http://SewSassyCreations.com

Dear Friends,

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Holiday! I finally took the plunge and bought my Domain Name for the web. If you type in http://sewsassycreations.com then you will go directly to my Etsy Store.

I am now taking orders for Christmas stockings, customized with names and designs of your choice. Prices begin at $15.00 and go up depending on the materials involved. Also, notice, I have started my line of Christmas and Winter wreaths. The Autum selections were quite popular and I sold one to my chiropractor. The baby wreath also sold and the people who received it as a gift were quite taken by it and were so thrilled that they had an original work of art to hang in the new baby's room.

Please notice lots of changes to the site, especially a list on the right of my Etsy friends, when clicked on will take you directly to their site or blog. All of us artisans on Etsy need and appreciate each and every sale. I think we are each others best customers! However anyone and everyone is invited to window shop (pun hahaha) and purchase!

Have a safe and happy weekend...and remember to thank and memoralize all of those who have sacrificed for each one of us and our wonderful, Land of the free and home of the brave!

Sandy

Gearing up for Christmas

Childs Christmas Tree design T-shirt

Birds of a Feather Christmas Pillow featuring winter Chickadees

Details of Silver and Gold Metalic Dove of Peace Wreath



I have been busy the last week or so and getting into the Christmas Spirit. Every year I create unique gifts for my friends and family and this year is no exception, however, I do believe that my friends and family have had enough of my handmade gifts, so this year I will be posting my items in my Etsy on line store. Here are some pictures or what I have made already. There will be more to come!

Featured Artist: Bottled Up Designs Helps Clean up the Enviornment

My name is Laura Bergman, and I have created Bottled Up Designs, jewelry and gifts handmade from the glass of antique bottles! All of my pieces are 100% handmade from the glass of antique bottles, that I reclaim from old bottle dumps in the woods. I live in a very rural area in the Pennsylvania Amish Country, and in the woods around me there are multiple bottle dumps and old glass scattered everywhere.

One day when I was talking a walk, there was a baby fawn and her mother laying in the leaves. When they caught my scent they were up and away, and where the fawn was laying was the jagged remains of an antique Noxema bottle. I was horrified at what all this old glass could be doing to the wildlife, and after having one of my dogs come home with their feet cut, I began picking up all of these old pieces and working with them. In time, what emerged was Bottled Up Designs.

Being an old bottle collector for 20 years, I can pretty much pick up any remains of a bottle and tell you what is was and how old it is, so I tried to work that knowledge into my pieces. Each piece of Bottled Up Designs comes with The Story of the Glass, where I will detail that for you.

I am thrilled to have created something that is very historical, and am able to reclaim these lovely treasures discarded many, many years ago. I am also happy to present a beautiful product that the glass is not made is some modern factory using more natural resources.

I do have them in a few stores locally, and am really looking to expand my wholesale/consignment business.

Take a look! http://www.bottledupdesigns.etsy.com/

Natures Wreaths

All around the year I collect (harvest and dry) items from the natural world that I find interesting to later incorporate into craft creations. This year I have concentrated on pods from bottle and chilian mesquite trees planted in my yard about five years ago. Pictured above ia a wreath with pumpkin and doggie embroidery surrounded with silk flowers and pods. The little doggies are telling all to meet them in the pumpkin patch for a playful romp!

This wreath is made from almost all pods from both the trees and then sprayed gold.

This centerpiece is a very full piece made from lots and lots of both types pods, silk leaves, candles and ribbons. The bowl in the center is filled with colored water to hold either a beautiful fall bunch of flowers or floating candles.

This is a playful wreath made of pods, aftfully arranged around silk sunflowers and other fall colored silk flowers and stalks.

Here is a bowl of harvested and dried pods. Notice the rich brown color of the outside of the pod and the inner gold of the seeds and pod lining.

I have made these wreaths and centerpieces to adorn and decorate my own home, however, if you see something you really like, convo me at my Etsy shop and I will customize a creation for you.

Abundant Harvest

After every storm there is a calming sunshine. This morning I awoke with the feeling of calm and inspiration awashing my spirit, renewing my soul with hope and the realization of abundant blessings.

For many weeks, a struggle has been a heavy cloud overshadowing my work and creative processes. Work has been a task of persistence rather than an uplifting pleasure of inspired creation. I had planned on pushing ahead with the work of making and listing Christmas season items in the Etsy Store, skipping the Autumn season. Something awakened in my inner being, and the sudden realization that this season is one of the most joyful in which I create overcame my desire to hurry up and start on Christmas! There is a calming feeling that the colors of rust, gold, burnt reds, browns, olive greens, oranges, and yellows, envoke, which could not, and would, not be ignorned by my spirit the year!

I was overcome with a yearning to celebrate the harvest of the year, to experience the harvest joy. I came to the realization that this year has been a struggle, a learning curve, and yes, I had planted seeds, sowed them, hoed them, weeded and nurtured them, and now it was time to reap the benefits and the joy that comes with watching a thing grow and then celebrating the well earned fruit of the spirit.

Because of this renewal, I am offering this Autum line of inspirational gifts. These creations of the season, celebrate the balance of light and darkness, the Autumn Soltice, and the abundance of our personal harvests in our lives.

Please enjoy these gifts to you and may you be blessed with warmth in your home, love in your heart, peace in your soul and joy in your heart.

Sincerely,

Sew Sassy Sandy