Bluebird Houses Made of Antique Rustic Barn Wood

We've enjoyed such success in attracting bluebirds with our own bluebird houses that we decided to offer them for sale as well.

Yet these lovely bird houses are not only useful, they are also beautiful being made from antique barn wood from our own farm. The wood has been weathered and grooved over many many decades. The old farm house on our property was built in 1910 so we suspect that the old barns are atleast as old, making this wood nearly 100 years old!

The pattern for making them came from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The houses can be directly screwed onto a post outdoors or a picture hanger can be attached for hanging in your home as decoration.

If you prefer to have the bottom protuding wood pieces cut so that the bird house can sit flat on a mantle or shelf, please let us know and we will be happy to cut that for you. These houses are available for purchase in my etsy shop at www.belleadorn.etsy.com

Children's Crocheted Necklaces ~ Custom Order

This group of crocheted necklaces was a special order for 4 girls. What a fun project it was too. Each of the girls had their favorite colors and the rest of it was up to me for stones, colors of wire and glass seed beads.

One chose turquoise and so I put three different types of turquoise beads on silver. Finished with sterling silver findings of course, Classic!

Another chose purple so I went with purple wire and amethyst beads. Some were chips, some were smooth rounds and some were faceted rondelles. With all the purple going on I decided to add in some multi peacock colored seed beads that were lined with gold. The gemstone chips give it a youthful funky feel while the entire combination is overall stunning. Can I say that about my own work? Well I can't help myself. They are so pretty and each unique! I finished this in copper findings.

The third necklace was requested in blue. We already did turquiose so this one got dark blue, with semi-transluscent iolite in both faceted barrels and smooth discs as well as smooth rondelles of lapis. Gorgeous on copper wire. Wow. This was also finished in copper findings.

And the last but not least is pink for the youngest who is 4 years old. I used rose quartz diagonal cubes, pink cat's eye, faceted coral, light rose swarovski crystals and some multi colored seed beads which added a lot of dimension to this dainty piece. Wire color of choice was gold. So findings are gold filled. It's so soft and sweet in those pinks on gold. I call it cotton candy, which is what the rose quartz looks like to me.

Stormy Larvakite Dragonfly Necklace with Aquamarine & Onyx

I was looking over my bead stash three days ago, searching for a good combination for some gorgeous citrine nuggets I have. Nothing seemed right or good enough for them though, and so I may make them up into something all on their own.

Then I came across these beautiful Larvakite smooth rounds. They are dark gray, black and white with some chatoyancy of blue and white flashes. My first thought was keep it simple, make it a knock out classic like a Jackie O. strand of big fat pearls. So I tried putting them with only onyx, then added some black horn rondelles. The plain black did not do them justice though.

Finally I put them with some aquamarine and that was the perfect union. I still kept the design simple, but simple doesn't mean that it comes out fast or easily! It usually takes a lot of trial and error even to get a simple piece right. The aquamarine chips give it an edgey chic look. I kept the small onyx rounds for a nice contrast, added in bali silver daisies and finished it with a sterling silver bali dragonfly toggle. The overall effect is very appealing. It is 17 inches in length.

With all the grays and blues coming out in fashion this season, it should work very easily into a basic wardrobe that needs some good jewelry. This item can be viewed in my etsy shop here: Stormy Larvakite Dragonfly Necklace

More Swarovski Starfish Earrings In More Colors

Some more eye candy; Swarovksi Starfish Earrings.

We have here Burgundy Starfish with long dangles of brown pearls and smoky quartz, another Burgundy Starfish pair wire wrapped with a burgundy pearl and bicone crystal, Indicolite (Blue) Starfish with Paua shell, Golden Shadow Starfish with natural mother of pearl, and Crystal AB Starfish with pink keshi pearls.

All earrings are made with Sterling Silver earwires and findings. I will be adding these to my etsy shop soon. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing them before they are listed.

Peridot Swarovski Starfish Earrings with lime green coin pearls can be viewed and purchased here. Silk Swarovski Starfish earrings with pale peachy pink coin pearls can be veiwed and purchased here. And a Burgundy Starfish Necklace made with burgundy pearls and sterling silver can be veiwed and purchased here.

Belle Adorn

Fun, Beachy, Vibrant and Sassy Beaded Jewelry :)

Burgundy Starfish Swarovski Crystal Necklace

This necklace is strung with rich burgundy freshwater pearls, sterling silver, bali silver and has a beautiful burgundy swarovski starfish pendant as it's focal. I've finished it with a sterling silver bali toggle and it is 16 1/2 inches in length. This piece is available here for purchase.

These starfish are so lovely, they always make me smile. You'll see more starfish coming up and in more colors soon; in earrings and another necklace. Matching earrings for this piece are also available.

Missouri Wildflowers Queen Anne's Lace

All of these are photos of Queen Anne's Lace and taken in Warsaw, Mo.

This one is a bit pinkish in color.
An interesting black bug on this flower below.

My daughters both entered a photo contest at the local library with a theme on bugs. This would have been a good one, but it was not for adults to enter, ha ha. Unfortunately they did not win a prize, but they enjoyed the process and are taking note of the bugs more than usual, as is their mother.

Missouri Wildflowers Part III

This is a group of chicory in the meadow on our farm. I love this wildflower!
Chicory close up.
Close-up of red clover. Horses and cattle really love this sweet stuff, and so do the bees!


Queen Anne's lace, another favorite, so graceful and delicate looking.

Tree Frogs

Every Winter we forget how quiet it really is until Spring arrives. Our frogs make so much noise at night beginning sometime in March. It is a welcome, happy and lively sound along with the crickets at night and the song birds during the day.

We have a blue heron that visits the ponds and I'm sure he gets plenty of frogs to fill his belly. This bird has a huge wingspan and almost looks prehistoric when it flies by. Someday I hope to get a picture of it too.

Noah, my little guy, is absolutely facinated by the frogs, toads and lizards and will play with one for hours. He's learned to be very careful after one of his little frog friends got squeezed a bit too hard.

Double Stranded Jasper Necklace Tribal Rainforest

I was inspired here by my recent custom order necklace which was made of leopard skin jasper. I had my pendants and seed beads out along with the green stones and so couldn't resist making another double necklace for my shop.

As it turns out my hair stylist has said she would like to have some of my pieces in her salon, so I think I will put this piece in there rather than my etsy shop.

It is made of ocean jasper, olive opal, fancy jasper, matte glass seed beads, swarovski crystal accents and sterling silver.

I'm very pleased with the combination of so many different shades of green together. There is deep forest green, olive green, blue green and grass green along with some white and gray in the ocean jasper. Very earthy and tribal looking to me.

If you are interested in this piece please contact me Tina @ belleadorn.com

Baby Chicks Just Starting Out

This is how tiny our baby chicks were just a month ago. We ordered them from the cackle hatchery in Lebanon, Mo. http://www.cacklehatchery.com/ and picked them up from the post office early in the morning after the post office gave us a call to let us know they had arrived.

We got Aracaunas, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rock Plymouths and two roosters called Partridge Rock, for their interesting colors. They've already grown quite a bit, so I'll post some current pics later.

This is how big they are now only after a month! The hens should be laying eggs by this fall.

How Does Our Garden Grow?

It's doing quite well with all the rain we've had. Our hay on the other hand is a whole other story. It was finally cut, but it has been rained on twice. My husband is turning it over. Hopefully it will dry out enough so it can be bailed up.

Butternut squash.

Corn.

watermelon or cantelope.......

Green Tourmilated Quartz with Blue Topaz

Green and Blue is a favorite combination of mine and they came together very nicely in this bracelet. The faceted coin tourmilated quartz is separated from the faceted oval blue topaz by small olive green potato pearls. It is adjustable in length and finished in sterling silver. Please contact me if you are interested in this piece as it is not yet in my etsy shop. Tina@belleadorn.com

Missouri Wildflowers Part II

This orange flower is so vibrant isn't it? It might be lantana growing wild. The bees sure did like it. There is a honey bee in the second photo.
I don't know if this fern produces a flower or not, but it's pretty enough for a photograph anyway.
Another one I don't know the name of, sorry!
More fern.
These were all taken in Warsaw, Mo.

Kelsey's Haircut

Kelsey wasn't quite sure about cutting off all this hair when her sister and I went for haircuts last month. She finally did decide though that she was ready to not have all that hair to take of.

Amy the beautician at Studio 10 in Richmond sent in her hair as a donation. I was so tickled that she did that for us.

Thank you Amy! And thanks for the great hair cuts too!