Blog entry

Christmas Red - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

As everyone is aware, the color combination of red and green is closely associated with the Christmas season.  From ancient history to modern time, color has been an integral part of cultural awareness and even an understanding of life.  The meaning of colors touched all members of society, conveying deep messages that everyone could “read”:  at one time, only royalty could wear the color purple and the red robes worn by Catholic Cardinals signifies the blood of Christ, even to this day.  The red and green color combination can be traced to the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh stories from the 13th century.  And these stories were most likely based on an oral tradition that dates back to the pre-Christian Celts many centuries before where a half-red, half-green tree figures prominently in one of the tales.  In pre-Christian times, red represented male strength and desire and green represented female harmony and fertility.

Christmas Earrings - Gift Ideas - at Shadow Dog Designs

Christmas will be here before we know - only one more month when this blog is posted!  To help women get in the holiday spirit, my Shadow Dog Designs jewelry shop offers a wide range of Christmas earrings.  All of the earrings are carefully handmade by me and some, but not all, are one of a kind designs.  The earrings range from Santa inspired, snowmen, ornaments and various others made with artisan lampwork beads.  Many include Swarovski crystals for that holiday sparkle!  Each and every design is perfect for gift giving . . . or to keep for yourself.  And, even better, shipping is FREE through January 2, 2018 (U.S. only).

Bohemian Rhapsody - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

It’s amazing how often my blogs are inspired by music.  As you have probably noticed, music is, and always has been, a huge part of my life.  For some reason, I have been listening quite a bit to the complete soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies.  Heroic music for an awesome trilogy!  It ended (for the umpteenth time) and I switched to my Pandora station.  And . . . Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen started the mix of music.  The song, which was released in 1975, instantly took me back to a time at university when several friends and I developed a Bohemian Rhapsody skit . . . and performed it at a university talent show!  Am sure the skit was absolutely, undeniably horrible.  But whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to all the hard work and laughter as we pulled the antics of the skit together.  Am sure there is a photo or two around, but I have no idea where they are.  

Happy Halloween!