Winter Sparkle Blog Hop

It's time once again for another of Lisa Lodge's blog hops. This time the theme was Winter Sparkle and we were given all sorts of wonderful sparklies to work with. Once again, I forgot to take a picture of the goodies before I started working with them. Sigh. My combination was beautiful shades of pink and clear crystals in various shapes and sizes and lots of little glass pearls. As soon as I pulled them out to work on the project, I realized they would pair perfectly with a lovely pendant made from a porcelain shard I had bought from Glassworks by Susan in Tallahassee. And I was right :)

Springing Forth

 I added a few green crystals I had from my stash and am loving the end result. The toggle is meant to represent the sun which causes the flowers to spring forth, which I'm sure many of you in snow country are ready for!

But more crystals and those little glass pearls were left and were waiting to be used. A co-worker suggested a pair of dangle earrings and it was a great suggestion.

Pink Delight

While the two don't match exactly, they're definitely complimentary

Thanks, Lisa, for another fun hop.  Here's the rest of the blog hop- time to get busy!

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life 

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry  (you are here)

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Ev Shelby, Raindrop Creations 

Dolores Raml, CraftyD's Creations

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Cassi Renee Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

Annette Rivers, Mama Owl's Mess

Tammie Tusher Everly, TTE Designs

Crystal Thain, Here Bead Dragons

Marybeth Rich, A Few Words from within the Pines

Norbel Marolla, She Flies Again Jewelry

Karen Burg, KEB Designs

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Jasvanti Patel, Jewels by Jasvanti

My Apologies... and the winner is....

I owe you all an apology. I promised to pick a winner on February 1st, and then realized that Vicki had asked that the giveaways be posted on February 15, so decided to honor the hostess and wait. And forgot. And now it's the 19th and I'm just now following through. So, without further ado, doing a random number drawing from the comments, the winner is Cindy from Life on Print. If you'll email me your information, some heart earrings will be on their way to you.

Again, please accept my apologies for not following through in a timely matter. If you come back on Saturday, I'll be posting for a new blog hop that's all about sparkle!

May your week be filled with splashes and dashes of joy and grace,

Christie

Grow Your Blog Party & Giveaway

Welcome to the Grow Your Blog Party! Someone had posted about this on a beading Facebook page, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Thank you to Vicki for being a wonderful hostess. If you look at the amazing list on her blog, you'll find it's grouped according to the number of followers so be sure to visit and follow the ones that pique your interest.

My name is Christie. I'm a wife of 26 years, a mom to three beautiful daughters and experiencing my first year as an empty nester. I'm finding it has its pros and cons for sure! I've always loved to do crafts and was into scrapbooking for awhile until I was introduced to beading through a friend of my sister. I was hooked! After making gifts for family and friends, this hobby segued into a small business and keeps on going. A couple of years ago I had the privilege of teaching jewelry lessons at a large craft store and that was a wonderful experience. Now I teach private lessons in the small town I live near, and my regulars have become family. They continue to want to learn new things and push me to keep expanding my repertoire- it's a win/win situation!

I'm an avid pinner and have lots of great boards- especially jewelry related things. You can check them out here on Pinterest. I'm also on Instagram where my user name is CharisDesigns. Twiiter is something I'm still trying to figure out but you can follow me as @CharisDJewelry.  I have a shop on Etsy as well as a Facebook business page, Charis Designs

Here's some pictures of  some favorite jewelry I've made:

Merry Mermain

Consider the Lilies

Autumn Splendor

Floral Fantasy

Smokey Mountains

and my absolute favorite....

Orchid Beauty

 Several of these were pieces that I made for blog hops, which I love participating in. Autumn Splendor and Orchid Beauty are still for sale- please contact me if you're interested.

With Valentines' Day around the corner, how about a giveaway of some Valentine earrings? Just leave a comment below ( with a valid email) and tell me something special you'll do for your valentine this year (family friendly please!).  Of course, I'm always looking for new followers too ;) I'll pick a random winner on February 1st.

Lots of other blogs to visit, so off I go- hoping your day is filled with splashes of grace and dashes of joy

Christie

Into The Forest Blog Hop

It's time for another blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge- this time the theme is Into The Forest. I was given a combination of beige/tan stone beads, green crystal and some crystals in beige colors. Unfortunately, yours truly forgot to take a picture of all but the green ones-sorry about that!

 Aren't they pretty?

I've been loving playing with brass lately, so when I saw these three beads, I realized they line up perfectly for a chain pendant... and I was right :) Making a chain tassel is always fun too. The brass bowl is from India, where I grew up, and it seemed fitting to photograph the necklace with it, being that this piece reminded me of necklaces from there. I called this pendant "Aranya" which is the Hindi word for forest, in honor of the hop. 

Aranya

Here's another look- it's pretty long, but I'm pleased with it.

I still had the tan and brown stones to work with, and while I was in Michaels I spotted some Art-i-cake chain, and fell in love with it. The combination of antique brass and crystal spacers kept calling my name, and upon arriving home, realized it could pair perfectly with the beads Lisa had sent. After figuring how to wrangle them with some antique brass wire, voila! Loving the combo of the sparkly, the chain and the beads.

Woodsy Glam

There are still a couple of links which will become earrings very soon, and it needs a clasp which will also happen this week. What about those pretty green beads, you ask? Well, there are plans for them as well, but last weekend I was given an opportunity to put some earrings into a prom dress shop, and that took up a lot more time than I expected, but very welcomed! They were delivered yesterday, so now I can (literally) wrap up some loose ends.

There's a lot more jewelry peeps who participated in this blog hop, so be sure to check them out.  Thanks again, Lisa, for being a wonderful hostess. Hope your weekend is filled with splashes of grace and dashes of joy!

Here's the list of participants:

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams,   Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec  Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, (you're here) Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Kay Mallery,TBD

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

My Word for the Year

Last year we were challenged to take some time and think about what would be our word for the new year.  My word was "breathe" and I blogged about it here. It turned out to be a very appropriate word. I learned to breathe through some new health issues that hung around much longer than desired, through having a storm delay our youngest daughter's high school graduation for a whole day, through finding out that sleep apnea and now means a CPAP machine is a regular part of life, through learning how to be an empty nester, and finally having to put our sweet kitty to sleep the day after Christmas. I am counting my blessings, though, because so many have had to deal with so much more.

This year, my word is "soak". I looked up the definition which includes to lie in, and become permeated or saturated with liquid; to take a long bath; to steep, as for the purpose of softening or freshening; or to draw in. I'm not a big tub person, but every once in a while I take a long, soaking bath. It brings rest, refreshment, and quiets my body and soul. God is slowing me down this year with some changes in my schedule, and my heart is to soak in His presence. I want to absorb His love, His peace, His joy, and His creativity so that I am permeated. Isaiah 30:15 says “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”. I'm ready for some soaking time.

What's your word for the year? I'd love to hear what you've chosen and why.

Before I go, here's a collage of pictures of our sweet kitty, Jade. She was part of our life for almost 15 years and I'm glad we had one last Christmas with her.

Jade

So, here's to 2014 and a New Year that waits with wonderful possibilities,and one hopefully full of dashes of grace and splashes of joy!
Christie

Short but sweet

As you may recall, back in September I was invited to join the ZNet Shows Design Team. I shared one post where I participated in a lightning round challenge for 7000 Bracelets for Hope, which was a lot of fun. We were also asked at the time if we'd like to be part of the Winter edition of Creative Spark which would feature pearls. I was on board with that! Well, it's out now, and chock full of beautiful designs as well as a couple of tutorials. It's a honor to be part of it ( you can find me starting on page 47, and then at the back). Merry Christmas to me!! Click on the image below to see all the lovelies ( I'm jumping up and down right now because I figured out how to insert HTML to make it work). Hope did an amazing job of putting this all together, so a big shout to her.

Click to view Creative Spark Winter 13-14 on GLOSSI.COM

Hope it adds a splash of joy and a dash of grace to your day like it did for mine!

Christie

.ABS Ornament Blog Hop: It's a Narnia Kind of Thing..

This is my second year participating in the ABS Ornament Blog Hop hosted by Heather Powers of Humble Beads.  When pondering the possibilities, I fell in love  Heather's Woodland Evergreen holiday pendant, and immediately thought of one of my favorite books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. C.S. Lewis is a favorite author of mine, and I've read the series ( as well as many other books of his) numerous times. While it's an entertaining read, he weaves all sorts of wonderful truths into the story and it becomes a lovely allegory. With that in mind, and loving the annealed steel wire that others have recommended, here's what I came up with:

Into Narnia

If you're a Narnia kind of person, there's a few little things built into this. The dark wire reminded immediately of the lamppost that Lucy sees upon entering. Wrapped inside the first bundle is a crystal to emulate said lamppost. There are four beads- two lava blue ones for Edmund and Peter in the main body of the ornament, and two crystal ones for Lucy and Susan. If you've read through the series ( I won't spoil it for you) you could see also where the wrapped crystal bead represents Susan, and the big, clear crystal symbolizes Lucy. It needed a little texture, and I couldn't find anything that seemed to go with it, until  spotting the raffia.  It was an aha! moment when I knew it would represent Aslan's mane.

Here's another view:

This isn't the greatest picture, but it's hanging on my new topiary ( gotta love Pinterest) that I've been dying to make and finally got done yesterday :) By now you know that I also love Rhonna Designs, so a shout out to her wonderful picture app.

One final peek:

Here's a couple of favorite quotes about Aslan:

"Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”


“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,
When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas, the wonder of Narnia, an encounter with the Son of the Emperor, and a season filled with joy and grace.

Christie

Stop on by the rest of the participants...