Happy Holidays

I finally have a chance to take a breather and wish everyone Happy Holidays! This has been a crazy but wonderful year with me becoming part of The Vintage Pearl family which I absolutely LOVE and creating new items for my own shop. Looking forward to the New Year!







One of the fun perks at work was our Christmas party- afterwords we got to make pieces and I had been wanting to make a cuff with this saying.





This is my last gift from my secret sister- I screamed like a 5 year old because I love Chickens!!
Thanks Andrea- you were an awesome secret sister all the way!!!




One of my new projects was to move forward with spoon bracelets etc.. I have done them previously but wanted to learn more and get it down to a science- which I have! I made this for my neighbor who loves to garden. This can be a little marker in her herb garden.
It says *Keep Calm and Garden On..* stamped into a flattened spoon from 1910.

Monday Giveaway

I can't believe Thanksgiving is in just a few days! I have been trying to get my supplies in order to start making copper pieces and just started my first project last night.
I love working with copper. I love the warmth of it and I really enjoy items with tarnish,aging, and patina and copper can fit the bill. I experimented with 3 different designs and love how they came out.

This weeks giveaway is for a copper initial necklace- your choice! You can choose the square,round, or mini style in any letter you want. Comes with a matching antiqued copper chain.





To be entered please tell me what you are thankful for and/or your best Thanksgiving story.
Leave your email so I can contact you and if you blog,twitter,or facebook let me know.

I will choose a winner on Friday :)

Monday Giveaway Winner

Sorry for the delay in picking a winner!

Sue is the winner

Sue said... This is so beautiful. I would love to give it to my daughter for a Christmas gift. She would treasure it.

Please email me at e1@keysandmemories.com to claim your bracelet!

Monday Giveaway

Today's giveaway is for a vintage typewriter key bracelet in black. I have some examples shown but yours will be different. I use random keys for this style and mix in words,letters,numbers. and symbols.

To be entered just leave a comment. If you blog,fb,or twitter it let me know.
I will choose a winner on wed.

New Design...Finally!

About a year ago I decided I wanted to expand my designs beyond typewriter keys and had 2 ideas; wax seal stamps or hand stamped designs. I ended up going the route of wax seal designs and haven't regretted it. One of my main inspirations was a 18k gold necklace my SIL and MIL have they got from Shop NBC. It had their initial and a beautiful background pattern on it.

I spent many late nights doing as much research as possible on every facet of this art form and I am still learning something new almost everyday. When someone told me my ideas wouldn't work I was more determined than ever to *make it work* I must admit I was feeling pretty proud of myself when I finished this piece :) So now that I know what I do the sky is the limit !

We have a winner....

Congrats to Crystal winner of the vintage typewriter key question mark necklace!

Please send your info to me: e1@keysandmemories.com


I have something really exciting for next Monday!

ER Trip and Monday Giveaway

I am a bit behind on today's giveaway as I had a detour this morning at the ER-Bleh! Looks like the old gallbladder will be moving on to an industrial bio hazard wastebasket shortly. So the big question is what will life be like without a gallbladder? Am I being presumptive- it could just be acid reflux. Who knows- it's all just a big question mark- which brings me to today's giveaway.

I made this necklace with a vintage Smith Corona black question mark key. The material is celluloid which can get wet and not be damaged. Silver plated lace edge setting and an 18" nickel plated ball chain. If you want a different length chain I can do that :)

I will choose a winner on Wed. If you mention it on your Blog,Facebook,or Twitter be sure to let me know as I really appreciate the extra plug.

Can You DIg It?

Today we visited Gilcrease Museum to see some of my daughters artwork. Of course we had to hit the gift shop and I found this fun little item. It is a rock and mineral excavation kit called *Dig It Out* It is about the size of a bar of soap and comes with 3 tools. Inside are 2 gems or minerals- I was pleasantly surprised to discover 2 as I thought there would only be 1.






After about 5 minutes of *digging* we could begin to see something! This is quite exciting for a 7 year old and I must admit that I enjoyed it as well. I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid and this would have been an awesome item to have but the 70's didn't roll that way.






After 10 minutes or so we realized there were 2 items inside- what a deal for $3.95!!





Still trying to identify what we got- the package has some pictures on it and there is a guide book inside that has the tiniest writing in it I have ever seen so I am still working on it. All in all it was a fun item, we had some good quality time together and learned at the same time.

Itty Bitty Fine Silver Initial Necklace

Someone several months ago asked me about doing small charms with initials and I finally came up with something I liked the past few days. I made these using PMC or Precious Metal Clay. They are 99.9% silver (classified as fine silver)





I love initials and I love PMC. It is a great medium to work with. I have so many ideas floating around in my head and supplies for new projects on the way. I will be stalking the mailman next week! Look for more new pieces soon.

Work Perk and A Winner

Did I mention I Love my job? Well, I do! I work in Tulsa at The Vintage Pearl
I am so grateful to my wonderful boss who offered me a position and to the many friends I have made already.

Today I picked out a necklace to remind me of my kids (they aren't hard to remember but now they are with me all the time in spirit)

I chose the Eclectic Necklace and added some copper shapes into the mix. I LOVE IT!! I really love jewelry- really I do- but I rarely wear it however, I will be wearing this every day as it is just too cool!. The girls at work are so talented and I can't say enough good about them.





On to our winner of Hello Crafty's Halloween Soap:

Katie McKid

Please send me your shipping info to: e1@keysandmemories.com

Halloween Soap Giveaway from Hello Crafty

I was trying to come up with a fun Halloween giveaway when I remembered my friend
Hello Crafty had this awesome skull soap.
Life is full of people who come and go in your life, Some make an impression and others do not. I am happy to say that Hello Crafty has made an impression on me. I can't remember which soap I bought first from her but I loved it. I think it might have been Nag Champa? or was it Green Grass or Beach Days? I love the excitement of opening one of of packages and inhaling the goodness.

HC isn't just someone who throws some craft store ingredients into a mold. She is a true soap maker and it shows and she always seems to come up with amazing smells and designs. My daughter (who is 7) is a fan already. She wants to know if the soap can be taped to her face so she can smell it all day.




HC went on a hiatus a while back and I was sad and missed her. When we spoke she imparted words of wisdom about what was really important in life and her experience got me to do some thinking and make some changes myself. Though we haven't met I consider her a friend which is a rare thing these days.






Now on to the fun stuff!!

If you would like to win this awesome Skull Soap just leave a comment.

For extra entries visit Hello Crafty's shop and let me know your favorite item

Become a fan on FaceBook

Tweet about it and mention you did.

Winner will be chosen Sunday the 24th.

Risky Business

I am obsessed with Wax Seal Jewelry to say the least. I like working with alloys and fine silver- each has it's advantages.

I really like painting them and giving them a weathered look in all kinds of different colors. Haven't had much luck selling them though. I keep telling myself they will catch on and I need to advertise but I can hardly find the time to research rates. For right now they are more something I enjoy making than getting rich on.

Outside my window

Just another typical evening when I noticed this gal. Spiders have been hanging out in all sorts of creepy places lately. They just love to weave their web at eyeball height- major creep factor when you walk into it.
I haven't seen this particular variety of Orb Weaver for a few years so I just had to snap a picture. Orb Weavers tear down and rebuild their web each night. Imagine all that work every evening!

Happy Birthday Jules

Ok, so her birthday was yesterday but I just was able to view her pics today. She is my favorite granddaughter (even if she is my only one).

Rock N Rib Festival

Hit the Rock n Rib Festival today at the BOK Center.





Enjoyed some ice cold lemonade,a little margarita, and a snow cone.



I lost all interest in ribs when I discovered a petting zoo.







Hannah the pig with painted nails- so cute







Suzie the calf- only 2 months old and she gave me so many kisses

New Goodies

Just received a new set of wax seals in a font I love. How can it be a bad day when I have a torch in one hand and an ice tea in the other?

Spring is here!

We are building a lofted barn as our old shed was a wee bit small. It has been a fun project and we are almost done!

Light's Out Book Review

Really enjoyed the story Lights Out by Halffast that I came across on Frugal Squirrels


Basically some type of EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) has been used on America/World and the story follows *Mark* through the experiences of no electricity in Texas. It is a bit more complicated than that though- as most cars aren't working, as well as the city water. Grocery stores are limiting purchases to $50 with long lines and bare shelves.

It doesn't take much for society to break down and Mark, along with friends,family,and neighbors must do whatever he can to survive.

I think this book was pretty accurate about what might happen and how people will react. It gave me some ideas and direction in areas I might have overlooked.

What's Cookin

I am always going forward BUT I usually go backwards first especially when I tell a story. I can't just say *This is what I made for dinner* I must tell the back story first. Don't know where I got it from but that is just how I am.

So I ordered the weekend edition of the Tulsa World as a Christmas present for my husband. I am not a big newspaper reader but I have been making an effort to read it. Last week there was an article about The $5 Dinner Mom which I really enjoyed. I checked out her website and her challenge to herself was to create healthy meals for her family for under $5.

This website appealed to me for several reasons. I have been making an effort to eat healthier and most of her recipes are made from scratch. I don't think they ALL are but they don't use a lot of processed ingredients. She inspired me to be a bit more creative and not waste so much food. I might not make her recipes exactly but I do use them for inspiration.

She does make use of store specials and coupons which I don't as I am somewhat limited to Walmart right now. I used to be the coupon queen myself years ago but right now my focus is on not eating processed foods first and money savings second. I buy a lot of store brand stuff/ bulk anyways so I think I can forgo the coupon cutting for the time being.

Tonight I de boned leftover crock pot chicken that I marinated in Caribbean Jerk sauce. Sadly I saw the first ingredient was High Fructose Corn Syrup but I wanted to use up the bottle and not waste it. I sauteed white onion and mixed in the chicken.
The meat went onto rolls I had picked up on the discount rack and sliced them in half. Home made french fries (actually baked) and fresh raw peas rounded out dinner.

I don know if this meal was under $5 but I think it was for all 4 of us. I think it was pretty healthy overall and my only complaint was the sauce which was full of chemicals but I won't worry to much!

New Years Resolutions

I didn't really have these set in stone on Jan 1 but they have taken shape and evolved since then.

Eat Healthier

Exercise More

Be More Prepared

These are my main 3 that I will be working on.