Friday, March 31, 2017

Flashback Friday - The Beauty Of Byzantium


Today is Michael d'Agostino's Flashback Friday! The idea is to republish an old post of yours that maybe didn't get enough attention, or that you really liked, or that you think others will really like..

As I started this blog in 2010, and then took a few years off to raise my little ones (only getting back into it this past November), I know there are a LOT of you out there that did not see some of my earlier posts.

You can see the original post HERE.

The Beauty Of Byzantium

Byzantium began when the fourth century Emperor, St. Constantine, Christianized the Roman Empire and established Constantinople in Byzantium as the capital. During this era a synthesis of classical Greek, Roman, and Christian culture gave birth to unparalleled achievements in art, architecture, and jewelry. Many of these achievements can be seen in the magnificent Byzantine jewelry and Byzantine cross pendants found in archaeological digs.


Our Byzantine Necklace is a wonderful marriage of round quartz beads and freshwater pearls. Quartz can strengthen all things positive. It amplifies intention, reduces stress, helps with balancing and healing, and surrounds you with protection. The best way to use the 

properties of quartz is to keep it close to you at all times. This will attune it to your frequencies. Cultured or freshwater pearls are considered to offer the power of love, money, protection, and luck. Pearls are thought to give wisdom through experience, to quicken the laws of karma and to cement engagements and love relationships. They are thought to keep children safe.


Early Chinese myths told of pearls falling from the sky when dragons fought. Ancient legend says that pearls were thought to be the tears of the gods and the Greeks believed that wearing pearls would promote marital bliss and prevent newlywed women from crying.

To see our necklace and more of my jewelry, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page here.


I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I will visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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Thursday, March 30, 2017

12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge - Week 9

Today's post is participating in the 12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge that I was invited to by Mrs. Dash Say's....blog here.

This weeks letter is to your significant other.

Dear John,

(No, his name really IS John)
I want to tell you how special these last few years have been for me and the kids. You have brought something to our family that I honestly never thought I would have. A wonderful,
caring, considerate, thoughtful man that loves my children as if they were his own. You have shown my daughter how loving a man can be and you have shown my son this also....which is something that is important for a young man. I hope he will treat his wife, someday, the way you treat me. I want to thank you for showing me that I can trust again. You are my rock. I love the way you support and encouraged me to start making jewelry again. I love the way you make me feel like the most important person in your life. 
I want to tell you that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and, most importantly, that I love you. Forever and completely.

To see some of the beautiful jewelry that John has inspired me to make, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page Here.

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I will visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Wordless Wednesday

Today's Wordless Wednesday is about Brown Seaglass. Enjoy!







Brown Seaglass Pendant
To see some more of my Sea Glass Jewelry, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page here!

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I will visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge - Week 8

Today's post is participating in the 12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge that I was invited to by Mrs. Dash Say's....blog here.

This weeks letter is to say 'I'm Sorry'.

For those of you that don't really know me, I will tell you that I have always been a 'live by the moment' person. Very spontaneous. Some call me very reckless. Sometimes doing very stupid things. I can't say that I regret a lot as, to live by the moment means to accept that you sometimes make foolish mistakes. I own them. 
There is one however, that I regret severely. It was not so much the action itself, which really did not mean much to me at the time, however, I regret how it made you feel. 
I let you down. I betrayed your trust. It was a very stupid mistake. 
You were one of my best friends and I have always lived by the rule that, best friends (or husbands and wives for that matter) should not mess with the others 'significant other'. 
It was a rule I had lived by for all of my life. Except this time.
Looking back now, almost 35 years later, I really don't know if I justified what I did by saying that 'he was mine first anyway, so I have a right to be with him again if I want', or maybe, deep down, I was jealous of how beautiful you were, how easily you could make friends, how you could speak to anyone, and how smart you were. Maybe I just wanted to 'take' something from you. He really wasn't important at the moment. It just happened and it was wrong. Eventually you forgave me, however, things were never the way they were before. We were never close again. Then of course, after high school, we just drifted completely apart. 
We did eventually catch up again on Facebook, and I smile when I see what a proud mom you had become and how you finally found love again after beating insurmountable obsticles, and it brings me back to when we were girls in school, just beginning life and taking it by the horns. 
However, to this day, it was my one true regret. Losing my friend. I am sorry.


I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I WILL visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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Monday, March 13, 2017

Learning New Things

Well, at least a few of you have reached out to find out where I have been for the past couple of weeks. Thank you for your concern...it is nice to be missed!

I have been deep in the throw's of trying to learn how to market my new Etsy page

I joined a couple of Etsy Facebook groups and have been learning an amazing amount of information. From learning how to promote my site on social media to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I have had a crash course in 'picture taking', 'descriptive phrases', 'Relevant Keywords', 'Hashtagging', when to use the '@' sign...I mean, the list goes on and on!! All the while trying to beef up my inventory, and get dinner on the table for my kids! 

I also signed up to Marmelead which has been a WEALTH of information. I have managed to raise my original grade from a 'D' to an 'A+' in most areas!

I will keep this post short, but I would sure love it if you could tell me how you promoted your blog or website? What worked for you? What didn't work for you? How did you use Social Media? Pinterest? Facebook? Instagram? Twitter?

If you are wanting to exchange 'follows', I can be found here:
HandmadeJewelryHaven.etsy.com
JewelryHaven.twitter.com
JewelryHaven.pinterest.com
HandmadeJewelryHaven.facebook.com
HandmadeJewelryHaven.Instagram.com
HandmadeJewelryHaven.tumblr.com (lol...I am not exactly sure what Tumblr even is!)

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I WILL visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge - Week 7

Today's post is participating in the 12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge that I was invited to by Mrs. Dash Say's....blog here.

This weeks letter is to my favorite teacher.

Dear Mr Blackmon,

In the 35 years since I was in your class, I have thought of you often. With your small, wirey frame and thinning hair, your collared dress shirts that the sleeves were just a bit too long and your dress pants just a tad too baggy. And that scraggly, half trimmed beard! 
Anyone would not have given you a second look in the street. But I think of you often.

As for myself, I was a skinny, pimply faced teen who hadn't found her looks yet. My hair was often unkempt, my clothes never matched as I had NO sense of fashion. I just barely scraped by each year with 'just passing' grades. No...I was no one to judge. I hated school and it hated me back! 
From the very begining, being a small girl, always getting pushed around in grade school, I had learned to keep my head down, my eyes averted and my mouth shut. Not very productive behaviour for a student. 
But then their was your 10th grade American History class. God I dreaded it. As I walked in and sized you up, I thought that this could possibly be the most boring class yet.
But I was sadly mistaken.
From the very begining when you started your lectures on the American Indians, you would tell the most descriptive tales on exactly what the procedure was for scalping someone properly. Not omitting one grusome detail. I was hooked. I would show up on time to get a desk up front. I started to ACE tests for the first time. Truely this was the first class that I pulled first a 'B' then up to an 'A' that was not Art or Music. 
You taught me that teachers didn't have to read verbatum out of a text book. You taught me that sometimes, it IS better to color outside of the box. You taught me to experiment with things that I would normally not have strayed outside of my safe zone to do. In many ways you taught me how to live. You will never know how I grew into an adventurous young lady that never said the word 'No' again. In fact, that I would eliminate that word out of my vocabulary.
Someday, I would love to get the chance to thank you in person, however I think sadly that it will never happen. So I will do it here. Thank You Mr Blackmon for being the BEST TEACHER EVER!


Post Log: As an afterthought, I decided to Google you and there you were on LinkedIn! Your hair is now mostly gone, but you still have your beard, and you are still involved in the learning system! Good for you Mr Blackmon. Maybe I will send you a link to this post and get to say, 'thank you', after all.

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I eventually WILL visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!


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Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Beading To Relax

One of the reasons I love making jewelry so much is that it is relaxing. Especially doing kumihimo as it is so time consuming and repetitive. I get a design in my head, usually after several nights mulling this idea or that idea over and over before drifting off to sleep. Then I pick a night, gather my supplies, measure and cut the thread, loop it in half, tie it off, then string it onto the loom. I then do a few rounds without the beads, just to give me an end to be able to glue into an end cap. I then take the rest of the night, maybe two, to string all eight cords with the required amount of beads, around 120-130 per cord. I then start
Copper Wrapped Seaglass Pendant
weaving on the loom with the beads. It is very repetitive and you just start to go through the motions and your mind just starts to wander. Pretty soon you have a few inches on and it is starting to look beautiful! Then you just keep going until after a few hours, it is done! I am currently working on a Kumihimo Necklace to go with a beautiful copper wire wrapped piece of seaglass that I got from my cousin in New Jersey.  

I love that meditative state that you get in when doing something over and over. Your muscles start to relax and you just go with it. This week it has come in particularily handy as I have been having a rather 'trying' time lately.

To see some of my Kumihimo designs, come visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page here.

What do you like to do to relax?

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! 
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Monday, March 6, 2017

12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge - Week 6

Today's post is participating in the 12 Weeks Of Letter Writing Challenge that I was invited to by Mrs. Dash Say's....blog here.

This weeks letter is to a stranger who was nice to me.

Truth be told, I almost did not make it to this blog post today. You see, this weekend, I found out that my sister is terminally ill and, naturally, that threw me for a loop. 
Anyway. I am determined to forge on as I am not really ready to put these swirling emotions on virtual paper yet.

So, this is a pretty easy one.

Dear Stranger,

It was in the late eighties that I worked for the commuter airline for Eastern Airline - boy am I dating myself here!! It was called Eastern Express. It operated out of a satelite terminal located smack dab next to the main runway at Miami International Airport. You had to take a big city bus from the main terminal to get to our small building that housed about four
Beech C99
gates. As is normal practice in the airline world, the flights were frequently overbooked. However, being a 'commuter' airline, we had very small aircraft ranging from a 15 passenger, unpressurized Beech C99 to the 50 passenger Saab 2000 Turboprop. My point being, they filled up FAST. Rarely was there a flight that didn't have double the amount of passengers show up. Often, because of our strange location, and extra time it took to get there, we had many no-shows. Having a passenger (who had been drinking at the local watering hole in the main terminal) scream at you because the plane was pulling away, was frequent. All this for the whooping sum of $6.50 an hour folks!!

Anyway...
One day, you showed up at my counter. You were a weathered older gent that had been around the block (at least twice). Your hair was a mess, you had a GREAT tan, and you wore a lot of gold. Not unusual at the time. You had missed an earlier flight, but instead of being a jerk, you were so polite and spoke in such a low voice, asking me if you could stand by for this flight. Well, unfortunately, this flight was TRIPLE booked! There was no possible way you were getting on this flight, and I advised you of that, but, you decided to wait it out. We did have five more flights going to Key West that night. That flight came and went and so did the next, but you waited. You finally got your break when we were 20 mins from closing the doors to the next flight, and there was one no show. I made the announcement that the flight was closed and that we would be calling standbys when, lo and behold, the last passenger runs up to the counter, smelling strongly of alcohol and wants his seat. I calmly advised him that there were no more seats and he had missed the check in and would have to wait until the next flight, 30 mins later. Well, Johnny Walker didn't like that one bit and proceeded to hurl such a string of expletives at me that I told him that now, he would be waiting until tomorrow to catch a flight! Somehow, he got it in his head that it would be a good idea to pick up an 8 foot potted palm and throw it over the counter at me, at which I ducked into the back office and told them to 'CALL THE COPS! QUICK!!'. Lucky for me, they only took 15 mins to show up and cart the guy off but during that time I quietly filled out that boarding pass and called Mr. Oro (that means Gold in Spanish) up to the
counter, handed him the pass and ushered him outside to the waiting plane. Naturally he profusely thanked me as he knew I could have gotten PalmTree onto that plane. But it was because of his patience and politeness that got him home that night.
About a week later a letter arrived at the office addressed to me. It turns out he was a jeweler, and he made me a gold necklace with the word 'Lisa' and a tiny diamond dotting the 'i'. I still have the necklace and I never forgot him. It reinforced in me that you can always attract more bees with honey.  And its true!

To see some of my jewelry creations, visit Handmade Jewelry Haven's Etsy Page here.

I love to read comments so please, leave one here! I eventually WILL visit your blog (if you have one) and love to comment too!
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