Product update: Brizel Silk Tapestry Mini Rugs

Brizel Silk Mini Rugs have been in the process of expanding...

I've been working on suns and moons mostly- inspired by the height of the Sun and the ever changing Moon... so visible this time of year when the skies are crystal clear and graced by the Milky Way.

Sliver Moon

Enlightening Sun

Sun Set

Green Eye

Full Moon

Mediterranean Sun

Summer Sun

Brown Eye

Silver Moon

These stunning Brizel Silk Tapestry Mini Rugs are available for purchase through Brizelhandcrafts.etsy.com.

Goldenhr @ Twilight and feline love

Goldenhr, that twilight time when the setting sun hits the easterly hillside at Twilight and the colors slowly turn from subtle golds into intense golden strawberry... that time when my family gathers round and sits quietly to watch the trees, with their blueish shade, shimmer in that golden delight... peace & serenity usually fills my heart and I know that I am in the right place at the right time !

Here is a rare photograph of Zippy Zip and Mawr sitting together !

Zippy Zip is a little wild thing, kinda like Max, independent and yet... willing to relinquish his wildness to come in for cuddles. He was abandoned on the ranch... and it was Moonstone who decided that he should come live with us. Although the NO VACANCY sign was clearly on that fateful night, some 6 yrs ago, I told him that if he showed up for breakfast I would feed him. Funnily enough he did a no show but three days later he came back to move in.

Moonstone and Zippy Zip became the best of friends- like litter mates...

and when Moonstone was lost some two years ago, I wasn't sure if Zippy Zip would stay on... but I am so pleased that he decided too... He is such a lovebug when he wants to be !

I miss Moonstone... He was a heart throb !

and he waited so patiently for me to adopt him...

Found trapped in a swamp cooler and taken to the clinic for care, the vet had dubbed him 'Swampee'. I met him there in the process of his recovery... when Merlin & Nimue were teensy puppies and still living at the vet. We gazed at each other & fell in love... but I resisted to make the commitment. A couple of weeks later, after Tammy had passed on and I had settled in the rambunctious puppies, I went back for him. In that time he had been adopted out but weirdly enough had been rejected by his new owners.

It was all meant to be and I am so very glad to have met & loved him !

Update from the Spiral Garden @ Twilight

We've been having a relatively cool summer up here at Twilight.... it's been staying close to the 100F mark (as opposed to averaging in the 115F) and I have been loving the early evenings when the temperature goes below 90F at 8pm. lol.

The star thistle still waits to be weed whacked and i just havent had the energy to whack the 6 acre compound a second time around. Its not ideal but there it is :)

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of taking a day off and pulling out from storage eight windchimes that needed to be repaired. In my excitement, I pulled out tools, hardware, & crafting materials and by the end of the day had most of them back in the 'Dreaming Tree'.

The Bee chime above was created from scratch and hangs at the entry of the Spiral Garden... its bee-licious !

Here's a longview of the 14+ Butterfly bushes in full bloom... These were planted outside the edge of the spiral garden... This year I pruned them back during the month of January and the blooms sure have been lovely. What a beautiful array of dark purples, pinks, lilacs and even some whites !

Also known by its botanical name, Buddleias, are a wonderful plant host for caterpillars that aspire to be butterflies when they grow up :)

Here's the Chaste tree a growin' and a bloomin'. Such wondrous purple flowers... conical and bursting from the bottom first. The leaves are also quite unique and lovely as well. Chaste, also known as vitex, produces seed like berries that are used in women's medicinals.

I still have some roses blooming and it remains a special pleasure to walk the Spiral Garden in the mornings at watering time.

Magic fills the air @Twilight

Magic filled the air at Twilight throughout the week.... Its that special time here when the dragonflies in the early hours of the morning come to hover above the gardens and trees.

Years ago, as I was in escrow on the purchase of this wondrous land, and when I was in the process of perking the soil... the county man who came to do the inspection work also happened to be a trained entymologist. He looked at the lay of the land and commented that this was a natural place for the winged creatures to come and mate.

In Celtic lores, it is said that where there be dragonflies, the doors to the faerie realm are sure to be nearby & wide open. What a special blessing !

When i set out to water the spiral garden a few mornings ago... a garden created on top of a fairy mound... dragonflies began to hover above me... i beckoned to them and they came closer. What an incredible site to behold as they majestically zipped on by ! My heart burst in wonderment and gratitude... and i knew this day would be fortuitous :)

That full moon day I set out to town and in my mailbox was an order i had placed with my Czech glass button supplier... Guess what was in the package ?

I was so delighted... This dragonfly button is now available for purchase through brizelsupplies.etsy.com.

Brizel4TheAnimals finds an ETSY Team

Brizel4TheAnimals is now a new member of TEAM EFA... Etsy For Animals !

brizel4TheAnimals.etsy.com opens its doors

Since Brizel Supplies has been doing well and listings have been averaging around 300, it became clear to me that adding anything else but buttons or sashes would get lost amidst those colorful offerings.

Brizel 4 The Animals was a sudden inspiration fueled by full moon energy and the answer to the question that i had been posing the Universe: how could i raise some money to help my animal pack with their needs and challenges ?

So- I am up & running and listing like a maniac to get the store filled with offerings... Brizel4TheAnimals.etsy.com will be selling beads, charms, buckles, fabric, destash items, vintage jewelry, other vintage things, estate items, interesting books and other quality goodies !

All listings are currently focused on fundraising for Nimue...

Nimue (welsh for Spring Maiden) is now 6yrs old. She is a beautiful white golden looking Lab. Her mom who was a German Shepherd, rejected the entire litter. Nimue was the first born and narrowly escaped being eaten by her mom... only 5 of the puppies survived and they were brought to the vet for care. I first met Nimue ('Nim-way') when she was a few weeks old and put in a request to adopt her and one of her brothers, Merlin. It was touch and go for a time, as an adoption home in Marin County wanted to take the entire litter in. When the puppies turned 3 months old - I celebrated Spring Equinox by bringing them home !

Nimue currently is suffering from Gingivitis and is in high need of getting her teeth cleaned. With the help of buyers... money raised from the sales will be put aside to make that happen much sooner.

The store made its first sale at the end of the first day- a wonderful positive affirmation and message of hope !

Please come and visit us soon :)

Last week's show: Kelseyville's Homemakers Wine

Kelseyville celebrated its Homemaker's Wine and Beer Festival last Saturday... It was roasting hot at 105F and it was no picnic doing a show on asphalt with those temperatures.

I decided to do a one wall set up... so that the air & breeze could flow in & out... six bamboo panels at the back with a return of two panels on each side to protect the table's depth.

The bamboo walls make super wind & sun barriers and they are also perfect to hang the Brizel Silk Tapestry Hip Pouches from. I put together a couple of tables and used some beautiful basket weave motif fabric... The red really offsets the black velvet jewelry displays.

Nothing much exciting to report about this event. As per usual, I met some wonderful people- local and otherwise- the highlight was chatting with Dorothy, an elder woman from Middletown, who had bought 250 acres with her husband some years ago and raised her family there. We talked about crocheting, gardening, pioneering, and finding 'true love'. It was an honor and a pleasure !

new Brizel Handcrafts Shop @ ArtFire

Well... with everything that has been going on with Etsy lately, the final straw presented itself a few days ago, when I found out that uploading to Google Base would be limited to 100 listings. With 145 listings on brizelhandcrafts.etsy.com, I decided to pull back some of my listings and begin spreading my handcraft wealth to other venues !

I've selected ArtFire first and have now created a mini Brizel Handcrafts on that marketplace. Click here or go to www.brizelhandcrafts.artfire.com to see my new Artisan shop :)

As a Basic Member I only get to have 12 active listings- its a perfect amount to list a sampling of my different product lines. I hope that interest will spur me to upgrade to a Verified Member very soon !

ArtFire is a very different venue and still in its Beta infancy stage. I look forward to exploring its studios, and bumping into the same craftfolk as well as meeting new ones :)

Wish me luck as I delve into, yet another online marketplace !

WHiTE ALBiNO Humpback Whale Returns !

If you haven't yet had a chance to see the footage of Migaloo... a rare white Humpback Whale that has returned to the coast of Queensland in Australia...

Earth Times had this to say about him:

"Sydney - Australia's favourite whale has been spotted on its annual journey from the frigid waters of Antarctica to breeding grounds in the tropical warmth of far north Queensland. The progress of a rare white humpback, nicknamed Migaloo, has generated such excitement on the east coast that sightseers were warned Tuesday that hefty fines await those who defy the law and get too close.

"Migaloo has been declared a special-interest whale, granting him more space to swim up the Queensland coast," Kate Jones, the state's environment minister, said. "The whale-watching regulations are there to protect the whales, but also to protect people from these huge, unpredictable mammals."

Migaloo was injured in a collision with careless British tourists aboard a boat on the Great Barrier Reef two years ago. He was first spotted off Cape Byron, Australia's most easterly point, in 1991 and has been seen in each of the last five years.

Being designated a "special-interest whale" means those taking a boat any closer than 500 metres risk a hefty fine. Aircraft that fly low over Migaloo also risk punishment.

Around 5,000 humpbacks migrate each southern hemisphere winter from their Antarctic feeding grounds. By the spring, the females will have given birth and their young will be strong enough for the return journey."

Visit Migaloo's website by clicking HERE or http://www.migaloowhale.org/

New product: EGG-citing Tagua Nut Necklaces

Tagua, a nut of many names, grows in the rainforest & Amazon Jungle on a palm type tree that reaches between twenty & thirty feet tall.

Its botanical name is “Phytelephas Macrocarpa Palmae”. “Phyton” is the Greek word for plant and “elephas” means elephant because of the nut's relative large size.

The nut itself grows in a cluster formation called ‘cabeza’ (head) and when ripe falls to the ground where they are easily harvested.

The native farmers continue to plant these palm trees today, instead of logging them, because they rightfully recognize how precious its renewable resource is.

Vegetable "ivory", a generic name for this gorgeous wood, is dried over a period of three months at which point it is considered petrified.

In the olden days, in the early 1900s, many buttons were made from vegetable "ivory" because this wood can be easily dyed, carved and engraved. The wood was also sought out for miniature carvings and today, modern jewelry such as these beautiful necklaces are created for our day to day pleasure.

Tagua - Vegetable "ivory"- & also known as Corozzo, is renewable, sustainable, eco-friendly, and quite simply: a gorgeous natural material.

I decided to call this particular line of necklaces: Egg-citing... they are unique and one of a kind... strung on a dark chocolate brown waxed cord with a sliding knot, these delicious necklaces are adjustable !

Please visit Brizel Handcrafts if you'd like to see more of my work... you can press here and away to there you'll go !

Happy Summer and Happy New Moon

With the Herb Exchange fair behind me and the Kelseyville Homemakers Wine Festival ahead of me... life is even more busy !

I enjoyed being down in Sebastopol yesterday... friends Julia, BJ and Christopher stopped by and hung out in my booth in the afternoon. It was like having a fan club at my feet. lol. A very pleasant day with lots of appreciative comments for my work :)

I set up my booth differently... this time with two bamboo walls and two open walls. (The photos really didn't turn out well but here is one:)

I decided to keep it simple and only display the Silk Tapestry Hip Pouches, the Tagua Nut jewelry and the Key Message bracelets. The other product lines stayed at home... this made for a much more manageable set up !

A lovely event, which I hope to do again in the future, with a farmer's market and live music to soothe the soul. After packing up, some of us went to Whole Foods for cake & smoothies. YUM!

Happy Summer Solstice and THANK GODS its New Moon !

Overworking on my SEOs

Just a quick note... as I am getting ready to go to Sebastopol, Sonoma County to participate in the Herbal Exchange Farmers Market extension, Sunday June 21st... It'll be Fathers Day, Dark Moon and Summer Solstice... I must be mad to be going anywhere :) and all being well my efforts will be rewarded !

This last week has flown by because I have been overworking on SEOs, particularly for the Etsy Handcrafts site. Etsy made a HUGE faux-pas and added "Handmade on Etsy" and "by brizelhandcrafts" at the front and end of every single url link in my store. Of course... sellers weren't exactly given a complete heads up and as a direct result... all of our urls became robot unfriendly and were not search engine findable.

I was at the stage in my shop development where i was starting to now focus on becoming more visible to the public and... lol... suddenly i was even more invisible. Luckily I had started to reach out to other sellers for feedback and was visiting Forum threads... so I got a wind of it and began to learn how to optimize the meta tags that were available to me.

Meta tags are key words that become searchable (either on Etsy or through search engines). Store titles, Shop Announcements, Store sections, tags, item titles and the first 150 characters of item descriptions are all key word opportunities but only IF you abide by the rules and the character limitations. If you don't... then your site becomes 'robot unfriendly' and search engines don't even bother looking at your tags and no one ever knows you exist on the web.

The consequence of Etsy adding all that information on to our Meta tags... did exactly that. Everywhere the word Etsy was showing up and sure enough people were seeing "handmade on Etsy" and the rest of the information disappeared. Well... that just wasn't acceptable.

A group of us staged a Forum sit in and spread the word about the situation. Many Forums were closed and went unanswered by Etsy Admin. It did not look good. To cut a long story short. Etsy FINALLY removed the word 'handmade', consolidated its spam to "brizelhandcrafts on Etsy" & put it at the end of my URLs. The information that appears first is given priority so eventually when Etsy & Google re-index their information... this mess will be cleaned up. It will take a while !

As a direct result of this incident... i learnt about SEOs and completely revamped ALL my meta tags at the Brizel Handcrafts store. The shop looks much fresher for having a shorter Shop Announcement and item titles, more descriptive store sections... and the tags behind the scenes now better support the ones that are visible.

Next week I will need to learn how to upload all this information to Google Base. Lots more to learn & lots more work to do.

Hummingbird moth lands at Twilight

Every year it seems... the Mexican poppies attracts a hummingbird moth or two. I never see them flying in... or flying out, for that matter... I only see them whilst they are deep in trance feeding... and honestly they almost appear dead to me and yet, in a day or so... they are gone !

New product: Brizel SiLK TAPESTRY MiNi RUGS

A new product line of stunning miniature rugs is being birthed as I write this blog... A natural progression of the Brizel Silk Tapestry technique and design work that has been evolving since 2005 when I first discovered silk sari yarn at Solfest.

I have since then, sought after a large range of colors and experimented with different suppliers... discovered the complimentary banana silk yarn during my cyber space 'travelling' and continue to explore alternative eco-friendly materials that lend themselves to Brizel Silk Tapestry.

Inspired originally by ancient rugs, Brizel Silk Tapestry is a technique that was developed to create woven rug-like thickness. Since I work in spiral formation, I adapted upon crochet... each thick silk yarn loop must be pulled tightly before the next one can be made... making the creation of a Brizel Silk Tapestry piece both a conscientious & effortful act as well as time consuming.

The silk yarn that is used to create Brizel’s Silk Tapestry Mini Rugs is made from reclaimed silk threads, left overs from a silk garment factory... which are reclaimed and hand spun into this gorgeous yarn by Nepalese and Himalayan craftswomen. Some of the rugs also have some banana silk- a silk like yarn made from banana fibers - yet another lovely eco-friendly product !

Inspired by the Mediterranean, Brizel Silk Tapestry Mini Rugs have a stunning colorful design at the front: an insightful eye, an enlightening sun, a psychic moon, an energetic spiral motif. Whatever you decide to put on it, this unique rug will surely bring inspiration to your sacred space.

These unique (one of a kind) Silk Tapestry Mini Rugs have my special Brizel logo: a lilac faux swede label with the Brigit cross, rising sun and full moon, to assure you that this item is handmade by me.

Please visit Brizel Handcrafts if you'd like to see more of my work... you can press here and away to there you'll go !

ALL iMAGES designs CONTENT

©2009 Nicole Planchon ALL rights reserved

Nimue and SNAKES

Nimue is resting today and she has extra cause to... yesterday evening she was bit on the foot by a snake. THANK the Gods it was NOT a rattler... but most probably a garter or a gopher snake. I didn't see it happen... all I saw was Nimue pulling herself across the land because her back leg had gone lame.

I got this hundred pound girl in the van then ran to get my homeopathic remedies whilst she settled down. I immediately gave her Arnica then assessed what the problem was. I could see two little dots of blood on her rear paw... so I knew it was a snake bite. Arnica worked fast and she regained control of her leg muscles within a few minutes !

Ledum is the remedy for puncture wounds... including bites (insect or snake), and also for mechanical punctures such as gunshots and needles (vaccinations). When you have found the right remedy... the next important question is what dosage to give... too high is toxic and will exacerbate the issue... too little is helpful but in a life threatening situation- time is of the essence !

I called my friend Julia... she can do long distance muscle testing as well as receive yes/no answers to specific questions. She immediately diagnosed that it was a snake bite but not from a rattler and that 200c Ledum was the appropriate dosage for Nimue. I immediately gave that to her and then checked around for the snake whilst Julia & I continued our phone consultation. Alas I could not find it !

Thank goodness, Nimue did not exhibit any symptoms of being bit by a rattle snake (inflammation, oozing punctures, shock, collapse) so we stayed at home and settled her on the big bed. I did a repeat of the 200c Ledum 4hrs later... then 30c 8hrs after that... and I will give her one more 30c dosage this evening.

She is recovering well... and has been sticking close to me today.

Earlier this year... I found Nimue munching on the remnants of a desiccated snake... and when I scouted the land... sure enough... I found a rattle... but nothing else. My main concern, at that point, was where did the head go ?

As I understand it... its always best to dispose of the head carefully since the venom sacks reside there but I have also been told that digesting the venom through the stomach is not usually fatal.

All I can say is: AY YAY YAH Nimue girl... stay away from snakes !!! and after this experience I hope she WiLL...

Much gratitude to my spiritual sister, Julia... YOU really ROCK :), to my Etsy friend Karen who sent some Reiki throughout the day, and to the Universe for giving us the best possible scenario in the given circumstances.

Happy Full Moon

Twilight's Full Moon in the wee hours before dawn... She was glowing golden orange and a sight to behold !

These white poppies are on the exterior edge of the Spiral Garden... the stems are approx 7' tall and the flowers have been dancing on the winds with the clouds... a wondrous sight as well :)

Albino white mulberries are prospering on the largest fruit tree of the Upper Orchard at Twilight. They look weird but they are sweet tasting and since the birds can't see them... i get to have some... yummy !

Brizel Handcrafts accepted into TEAM ECO ETSY !

I've just gotten word...

Brizel Handcrafts and Brizel Supplies are now officially part of Team Eco Etsy !!!

I'm very excited about being affiliated with and part of an Etsy Team !

and although I am not exactly sure what it will all entail at -this- very moment... I have once again (omg) revamped all my listings (only 140 of them. lol) in order to:

1) add 'teamecoetsy' as a tag (which in one way of seeing all team member's 'store items' in one search) and 2) add this beautiful promotional logo in the image portfolio of each of my listings.

Dome looses its bay window due to hail

Not everyday brings good news... but its how I choose to deal with the difficult situations that determines how stressful I make it...

I am, without doubt,  going through an interesting stage in my personal growth & development. lol... and at the moment... the best course of action on my part can be summed up by the tarot archetype "the hanged one"... Surrendering as a place of power and choice, within very limited parameters, can be tricky for my Virgo side but thank goodness i have plenty of Pisces in my personality to render assistance. But perhaps I digress.

Yesterday we had a rather heavy duty hail storm along with lightning, thunder and wind... and the consequence on the aging bay window of the dome was rather apocalyptic. Despite painting the huge bay window last year, in an attempt to strengthen a UV weakened plastic... the hail pierced through its skin shattering its upper level and compromising the middle one. 

I am grateful that the storm hit during daylight and stopped around 2pm, leaving me time to take the necessary measures. My special thanks to my ex-partner, Christopher, for his phone support, and to my ranch friend Radzy for helping me secure the plastic tarp.

Due to the age of the dome skin, I doubt that making repairs to the bay window are worth the efforts or costs... other parts of the canvas have and are failing... It is indeed the end of an era here at Twilight... and evidently "all good things must come to an end".

This upcoming dry season will be an excellent time to meditate on future options of re-birthing the dome. Those will include considerations such as a new skin (with fewer bells and whistles to fail) or perhaps a more permanent solution such as a serious adobe style papercrete plaster.

In the meantime... lets hope that the remainder of the T-storms heading this direction will be mild.