Snowbound and Wired

Two feet of snow? For real? That's what the forecasters were calling for, but could it really happen? Yep!

Luckily, my flight made it in safe and sound on Friday night and I was happily ensconced with the Smiths in Falls Church. We enjoyed a truly authentic snow day on Saturday! Noni was visiting, too, and Maggie kept us all entertained with her new train. A blizzard is the perfect excuse to craft up a storm...so, by the warmth of the fire and the lights of the Christmas tree, I busted out my crafty bag full of wire and started making some earrings with lots of cool colored wire. Other requirements for snowday crafting: coffee with cocoa and Kahlua, pajamas, and the prettiest hair ever. haaaaaaaaa (Do you see those huge drifts through the window??)

I spent a few hours twisting and bending and coiling with some fun results. This little pair is a tribute to the massive snowmen that we could've made had we actually ventured outside into the snow for more than five minutes.So, it's time to take another break from snowday relaxing and go watch Scott shovel while I wait for my own sweetie husband/driveway shoveler to arrive on his ultra-delayed flight from Indianapolis!

Happy Snowday and Merry Christmas!!!

A Case of Cool

At the SAC's Gallery Art & Craft show a couple of weeks ago, one of my favorite booths featured the work of Alisha and her husband whose great decor and jewelry is all made from upcycled goodies. There were windchimes featuring all sorts of characters created out of kitchen utensils. But, more importanly, Alisha Case creates fun glass rings out of old wine and beer bottles that are part of this art. I was wandering around her booth coveting and she let me pick out some "raw" materials for my own creations! And, the fun part, her business name: Art by the Case. I love that!!

These glass bottle bits are soft and smooth and wonderful to work with! Here are just a couple of them that I turned into pendants with a few beads and some twists of wire. This one features some blueish-white glass from a beer bottle. It's a cute little pendant!

This one's a little bigger because it's hailing from a nice buttery chardonnay. :) Okay, I'm just guessing what kind of wine it was, but I love the dark, rich yellow of the glass. Just in case my sister's reading this...pretend you're surprised when you see this on a gift-giving day not far away. haaaaaaaaaaaa

So, another great upcycling artist!!!!!! Thanks, Alisha!

Punch Bunch with Kerry B. Beads!

Last week I had a stroke of luck during my online Christmas shopping adventures and came across the perfect thing for a crafty beadgirl I know. :) Kerry Bogert, genius designer and glass bead maker, was cleaning out her stash and listed a few "bead buyables" on her site Kab's Creative Concepts. Her beads are bright and fun--so are her designs!

I got three sets of beads and I love them all, but there were a bunch of pink that I just couldn't wait to work with! Kerry called them "Set 18" but I call them a perfect "Punch Bunch" with various shades of pink and shot of minty green.

You know how during the holidays just about anything goes in the punchbowl? Think of a fruity punch with a bunch of lime sherbet scoops floating in it. That's this necklace!!

I practiced some arranging and a bit of wire working and I'm thrilled with the final result! If you haven't checked out Kerry's blog, I'd highly recommend it. Plus, I just checked and there are still a couple of bead sets for sale on her site...while you're there you can also pre-order her new book that's coming out!

Showgirl

Thanks to the many folks who came out to visit and support me during my last couple of shows. I'm happy to say that now I'm ready to settle in for the season! If you still need something special that I can make up for you (or is already made somewhere in the house) don't hesitate to contact me. :)I tried some new vertical display pieces and they really helped open up the view of my goodies. It took a lot of black spray paint, with only a bit on my face, to finish them off, but they were well worth it. I added velcro to make hanging surfaces for pendant and earring cards or laminated pictures and magazine covers.

The other cool part of the big SAC's gallery show was all the oooohs and aaaahs over the polymer clay pendants. I'm so happy about that! I'm actually headed out right now for some lessons from a local polymer clay artist!

Oh, and my my favorite part of the weekend happened when two lovely ladies came into my booth and were so excited to meet me...they'd seen my story in copy of The Edge magazine that comes out with the Army Times. They checked out the blog and then decided it was worth the drive up to Montgomery from Fort Rucker. How cool is that!? I actually have fans! The story in the magazine is a whole other story that I'll save for another post. :)