Good Fun Randomness

Do you ever just grab supplies and start creating stuff?  I'm having some fun lately with freeform creating.  Here's what has happened the last couple of days:

Here's my first ever barrette/shawl pin:

and this random triangle ended up like a Christmas tree, which reminds me that Christmas is just over 2 months away, yikes!

Hope you have some good fun today...in a random way!

Mermaids and Buried Treasure?

I'm feeling inspired by mermaids and gold lately.  Maybe it is because summer is ending?  

Here are some new necklaces that feel a little like they'd be found at the bottom of the ocean.

Really beautiful faceted, but still rough and rustic fluorite in aqua and deep green on gold plated chain with leaf detail.  Look for them on Etsy if they don't sell at this weekend's handmade market.  

I'm struggling a bit with some mermaid necklace designs, but determined that it will be.  What does your creative process look like?

Wishing you luck on all of your new and creative projects!

Handmade Halloween Goodies

After overindulging on tasty food at a conference away from home, I decided to create some "eye candy" for a change of pace.  Enjoy!

This one is an extra large "Raising the Dead" tree.  It would look great hanging on a door, window or wall to show your Halloween spirit.  It was made from copper wire, pyrite beads, magnesite skulls, and then antiqued to enhance that old and creepy feeling.  (6.5 inches tall x 5.3 inches wide)  

Should I add a wire tombstone?  Hmmm...maybe that can be the second in the "series"...Ooh!  It could have a garnet "blood moon".  

I have been searching high and low for the perfect spiders to spin my web pendants, to no avail. Decided this spiderweb could hold it's own:

When you have crazy colored wire, you need to make a crazy colored pendant.  It is a rule!  Here's mine using purple and bright orange wire and a peach aventurine "moon":

If you haven't seen it lately, come check out my Etsy shop.  Lots of cool stuff for Halloween and every day of the year.  

Got Skills?

This weekend was all Girl Scouts all the time!  I finally got to attend the Adult's Outdoor Skills Weekend up at Camp Winacka in Julian.  

A great group of volunteer and career Girl Scouts were on hand to teach us skills of all different sorts that we could use with our girls.  It was fun and I AM EXHAUSTED!  

I hiked, and wandered, and hiked some more; cooked in trash cans, in old milk cartons, on pitchforks and shovels AND ate the food; got certified (finally) for cooking and tent camping; sang songs both new and familiar, played skill building games, made cool crafty badges, exchanged SWAPS (Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere), drank a boatload of ice water, hung out with friends, and met lots of wonderful new people.  

Came away with SO MANY ideas.  Look out girls!
#Yearlongspirit  

Fabric Love

September 27, 2014  http://tmblr.co/Z4JBOn1RohLbs

Yesterday, I went to the local material store to grab a last bit of corduroy needed for an art project with my son's 5th grade class.  The kids decorated their very own fabric and we will be making pencil bags and purses with them at our next session.  

I am so glad to have met SewLoka owner Claudia a few weeks ago.  Her drawer full of zippers was the inspiration for this project.  



I also got some scrap corduroy from her, so the only big expenses were the sharpies and alcohol. 

Here are a few of the pieces the kids made:


Pretty cool, eh?

I was amazed at the number of people buying quilting fabrics at the store.  I waited in a LONG line to get my measly 1 yard of fabric cut.  I guess people are getting started on their cold weather projects.  Anyway, one of the ladies was offered the end bolt piece at a discount and she said "Of course, I can always use scrap!" , which reminded me of another shop I've been looking at lately on Etsy - Make Mine Patchwork.  

Karen is OBSESSED with fabric concoctions. I mean, take a look at her work room:


She is well stocked to take on any project, I am convinced.  That is a pretty impressive sight!
Karen mixes and matches fabrics to make some really neat pieces.  Here are a few of my favorites:
    

Really unique and detailed stuff.  I bet she is great at custom orders too.  

So, don't go to the fabric store and stand in line like me.  Just head on over to Make Mine Patchwork and pick up a cool new quilt, bag, or stocking for yourself.  Oh, did I mention she makes baby items too?  Bet those'd make great shower gifts.

Cheers!

Donuts and Eggs

September 24, 2014

Long, busy day yesterday!  It started out with prepping for teaching a 5th grade art class at 5 am and ended with buying donuts with my daughter around 11 pm...because doesn't everyone buy donuts for a late night snack?  Come-on now!  There was a lot of other stuff in between, but it doesn't really matter what.  Just that I was pretty punchy by the end of the day.

I've been trying to eat more healthy foods lately and the donuts just grossed me out.  Especially because it was late, I was tired/punchy, and the box was labeled "glazed yeast rings" instead of just raised or glazed donuts.  How does that sound appealing?  It sounds a little like you'e eating an infection.  

(In a nod to #coolness graphed...
)

I'd much rather have eggs (or farina with tons of cinnamon and dried cranberries) for breakfast.  This got me thinking about a shop I saw recently on Etsy called Sammy's Jewels.  Out of all of the things on for sale here, I am drawn to the egg clips most.  They are really cute.  (Maybe this year's costume could be a few of these in my hair as a play on getting "egg-ed"?  LOL - like a bad comedian.)



So as we were headed home from the store, I started talking with my daughter about these clips and all of the other creepy cute stuff in the shop.  She is a definite fan, as are many others - 3890 admirers, wow!

She picked out a few of her favorites this morning:

 



...and those were just the ones from the first page of the shop!  So join the crowd and check out Sammy's Jewels.  They're reasonably priced, super cute, and handmade by a college kid with plenty of imagination.  
Cheers!