Peek at My Week (Aug. 11-17)

I tried to make more of an attempt to take pictures to share with y'all this week. That's funny because I started these weekly peeks partly to share some of the pictures I didn't share elsewhere. As some of my tasks have become routine, I guess some of the picture-taking dropped off. I'm working on reviving that habit.
On Sunday, I was actually able to tackle an outside chore that had been on my list for a while: cleaning the windows. Despite being somewhat in the shade, it was immensely HOT. So, a jump in the pool was necessary. As I was getting out, I noticed blackbirds all in the trees and across the back yard. This was the best picture I could get of them as they kept flying off as I approached. It was really cool, though.

The plan was to get back in the pool and grill dinner after a few more hours, but an afternoon thundershower ruined that plan. This time of the year, most days are punctuated with a rainstorm in the afternoon. It makes having an afternoon dip kinda difficult.

Monday was full of errands, including some school supply shopping. While I'm not going to school, I did pick up some pencils for myself. I was so happy to see them in rainbow order!

That evening, we were actually able to get the grill going before any storms blew through.

For some reason, I woke before daylight on Tuesday. It helped me ensure that I packed in as much as I could.

I took Zoe out at one point, and she insisted we take a walk through the trails. I spied that the beauty berries have started turning colors. I love that shade of purple.

Along one of the paths, I discovered several ferns that were withering away for some reason. This in-between stage was really quite beautiful.

I needed to get product pictures taken but it was simply too hot to bear the sun for that length of time. So, I decided to use the sunroom instead. Zoe wasn't thrilled. I did realize that instead of pulling out a folding table, my ironing board was the perfect surface to use. It's lightweight, height-adjustable, and sturdy. I WILL be using it again - maybe even outside!

I hustled to get a few tasks done on Wednesday as that afternoon my niece and I went to her college orientation presentation thing. What that WHAT!? College!!

As a reward for both of us being so grown up, I made taco soup and homemade tortilla chips. It was delicious.

Before heading out to take my grandmother to an appointment, I spotted Rosalina in her cutest sleeping position. She wasn't thrilled about me disturbing her nap. Look at those paws! 

After the appointment, I got a less perturbed picture of my niece's cat.

Friday was full of chores and a little stress, so an afternoon swim felt-earned. 

As graying skies ran us from the pool, I spotted this tiny rat snake. That put a smile on my face.

Saturday seemed to slip through my fingers. 
I played in the craft room some before meeting a friend for lunch. After that, it was just a lazy day that included me being in the pool for about three minutes before there was a big lightning strike nearby. Well, poop. Everybody out of the pool.

And, that's how my week went. How about some actual inspiration?
 It's been a busy but productive week, despite the rainstorms. 
I hope you were able to get something done too. 

Days of My Craft Desk

I'm always a little amazed at the sheer variety of projects that come across my desk. And, that can mean the actual physical desk in my craft room or any space in which I work. I thought you might like to see a snippet of an actual span of several days. Mind you, this doesn't include the mounds of work I do on my computer (writing, photo editing, blog-reading, video-watching, social media, and video-editing to name a few.) 
I try to start each week with a bit of forethought and planning in my Bullet Journal. I do say TRY, because not everything, including the planning, works out as planned. Above was my Sunday morning planning as I worked on your Peek at My Week.

Since a thunderstorm canceled our afternoon plans, I worked on a few projects. When I sat back, I realized how much of an unintentional Fall-theme I had going on!

I picked up a few new supplies (mostly findings) on Monday afternoon then sorted them into where they needed to be. That was really all the action the craft desk saw that day as I was busy out of the house almost all day.

Tuesday, I worked to make ear wires for a few new tin pieces (made the previous week) along with the chain for the wrapped key.

I really needed to take product pictures this week. Usually, I take advantage of the natural light outside, but it's just too hot in Alabama right now. So, I set up in the sunroom instead. Zoe was a bit skeptical about the situation. 

While creating and finishing the chain for the wrapped key, I realized that my box of chains was severely overloaded. The main culprit was a large bag of thrifted chains that hadn't been sorted. So, those were dumped onto a bead mat and organized by metal (or re-donated).

Before heading out for the day on Thursday, I had little time to create. So, I took a few minutes to work in my Soul Food art journal. 

Since I was at my mom's most of the rest of Thursday, I made sure to have Bead Box 6 with me. I was able to work on one of the projects while I had dinner in the oven. And, I still consider this my craft desk, even it was really just a clipboard at my mom's house.

This is the condition of my desk at this exact moment. The art journal is still there along with another lingering project that I'm pondering. I'll get to it all once a few more chores are done. 

Some weeks, I'm so busy with other tasks that my desk never changes. Other weeks, it changes every hour. What about you? What's come across your desk recently?

Available on Etsy

It's been a hot minute since last I encouraged you to stop in on the CraftyHope Etsy Shop and take a look around. Here's just some of what you're missing.

Tall Ships Earrings

Butterfly in Bloom Necklace

Crackle Button Pearl Earrings

Double Bloom Earrings

Layered Garnet Necklace

Watch Face Bracelet

Abstract Layered Tin Necklace

This is just a sample of what you'll find in the shop. Make sure to click the link and take a good look and everything. 
Let me know, is there something I'm missing that you need to add to your collection?

Peek at My Week (Aug. 4-10)

Another week in the books! I was able to bust out a lot of the tasks on my to-do list (Bullet Journal) but most of them weren't photogenic at all. Here's what I do have to share.

We started Sunday off with a little recovery food (Saturday HAD been my reunion after all).

After that, it was a pretty lazy day milling about the house. In the afternoon, as we do most Sundays, we floated in the pool and grilled out.
There had been a small rainshower before our swim, and these little drops of awesome caught my attention. 

On Monday, Pat took Zoe to the vet because we had some concerns. They think she has a bladder infection. We're hoping the medicine knocks it out. She's been a little wimpy and tired all week.

Tuesday was all about checking the boxes on my Bullet Journal. The big one was getting my niece's books for college as we drove to the main campus 45 minutes away to go to the bookstore. After that, I took care of chores around the house.

On Wednesday, I had to take my grandmother and then the other niece to doctor appointments. As I was heading out for the day, this open gate covered in jasmine vines caught my eye.
It put me in a good mood for the day ahead.

Looking at my list, I have no idea what I did on Thursday. It was probably all about catching up after the day away from the house. The same goes for Friday. It's usually my big cleaning day, so I made sure to knock out as much of my house-cleaning as early as possible, so I could move on to other creative endeavors. 
That put me in a creative spirit with my eyes open for opportunity. And, while taking Zoe out, I spotted this flash of blue in the grass and pine straw. I couldn't resist picking it up.

On Saturday, I worked a birthday party in the morning, then just chilled out the rest of the day. Pat and I decided to go for a swim. But, an afternoon shower put a damper on that. Just as soon as we got outside, the temperature began to drop and the skies darkened with clouds and thunder. I was so disappointed. We spent the rest of the afternoon-evening binging the last season of "Orange is the New Black". There's still a few episodes to go, so no spoilers, please!

Throughout the week, I did work on some art journaling in my Soul Food journal.
Looking at this collage, I find it funny that there's a bit of magenta/pink in each of these pages. That's not usually my jam. But, it seems to work.


Here's some of the inspiration and tutorials I found throughout the week:


And, that's it for the week. I'm not exactly sure what's in store for the week ahead, but I am looking forward to the opportunities that await me. I hope you make the most of the week. What are you looking forward to?

August Challenges and Inspirations

Who doesn't need a little creative inspiration every once in a while? I love that I get the chance to participate with other artists using the same prompts to make something. Though the challenges are the same for each of us, our results are always so diverse. I'd love to see how you interpret some of the inspirations I've found for the month of August.

  • Each month, Sarajo's husband Eric gives her a pictorial prompt from which to draw inspiration. She shares it with the rest of us on her blog and calls it the Honey Do List Challenge. This month's picture is a lichen-coated wall in England. Ooooh! The reveal date for your jewelry creation is August 26th.
  • The team at Art Elements opens up their theme inspiration to other artists as well as to any art medium you desire. I'm totally digging this month's octopus theme! If you want to participate in the August 31st blog hop, make sure to leave a comment on their blog post with your e-mail and blog address. 
  • Art Journey #6 from Art Bead Scene has been revealed as the art of William Morris. Contributions for this challenge must include an art bead. You have until September 7th to get your jewelry in.
Alas, that is all the inspiration/challenges I know of for August. If I missed any, please let me know. What's inspiring you lately?

Thrifty Thursday - July Edition

Once again, my thrifting game was a little off over the month. Not that I didn't try! Somewhere toward the end of July, I bought a cheap rag-rug for the sole purpose of taking it apart. Several of my art friends had done this before and found a bounty of beautiful fabrics. So, I paid the five bucks and proceeded to un-weave it.

And, seriously, y'all!

Most of the fabrics were sheer and silky, but there were a few that weren't. It definitely looked like they were remnants from other projects that were upcycled into the rug. Now, I'll upcycle them into something else too! First, let me show you some of the variety in the cool patterns on the material.
Quite a few of them had these little "people" images on them. It makes me regret not keeping the packaging so I would know the origin of the fabrics. Oh well.

Loads of the fabrics had floral designs on them.

And, some had large stitching on them like this.

So much fabric came off that one rug, my husband was concerned about how I would store it all. But, since the fabrics were all lightweight, they were easy enough to stuff into a smallish medium plastic bin. It just barely snaps shut. 😂
Now, what I'll do with all of these...I have no idea. But it was such a fun project to take on. Each fabric I unraveled was a new surprise!

Pat and I also went to an estate sale toward the end of the month. While he didn't find anything there, I found that the owner was a crafter and was getting rid of EVERYTHING! Fortunately for us, we hit the sale on the 6th and last day when everything was 75% off. I racked up!

As with my previous thrifty posts, I recorded a video of my July Thrifty Haul to give you a closer look at the treasures I was able to bring home.
Did you see all that!? I can't believe the deals I was able to get at that estate sale. 

I've already picked up a few items for August, so I can guarantee that there will be a thrifty post next month. Have you scored anything for a great deal lately?
Do you need any scrap fabric?

Peek at My Week (July 28 - August 3)

This was one of those weeks that simply slipped by me. While I was able to check off quite a few tasks on my to-do list, there's always plenty more!

Sunday was a nice, lazy day but really lovely. My best friend and her family came over for a swim and to grill out. It was nice to relax before my long day on Monday.
I drove almost four hours to pick up my niece as she came back to town from a trip, and then the four hours to take her home. It was a LOOOOOONG day.

Thankfully, I had already prepped my post for Tuesday's Art Elements Flower reveal. 

The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday were all about checking things off the list. And, Wednesday was the last day of ICAD 2019.
I was happy to have completed the entire challenge in time, but I'm already kinda missing the daily prompts.

On Thursday and Friday, I spent my time searching for something to wear to my High School reunion. I was on a mission! Once I finally found something, it was time to make jewelry for it.

Saturday was my 25-year class reunion. 
I can't believe it's been 25 years! I had a nice time catching up with everyone and shouldn't have obsessed so much over what I was going to wear. It wasn't that big of a deal. But, at least I love the jewelry I made for it.

I'm ready to begin a new week and hope that I don't get as distracted with other tasks as I did this past week. How'd your week go?

Art Journal July

In addition to being a jewelry-artist, I dabble in a variety of other art mediums, hence the name, CraftyHope. One of the main art activities that takes up my attention is art journaling. Since ICAD 2019 has been underway, that's held the majority of it. However, if you're not following me on Instagram (and why not!?), you may not have seen the cards I created for the challenge. However, I AM sharing my process of creating the cards on YouTube, though it's a little at a time. It's going to take me a few more weeks to get caught up on sharing them. In any case, you may not have seen them there either, so I'm letting you get a look at them here, along with a link to the videos for you to check out if you're interested in how they were made. 

These ICAD process videos are grouped into threes. Last month I shared the first two groups, so here are ICAD 2019 Cards 7-9.
ICAD 7: Stencil

ICAD 8: Goggles

ICAD 9: Macaron

ICAD 10: Sapphire

ICAD 11: Palm

ICAD 12: Tapestry

Finally, in July, I shared ICAD 2019 Cards 13-15
ICAD 13: Balcony

ICAD 14: Thread

ICAD 15: Storm

I can't believe I only got three of these videos posted over the whole month and hope to get better about getting them up more often. I mean, I created these cards just about every day. 

If you have any questions about how these were created, please don't hesitate to ask me! 
Do you create in different mediums too?

NEW website (and blog to go with it)

 Hey y'all!! I've got some news. It's great, but also bittersweet. After almost NINETEEN years here on Blogger/Blogspot, I'v...