Finally, here's the pic!

I was so incredibly tired I forgot to ever post the pic of the necklace that had to be made for my display! Here it and she are, finally!

Urban Bazaar

This was a great show for getting experience and an awesome sunburn (only on the right arm)! I think I made enough to break even but gained a lot insights into what to do and what not to do. My booth mates, Suzanne and Elizabeth were awesome! We had a terrific time. My friend Bo took a wonderful of one of the doll heads on my table. It was a really long day, made even longer by the 3 hours sleep I had gotten the night before. I've already taken one nap today and am thinking about a bath and heading to bed early.

Here's a pick of a necklace I was sure I needed prior to being able to displaying anything!

p.s. More pics tomorrow and check out the new side bar - ETSY store update! Woo hoo!

p.s.s. Happy Mother's Day Mom! I'm glad you liked your flowers. ;)

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Bleh

My soldering irons are dead and I can't get a new one until tomorrow and I feel completely unprepared for Sat. One of my favorite quotes ever is from Kris Carr in her documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer, "I want to do bad things with bad people". Yep, that's my mood right now. Instead, I'm going to hang charms from the super cool charm hanger thingie my husband made me, watch Deadliest Catch and pout. Not necessarily in that order.

Glass, foil and solder oh my!

That's become my life. I promise a real post soon just wanted drop a line and say I was not felled by falling glass, although there is still the possibility, and I'm hoping gorgeous things are getting created. We'll see.

Happy Tuesday!

Productive Weekend

It's been a very busy weekend. My friend, Jen, and I went shopping for goodies for my booth (next Saturday!) and we found some good stuff. I can't wait to get it all set up. I'm planning a couple of test displays this week to see what works best then I'll take a pic so I can easily re-create it on Sat. Yep, I'm just that kind of planning weirdo. Today I did more work in the garage workshop and got more charms soldered so I'm up to 36 pieces done and 3 full necklaces. Nope, not behind at all! The husband worked on a couple of display pieces for me that I think will be super cute.

Just in case I forgot to mention it, Marie Antoinette rocks! It's my new favorite thing to play in the studio for background noise. That and the Osbournes but just when I feel like totally mindless programming. Anyway, Marie Antoinette is seriously awesome. I love the colors, music, etc. Run now to watch it! This is a painting of her that I love. Somehow I wish she and Queen Victoria could've hung out together (pre-mourning days obviously) and talked about shoes, hat choices and the potential for ruling the world.

On a totally non-art front, have you guys seen the Alaskan Experiment? Between this and the Deadliest Catch, we've become hooked on the Discovery Channel. I guess there are worse things!

Iron Man rocks... also, here's some jewelry!

We went to see Iron Man tonight after work and it was just as good as the husband had hoped. I have to admit I was slightly skeptical, but it was awesome! Loved it! We also got a nice treat after the movie when we went and checked out the new house and discovered we have a foundation. That also rocks (concrete pun intended!).

The pic is of a few pieces I've finished for the show next week (seriously, art crisis with the amount of work still to be done) but I'm going booth decoration shopping tomorrow and then plan to buckle down and become one with my soldering iron!

Happy Friday!

Creation Space

I have an entire studio to work in and yet, I always find myself down to this much space! Here's my charm assembly line.

Green and fun

I think all of the eco talk the last few weeks inspired me to use the green background. I had intended to use a vintage image but that went horribly wrong so I had fun with this one. I have serious diamond envy over her necklace and earrings!

Gratitude

It has become very popular in the world of blogs to share what we're grateful for and spread the thankfulness. Now, I'm not particularly con this because that would be mean but I'm also not someone who tends to emote their feelings either. This brings me to my own particular post about being grateful. Here's why I'm grateful. I've found a spouse who, even though he hates it, is willing to work on art projects with me. Late at night. In his pjs. Seriously, this is love. He's filling the bottle caps with resin because he's concerned the toxins will have adverse reactions with my head and cause a migraine. He's probably right but I would've done it. Yet, here he is, fairly late at night, mixing highly toxic chemicals in the garage. All of this when I've been in charge of his lunches and turned them vegetarian with large quantities of broccoli.

Although he never reads this, it's out there for all of you to know. Public and everything. I really love my husband and more than that, I kind of like him too. Don't tell or there's no living with him.

Over It

My friend Tina had that posted as her status on Facebook (all the cool kids are on it!) and it cracked me up. Yesterday, I knew exactly what she meant! Seriously, it was a rough day that I think was just compounded by the air conditioning trauma (my husband's truck has to have a new one also!). I'm telling you, Texas is no place to be if you can't tolerate hell-like temperatures.

By evening, my day had improved significantly as I dropped my items off for Urban Bazaar. I'm not sure I've mentioned it before. :) I decided to provide a charm and the original collage the charm was made from so people got a sense of the whole process. Then Suzanne and I went to a work happy hour, which I never go to, mostly because I don't drink, but it was really nice. Chatting on the patio with everyone. Seeing everyone detoxing from their rough day as well. It started to rain about 7:15 so I hit the bricks for the 3 block walk back to my car, no big deal until it really started raining so I dug out my umbrella which ripped open the skin on my knuckle and I had blood running down my hand for the next 2 blocks. Yep, I was over it all right! I'm not sure if no one bothered me because a) it's really not that bad downtown b) it was raining and everyone just wanted in or c) I looked like the crazy person!

Today is going to be gorgeous and wonderful though. I have big soldering plans for after work (I have 6 pieces made for the show!) and I was surprised to see my TIVO recorded "Men in Trees" (shut up, it's awesome!) so tonight is going to rock. Plus, it's almost the weekend and that's always great!

Bottle Cap Assembly Line

Here are some of the bottle caps in process that we're working on for the upcoming show. I always think they're lots of fun and make perfect gifts. Some may even find their way into my Etsy store. We've tried resin as the fill on these and I think it's going to work better but it's certainly much more toxic than Diamond Glaze!

Also, we have to have all new air conditioning put in the house. Yes, the house we're going to sell in a few months. The good news is that at least we're going into the summer months and can get great use out of it.

Birthday cupcakes

I got a little behind in processing the photos on my memory card! These are the cupcakes Rolland got me for my b-day. There's red velvet and milk chocolate/vanilla for me. He got cinnamon sugar and coconut for his selections. These are from Sprinkles and while pricey, they are super tasty! Williams-Sonoma carries the mix now so you can make your own if there's not one near you.

I got a lot of soldering done tonight, just waiting on jump rings. I finished 3 charms entirely (I know, I know, I'm working on it). We also got a ton of bottle caps waiting on resin. Who knew it would go old? :) Also, Rolland started helping me out with jump rings on the bottle caps and cutting glass. We also had a soldering lesson tonight and he's pretty awesome! It's like he's been doing it forever, he's much better than I was on my first attempts. He has no idea what's in store for him if he keeps practicing!

I hope you guys had a great weekend. Have a great Monday!

Main Street Art Festival

The festival today was amazing! There was some glorious work to be had so Jen and I did our best to make a dent. Sadly, our wallets and stamina ran out before our enthusiasm. We were still chipper as we dragged our bedraggled selves, and wonderful purchases, back to the car. This artist, was one of my favorites and I bought one of his prints "Faith", which is going to be front and center as inspiration in the new studio, and I was thrilled that he wrote a message and signed it. I really wanted 1 of everything but I resisted. He was really charming and spent a lot of time with people who had questions, customers and general traffic. There was a lot of it.

I also picked up another piece "Trick or Treat" from Debbie Little-Wilson. She's a Texas artist that I found in Fredricksburg and have loved for a long time. Her work always reminds me of Deb Trotter. It was awesome to actually meet Debbie and talk to her about her work. She was really sweet and seemed excited to be meeting customers.

I found some prints of photos that are of nose art that are going in Rolland's study so there was something to be found for everyone in the family. I do think the best thing about the experience, besides seeing all the gorgeous work, was having a chance to spend time with the artists and walking through all the different points of view and how that manifests itself in the work. I can't recommend it enough. I've got pics to share but I'm wiped out and planning to head for bed to rest up for my day of soldering tomorrow.

P.S. If you go, wear sunscreen. I did not partake of Jen's, and while my lotion with SPF held up, the bare area of my chest and cleavage (no, it's not funny! Yes, my tank top was pretty low cut) is more than a little pink. There's a charming (pun intended) white square where it did not burn because of the pendant I was wearing. Shut up, this could happen to you!

Urban Bazaar

My friend, Suzanne, and I are going to be vendors at the Urban Bazaar on May 10th! I'm super excited but am trying to get lots of things made like a mad woman. It's made more tricky since I can't get to my soldering iron with all the boxes in the garage. Rolland's working on it tomorrow while I run wild at the Ft Worth Main Street Arts Festival tomorrow. I'm planning to take a ton of photos and gets lots of ideas on booth design, pricing, etc. I'm completely aware that this group is in a much different place artistically than I am, but I'm finally toe dipping out into the world. I hope the water's not too cold!