look what i found today on my walk

it's such a beautiful, sunny day here in NJ, so the dogs and i went out for a walk. of course i was keeping my eye out for nests and i wasn't disappointed! i couldn't believe this beautiful nest was just sitting in one of my evergreen trees.

i'm in a funk today and this made my day

i've been a little stressed out about Tucker who gave me such a scare the other day at school (all is fine...)- but it really affected me and put me in that "worry" mode about him. For those of you worriers out there, you know how stressful those feelings are. also, the heater on tucker's new hot tub is not working and when i called the company they told me they went bankrupt! jeff's truck won't start and my less than 7 month old tv died! what's next? i'm also working on this valentine's charm swap, which, quite honestly, i will be glad when it is over! just way to many people to keep track of (50 participants). i can barely remember if i had lunch, let alone juggle all that info! can't wait to go to the post office with 50 priority mail bags! and i have to pre weigh them before i go to make sure they are all under a pound (because they paid the $4.60 under a pound priority rate). people sent different bags, boxes, etc. not much continuity. just hope i don't get that grouchy mail guy!
but anyway, i just opened my email and recieved the nicest note. i have to say, "it made my day".

Sent by JoleeJane on January 30, 2008: Hi Keica-I had to write to tell you how amazing your art is!I noticed you had a blog so I went and checked it out, you are truly gifted.I love working with some of the same materials you use- I just cant get enough sometimes;)anyway thought you should know you are admired from CaliforniaJane

huh? am i right? how nice was that?

holiday decorations

these are holiday decorations (Valentines and Easter) that i have made and added to my etsy shoppe - http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9134856 - two of which have already sold - yay!)

i added these to my etsy shoppe today

I made these in October for the black friday show i did. they didn't sell (well, i sold two of the five i made) and i never got around to listing them in my etsy shoppe until today! http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5072419 . Listing items on etsy takes forever, so it really isn't my favorite thing to do. i wish they'd make it a little easier to do a listing.

anyway, they are night lights and quite cute. (like the night light i am taking to Artfest).

For Artfest

how cute is this? i just love it! i made this for Artfest to sell. you can bring two handmade items and put them up for sale while you are there. it is a way to recoup some money (and spend it at vendor night!). so this is one of my pieces. it is a light box and looks so cool when it is plugged in. i am just waiting for some little mushrooms to come in and they will get glued around the hedgehog, who will probably end up being made to sit a little higher to see him better. just waiting though to see how he looks with the mushrooms around him. the picture with the nest is the top of the box. underneath the nest is a vintage light switch cover.

Valentine's Stocking

This is a stocking i 've made for my neice, Erika. i cut a stocking shape out of red felt. i put some paper elements together plus the vintage valentine's card and started sewing. isn't the vintage silver fringe to die for? i found it a thrift store. there wasn't enough to go all the way around, so i sewed some paper hearts on the area that was fringless. in each corner in the opening of the stocking i sewed some fushcia feathers that had fallen off a hat of my grandmother's. she use to wear it to tea parties. when my grandmother died, Erika, my sisters and my mom scattered her ashes in Bass Lake and Erika was wearing the hat during the ceremony. i now have the hat which resides on top of my manikin. (i'll have to take a picture of that!) over the felt i put some fushcia tulle and sewed that on top. i left a little opening and then poured in some pink confetti stars before sewing it closed. i wanted it to sort of look like a snow globe, since Erika likes those.

she finally came back home!

Remember when i made this doll? (Bottom photo). That is what i did to begin her and then she was sent off on a round robin to 4 other participants. Well, she finally returned home right after the holidays (she had a nice relaxing trip!) and look how beautiful she is! i just love her and her garter legs and unreal - very creative. we should all be able to travel for some long and come back looking so gorgeous! i think the very top photo would make a great moo card! Thanks girls from the Warehouseartchix for taking such good care of her!http://warehouseartchix.typepad.com/warehouseartchix/2008/01/index.html Btw, the cab for her face was made by Lani Kent at http://artistlanikent.blogspot.com/

Where have i been?

Sorry for not posting in a few days, i've been in my studio busy finishing up my goodies for the easter swap i am in with Heather Bluhm at http://www.boobyfish.blogspot.com/. there are 11 of us in the Gold group, so we make 11 gifts (easter themed) and send them to Heather who will sort them into 11 piles and then send each participant a box containing 11 different gifts. Then we will open our gifts starting 11 days before Easter. My gift is to be opened on Day 6. I had a great time figuring out what i wanted to make and then actually sitting down and making them. i am the early bird on this one as i've got lots of projects and retreats coming up, so i have to make the most of my time. The biggest thing going on being the 52 person valentine charm swap that i am hostessing with The Charmsters group. the deadline is fast approaching and slowly bags of charms have been trickling in. i will do the same thing once all the bags have arrived - sort and divide into 52 different piles! yikes - that doesn't sound like fun only because where am i going to find room to make 52 piles! lol.

here are some sneak peeks at what i made for the easter swap. (final unveiling on day 6 of swap!)

do you like dolls?

Vivian over at http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com/ is hosting a doll swap. sign ups are until Jan. 23rd and you can read all the details on her blog! the theme is "beat the winter blues". go take a peek!

finally finished this from artnsoul - what a pain!

Here's another project i started in Oct. at Artnsoul in a Sally Jean Alexander project. the project was time consuming, so it was slow going working on it in class, which was fine. i knew i'd finish it once i got home. but then my soldering iron died and all of a sudden the holidays were here, etc. One of the reasons i didn't finish it in class though was because it was a very messy project. this piece used 4 pieces of glass which required a lot of handling to solder them together. i kept finding my fingerprints getting all over the glass (on both sides) and then the flux was everywhere, which you could see behind the piece after i had soldered it on. this i found irritating because flux is messy and looks really messy when i dries on a project and you didn't wipe it off. of course there was no way to clean off the flux behind the glass because it was now sealed, so i decided i would take the panels apart when i got home, clean them and then reassemble oh so carefully again using very little flux and keeping it as clean as possible.

yeah right! trying to take the panels off was a chore by itself. the base of this project is cardboard, so as i try to remove the solder, the cardboard was burning! then i broke a little corner of one piece of glass. but i forged ahead! i just retaped the burned edges with the foil tape and the broken corner was hidden under tape and solder. so it worked. but the flux was still getting behind the glass, no matter how careful i was. i think "gel" flux would have been ideal in this situation. even after cleaning it repeatedly, i still see fingerprints all over it as i was taking pictures!

i wasn't sure what i wanted to do for the base, so i started shopping around in my studio. i found a vintage egg thingy (where you place the hard boiled egg on it and then eat it from there....). i soldered this on the bottom, but it was still a bit top heavy, so i found a vintage shabby chic little dish that i glued the egg holder on. on top of the box, i glued a purple brooch and also added a little vintage filligree piece to the side that would be considered the "front". the very top photo shows the box in its new little vinette.

UPDATE: Yes, for those of you who have asked, it has 4 sides!

what my name, Kecia, means

What Kecia Means

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life.You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip.People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Belated Christmas gift arrived!

I received a box the other day from my art sister/blogger buddy, Sandra of The Warehouseartchix, http://warehouseartchix.typepad.com/warehouseartchix/2008/01/index.html, and in it was the lovely painting she did of me holding a bird, sorrounded by flowers and another bird perching in my hair. how beautiful is this? i absolutely LOVE it! the colors combinations she chose are perfect. i love looking at it and i love the fact that my friend painted it and while she painted it she thought of me, what i looked like, my hair (check out those fabo highlights!), my love for birds and gardening. to me it represents peace and serenity. thank you Sandra for such a thoughtful, personal gift.

So what have you been doing in the new year?

I decided that after Christmas i wanted to do a little more organizing of my studio and make better use of my space. I'm always tweaking stuff like this and each time, it gets better and better. so my idea this time was to empty this one drawer in my studio that was crammed with fabric and such and create a little sewing niche. the sewing niche was in my walk in closet, but it is quite cold in there during the winter and hot during the summer, so i don't like going in there! so by moving a few things around, i brought my sewing machine into my room (it's like a little side room off my bedroom. i have a rattan screen separating the area, so i don't really see it at all. then inside my closet i set up my ironing board and a vintage suitcase and am in the process of ironing all my fabric, which will then go into the suitcase. this way when i need something, it is nice and neat and accessible (not crammed in a drawer!).

then in my studio i had my husband put up some molding on my few and far between wall space so i could put my stamps on them. this way they are out of drawers and i can see what i might want to use instead of rummaging around in drawers. the other thing i did was put up a shelf in the opposite corner of my studio so i had somewhere to put all my books. they were all over the studio and trying to find the right book at the right time to peek through was a big time waster. guess in the end that'swhat i am trying to do is stop wasting so much time trying to locate things!

bird bath

yesterday morning i woke up to this scratchy, flappy noise on the roof outside my window (remember i like to keep my window open when i sleep). at first i didn't look because i assumed it was squirrels running around as usual. then it kept getting louder and weirder, so i took a peek. what a surprise! there were 8-10 European Starlings (black bird with white specks) out there. they were taking baths in the gutter which still had some water left over in it. it was quite a sight watching them! so i got up to get my camera, but unfortunately when i came back they were gone.

Easter swap is closed

Heather has closed the swap! it filled up rather quickly, so hopefully you got in it!

12 days of Easter swap!

for those of you who love doing swaps - there's an easter swap coming up and can be found at this blog.. sign ups are closing Jan. 7th, so hurry and check it out! http://www.12-days.blogspot.com/

nest walk

My husband and i (and Kirby) decided to take a walk over to where some new construction is beginning. That lot has been trees ever since we moved here in 1995, so it is really sad to see them coming down - to make way for over sized, no personality, ugly mcmansions; to be filled with 3 car garages with Humeers and Escalades. the state is crowded enough as it is, but let's build more houses! at this point, i don't know where the deer will go from here. maybe they'll head to the quarry area behind my house.

but anyway, we decided to go look around to see if we could find any nests. we looked in the trees that were taken down already and we went through the trees that were slated to go down next. we ended up finding 5 nests - and i'm sure there is plenty more! I was happy to remove them from the carnage of bulldozers and fallen trees.

new art retreat to check out

My favorite mixed media artist, Karyn Gartel, of The Altered Diva, http://altereddiva.blogspot.com - is going to be teaching again! She said she wasn't going to be doing any teaching this year, but lucky for us, she changed her mind.

She will be teaching in Wisconsin at a new retreat called, "Raven's Nest Art Retreat" Isn't that a great name? The retreat takes place in October 16-19, 2008. Take a look at the website to see her classes and the other teachers you will find there. http://www.raevns-nest-art-retreat.com/home.html

Happy New Year!