Introducing a friend of mine...

The lovely Holly Anne from Pretty Betty is not only a good friend of mine but also incredibly talented.  I love the decadent vintage feel of her jewellery.  Her eye for detail and beautiful photos makes her Etsy shop a treasure to browse through.  Pay her a visit! 

New Woodland Pretties

Here are a few new things to add to the Earlybird shop.  I'm in love with the woodland theme and all things murky green, brown and vibrant grassy green.  Enjoy!

                                                                Fern Green Earrings

                                                        Woodland Button Necklace

                                                          Wild Deer Necklace

Rain no more!!

In my little corner of the world it has not ceased to rain for the past 2 weeks. Well, perhaps it has stopped momentarily in order to gather up steam for the next down pour but more often than not, if I look out the window I have met with grey skies, green green grass and puddles.  But today, gloriously, blue skies broke through the clouds and we have sunshine.  So here's a few handmade lovelies I picked to celebrate...

Yellow & Aqua Summer Aline dress by TeenyBunny

Kara Yellow Citrine Headband by ChloeandMaddie

Lemonade Earrings by Earlybird Creations (that's me!)

Fresh from the Earlybird Oven

Here are some new items, added to my Etsy and Madeit shop. The temperature has dropped considerably in the last few weeks around here, so I've tried to "feel" the warmth with some bright new colours.

Sunshine Necklace on Etsy

Droplet Earrings on Madeit

Ocean Swim Necklace on Etsy

Turning a New Leaf

Recently I've been experimenting with new designs and materials and have really enjoyed the process!  Here are some new things for April, featured in my Etsy shop.

Pink Fusion Earrings

 Aquatic Earrings

 Cloudy Sky Necklace

Seahorse Dream Necklace

Leaf Litter Earrings

Sale Time!

With the lovely oncoming cooler weather and the prospect of a lovely little Easter holiday, I have decided to throw a big sale into the mix.  I am having 25% off my entire Earlybird shop in order to make way for beautiful new items after Easter.

Only from 1st until the 4th of March!!!  Hurry Toot Sweet!

My New Earlybird Model

Well, I am so chuffed at the moment because suddenly my stepdaughter, who, when she was 4 demanded that her hair be shaved off completely and for 6 months after was mistaken for a little boy, has willingly decided to become my model for Earlybird!  Here are some beautiful pics of her making my resin jewellery look flipping marvellous...

 

And here is a little pic of both Maddy and Jake when they were tiny tots....gorgeous mischievous and cuddly.

SALE SALE SALE!!!

I decided that it was time for a nice big long sale, so for the month of November, I'm offering Free Worldwide Shipping on everything in my Etsy shop. Please stop by and have a browse!

Summer come back!!

My new necklace on Etsy is made whilst I was longing for a bit of balmy weather. Here in Australia it is fair to say that winter has been around for long enough. So I hope you enjoy my ode to summer....and if you are experiencing a bit of heat and sunshine...think of me in my ugg boots and trackie-dacks. Toodles!

New addition to Carapace collection!

Just got my print from Carapace in the mail.....I'm in love and am having a inner conflict about where to place it in my house. Surely it's worthy of the main living area and yet it has a wonderful study-ish feel about it which means it would probably end up in my quiet but messy study. Check out Carapace's etsy shop as she is an arty genius....also a wonderfully explosively funny lady!

Hands Wringing in Anticipation!!

I'm an excited bunny (or birdie) this week! Last year I missed attending the Stitches and Craft Show in Sydney for various reasons but this year I put my foot down. In fact, I put my foot down so hard that I booked a plane ticket to Melbourne to attend their show instead of Sydney! So my mum and I are making a weekend of it. She is a crafter too but is looking for a sewing machine with many bells and whistles, whereas I am just going to soak up the general crafty splendour as well as attend a workshop or two.

If you are going this weekend, I hope you have a wonderful time! I know we will...there will be none of our men-folk hanging around out the front getting bored!

The gorgeous stitched brooch at the top there is by Polyclarific... Check out her shop, beautiful items!

Random Facts

There has been a fun little exercise going around my Facebook friends as of late. It's called 25 Random Facts about ....... (enter your own name). Normally I don't go for many of the applications that Facebook have to offer but recently a friend of mine passed away who I didn't keep in touch with as much as I should and this sparked a real yearning to get to know people more...even the friends I think I know well. I've really enjoyed reading the random facts that people pluck from their mind that describe their life, their wishes and dreams and maybe their fears as well.

So I thought I'd carry the exercise over here in Blog land. Here are 5 random facts about me right now...and I would be REALLY happy if you could share 5 random facts about yourself in the comments.

1. I have a tan at the moment which is astounding!

2. My all time favourite book is Persuasion - Jane Austen

3. I really love sweet chilli phillie cream cheese and rice crackers

4. I wish I were more adventurous

5. I have the entire 6 series of Northern Exposure on dvd.

Oh and I'll cheat and add a number 6 ...I just listed this new necklace on Etsy :)


Please share 5 random facts about yourself! I love a good read!

Victorian Bushfire Appeal...Dig Deep, my peeps!!

By now you must be aware of the destruction caused by the Victorian bushfires in Australia in the past week. Over 200 lives lost, thousands of people left homeless and towns like Kinglake and Marysville left devastated. So far there has been over $100 million raised in donations to help with the relief effort. A group of Etsy sellers have also pitched in and have set up a shop with items donated by LOTS of Etsy sellers. All proceeds will be going to Australia Red Cross appeal. Here is the link to the shop... Victorian Bushfire Appeal

And here are some great finds currently on offer!

A Walk In The Forest by SerpentMandalas

Liquorice Wristlet by Meringueshop

Carnelian and Sterling Silver Miracles Necklace by JetFlair

Bronze Ribbon - Hand Cast Resin Bangle by Minty Fresh Fushions

Music and Sunblock

I'm a fan of the ole music festival. Especially this time of year because it seems that nothing says Aussie summer like some acoustic guitar, sunblock, lots of sweaty people and a portaloo. Tomorrow I head off to beautiful Cassegrain Winery to catch Ani DiFranco, Blue King Brown, Jeff Lang and some other acts that I have yet to experience but am looking forward to!

Here is my ode to a bit of blues and music from some awesome sellers on Etsy..

Heavy Metal Pendant by Kahlaw

My Record Collection Bobby Pins by Always Amy

All That Music Print - by Ulaa

Hopefully I will get some pics from the festival and post them on Sunday...Ciao!!

The Colour of Rain

At the moment my poor parents are stuck over on one of the Fijian islands due to massive amounts of rain and cyclonic conditions (and hence no planes flying). They are quite fine as they have a lovely air conditioned resort and plenty amounts of wine and cheezels to amuse them while they wait for information about when they are leaving the island and landing safely back in Australia. This freakish weather has got me thinking about the colour of the sky and the view they must be experiencing out their window. When I think of Fiji I think of sun, blue green water and lush green vegetation. Here are a couple of wonderful visual feasts I found on Etsy which kind of invoke the image of a drowned landscape and high winds...


Leap54 - This stunning original oil painting by RozArt





















Silk -What a fantastic image by SoZeSoZe - Not sure if the beaches are looking quite like this one in Fiji...I'll have to wait for the photos!

January 09....Happy New Year!

Woohoooo! The beginning of 2009 started with a somewhat floppy feeling for me. My modem decided to die a horrible but considerably instantaneous death on New Years Eve morning and I spent 4 hours (the time that I had allocated for chatting with Etsy peeps, drinking sparkling white and indulging in soft cheeses) on the phone to my service provider trying to figure out why the little green light wasn't flashing anymore. The news wasn't good and it turns out that a new modem will take a week to get to me. One. Week. That's an eternity to me! Hubby isn't feeling the pinch too much. The only reason he uses the WWW is to play poker on Facebook.

Anyway, on the brighter side, my parents have decided to give up their computer for a little while (as long as I bake some cookies for them). My plans for throwing a January 09 Etsy sale have not changed and today I have started my free shipping sale! This really is an excellent sale, considering I am in Aussie-land and this would normally contribute to the shipping costs. So if you've had your eye on an Early Bird necklace / earrings/ keyring now is an excellent time to purchase!

In other news I found this fantastic blog dedicated to Australian Indigenous art! The above artwork is taken from this blog. Please check it out, it is visually spectacular and contains some really interesting info about the world of Aboriginal art. Go to Aboriginal Art Blog.

Anyway peeps, enjoy your first week of 2009!

First Day Back...oh dear!

Today I properly started back working on my Etsy and Madeit shops and as luck would have it getting back into the swing of things has not proven easy. It seems that when I am on holidays I am far to optimistic about going back to work. As I lounged around the pool last week, white wine in one hand, small chocolate fudge square* in the other, it all seemed so easy. But now that I am back in the land of reality, suffering from a slight sugar craving and missing the wine it is proving to be a lot more difficult. Lucky for me, I was browsing Etsy this morning and came across this particularly fantastic booklet by Orangebeautiful which provided a nice kick up the booty.

The result was the following new necklace for my Etsy shop. Phew, I'm back in the saddle!

* an alarming number of small fudge squares were consumed during the course of the 2 days binge we call Christmas Day and Boxing Day , each one I swore would be the last...but lets face it...it's fudge...and it's small...and most importantly it's chocolate. I rest my case.

The Perfect Gift

One of my bestfriends is about to get the following present from me for Christmas. It consists of one of my necklaces (which is ofcourse a mandatory gift for close family and friends!) and a gorgeous obi belt from Loobyloucrafts .

Marmalade? Or Apricots?

After listing my newest necklace in my Etsy shop a conversation with my One a Day Challengettes ensued about the unpopularity of marmalade in the US (yes we only talk about REALLY important things). The more we talked about the naming of my necklace (Marmalade versus Apricots) the more I went looking for other gorgeous creations on Etsy to satisfy my marmalade craving. Here are a couple I found...

Curlysue's beautiful Firefly necklace


This gorgeous mixed media collage by Books On Tape



This is possibly the most serious and contraversial blog topic you will ever have the pleasure of reading, I hope you enjoyed this visual feast!

New Purchase!!! Had to share!

I just bought these gorgeous fibre beads from the fabulous Etsy shop - Ebrown2503 . I seriously can't wait for their arrival in my letterbox because I have a wonderful plan developing in my mind involving their gorgeous textures, large smooth resin beads (how unusual of me!) and some silver painted ceramic beads that I've been holding on to. Stay tuned!!