Etsy Favorite: Jibby and Juna

On Sunday I discovered Jibby and Juna on Etsy when I saw one of Genevieve's pendants on the Etsy homepage. I had the pendant in my cart and someone bought it out right from under me! If only I'd been faster.

It turned out to be fine because Genevieve had so many items in her shop that appealed to me! I've been wanting something yellow, so I bought this pendant.

I told my mom about this pendant and now it's hers. I love it.

I bought a few other things, but I thought you'd be more interested in seeing what's still available (at least they were at the time this posted!).

Sadly, the Jibby and Juna shop is closing for the summer, but will hopefully be back in the fall. This works in your favor because most items in the shop are on sale. The shop will close on May 2.

Salt and pepper.

One Saturday morning, I was looking at the Etsy homepage and something in the recently listed items caught my eye. I saw what looked like metal flowers and clicked on it right away. What I had found were vintage salt and pepper shakers! The back of each flower has a little cup that comes off to put the salt or pepper in. I am just using them for decoration. I found them at Willow Street Vintage.

We had a lot of fun with my nephews. We took them to see Nim's Island and then out for ice cream at Cold Stone. They also had a lot of fun playing on N.'s new play set. Unfortunately, the weather here was too chilly to play on it for long. But, that just meant they had to come inside for hot chocolate.

And it also means they'll have to come back soon.

Sewing.

N. has suddenly decided that he wants to sew. I taught him how to back stitch so he could sew his own picture on wool felt. He had big plans for flowers, but then decided a square would be better until he had more practice.

When he was finished, he decided we should make it into a pillow.

Then he got busy sewing some turkeys. He cut the thumb off of a cotton glove, stuffed it, then sewed it back on. Then he stuffed the entire glove and sewed the bottom shut. He got tired of waiting on me to show him how to sew a button on (I was busy hand stitching his pillow together!) so he used makers to make the face and color the feathers.

He pointed out that he has finished two turkeys and I have yet to finish his dog. And, I have a pattern, while he made his up! I know, I know. I'll finish it in between all the other projects he has me helping him with. He keeps me busy!

Speaking of being busy, two of my nephews will be back again to spend the night tonight and tomorrow. We're looking forward to playing with them... and then resting when they've gone back home!

Have a great weekend!

More beads.

I've been busy buying some vintage beads and findings on Etsy. Here are some of my latest finds. The cream roses, larger copper flower bead caps, and small black flowers are from prodigalprogeny; the white glass bicones and small copper flower bead caps are from Black Sheep Beads; and the metal enameled flowers are from Sleeping Dog Studio. Oh, and I bought the small white flower beads from a local bead store that also has an Etsy shop, Purple Moon Gifts.

And these. I love these thistle beads, especially the silver. They are vintage Lucite with a metallic finish, so they are very lightweight. These were from Black Sheep Beads.

I would recommend any of these shops if you are looking for vintage beads. They were all very prompt with shipping and also very friendly.

Beads.

I met my friend Mary in Naperville for shopping and lunch on Saturday. We started out at SaraBoo Creek, which is a very cute store. The Naperville location is much smaller than their other store in Crest Hill, but it's still cute.

After some shopping we had lunch at Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House. It was very good. We decided to follow up with a chocolate from Ethel's and on our way there what did I see? Kasie's Beads, a bead store I'd never visited!

I love this faceted clear quartz. I strung a bracelet with it last night, but I'm not sure I'm happy with it. I might play around with it some more tonight.

I think this is some sort of Jasper. The markings remind me of flowers.

It was a very nice day.

(We missed you, Andrea!)

Settling in.

Early this morning, N. and I decided to hang out in his fort. He brought everything but the kitchen sink.

He's outside with Mark doing more of this right now. Only he's wearing clothes instead of pajamas.

Time to get back to the sunshine. Hope your Sunday is splendid.

Dreaming.

Mark's parents bought N. a wooden play set. We had someone here putting it together yesterday and today. Waiting for it to be put together has nearly driven N. crazy. He is one lucky kid. It's actually warm enough for him to play outside tonight. That's a welcome change!

On Monday I was part of a jury selection, but I did not make it on the jury. As soon as a brief summary of the case was given I knew I would not be selected. It was a lawsuit stemming from a car accident where the defendant rear-ended the plaintiff, who suffered back and neck trauma. I have been rear-ended more than once and have been hit in other ways as well. Plus, I was very familiar with the intersection in which it occurred. Today I did not have to go in, but tomorrow I have to be there at 9 a.m.

I ordered a book today.

I'm looking forward to thumbing through it. I saw on some reviews that people like it as much as they did Laura McCabe's book.

I've also ordered some beads and supplies through a few Etsy sellers recently. I'll share those with you soon.

Jury duty.

I've been summoned for jury duty at 8 a.m. Monday morning. This will be my first time. Everyone I know tells me to bring a good book. I'm also going to bring our video iPod with some television shows loaded on it.

Since I'll be reading while I'm away from the blog, I thought I'd share a book with you that my friend Kay gave me. It's a little bit fragile, so I won't be bringing it with me this week. The cost when it was published in 1967 was $2.75. A note inside the book indicates that it is an unaltered replication of the work originally published in 1897. I've also discovered this is the fifth book in a series of 12, coming after Blue, Red, Green, and Yellow. Read more about The Pink Fairy book and Andrew Lang on Wikipedia.

The book has some beautiful illustrations.

Some of the tales include The Cat's Elopement, How the Dragon was Tricked, The Water of Life, The Sprig of Rosemary, Catherine and Her Destiny, and I Know What I Have Learned.

This will be fun to read.

Lea Zinke.

I strung this necklace with garnets and Czech glass beads. The focal bead is by Lea Zinke. It makes me think of fairy tales. I made this several years ago and have never been overly thrilled with it. I am thinking about re-working it. I might like it better if it were more simple; maybe strung on a cord or something. Or simply hanging from a chain.

This weekend will be pretty quiet, I think. N. is home sick today with some sort of stomach bug. We are thinking about going to see Nim's Island over the weekend if he's feeling better. And our niece might come and spend the night on Saturday. She's 10 and can't make up her mind about whether or not she wants to stay here or at Grandma and Grandpa's. It's supposed to be cold (and snowy!) this weekend, so whatever we do, we'll be indoors.

Maybe I'll figure out how I want to rework this necklace over the weekend, too. I seem to be pulling out a lot of things and dreaming up new ways to rework them lately. Curling up with a good book sounds nice, too. I'm currently reading The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier. I always have more than one book going at a time. I'm also reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. What are you reading?

I hope your weekend will be warm and sunny since it doesn't sound like mine will be! See you next week.

Natural Historie.

Last October I won some earrings from Natural Historie. Since then, I've been admiring Jenny's jewelry. Especially her geode necklaces. So unique.

Photo courtesy of Jenny Vorwaller

You can also find Jenny on Supermarket. But you won't find this necklace in her shop; I'm wearing it!

Floral Sphere Earrings.

I have had the silver floral balls for at least a year. They sat on my table and every time I worked on something, I'd pick them up and play around with them, never happy with what I came up with. Then, one day I sat down, saw the bead caps and pearls also on my table, and knew what I wanted to do with them.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

Etsy Favorite: Singing Sky.

I ran across the Singing Sky Etsy shop yesterday and I had to share it with you. I love Lauren's use of vintage items and color. And her photos are fabulous. I feel like spring will arrive (some days I think I'm losing hope of that actually happening) when I look at them.

I really want this skeleton key necklace! I'm into skeleton key necklaces lately.

And some of my other favorite things...

Dreamy.

Anne Choi.

One of my favorite bead artists is Anne Choi. She makes the most wonderful silver beads. She creates them by carving a mold and eventually casting the the bead in sterling silver. You can read about her process here.

I bought this strawberry bead from her two years ago at Bead & Button. As you can see, I haven't made anything with it yet. I'm still pondering what to do. Anne also gave me some information about what was on the bead.

The strawberry was once known as an attribute of Freya, the Norse goddess of love and fertility (among other things) she was believed to travel in a chariot drawn by giant cats.

On the sides of the beads is "Semper amemus," which means "May we love forever," from the inscription on a 17th century poesy ring.

I'm looking forward to seeing what she has at Bead & Button this year.