First GREEK ISLAND LOVERS Team Challenge: MY FAVORITE ISLAND!

The first Greek Island Lovers Team Challenge is up and running!
As this is our first Challenge, the theme is easy: MY FAVORITE ISLAND. This makes for a lot of possible variations!
In the future we’ll have more specific challenge themes – for example the Aegean Sea, a specific color or feature of the Greek Islands, a specific island etc.

These are the rules for Team members for entering the challenge:
- It would be nice if you created a new item for this challenge, but if you don’t have time and/or you already have an item in your Etsy shop that fits the theme, it’s ok too!
- Convo me with the link to your listing;
- When you convo me with the link to your listing, please answer this question:
 In which way does this item express the theme “My favourite island”? (for example: colors, shape, materials, memories, etc)
- Last day for entering the challenge is Sunday, 27 November 2011.
I will post the Challenge entries under this post, and the entries will be juried by an external, non-member Greek Island Lover, who will pick the winner. The winner will be announced on both my blog and our Team thread.

Thank you and I hope to get lots of beautiful entries!!!

Happy creating!

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We have our first entry!

Necklace Olives by soulmadeshop2

Ilse from soulmadeshop2 says: "My favorite island is Crete, the island I live on, I love that you can walk between the olive groves, go up in the mountains and have the sea just there but if you need a shot of city life and some action there's all you need in Heraklion. So what more can you wish for?
I chose to make a necklace with olives because for me Crete and olivetrees go together, I love to cycle or walk between the olivegroves, it always relaxes me."

Two entries inspired by the beauty of Santorini!

Santorini Beauty - Fine Art Original Painting by Myartspace

Myartspace says: "I am in love with the Sea, Sunset and I could daydream forever in a location as this!"

 Greek Windmill by SuSebghatiArts

Su from SuSebghatiArts says: "My favorite island is Santorini/Thira. I love the dramatic landscape and the architecture. I've been going to Santorini for nearly 20 years."

Inspired by the Sea:

The Harris Tweed Two Tone Purse Inspired by the Sea by Pesky Cat Designs

Elisa from Pesky Cat Designs says: "One of my favorite Greek islands is Anafi. I have a dear friend who is Greek and lives in Athens. She often vacations in Anafi and one year she invited me to come along. It's a very peaceful and quiet island with only a few restaurants and places to stay. I had such a relaxing and wonderful time there. My Harris Tweed bag is inspired by the various tones of blue of the sea, a wave and a sand dollar found on the beach."

Again inspired by Santorini:

Santorini Map Sterling Silver Pendant by SunSan

Evy from SunSan says: "this is a pendant featuring the map of Santorini , the island I have decide to live, dream and create..."

Handmade Unique Knitted Shoulder Bag by Lintschi

Gerlinde from Lintschi says: "My bag expresses the theme 'My Favorite Island' through its colors!"

A Day in the Island by ILaBoom

Tatiana from ILaBoom says: "This creation is devoted to my favorite island, the island I live, Antiparos. An alternative small rock in the aegean sea with white houses and a lot of sun."

AFTER THE RAIN

The light and colors of nature are spectacular these days in the foothills of the Alps... And after the heavy rains the colors and light were amazing, the views breathtaking! I took these photos on Wednesday, during my walk...

The spectacular view from my mom's balcony...

These days I particularly enjoy wearing Audrone's lovely felted flower hair clips! Their colors remind me of the wonderful red and orange leaves...

LOVE IS...

Last week I posted a photo of a medallion I have had for a long long time (I guess since my childhood, must have been a gift from Germany)... and that is amazing now to me, as it depicts me and my beloved... who happens to be a musician! :)

Those of you who are very young may not be familiar with this comic strip series that was very popular in the Seventies and was published worldwide in many languages. I even remember having had a stickers collection with these two sweet characters! Even if they are... well, naked... these two lovers are so cute and innocent that kids used to collect stuff featuring them, the way they now collect accessories and stickers with Hello Kitty or the Winx.

Love is... is the name of a comic strip created by New Zealand cartoonist Kim Casali (née Grove) in the late 1960s. The cartoons originated from a series of love notes that Casali drew for her future husband, Roberto Casali. The strip was first published in 1970, under the pen name "Kim". Roberto Casali was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1975 and Kim stopped working on the cartoon to spend more time with him. Casali commissioned London-based British cartoonist Bill Asprey to take over the writing and drawing of the daily cartoons for her, under her pen name. Asprey has produced the cartoon continuously since 1975. Upon her death in 1997, Casali's son Stefano took over Minikim, the company which handles the intellectual rights.

Love Is... is a single-frame strip. The upper left-hand corner starts with a simple phrase which always begins with "Love Is...", the drawing appears in the middle and the remainder of the phrase at the bottom. Each strip is independent of the others; there are no "series" of strips running for a period of time covering the same topic.
The main characters are a male and a female. The male has dark black, short hair while the female has light, waist-length hair. The characters have been featured in various stages of romance: just meeting, boyfriend/girlfriend and husband/wife. They appear to be quite young, looking like toddlers, however, they are apparently supposed to represent adults.
The characters may appear single or together; when one is thinking about the other, the partner's face will appear (in various forms, such as a dream balloon, a photo, even a screen saver have been used). Items appearing in the strip are often shown in the shape of or featuring, hearts - symbolic of the strip's theme.
source: Wikipedia

POURING

The heavy rains that have hit North West Italy have not caused serious damage in this corner close to the Alps and France... but rivers have overflowed their banks and even mild streams have turned into wild, roaring rivers... like this usually mild stream in my mom's village.

Here are two photos where you can see how it usually looks...

... and the way it looked last evening...

Experimental Jewelry: IT'S NOT GOLD

I love experimental and unconventional jewelry! In this series I'm featuring jewelry artists who work with unconventional materials and techniques, and who see a ring or a pendant as a canvas to express their art and creativity.

Susana of ItsNotGold is a talented illustrator and jewelry artist from Portugal, and one of the very first artists I admired on Etsy. My readers know that I love COLOR -- and I still remember that I immediately fell in love with Susana's colorful, happy and playful jewelry, which to my eyes is a celebration of the Mediterranean lifestyle and color and reflects the Portuguese love for life and happy colors.
Susana uses many different mediums for her work -- in her handmade jewelry and accessories she mainly uses colorful vintage acrylic finds which she turns into striking modern pieces, as well as ceramic wearable art featuring her own designs.
You can find Susana's unique jewelry in her Etsy shop ItsNotGold, and you can find out more about her work and her inspiration on her colorful blog.
Find her also on Flickr and Facebook.

Vintage Plastic Flower Adjustable Ring

Blue and Orange Birds Ceramic Felt Collar Necklace

Handpainted and Illustrated Necklace

Red and White Ceramic Earrings

Jungle Orange and Olive Green Ceramic Earrings