Mother's Day Sale on Personalized Brooches

Mother's Day is March 13th this year. Special to Mother's Day, personalized handmade brooch pins are now on sale in my Etsy shop. Brooches makes great gifts for mothers, mother in-laws, grandmas or just for anyone who loves birds and nature. There are so many different ways to use brooches. You can check out my earlier blog post giving you some tips on how to wear pins.

Mother's Day Sale by A Cup of Sparkle, handmade brooch pin with 3 pearls

Looking for another piece of handmade jewelry gift for Mother's Day? You can click here to see more of the A Cup of Sparkle jewelry and accessories. You can personalize all of the birds nest jewelry and accessories with different number and color of pearls and gemstones.

Handmade brooch with one pearl representing one children

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Sparkling Rhinestone Headband Tutorial: Round 1

Sparkling when you are exercising... hmmm, those two words/activities don't usually come together for most of the people out there except for some us who are just born with glitter in their veins. 

I made this sparkling rhinestone head piece for my upcoming 10K run this weekend in Portland. (Bridge to Brews on April 15th). I used my favorite no slip Nike Headband that I wear every time I go running. I could have used a ribbon for the headband but; this one I own has a silicone band glued to it which makes it great for exercising!

Rhinestone Headband for Runners

Materials: Rhinestones, cotton embroidery thread, needle, scissors and a headband

Instructions: I used two strands of rhinestones. You can use only a single strand or multiples. Simply sew the rhinestones on the headband. I sewed two times between the rhinestones to make the coral color stand out a bit. After sewing the rhinestones, I filled the two sides of the rhinestones by sewing more. If you decide to do this step, you will need to do both side to create a regular surface. Otherwise, the headband will fold. No rhinestones are necessary behind the ears - this makes the headband more comfortable while running. I filled the areas where the rhinestones end with extra thread to complete the look.

While I was at the craft store today, my eyes cached this same coral colored feathers and of course, I bought them right away! This calls for a Round 2 on my sparkling rhinestone tutorial which I will be working on later this week. 

Feathers and sparkles... how perfect is that?

Looking forward to see you next week after my run to share some more photos with you...

Easter Sale on Personalized Jewelry & Accessories

Easter week officially started along with the one time Easter Sale at A Cup of Sparkle Etsy shop. It is a great time to buy something to stuff kid's Easter baskets or as Mother's Day gift. Get 15% OFF and other great discounts on all handmade personalized key chains and gemstone jewelry by A Cup of Sparkle during this week. The sale ends on Easter Sunday which is April 8th this year.

Easter Sale on Jewelry & Accessories by ACupofSparkle

You can click here to see more of the jewelry and accessories on sale.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or custom projects you need help with.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Source

Are you doing anything fun this weekend?  I am planning to do some spring cleaning around the house and also unpack my luggage from my Florida trip. I am also going to start reading a new book, The Hunger Games. I am looking forward to it. Hope you have a weekend!

Easter Gifts for Children at A Cup of Sparkle

Children's gift for Easter, Handmade Easter Egg Earrings

A Cup of Sparkle is offering more colors than ever for Easter. Put on these adorable Easter earrings for kids or adults on Easter Sunday. Birds nests earrings now comes in cherry red and robins blue pearls as well as white freshwater pearls. These cute Easter egg earrings makes great gifts for kids, and adults for Easter and they are perfect for springtime!

Handmade Easter Jewelry

For A Cup of Sparkle blog readers, use Coupon Code: EASTER2012  to take advantage of free shipping anywhere in United States. 

Looking for more Easter gift ideas, visit A Cup of Sparkle handmade jewelry and accessories shop to see more of the colorful birds nest Easter jewelry.

Happy Birthday to my puppy: ASLAN!!!

Today is my puppy, Aslan's birthday! He is 2 years old now. My husband and I  am hosting a small dinner party at our house tonight. I am baking a birthday cake for the occasion today... He is unfortunately not getting a slice because sugar is involved in my recipe. Don't feel bad for him though... He has been getting special dog treats since early morning.

This is him... His mommy, Lucy, his brothers and sisters are below. These are some of my favorite photos. He is quite a spoiled one and we love him!

 Do you have a pet? If so, do you ever celebrate their birthday?

More about the colorful towns of Cinque Terre, Italy

If you are a travel savvy and especially a Pinterest user, you probably have seen this photo.
Am I right?

I did before my trip to Italy and Google'd the place right away; I told my husband that we have to go to this place. And, we visited there in January! I wanted to share my photos from the place and tell you more about it today.  

Let's start with some photos from my perspective...

Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre means Five Lands... From all the places I visited in Europe nowhere else has the lure of Mediterranean as Cinque Terre. Below is a map of the place to give you a better understanding of the geography. The place is famous with its white wine, colorful stone houses sitting on rock cliffs and its worlwide known coastal hiking.

A photograph of the actual map in one of the towns in Cinque Terre

One of the major things that attracted me to the place was the fact that the cars are not allowed into the towns. The villages connect only with trails, paths, boats or a train. 

 Here is a photo of the train that runs between the towns. It is very convenient to go from the main town La Spezia - where we stayed in to the 5 villages with the train.

Train of Cinque Terre

And the hikes... Unfortunately due to the last year's weather storm, most of all the hikes were closed in the area while I visited Cinque Terre. Even the last village was entirely closed for everyone. So sad... The only trail we went on was called 'Via Dell' Amore' or 'Trail of Love'. You will know why love is associated with the name of this trail after being on it. It is absolutely fantastic - only if you are not afraid of heights! The metal sculpture below; a women and a men kissing is the symbol of the trail, surrounded with love locks visitors put on the metal barriers, rocks,dry bushes and cactus.

How romantic this sculpture is, looking over the blue waters?

 Finally, I wanted to share some of the other artsy things I have captured in Cinque Terre.

Art Stroll in Cinque Terre

I hope you enjoyed today's travel destination. I wanted to write so much more about the town but; the post got already too long. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the place. I am happy to pass you any information I have about this lovely place.

 Looking forward to see you next time in my next traveling post to Marseille, France!