Merry Christmas

I wish all of you much Joy this week with your families...

I hope Santa brings everything you wished for...

 May Peace surround you this holiday season...

Best Friends Animal Society Holiday Home Tour

Thank you to all those who came out to support the Best Friends Animal Society Holiday Home Tour. Even though it was overcast and chilly, we had a great time shopping in the marketplace!



Porcelain pocket watch faces have been mixed with vintage sheet music to make these beautiful ornaments.

Men's vintage watches are now Christmas baubles.







I have one more show this week at Sharp Hospital and then it's time to concentrate on all of the Christmas orders!

Enjoy the time...

I've had these pocket watches for quite a while and decided to make them into Christmas ornaments. Vintage Christmas seals and black & white silhouettes were added to catch the Christmas spirit. They will be available at this Saturday's Holiday Home Tour in Point Loma.

Vintage Wreaths

My friend Kelly & I are making these beautiful wreaths out of vintage glass ornaments.I have been buying glass ornaments for years and now they have found their special place to be displayed. Each wreath takes on a special personality of it's own. This pink one is the best so far!

Find The Cure

My friend, Gina, will be walking in the Breast Cancer 3-Day in a few weeks. I designed a necklace for her and others to wear. When I wear mine, it makes me think of others who have passed in my life, my nephew Michael died of SIDS and my dad died from Pulmonary Fibrosis. May they find cures for all of these sicknesses.

The vintage spoons are hand pounded and hand stamped. They are $24 and 20% will be donated to my friend Gina for Breast Cancer Research. An Additional 20% of the purchase price will go to The Concord N.H. Hospital, in honor of my nephew Michael. They will be available for purchase at The Cornerstore and Vignettes Antiques. If you would like to order one, please send me an email.

Happy Halloween!

These are my kids many years ago. Time passes quickly, enjoy the day with your families!

Thank you to our judge

Thank you, Karen, for choosing our winning spoon phrase! Here is a small token of my appreciation for all of your support and encouragement (and playing with Buddy).

We also had a shop winner...

Congratulations, Sheila! I love your Tattered Goods

The winner of my October Contest is...

'Serenity' submitted by Sandra from Under The Sun with Me

Thank you to everyone who submitted phrases!

I appologize for the delay in posting. My computer crashed and it has taken my sweet husband almost a week to get me back to blog land!

October Contest

I've been stamping phrases on spoons and I need a little inspiration. I've done "Blessings", "You had me at hello...", "Live your life with Grace" ...now I need a few more. Send me a phrase or quote that inspires you, not too long as I'm hand stamping each letter! French sayings would be great too! I'll have my neighbor pick the one she likes the most and if your phrase is chosen, I'll send you a hand pounded and hand stamped spoon necklace!

Just post your idea in the comments section. The contest ends October 15 and I will post the winning phrase stamped on a vintage spoon! As an added bonus, if you refer to my contest on your blog, I'll enter your name into a drawing for a spoon stamped with your store's name on it. How cute would it be to wear a necklace with "The Attic Girls" or "The Cornerstore" stamped on it? The drawing for a "store" spoon will be October 16. Thank you and good luck!

Happy Birthday!

Cordelia from Cottage Antiques asked me to make a special necklace for her friend Deb's birthday today. Cordelia helped to provide charms to make this truly a piece to be treasured.

La Mesa Craft Show

Scaredy cats!

eek! A spider!

Saturday, September 12 come to the Fall Home Decor, Gift & Craft Show at the La Mesa Community Center in La Mesa, California. My friends Coli and Julie have the most awesome Halloween folk art. Julie's wooden signs feature vintage cats, and pumpkins . I bought several of her hand embroidered kitchen towels all adorned with vintage witches, pumpkins and crows. Coli made the wonderful velvet witch hat and stuffed hand with a spider on top of glass candlesticks. I will definitely use them in my display at Glitterfest!

Coli & Julie have their own show, An Alpine Christmas, November 5-8. More details to come!

Watch this!

I'm always looking for new things to do with my vintage watches. This is a pocket watch with vintage paper and a fleur de lis charm then finished with epoxy resin. The Eiffel tower and swarovski crystal make it a fun piece with lots of movement.



This watch and others like it are featured at Vignettes Antiques in Ocean Beach. Don't forget their anniversary soiree on September 19th!

By the water's edge...

While travelling in Massachusetts and earlier to Andros, Greece, we spent many lazy afternoons collecting seaglass or mermaid's tears by the water's edge...


The seaglass makes a perfect edition to my re-purposed jewelry. The glass has stories to tell of sailing in the ocean waves to distant lands. White, green and brown are common colors, while blue and purple are treasures to be found.

These pendants are made from tiny pieces of seaglass, too small to drill. My other creations will include earrings, bracelets and a belt buckle or two. I'll see where the creative spirit takes me! These pieces will be available for purchase later this week.

A Special Vintage Belt Buckle

Gina created this beautiful belt buckle for my friend Lara's birthday from antique rhinestone jewelry. All I told Gina was that Lara loved the belt that she made for me and that Lara's favorite color is dill pickle green and look at the gorgeous gift Gina created for my good friend. I can't wait to see Lara wearing it! --Liz (Gina's sister in law)

Jewelry Design Contest

I arrived in Rhode Island last night and was treated to a gorgeous sunset on The Narraganset Bay as well as a delicious lobster roll and a sparkling glass of Sakonnet, a Rhode Island Chardonnay-I'm in heaven! Too bad my husband didn't make the trip! We will be spending time with friends and family as well as antiquing my way up through the coast of Maine. I can't wait for the hunt to begin! On Saturday my kids, my 82 year old mom and I will go out on a lobster boat. Hopefully, we will catch something to photo!

While I'm here, I decided to enter my first jewelry design contest! I may not win but it is a good exercise in stretching my comfort zone! The contest is put on by House of Gems-you may want to join me!

Here is the scoop:

Featured Artist Sweepstakes
Looking for a Few Good Featured Artists:Do you do a happy dance when you come across a gemstone you don't already own?Do you find that every conversation you have comes back to your latest jewelry project?Do you love to help other people on their projects by giving tips or showing them step-by-step how to do things?

If you answered to yes to any of these questions, we may have the perfect opportunity for you.

If you answered yes to all three, then consider this destiny.

House of Gems is looking for Featured Artists to spotlight and promote on our website. In addition to the opportunity to present yourself as an artist, you will also generate traffic to your personal blog, Etsy store or social media profile. Artists may also be given opportunities to test new products, receive additional discounts and be the first to be informed of new releases.Grand Prize (1):$1000 Shopping Spree on HouseofGems.comRunners Up (1):$500 Shopping Spree on HouseofGems.comConsolation Prize (5)$100 Shopping Spree on HouseofGems.com

Timeline:Contest runs July 18th, 2009 thru August 15th, 2009Submissions:Contestants to upload a maximum of 5 original jewelry designs to the House of Gems Flickr "Featured Artists" group http://www.flickr.com/groups/featuredartists/. Any and all design types and styles are welcome.

Good Luck!

Where I Create

Karen, from My Desert Cottage is having a blogging party today! She's asked everyone to share their "creative space" with fellow bloggers. What a great idea-a true spin off from Where Women Create magazine. Check out Karen's blog and all of the wonderful creative spaces we have!
This is my cottage where I create all of my pieces of jewelry. It has a game room for the kids, a ham radio room for my husband and a shop downstairs to cut and grind silverware. How cool is this?




This is my printers chest, full of wonderful little vintage keys,optical lens, charms and more!

My desk is always covered in projects and usually a cat sleeping in the middle of everything!






This is our lab Buddy, who is always at my side while I create. He occasionally brings one or five tennis balls for me to throw! This white chest of drawers was built by a local man. He took a chain saw and cut apart a desk, stacked the two sides of drawers on top of each other and added legs. It's very cool! It even has the pull out ledge to write letters on in the middle!

Below my space is our workshop. It's filled with saws, a drill press, grinders and tools galore to cut and shape my spoons. My husband and son cut the silverware and grind them smooth! Oh, the wires? For the ham radio nut in our life! My neighbors are always asking about the wires...this posting of Where I Create has inspired him to start his own blog...Where I Ham

Thank you, Karen, for this wonderful opportunity to share our spaces! After viewing everyone's blogs, I can't wait to go and create!

Where Bloggers Create

Join me tomorrow for a wonderful look into the creative spaces of fantastic artists from across the country!

Save the Date!

Parlez vous "Over the Top"?

Le Grande Fete

like no other!

Please join us for Vignettes 14th anniversary Soiree!

Saturday, September 19, noon to 5:00pm

Featuring a

Vintage Couture Trunk Show

and what about the Bon Bon bar???

Vintage Spoon Necklace

A vintage silver-plate spoon looks beautiful with a sterling peace sign and blue stone. The engraved M makes it perfect for my friend Marilyn (I'm seeing a trend here). My sister in law Liz, just brought me a bunch of fresh vintage silverware from Massachusetts. I can't wait to start working!

Vintage Spoon Pendant

This is one of my favorite spoon patterns-very California with the citrus design. Christine put her pendant on a leather cord-it goes great with a tee and jeans!

Vintage Butter Knives

I stamped Matt & Kim on this vintage butter knife for Kandi at The Attic. These knives make wonderful hostess and wedding gifts!

Typewriter Key Necklaces

These are 2 vintage typewriter key necklaces that I made for my friend Marilyn. Both are on sterling chains and one has the sweetest sterling heart attached. We buy vintage typewriters at flea markets and estate sales and spend hours grinding, cleaning and polishing the keys to make them into wonderful necklaces, earrings and bracelets.

Great Gift Ideas!

Hi I'm Liz, Gina's sister in law, and I wanted you to see two of the great antique silver spoon bracelets that Gina made for us to give to my childrens' teachers and dance instructor for their end of the year gifts, which they all told me they love!




Here is the next gift I am giving to a good friend of mine for her 40th birthday.

These belt buckles are made out of antique pins and come in many different colors. My friend just happens to like dill pickle green, so shhh don't tell her but her birthday present is almost ready!




See something you like and don't live in California? Email Gina directly by clicking on the following link Email Gina and I am sure she can work with you by email and/or phone and ship it right to you.

This is my new necklace made from vintage chandelier crystals, vintage pearls and a silver chain. The letter 'B' has been glazed onto the back of the crystal for a truly unique look. These necklaces are available at Vignettes in Ocean Beach and The Cornerstore in
El Cajon, California.

Chandelier Crystal Necklace

Cornonado Market in The Garden

Please join us for a wonderful afternoon of shopping at the Market in the Garden. Some of the most talented women I know will be available to show their latest creations! This wonderful event is to benefit Jane Pollock's charity, Art Takes a Village. This beautiful beach front home will be the setting for a day filled with shopping and creative bliss!
1:30 pm to 6:00 pm
1110 Coronado Ave.
Coronado, CA 92118

Vintage Watch Jewelry

Here’s my newest creation:


The pendant is a vintage watch with the photograph of my friend Marilyn and her sister Barb, many Easter's ago. She was going to give it to her sister but ended up keeping it for herself-Barb will get the next edition! We enhanced the bunnies to make them appear pink and hung the original watch face as a charm..

Thank you to my wonderful sister-in-law, Liz, for getting my blog started! It's been a coast to coast exchange and a labor of love.

We will be in Mesa Arizona!

Thanks for checking out my new blog! Please come and see my new designs at The Bohemian Bliss Soiree - Friday, May 15th, 7-10PM & The Vagabond Vintage Market - Saturday, May 16th, 7am- noon

http://bohemianblissmarket.blogspot.com/