Pink and Sparkly

Update 07/19: After I added the jump ring, I wanted to try one more thing ... I added two coats of my diamond top coat polish and voila ... Fini! This is a shot of the completed charm (charm is smaller than pictured - it's 1" -including the jump ring - X 5/4"):

Steps 2 and 3 of the "alternate" pink charms complete:

This was supposed to be the back up to the paper cranes charms that I wanted to do, but I'll be honest, I really, really like these a lot - they are super girly in their uber-sparkly pinkness. After the pink glitter dried/set, I put about 4 coats of high gloss varnish over the glitter. Once the last coat of varnish dried, I threaded the beads ... a pink (doesn't really look it in the photo) faceted glass bead between two tiny Swarovsky bicone crystals and made the loop for the jump ring. All I have to do to finish these is add the jump ring. Pretty cool.

The paper crane charms have me in a little bit of a snit ... I'm thrilled to report that the setting agent actually does work ... the only issue I am having is that I do lose just a touch of the crispness ... my anal retentive self might not be able to get past this - uber spouse thinks I need to ... there's a little bit more time, so I just might try another batch ... fingers (and toes) crossed, please.

fairy homes and pink charm progress

It's been a great Sunday ... and to think, it's just the first day of my weekend, too!

Sadie and I decided that today was a good day to try our hand at building a fairy house. Originally we thought we'd build it under a tree in the back yard, but due to a rain shower (and the fact that neither of us much like red ants) we chose the small ficus tree's pot:

Considering neither of us has any background in building (other than that of the Lego variety) we were utterly clueless. She thought we should just sink "walls" right into the dirt - brilliant plan! We made sure to use a few twigs that branched so we could rest twigs lengthwise across them and then layed smaller twigs across them to build a second level (there are two small rooms below the floor). The roofing is a combination of skinny dried vines and a little bit of hay. We're hopeful that one of these days we'll go out there to see that some little creature has claimed the home ... fingers crossed!

How about an update on the The Pink Charms Exchange? First, I have done a couple of tests using the Petal Porcelain Setting Agent that I purchased on Friday and am happy to report that I think it's really going to work! There are a few minor details that I need to work out, but I am hopeful.

I'm am still interested in trying Paverpol (Marilyn @ As Seen Through My Eyes recommended the product - she's been posting about her recent trip to France and it sounds like heaven!). I checked out there website and from everything that I have read about it, it sounds like some pretty amazing stuff. It's been added to the top of my Christmas wish list!

While I was shopping on Friday, I picked up a few "just in case" items ... I wanted to have a definite back up should the paper crane experiment end up a bust. This is what I bought:

The above is a little pack of metal links, some ultrafine pink glitter and some pink faceted glass beads ... bet you can tell where I am going with all this. I took Amber Dawn's comment, "make sure to have the pink stand out, make them pretty, sparkly if you can" totally to heart! So far I have only completed the first step ... I completely pink-glitterified the links (simple white glue) and am on to the second step of coating them in a high gloss varnish - one coat down, but at least one (if not two) more to go. Here they are drying in my fancy drying rack (those would be toothpicks for holding the links and masking tape over a small glass bowl for a rack).

Here's a closer view:

Once they have all been varnished, I'm going to use silver "pins" to sandwich a pink glass bead between two tiny clear Swarovski crystals and make the loop for a hanger and add a jump ring ... voila! Honestly, the photo's don't really do them justice - they are much prettier in hand (even at this stage) than photographed.

Ok, the cranes are calling me back to finish folding (folding 1 1/4 inch squares is a bit taxing, but tiny cranes look very sweet).

How's your weekend shaping up?

Pink Hybiscus - Macro Shots

Living in southwest Florida allows for extremely long blooming seasons. There are a wide variety of tropical plants and trees (plus veggies, herbs, etc.) to choose from. Our yard always seems to be a work in progress with the green-thumb-spouse doing 95% of the labor - I know, I suck. The latest addition is a hybiscus (the third) - this one is a bush (hasn't been trained into a decorative tree) and the blooms are pink. Yesterday I was out in the yard taking snaps of different things. Below are some of the more artsy versions of the hybiscus - I would have included a shot of the whole bloom, but I wasn't paying attention and got a bit of shadow crossing the bloom and I didn't feel like going out again for another shot. Besides, this was pretty much an "exercise" in macros.

The above focus zoomed in on the stamem (as it should have), but I really like the vibrant colors coming from the center of the bloom out into their feathery little fans.

In this one (above) I was trying to get a clear shot of the stamen - I am amazed by the brightness of the stamen ... and then I saw the shadow ...

Here's the close-up of the shadow (above). It might just be me, but something about it reminds me of something one might see in a Dr. Seuss story book. hehe.

Here we have a fairly nice shot of the stamin and the brght, feathery center. Even with the bit of stem shadow, I like the composition of this one. I do think that it's a little odd that the focus is on the little yellow pieces and that the orange parts are still slightly out of focus, but I did make one more attempt at a clear shot of the orange bulbus thingies:

Feel free to click on any of the photo's for a larger version. There really is some pretty cool detail on most of the photos.

In case anyone is wondering, I've been using a Canon PowerShot A95. It has up to 5.0 mega pixels and uses compact flash memory cards. The camera has served me well, but lately it has been suffering from some sort of internal confusion - it sometimes shuts off on its own (and I am sure it's not the batteries) and once in a while it makes some pretty creepy grindy sounds. To fix it would cost more than to replace it, so I am asking for a new one for my birthday. Keep your fingers crossed.

One last note - the mango tree and avacado tree have tiny little fruits on them - this is the first year since planted that we just might get some fruit. Pretty exciting.