Old habits...

...they really die hard, so here I am again with a beaded star.
I was playing with macrame and braided bracelet, which I'm lately stacking shamelessly on my wrist and dutyfully removing before each bath at the beach, but it's pretty annoying and time consuming, so I was looking for a solution...and I came up with this:

It's a wrap bracelet which changes style at each turn on your wrist, from a braid to macrame knots with a cute pendant

I used a special closure for this one, coated in silver glitter:

I'm surely making more of this, we still have a long summer to decorate ahead of us!

Ombre hair

I've always been pretty reasonable with hairstylers, never asked for impossible things - like bringing a photo of a much longer haircut and demanding my hair to look exactly like that, or asking for crazy colors hard to find in small salons.

Source: Pinterest

But I feel frustrated when my reasonable requests are answered with:
1)"this is IMPOSSIBLE" - yet someone did it...the pics can't all be photoshopped!
2)"We don't have this color, NOBODY has" - and you've done that exact color in that salon the year before
3)"We can't do this but we can do this other thing, it'll look even better" - and cost you twice the price...
4)"Why do you want such a thing??!" - ...
So lately I asked for an ombre effect on my hair, and OMG - I got all the previous answers all in one time, plus the "we need to bleach everything first".
WHAT???!!!!!
And all for a not-so-reasonable-price.
So I bought everything and dyed my hair myself. This is the result (forgive the crappy pic):

The ombre effect will be more visible after a couple of washing, and will fade away going to the beach for sure :( but I'm really happy with it!

Macramé is back!

When I was a kid of about 9, I was in love with a magazine called Rakam (it's been lately sold from its publishing company so I'm not able to find the right link to its website).
It started in the 30's and since then it's mantained the image of a magazine for the perfect Italian woman, able to master any kind of craft: from needlework to knitting, this magazine has always proposed a lot of interesting works.
I have quite a collection but I stopped buying it when it started to become thinner and was divided into too many different magazines - the one dedicated to babies, to cross stitch, to knitting...
One thing I remember clearly was the macramé lesson, from which I started making the so called "friendship bracelets" like these

Source: Pinterest

There's actually a whole world to discover besides bracelets: it's a knotting technique that will allow you to make solid bags and cases for your tablet or cell phone

Source: Pinterest

belts, curtains and decorations of any kind for the house

Source: Pinterest

Now that macramé is back with many new possibilities I'm happy such an old craft won't be forgotten. I think I will try and make something new with this technique - maybe I'll go and find that old magazine again...

EBW July challenge: Tangerine Tango

Orange has always been one of my favorite colors.
It's hot and bold, energizing and vitaminic!
This year we call it "Tangerine Tango" and not simply orange, and doesn't it make you think of summer, dancing on the beach and tropical cocktails?!
The Etsy Beadweavers Team has Tangerine Tango as latest theme for the monthly challenge and here is the most powerful mosaic ever:

Choosing a favorite will be almost impossible, but please try!

Voting will begin on the 9th and runs through the 15th of July, on the Etsy Beadweavers Team blog .

Perfect holiday

How is a perfect summer holiday for you?
Mine involves the sea (possibly my hometown beaches)

good books, and of course the right weather to enjoy both, which is hot but slightly windy.
Until now I've been fully satisfied!
I've decided to stay as much as I can here this summer, since I'm not working and the heat is impossible to bear in Milan, besides: would you ever leave this

for Milan with 40°C???!
This summer, I'm certainly not!!!
Unfortunately I didn't bring all my beaded items with me 'cause this decision was unexpected, so all I can eventually sell is: tutorials, custom orders and my Orange starfish earrings, which were accidentally in my stash box.
Hope everyone is having great vacations!

Last but not least

I decided these

are going to be the last starfish earrings for a while.
I'm so into 3d beadwork lately, especially pitayas beaded beads and stars. They give me a satisfaction I can't explain!
Holidays are almost here, and I can't wait to be like this:

via: Pinterest

First donation for Italy earthquake

The Etsy Italia Team has made the first donation of 700€ to the region most hit from earthquakes this last month.
Actually the earth is still constantly shaking, people are afraid and most of them still sleep in tents, but hopefully things will get better.
So far the team collected 172 items donated by members, 114 were sold, raising about 1292€ - the 700€ donation is documented on the team blog.
I think it's really amazing that something born for personal profit like the etsy website can make a difference in things of such matter.
Thanks to everybody who purchased something from the bottom of our Italian hearts!

June Challenge: Mistery

This month the theme for the Etsy Beadweavers challenge is "MYSTERY":

"Design a beaded mystery. Could be a symbolic chalk outline from a crime drama, or the tweed pattern from Sherlock Holmes, or a piece from a puzzle, or a simple suggestive clue. A key to a lost locket, a cypher of a cryptogram, a secret message woven into a work of art. Make an arcane riddle hidden in the pattern of beads, or do a scene from a crime novel. Make a map with an X marks the spot, or make the jewels be the prize in a treasure hunt, or the one earring dropped by the strange lady in red. Any idea woven in beads, just be mysterious somehow in its origin."

Here's the mosaic:

Jump on the Etsy Beadweavers Blog and vote for your favorite entry, you have time until 15th of June as usual!

New stars

Some new arrivals in my shop:

Grey starfishes

Bronze ones

and light blue

Summer is coming....

To win a giveaway

I'm not one of those person who win stuff at games or giveaways.
Never.
I partecipate whenever I can, but never thought I could win.
Last week I received an email from Gaea (the owner of a wonderful shop I've been drooling on these last weeks) saying I was one of the winners of her giveaway.
What??!! I didn't even recall partecipating...
I had actually commented on her blog, but my mind was somewhere else.
She was so kind to pick up 3 winners

via Gaea

and I was one of the lucky...see what I found this morning in my mail box (so fast!!!)

I can't even begin to tell you how the photo doesn't give justice to the perfect, smooth texture of these beads, to the tiny details and the delicate colors.
This was the perfect reward to the first (of two) web design exam I had today!