Monday Favorites-5 Picks from The Vast World of Etsy

How could you not smile when you look at this cute squirrel from BerkleyIllustration


How about this funky ring from AdornJewelry?


This is such a good idea--the Nightmare Snatcher Journal from Spiderbite


This is an amazing work of art done in needlefelt from Deebs


I love this winged coffee cup ceramic pendant from Surly

Consider This

I tend to see the world through a straw. I obsess about dumb stuff and occasionally magnify minor things into major tragedies.
I find this photo from the Hubble Telescope humbling. I'm just a grain of sand in a vast universe. Who cares what my shirt looks like?

Star-Birth Clouds in M16: Stellar "Eggs" Emerge from Molecular Cloud
FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FROM HUBBLESITE.ORG:
"This structure, resembling an imaginary sea serpent's head, is a column of cool molecular hydrogen gas (two atoms of hydrogen in each molecule) and dust that is an incubator for new stars. The stars are embedded inside finger-like protrusions extending from the top of the nebula. Each "fingertip" is somewhat larger than our own solar system.

The pillar is slowly eroding away by the ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars, a process called "photoevaporation". As it does, small globules of especially dense gas buried within the cloud is uncovered. These globules have been dubbed "EGGs" — an acronym for "Evaporating Gaseous Globules". The shadows of the EGGs protect gas behind them, resulting in the finger-like structures at the top of the cloud.

Forming inside at least some of the EGGs are embryonic stars — stars that abruptly stop growing when the EGGs are uncovered and they are separated from the larger reservoir of gas from which they were drawing mass. Eventually the stars emerge, as the EGGs themselves succumb to photoevaporation.

The stellar EGGS are found, appropriately enough, in the "Eagle Nebula" (also called M16 — the 16th object in Charles Messier's 18th century catalog of "fuzzy" permanent objects in the sky), a nearby star-forming region 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

The picture was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly- ionized oxygen atoms."

Tutorial Friday--Stamping Letters on Metal Jewelry

I love a good tutorial, don't you? I periodically search for new techniques and ideas and I have a burgeoning bookmark list to prove it. Every Friday I plan on sharing a link from my list of favorites or writing a tutorial of my own.

Here is a great lesson on how to stamp letters onto metal jewelry. Taught by Lisa Niven Kelly, I found this tutorial to be clearly explained, well filmed, and very detailed. My "impression" (What fun, a pun!) was that I would have no problem creating stamped metal jewelry after watching these videos. No parts of the process were left out.
I give it my benediction as a great resource.

Fix This

This is great. I go from not posting anything for nearly two months to posting 3 times in one day. To allay my guilt (Please refer to St. Patrick's Day post for origins of my ancestral guilt) I will bestow upon my readership a link to what I think is one of the most helpful websites around for fixing pretty much anything, especially electronic devices.
The website is fixya.com
and it has gotten me out of many a bind. Hopefully it will help you, too.

Laff It Up with the Fug Girls

Two things that I really enjoy are fashion faux pas and good, witty writing. Both of these qualities can be found on the ever so entertaining website, Go Fug Yourself.

Make sure you read the posts tagged "Lagerfeld and Friends."
Click here to read one of my favorites.

What's In a Name

So it's been a while since I posted last. I'm embarrassed. I actually thought about starting an altogether new blog instead of carrying on with this one, but I am quite attached to the name, Eye Spy The Universe.
Speaking of spying on the universe, I'll be the first to admit that I am doing a real shite job of covering my own progress let alone diverse topics.
So enough with the guilt (see St. Patrick's Day post about origins of said guilt.)

Here is the news in my world as of today July 21st:

• Sales for Girl Tuesday Jewelry are increasing
• Girl Tuesday has a more cohesive look with better photos, new avatar and banner
• Girl Tuesday is slowly bending in a "rock n' roll" direction
• Cecere Designs store is stalled on the side of the road
• I think about adding more prints to Cecere Designs, but I am just not that interested in painting right now

These are the latest additions to my store:

Meteor Necklace

Meteor Earrings

I'm crazy for pyrite and I love the way these nuggets look like rubble from outer space.

Finally, The Front Page of Etsy

After a hellish night at a Lamb of God concert I came home to find out that a pair of my earrings had made the front page of Etsy. Thanks, I really, really needed that!