!

Candles and sequins

Here's a small creative sidekick of mine. Sequins, thread, a glass jar and a tea light. And snow, loads of snow. Hooray for winter! And for candles!

Happy weekend!

Ball ornaments

Today I'm window shopping for Christmas classic - ball ornaments. Four different approaches, four different designs. Enjoy!

Bud in the snow - Christmas tree ornaments set of 6 by kaleda:

Christmas ornament in red and green polymer clay by starless:

 Galactic magic blown glass ornament ball - green and blue nebula by wolfartglass:

Beautiful turquoise and chartreuse swirl needle felted Christmas ornaments by ArtSincerely:

My Secret Santa

Look what I've got in my mail all the way from The Netherlands. My Secret Santa has been Nicole a.k.a. BabongoHome and she sent me this loveliness. The sweet butterfly mobile is already hanging in its place near my window and the necklace is waiting for the right moment to be showed off. Thank you so much Nicole!

Monday moodboard - ice ice baby

Hello Monday! Pale blue is my colour today. Just because.

Pale blue, dark gray ans silver pearl cluster bracelet by AMIdesigns
Blue winter - S - earrings - cupcake collection by PetitPlat
It is snowing 8x12 textured fine art photography original print by sunshineartdesign
Dusty turquoise and charcoal crochet flower brooch by TheBroochBoutique

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale.

Have a great week!

Gift for my winter swap partner

It's that time of the year again when European Street Team plays Secret Santa game and I've just received a message from Jozefien a.k.a. DeusExMachinaShop that my gift has safely arrived in Belgium, so now I can show you what I made for her.

Begun with her answers from the questionnaire prepared by our Winter Swap Fairy vadjutka and picked a few keywords - olive green, black and brass. Hmm... what shall I make? After some pondering decided on delicate earrings from black vitreous enamel on small domed copper discs, handcrafted antiqued brass earwires, tiny olivine glass bell flowers and little grains of pollen i.e. green enamel around the edge. I hope Jozefien enjoys wearing them.

Wishing you a cozy weekend!

Second etsyversary

 

Two years ago I listed the first items in my brand new shop. I had found Etsy several months before and made my first purchases, although not with my current shop name. Didn't thought about becoming a seller at first. I have degree in management of arts and concepts like products and marketing were my everyday language, but putting something I've created myself for sale was a different cup of tea. It really meant getting out of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I did.

So here I am. My second year on Etsy has been very productive. Not in sales, but in different other ways. I chose to slow down to give myself time to figure out where this journey has to lead me. Time to focus on my creativity. Time to discover new terrains. Time to work on the product (!), because after all it comes down to one - it's all about the story. You hear that on Etsy every day, don't you? And here comes the hardest part in stepping from the shoes of a manager into the shoes of an artist - it's about revealing yourself. It's about your message and your story and not about somebody else's.

Despite the fact that my formal education in arts has more to do with drawing and painting I love working with different mediums and recently got hooked on enameling (and yes, I feel a little sorry for not choosing glass as my main direction in the art school). To make my shop look less cluttered I've decided to focus on enameled pieces and let the felt and mixed media items expire and not to renew them. However, if something has caught your eye just let me know and I'll make a listing for you.

My second shop which I opened last year has been rather quiet one and I'm thinking about putting it on a vacation mode mainly because I'm not that productive in the knitting department and most of my scarves are gone before I get to list them in my shop which, in fact, is something to be happy about.

So, what's next?

My plans for the nearest future are to
focus on marketing,
write in Latvian (there's something brewing),
try to make my enamel look more Latvian (but you won't see that very soon),
and create, create, create....

Thank you all for hanging around with me, for your support, wonderful feedback and encouraging comments which inspire me on this journey.

Cheers!

Twine for gift wrapping

Remember this post from last week? The tutorial is ready. A fun and quick way to create twine for your gift wrapping.

Here's what you'll need - yarn (two ply works the best), beads (I'm using glass seed beads), scissors, cotton thread (any thin thread) and a pebble.

Cut two pieces of yarn in necessary length. Make a knot and put it under the pebble or some other weight.

Use both hands and twist the ends of the yarn in direction of spinning making it tighter. At the same time interchange both threads in an opposite direction. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. If the direction is right the yarn will spin together.

You can decorate the twine with beads. Thin cotton thread is of great help here.

Keep twisting the yarn until you get the twine in desired length.

Here's the result. I made several pieces - some with beads and some like bakers twine.

If you trying this out, please, share the result. I'd love to see yours turns out. Happy crafting!

Free shipping

I'm offering free shipping worldwide until December 1 which is my second etsyversary. Celebrate with me!

Monday moodboard - festive

Hello Monday! I'm pondering about Christmas decorations for my home, although I won't put them up until just a few days before the holidays. It's my strategy to reload Christmas mood after weeks and weeks of preparations and rush.

Preparing for Christmas 1 - fine art photograph by JKphotography
Christmas tree ornament by atelierpompadour
10 mushroom ornaments by stemellina
Frosted berries - Christmas winter wreath by kaleda

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale.

Enjoy the season!

Black Friday through Cyber Monday

Enjoy free shipping worldwide on all items from my shop through November 29!

My creative space

This week has taught me a lot about balance. Balance between work and relaxation. You can't have one without the other. This is why I've been absent from my blog lately. Change of activities to bring things back to order.

Meanwhile my creative space is all about Christmas. I'm working on a tutorial and the snow we woke up to this morning was just in time for even more Christmas mood. Stay tuned and visit this blog next week!

To play along and see who else is playing this week visit kootoyoo. It's fun!

Monday moodboard - turquoise and teal

Hello Monday!

Wood slice - embroidered ring by ixela
Teal Christmas bauble by AMIdesigns
Amy wool turquoise plaid. French shoulder bag by ikabags
Double round paper gift tags gold / turquoise - snowflake by HappyHuismus

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties made by European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale.

Have a great week!

Happy birthday Latvia!

Today is our National Day and before I sign off for the rest of the week here is a treasury inspired by celebrations.

'Festive Latvia' by happyment

Happy birthday Latvia!

Vintage 80s thick K... BetaBoutique $29.50	Miniature leather b... creartingAC $35.00	Leaf with sugar - 5... UnaPhoto $15.00	Orange red bear wit... ememem $37.00
Autumn Sky - Gemsto... SmArtAnna $22.00	Natural Genuine Raw... alatsupplies $12.90	Dark Blue Flower B... picotee $16.00	Heather Grey Pinstr... WrapturebyInes... $60.00
SALE - Pinecone ear... MagpiesShop $7.00	rainbow necklace on... XauXau $24.00	Fine Art Photograph... filigreephotos $20.00	Navy Spike Epaulett... binkaminka $70.00
Set of 4 linen red ... imali $10.00	Crochet flower broo... lienecera $12.00	Stud Earrings- Yell... SoleDeVita $8.00	red soft knitted ha... sexyhandmade $15.00

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Wishing you a nice weekend whatever you may be doing! See you on Monday!

Priecīgus svētkus!