Glitzy Cocktail Rings

The creative juices are-a-flowing today...starting with making a huge batch of homemade vegetable beet borscht soup (which, by the way, was delicious) then moving on to creating a few more rings.

Today's rings leaned towards the glitzy, using various coloured crystals, silver & vintage brass wire.   These would be lovely little cocktail rings.

Since I don't own a ring mandrel (used for sizing rings), I thought my use of a turkey baster was quite creative!  

Silver ring with 2 black crystals.

Dainty silver ring with pale pink & clear crystals.

 Bold ring with faux pearl.

Crazy beaded vintage brass ring. 

(crazy beaded ring - top view)

Rings for All Occasions

What girl doesn't like a pretty ring?  I love them but can't justify the price...so I made my own.  Great afternoon creating at my craft table overlooking the pond on a beautiful sunny day.

I mostly used 20 gauge silver beading wire for the blue & green ring, 22 gauge silver wire for the 5 pale blue Czech crystal, and 20 gauge non-tarnish Vintage Bronze for the other two rings.

Next project will incorporate semi-precious stones...stay tuned.

Today's creations!  Five great cocktail rings. 

 Bronze ring in front is adorned with Czech crystals.

Glass beads for these two rings.

Bath Fizz

It's that time of year, when the temperature drops and summer creeps into autumn.  I yearn for a cozy, warm bath and nothing tops it than the scent of fresh essential oil in the form of bath fizzes.  I found a great recipe from Karen Gilbert's recipe book Natural Beauty and made several batches until I found the perfect consistency & scent.  Although her recipe calls for Lavender & Clary Sage, which is calming & soothing, I've experimented with other oils.   Lemongrass (cymbopogon Schoenanthus) is my new favourite oil - refreshing & invigorating scent with Orange (Citrus sinensis) being the runner up.  

Drop one or two of these little fizzes in your bath water, sit back and enjoy the fizz & blissful scent!

Orange bath fizz

Lemongrass (left) & Orange (right) bath fizzes

Lake & Sea Treasures

Today's extreme heat & humidity forced me to play indoors.  In search of something to do, I came across some lake & sea treasures I've accumulated since I was a child vacationing in Maine.  Since then, my eyes are always peeled for sea glass, pottery bits, washed-up marbles, broken shells & driftwood.  Thought I would share some of my favorite finds.

 Assorted crockery?

 sea shells

 Love these colours

 Like to think these are archeological finds...ancient pottery perhaps?

Love these marbles!