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Sidenote… Pinterest!!! Seriously… hours gone… *poof*. SO addicting. Add me, if you like… I’ll add you back ;)

And have I mentioned that I’m selling said greeting cards in bulk, to retailers at wholesale prices, too? ;) Well, I am… in case you are interested… and how can you not be interested with the happiest Irish cupcake you’ve ever seen declaring its love for its mother country right there? In frosting. No pressure. (send me an email!: wholesale AT violetcottage.com!!)

end plug.

(But honestly… I sort of love the happy green cupcake nestled in the emerald hill framed with a harp-shaped-ish frame surrounded by thistle, lily of the valley and the greenest plaid I’ve ever seen.)

Some of you may remember them from the shop… in that back room where you could scoop your own…

Since we can’t bring the jars to you (unless I get that bath products truck that I want!), we’re now selling our salts by the bag.

We’re starting with the following 7 scents…

Blossom: Our Blossom scent is a mix of green apple, red apple, raspberry, red currant, a hint of strawberry and a touch of a light floral scent. Smells like summertime fruits and their delicate blossoms.

Cupcake: Our Cupcake scent smells just like it sounds… just like sweet vanilla & butter cream frosting with a tiny hint of lemon.

English Garden: English Garden has top notes of tuberose and jasmine mixed with freesia, sweet pea, lilac, lily of the valley. It also has a subtle hint of powdery vanilla. It smells like spring in a faraway garden.

Island Floral: Island Floral is a tropical mix of pikaki, plumeria, osmanthus flower, and jasmine.

Lavender: Our lavender is a little sweeter and a lot less medicinal-smelling than most… we start with Provencial lavender and add a touch of vanilla, brown sugar and the slightest hint of lemon. The result is a sweet, warm lavender scent.

Orchard: Orchard is a mix of pomegranate, pear, red apple, red currant, fig and a hint of pink grapefruit. It’s a scent that is slightly leafy, yet sweet and tart.

Seashore: Seashore is a very light aquatic fresh scent that starts with a watery aquaflore scent mixed with a clean marine scent, a hint of rain and a hint of citrus.

Can you tell I’m excited about the custom bath salt idea? I love matching party favors to the invitation to the cupcakes to the centerpieces to the… (and on and on).

And here are the health benefits of soaking in epsom and sea salts…. it relieves stress, removes toxins from the body, regulates your electrolytes and works like an antiseptic to help heal wounds. Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, discovered the therapeutic qualities of seawater by noticing the healing affects it had on the injured hands of fishermen. Click on the epsom salt link to read more!

Oh, and after you soak in the salts… your bathroom will smell fantastic ;)

You can find these salts in our etsy store :)

I have a few more pieces that are currently on Super 8, VHS and one DVD (Thanks, Mom!). I hope to get those online soon. Many thanks to Sandy for helping me get all of the above pieces off of those archaic 3/4″ tapes onto something I could get online :)

After watching The Pixar Story, I’m feeling mighty inspired to pick up this fandangled animation thing again ;)

Somehow, they all adopted a different little attitude :)

puffed up smug bird

stretching happy proud bird

curious content bird

“I’m watching you with one eye!” bird

this one is my favorite… he’s just super happy

and this one was supposed to be a parakeet… but he turned into an owl-parrot. & he doesn’t look too happy to see us, so he won’t make eye contact.

Made using water color pencils while watching sex and the city 2 (true story).

Can’t I just go into suspended animation until September? ;)

Kidding.

I really like the color and whimsy of Valentine’s, St. Patty’s and Springtime pastels… but there’s just something about the Fall into the Holidays that I really love. Can’t I just give everything a Christmas or Halloween flavor? Trees with hearts, snowmen at the end of rainbows, pumpkins with bunny ears… eggnog hunts. Yep. Someone call Hallmark.

Changing gears a wee bit… Here are a few jewelry pieces I’ve been working on… some are a work in progress :) I really like the simpler earrings with only a few stones.

Hoping to muster up some inspiration to paint tomorrow… come on Valentine’s day bug… bite me! ;)

Speaking of inspiration, we’ve been playing Little Big Planet 2. It has oodles of inspiration. Shooting cupcakes, riding fluffy robo-bunnies, dodging flaming marshmallows… it’s pretty amazing.

So, I sort of made these charms below, about 10 years ago.

I sculpted each little design out of Sculpey and took it to a fabulous place that does lost wax casting. It’s a fascinating process, if you get the time to take a look at that link :)

In a nutshell…they took my little original, made a mold, then injected that mold 40-something times with wax to make 40 little wax charms. These little wax guys were put into plaster. The plaster was then heated up, removing all the wax and then silver was injected into each of these little channels and behold… lots of little silver charms are born!

I called these Knick Knack Paddy Whacks… charms for your pet’s collar.

The owners of the silver casting studio that I got my charms made at then commissioned me to make them some… very different charms. They wanted primitive-looking goddess charms. These look so primitive that I’m sure you could use some to trade for a goat or two.

No laughing…

Most of you are familiar with the Venus (of Willendorf). The original clay sculptures date back to 24,000–22,000 B.C.E. There is speculation that this is the type of woman that was desired at the time… well fed and fertile in a droopy sort of way… you know, the opposite of today ;)

This is the goddess of Earth or Spring… or… life. It was modeled after several famous goddess figures.

This one was completely made up… it’s the fairy goddess… armless for some reason.

This is modeled after the Storyteller doll, made by the Pueblo people of New Mexico.

Lastly, this is the Inuit Angel. I totally made it up. She’s a cross between an Edward Gorey woman, an Eskimo and an angel.

I have a few of these up for sale in my ebay store, as well as some other sterling silver charms I am clearing out :)

I haven’t heard from the lost wax silver casting people in many years… we kept in touch for a few, then they moved twice and merged with another business. Last time I was there they were making promotional silver rings for the first Lord of the Rings movie… pretty cool!

Charming charms, don’t you think ;) hehe.