Color block jewelry for spring

This weekend I was so lucky to have a whole day to spend with two of my favorite creative ladies, Alisa and Staci. We spent 12 HOURS beading on Friday. When all was said and done, we'd created 36 pieces of jewelry. The above are all of the pieces I got to take home! I made all of them except the long coral and green necklace on the right and the ring on the bottom left. Staci made the long necklace and the ring is actually from our shopping excursion on Saturday to the Funky Zebra, but it fit the collection so nicely, I couldn't resist putting it in the picture too!

I just returned from a work trip to Alexandria, VA. I had some free time that I spent shopping on King Street in Old Town. I picked up three very pretty strings of beads at the Potomac Bead Company. The larger coral beads above were one of my finds. Coral and mint ended up being my theme of the day.

The other theme of the day was color blocking. I have been seeing these styles around and pinned a few inspirations. I saw quite a bit of color blocked jewelry out in DC and knew that I wanted to try my hand at it. I absolutely love all of these necklaces - and chose my outfits the last two days just to wear them! The mint teardrop faceted jade and the coral rose quartz (both on the 3rd necklace) were also from my trip to Alexandria.

I traded Staci for the long necklace in first picture that she made. The two sets of coral earrings on the right went home to Colorado with her!

I have been loving the faceted teardrop shape too so I made a couple of little wire pendants. It's been a long, long time since I attempted wire wrapping and the rose gold wire was very simple to manipulate.

I couldn't get enough of the jade beads so I made some earrings to go with the pendant and/or color blocked necklace. Since yellow slipped in the pallet of the collection in a couple of the necklaces, I just kept going with it. I adore both of these pairs of earrings.

These little wooden yellow beads caught my eye when I was digging for yellow beads for the earrings. With the ombré blue beads, it somehow reminds me of My Little Ponies...but in a good way. Ha!

Sorry for the horrible phone pics on these but I wanted to share what Staci and Alisa made too. For some reason, they didn't let me take of theirs home with me to photograph! The above photo is Staci's creations - 4 bracelets, 2 anklets, and 3 long necklaces.

Alisa is the real jeweler of the three of us and it shows! She cranked out so many beautiful pieces. 5 pairs of earrings and 7 necklaces. I'm not even 100 percent that's all she made! If you ever looking for one of a kind, handmade beaded jewelry, you can find her over a 4 Square Studios.

It was a fantastic day and Alisa is so generous to share her studio, home and stash with us. Thank you, Alisa!

Hello. My name is Tonya and I am an addict.

It's not drugs or alcohol or even chocolate. It's Pinterest. I cannot stop.

Wait. You don't know what Pinterest is? I don't know whether or not to gush about it and encourage you to sign up, or yell "Run! Run away and don't read on!" So proceed at your own risk and know that Pinterest is wonderful but it will steal hours and hours of your life.

In their own words, "Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests."

It's a personalized, virtual bulletin board with beautiful pictures of food, clothing, home decor and anything else your little heart desires. You can categorize everything onto different boards. The best part is that it all links back to the original source, i.e. the webpage with the recipe, tutorial, online store, etc. I love that I can look at all my recipes at once.

I have been LOVING Pinterest for fashion and sewing ideas too. However this seems to have lead to a bad habit of clothing and shoe shopping online. Which makes my PayPal account sad but me squeal in delight when brown paper packages show up on the doorstep.

So what else besides recipe and fashion am I pinning? My 301 (yikes!) pins are on 20 boards including sewing inspirations, crocheting, tattoos and henna, travel, home decor, color combinations, graphic design, Halloween, gift ideas and products I want. Check them all out on my Pinterest page.

It also has a fun element where you can follow boards and people so your homepage has a cornucopia of ideas handpicked by like minded people you've chosen to follow. Pinterest will send you an email (if you want it to) to let you know when people repin your pins. I get a silly amount of pleasure when I get one of these with a huge list.

It's an ego boost. "They like me. They really like me!" Or at least my pins... But whatever. I enjoy it! Joining Pinterest is by invitation only, so if you're interested, let me know and I'll email you an invite. But remember - don't say I didn't warn you about the hours, days and weeks of your life that will suddenly go missing.

Want.

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon Emily at ERMoriginals but I am addicted. More and more of her jewelry is making it onto my Etsy favorites list every day. Her ability to mix today's trends (asymmetrical and multi-pendant necklaces) and vintage elements into her pieces is amazing. The beautiful pieces are the best part, but a close second are her prices. Currently there are only two pieces (out of over 150 items) that are over $50 and the vast majority are $25 or less! Here's a few of my favorite pieces:

I recieved this necklace from my sweetie for Christmas. It is stunning in person.

Pearl Bloom Bracelet

Locket Love - flight trio

Satin Bloom and Pearls - lilac

Antique Leaf Ring

As credit card bills come in after the holiday shopping spree, this jewelry is still an affordable luxury. Instead of having one of those home jewelry parties, get together with friends and shop ERMoriginals together. The jewelry you receive will be just as nice (if not better) and think how much more you'll be able to get for your money!

*I have never received anything free from ERMoriginals and was not paid in any way for this post.