WINNER!

And the winner is

Stephanie VanGroll

And the answer was

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-yes the heroes in a half shell!!

The woman I am making these for is in her sisters wedding and it seems this sister was a huge TMNT fan when she was little, so this is a little thing they are doing in their honor. If you look you will see that the necklaces each have turtles by the clasps...that was a HUGE clue!

I also had the honor of making the bride a bracelet as a keepsake for childhood memories.

I enjoyed the contest and I think I will do more! Until then KEEP CREATING!

Tara

Contest!

I have been creating jewelry sets for a bridal party. The contest is to figure out why they picked theses four colors.

First correct answer on my blog gets this necklace.

GOOD LUCK!

KEEP CREATING!

Tara

BUSY BUSY BUSY

If you have been wondering where I have been, I have been crazy busy!! This week I am making cupcakes, a chocolate birthday cake and a cake for my new church's picnic! I am also in the process of making four necklace/earring/bracelet sets for a wedding and an additional bracelet for the bride. Keep an eye out, I will be posting pics of these items very soon!

In the meantime, KEEP CREATING!

Tara

Something New....

Today I created a Facebook Page to go along with my blog. I hope that all my followers (6 of you) will like that too:) Handmade by Tara is the FB page:)




I also created a new cake last night-I love the way it turned out and I was able to see the little boy when he saw it for the first time. I think he liked it:) Thanks Anna for ordering it.

New Creations

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a sorority sister from NIU who needed to complete her collection of bracelets. Each bracelet has a child's name and birthstone in it. It was my pleasure to create one with her youngest one's info. I have shown it to a few people and they LOVE the green that is in it, which is the August birthstone. What do you think?

My next creation is for my Grandma Viola. She is probably the only lady in my life who I haven't made a bracelet for. What is my excuse? Everytime I think about it someone is due with a new baby and that means taking it apart and adding a new birthstone. Even though my cousin David's wife is due in September I made her one. Hoping that little Josh will come in September because that is what I put on the bracelet!! I am sure Melanie would like him to also come on time or a wee early! On the "Great" part I have all Grandma's Great Grandchildren, and on the Grandma part, her 9 grandchildren are represented. I hope she likes it:)

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Last but not least I am including the bracelet that I wear. I am sure my 6 readers have wondered what design I wear. This bracelet has each of our initials and then an R in the middle for our last name. It also has corresponding birthstones with the letters.

Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Have you created anything new lately?

Tara

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

The itty bitty baby that made me an Aunt for the first time is turning 16 tomorrow! WHAT? I remember visiting her in the hospital and couldn't believe my eyes. We had her party today and I am still in awe of what a beautiful, smart, funny young lady she has turned into. I couldn't be more proud of her.

Of course I had to make her something, so I made her an anklet, it has her birthstones on it.

Happy Birthday Brecken Paige! I love you!

WINNER

And the winner is:

Teresa Robinson!

Teresa please email me and let me know what birthstones you would like in your necklace. Also your mailing information.

Thank you to everyone for entering. I will have more giveaways!

A GIVEAWAY!

I thought I would do my own giveaway with my stuff! Hoping to get some more readers.

I will be giving away a necklace. It is the basic necklace (pictured above) and you can choose how many birthstones you would like to have on it.

How do you enter? For each of the following you get an entry.

1. Follow my blog
2. Respond to this post
3. Share the link on facebook

I will randomly choose a winner next Friday, June 17, 2011.

GOOD LUCK!

Tara

25 years

Recently I was contacted by someone, who I work with through our trainings, that wanted me to make his wife something for their 25th anniversary of the day they kissed-who kissed who is still up in the air. He told me he wanted Roman numerals on the pieces and would like an ankle bracelet and a necklace for her. Here is what I came up with based on what he wanted...

I hope she loves them.

Picking Favorites

I know that you are not supposed to pick favorites when you create things but I do have to say I love this piece. A co-worker, and friend, recently had a new baby boy, in November, and she wanted his name added to an existing bracelet, and one of the pieces needed fixing too, and while we were at it, she wanted their birthstones included to give it some color. (Pretty sure that is a run-on sentence, don't judge). So after many changes and restringing I was very happy with the way it turned out. What do you think? CLICK on the picture to see it enlarged:)

Jewelry as a Rememberance: For Kim

Recently my Mom and her girlfriends lost a dear friend, Kim. This dear friend left behind three girls that she adored. My Mom asked me if I could make them each matching bracelets to remember their Mom. I used her birthstone, September-Sapphire, and found an angel charm.

Tara

ORDERS ORDERS ORDERS!

WOW! I thought maybe I would get one or two orders but I have received many in the past week! Here are just a few things I have been working on..

A necklace for a co-workers Mom for Mother's Day. These are her grandchildren's birthstones.

A Grandma bracelet for a friend's Mom! Love all the colors!

The same friend but for the other Grandma (MIL) in her life:)

This was ordered from a college friend, he ordered 3, one for his wife, his mom and his MIL. How sweet! I did end up changing the style a bit but I do like this design too.

My StepMom ordered this for her Mom. It has all the Great Grandchildren's birthstones on it. I love it, if I do say so myself!

This one was shipped all the way to California! A girl who went to my high school ordered it.

This one was for the winner of a giveaway from http://www.thepathlesstaken.blogspot.com/, which if you haven't already checked out you should!! It was won by http://www.letitgoedna.blogspot.com/, which is also a great blog that I just started following!!

This one is for a very special person but I don't want to spoil it:)




This was ordered for someone special and she might read this, who knows, but just in case. But I have to say I love the pink and crystal together.

I am also working on adding a cute little boy's name to his Mom's bracelet but am patiently waiting for the cube letters to come in.

I think I am also going to make my Grandma a Great Grandma bracelet for her 82nd birthday, which is on the 9th, BUT there are two new great grandchildren due, one in June and then one in September, oh well, that is the great thing about these bracelets, I can updated them at any time!

One more thing I made recently...

Did I mention I don't know how to rotate pictures yet on here? Bear with me...

Only one more week until Mother's Day!

Something Fun For New Moms

I have seen these advertised from different sites and I thought they were a neat idea, so why not try it myself. And of course with my baby sister expecting a baby soon I thought it would be the perfect gift. It is a nursing reminder bracelet. Or it could be a feeding reminder (if you bottle feed) or a diaper changing reminder.

If you have ever been a new Mom, you know that the days really are a blur those first few weeks and this is just a little help in one area. There are numbers and then four beads between each number. Each of those four beads represents 15 minutes so you can put the charm at the nearest 15 minute reminder. You can also switch wrists to remind you what side you are supposed to start on next. I know that some nights it would take me a bit to remeber where to start.

I found these beads and they fit my sis perfectly but this bracelet could be in any color or beads that you prefer. I have added it to my price list.

May Miracles: One in particular...

Let's go back a bit...and yes this will be about jewelry...eventually.

When I first became pregnant with Ian I needed all the support I could get. In real life, online, whatever! I was blessed to find IVillage and to become part of the May 2004 Expecting Club. I met many incredible women and I am happy to say that I have remained friends with many of them to this day! Yes for over 7 years I have had these friendships. These friendships have meant as much, and sometimes more, than some friendships I have had in real life. I have laughed with these Moms, cried with these Moms and we have been there for each other, and yes sometimes we have even had silly little high school tiffs-see just like in real life:)

I am also happy to say that I have met some of these Moms in real life and you know what, they are just as FANTASTIC in real life as they are online:)

One of these Moms has a special place in all of our hearts. Kerry. I am not going to go into the full story becasue I can't even begin to do it justice with my pieced together blog, but you can read about her, her husband Patrick and their AMAZING son Finnegan at http://finnzfundz.blogspot.com/. Plus if I start typing about it the tears will be flowing and I will never finish this entry. I would also put a plug in to donate to Finnz Fundz if you can, even a little bit can help.

Anywoooo, where I am going with all of this is here: Mom and I were shopping for beads, wire, and many other things and came to the end of our trip and she noticed a clearanced bowl of different charms. She picked one up and said "this one looks like a butterfly." I snatched it up, as I knew that butterflies are something that Kerry looks at as a reminder of her beautiful little boy Finn (and that is why you see butterflies flying on Facebook through me and the other Moms). So I wasn't done shopping because I think that Finn was telling me that his Mom needed a new necklace:)

And that whole thing about not crying, well that didn't happen, but I still finished...barely.

Not Just Jewelry...

When I was little I remember having homemade cakes that were made by my Mom. I remember Strawberry Shortcake, Holly Hobby and Barbie too, somewhere along the way. So I decided that I wanted to be able to do this for my children too. Little did I know that I could actually do it! Here are some that I have made:

Ian's 3rd birthday cake! Lightning McQueen.

Ian's 4th birthday cake! Thomas the Tank Engine! Probably the hardest I have done!

Ian's 5th birthday cakes! Yes there had to be two:) Speed Racer (left) and Racer X (right).

And Ian shared his 5th birthday party with his sister, who was baptized on that day:)

And the next thing I know she was starting to have birthdays! This is her Puppy Cake from her first birthday!

Thsi is her princess cake from her 2nd birthday!

And these cakes are from her 3rd birthday, which was just this past February. Her tastes haven't changed much since her 2nd!

I have just recieved my very first cake order from someone who is not related! I am going to make a Guitar/Bieber inspired cake for a beautiful little girl who is turning 8. I am very excited to make it and will post pictures once it is done. Wish me luck!

**And to those wondering about Ian's 1,2 & 6 birthday cakes...1-ordered a tractor cake, 2-made a train cake but cannot find a picture of it and 6-had my gallbladder taken out 1 week prior so I gave myself a pass that year:)

Presents

For me giving jewelry is really why I make it. I like seeing someone's face when they open the box, or when they get a compliment on it. Here is one I just finished for a co-worker's upcoming birthday. Not sure if she reads my blog but if she does, it won't be a suprise when I give it to her.

Matching jewelry for a special occassion

First when you look at this picture I want you to notice how beautiful this couple is and how happy they are at this moment. This is my sister and my brother in law on their wedding day almost a year ago.

As you can see my sister does not have a typical wedding dress. So of course when she was looking for jewelry, she wanted something just as beautiful and unique as her dress. So what does one do in this dilemma? Well look to her big sister who kind of makes jewelry. Sister showed me pictures and we took a trip to the bead store together and this is what we came up with. It turned out great and complimented the dress and her beauty well. She also has on small jade earrings that match.

Pefect jewelry to match the perfect dress on the perfect day.

But that was last year...

Below you will find an updated picture of my sister. She is expecting her first bundle of joy in the beginning of June. So I am just waiting to see if I need to put an emerald or an alexandrite crystal in her birthstone necklace. And she is also making me wait to see if I am buying pink or blue, ask anyone I am not very good at waiting.

Love you Sis!

Fun with jewelry:)

Technically these subjects were also handmade by me, with a little help from my hubby:) This is Kennedy wearing a necklace I made her, with her favorite thing, turtles:)

This is Ian wearing a necklace he made for himself! Very cute!

Another picture of Kennedy....

And a close up of her turtle.

If you have never made jewelry, I suggest you try it. It is really a lot of fun and kids love it, as you can see.

Another style. Rounded letters instead of cubes:)

Prices for bracelets.

These can vary based on the amount of letters/birthstones you want. The GRANDMA bracelet you see here starts with a base price of $25, which includes 4 birthstones, each additional birthstone is $1. MOM bracelets start at $20, which includes 4 birthstones, each additional birthstone is $1. If you want the bracelets personalized with names, I can do that too:) I hope to be showing more examples of the items I make as time goes on.... Thanks for looking!