Bridge

If there were a distinctive point in my work "before" and "after", this piece may be it. It's an in-progress, beginning with my typical smooth and symmetrical work, but now I'm trying to go in a different direction with texture and visual interest. It has one of two new bezel designs I learned this week, thanks to Jamie Cloud Eakin. The other is on a Pay It Forward project I'm in the middle of.

Click to enlarge

Back to Cool

Son started 4th grade yesterday. Youngest Daughter started preschool two days a week this morning. She walked in and looked around, met the teachers, then went to the playground without saying goodbye. Two years ago when Oldest Daughter started daycare she cried like I was abandoning her forever - she went to Kindergarten testing this morning and her shyness won the day. She did write her name but she refused to count and then she wouldn't draw a picture. She starts school tomorrow.

Husband and I went to St Louis over the second weekend of August for the WheresGeorge.com 10th Annual National Gathering. We met a lot of people we've known only through the forums and facebook, and then we left early. We don't do so well in crowds and thankfully most of the people there understood that and were okay with us leaving early.

My really exciting news is that we finally decided that Youngest Daughter was never going to be potty trained if we relied on PullUps to get her through it. We went out and bought "big girl" underwear for her last week. After a couple days of accidents, she's finally made the association and has started coming to tell us when she needs to go. She had one accident yesterday morning and was good the rest of the day. Not sure how well things will go at school because she's in a new situation in a new place with new people, and she's wearing PullUps just in case, but I'm cautiously hopeful.

As for work, I'm in the midst of a project that will be a gift, and I have a couple more things planned out. Also, I've been working on my competition piece for the HBS Creatin' Contest since I'm down to about four months left. Here's where I was as of yesterday.

So that's all I've got for now. Planning to work on the roof this afternoon if I get a chance. 

Lace Parade

I finished my latest bead embroidery project yesterday. It is a 21" Chenille stitch necklace and a bead embroidered pendant that is 2 1/2" wide by 4" long.

It is up for auction here for the next 29 hours, if you're interested :-)

My next project is already in the beginning stages but I can't post pictures as it's a surprise for someone.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Independence Delay

Been almost two months since I posted so I guess it's time to catch up. The mystery sickness I had for so long has finally been determined to be fatty liver. Most likely hereditary and the explanation for a lot of other problems. Drastic diet changes and more exercise will hopefully take care of it relatively quickly. I had a spot in my right kidney when I went to the emergency room a few months ago, and I went in for an high definition CT scan and it's not cancerous. I still have to have an endoscopy done to make sure that I don't have and am not developing esophageal cancer, but I'm not worried about that.

Today is Independence Day in America and a phone call I had has brought to my attention that you can tell a real  American holiday by whether people wish you to be safe or to have a good day. Everything about Independence Day and New Year's is always bid to be safe- today meaning not to blow your fingers off or burn down your house.

We spent the first two weeks of June visiting family in South Carolina, so I wasn't home to work on any projects. I did, however, learn peyote stitch and made a small bracelet for my mother-in-law.

After getting back home, I decided I was finally going to teach myself to do bead embroidery, so I have two in-progress pieces. The first is a blue pendant with a druzy agate center focal and a faux pearl, and the necklace is my first attempt at twisted herringbone peyote stitch. The second is a piece I started last night. The large focal is a Czech glass button and the two smaller buttons were in an old can my grandmother had.

We found this zombie troll out in our front garden a couple nights ago. We think someone left him here last Halloween. We left him out there because he fits in. 

Husband and I will be celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary in 11 days. He got me a Lego Castle set because I never had Legos as a kid and I've recently taken up and obsession with them. My favorite thing is to put the characters in compromised situations (where they're usually prisoners or dead) and posting photos to facebook. I was very proud of myself for getting most of it put together without looking at the book. So here's a picture of my cat as she was waiting for me to look away so she could chew on the wizard's hat. 

Anyway, that's all that's happened lately. I've been feeling much better and it's nice to be creating again. 

April Showers bring May Flowers. Mayflowers bring smallpox.

Haven't updated much lately because I haven't felt like I've done anything. Mystery sickness is still hanging around a little bit, but I'm working on getting back in the creative saddle. So here are creative happenings from the last couple weeks.

Daughters turned 3 and 5 last week (they share the same birthday, two years apart). These were their cakes - ying and yang, light and dark, half and half, flora and fauna. They were happy and I was satisfied with my first ever attempt at drawing a koi fish. The cakes were marbled Devil's Food and butter cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercreme.

Next comes jalapeno peach, and jalapeno strawberry jam. We were out after mailing a bunch out as Pay It Forward and Christmas gifts, and they make an amazing glaze on pork or chicken so I had to make more. 

Third grade at Son's school did a mini-society project where every kid had to make something worth selling, then they earned fake money for a couple weeks and sold their stuff and bought goods from the other third graders. His project was a pillow box with three glass beads in it, tied with a ribbon. Each one was different. 

I've spent the last week or so working on seed bead projects. These are peyote stitch. I've now made three similar sets and have moved on to starting a spiral tubular piece that will be turned into a bracelet if I ever finish it. 

This table and chairs set was found by a friend in North Carolina as she wandered an antique shop. So I plan to take the stain off and re-do the upholstery. It will make a perfect addition to my Painted Lady house. 

So that's that. No updates don't mean no work, though it feels that way to me. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Pretty in pink

Yesterday I wrapped my new rod of goldstone in a striking pink before pulling it into stringer. This is the result.

I'm very fond of this new purple and the pink together, so I may be expanding upon this idea. I also have some French renaissance ideas to combine with some gothic elements that I'd like to experiment with translating into glass. So maybe some new stuff coming soon. 

Repairs From Within

Just a quick update for those of you following Oldest Daughter's burn saga - it's been 10 days since the burn and tonight she let us dry it after cleaning and said touching it didn't hurt. We have it wrapped lightly in gauze so it can breathe and hopefully it will start drying out and tightening up by morning.

I've spent most of today working on my competition piece for the HBS Creatin' Contest, but nothing I can post. I'm quickly learning why miniaturists say that private builds are such a downer :-/

We beat the record sales total at the book fair by almost $2,000. I clearance priced almost all of my Etsy stuff last week and a lot of stuff got snapped up. Hopefully getting rid of older stuff that's been kicking around too long will help spark some new ideas. That's all I've got that's fit to share for now. Maybe new stuff in the next few days - my muse has been hanging around a little lately, so we can hope. Thanks for stopping by :)

Foghorn

Youngest Daughter and I just got home from Children's Hospital North where she got her pinkie finger x-rayed after getting it smashed in the fire door to the garage this morning. The bones are fine but there may be a lot of bruising and her nail may blacken and fall off over the next few days.

I've worked some more on my Victorian yesterday, and you can read about my progress here. It was the first time in months that I didn't have to force myself to get started after finding tons of excuses to do other things. In a short while, I'll be putting the kid down for a nap and I'm very excited to get back to it - even doing mundane things like cutting tons of pieces of wood and priming more stuff.

So that's that. Thanks for coming by :)

After Burners

Christmas was good. I took far more joy in watching people's reactions to their gifts than anything else. The family dragged my uncle into this century with a 32-inch HD tv, a blu-ray player, and a bunch of dvd's and blu-rays - a far cry from the tiny 9-inch  screen that he was using from 1970-something. My aunt needed a bunch of new shirts and we found quite a few that were perfect. My sister, upon realizing she was unwrapping her space nebula bracelet, got very excited and took it around to show it to everyone in the room :-) It was a good day, and Husband did all the cooking and the food was DELICIOUS!

We have the pest control people coming again tomorrow for the wasps we keep finding. We were finding about two a day before they came last week and it's progressed to six or seven a day since they came and sprayed. I'm fairly certain that we either have a nest somewhere in the house that we can't find, or they're coming in around a window somewhere. Hopefully a full spray-down will solve the problem and we'll get a deep freeze in the next couple weeks to freeze any that are outside.

Today I was introduced to the awesomeness that is Spooky Time Jingle through a post on Polymer Clay Daily. It's all Halloween and Christmas stuff done in a Folk Art manner. Neat stuff there!

Husband has a few ship stamps coming that he'd been hoping would be delivered before Christmas, but they weren't. One in particular is for me to design the cover art for a book he'll be self-publishing in the not-to-distant future. The rest are because if he ordered enough he got free shipping from New Zealand. When they get here, I have some great plans for light switch cover art.

As for my finger, I made definitive plans to go to the doctor this morning since Husband will be working late tonight and of course it's made a miraculous recovery. I think I have a sinus infection though so I may have to go anyway.


So that's where we are. Now that the big holiday is over hopefully we can get back on track and make some progress toward other important projects. Thanks for stopping by, and may the new year find you and yours healthy, wealthy, and joyous!

More Independent Art

I've got nine more independent artists / designers to share with you today. Links to the selected items will be under each picture.

Visit Patsy on facebook

Lisa Liddy on Etsy

Dangly Bits hair accessories on The Amber Wolf

Made to Order Rainbow Bracelet by Astrid Boyce

Golden Bead by Irene Giorgio

Emergency Preparedness Kit by Sarah's Saks

Sweater Coat by Carolyn Muir

Rebecca Lee Design on facebook

Willowroot Wands Metaphysical Shop

Feeling Festive

It's a whopping -11º in my little town this morning, so I plan to spend the day hiding inside baking cookies, sitting by the fireplace, and (hopefully) working on some new projects for my etsy shop. Don't know if that last part will happen, but I'm hoping.

Anyway, I'm feeling festive this morning, so I thought I'd share some links to some things made by people in my art guilds and my friends. As best I can, I will also put up links to contact each person if the item is still for sale. You can click the title under each picture to go to the page where the item is listed for sale :)

Butterfly ornament by Jill Kollman 

Snowman ornament by Peggy Reichenbach

Purple bird ornament by Marie Young

Blue geometric ornament by Beth Petricoin

 Red bell ornament by Angela Hickey

Blue Bird Brooch by FredaK

Set of two red glass ornaments by Tom Kies II

Winter hare cuff bracelet by Amy Kuczewski

Blown glass ornament by Beau Barrett

Glass peppermint candy necklace by Lezlie Foster