Clear-out Coming Soon

Nobody should be misled by the hot days we are having the last few weeks, autumn is around the corner. Days are getting shorter, school starts next week and the next salary comes in September.

So today's project for me was to look for autumn and winter clothes on eBay. I do not have the patience to go shopping and look for a sweater for hours so I just click on my preferences and there I can see what I am looking for.

This also means I will need to get rid of all the clothes I have but do not wear anymore. Clear-out on the horizon!

Dedication

Yeah yeah yeah I know I am neglecting my blog and all that but believe me, I just wasn't in the mood of doing anything creative. Or better said, I have been creative in many other ways.

But now I have decided to dig a bit deeper into all this jewelry making and get more out of it. Now the decision has been made, I just need some time to realise it - I don't know about you, but this is always where the bottleneck is for me. So I will spend some time brainstorming and then discover all the possibilities that come to my mind and are affordable. Time to be as dedicated as possible!

Landscapes

We have come to the age when births and deaths happen at the same time. When some of our friends get married and you go to their wedding and when at the same time some of the people around you leave forever.

We have come to the age when love, life, beauty, loss, and death are there with us at every moment, they hold our hands and take us to new lands to discover, new sights to see and new messages to understand.

What kind of lives are we leading? Did we find what is important? Do we really see what matters or do we only see what is right there in front of us?

Keep the faith. We will all leave some day. A new journey comes where there will be no other holding our hands than death.

This pair of earrings is dedicated to a person who has just left this beautiful land and walked away. Peace be with you on your way.

Variations on a Pink Bead

Just please don't ask me to say anything right now. I have nothing to say. But please stay with me until it all gets better and I have something to say from my heart.

Kroner

I have been making jewelry for everybody else but myself recently, so I have just realized. I decided to make something only for myself this time. I wanted a bracelet that is black (because I hardly have any jewelry in black), something simple (because I love simple things) and something really ME.

As somebody collecting coins, what could be more ME than using a real coin for this piece. Moreover, this Danish Krone tells a very peculiar story.

Not so long ago I bought a new car, a used one of course. We were cleaning it inside and outside and dismantled everything in the trunk as well to be able to vacuum clean it thoroughfully. But what we found there was something nobody expected: underneath the spare tyre and all the covers was a pile of different coins, from many-many countries. The whole pile was not worth too much but represented a huge value for me: coins from Estonia, Latvia, and so on - and Denmark of course! Somehow I had not have any coins from these countries before even though they are neither far nor exotic.

I decided to keep one piece of all of them in my collection and recycle the rest in my jewelry or however I feel like.

This Krone is truly beautiful so just had to be used for my bracelet. I added a key and a shell-charm, wrapped the leather around my wrist, closed it with a clamp - the bracelet is ready!

Kitten in my Pocket

This charm with the kitten was a present from a far away country, where I ordered a couple of charms from. It is really cute so I definitely wanted to use it for a piece for young ladies and my past experiences show that actually almost any girl can be made happy with a charm.

So here it is: the kitten you can bring with you anywhere you like!

Waiting for a loving owner at a very pleasant price soon.

SOLD

Work learn play

There is a relatively old (1990) American movie called Awakenings, with the stunning performance of Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Even though the main characters are played by these popular actors the film itself is not very well-known, though it should and deserves to be.

I won't tell you about the story as you should definitely see it yourself but the bottomline is that we can give value to each and every day of our life by "working, learning and playing". I think that this simple sentence tells us so much about the beauty and the meaning of life that most of the longer kind could not.

If we keep this in mind (and all of them, only one of the three does not work without the two others) we will not stray too far from what we really need to do here on Earth.

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Apples

Every fair is a lesson at the same time, a lesson from your customers - and also from those who did not become your customers.

One of such lessons from the last fair was that I need to make smaller, shorter earrings too, but I need to make them in the way that at the same time I do not lose sight of my own style.

This pair of earrings is one of those I made based on this pattern. Not too short though - you will later on see that I made some shorter ones too. It has the mark of my stlye on itself I think: the wooden material, the green color, the touch of nature in the form of an apple.

I hope you will like it!

Shamal

It is funny how certain things can bring people closer, not only in the sense as men and women but in the sense as people in general.

I was born into a car-loving family so it was almost sure that I will either hate or love cars when I grow up, no other way. The first happened.

When I step on the balcony of my flat I love looking down and watch people passing by or parking with their cars. I can spend a lot of time with that.

Ever since my childhood I have had funny stories with car-enthusiasm. Cars (especially a certain brand) brought my boyfriend and my best friend into my life. That brand has always been my number one but I never thought it would determine so much in my life, and here we are. Just funny.

Caretta

Today we browsed photos of Zakynthos, the island where I used to work and live for a while and I showed one taken of the Caretta caretta, the giant turtles which lay their nests at a southern beach of Zakynthos. If you are lucky enough you can see them swim next to your boat in the sea.

This key charm I made yesterday at the fair is my version and tribute to these wonderful animals.

More space, less stuff

I am sure I have talked so much here about being against collecting property without any sense that it might even be boring by now. I even dedicated a post called Piles to this.

Those days we organized an evening with my friends when everyone brought their clothes they don't need anymore. We had fun and everybody was happy to get rid of their unneeded stuff and get some new for free.

Now I am making the next step and put some more on sale on eBay (you can take a look at them here). I like these clothes and they are in very good condition but I feel like they are strangling me.

I guess I need more space and less stuff.

SOLD

5 Things You Can Do When Your Job Is Eating Up Your Life (And It's Not Too Late Yet)

This list might seem to be a good joke which lacks any seriousness but don't get misled by the funny way I put it. This is bloody serious: you have only one life and nobody else will have fun in it or discover your limits instead of you.

So what are your options?

1. Be a Waiter/waitress or Tourist Guide in Greece

I was lucky enough to try both and it was one of the best periods in my life. I left a serious job with a promising outlook for months of complete freedom and full of discovery. It cleared up my mind and I came back knowing exactly what I wanted to do - and it was not what I had left behind - so I put my life on a completely different new track.
This was years ago and by now Greece is not the best destination so you can replace it with Mallorca or Phuket upon your wish.

2. Sell paintings in Portugal

If you work in sales or marketing, this is your chance to get back to the roots and see things from a different perspective. You will literally work for every cent. But your office will not be neon-lit anymore: you will change it for the beach or the avenue where lovers stroll in the evening. If you are lucky, singles will also stroll your way.

3. Become a zookeeper

Not the cleanest job, we must admit. But just imagine all the kids looking at you with envy and respect when you feed the penguins! Be careful, being a zookeeper for more peaceful and harmless animals is much funnier than feeding the polar bear so you might get a good use of your networking and negotiation skills you had developed in the multinational environment before.

4. Volunteer!

If you are as lucky as to be able to afford this. Use the internet, discover the opportunities and get on the road! There are so many fields that need volunteering work: disabled kids' camps, saving endangered animals, day-care of AIDS-infected, and so on, but there are also programs that offer consulting and free know-how to developing countries' rural people in the field of agriculture or small business management.
The choices you can make are countless but the result will be only one: the most useful time of your life ever.

5. Self-employment

This needs dedication just like any of the mentioned options but here we must also consider dedication in financial sense.
Make a good plan, prepare, save money, research your market - in a nutshell, use all the skills you use in the office every day. You can open a private nursery or make goat cheese - there is no limit to what a person's creative and entrepreneurial side can achieve when it is used to all its effectiveness. Probably this is the one of all the above listed ways of escaping that needs the most preparation. You will be taking risks and might not have a single day off for the next couple of months or years to come. Think about all this, discuss it with people you trust and when you get really excited - jump!

And for the rest of us, whose lives are not eaten up by our job: be nice to waitresses, tourist guides and zookeepers! They might be your boss next year!

Theoretic questions about going on a holiday with your dog(s)

We are back from holiday but I promised myself that I will share one impression with you on the blog.

The subject is: where can you go with a dog?

The answer could be simple: anywhere! This is what I see in Austria for example - it is totally normal to go shopping to the mall with your dog by your side. In Hungary you just cannot do this. Malls are forbidden area for dogs, but to make you happy some of them organize one day per year when they open their doors to your best friend too. Wow, I should be impressed I guess...

But I know, I might be wishing for too much so let's just stay outside and discover our beautiful nature together. But forget about lakes, even the most remote and empty ones have huge signs at their entrance: dogs are not allowed! Well, first of all, we wanted a holiday to spend with our little "family" together so leaving them in the car is out of the question, just as leaving the lake is. This is what happened to us at every lake during our break.

Funny thing is, in the end we could enter all of these areas with our dogs and also swam with them in the cool water. So if the people who are there or even who take care of the lake don't bother, why the warning sign?

This all also leaves a theoretic question in my head just as the "dogs forbidden" parks of our country. What is the real reason behind? Dogs are dirty? Well, I travel on the tram with a lot of people who are much dirtier than our dogs. Dogs will piss in the water? They don't even do it in front of us when we go for a walk but they search for a hidden place. Dogs spread diseases? And what about men who forget to wash their hands after going to the restroom?

So the end was happy as you see: we were not forbidden. Only in theory. As long as it stays like this, I will leave my questions theoretic too.

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Come to Liguria

Some weeks/months ago I had a dream (don't remember what it was) and because it was so weird I looked it up in the dream-dictionary. It said that I should expect some difficulties ahead and a challenging period in my life. It seems that it was right - we have been going up and down for the past few weeks on end. One day all seems right and the next it all turns upside down.

So has been our holiday destination for this year changing.

It seems that my dream to make a jeep-tour in Morocco will need to be put off again and now we are browsing holiday houses in Liguria, Italy. This has been an old dream of mine too and it would mean setting off by car again, just like we did last year when touring all over the Balkans. It was a great deal of fun so I would expect the same. I want hot sunshine, sea, discovery and adventures again, oh yeah!

Rain from Holland

Two weeks ago I finally received a very much expected package from Holland. It contained the works of a lady living there and making cute crochet stuff.

I discovered her on Etsy selling her crochet works. You can also visit her shop here.

She made some custom items for me upon our common ideas.

The acorn key charm I present here today was made using an acorn made by her. Just as I was making it today the rain started to fall after a hot summer day in Budapest, refreshing the air and cleaning the mind. It seems that as I opened the package I let the Dutch rain out of it together with the items.

Or maybe it is just that the acorn is lonely and sad all alone. Waiting for a nice owner to take care of her!

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Monday Again

I am sure this is an internationally known feeling: Monday.

Honestly I can tell you I love every day of my life, I am not the kind grumbling around like "oh I hate this day". But even for me, Mondays are different.

First of all, I come back to the city, this is already a big change and as much as I enjoy living in the city on the first day of the week my head is still full of the memories of the weekend. Sometimes it can be really like stepping out of one life and stepping back into the other.

Second, I get so relaxed during the weekend that on Mondays I sometimes feel like I am the one driving 50 mph on the motorway. Sloooow!

And now, with all this sunshine outside...

I know many of us feel the same way. That's it, we must accept that Mondays are like this.

SOLD

Lateralus

It was high time I should name a piece of jewelry Lateralus. What's more, still I am afraid these earrings are not as good as to deserve this name.

Some time ago we received a payrise from the company. I don't know what others first do when they get something as this, I know many people around me were running to shop for clothes. For me the first thing to do was going on Amazon and finally order this album from Tool on an original CD. On Ebay I found an LP with the band's signature but that would have cost me my yearly holiday more or less. As the CD was coming from the US, I had to wait some weeks for it to arrive. When it arrived, I was waiting for the right moment. This is not the kind of music you use for background but you must sit down, turn up the volume, switch off the lights and LISTEN.

Yesterday was the evening for that.

Pure progressive rock symphonies in the darkness.

Listen and watch here if you dare.

Red ceramic beans

My friends have named this pair of earrings countless ways. It seems that the red ceramic pieces remind everybody of something - for some they look like beans.

Today I was at a small birthday party where I also took my treasury chest with me so some items have found their new home again (and this exact pair of earrings got some new names as well). This is lovely news especially considering that I kind of make up for the loss I had thanks to the rain that poured down on us on Sunday just as the fair started to get crowded with people.

But at the same time this means I need to get kick-started again and work on many new items for the next fair! I am not sure when it will take place as this weekend I cannot go to Káptalantóti but I will let you know here in case you would like to come and visit me or the marvellous market itself.

Turquoise keys

It is always a lovely moment when one of my creatures find an owner near me, someone I know. It is especially nice when I know I will see my jewelry being worn because the new owner is a person whom I see day to day.

This is what happened today to this piece.

This pair of earrings is made of turquoise - I think it is one of the most beautiful minerals besides tiger's eye.

As for the keys, I bought them maybe two years ago at the Historical Carnival in my hometown, Szombathely, and they were waiting patiently in my medal collection until now.

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Cold heat

Earlier I already showed you a pair of earrings made of howlit: Beautiful technology.

This is another pair made by using this kind of mineral, but dyed in a different color. As far as I know howlit is the name of this mineral only when it is colored, normally it is white and is called "türkinit" in Hungarian, should be something similar in English but I did not find the name anywhere.

This kind of mineral heals problems associated with digestion and relaxed the nervous system. It also contains calcium therefore stimulates the body's hormone and enzime production.

And besides all that, also looks good on you!

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