WINNER of the Crazy About the Kidlet Giveaway!

The winner is:
Hyla from MyFairyBabies.etsy.com
and Green Earth Journey!


Solace is at 74 Votes so the prize is $10 To Wenchie’s Sacred Relics or Sacred Supplies!
Thanks for participating!

Close Encounters of the Kitty Kind

The Approach

The Intrigue
The Pet
The Cuddle!

Max was such a ragdoll (thats the breed of cat he is) for putting up with her grabbing and crying of protest from Solace when I removed her death grip from Max's fur. The encounter went really well Ru on the other hand may like her when she's a little older.

I was

I was going to write an angry post about the blog spam I received this morning but I thought again and figured it would be in ill taste to tear apart and berate a company because they are ignorant to the ways of respectful interactions and advertising. Rather then actually giving them the free negative publicity and wasting my precious time, I will instead send them a message with the correct ways of interactive or grass-roots advertising and see if they give a s*it.
Anyways I'm feeling less then [Me < Everything else] right now as I = epic fail in life, my offerings, and holding any sort of giveaway. I admit perhaps I'm just going about it all wrong with the first not being well foreshadowed and the second with it's ulterior motives(which one can enter by not succumbing to them but I assume people no longer take the time to read.) I measure myself by a lot of things and not just my shop but I just feel constantly beat down because I have no freedom without compromising the little one I so adore in my life. Another reason to these nagging feelings is that I wanted to take a trip to Europe and off of this progressively God forsaken continent, well more like landmass as South America would not be far enough to satiate this need for an international escapade, which I wanted to do this year as the kidlet is still young enough to travel easily with and the event of that happening is steadily slipping away.
Anyways my nap-time break is over so I must get back to tending the miniature dictator, however no matter how bleak things look now I refuse to give up on or lose sight of my true ambitions, and I must add that jewelry design is not the end of my means by any way shape or form this is not my goal in life, although it is something I enjoy enough to do on a daily basis, that is what perhaps limits my success.
Anyways candid moment accomplished, cute pics of Solace shall commence within a day.

Rubies and Watch Parts - When a Ruby is not a Ruby

Sometimes my self enlightening musings need to be posted here to dispel the unintentional deceit we have been privy to. This one in particular was due to lack of the technology back in the day when rubies were discovered. Rubies are nothing more then sapphires as they are both are corundum which is basically aluminum ions and oxygen, impurities there of create color. For example, what makes the ruby different has to do with minuscule amounts of chromium, in fact, only 1% of the aluminum is replaced with chromium making that highly sought after red color.

So what does this have to do with watch parts?
In 1704 the first union of watch movements and rubies came into conception with the advancements wrought by Peter Debaufre, Jacob Debaufre, and Nicolas Facio. The rubies (sapphires) are essentially the watch movement's bearings, and are present on the pallet, the piece which creates that time honored clicking noise against the escape wheel, these are referred to as jewels. When you see a watch that states "17 jewels" it essentially means the "bearings" are usually rubies (sapphires), but can also be garnets or in rare cases diamonds. These however are industrial grade and have very little value. Also around 1900 manufactured or synthetic rubies became the staple "jewel" present in watches. This was due to the efficiency of the process created by Auguste Victor Louis Verneuil, which affectionately called the Verneuil process and also referred to as flame fusion. Actually synthetic rubies (sapphires) were made even before Verneuil rained on the someone's scientific advancement parade, as they were the first on the market in the mid 1800's. Rubies (sapphires) are historically significant as they are actually the first gem stone to be synthetic or man made.
Who knew that rubies (sapphires) were so special!

Crazy About the Kidlet Giveaway - Up to $100 Shopping Spree

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED THE CONTEST IS OVER

Welcome to my first giveaway inspired by how crazy I am about my little kidlet!
As you may or may not know I have entered Solace in the “Gap Casting Call contest” and she has a lot of catching up to do. So the amount of the shopping spree and how many chances you can enter to win it are dictated by voting on Solace.

Here’s the Prize Break Down:
0 – 100 Votes = $10 Prize
101 – 200 Votes = $20 Prize
201 – 300 Votes = $30 Prize
301 – 400 Votes = $40 Prize
401 – 500 Votes = $50 Prize
501 – 600 Votes = $60 Prize
601 – 700 Votes = $70 Prize
701 – 800 Votes = $80 Prize
801 – 900 Votes = $90 Prize
901 – 1000+ Votes = $100 Prize

How to Enter:
* 1 Entry Per Day For Voting on Solace Each Day
Post a comment with your email address letting me know each time you vote
(Voting is limited to once a day, you must create an account to vote)

* 1 Entry for posting the “Vote for Me” ad on your website or blog
Copy the code below the ad to the left and add it to your website or blog
Post a comment with your email address and a link to the page

* 1 Entry For blogging about this giveaway
Post a comment with your email address and a link to the blog

* 1 Entry For Posting a link to this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter
Post a comment with your email address and a link to your page

Which Equals a Chance for a Total of 20 Entries!

The giveaway starts 10-09-09 and ends on 10-25-09, I am not responsible for problems on the voting site, problems do exist on the site, if you are unable to vote try a different computer or enter with the three other options given. The winner will be randomly selected by the Random.org random number generator on Monday 10-26-09. The winner will be announced via a blog post on 10-26-09 and notified via email. The winner has one week (until 11-02-09) to respond or a runner up will be selected and notified on 11-03-09. Shopping Spree Prize can be used at Wenchie’s Sacred Relics and Sacred Supplies. Good Luck!

Fun Stuff Friday!

Three fun things!

First direct your attention to the right of the screen you may have recgonized the avatar image from this blog post Fun Stuff By ArtSnark.

To reiterate, that awesome portrait was created by the most talented Stacey Merrill of Art Snark on Etsy Check out more of her impressive work at ArtSnark.etsy.com

Second order of funness!
Direct your eyes to the left of the screen,that Vote For Me ad is about a casting call competition that I've entered Solace in please take a moment to vote for her please vote daily and on all of her pics!

The third thing is a brand spanken new item which is a fall back entry for the current Etsy Steam Team contest which is "Seam and Steam: A Challenge of Metal and Cloth!"
This is the Sweetheart Cuff which was brought into reality by the teaching of Corrie Sullivan aka Corrie Hill Designs on Etsy


This cuff was hand sewn by your truly, there's a second one in the works and my master entry for the Steam Team challenge. I'm a sewing friend thanks to Corrie's class!