Last Minute Mother’s Day Gift Idea

Are you looking for a last-minute gift for that special mom in your life (whether it be your mother, wife, sister, friend or someone else)? If she’s a fishing fanatic (or you are), how about some fishing lure earrings? I’ve had fun making these earrings with fishing lures, bobbers, etc. Some of them would even come in handy should the unthinkable happen and you lose your last bobber!

Yellow and Orange Fishing Bobber Earrings

Bright Fluorescent Green Spinner Earrings

Red and White Bobber Earrings

Fluorescent Yellow Spinner Earrings in either Gold or Silver

Mini Orange and Yellow Bobber Earrings in Gunmetal (also available in Silver or Gold)

And here’s a pair I just made for myself the other day. I absolutely adore royal purple and to have them metallic is even better!

My new dark royal purple spinner earrings!

If you’re interested in seeing more, please visit my Etsy shop for available items!

Thanks, and Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful women out there!

Thinking Spring – with naturalscapes on Etsy

Yes, it’s snowing here again in Minnesota on May 3. But I am holding out hope that spring will eventually be here and we will have flowers blooming. In the meantime, I found some beautiful photos from a fellow Etsy seller that help to keep me in a positive mindset. I can just look at them and relax.

Bleeding Hearts

Marvelous Monarch

Wave fringe beach

Check out her great work at this link to her shop. Thanks to Linda for allowing me to share her pictures and shop with you, and to give me a mini escape. Enjoy!

A Beautiful Winter Wedding

I am excited to be able to share pictures of the jewelry I designed for my cousin’s wedding in December. Because it was winter, the bride chose to incorporate a silver snowflake charm in the necklace cluster, along with sparkling silver, glass pearl and clear beads. The effect was stunning! It was a great way to have bridal party jewelry that fit the theme and season of the wedding, but it was still very wearable after the wedding.

Special thanks to Melissa and to Caiti Barr Photography for sharing this gorgeous picture of the bridal party

A closeup of the necklace and earring sets

It’s so much fun to be able to have the bride pick out elements of necklaces that she loves, and then to create them into something so beautiful and unique. I really love how they turned out.

Using silver is a great way to add to the dresses without matching the color exactly. Sometimes matching is great, and other times a coordinating or accent color is even better.

Which would you choose for your wedding – matching color or an accent color? If you’re interested in helping to design jewelry for your wedding party or having custom sets made, please contact me!

My Television Debut

Amazingly enough, just a month after I had my first magazine feature, I was contacted by Channel 12, a community cable channel here in the Twin Cities, to do a story about my Rwandan paper beads. Pretty exciting!

The story is a great piece that highlights how I’m helping women in Rwanda both by purchasing beads they make by hand, and then by taking a portion of the proceeds of the sale of items made with those beads to send back tools and supplies to them. They’re able to continue making the paper beads, support themselves and their families, and receive much needed medical attention.

In a recent post I mentioned some of the supplies that I was sending to Rwanda, including new sealers and top-coats for them to test as well as brushes and beads. I plan to continue sending supplies and beads on a quarterly basis throughout this coming year (and beyond!).

If you are interested in learning more about how the beads are made and a little bit about my time in Rwanda, please check out this post.

To see items made with these awesome beads that are available for purchase, please visit my Etsy shop. Feel free to contact me as well – I’m happy to design something special just for you! Not only do you receive a unique piece of jewelry, Christmas ornament, set of wine glass charms or other items, but you are helping to support the women in Africa as well. Doesn’t that make you feel good?

Finally, if you would like to donate but aren’t interested in making a purchase, I can help to facilitate a monetary that will go directly towards helping the women working in a paper bead cooperative in Rwanda.

Thanks for your interest and support!

Denise (a.k.a. Deeder the Beader)

Bridesmaid Jewelry – Pretty Purple Clusters

I love it when brides send me photos of their wedding party wearing the jewelry I made for the wedding. It’s so fun to see how everything goes together. Kelly chose one of my popular necklace and earring sets – glass pearl clusters in dark and light purple, accented with aurora borealis finish clear glass beads. Thanks to Kelly and the girls for sharing this photo!

Beautiful shot of the bridesmaids in their purple dresses and sparkling jewelry, holding gorgeous bouquets as well!

My First Magazine Article

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. So much for my New Year’s resolution to do better with my blog! I was recently honored be featured in my first magazine article. Maple Grove Magazine published an article about me and my Rwandan Paper Beads in the February 2013 issue. They highlighted the fact that I am giving back to the hard-working women in Rwanda whenever someone purchases items that I’ve made with paper beads. I love that the hard copy of the magazine includes a close-up photo of the paper beads used as the Table of Contents photo! Here’s a link to read the article online…

Maple Grove Magazine, February, 2013 – I know, I didn’t make the cover, but who can compete with a chocolate cake…in February!

Just today I sent off a shipment of beads, paint brushes and different forms of sealers. The intention is to have the women try a few new methods and determine if there is a better option than the varnish/sealer they’re currently using. My hope is to help them find a great way to finish the beads and then to continue to help supply those products (and more) to them.

Some of the items being sent to the women in Rwanda to continue their bead making craft

How can you help? You can check out the Rwandan paper bead items in my Etsy shop and make a purchase. Or visit me at a craft show if you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area during one of my shows. If you are interested in just sending money or supplies to help support the women, please contact me and I’ll help to make that happen.

If you would like something custom made for you or for a gift, I’m happy to work with you. Not only do I make fun jewelry with the paper beads, but bookmarks, wine glass charms, Christmas ornaments and more. Since the beads are each made by hand, each finished product is unique.

Set of 12 Wine Glass Charms – smaller sets are available as well

Pink and purple paper bead snowflake ornament (not just for winter!)

Paper bead bracelet in red, yellow and green

I look forward to hearing from you Thanks for checking out the article and my Etsy shop. I have some really terrific customers and I’m thankful for all of the wonderful feedback and ideas.

Denise

P.S. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!

It’s the time of year for…egg nog!

It’s the Christmas season which means it’s time for egg nog! As I was growing up we’d have small glass of it on Christmas Eve. I sometimes started drinking it as we were decorating the Christmas tree just after Thanksgiving. That way I could enjoy it leading up to Christmas.

Egg Nog

 

At some point, I had one of the egg nog shakes at one of the fast food joints, and I liked that because the egg nog actually was cold! Even if you take it straight from the fridge and drink it right away, it never seems really cold (yes, I think my husband has had some influence on my noticing that fact!). However, I really don’t go to fast food places very often (especially “that” one) so I decided to make my own shakes at home with vanilla ice cream. I would mix vanilla ice cream and egg nog and enjoy. Once I tried that though I found it difficult to go back to drinking it plain. So, as my egg nog was sitting in the fridge longer I decided to cut to the chase and mix up a whole bunch of ice cream and egg nog and have my own egg nog ice cream (which did increase the cold factor even more than making a shake!).

Egg Nog Ice Cream – vanilla ice cream + egg nog

The proportion doesn’t seem to matter too much if you’re going to refreeze it, except that the more liquid you have the harder it freezes. I’ve learned that once I mix it up, I shouldn’t put it on the quick freeze shelf in our freezer or it gets rock hard. It’s taken me a few years to remember that fact, since it is only once a year I make it. If I have to, I put it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it, or if I have the patience (NOT!) I let it sit out awhile first.

Now that I have been drinking chai tea on a regular basis, I have tried the egg nog version at some coffee shops. It’s a tasty alternative for this time of year. So this year, my new invention was freezing the egg nog into small ice cube trays (I have some mini dorm fridge type trays) and then I can pop a cube into my hot chai tea whenever I want. I’m sure it would work with coffee too, but I’m not going to be trying that anytime soon! I love the smell of coffee but really don’t the taste of it! Steamed milk with egg nog sounds good too.

Egg nog ice cubes – for putting into whatever cold or hot beverage you wish

I found it difficult to get the cubes out of the tray since they’re somewhat sticky, so I ran the back side under hot water for a few seconds, doing my best to keep the water off of the cubes. That worked really well and they popped out of the tray easily.

How do you enjoy your egg nog? Plain, with a little shot of rum or brandy, as a shake or …? Or do you really dislike it? I know people are pretty much on one side or the other of the egg nog debate – love it or hate it.

Merry Christmas!

Denise