No more Anonymous Comments

My apologies to my friends who have previously used the Anonymous comments option. Spammers have been abusing the hell out of it, and whereas previously Google's filters would catch the comments and delete them pretty quickly, I found that one of my posts had EIGHT comments going back as far as 5 days, and most of not all linking to some really disgusting sites. Excuse me, Blogger, but how exactly did that get through your filters? My site clearly has nothing to do with the sort of content they were offering.

After having to manually delete all those comments, and worrying that there may be others lurking on other posts, I am considering migrating all 3 of my blogs to other platforms. I'll make a decision after the holidays.

90 days of dance practice!

Hmmm... I don't really have a lot of good, recent pictures of me dancing. I used to drag Chris to all of my performances, and he'd snap pictures and/or take video, but lately he's been busy or sick when I've danced, so I've had to rely on what other people post on Facebook. Oh well.

Yes, I'm taking a break from my usual promotion of my business Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs (ok, shameless plug out of the way), to talk about my exciting life as a belly dancer! You may remember at the start of the year, I decided to set the goal of practicing for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, and then I started a separate blog to chronicle my progress and also to just chat about dance, which meant that there was a lot less belly talk on this blog. I did promise to post the occasional update, and I think that three months of dance is worth updating about!

That's right, for 90 days in a row (not counting one day when I was really sick), I have danced every single day. I've taken classes, I've been in workshops, I've danced at parties and concerts, and I even had two performances so far this year. I have been one busy dance girl. Daily practice has been great for me -- it's done wonders for my shimmies and my belly rolls, and really improved my knowledge of my tribal move vocabulary. If you want to read more about it, feel free to check out my other blog, Confessions of a Dance Pants Addict.

Check out the blog hop!

My friend and fellow FAETeam member Aquariann is hosting a blog hop! Click the image to view her blog and read all about it. I've also added a little button for it to my side bar, in case you want to check it out later.

If you're coming over from the blog hop... Hi! You'll quickly find that this blog is mainly about beading and jewelry making and my Etsy shop, Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs. However, I also have a blog about my passion for belly dance, and a link to that can be found on the left side of this blog.

In other news, hooray, it's Spring! We had a very unseasonal (for Arizona) rainstorm over the weekend, and when I went outside today I saw little green leaves on my huge mesquite trees. I'm so happy! We had a false Spring in January, so my trees sprouted new growth, then lost it all suddenly in the hard freeze that followed. I was worried that my beloved trees (one of the big selling points of this house) were dead, but they are just covered in life today.

Word of the Week: Passion

Andrew Thornton is posting a word a week for the next year, putting out the challenge that anyone who wants should blog and/or create around that word, and share the results. To kick it off, he chose the word "passion."

Now, I did just finish reading a cheesy fantasy romance novel this week, so it is tempting to go off on that sort of passion, but I try to keep my blog family-friendly, so instead I'll talk about my main passion in life: tribal belly dance! The picture above is from my first solo performance back in May 2010. Let's not get into how bad my arms/hands are in this photo, we're talking about passion, not criticism. So! Passion!

There are few things that move me as much as dance does. Sometimes it's a nearly transcendent experience for me, when I really connect with the music and my heart is thrown wide open and joy just flows out. And sometimes there's passionate frustration, when I just can't get a combo to click, or I keep stepping on my veil, or my finger cymbal gets caught in my hip scarf during recital. And sometimes, when watching one of my idols dance, it's all I can do not to weep from the sheer awe.

I wanted to create a new tribal necklace to celebrate my passion for dance, and to celebrate being more than 7 weeks into my 365 days of dance, but I didn't have much time to work on it, and what I attempted didn't work out right away. Instead, you can admire this picture of Innana at Dusk (which I made and wore for my solo performance), or go to Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs and check out some of my unique tribal necklaces.

At last, my style and versatility have been recognized!

As you surely already know, I am both stylish (in a Goth/steampunk/boho/jewelry addict sort of way)...
...and versatile. Why, I can't even begin to enumerate my various uses! Aquariann chose to recognize these two great assets of mine by sharing with me the blog awards that she was given for also being stylish and versatile. I'm suppose to choose 15 other blogs that I think are both Stylish and Versatile to pass the award on to, but I know most of the bloggers I follow are too busy for that sort of thing, so I'm just going to recommend that you visit them:
1: TotusMel's Wunderkammer
2: Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
3: Cephalopod Tea Party
4: The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
5: MadDesigns
6: Mermaiden Creations in the Underworld
(Around this time I realize that I might not even follow 15 active blogs right now)
7: Fantasy Artists of Etsy
8: SaraBeth's Belly Dancing Bead Blog
9: Multicultalism for Steampunk
10: Princess Farhana
(Fiiiiiiive moooooore)
11: SpeedieBeadie
12: Darkling Woods Studio
13: Bead Indulgences
14: Anne E. Mitchell
15: Art Bead Scene

But wait! I'm not done! Now I'm supposed to tell you 7 random things about myself. This is turning into a really weird acceptance speech.

1: I used to think blogs were dumb and I only started this one to promote Handmade Jewelry by Erthe Fae Designs. Then I got addicted.
2: I met my husband in a chat room for on-line roleplaying. We were in character at the time. Gaming turned to friendship turned to romance turned to almost 11 years of marriage so far.
3: My favorite color used to be purple.
4: As far as I know I am not allergic to anything... except maybe vodka.
5: I enjoy learning new belly dance combos, but I have a hard time remembering them. I do not enjoy learning choreography, but I am good at learning it.
6: I have recurring dreams about being forced to walk through rooms full of dark aquariums full of inky water and things I can't quite see.
7: Any time I see a greyhound rescue group I have an irresistible urge to run up and pet a greyhound. They're just so sweet and calm and they have the sleekest, skinniest little heads!

Christmas Eve, and a new blog!

I don't really have any Christmas-y pictures on my computer, so here's good ol' Snowdrop, my go-to winter necklace. I hope that those of you who celebrate Christmas have a wonderful one, that those of you who don't just enjoy a nice, relaxing Saturday, and that no one gets into too much trouble while I'm gone! I will be in Vegas from the 26th to the 30th, and I'm just taking my Droid with me instead of my laptop, so I won't really be in touch.

As for my Christmas, instead of dog sitting like I normally do, I'll be going to Christmas dinner at a friend's house. Actually, the same friend who I usually dogsit for! But instead of being there alone with 3-5 dogs, I'll be there with Chris, and my friend and her husband, and several of their friends, so it will be very festive and there will be tons of food. I honestly can't remember the last time I had any sort of large, traditional Christmas dinner, so I'm really looking forward to it.

On a completely unrelated note, last night I started my new blog, Confessions of a Dance Pants Addict to track my 365 days of practice and generally blather on about belly dance. If you are more interested in my dancing life than my beading life, you will want to follow that blog. If you are more interested in the beads and jewelry, you'll want to stay here. And if you're interested in both, then you'll just have to read both blogs!

Picture from recital

This picture was snapped by my friend Jen while we were in the dressing room before recital... I wanted to make sure I had at least one picture of me wearing the necklace that I designed to go with my costume. I still need to get some nice photos of said necklace, but my usual photography table is sort of buried under an explosion of holiday shopping, cookies, and wrapping paper.

My daily dance practice has fallen by the wayside due to extreme amounts of holiday stress. It looks like I will have to tackle it for earnest on the 1st. I've decided that I'm going to go ahead and make a separate blog for tracking it -- I'll still mention my major dance milestones, like performances, here on this blog, but I don't want the beads and business to get lost in the chatter about dance practice and inspiration.

Gift Guides!

Every Tuesday this month, I'll be posting gift guides over on the FAETeam blog. Click here to read the first one!

Posts on this blog will be short and sweet this week... I have a lot to do to prepare for vending in Phoenix this weekend!

Crow Moon Inspiration

I'm almost done with my Sap Moon bracelet, but I still need to decide just what I'm doing for Crow Moon, the moon I most want to interpret. Last week, my friend Theresa posted this awesome painting called "A Murder of Crows" which I think is the perfect inspiration. The crows look so ominous, and then there's that cardinal, who clearly thinks he's some sort of badass. You should visit Theresa's She Loves Shiny blog to see more of her work and little treasures she has found.

Snow Moon, Hunger Moon, and Buttery Spirits

Sky Will Feed My Heart, ACEO by Carapace.*

February is the month of the Snow Moon and the Hunger Moon. Snow and Hunger often went hand-in-hand in the old days. You had to get through the winter relying largely upon preserved foods that you'd set aside during the warmer months, and if the snowy days stretched on, your stores could dwindle down. It's a scary thought, isn't it? These days, most of us take food for granted. If there's nothing in the pantry, we either go down to the store or even treat ourselves to a meal out at the restaurant. We rarely have to think about rationing our food stores, stretching them out until warmer days return.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. The Hunger Moon made me think of Buttery Spirits. These gluttonous faeries eat and eat and eat, but they can only eat ill-gotten or misappropriated food. For instance, an innkeeper who tries to grow wealthy by serving his patrons only the nastiest meat and watered-down drinks may attract such a spirit to his cellar. The implication is not that the faerie is there specifically to teach the innkeeper a lesson, only to gorge itself on the only food it is allowed. Any moral revelations and changes of heart are purely incidental.

It's interesting that the Buttery Spirit does not act out of morality, because faeries are often described as having their own peculiar set of morals -- some of which match up with the traditional Christian values, others which are quite different. They're said to hate lazy and churlish maids, they hate to be spied on, and they often react strangely to gifts. Of course, we won't even get into their habits of abducting babies or beautiful women and leaving changelings in their place. That would be too far of a digression from the topic at hand.

I gave The Hungriest Pixie Ever a light-hearted description, but I could also have played her up as a relative of the Buttery Spirit. Perhaps the owner of the pomegranate tree sells only the nasty, over-ripe fruit, keeping the must luscious ones for himself. Disgusted by his greed, faeries descend upon his tree and devour the best fruits, leaving behind nothing but husks.

As for the Snow Moon, I have nothing more to say about that. Snow and I are not good friends.

Exciting clicky links for related blogginess:
Snow Moon, Hunger Moon on the official FAE Team blog.
The Snow Moon on Mermaiden Creations in the Otherworld.

*Not actually an ACEO. For some reason I thought it was.

Fantastic FAE Team!

I've been so busy lately that I keep forgetting to direct you all to the newest FAE Team exhibition, To Melt Winter's Heart. I've also been to busy to submit anything to said exhibition, so you won't see any of my work among the beautiful items.

Things are going great with the FAE Team. We've had a change in administrators, resulting in an influx of new members and new ideas, and our new blog is going strong. Today I posted a review of The Wolfman, which fits well with our monthly dare theme of Hunger Moon.

Speaking of Hunger Moon (aka Snow Moon), I missed the deadline for that, too. I'll have to make a piece and sneak it in late!

Thank you, Artbeads.com and Art Bead Scene!

Today is a day for sites with Art Bead in their name being nice to me!

First, I woke up and found that Elvensoul had landed me a spot as the Featured Designer at Art Bead Scene. It always makes me happy when other people love this necklace as much as I do, as it was very experimental for me.

Then when I checked the mailbox this afternoon, I found an envelope from Artbeads.com. Inside was a $20 Gift Card for me, and a coupon code for my blog readers! So if you would like to do a little bead shopping, click the above link and enter the code SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424 when you check out for 10% off of your purchase.

I used my $20 to buy some Toho Hybrid seed beads and a really cool silver dragon pendant. I'll blog more about them when they arrive. Hopefully by then I'll have my camera and my computer talking to each other.

Blog Feature and Treasury

My Turtle Talisman necklace was featured by fellow Tucsonan and FAE Team member 88Links in her Tucson Thursday blog post! Make sure you check out her shop; her maille and wirework are beautiful!

While we're on the subject of Etsy, I'd like to direct you towards my latest Treasury, A Murder of Crows.

The Face of Evil!

After reaching the end of the thread I was using to work on the top of Cthulhu's head, I decided I should really put some more work into his face, even though it's difficult and annoying. I actually made a bit of progress before reaching the end of that thread as well, and can probably do the rest of the face in one go, if I'm feeling particularly patient. I need to push onward, as there are only 5 weeks left until the retreat, and a whole lot of Cthulhu left in need of beads.

By the way, if you are a fan of Cthulhu, even when he's not covered in beads, you should probably check out the Indie Squid Kid blog, where they're having Cthulhu week!

Oh, to be full of win!

I've already told you before that TotusMel's Wunderkammer is one of my favorite blogs ever. It's a finds blog that features dark, steamy, and unusual finds, quite different from the cutesy cupcakes and indie fashion that other blogs focus on.

To celebrate the blog's beautiful new look, TotusMel is having a give-away, and that is why I wish I was full of win, or at the very least, one of those lucky people who wins drawings. All of the prizes are amazing, but I'd really love to have the custom bustle skirt pictured above! I know, I know, I already have a bustle skirt, but this one is a totally different style. These things are important.

Would you also like a chance to win fabulous steampunk prizes? If so, you should head on over to The Give-Away Post and read up on the rules. There are so many ways to enter, and the more people who enter, the more fantastic prizes are available. Jewelry! Crowns! Sexy bustle skirts! What more could you want?

I guess it's time to think about Autumn

Autumn Flier is today's Daily Special! With my increased focus on fantasy jewelry, I probably won't be doing as many butterfly and dragonfly necklaces, so you should snatch them up while you still can!

Some of my on-line friends who live in colder climates have been lamenting that with August starting tomorrow, Fall is close on its way. I have a had time getting into this way of thought, maybe because it will be warm well into October here, and maybe because most of our trees in AZ are evergreens, so there's not a whole lot of falling leaves. Maybe it's because I don't go to school, so I don't equate the start of the school year with the end of Summer. Or maybe I just don't feel like beading in Autumnal colors yet. Maybe digging through my collection of leaf beads would help... except that most of them are green. Nevermind!

A couple of other things really quickly...

Class was awesome last night. Learned some new moves, did well at some and poorly at one. We're reaching the point of doing variations and combinations based on the moves we learned in the first two classes, which is pretty exciting. I also bought some nice new additions to my costume wardrobe.

Meri Greenleaf, frequent commentor on this blog, featured one of my necklaces in her blog's Thursday Trove post. Thank you, Meri!

Finally, brooches may be a little delayed, as I'm dealing with a bit of beader's block about them and may even decide to rip out all of what I've done and start over -- I'm not satisfied with how the beads are lying.

Why seed beads?

Marcia DeCoster made an interesting blog post today, asking "Why seed beads?" and I thought it would be the good subject of a post of my own.

Why seed beads indeed? Woven projects are so time-consuming that I have to price them so high that they rarely sell. And yet I can't stop making them, because seed beads inspire me.

One of my favorite things about seed beads is the sheer amount of colors and finishes available. I can match almost anything, from a carved stone to a lampworked bead to the ceramic pendant in today's Daily Special, Mistress of the Secret Forest.

Versatility is key, too. Tiny seed beads can be woven together to form all sorts of shapes and express different styles. They can be bold, delicate, modern, classic, Victorian, tribal... Anything my muse wants to do can be rendered in seed beads, whether it's by weaving them, stitching them down, or even using them as spacers in strung designs. They can stand on their own, or they can be accented by anything else from my stash -- artist-made focals, Czech glass, Swarovski crystals, vintage treasures, skeleton keys...

I'm looking forward to doing even bigger and better things with my seed beads in the near future -- fully-embroidered collars, more ornate belly dance bras, necklaces with multiple bezeled rivolis, all sort of exciting projects.

Things that make my day

A while back, I sold this brooch, Soaring Wyvern. It was the only brooch I'd ever made. I listed it on Etsy with only one image, and I didn't even have it sorted into a category -- and it sold anyway. Yesterday, the buyer posted her "Best of Ets" blog post and gave me and the Wyvern a glowing review. I've been walking on air ever since. There's nothing quite like a happy customer to make my day, especially when they've purchased something that I wasn't sure would sell.

Ever since Soaring Wyvern sold, I've been thinking that I should make more brooches -- so that's my goal for after I finish my BFAC project. If there's a particular color or style of brooch you'd like to see me make, please leave a comment here or go over to my Facebook fan page and join the Brooch discussion I've just started.

As for today's Daily Special, it's the Automatic Ankle Accelerator! Only $25 for a gorgeous steampunk anklet.

Tinkering around.

Today's Daily Special is Subtle Charm. $20 is a great deal for such an elegant necklace and earring set!

I've just finished doing a little work on the blog, tidying things up, removing links to blogs that I don't read anymore, that sort of thing. I also provided convenient links to all of the places you can stalk, er, find me around the Internet. Twitter, Facebook, my writing blog, all had been strangely absent from my links. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of all this social networking.

I'm back home!

Hello blogosphere, did you miss me?

I had a great time up in Marana dog-sitting for my friend. Her three dogs were lovely as usual, and kept me nice and warm at night by sleeping next to me. Unlike my dogs, they don't lick my face while I'm trying to sleep, so they're actually allowed in bed with me.

Admittedly, I decided not to even try to get onto the internet while I was there. I knew that if I did, I would get almost nothing done. Instead, I gave myself the very special Christmas gift of an entire day with nothing to do but play Solitaire or work on my book (seriously, I have almost nothing installed on my laptop). So I wrote. My book is 15-16 pages longer than it was before I left on Wednesday.

But I should really be talking about that over on my writing blog, shouldn't I?

I came home to find the beading kit that I ordered from Buy the Kit in my mailbox. I'm not sure if I'm going to start it right away, or save it for the next time that Chris is at gaming and I'm at home. Either way, I am back in the mood to bead. My back and shoulders feel better after a few weeks of barely beading. I'll just have to be sure to treat them better in the future so this doesn't happen again. Less stooping, more stretching!

Chris and I decided to exchange a couple of late Christmas/early New Years Day presents with each other today, so I have a couple more awesome new pretty shinies to photograph. Looks like I really need to get out to the game room and take a ton of pictures.

And now, off to my other blog!