longing to get into the studio to play

my friend from California sent me this picture

it was in an advertisement she got for a magazine, and she thought I'd enjoy seeing it

cool

and of course I'm right away thinking about the Out of Africa series that I have started and want to get back to

soon -- I hope

today we head off to our daughter's who is letting us use her house as a "crash pad" of sorts while I do the charity auction final details -- then the auction is on Saturday evening -- and we're DONE!

while we're there I will also be taking my boutique items to the store in Fort Collins -- I thought it would be good to do that without making an extra trip

so right now the "staging area" around the front door looks like we're running away from home with the boxes for the boutique and the boxes for the auction plus whatever the two of us and the dog need in a week --

I started quilting on the baby quilt last night -- I've decided on a very basic cross hatch quilting pattern -- the new Sulky thread I got yesterday (in a bright sunny yellow) is nice -- slides through the fabric and the bamboo/cotton batting like a hot knife through butter -- and I think my stitches look smaller than my usual -- cool

the quilt and the "hats for fencing" knitting are going with me -- and on Sunday my daughter and I will work on baby shower invitations -- fun

time to pack up the computer!

New projects and good news

I made a trip to the craft store yesterday.

We were looking for the plastic cleaner solution for the balloon project.

They evidently don't make it anymore (we last used it about 8 years ago!), and we decided that we could use alcohol to clean it instead.

But since we were in the craft store, we decided to take a walk down the "clearance" row ---- and lookie here!! Five new styles of birdhouses!

So while I'm working on repairing the one that got damaged last weekend, I'll also be working on these.

I especially like the windmill one -- and yes, that really does turn!!

Guess I'll be doing a bit of research to figure out five new birds too --- well, only four --- the barn needs an owl, so that one is already decided.

So now we start in on the wood works --- removing the little rods that are on the fronts and installing something actually long enough to perch the bird on, sanding all the surfaces, putting on the primer coats, figuring out color schemes --- cool!

I also got wire to start making the beaded flowers for the flower pots. And a pair of size 4 straight bamboo knitting needles. And a wood frame with an oval opening for a beaded piece I'm reworking. Your basic eclectic shopping basket at the craft store.


And after having been to the craft store and bought the birdhouses, which at the time I had no real idea where I would even take them when I finished them, the mail man brought this envelope.

I knew from the feel of the envelope that it was an acceptance letter, but I tried not to get too excited --- after all, I had applied to this show last year and been accepted, except they had put me in the "crafter" area, which is NOT where I wanted to be.

Was it the magic words "Mixed Media" on my application that did it this year? Was it a different jury panel? Is it just finally my turn?

Who cares --- the letter is from The Fine Arts Chairman! We got in!!!

This means I need to get more pieces done and figure out the display issues --- and I have until the end of August to do so as the show is August 21 through 23 in St. Joseph, MO.

Ok, I'm still doing a little virtual happy dance --- and thinking about what I'm doing next.

The damages report

To any of you that came looking for me late Saturday or Sunday, you have my sincere apologies.

For me at least this show was direct from H*!!

We arrived at 11:00 a.m. on Friday morning to set up and had to wait for half an hour for the person in charge to show up and tell us where to set up.

Here is a picture of our booth.

If it looks like we're sitting in the street, it's because we practically were --- the back edge of the tent was about 3 inches from the edge of the curb.

And the wind! Oh let me tell you, it never stopped.

The whole time we were there I was picking things up after the wind blew them off the table. In the picture on the left hand side you can see that I had two framed pieces up, but I gave up on that after they were blown off too.

This picture shows the damage that was done to one of the pieces. All of the little bunches of glass flowers were knocked off the roof and many of the individual flowers around the base of the birdhouse were also damaged.

I'll have to figure out how to repair or rework this piece.

It's not that I haven't done shows in adverse conditions. We worked through some pretty strong winds in Atchison, KS a few years ago, and when we went to a show in St. Joseph, MO it rained most of the weekend, but in both of those cases I was never worried that a big gust would take my whole tent out into traffic -- literally.

Also in both of those cases the people who were in charge of the show were right on site----

and there were bathrooms available (at this show the porta potties were never unlocked -- we had to go ask a local business to let us use the facilities --- which on Saturday morning meant not until after 11 a.m. when we'd been there since 8:00 a.m.)

oh yes, and at that show people were actually there to look at (and buy) the art

At this show people didn't even know why we were there and one vendor got yelled at by a passing driver because he couldn't see around her tent to make his turn.

{sigh!}

I will be writing a letter to the promoter to explain the issues we had, and I'm really glad this was not an expensive show.

There was an up side to the weekend, however.

A while back I ran across the website of an artist that is doing very cool bead embroidery stuff. When I saw that she was doing this same show, I was pretty excited because it meant I would get to see her work, and hopefully talk with her.

I got to do both.

And what I saw has set me to thinking about a whole new way to display my things. I'll be talking about that whole idea as we move along into creating our new look.

The latest (and last for a while) piece of beach glass complete.

Because of the curve of the sides of this semi-triangular piece of glass, I needed to use something across the back of the glass to pull the sides in.

I didn't realize it would look like a sort of spider web through the glass --- an effect that I really like

Because we don't have another show for a while, I'm not going to be working on these semi-production pieces for a while.

I have several ideas for some bigger, framed pieces that I want to work on, and there are some other jewelry pieces I want to do that are bigger and more complex.




Check out my newest doodle!

As I said, folks weren't at the show to buy --- most just walked by and complained about the sidewalk being blocked --- so I had some time on my hands

I did this little drawing of the giraffe

A while back my mother gave me a white shirt that my dad didn't need any more, and I've been thinking about doing something to "jazz it up" so I can wear it sort of like a jacket at shows.




I think I will begin by putting the bear and bird design I've been using on my business cards on the back of the shirt, then add some of the other animal drawings that I've done -- like this new giraffe

We'll see where that all goes.

Time to get some laundry done, and run a few errands

It's Show Time!!

Yup, the first show of the season is this weekend!

The first chance to show this whole new line of jewelry and see how it is received.


So here are the particulars:

Art a La Carte -- ParkerFest
19751 E. Mainstreet
Parker, CO 80134

(just East of Parker Road off of Mainstreet, South of E470)

Friday, May 15 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Saturdy, May 16 from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 17 from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm

We've never done this show before, so we're hoping for good things!

If you live anywhere in the area, come on by and say hello (and if you bring a print out of this blog post, I'll give you a 10% discount on any single item on my table over $20)

Look, it's dirt!

Gardening season has officially begun!

Yesterday morning we planted the seeds for the things that need a head start here in our short growing season.

We got this lovely faux greenhouse that has 72 spots to start things in

On Wednesday we had filled it with soil and wet it down to soak up the moisture so it would be ready for the seeds

The planting was done by poking a hole in the center of each little cell with a bamboo skewer then the seeds were carefully put in with tweezers.

You'll notice on the top left corner there is a little white sticker. That's so I can tell which one is the top left corner!

And here is the planting chart. It has a circle drawn at the top left too --- just so I can remember which end is up -- so to speak.

The chart tells me what got planted where so when they start coming up (those little pilot leaves on a lot of plants look very similar) I'll know what I've got.

Oh yes, those cells that are highlighted in yellow? Those are starts for our kid's garden --- they're getting tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini. We've agreed that the mild peppers (bells and pasillas) will be grown in our garden and the hot peppers (jalapino) will be grown in theirs ---that way there will actually be both kinds and not just a whole batch of "wonder what this will taste like?" as peppers readily cross pollinate.

The little green house has been transported upstairs to the spare bedroom where we have a light on them to warm the soil. Now the trick is to keep the very interested labrador out of them!

Under the catagory of "third time's the charm", I was notified via email this morning that we actually passed the jury on one of the last applications I sent in, so we do have two shows to take our latest mixed media items to. Hurrah!!! Our show dates are May 15 through 17 and September 18 through 20. I'll be posting further details as we get closer.

Remember this from yesterday?

During his "putter in the garage" time yesterday, the DH created the little platform inside the cart that I needed to raise the floor so the pots will actually be visable.

He also brought in some sandpaper and I've started sanding the pots so they are all nice and smooth for the first coat of paint.

I loaded up the tumbler yesterday with pieces from both of these "gift glass" pieces. (For the first time on this project I forgot to take a "before" picture --- OOPS!)

Anyway, along about Mother's Day there will be "after" pictures and I'll have a whole new batch of glass to make pretties out of!

I've been working on a necklace from the last batch of glass, and it's coming along nicely. Because each piece of glass is so unique and individual, creating the bezel for each one has required some real "thinking out of the box". I've done various types of netting around the ones that are curved or have gentle angles, but for the very sharp triangular pieces, netting doesn't work so well.

After several attempts on the current one, I made a peyote band to run all around the edge then used smaller beads to make the "prongs" on the front and the back to keep the glass from slipping out of the band. I'm working on the chain now --- almost ready to zip it up.

It's progressing nicely.

time for some breakfast!

Home Sweet Booth

Here was our booth yesterday at the craft show.

Instead of trying to cram 3 tables into an 8x10 space, we went with just our 2 larger ones

We can't put out quite so much stuff, but the display features a lot more "walk in" space, which means the customers will actually stay long enough to see something they might buy

It's a good thing

I have to say that I did not have high hopes for this show, last year it was the last show in that area after two other semi-successful ones, and this one was a bust then

Given the state of the economy, I was seriously thinking it was a waste of time

I was pleasantly surprised -- perhaps it was the fact that we are literally the brightest booth in the room (you just can't see the colors of what I do properly in gym lighting, so I carry my own), perhaps it was the fact that we had a better layout for the booth, perhaps it was that I picked the right stuff to put out (the Rocky Mountain Beach Glass was a big HIT!!), maybe it was just our day to make a little on our efforts

While it wasn't a great show money wise, we did make a little profit, so I can order some more materials to go with the beach glass things

My sister came out in the afternoon and visited for a while -- when she attends these things she usually come late in the day and helps out with the packing up and hauling out -- I can not tell you just how much I appreciate both the opportunity to visit with her and the extra pair of hands at the end of a long day (we'd been up since 4 a.m.!) -- so a big hug and a bigger thank you to my sister!!

Today there will of course be paperwork to do and the unloading of the van and after today all of the display pieces, etc., can be put away. Soon I will be doing the end of year inventories and all of that as this was our last show for the year. My on line stores are open all the time, but I do the accounting for those a different way. Ah, December -- Christmas and taxes -- Pffffftt!

time to get to it

Show Time!

Yup, we're doing our one and only show before Christmas

If you're in the Denver area, come on by and visit

Catching up from the weekend

This was our booth at our show on Saturday

Held in a nice little school in the town of Berthoud, the facility was clean and pretty well lit for a school's lunch room

While this was not a real big show, we did sell a couple of small pieces and gave out a lot of cards with our web site information on them

So now there are a few pieces on the "to sew" list, but no hurry on them

Considering the state of the country's financial system just now, we really can't complain

It was also nice to spend part of the weekend with our daughter and her husband who live fairly close to where the show was

Now that we're done with bear shows for the year, I'll be working more on some of the jewelry pieces that have been "on hold" for the last month or so while we prepared for the last two shows.

This is the first of those pieces to be finished

The cab was originally bezeled with the idea of including it in a bracelet I did last fall, but adding it would have made the bracelet too long, so it's just been sitting in the work box.

Since I'm trying to focus on some smaller (and less expensive) pieces for the upcoming school shows, I decided that with the addition of some fringe it would make a nice necklace.

I have a couple more of this type of pieces to do and some more beaded leaves to complete as well, but I have time to do this as the first school show is not until the first weekend in November.


And work continues on the quilt

I finished up this block last night while watching TV

Like the previous one, the edges are all raw, ready to be appliqued to the stripping after I put the other blocks together

So today I will be pulling out all the fabrics to do the last of these blocks -- the center one


Meantime, there are the usual fall house chores to start considering -- the tomatoes seem to be done, so we'll be taking them out soon -- maybe today; the green beans are actually doing better now that its cooler, so we'll leave them in a while longer -- and the pumpkins are starting to ripen -- pictures soon!

Last week, before we went off to do our show I ask our neighbor to move the items on his side of the fence that were making it lean against our tool shed. The plan is to reinforce the fence and hopefully get a coat of paint on the shed

Time to get movin'

odds and ends before a show

like I didn't have enough to do, yesterday morning we decided to make one more of the smaller dodos

this is Darkwing Ditto

cute huh?

actually it was helpful to learn that when I have all of the materials right in hand I can actually make one of these in about 4 hours -- and he's all hand stitched









since I had finished the previous bird quilt block the day before I pulled out the fabrics for the next one

and I've already begun working on it -- all of his tail and about half of the body is already appliqued







The box arrived!

No doubt you're thinking "box? what box?"

This weekend at our show we will be taking orders for Intercal Trading Group -- the people I have bought mohair for my animals from for over 20 years. Since their sales rep can't be at all shows at once, we're trying something new -- this box is full of sample pieces of their fur so you can actually put your hands on the fur before you place that order.

It should be interesting

Here are the details of where our show will be:

5th Annual Berthoud Doll, Toy & Teddy Bear Show
Ivy Stockwell Elementary School
175 Fifth Street
Berthoud, CO
hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, September 27

$3 admission, children under 12 free with parent

mention this blog post when you purchase any single animal over $20 and get a 10% discount (discount does not apply to fur purchases -- there are other price incentives for those)




and just because I can't seem to get myself to any show without some mishap

last night I ran into a door jam

notice the lovely red mark and the blue swelling on the toe

when I hit it I heard the "pop", so I probably broke something

there will be the applying of tape support and the wearing of socks (and probably some limping) Bring on the ice and the advil

So today we'll be loading up the van and heading off to set up -- hope to see some of you at the show!

Nearly ready

Remember these from a week or so ago?


I finally got the faces done!



Just in time, since we will be leaving tomorrow to take the dog to our daughter then heading off to Kansas City for the Good Bears of the World Jubilee


If you are in the Kansas City area, please join us on Saturday! Bring along a copy of this blog and I'll honor it as a coupon for 10% off the purchase of any item of $20 or more.

Recovering

from a LLLLLOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG weekend show -- wow!

this was home sweet booth

We did our set up on Friday morning, and spent most of the day huddling with our sweatshirts on because it never got very warm

On Saturday it was better -- warm enough for shirt sleeves, still cool enough to be comfortable in jeans

And Sunday was quite warm

just the typical kind of thing you get here in the mountain West! We're grateful that there was no rain/snow/hail and that the wind was light

Our jewelry was well received. We made sales and got great feedback from other artists.

One designer that was visiting the fair stopped and talked for quite a long time and gave me some ideas to improve several of the older pieces

So beware! In coming months you will see a lot of "Reworking" going on!


On Sunday afternoon my sister came to visit and pick up a hat.

As she has done several time in the past few years she stayed to help out with the tear down -- something that is greatly appreciated!!!

She brought me this little piece of heaven --- mmmmmmm, yummmy, DARK, unsweet (but not bitter) CHOCOLATE -- 87% cacao -- a lovely 2 oz bar that is neatly divided into little pieces inside to allow for resting a small chunk on your tongue and just letting it dissolve away ---- mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

This bar is just the chocolate, but the same company makes several other bars -- I may have to check them out too

I have not done much on quilt projects or Christmas knitting or bears the last 3 days, but I did manage to finish one afghan square a day in the car -- if I do as well when we travel next weekend I'll be able to ship off a box when we return!

Today, after I finish the HUGE pile of paperwork that always accompanies a show (no job is done until the paperwork is complete!), doing the laundry and making a trip to the store I hope to get at least 2 bears complete.

Someone remind me when I'm scheduling shows next year that shows in two different media on back to back weekends is a BAD idea -- we leave Thursday morning for the Jubilee in Kansas City! AAAACCCCCKKKK!!!!

It's Show Time!!

Yes folks, we're doing a show!!

Last Minute Change: The show has been moved from Curtis Park to Cherry Hills Marketplace, 5910 South University Blvd, Greenwood Village, CO 80121

(I was notified late this afternoon of this change!!)

Show hours are: Friday (Sept 5) from noon to 6 p.m.; Saturday (Sept 6) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

(Bring along a print out of this blog post and I'll give you a 10% discount on any single item over $20 you purchase)

With all the driving back and forth to the State Fair Grounds I have completed another vest for Warm Woolies

This and the sweater I finished in July will be going off to them next week.

Since I'll be making 3 trips to Denver and back this weekend, I hope to get some afghan squares finished too -- still need a few to finish up the box of those.



Today I'll be retagging all of the jewelry that we had entered in the fair and packing things for our show.

Guess its time to get to that!

Weekend show review and new projects

We spent our weekend doing a show in Canon City, CO.

We had done this show before, but not in this venue -- it used to be in a park down by the Arkansas River, right where the train that goes to the Royal Gorge comes by it.

This was our booth.

We actually made a small profit on this show -- hurrah!!

I can tell you that I'm draggin' my tail this morning -- in the process of setting up, manning and tearing down a booth, I obviously use different muscles than I do in other activities -- I've got lots of sore spots today!


As I mentioned, the show was at a new venue -- The Abbey Winery grounds.

This is the kind of bottle they put one of their wines in.

I went and "made nice" to one of the tasting room staff to get my hands on this little gem (yes, its empty, I got it that way)

I have BIGGGGG plans for this that includes breaking (YES!!), tumbling and future beading

But first we're going to experiment with a more mundane green bottle that we have on hand -- and maybe a brown one too


I think these are shells from hickory nuts (someone tell me if they know otherwise!)

Our booth was set up right under the tree and I picked these up

Got plans for them too that include soaking (and possibly boiling), making of molds from polymer clay and (Yup!) more beading


As is usual when I do a show where I take my beading, I try to have something on hand to work on.

For one thing, I want folks to understand that these beauties are created by hand, by me!

For another thing, it keeps my hands busy so I'm not tempted to spend a whole weekend snacking!!

This is the piece that I just sort of "threw together" on Friday evening, and I have to say that so far I'm real pleased with it.


When I did the bezzeling around the face (that's a piece of carved bone I've had for quite a while), it was deeper at the top than the bottom, so I used a slightly different technique where I did some extra beading across the top of the bone that helped hold it instead of making the entire bezzel taller (I didn't want to cover any more of the face than I had to).

I liked the results so well that I decided to put some additional details on top of the "wing" bead too.....

This piece promises to be another very unusual one



As also sometimes happens at a show, I spend time looking at the pieces that are complete and on the table.

This weekend I pulled these two pieces to undergo a "make over"

I'm planning to add more "fringe" to the bottom of the tiger eye piece and possibly submit it to a magazine for publication.

The leaves are cool, and they get lots of comments at shows, but I think they are just too much and the "chain" is too short, so I plan to remove each leaf from the "chain" and remake this into at least 2 necklaces -- maybe more.

We'll see how that goes.

And this is the only other thing I did this weekend --- this is yet another piece of the previously shown mystery project

Any more guesses about what we're making?

So today its paperwork (after a show there is ALWAYS paperwork) and laundry and unloading the van and just trying to recover!

time to get started

home again, the travel log concludes!

We can begin by saying that a knowledgeable hotel clerk is worth her weight in gold!

While we were out and about on Saturday, the "low air" tire light on the van came on. I was dreading the idea of actually checking them again myself as the last time I did it I had to actually remove the hubcaps to get to the valve stem and I just didn't really want to get so dirty that I couldn't work on anything while we traveled.

So, I asked the hotel clerk that checked us out and she sent us to the place where the hotel has the work done on their shuttles, and they took care of the tire pressures all around, at no charge!, and we were quite quickly on our way.



This was the sign posted in the rest stop we were in in northern New Mexico.

Another handmade sign said something about the nitrate levels in the water being determined to be to high and that the water is hazardous.

Its a scary thought -- not being able to drink the water has long been a running joke when talking about going to other countries, but most of us here in the U.S. take clean water very much as something that is always there



The little restaurant we stopped at for lunch was in Colorado City.

This was the window that ran all the way across the front of the place (I told you it was little!). There was art work on every wall.

The food was good, and very reasonable.




Oh yes, and they have a sense of humor too! This sign was posted over the towel dispenser in the ladies room....

If you're ever in Colorado City, stop by Max's Place and have a bite!!



Coming out of Colorado City and headed towards Colorado Springs, we passed a long train of cars that looked like this -- those folks are tanks

All of these are coming back to Ft Carson for refurbishing after being with the group of troups that have just returned from Iraq



And as we returned from Ft Collins after picking up our dog from our daughter there, we passed 7 trucks like this, hauling huge highway I-beams that are headed for a big interstate project south of us

all in all an interesting, but uneventful (thank goodness!!) trip home





while I was hanging out in the motel room in the evening I finished the first of the angel wings.

After having pulled out all of the first attempt, I must say I'm pretty pleased with how this went the second time. I've even started on the second wing now.

There were 4 New Mexico Memorial afghan squares knit in the car -- all in oranges and reds and turquoise and purple -- mmmmmm, very colorful


and so today there is the van to unpack, laundry, paperwork and a run for a few groceries

I'm still pretty tired, so I'm not rushing into anything --- all the time on the road yesterday wore me out!

time to go do something.....

Show report on Albuquerque

This was our table at today's show

All set up and ready to "meet and greet"











remember this one from earlier in the week?

remember I said he needed to go to a new home so I wouldn't have to face a rework?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!

I do want to have another go with this new head pattern tho', as it is rather interesting to work with one with 2 gussets instead of just one -- it changes the entire shape of the head


So, tonight having set up, worked all day and torn down the display, I'm a bit weary.

We're staying here tonight and heading home in the morning -- just couldn't handle driving home in the dark tonight

time to go pack

Eating at the owl?

Here we are in Albuquerque, where we will be doing our show tomorrow --

One of the things that we enjoy about this show is the chance to get together with the other artists the evening before to share a meal and catch up on what's happening in each other's lives.

The selected restaurant this year was The Owl Cafe --- yes folks, this picture is the outside of the building!!

I was a bit concerned about being able to find anything on the menu I could eat since the big advertised thing is a big green chili cheese burger. And there are a lot of "no nos" on the menu, but they did have a veggie quesidilla that looked like a good thing for me to try and it was excellent

The inside of the restaurant is standard chrome craft 1950s style decor (if you've watched Diners, Drive Ins and Dives on Food TV you've seen this kind of interior!!), but the outside is pretty cool -- this huge stucco owl head (oh yeah, lots of owl things inside too)

It was definately a pleasant evening




one of the things I do when we're traveling is work on charity knitting, these two squares (one completed on the way down, one in process) are in honor of being in New Mexico -- the red, yellow and green of the chilis on every sign everywhere, and the purples and turquoises for the great way they paint the railings and color the concrete of their highway bridges --- the landscape is pretty much desert, and the sun sort of leaches the color out of anything pastel, so bright colors are the order of the day. A lot of the highway overpasses, etc., are these lovely terra cotta, salmon and turquoise colors with some purple thrown in for fun --- who says highways are boring?!

And as we drove down we had a couple of little showers and we had the lovely fragrance of wet cedar ---- mmmmmmm, a delight in deed

so now its time to get my stuff organized for the morning ---- and we're hoping for a good show ----