Awesome Book: "Body Image Lies Women Believe"

I wanted to share a book with all of you that touches on a subject near and dear to my heart: body image untruths and how they effect women of all ages. The book is:

If you are a Kindle reader, the book is FREE - yes I said FREE - through the end of the day on Amazon (click on the photo above & it will take you to the site).

Here's what the publisher has to say about the book:

- Are you insecure about your looks?

- Have you ever compared yourself to someone else and found yourself wanting?

- Do complements or put downs determine the image you have of your beauty?

Real Stories of Overcoming Body Image Lies Women Believe with God’s Truth

Throughout this book, Christian women share their stories of how they have struggled with body image lies and a distorted view of themselves. However, each of their stories also contains hope – the hope of replacing these lies with God’s truth. Our prayer for you is that you find encouragement within these pages and allow Christ to transform you with His truth.

We Are Each Created Unique

God has created each one of us with unique abilities, unique talents and a unique personality. As women we are influencers and God has given us that role and our beauty to share with others. Yet so often we settle for a counterfeit. The enemy has counterfeited our idea of beauty, convincing us to share our beauty with the world in a distorted way. Today that often means that we see our beauty as what we look like on the outside.

What Lies Have You Been Believing?

Join us for the journey of replacing body image lies with truth from God’s Word.

I have been receiving a daily devotional from the author of this book that is absolutely right-on as far as teaching from the Truth of God's Word, and I promise you that this book will give you a whole new perspective on who you are and Whose you are.

You are beautifully and wonderfully made, and you have a Creator who absolutely loves you the way you are!

So check out the book and the website:

Body & Soul Publishing

It's Time for the 5th Do-Over Challenge!

Welcome to the Do-Over Challenge Blog Hop hosted by the talented Jeannie Dukic of Jewelry By Jeannie. The way this works is Jeannie sends out an old piece of jewelry that she made and challenges us to use the components of the piece in a new piece of jewelry. Here is a photo of the necklace and earrings set I received:

3-strand necklace & earrings set made with glass chips, ceramic, coral & wood beads

I've been playing with waxed Irish linen cord and knotting jewelry, and decided to make the jewelry for this challenge in that style.

The first necklace I made I added a large natural carnelian focal bead, yellow jade, turquoise nuggets and some gorgeous rhodocrosite ovals to some of the ceramic beads and glass chips, all strung on salmon-colored cord.  I've worn this necklace a few times and absolutely love it!

The second set I made features an enameled focal with amazonite, coral and glass chips with a clasp made from a pewter button from Lynne Davis.  The components are all strung on a rust-colored cord.  Here is the matching bracelet:

I still had beads left over, and decided to make some handmade copper hoop earrings using the wood, ceramic, glass and coral beads:

I love all the sets I made with Jeannie's beautiful beads, and want to thank her so much for hosting this great blog hop!  Take a few minutes and check out all the other fantastic artists participating today:

Beti Horvath  http://stringingfool.blogspot.com/

Charlie Jacka  http://clay-space.com/blog

Dagi http://kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

DiYana Alcalde http://agapecreationsjewelry.blogspot.com/
Donetta Farrinton  http://simplygorgeous-donetta.blogspot.com/

Ginger Davis Allman http://thebluebottletree.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog (hostess)

Kathy Lindemer  http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

Lynne Bowland  http://www.islandgirlsinsights.blogspot.ca/

Molly Alexander  http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/ (you are here!)

Mary Govaars  www.mlhjewelrydesigns.com

Mowse Doyle  http://mowsemadethis.blogspot.com/

Penny Houghton  www.smellynelly.blogspot.com

Renetha Stanziano  http://lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com/

Rita Avila http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Susan Delaney  www.ladyflowersbysusan.wordpress.com

So Grateful...

Living He loved me
Dying He saved me
Buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified
Freed me forever
One day He's coming
O glorious day!

Welcome to the March 2013 Bead Soup Blog Party!

What is a Bead Soup Blog Party?

 Each beader was paired up with another jewelry designer and tasked with sending the following:

- A focal
- A special clasp (not just a lobster claw)
- Some coordinating spacers or beads

Using the focal and the clasp was mandatory, but we could use anything from our own stash to round out the rest, and choose to use the coordinating beads or not.

Here is another picture of the beads I received from my fantastic Bead Soup partner, Laura Bracken of Laura Bracken Designs:

I wanted to spread this beautiful beady goodness around and decided to make a few different pieces.

The first set that I made incorporates the beautiful focal:

To create the focal I hand cut a backing and bail from copper sheet, heat treated, drilled, and textured them with my chasing hammer and connected all the parts together.

To make the tube beads, I took thinner copper sheet, cut, treated and textured them the same way I did with the focal, and rolled them into inch-long tubes.  Using two hues of olive colored waxed Irish linen, I knotted the tube beads into a long chain.

I loved the way the necklace looked so much that I made a matching bracelet, earrings set and ring.  I've already worn the set out and about, and I absolutely love it!

For the second set, I wanted to incorporate some of the olive green glass discs and the tiny crystal bicones:

To make this focal, I enameled a large copper heart using my favorite white crackle enamel base covered by beautiful layers of sapphire blue, olive green and a tiny blush of geranium pink.

I love the spirals in the design of the green discs, and wanted to incorporate that element into my design.  The spirals dangling from the focal and the wire wraps on the beads really emphasize that particular design element.

I went ahead and made a bracelet and earrings set to go with the necklace, and threw in some of my handmade copper soldered links, adding texture to the overall pieces (doesn't that ceramic toggle clasp from Cindy Kovar at Captured Moments look great with the other beads?).

The third and final piece I made is a bracelet that incorporates the lovely amber glass rondelles, more of the olive green discs and the sterling silver clasp:

I absolutely LOVE this bracelet!  The bead colors look fantastic with the antiqued silver.  

I randomly added jump rings with seed beads in complimentary colors to add interest and movement to the design.

And that's it for this serving of bead soup!

I want to send another HUGE thank you to Laura Bracken for sending me such lovely ingredients.  Please take a few minutes to check out her blog, Laura Bracken Designs - she is an amazingly talented artist, and I can't wait to see what she made from the soup ingredients I sent her!

For the list of all the other bead soup participants, you can go to Lori Anderson's blog HERE.

Have a FABULOUS soupy day!

A Bit Of A Tease: Bead Soup Blog Party Preview

I wanted to give you a little bit of a 'tease' before tomorrow's Bead Soup Blog Party:

Come back tomorrow for the real deal!

It's Friday, But Sunday's A Coming...

This is a beautifully powerful sermon given by S.M. Lockridge years ago.  It is a great way to remember that Good Friday is good for a reason...

Art Bead Scene March 2013 Challenge

I was looking back through my posts and realized that it has been a whole year since I've participated in the Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. Where did the time go? Well, I didn't want another month to go by without submitting a piece of jewelry, so without further ado, I give you Forest Echoes:

"Forest Echoes"

The inspiration piece is a painting by Marc Franz called "Deer in the Forest", and you can read more about it on the Art Bead Scene blog:

I love the juxtaposition of the soft but vibrant colors with the geometric and orderly shapes that the artist incorporated into his work. When I pulled my enameled piece out of the kiln, I was so surprised to see similar colors and shapes that I just knew it had to be part of this month's challenge piece.

I made the focal from copper sheet and added a lovely little lampwork bead from Mary Cobble at Firebabies on Etsy. The handmade chain (which I love and you will possibly see again soon in my Bead Soup pieces) adds to the organic feel of the piece, while the ribbon echoes the softness of the colors and movement in the inspiration piece.

If you can, take a few minutes to check out the other entries on the ABS Flickr page!