Free Form Peyote Stitch Earrings

In just a few short days these earrings will be headed to Ohio to adorn the ears of a beautiful friend of mine. This beautiful woman crocheted for me a queen sized blanket of many colors. I will of course be sending many more goodies for her and will post pics when her bundle is ready to go out.

Prayer Journal Pages Part 2

I used pen and ink and watercolors to make these pages. Each page has special meaning and contains many prayers. Prayers of joy, of hop, of hurt, of healing and of growth. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Industrial Spiral

Industrial Spiral is made entirely from glass seed beads that graduate in color from a dark gray to silver all done in a matte finish and stitched together in a spiral stitch. I just love the spiral stitch...its stitches up fairly quickly and looks lush when finished.

I just opened my very own Etsy shop called Just Another Girls Art and this bracelet is headed there soon.

Have a blessed day!

The Butterfly

Oh how I wish I had wings and could take flight sometimes. I also know that the butterfly is the symbol of new life...its the symbol of the new life I am trying to cling to.

Here comes another one of those heavy posts...just in case you want to turn away...here's the skinny on the necklace...rose quartz butterfly and chips with crystals, silver and seed beads by the butterfly.

I'm beginning a transformation...I've decided that I can't just sit and wait for the test results...I'm going to do what I need to do to take care of myself and my little "family".

I'm currently working on the inside transformation which is making me want to work on the outside transformation but before I can fly I need to learn to crawl, which is where my faith comes into my picture...my faith in my God...my faith in myself...my faith in others.

I'm excited to see what artwork comes from this time of transformation...please take this journey with me.

Comforts

Comforting images of well loved faces. Where do you see comfort in your life?

You may or may not know much about me, so I am going to share with you something that is on my mind and will be for a little while. Yesterday I went in for a cervical cancer recheck. I'm scared that my cancer is back. Unlike other forms of cancer this kind is from a contagious virus...one that I contracted during an attack of my personal space. This virus, the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV), has no cure and I have one of the two aggressive strains that leads to cancer. The doctors in two states told me that I was lucky that the cancer was caught early, but really who is lucky to have cancer? I had surgery in Sept of 2008 to remove the cancerous spots that they could see and was told to be rechecked every three months for the first year because this cancer pops up unexpectedly sometimes fast and sometimes slow. I was truly lucky to not have to undergo chemo or radiation at the time.

I am not supposed to be the sick one here...I am supposed to be the one who is fixing and comforting everybody else! I am supposed to be leading the normal life of a 32 year old woman, not going in for cancer rechecks every three months! I am supposed to be walking these dogs on the property, not hiding inside! I am the one who is supposed to be making my best friend laugh as we sit together and make jewelry!

I am supposed to be brave until the results come back, which up here in the mountains could mean a two week wait. I am supposed to sit quietly and accept all of this as the facts of my life? Why me? What did I do to deserve this? What about my family?

Comforting images of well loved faces. Where do you see comfort in your life?

Snow Ball Fight

This spiral bracelet is called "Snow Ball Fight" and it is one of my favorites. I love the lush texture of this bracelet and the weight of it is particularly perfect.

I publish this in hopes of snow. I love a fresh blanket of snow and the sparkly effect the top flakes have on it. I hope to see the sky open up and drop big fluffy flakes.

Don't get me wrong, I love autumn and all of the beautiful colors and I wholeheartedly love sitting in front of the window watching the falling leaves.

The winter also bears my birthday...not that I'm fond of getting older, I love that special day.

Okay, back to the real world and creating...that's right I started creating again. Pictures to come soon. Have a great rest of your weekend!

Continual Line Drawings

These are pages from my prayer journal which has no writing in, just drawing. These drawings are done in pen and ink on card stock...some have been water colored before or after and others just have pen and ink.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! I'm planning to try to get some fresh air.

Color

Maybe I need to start playing with color again to help with this depression...maybe I should pick one color and limit what I create to that one color instead of being overwhelmed by all of my things.

These three bracelets are fun and inspirational (sorry for the fuzzy picture). The first is made of rainbow striped furnace glass. The second is a cha-cha bracelet that I call "Festival". And the third is made with Jodie beads and fresh water pearls.

Any suggestions on what color to start with?

Addiction

My name is Tonia and I have an addictive personality. I love learning new mediums in my art but then instead of just slowly building a stash I jump in whole hog...hence the thousands of rubber stamps that I own or the skeins and skeins of yarn for crocheting with. I love art and creating it is my passion...I love beads and could easily fill a nice store front with my stash and with the jewelry I have made. I have boxes of fabric just waiting to be sewn together and idea books up the wazoo.

When I moved here to California I had clothes movies and music but then I also had my art supplies...I find myself sitting here in the middle of it all not knowing what to create next...I made two hats yesterday...I got some new beads...I have half finished projects...I have sketches for new things...I have inspiration for loads of things, but I am melancholy as the sky darkens and the clouds threaten to open up and spill forth the buckets of water we are going to get in the next couple of days. The trees are filled with the noise of the wind the gusts that could hit speeds of 50 mph. There are movies to be watched...house cleaning to be done...food to be cooked...dogs to be exercised, but I can only lay here on my belly typing out the thoughts and feelings rattling around in my head.

By the number of comments that I have received on here I'm pretty sure that nobody will read this so I feel confident in sending out into cyberspace that I'm slipping into a sadness or depression that I have no idea how to come out of.

I'm going to go now and start reorganizing my art supplies in hopes that something will snap me back to want to create something of beauty. If there is someone reading do you ever feel this way when surrounded by so many things that can create beauty for yourself or others? How do you get out of your slump and move forward?

Hats!!!

Adult hats...mostly mine...some are Debbie's...can you tell that I like making the bumpies? The top one is my favorite one hands down...it is alpaca wool with shells, fresh water pearls and vintage crystals. It doesn't cover my ears or keep me very warm but it makes a cool shimmery noise and it looks cute on me. (That's all that matters, right?)

More Hats!

How cute are these kids hats that I have been working on?

An Exchange!!!!

I am going to participate in this exchange! I have participated in these in the past and am super excited to do another one! Please think about also signing up if you have the time. I needed something to get me out of my non creating slump and this is the answer.

More Jodie beads! This time they are tiny little spacers with crystals and silver tornado tubes. I just love this necklace for spring and summer its light and very colorful. I also made earrings to match.