I'm the Featured Crafter on the Crafty Hands Club

I was tickled to no end (and a bit intimidated) when Carriece of The Crafty Hands Club Magazine contacted me several weeks ago about doing an interview for an article on her site. And, today, that article goes live! 

In the feature, you'll get to learn a little more about me as a crafter as well as about my journey to where I am today. 

Make sure you head over to The Crafty Hands Club to read all about me!

Big thanks go to Carriece for this honor and pleasure!

Peek at My Week (Dec. 15-21)

I'm pretty pleased with how this past week went. If felt productive, though it probably wasn't. 

We started the week with breakfast at Waffle House. As I seasoned my cheese grits, I realized they were smiling at me. I knew it was a good sign. 

From there, I spent almost the whole day in the craft room.

Something in me was aching to solder, so I began the process by creating little bubbles and wrapping them with copper foil. But, I didn't stop there (you'll see!)

I also broke out the carving tools to make a tile stamp.

Once the weekend was over, I was determined to finish my Christmas shopping as soon as possible. So, I made it a priority to get as much of it done on Monday as I could. A traffic jam took up a huge bulk of my time and wore down my patience, but by early afternoon, I had all but two gifts. I rewarded myself with more playtime.

I knew that if I was going to break out the soldering iron, I wanted to have a pile of things to solder rather than just a few. So, I worked on coming up with a few more interesting pieces. I LOVE those two 3D pieces.

On Tuesday, I got one of the two gifts I was lacking as well as caught up on my regular chores and errands. And, while I was out, I decided to look at reading glasses since I've caught myself squinting at fine print and detail work. 

While I refuse to ever grow up, age is starting to catch up with me. OH NO!! But, I can see much better now. And, no worries, I'll go see an eye doctor after the holidays. 

Wednesday was spent at my mom's where I forced myself to finish the last of the gifts (it was a simple online thing - I don't know why I saved it until last.) But, I did a little happy dance knowing that I was done. I'm usually one of those who finish up on Christmas Eve. 

Thursday was spent almost entirely in the craft room once again as I got the last of the baubles wrapped with copper foil.

Then, I realized that I hadn't done anything for the We're All Ears Use Your Leftovers Challenge yet. So, I quickly gathered some designs and busted them out while the sun was still up for pictures to be taken.

While outside taking pictures, I saw that our dead palm tree by the pool (it was dead when we moved in) had finally fallen over.

After we got it off the gate, we started getting ready to head over to a friend's for dinner and a movie.

On Friday, nothing on my list was accomplished as I was determined to get my charms soldered. It took me extra long as I had so many and had decided to play with incorporating wire into some of the pieces. A few of them turned out beautifully, but I got a little overzealous and over-ambitious with one of them.

I was so intent on the wire and solder, I squeezed the pliers too hard and cracked this one. At least it wasn't one of my favorites!

Speaking of favorites, once they were all soldered, patinaed, sanded, and cleaned, I was surprised that this little bubble ended up as my favorite. 

I'm still pretty smitten with the shadowbox, but can't stop staring at the shape of the loops I made on this one. Dreamy!!

Since the shopping was done and I had made it through all the soldering, I turned my attention to wrapping the presents.

Much of Saturday was spent in this form of crafting. (Hey - there's tape, scissors, ribbon, and decorative paper, you can't tell me that's not crafting!) I watched a couple of Christmas movies and busted out the task. I can't believe it's all done and I can just enjoy the rest of the season!

Pat and I popped out for a late lunch and picked up a present for Zoe.

 We watched another Christmas movie while she exhausted herself crewing on the extra-long squeaky snake. Bliss!

After so much time getting to craft this week, I feel almost overwhelmed with inspiration. Let me share some with you:

• Did you know that you could download over 300 art books from the Getty Museum? Now you do!
• I love so many of the Unique Handmade Ornaments on this list from Pillar Box Blue. 
• JustATish Designs shared her take on making Fabric Bracelets. 
• My sewing is probably not up to par yet, but how adorable are these DIY Star Pillows?
• I love all the color that's packed into these Colored Pencil Ornaments. 
• Using an old clock to make a little scene is nothing new to me, but that doesn't mean that these Winter Snow Scenes in Repurposed Clocks aren't divine. 
• I've have swooned over this amazing fantasy jewelry from ManiklD and think you should too!
• This Joyful little resin necklace from the Ice Resin blog would make a great gift. 
• The use of wire and old fabric in these Demin Angel Ornaments absolutely suits my style. 
• And, I love the old-fashioned ornament shape for these DIY Felt Ornaments. 
• Speaking of felt, check out the mini felt acorn wreaths. Too stinking cute!
• These DIY Blackberry Earrings are yummy!
• I'm going to have to get my hands on a bunch of crepe paper and make my own forest of colorful bottlebrush trees. 
• The delicacy of these Paper Star Ornaments gets my attention. 
• OH MY WORD! THe combination of embroidery and clay in these works of art from Justyna Wolodkiewicz is something you NEED to see!
• As the year begins to wrap up, I'm already thinking about the new one and considering creating a vision board. Here's a simple walk-through I just found on creating your own vision board. 

So that's it for my week. It's been pretty good. 

I hope your holiday is absolutely amazing. Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, and Enjoy Celebrating however you do it!

Summer Vacation and Giveaway Winners

I had fully intended to write a few blog posts while Pat and I enjoyed our two-week vacation. Somehow, though, that just didn't happen.

Instead, I spent many hours in and around the pool.

I crafted with my nieces.

One niece was seriously stuck on making slime. So, we made several versions. This was version #2 as she was mixing the ingredients (school glue and laundry detergent) together.

The other niece that stayed with us just wanted to make art. We each grabbed a canvas board and set to work. This was how mine turned out. She went in another direction altogether with acrylic paint, abstract bubbles, and splatters. I won't share without her permission, which I haven't asked for yet.

Pat and I spent lots of time outside doing yard work, working on the garden, and picking the wild grapes growing on the property.

I'm still giddy that those annoying grape vines are actually producing grapes.

Pat bought an old golf cart and got it working. He'll use any excuse to drive around the property on it. Boys!

The majority of the last week of our vacation was spent on one project in particular: QUILTING! I discovered the #BrooklynKnitFolkQAL video playlist when Lorelei Eurto showed off her completed quilt on Facebook. I was smitten! The videos are done by Jaclyn who goes through the steps simply and thoroughly. She made it look so easy! Learning to quilt has been on my bucket list for ages, and I've got loads of fabrics saved for when I learn to quilt. So, I took the break from most everything else to learn and do this. You can watch the videos for all the steps and supplies, but here are a few shots of some of the steps as I went through them.

Drying my fabrics after washing them. I used about three packs of fat quarters for the quilt top.

Cutting the fabric into 6x6 inch squares. This step was by far the longest and most tedious.

Sew the rows. I just loved this glimpse of all my rows stacked one on top of the other.

Pressing (ironing) the backs and attaching the rows to each other.

There were a few more steps in there before the final quilt came together. It's smaller than it looks here and is really just a lap quilt. But, it gave me a good idea of the process, materials, time, and cost it takes to make a quilt. It's much more than I had imagined.

And, while I had the sewing machine out, I made replacement bean bags (rice bags really) for our cornhole game.

Of course, I'm pretty sure I did other things than craft, swim, and garden...but I can't recall any of them at the moment. HA!

I also forgot to do the giveaway for Earrings 81-100. Oops! Before I get to that, I never heard back from the winner of the Earrings 61-80 giveaway. So, I've drawn again and the winner for that one is Kathy L!!! Kathy, I'll be contacting you about getting your prize to you shortly. Congratulations!!

Now for the 81-100 giveaway.
The names were collected

And a random number generated.

The winner is phinner!! Congratulations!! I'll also be emailing you about getting your prize to you.

Thanks to everyone who played along with these giveaways and offered up so much support during The 100 Day Project. I enjoyed stretching my creative muscles, and your encouragement really helped to make it fun as well. Thank You!

Now, here's hoping I can get back into a routine! How's your summer going? Do anything fun on your vacation?

Focusing on Life Week 24: Green

I had almost forgotten about this week's Focusing on Life prompt.  Okay, I'll admit that I thought about it each and every day this week when I made my to-do list, but it quickly flew from my mind as soon as the letter N on "Green" was written.

After writing yesterday's Commitment post, I knew my next 'to do' was to be a green picture. Hmmmmm. .  I looked around my desk for something green. I guess I thought something was going to pop out at me. Guess what. Something did.

Remember a few weeks back when youngest niece stayed the week with us? Well, she got to do some crafting. Not just any crafting either, she decided she wanted to make some jewelry like her Hopey (that's what she calls me, so what of it.) Before I knew it, she was in my polymer clay. I gave her full reign over my clay supplies, and she opted to mostly stamp some pendants.

Once we had the pendants baked, we had to let them cool. To give them some time, off to the bead store we tromped to buy beads for her jewelry endeavors. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of just the beads she chose, but you can see some of them in the picture below of our next step. . .painting.

Once the pendants were painted, they had to dry.

The waiting was the hardest part, but she FINALLY got to make a necklace!

And yes, it had to be ALL GREEN. That is her favorite color after all. At some point she wants to sell it on Hopey's website. I'll let y'all know when it's listed. It's her job to help me do that too. I wanted her to see each step of the job. She even got to help take some of the pictures of her necklace. The one below in particular was hers.

Not too bad. I think I've got some competition!

Check out more Green on Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime.

BTW: Lacking Focus

It took me a whole week to get the bottlecap piece finished that was on my bead table last Wednesday. Goodness. I think I need to just sit down and do some smaller bits like earrings and bracelets for a while. However, with the Holiday season upon us, I can't seem to focus my attention on one project at a time.

Case in point,

As soon as last week's project was done, I pulled out these bits above. I'm not clear on what direction they'll take yet, so there they sit.


I've also been working on making this awesome rolled paper Christmas tree from Kayla Aimee. Now it's just down to glittering the star I made to top it. (I'll try to remember to share some pictures once the whole thing's done.)

Seriously. I need some focus.

 Check out the Bead Table Wednesday Flickr Group to see what's gracing others' work benches.

Do you have trouble focusing this time of year too or are you one of those people who's absolutely prepared for the holidays?

Button Bracelet Overdose

It started innocently enough on Friday.

I thought I'd sort through some of my new buttons and maybe be productive at the same time. At first, it was just a few of them.

But it was so easy to do and so much fun that I thought a few more couldn't hurt.

Within twenty four hours I was out of control.

At the end of the weekend, the proof was undeniable.

I'm addicted to making button bracelets.

No intervention needed, I'll just be over here in the corner with my buttons and a smile on my face.
Seriously y'all. I spent the weekend (between celebrating my anniversary, watching football, and thrifting with the hubby) making over THIRTY button bracelets. I was obsessed. Now I'm not sure what I'll do with all of them yet, but I'm thinking the time was well spent.

Speaking of time well spent, if you've got a moment or two, I marked down a few items so they are now in the Sale section of the shop. And, these earrings were just listed. They're not buttons, but cool nonetheless.

Color Shock Earrings

Do you ever go off the deep end with a design/technique like I did this weekend? I need some reassurance (some smoothing of the hair and whispered 'shhhhh's) that it'll be all right.

Soldiering on with Solder

While Pat had band practice here at the house last night, I decided to experiment with some glass pebbles, paper, and solder.

I don't know if I was just tired, if there's something wrong with my soldering iron, or if I just need to work on this technique a bit more; but the backs of my little bubble gems ended up looking like this. I finally I threw in the iron and exited the craft room for the evening. 

Yeah, I know. . .

So, this morning, I worked on trying to get the solder a little . . . prettier.

I even gave in to Pat's suggestion and tried filing down the bumps.

It helped, some.

In the end, I'm leaving them like this.

I think I'm going to finally break down and purchase some solder patina. Perhaps an aged look will enhance the flaws (you know, like magic!)

At least the fronts are kinda cute!

If you are more experienced with solder than me and have any suggestions, please PLEASE let me know!

I did accomplish getting another one of my favorite bracelets relisted.

Dainty Lady Bracelet

For now, I'll just trudge through the rest of the day and look forward to the margaritas tonight!

Happy Friday Y'all!!

Thrifty Thursday

I've been saving up all kinds of thrifty-related pictures and projects to share here, but somehow it always gets away from me. I'm making a point to got to it today.

Last week, I showed you pictures of the thrift store goodness I found. I didn't mention the ones I didn't buy. However, there were two items I spotted at an antique store which I passed on buying. I was still thinking about them on Sunday, so I knew they had to be mine.

This Holly Hobbie lunchbox (WITH Thermos) was a steal at only $8. It does have some damage to the back of it and really needs to be cleaned. But, it's just SO AWESOME!!

As well, this little jar of buttons was a whopping $5, but it had SO MANY colorful buttons that I just HAD to have it.

On other 'thrifty' topics, I've been wanting to share these Christmas gifts (YES, I KNOW it's March!) that I made for two of my friends. They were not only thrifty because they were handmade, but also because I made them with items I already had at the house.

I've been collecting zippers for some time to try to make these rosette brooches and finally broke down and made them. They turned out better than I expected. I might actually work on some more for the shop before too long as I keep finding fun zippers at the thrift stores. However, I've got to find a "prettier" way to secure the pins on the back. How bo-bo does that look to you?

These coffee cozies weren't completely thrifty as I did have to make a trip to a well-known coffee chain to purchase me a hot beverage in order to ensure that I made these felt ones to the right size ;) . I did enjoy getting to use my embroidery supplies for actual embroidering though!

I hope y'all checked out the Giveaways I mentioned yesterday (because what's more thrifty than FREE). In that vein, I found a few more to share with you today.
1.  Lady Noble is having a necklace giveaway. You just need to help her name her newest design.
2. Cyndi L at Beading Arts is giving away a copy of "Vintage-Style Beaded Jewelry". Go check out her review of the book and the details for entering.

To round-out this post, here are some related links

Thrifty Thursday:

• DIY mercury glass 
• Make a lazy Susan supply organizer

Crafty Links (topic: recycle):

• Make a super simple recycled quilt 
• Magnetic bookmarks 
• Make coasters with curling ribbon 
• Craft supplies from your kitchen 
• Pantyhose petals

The sun is out and shining today so I might actually get something accomplished in the craft room. . .if I can get off this dang computer first! Let me go see what I can do.