Charms For Some of My Favorite Charming Girls

This past week has been a little crazy at White Iris Designs. I have been busy with funeral work & custom silk arrangements & spent a fun night with my family making cell phone charms.

I have had a cell phone charm on my phone for a couple of years now. It started out as something that I thought look oh so chic on my phone, but it has since been very helpful for finding it in my purse when it is ringing.

They have admired mine for awhile now, so I thought it was time that they all had one of their own.

One afternoon, last week, my sister-in-law, my niece, (who are visiting from Oregon) my Mom, another sister-in-law & another niece stopped in my shop. We were all going to go out to lunch & come back to choose beads for their cell phone charms . Lunch was delicious & we took dessert back to the shop to indulge in while we look at beads. Ahhh the choices, so many beads, such a small phone! This took quite some time as you might imagine.

After much consideration to color, shapes, size & sparkle the choices were made & they turned their beads over to me to finish the project. I took them home with me, laid each one out & put them together with each one's personality in mind. Multiple charms were made for those who just couldn't narrow down their bead selection.

Here are a couple pictures of the phone charms & of 2 of my nieces.

I think I might have to add these little cuties to the website.

Help me I'm going to jail!!!

This year, I have the honor and pleasure of participating in MDA's Carroll County Lock-Up 2008 to help "Jerry's Kids®". To reach my goal I need your help!

I'd like to include you or your company on my list of contributors who are helping me reach my goal. Your donation would help MDA continue the important fight against muscular dystrophy. Check out my web page by clicking on the link below. There you'll find all kinds of information about MDA, and be able to make your tax-deductible donation on-line using your credit card.

MDA serves people in our community with neuromuscular disease by providing clinics, support groups, assistance with the purchase and repair of wheelchairs, braces and communication devices, and summer camp for kids. MDA also funds research grants to help find treatments and cures for some 43 neuromuscular diseases that affect people of all ages, right here in our community.

I sincerely hope that you'll take the opportunity to support MDA. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call or e-mail me.

On behalf of the families MDA serves, thank you!

Warmest Regards,

Tammy McCain Click here to visit my Participant Page.

If the link above does not bring you to my Participant Page, cut and paste the address below into the address bar of your internet browser.



https://www.mdaevent.org/ParticipantInfo.aspx?j=26b1a767-47d5-41f6-89e5-205a4f3b5209

Owner/Designer
White Iris Designs

Ph# 765-564-2364 or 800-495-1010

*Floral designer by day, jewelry designer by night*
*Handmade beaded jewelry for all occasions*
*Floral designer with over 25 years experience*

Sorry, the website launch is on hold.....

It is with regret & great anticipation that I have decided to delay the launch of White Iris Designs website for a couple of weeks. We are getting a bit of a face lift to enhance your shopping experience. I know you will love it & I thank you for bearing with me. It will be worth the wait, I promise!
Thanks for your support & patience.
Tammy

Flower Of the week Easter Liliy

As the Easter Holiday quickly approaches, I thought you might be interested to know a little bit about the history of the symbolic flower that will grace many homes & churches this Sunday.

Throughout history this pure, white, trumpet shaped flower has been the symbol of purity, hope, innocence & grace. All of which exemplifies the true meaning of the Easter Holiday. By placing the Easter Lily in our homes & churches it is a reminder of the resurrection of Christ & the resurrection of all things new again in spring. Giving us all new hope & reminding it is a time to rejoice.

It has also been known for it's symbolism of motherhood. Being associated with the Virgin Mary & even on a statue of St. Joseph, one was in his hand to signify that his wife was indeed a virgin.

Although these beautiful & very fragrant flowers are usually only seen during the Easter season, they are a bulb & may be planted outdoors in your flower garden. If you receive one this year do not throw it away when it is finished blooming. Treat it as you would any other flowering bulb such as, tulips & hyacinths. Stop watering,let the soil dry out, knock the bulb out of the soil & store in a cool,dry place. Potato or onion bags work well to store bulbs because the allow the air to circulate around the bulbs to prevent rotting. Then in the fall you may plant them the same as other bulb plants. They should continue to come up each year in the spring.

Here is a poem that I found about the Easter Lily that I found to be very lovely.

Easter morn with lilies fair
Fills the church with perfumes rare,
As their clouds of incense rise,
Sweetest offerings to the skies.
Stately lilies pure and white
Flooding darkness with their light,
Bloom and sorrow drifts away,
On this holy hallow’d day.
Easter Lilies bending low
in the golden afterglow,
Bear a message from the sod
To the heavenly towers of God.

-Louise Lewin Matthews

Wishing you all a very Blessed Easter!!
Tammy

Photo credit:http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/easter-lily.html

Launch of White Iris Designs Website

Good Evening to you all!
I am writing this to let you all know that White Iris Designs will be going live with our website this week. I have been working feverishly toward this goal all weekend.

Wish me luck & stay tunned for further updates on my progress.
Thank you for your patience & I hope you will visit us when we are open!

Ceramic Bead Class

Last week I decided to add another artist mark on my creative belt. I took a ceramic bead class at my friend's bead shop, Heart n Soul Beads.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I love to try new types of creative art anytime I get the chance. So when this class presented itself & I had seen all of the cute beads that the girls at Heart n Soul were making, well I had to make some too.

I had never painted ceramic beads before & had no idea what it was about. The first thing I learned is, I cannot make up my mind on what to paint on them & the second was I cannot decide what colors to use. Too many choices! After deciding those two things I then learned that the colors of glaze that I was using was not going to be remotely the same color after it was fired. One color in the bottle & another entirely after the kiln? Hummmmm... Degree of difficulty just went up. Next I found that you can layer the colors over one another, but there again you cannot really know what it will look like when it is fired by the colors in the bottle. If you layer the wrong colors, like too light over dark... well that doesn't work & too dark over light.. well that might not work either. So you do what I do best in all areas of my creative life.....you fly by the seat of your pants, cross you fingers & hope for the best. And the last thing that I learned is you cannot take your beads home that day! What, I have to wait? Did I forget to mention that they have to be fired in a kiln overnight. I felt like a child on Christmas Eve!


It worked, for the most part, it was worth the wait & all of the agonizing over designs & colors. Most of the beads that I made turned out really nice & a couple well, let's just say there is a learning curve. But I am hooked, I loved it & I will do it again in a heart beat.

Here are some photos of the beads before, the kiln used to fire the beads, my friend who owns Heart n Soul Beads & oh, yeah, my finished beads!!

Go ahead, give it a try. It is a lot of fun!!