Question of the Day: What's the difference between innocence and ignorance?

Let's start with the textbook definitions.  Innocence is a freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil.  Ignorance is the state or fact of being ignorant, a lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.  Unfortunately our court of justice doesn't differ between the two at all, whether you are aware you broke the law or not, you are still getting in trouble for it.  Truly it's a case of human moral.

Coronation Cake - Vanilla, Blueberries, and White Chocolate

This past weekend was dedicated to baking a cake.  I've been having a really strong urge to bake a vanilla cake with blueberry filling ever since I saw this picture floating around the internet.  So I decided to bake one in honor of Dragon's Hollow Coronation this weekend.

Banana Graham Muffins

Lesson of the night: If you want the icing to harden, don't scald the milk.  I know, you're probably wondering how I managed to make that mistake.  I decided to replace the powdered sugar in a recipe for maple sugar, which I knew wouldn't dissolve in the milk as well.  I remember seeing my mom scald milk when making buttercream frosting so the sugar would completely melt so I decided that would be my solution to the gritty maple sugar.  What I forgot was that scalding milk changes it so the combined sugar and milk caramelized and therefore isn't hardening.  Urg.....though now my cookies have a nice dipping sauce.  Right....so muffins....

Question of the Day: Who or what do you think of when you think of love?

When I think about love I think about people. I'm really a people-pleaser at heart.

Blog Giveaway! Candy Colored Elfin Choker Necklace

For these past couple months I've been back in school finishing up my degree in Theatre Design and Technology as well as preparing to move to Nashville where I will be an intern at Tennessee Repertory Theatre for the next 9 months.  While you're waiting for my new Alice in Wonderland line to debut (November 4th), I'm giving away this new Elfin necklace this week in exchange for some design help on one of the Alice pieces.

Question of the Day: Beyond the titles that others have given you, who are you?

I am a designer.  It's funny though, because for the longest time I told everyone (including myself) that I was not.

Exploring Other Artists: Petoskey's 27th Annual Art in the Park

This weekend I'm enjoying a beautiful and relaxing vacation at Lake Charlevoix.  While here I had a chance to check out an art fair in Petoskey, Michigan.  Unfortunately I couldn't find anything to spoil myself with, well except a beautiful jewelry chest that was about $4500 out of my budget.  But I did come back with inspiration for new jewelry and ideas of how I want to set up my own booth when I take the leap into doing art fairs.  And for you here's some Michigan artists that really blew me away with their works.

From Beads to Rings

When you look at my early pieces you may wonder if what you're seeing is really the Phoenyx Jewels line.  So different are they not just in materials but the style of my beaded pieces are very heavy and formal whereas I see my chainmaille as being sleek and elegant.  So what prompted the switch?

The "Baby Doll" set, my favorite beaded design

Take professional looking jewelry pictures at home

I've been working on building up a small jewelry business for a year now and I've been struggling with photographing my jewelry for almost as long.  I've photographed some pieces 3 times now and they're about to get a fourth because I've learned the secret to good jewelry photography: K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid), lol.  In this post I'm going to show you how to inexpensively take pictures of your jewelry at home that look like they were done in a professional studio.