Gifting Rachael Ray-Simply Delish!

I confess, I’m a huge Rachael Ray fan. I don’t know what I love more, her infectious smile and perky personality or her spunky, get it done attitude. Whether I’m watching the Rachael Ray Show, reading Everyday with Rachael Ray, or sampling one of her recipes—she’s always good for a dash of inspiration. If I had been in Alaska when Rachael visited in 2006, I’m sure I would have made the two and a half hour trek from Sterling to Anchorage on the off-chance of catching a glimpse of her at Mr. Whitekeys’ Fly By Night Club!

Needless to say, when The Artisan Group selected me to take part in an exclusive cooperative gift bag destined for Rachael herself, I got a little excited. Once the euphoria wore off, I started to think about what I should send. I knew I wanted to do a one-of-a-kind, created especially for her, piece of jewelry. Should I go with my own personal favorite stone, Picasso Jasper? Or maybe a blingy, Druzy crystal agate? In the end, I decided on Peridot, in honor of Rachael’s birthday month, August. The fact that Peridot brings balance and reduces stress was an additional consideration. The search for a stone was on, and in time I came across a stunning raw Peridot that I knew would make the perfect dramatic focal. Here it is: 

Raw Peridot

I always let the stone decide how I will wrap the piece, allowing the curves and swirls of the wire setting to enhance and add to the stone’s personality. This is part of what makes each pendant unique. For Rachael’s Peridot, I chose a rustic gun metal wire for the wrap, to enhance the stone’s lime, olive and emerald green tones. As a finishing touch, I selected a long gunmetal chain to hang the pendant on, in keeping with Rachael’s straightforward style. Here’s the end result:

Rachael Ray Pendant

                              Raw Natural Peridot, Rustic gun-metal Wire, gun-metal Chain

The pendant is now on its way to Rachael in New York City. What do you think? I hope she loves it. If I’m lucky maybe I’ll see her wearing it on The Rachael Ray Show. You know that I’ll be watching!

Oh, and one more thing! I create my jewelry pieces in the corner of my living room, overlooking the Kenai River. It’s not uncommon to catch a glimpse of salmon leaping in the water. In honor of Rachael Ray and my beautiful studio view, here’s a favorite salmon recipe, one I think Rachael would love. Enjoy!

And now, off to finish up my pieces for the 2012 MTV Movie Awards. I’ll have my pendants on display and in the celebrity gift bags there. I’ll be blogging about that later so stay tuned.

Hugs, Carolyn

MAPLE-GLAZED GRILLED SALMON

1 C maple syrup

2 T ketchup                                                                        
2T brown sugar
1 T cider vinegar
1 T Worcestershire sauce
½ t salt
½ t ground mustard
1/8 t hot pepper sauce
1 salmon fillet

In bowl combine first 8 ingredients; mix well.  Pour ½ C into large resealable plastic bag;  add salmon and seal bag.  Turn to coat; refrigerate for up to 2 hrs.  Cover and refrigerate remaining marinade.  Before starting the grill coat grill with nonstick cooking spray.  Drain and discard marinade from salmon.  Grill salmon skin side up over med-hot heat for 2-4 mins.  Transfer to a double thickness of heavy-duty foil.  Spoon some of the reserved marinade over salmon.  Fold foil around fillet and seal tightly.  Grill 5-6 mins longer or until fish flakes easily with fork.  Brush with remaining marinade if desired.  Serves 8

Time to Amp, Revamp and Camp

Care More Creations
Druzy Agate to be displayed
at MTV Movie Awards

Since the busy holiday season, I have been lax in the necessary daily tasks of promoting my wire wrapped jewelry.   Don’t get me wrong….I still am completely inspired by my craft.  I still get on my computer every morning, checking my emails, checking in on Facebook, and BAM! I am off in Facebook land for hours.  Every day, like clockwork.  It is quite humorous actually.  I have countless tasks on my “TO DO” list, which just gets longer and longer.  But Facebook land sucks me in every time.  My TO DO list consists mainly of “learning” tasks.  *learn twitter *learn Google+ *learn to make a press kit *learn SEO along with the countless e-books I have paid for and downloaded.  It is time to AMP it up!  I woke up this morning with a new excitement!  I am going to figure this marketing out!



The Artisan Group

This past September I was invited to join The Artisan Group, an exclusive group of talented artists that are represented at Hollywood’s finest celebrity Gift Lounges such as The Emmys, Golden Globes and Academy Awards.  I was so honored.  Valerie Guerrero, our founder, and Nikki Cutro, co-founder put their heart and soul into our group.  My first reaction of course was how awesome it would be to have my jewelry seen and worn by celebrities.  But since then I have learned that being a member of the group is so much more.  We are a close knit community.  We promote, coach, inspire, teach and cheer each other on.  I have learned so much about business and marketing, but better yet, I have learned so much about myself.  I am so excited about participating in the upcoming MTV Movie Awards this June.  So it is time to REVAMP!!  Time to get my act together.  Time to streamline my business and my presence out there in cyber space to be ready for possibilities this opportunity is going to give me.  It is time to get to that TO DO list... 

Labradorite on Etsy

I am such a regimented person.  I am so organized with my studio.  All of my gemstones, beads, tools are in their proper place.  Even my goals are nice and organized on my TO DO list.  But acting upon them has been the hardest task of all.  It is so overwhelming.   It is time to stop running around hilly nilly all day and actually CAMP myself behind my e-books and learn, learn, learn how to take this business to the next level!  Wish me luck.  I will be back, keeping you informed with my progress.  I will share my adventures over the next few months preparing for The MTV Movie Awards Gift Lounge…

You can learn more about my jewelry at:  CareMoreCreations.com

You can learn more about The Artisan Group at:  TheArtisanGroup.org

 

Ammonite Fossil Wire Wrapped Pendant Necklace in Silver - Healing Gemstone - $62.00

"Seascape" is an ammonite fossil wire wrapped pendant necklace that I handcrafted swirling and shaping nontarnish silver plate wire by hand to create a beautiful setting that enhances the natural beauty, color and shape of the stone. This unique agatized fossil gemstone has shades of brown and beige with quartz-like crystals throughout. It is a fascinating jewel of nature. The elegant swirl wire-wrapped set...

Click Here to Visit My Etsy Shop!

A Mystical Voyage Through Care More Creations

~Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"

As I previously stated in my "Welcome" post, one of my endeavors with creating this blog was to not only self-promote Care More Creations and my wire wrapped gemstone pendants, but also to promote some of my fellow Etsy and Artfire friends. On a regular basis, I plan to feature an Etsy or Artfire Shop owner with video put to music, especially those shops that provide all-natural eco-friendly products. Then, of course, this video can be linked to Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, etc. To get this started, today I am featuring myself and my shops on Artfire and Etsy. To see what I have to offer for sale, please enter my shops that are displayed to the right of this post. I would love to know what you think of my video....all comments are welcome. If you are interested in a video created special for you, please let me know.



Also, please click my video on YouTube and leave any comments there as well.
http://www.youtube.com/caremorefor

I look forward to this adventure in search for great shops to feature on my blog...I think this will be a fun project, not only for the creative aspect of it, but also to get to meet new friends along the way!

AMBITIONS~

“THE CATCH”

Oh, the joy of creating! Those envisioned projects swirling around within our heads (and hearts).

Like the victorious “catch” of landing that elusive trout, the slow and steady challenge of reeling him in, and of course the anticipation of finally landing him ashore to finally reward our tastebuds being just moments away...

My daughter in 1995

So is the “catch” when we first feast our eyes on that perfect and essential key component of a future work of art that sparks our creative juices. The anticipation of the gratifying, though sometimes challenging creative process and the joy of utilizing the tools that God gave us, our hands and our hearts. And of course the great satisfaction of admiring our own finished accomplishment that has materialized before our very eyes.

Now the difficult decision….do I keep it to enjoy myself? Do I give it to a loved one with a generous and grateful heart that they are in my life? Or do I go ahead and set it free, spread the joy, and offer it to a stranger who will appreciate my talents and hard work and enjoy it for years to come.

Like any victory, which is the best part? The discovery? The anticipation? The process? The accomplishment?

To me it is the combination of each…into the whole shebang, the whole nine yards…hook, line and sinker!!

That is the reward…that is the reason I create!

This is a photo of my latest “CATCH”.
Each individual gemstone is a natural gift from God. I give each one the eagle eye…envisioning a design to bring it to life into another wire wrapped pendant to admire.

Clockwise from top:

Labradorite

Rose Quartz

Volcanic Lava Rock

White Quartz Druzy Crystal

Malachite

Natural Turquoise

Tennessee Conglomerate

Amethyst Crystal

center-Red Picture Jasper

Welcome~ From a Nature-loving Jewelry-creating Alaskan

The day has finally arrived. I have been procrastinating this blog for weeks as journaling is definitely not my strong suit. I have a ton of thoughts, ideas and inspirations swirling around this brain and heart of mine, but putting them down into words is a whole other story. So bear with me at first, but I am sure I will get the hang of it eventually. I am sitting here looking out my studio window, watching a couple moose browze along the riverbank, and since I am inspired I thought I would give this blogging a try...

I live on the Kenai River in Sterling Alaska, where it is an everyday occurrence to see moose, bear, eagles, and splashing salmon in the river down below our deck. It is so serene and inspirational. I have so much to be grateful for. Living here definitely inspires my creations. I am surrounded by the very nature that I love and respect.

The weather this year has been gorgeous, which is unusual for Alaska, but I am torn each day whether to get outside or create my wire-wrapped pendants. I love making them...(though my housework leaves a lot to be desired! *smile*) I am building up a pretty good inventory for my Etsy and Artfire shops and will soon post them. I have also been making a lot of Alaska stone pendants for our local gift shops that have really taken off. I am very happy about that.

I hope to feature fellow artists in future blogs who I have come to know and who's work I admire. Becoming a member of Etsy and Artfire has become a life-changing event in my life. If I am not wrapping stones, I am on the internet trying to market my pendants. It has been a real challenge, as I am sure my fellow artists can attest to also. The answer is "EXPOSURE". The more we are out there, the more people will come. It is all a tricky game and I am still figuring it out. Blogging is supposed to help, but I want my blog to be more than a marketing concept. I hope that when people are finished reading each of my blogs they leave with a smile on their face or a sigh in their breath.

~~til we meet again…