Surviving Xmas

I wasn't sure if I would! I have felt sick for over a week now Yuck. So I've missed out on a bunch of festivities and yummy goodies. We went to visit family, then we came home and more family came to visit us. Lots of fun! The kids got to play with their cousins and

I got to see two of my brothers. Too bad though, one bro couldn't make it.

The craziness can be exhausting though. Now it is time to slow down. I am looking forward to working in my studio. I feel a bit energized by "vacation". Lots of good ideas are buzzing 'round my noggin!

10 days til Xmas Day!!!

I do love Christmas! I'm sentimental this time of year. I love the old songs and Xmas movies, baking cookies and getting a tree. All of which we seem to be doing late this year! I finally got up the decorations and the tree is done. The kids had their Christmas program at school, very cute. I have most of my groceries for a whirlwind baking session and I am almost done with the Xmas cards.
I know it is a bit late to send out cards, but I'm doing it anyway. I made the cards this year in a series. All have a simple penguin and hat, though the backgrounds and hat colors vary.
We have no snow here and it really bugs me! I need snow at Xmas. Without it, it's not the same. WE have family from out of state visiting and I just want everything to be just right. Snow is part of that. Please SNOW!!!! Even just a bit. Now I say this...we'll get a blizzard and our family will be stuck in some airport!!!!! Good thoughts...just 3 or 4 inches. I'm optimistic, I even bought an extra sled for my nephew to use. SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!
I haven't been working on anything new in weeks. I'm taking a break til after the holidays. I'm letting ideas simmer for a while.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Etsy

I've made a few ornaments using old canceled Xmas stamps. They are the right size for these ornaments! And it is interesting how cheap it used to be to send a letter.

I've added more ornaments in my etsy shop. I have some others to add, but I'm just trying to get good photos of everything. I never realized how challenging that could be. I'm learning that to sell online, I need to spend a lot of time messing with photos and my computer.

The ebay charity auction started for the animal shelter A Place To Bark.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZaplace2barkQQhtZ-1

I hope for the animals sake it goes well.

Finished White chunky book page

The book theme was of course ...white, but I had to add a bit of green.

Thought I'd post this. My finished book page front and back. I will post finished book when I get it. I'm excited to see the final product.

I've been reading online about different ways to build a softbox to better photograph my artwork. A lot of different ways to do it, but I'd prefer to use natural light. That's fine and good except we haven't seen the sun in days. Many more cloudy ones to come, ugh!

New Stuff on Etsy

I'm adding new things in my etsy shop. Mostly Xmas ornaments and some mirrors. I've already sold a few things, so far so good! I still have some necklaces and collages for sale. Here are pics of an interesting direction I'm going in. I like the idea of our ancestors being the plant's "seed". I think my next one will be larger, with photos also on the leaves. Maybe I'll make one of my family.

Cute turkeys

The kids made these at school. I miss those days, sigh!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Ok I survived Tinsel Trail!!! My first holiday art/craft sale. It didn't go too well. I mostly brought holiday decorations, and most were interested in my art! This is a good thing, but I had all this xmas stuff I wanted to sell. The lesson here is.

...stick with the art!

Have a good long weekend!

Busy Busy!!!

It's after 1 am, I gotta get up way too early for the holiday art/craft show today. Wish me luck at Tinsel Trail!!!!!----Stevens Point, WI Holiday Inn 9-4pm

Better late than never

I seem to always be a bit behind on these posts. Last week I found out that talented artist and animal lover Bernie Berlin used photos of 2 of my pieces on her blog. I've never met her before. But when I read she was having a charity auction to benefit her shelter, I wanted to help. I sent her 2 art pieces for an auction on ebay. The sale was postponed, but it should now be starting on Nov.20th. Her blog is http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/

This pic isn't that great, but I realized it's the only one I have of this piece.
One of the pieces shown is this one "Good Egg" and farther down is a dog charm necklace. I am thrilled that she posted both on her blog. Thanx Bernie!!!!

White chunky book

I recently got my finished Halloween chunky book in the mail. It turned out great! I 'm now working on a "White" themed chunky book, also ArtChix sponsored. I'm added a few thing yet and other embellishments to each copy. My inspiration was a book I read many times over Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks. I don't read much fantasy/magic book, but I really love Terry Brooks novels.

Photos of where I work

Where I work

OK I've been trying to post this for days, but keep having trouble with the pics. So here it is sans photos and I'll try to add pics separately



I've been working a lot to get ready for this holiday art/craft show I'm doing in a few weeks. I've been making a bunch or ornaments and decorating mirrors. Which is fun, but I miss making different, odd stuff. When this show is over I want to spend the winter experimenting with new techniques and assemblages.

Here are some photos of my work area. I work in a windowless basement when I can stand it. Often though, I bring stuff up and take up the dining table. I hate working downstairs on nice sunny days! Though late at night it is perfect.
I try to be fairly organized and neat, but it's not me. I need to make a bit of a mess.

My Bluto Boy

I just liked this photo.

On Friday, I had stopped at one of those perennial garage sales. Some old guy had tables of junk out in his yard with tarps over it. Most was junk, junk. I did find some small glass xmas balls on wires and a few old books. The man was nice and happy to get rid of some of it. I should of bought these boxes of fabric in his garage. They we filled with bright prints from the 60's and 70's. I didn't immediately jump on it because none of the pieces looked bigger than a couple of inches! I may go back for them.

Snow at sunset

The weather has been colder than normal recently. We went to the pumpkin patch, but it was hard to find ones that weren't frost damaged. We ended up with a few. Yesterday it started snowing at sunset. The orange from the setting sun glowed through the snow as it fell. Unfortunately the camera didn't get the flakes. By the time the snow stopped we had about half an inch. Of course it's gone today.

It has been a busy week, a weird week.
Heavy hail during a rainstorm, now snow blowing around. Hopefully autumn hasn't skipped us here in central WI!
I finally listed a few thing on Etsy. More to come.
Also, I'm finishing a few things this weekend and will post photos later.

Snowballs in October

We (the kids and I) worked over the
weekend making snowballs. Eureka! I think we got it. Weird activity for a nice autumn afternoon, but oh well.
I was also working on a couple of other xmas ornament ideas. I love Christmas and making craftsy xmas stuff.
What do ya think?

ArtApalooza

I finally looked at the pictures that have been piling up on my camera. Here are a few photos of my display at ArtApalooza in Cedar Falls, IA. Cold, yucky, rainy day, but still a good day for me. My display worked out well. And people really liked my work. It felt great for my hard work to be appreciated.
I'm still working on Tinsel Trail ideas. I'm trying to figure out a cool, cost effective way to make a light weight snowball ornament.
I'm also working on my charms for a charm swap on the ArtChix yahoo group. I've gotten 3 of the 7 done. They are very cool. I'll post pics when they're all done.

First Post

Well I thought I'd try this whole blog thing. I've been working today on new soldered ornaments. I only have 5 soldered and done. I have 23 others ready to tape and solder. Yeah!
I'm always looking for new ideas. I've been brainstorming for cool, odd X-mas ideas for Tinsel Trail. I'm trying out few ideas and we'll see what happens.