Love Bug

Spending Valentine's weekend with my honey.  Look at these love bugs I got for him from Moonstruck Chocolatier in Portland.  Raspberry and strawberry chocolate truffles.  Hopefully he will share one or two!

The Bees Knees

Last year researchers found the nests of the bee Osmia avosetta in Turkey and Iran build nests layered with colorful flower petals.  The female bee digs a tunnel in the soil and then collects whole flower petals by biting them off of local flowers.  She takes the petals back to the nest and layers them with a thin middle layer of mud to create a cavity for her eggs and provisions.  The nests are beautiful natural art forms.

 

These photos are taken from the researcher’s abstract published by the American Museum of Natural History.  The full abstract can be found with on the American Museum of Natural History Research Library site along with the captions for the numbered photos.

 

 

Amazing Minerals

More amazing mineral lithographs.  These are from France 1780s, framed 15" wide x 20" high.  No additional information as to the naturalist or book these originated from.  Available from GRIS through 1stdibs.

Public Service Announcement - WTF Facebook

FACEBOOK CHANGES

Have you noticed that you are only seeing updates in your newsfeed from the same people lately? Have you also noticed that when you post things like status messages, photos and links, the same circle of people are commenting and everyone else seems to be ignoring you?

Don’t worry, everyone still loves you and nobody has intentionally blocked you. The problem is that a large chunk of your friend/fan list can’t see anything you post and here’s why:

The “New Facebook” has a newsfeed setting that by default is automatically set to show ONLY posts from people who you’ve recently interacted with or interacted the most with (which would be limited to the couple of weeks just before people started switching to the new profile). So in other words, for both business and personal pages, unless your friends/fans commented on one of your posts within those few weeks or vice versa – you are now invisible to them and they are invisible to you!!

HERE’S THE FIX: Scroll down to the bottom of the newsfeed on the homepage and click on “Edit Options”, click on “Show Posts From” and change the setting to “All Of Your Friends and Pages” Note: This is the fix for personal pages but I am unsure of whether or not the business pages are set up the same way.

Simply posting an update about it won’t do any good because lots of your friends/fans already can’t see your posts by default. You’ll either have to send out a message to everyone on your list (which I’m not even sure business pages can do and is a rather tedious method) or post an event explaining the situation like this one and invite your entire fan base and/or friend list. You can also tweet about it hoping that most of your fellow facebookers are also on twitter.

Shame on facebook for altering the default setting and not telling people and business pages about it! Just think about how many companies posted Christmas sales and discounts without having any idea that their customers couldn’t see the updates.

Lotus Pendant

Lotus Pendant approximately 1-1/2" diameter

Sterling Silver with Rutilated Quartz Cabochon 

Other stones available.

Each layer is hand cut with a jeweler's saw,

formed to be slightly concave.

Available by custom order - email me

Valentine's Giveaway

Gossamer Bijou Facebook Giveaway  

One lucky winner will have a choice of a furry bracelet (custom made by me in beautiful brass and your fur or faux fur selection) or what is behind door number 2 - a pair of hoop earrings (in either choice of silver or brass with gold filled ear wire). 

How to enter: 
Go to my Gossamer Bijou Facebook "Valentine's Giveaway" page through this link Click Here and leave a comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page (just once unless you have followed the steps below for bonus entries)

Bonus entries (up to four possible):
If you do any of the four items below, leave a comment for each noting the details.

1. "Like" my Gossamer Bijou page - or if you are already a fan let me know - 1 bonus entry - leave a comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page.
2. Repost on your FB page – 1 bonus entry - leave comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page with details.
3. Repost on your FB fan page – 1 bonus entry - leave comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page with details.
4. Post this giveaway on your own blog or twitter page – 1 bonus entry - leave comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page with details.

Superstar Bonus entries:
Whoo Hoo!

1. Sign up and "follow" my blog - 1 Superstar bonus entry - leave a comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page with details.
2. Comment on one a blog posting - 1 Superstar bonus entry - leave a comment on the "Valentine's Giveaway" page with details.

Giveaway starts at time of posting on Gossamer Bijou Facebook page 2/9/11 and ends 2/15/11 midnight pacific time.  So get your entries in before Valentine's day and cupid gets you!

Winner will be announced on the 16th.  Winner will be selected randomly using random.org  Winner will have a choice of one of two fabulous hand made jewelry items by me.

Good luck!

Jeweler's Bench Tips

Jette Sorenson submitted this winning jeweler's bench tip to Rio Grande's recent contest.  “When soldering small jump rings, a regular Third Hand [cross-lock tweezers] becomes a terrible heat sink.  A sharpened graphite stick, fastened in a Third Hand, will make the soldering much, much easier.”