It's time to swing!

Easter traditions in Latvia are colourful mix of both Christian Easter and pagan spring equinox rites, so if I had to mention just three things about these holidays I'd say - eggs, bunnies and swings. Swinging on Easter is essential! They even say it helps to keep away mosquitoes that summer. Wish it was true, but this can be great excuse (if you need one) for swinging on Easter.

Here is some swinging window shopping on Etsy. Have fun!

Follow your heart - Swinging quietly by krisblues:



SummerVille - Stoneware swing/ ornament with miniature village by elukka:



Lola swings... knitting canvas by okapiknits:

Tree swing - Deer valley architecture green by shivermesplinters:



Let's swing!

Thank you!

Maria a.k.a. emeeme made it possible again. MissScarfy with her Hot pink scarf was featured on Etsy front page together with other beauties in her gorgeous treasury. Thank you so much!

My other shop is a little abandoned at the moment, but I can assure you MissScarfy will be back with new scarves just in time for the colder season.

And I want to thank Sema a.k.a. Floweredsky for featuring my Free as a bird brooch on RI Handmade blog. Thank you!

Monday moodboard - the lovecats

The spring has arrived - crocuses are about to pop, willow trees are in full bloom and cats are in love.

Calico cat 3D hand painted rock, rock pet, ooak paper weight by ShebboDesign
Spring flowers - fine art print by tidytipsy
Grape seeds earrings by PrivinaMonona (these look a little like willow-catkins to me)
Meow dance - ecological recycled ooak notebook by gufobardo

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties from my European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale. It's fun!

And background music for this post - The Lovecats by The Cure :)

Have a great week!

Thank you Maria!

Before I sign off for the weekend I want to thank Maria a.k.a. emeeme for bringing my Butterfly in love brooch to Etsy front page recently. It was an alternate, but something got sold and I got my moment of fame too. Maria creates lovely jewelry like these white dome charm and green bow earrings:



Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Lost

... watching dragonflies, daydreaming, reading favourite novel and eating bonbons. Wouldn't it be great? I caught this treasury and realized that it's not my treasury-making day today. Hence the eclectic collection.

Featured Etsians: mariakallin, SimplyPictures, emeeme, StormsHandicrafts, BlueTerracotta, rudulatvia, nauli, slinkymalinkicat, Sumikoshop, QuercusSilver, ClockworkUniverse, thespottedsparrow

My creative space

These are the pictures from my delicious photo shoot today. I teased you about this brooch a while ago and it was intended as the first in The Adventurous Life series, but after varnishing the lace went from cinnamon brown to chocolate brown. Still looked delicious, but I had to replace the beads, hence the delay. The new beads are soft pink, strawberry ice-cream was my first thought, so I just decided to go on with the sweet and yummy. Listing tonight.

To play along and see more creative places visit Kirsty.

European beauties

It's window shopping Wednesday again! Today I'm into all things European, red or almost red and different techniques involving tread and fabric or just thread. Enjoy the creativity of these Etsy artists!

Cell phone sleeve -Circle of sun by kuutydruk:



Pink 3 disc acai earrings by joelinha:



Dorothea the whale - soft toy by contemori:



Set of 2 washable crocheted round coasters in red by CasaDiAries:

Sunny Europe

There had to be European treasury this week :)

Featured Etsians: latenightdrawing, verityunmondoaparte, maroulina, katarinakri, polkadotscloud, lamarquisedesanges, fricdementol, ninon, YLOjewelry, BlueTerracotta, Huismus, XauXau

Thank you Diramar!

My White brooch has been on Etsy front page again. Yay! Many thanks to Diramar a.k.a. innovationdesign for curating the beautiful collection. Besides treasuries she also creates lovely cozies like this sea-star inspired lariat:

Euro Week offer

Enjoy free shipping worldwide on all items in my shop through Sunday March 28th!

Monday moodboard - flowers

Hello! Let's celebrate the spring and the first Euro Week on Etsy!

Rose and avocado castile natural soap by CampoDiFiore
Hand embroidered on silk... La belle epoch... Victorian style picture by Lamercerie
Silk crocheted necklace by nevousinstallezpas
Felted scarf - collar and brooch by daimblond

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties from my European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale. It's fun!

Thank you Sabine!

My White brooch has been featured on Etsy front page together with other beauties in this gorgeous treasury by lamarquisedesanges. Sabine creates lovely vintage inspired clothing like this Champagne embelished women tee shirt:



Enjoy the weekend!

My creative space

A couple of days ago I found these old ponytail holders and almost threw them away. They were worn out and dusty, but the wooden beads still looked good, so after some sanding, painting and varnishing I could use them to make new ponytail holders. Easy!

To play along and see more creative places visit Kirsty.

Purple and green

I'm back to treasury making. Spring is in the air!

Featured Etsians: dreamyvintage, LAccentNou, katarinakri, Harem6, humunuku, couvert, littlepaperbird, littlebugjewelry, silverfog, jennjohn, slgdesigns, GlitzGlitter

Perfect spring

It's still snowing, it's still winter over here, but soon we'll be able to put the winter coat away. These beauties would make my spring perfect. Happy window shopping!

A fresh apple green Kinn Jones hat by sparkyjones:



Ray necklace by BrokenFingersArt:



Screen printed starfish leggings by prettypennydesigns:



Wooden paper plane brooch with red stitching by LittleRedLantern:

Shop update

Just wanted to show you the newest brooches in my shop. The white brooch is inspired by patterns of the melting snow. There's also something summery about it, so I'm sure to make one for myself to wear it with my white linen blouse. Listed it as a part of the European Street Team weekly challenge The sense of touch and textures hosted by Sabine a.k.a lamarquisedesanges. See more entries on her blog.



Love you back brooch is for the Etsy Project Embrace challenge Butterflies. Lovely theme! There's something infinite about these fragile creatures, so it felt like mix of different materials was what I needed. I love how the lace reminds the structure of butterfly's wing - in real life even more than in pictures.

Monday moodboard - reminder

Hello Monday! Another busy week ahead. The moodboard today is an effort to remind myself about nearness of Easter. It's closer than I thought!

Set of 5 customizable clay Easter eggs tags or decoration by CasaDiAries
Bunny - art sculpture by ArtMind
Easter eggs by kaleda
Felted egg by woolicious

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

And hugs to three wonderful girls for mentioning me on their blogs over the weekend - Lois, Margaret and Alise. I guess without Alise there wouldn't be Etsy Team Latvia at all. Alise a.k.a. XauXau and I met for the first time in real life last week and all (well, almost all) we talked about was Etsy. You can read more about it on her blog.

Have a great week!

Snowdrops!

Look what I found while photographing the snow! A thin snow-free line along the southern side of our house. Yay! The first snowdrops!

Last year on March 4th they looked already like this:



What a difference! The forecast says it will be snowing this weekend again, but since the snowdrops are already there, the spring must be nearer as it seems.

I'm getting ready for a creative weekend with two brooches in mind. One has to do with the snow (although I decided to leave icy beads away). The other is for the first creative challenge of Etsy Project Embrace team. I dreamed the idea of it on the edge of falling asleep last night. So there's enough to do.

Enjoy the weekend!

My creative space

This week I'm crawling with my camera trough the snow and watching how it melts. I've come up with an idea for a new brooch too and might need some icy looking beads now.

To play along and see more creative places visit Kirsty.

Urban beauties

It's time for window shopping! Enjoy!

Recycled skateboard bling bling ring by sevenply:



Laptop sleeve by martice:



The underlayers of my town II by ingridArtStudio:



Brown turquoise and cream plaid knitted scarf top by hopee:

Night at the opera brooch

Here's the finished brooch from last Thursday. Beautiful music, elegant dresses, excitement, applause... Night at the opera is the second brooch in The Adventurous Life series about everyday adventures.

Monday moodboard - lightness

Hello Monday! Sunshine, white snow, patches of blue sky, birds chirping, 8 march, bouquet of tulips. Everything seems possible today!

Strutting plummage - pale blue hand embroidered drawstring bag by Ravenhill
Powder pink angel wings stud earrings by meltemsem
Black sheep polymer clay magnet by HeartshapedCreations
Ceramic beads white primitive cylinder pony by alatceramics

Monday moodboard is a collection of beauties from my European Street Team members. To see more moodboards and to play along hop over to fleurfatale. It's fun!

Have a creative week!

My creative space

Today it's all about black lace and purple paint, since I'm working on a new brooch. The lace is the same my grandmother used for an evening dress she made for my mom. End of 70ies I think. The little black dress with lacy arms. My mom looked stunning in it and it was also one of my favourites for dressing up when I was little girl. I just loved that dress.

To play along and see more creative places visit Kirsty.

On the road

I just continued to ponder on adventures and adventurers. Happy window shopping!

The tiny little adventurous bird - greeting card by FreyaArt:



For all travelers - tiny bag by FoxAndLocket:



On the road by xojy:



Maps - your journey - butterfly art by TerrorDome:

Free as a bird brooch

Last Thursday I showed you the beginnings of my newest brooch. However, it wasn't finished in time for the European Street Team challenge. Yesterday afternoon the brooch still looked like this. I got the jump rings, but decided to change the design a little. And then it was too dark to take pictures.

Nevertheless it's listed in my shop now. Free as a bird brooch is the first from The Adventurous Life series about everyday adventures - small everyday events, creative thoughts and sudden emotions. I love the idea about a life being one big adventure and (what a surprise!) even the greeting of this blog includes the word adventure. So the birth of this series has been somehow inevitable.



Be free as a bird!