European ArtFire guild giveaway!

And here it is! The Christmas giveaway from the European Artfire guild. For the past couple of months we have been working to put together the collection of goodies you can see in the picture below. There are hairpins and hairclips, some holiday themed glasswork beads, a shawl, gorgeous jewelry, Christmas decoration, a pair of ladies' fingerless gloves, a christmasy box and I bet I forgot to mention something.

If you want a chance to win all these lovely handmade goods from Europe all you need to do is write a comment to our guild blog, you can even get your name in the hat twice if you blog or twitter or help us promote this giveaway in any other way. So be sure to let us know.
We will ship to anywhere.

On the 27th of november we will ask random.org to pick us a winner.
Please don't forget to provide an e-mail address you regularly check when you comment so we can contact you for your home address if you turn out to be the lucky winner.

Participating artists:

Jane from http://loopylou.artfire.com/
Bernadette from http://berniolie.artfire.com/
Alison from http://thesheriffsdaughter.artfire.com/
Neki from http://nekidesu.artfire.com/
Jenny from http://jennykarlssondesign.artfire.com/
Wendy from http://eddyspressies.artfire.com/
Helen from http://kittyballistic.artfire.com/
Cat from http://catswire.artfire.com/
Susanne from http://BabsBeadsandDesign.artfire.com/
Mary from http://truecolours.artfire.com
Liesan from http://ignisfatuus.artfire.com/

Letting the week pass by in my memory

This wasn't one of my best weeks. Nobody's fault, there are just times that stress me out easier than others.
It was a mixture of a cold coming and going, dry lips (yes, that IS a problem if it starts to keep you from smiling or eating because it hurts), not enough people at work, a "neglected email" list that goes from here to Saturn, five million WIPs at home, items waiting to be photographed, darkness when I came home (bye bye, "summertime") and two more highlights I want to tell you about.

Number 1 - how to lock yourself out

1. Take a camera, a Christmas ornament and your keys and go outside to catch the last light of the day
2. Be sure to not wear a jacket because you only want to be outside for a few minutes
3. Take pictures on various plants and surfaces
4. Go back inside, only to see a plant in front of the downstairs neighbors' door that looks perfect for one more picture
5. Go back outside to throw something into the trash can, taking the ornament and the camera with you
6. Reach into your jeans pocket to notice you forgot the keys beside the plant IN the house
7. See that the door closed
8. Ring the neighbors' bell just to see they are not home
9. Decide to wait for the tall guy (you can insert whatever matches for you) and feel it getting colder
10. - 29. Take silly pictures of yourself until it is too dark for that, afterwards delete them because you look like a creep
30. The tall guy arrives after 45 minutes. You go upstairs and jump into a HOT bubble bath and go to bed afterwards

Number 2 - take the train to Beimerstetten

1. Make an appointment for dinner with a friend
2. Take the train and get your feet trampled by a 4 - 5 year old girl whose grandmother is worn out by the day and won't tell her not to play standing on other people feet (not even after you carefully dare to bring up the topic)
3. Shortly before the train reaches your station, listen to the train conductor telling you you all have to get off at Beimerstetten (2500 inhabitants, I checked in Wikipedia) and from there buses will pick you up - reason: an accident in the next station
4. Call to get picked up by car
5. Get off the train with hundreds of other people who gather in a large crowd in front of a pathetic little station building (sorry, but I doubt that station has ever seen so many people)
6. Come to the fun part - talking with fellow victims, for example the guy who tells you he just made it home from Madagascar without any delay and "now I am standing here in BEIMERSTETTEN". He was surprised that nobody came running out of the house to take the chance and offer coffee and sandwiches ;-)
7. Really enjoy the talk which makes waiting much easier, then see the car pulling up and say you are going to leave now.
8. Listen to an incredulous "you won't go and leave us here now", get into the car and wave while driving by. Ok, I'm not sure if that was taken the way I meant it, but I felt the urge to wave goodbye, just to the people I had talked to.
9. Warm up in the car!!

There were some nice events, though.
You know I still have my giveaway going (have you voted yet and commented yet?) http://catswire.blogspot.com/2009/10/help-me-name-my-dragon.html) and this week two more giveaways started, from my Etsy's SATeam and from my ArtFire guild. Check them out, they are worth it!

As for new items, I must disappoint you. No pictures yet, but I really hope you are looking forward to the ones coming up soon!

Etsy’s Starving Artist Team Wrist Candy Holiday Giveway and Sale!!

Take a look at this amazing collaboration of SATeam members! This holiday themed charm bracelet could be yours. You want to know how?


If you buy something from one of the participating shops on Etsy, your name will be included in the drawing and maybe you are the lucky one to wear this bracelet on YOUR wrist soon!


The SATeam Holiday Sale begins today, October 26, 2009 and continues through December 6, 2009.

You'll find a list of the participating shops at the Starving Artists blog. You can also find holiday sale items on Etsy by searching for sateamwrist.
During this special promotion I'll put in a little surprise gift with each bought item.

Christmas - already??

My goodness, are we really that close to Christmas already? Today my coworker told me she already has bought my present weeks ago (that's what I called prepared!), the stores don't play Christmas music, but ginger bread is offered in abundance and we just put up the Halloween decorations at work yesterday!

But to be true, I am getting ready as well. I ordered some wire a while ago (from my favorite place) and just had to play with colors. I am not done yet!
The idea developed from my ball pendants and the baskets, it grew, the hooks became bigger, I needed more hooks, I played, tried and experimented and suddenly I had a Christmas ornament I was happy with.
This is just a part of all the colors available, I'll keep you up-to-date here when adding new colors or even combinations.



And now they were featured in this great treasury, Ornament time! Yay! Thanks, Cindy!!

Help me name my dragon!

This morning I saw her again.


She wasn't hiding and she had brought me a new nest.


I guess that means she is going to stay and that means she needs a name now. I asked my friends and my coworkers, I played around with a dragon name generator one of my Plurk friends recommended and still I can't decide.


I need your help and you shall not go unrewarded, well, at least not the winner. You will get five names that have come from different sources. There would have been so many more I liked, but five it is now. Pick your favorite. The majority will then decide what name my girl will carry from now on.
I will then randomly draw a winner who will get the latest little dragon nest!


Poll will be open for a month, so the nest will definitely arrive in time for Christmas.

And go! Please don't forget to comment, so I'll know who voted and can draw a winner!

By the way - if you like my dragon girl (and how couldn't you??), you should really go and check out the shop and blog of ColtPixy. She is one talented lady with polymer clay and it's her merit the dragon flew to my house! ;-)

Crawly creeper in my house

I like spiders, I really do. They are beautiful creatures, they are talented little artisans and even if I wouldn't want to meet one as big as Tarantula (there is nothing like old b/w movies with great special effects ;-)), I like watching them. I have watched them spinning their webs for hours.

I have owned spider earrings before (now where did they go?), I have a beautiful huge rhinestone spider brooch that lost one leg, though :-( and soon I hope to impress my coworkers with my new beaded spider hairpin.

So when I saw these coasters from Auntifrannis Sunny Days Embroidery, I was smitten at once.


And do you want to know the coolest part? The spider is glow-in-the-dark! Since I still didn't get a black light, I finally chose to take pictures in the dark. You will forgive the quality (of the pic!), I hope. At least you'll get the idea.
I love my coasters so much that I almost feel bad about using them now!



Check out Franni's shop, she has so much more cool things to offer. I know I will be stopping by in time for Christmas!

Murphy's law, paragraph 113

I feel a little sick today. Headache since yesterday, nose starts running and overall weird. Do you know this feeling that it hurts when someone or something touches your hair (that I got on the arms in abundance)?
So I decided to go home early today after making the mistake to go to work in the first place.
Happily I trotted off to the train, but when I came from the S-Bahn (kind of suburban train) to the regular one I saw mine was cancelled. "Police investigations in one of the stations" - that usually means someone has jumped in front of a train. Another train was waiting, but as the track had been blocked, of course it didn't run, either. At least it would be warm in there, outside it was freezing cold and I sure didn't feel like that.
Soon a lady joined me and (remember the sign on my forehead that says "Talk to me!"?) started asking me what was the matter, telling me about her train experiences and sighing heavily in between questions and stories. Then a group of students entered the wagon and started talking very loud. I could have handled either one easily, but not together. Because of the noise the lady couldn't hear the announcements from outside which she told me a few times. Then one of the students said "At least they could announce something!" Uh-oh.
The lady started telling them nobody could hear the speaker because of them and the students asked back if they were supposed to remain silent or WHAT. I shrinked into my seat because what I needed least in this moment was a heated discussion. Luckily one of the students took over and calmed everybody down by apologizing to the lady and winking at his friends.
Over one hour late we could leave the station. Slowly because of course the long-distance trains were allowed to pass us by on the way. I made it home anyway and now I am more than ready for a nap.

Still I wanted to share with you what keeps me sane through rides like this one ;-)

Ice nest - frosted nest with a shimmering piece of ice inside


I'll never go anywhere without hooks and wire! :-D