January 2017

I cannot believe that my last post was in September!

Wow- time has flown and it is has been a great couple of months.

Here's what I have been up to:

House update- we moved in in November after lots of cleaning, painting and re-flooring. We are still unpacking boxes but we are almost completely unboxed. Phew!

Holidays- we made it through the holidays and everyone was treated quite well. We took the kids to NYC for a weekend to see the city all lit up and it was a great time.

Work- is still keeping me busy busy busy and I am having a hard time finding time to be creative other than once a month when I need to whip up a project for Book Club.

My New Year's resolution is to get back into it. But we still have some work ahead of us where my workspace will eventually be. So until then, it will be an "as time permits" sort of thing.

So, since this is a 'catch-up' post, here are some of the projects that I completed this fall for book club:

September: This Census Taker

I drew this one day because I was intrigued by the sentence above. Obviously, the scale is off, but it worked for me. Drawing isn't really my thing.

 

October: Vampires in the Lemon Grove

 

This was a book of short stories and to be honest, I only read a few of them and one of them being the name of the book.

 

I have in my collection a piece of jewelry that I ordered for another book that dealt with blood (Henrietta Lacks) but I never used it because it looked to Halloween-y. So here was my piece for our in-person meet-up:

 

 

November- Sabriel

 

I had NO time this month to accomplish a thing other than pack and move and unpack boxes. But I did find a piece that I had made previously, and that I guessed matched what the book was about...

 

 





 

 



December- we didn't have a book to read, but I was pretty pleased with a piece that I made for a class that I had at the store one time in the fall. Here is the original (I think it was an Anthropologie piece):

 

And here is my version using the awesome Manik Manik beads at the shop:

 

 



January- A Place of My Own

 

I got about 3 chapters into this book and was more concerned with making my new house a place of my own than reading about someone else doing it... Anyhow- I knew I had a great bead from Diane Hawkey that Alison and I had found at Beadfest, so I unearthed it from a pile in my basement along with a strand of African beads I had forgotten I had, and whipped this piece up at the in-person meet-up.

 

 

I added a strand of two-toned orange Czech beads and a strand of purple AB finish Czech beads to the design and had a fun little piece to wear (once I add a clasp, of course!)

 

I also had some other miscellaneous things with me in my bag so I showed everyone this piece that I had come up with a few months ago:

 

 

While I was at the shop, I purchased this piece of art from the new show that debuted on Saturday. The artist's name is Gaea and I can't wait to add this to one of the walls I have at the house that I plan to devote to artists that I like. The theme of my wall is 'home is where the heart is" so if you see anything that you think would fit the prerequisites, let me know!

 



 

 

Finally, I found this cool pair of earrings online that I really want to try to duplicate but change out the colors. I found some really pretty royal blue deer hide strips in Montana and have the pyrite already, so I am really excited to make some earrings and a matching necklace... stay tuned!

 

 

 

August Book Club: The Silver Witch

When I read the book club book for the month, it took me less than a day to do it. I picked it up and I was pulled in. Couldn't put it down!!!!

There was a ton of great visual stuff, but it took me wayyyyyy longer to come up with a project. That was probably also due to the fact that we were soon leaving for Montana when I read it, and we were also busy buying a new house.

Montana:

New House:

Yeah, we are kinda crazy like that....

So, thankfully I am a couple of books ahead, because now the kids are back in school, we are in the process of moving, I am back to my steady gig day in and day out, and I feel like I have no more energy to be creative at the moment. Did I mention the kids are also doing cheer and football three times a week??? 

#coachwifelife:

Hehehehehehehe (cue the deranged laughter...)

Anyhow- the in-person meetup was great. I had left the kids at the school open house with my husband that evening to run to my car, and flee the scene to book club. I think I left skid marks in the parking lot from pulling out of there so fast (probably inspired by the Bad Moms movie which coincidentally quite a few of us book-loving bead-stringing mommas went to go see one night...)

Bad Mommas:

Anyhow- getting back on track....

I am SO glad I did get out of school that night and that I didn't miss out on Shepherds Pie from Andrew, wine, ice cream, wine, and fun conversation. Oh, and did I mention wine???? Hahahahaha

We even had a real discussion about the book! Whoa!

So, here are my pieces:

Originally I was going to do my project based on 'Linny' the Land Rover, but that didn't pan out. So, I just happened to pick up this gorgeous piece at Beadfest Fall and I think it worked out perfectly.

Ok- it's pottery of a sort!!! AND the glaze on this is crystallized! So it looks like what I thought the lake would look like on a cold winter morning run around the lake. Pus, it's heart shaped. So, not too shabby for a love story too, right?

Btw- I did get into character by changing my sweater for an athletic topper, and I have no idea who took my picture of me faux-running in the shop that night, but you can use your imaginations... :)

I also made a necklace using Tibetan Quartz, Labradorite, and pearls which can be thrown on over the head. I also cannot wait to wear this one. LOVE the quartz.

And last but not least, I strung this incredible Maku Raku pendant on this cool $.49 neck wire for another fun 'pottery artist' inspired piece:

I picked the focal pendant up at Beadfest Spring and FINALLY did something with it. Yay!!!!

Lastly, I made this super long necklace one day when I was shopsitting, and I think it works well for the book too. It's got that 'dark magic' feel to it.

So yeah, I can say that I had a blast with this book. So much so that I have been busy reading some of the author's other books: The Witch's Daughter, The Midnight Witch, and The Winter Witch. 

All of which I highly recommend!

See you soon! L

Beadfest Philly Summer Edition!!!!

We headed out to Philly again last Friday for the biggest bead show of the year!!!!

First stop, Abigails!!!!

We got to Philly and the boys had sent us an SOS for coffee since they had driven through the night, so we grabbed them a whole box and smuggled it into the show in my bag!!!

Of course, we had to take the pre-requisite selfie once we arrived at the show!

And then we made our first stop, the boys! Of course!!!!!

They were really busy when we got there, so it was a quick hello and on to the show!!!!

Our second stop was at this booth that Alison had suggested. They were doing a show hop, where several artisans had planned a project that you pay a flat fee, pick out your components and assemble the project. SO COOL!!! And we had SO much fun!

After that, we shopped until we dropped. I wanted to take a nap sooooo badly! Look at my eyes!!! Dry and tired!!!!

It was 5 intense hours of beads, beads, beads. If you can dream it, it was there!!!

We did get to meet a lot of the artisans of the art bead section and it was a ton of fun! There are so many talented folks out  there in the world! One of our favorites is Candie Cooper. She does a lot of live videos on Facebook and is super excited about beading, and techniques and really cool projects. I'm not gonna lie, we did kind of stalk her, but it was worth it to put a face to our names and give her some love!!!!

Here was the one of us going to see the boys. We just HAD to re-introduce her!!!!

I think I still have some star struck-ness going on. She did a video on Sunday to wrap up the show and I kept commenting, go here, show this, the things you are finding are so cool, how did I miss THAT, hahahahaha! I think she thinks I am nuts! Maybe, but I love me some Candie!!!!

Anyways, I didn't get to go through my loot until Sunday. But when I did, of course I took photos!!!!

Here you go!!!!

And yes, I bought this amazing African basket! The lady was SO cool- she hid it at the bottom of her pile and when I came back to her booth several hours later, she was like- here, I hid it!!! So I HAD to take it home!!!! 

Here is my loot....

It doesn't look like a ton of stuff, but this is my 'I use this bag for traveling and toting my life around with me' and it is one of my favorite things EVER from The Black Bunny Boutique!!!

See what I mean??? That's a big pile of stuff to carry around all day!!!!

So here it all is, vendor by vendor. I won't bore you with details of why I chose what, and if you like what you see, all the contact info is on the business cards. Enjoy!!!!!!

(This was our art bead hop necklace)

Check out this cute little pumpkin from Marsha Neal Studios. 

These ceramic beads were purchased in hopes of re-creating a piece similar to this:

This is for book club & a surprise!!!!

Isn't this resin necklace amazeballs?????

Here is another view of the same bead

Look at this bag of yummy leather scraps!!!!!

Cannot wait for the Spring show!!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!

Also cannot wait for this move to get underway so I can set up my new bead studio and get creating. Stay tuned!!!