Inspired by Reading: The Keeper of Lost Things

For this month's Inspired by Reading Book Club we read The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan.  I'm so glad that this charming debut novel made the cut for this year's book list!  This was a quick read with a truly unique premise.  It kept me turning those pages even when I was so sleepy that I had to practically prop my eyes open. 

As I proven so many times before, I'm really terrible at summarizing the books that I read... so I'm just going to share the blurb from the books back cover to give you an idea if this might be a book for you!  Although, don't let that last line of the jacket copy fool you, it's not all happiness in this book.  There were things that truly tugged at my heart strings.

Anthony Peardew is the Keeper of Lost Things. Once a celebrated author of short stories, now in his twilight years, Anthony has sought consolation from the long-ago loss of his fiancée by lovingly rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind. Realizing that he’s running out of time, he leaves his beautiful house and all the collected treasures to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, the one person he trusts to fulfill his legacy.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura is in some ways one of Anthony’s lost things. But when she moves into his lovely old Victorian mansion, her life suddenly begins to change. Anthony’s final wishes set in motion a most serendipitous series of encounters as Laura sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners. 

With an unforgettable cast of characters that includes a teenage girl with special powers, a handsome gardener, a fussy ghost, and an array of irresistible four-legged friends, The Keeper of Lost Things is a heartwarming read about second chances, endless possibilities, and joyful discoveries.
 
My first inclination was to finally create with some lost things that found their way into my possession a little over a year ago... a ring of vintage keys!  I was thinking about the key to the study as well as Therese's locked room as well as the key on the cover of my paperback copy.  I picked out a few contenders and started thinking about ways to put a necklace together... and then got totally sidetracked.  I'll circle back to this idea though!

There really were so many great jumping off points for creativity in this book with all the lost objects, but what really captured my imagination was the rose garden that Anthony planted for his beloved and how the smell of roses was always strong in Therese's room even in winter. 

Earlier this month I attended the Twin Cities Bead Bazaar and its Cocktails with Candie Cooper event where they had some make and takes for us.  One of them was using the Sizzix Movers and Shapers magnetic dies to cut leather shapes.  The room was a little crowded and I wasn't super patient, so I brought my leather pieces home to play with.  Before making the earrings that I had envisioned, I decided to run the leather teardrops through my Big Kick machine in an embossing folder with a fun floral design.  I'm pretty happy with the results!  I added some little dangles inside the teardrops with cultured sea glass and brass for a fun, almost stamen-like effect.

Next, I kept with the floral theme for a necklace.  I originally grabbed this little ceramic connector by Gaea thinking I might combine it with one of the vintage keys, but it had other ideas!  I added some Czech glass flowers to the bottom of the connector and picked out other coordinating glass beads for links along the necklace.  I think that this would be perfect for a garden party!

Finally after I (mostly) got the flowers out of my head, I was ready to return to the vintage keys.  I had already selected a little Green Girl flower bud to use with one of my key designs, and I decided it went nicely with this shiny key.  I wrapped a little bit of patterned sari silk ribbon around the middle of the key and then used wire wraps to attach it securely.  I'm really liking the extra pop of color the ribbon adds.  In addition to the pewter flower, I made two more dangles with a Czech glass flower on one side and a bright polymer clay bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.

Figuring out how to get the key to sit just right was a bit of a challenge.  I think that I'll go about future designs a little differently!  Wanting to keep going with the bright pink/magenta hues, I made little links with Czech glass two different dyed agates.  I'm pretty happy with how this one came together (albeit at the last minute!) and I'm going to wear test this one tonight at a get together we're headed out to in just a bit.

That's it for me for now.  My other key designs will have to wait until another day.  Have a fabulous weekend, my friends!  I hope that wherever you are that Spring is starting to have Sprung and you can get outside and enjoy some much deserved warmer temperatures!

Art Elements Theme of the Month: Birds of Prey

I love all things raptors, so I was super excited when ? announced that the February Art Elements Theme of the Month was raptors.  As I started digging through my art bead stash, I discovered that there was a shocking lack of biodiversity in my raptor bead collection.  In fact, I only had owls... but what a lot of owls I had to choose from!  Dare I say that I have a parliament of owls??

My initial idea was to use just a bit of some of my favorite leafy chain at the front of a necklace with an owl pendant centered on that length.  I eventually settled on a little grey-blue owlie from Gaea that I got from her a while back in a destash bundle.  The loop on the top just sat the best with the leaves on the chain without getting lost.  Playing on the colors of the pendant, I chose some Amazonite and plated druzy beads.

Next up, I just had to do something with one of my friend Erin Prais-Hintz's sweet polymer clay owls.  This one is called Minerva.  There are a few different shapes and colors of plated druzy beads in this one to go with her metallic finishes.  I also mixed in some Czech glass beads and plated hematite (boy, do I wish I'd grabbed a few more strands of that since I've pretty much used them all.)  I love the overall neutral look of this one but the druzies give it a bit of pizazz!

As I looked at this fun multicolored owl face pendant and rounds set that I bought from Michelle McCarthy of Firefly Design Studio, I knew that I wanted to play with the glaze colors and use some colored leather.  Leather means I needed large holed beads... luckily, I had some faceted Amazonite beads and some wooden saucers that worked nicely.  I also grabbed a few vintage Miriam Haskell Japanese glass beads that I bought from Allegory Gallery a month or so ago.  I finished the back off with brass chain.  I thought the leafy bead and filigree shape added to the woodland feel of this piece.

Last but not least, another necklace featuring one of Michelle's pendants.  I just love the glazing on this little guy and it was fun pulling beads to go with it!  I wrapped a little bit of copper Parawire around the loop on the pendant.  I was apparently in a stringing mood and pulled together a bunch of Czech glass that I separated with some copper colored seed beads.

Thanks for stopping by!  This is a blog hop... check out what everyone else was inspired to make this month!

Guests:

Tammy

Beth

Cat

Anita

Kathy

Alysen

Linda

Rozantia

Jennifer

Hope

Sarajo

Melissa

Sarah

Team Members: 

Caroline

Cathy

Claire

Jen

Jenny

Karen

Laney

Lesley

Lindsay

Marsha

Niky

Sue

Bead in the New Year: Part 3

 My friends Andrew and William of Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, Pennsylvania have designed a fun creative challenge to kick off the new year.  They're calling it Bead in the New Year and it's been a wonderful way to get my creative juices flowing after a bit of a holiday break.  January is often a time of year that I find myself in a slump and this has been a fun way to get me out of that funk and making something everyday.   This is my second installment chronicling what I've made for the challenge.  You can see Part 1 HERE and Part 2 HERE.  This is the calendar that they've come up with for us:

Here's what I've made since the last installment:

Day 18: Focus on metal as the main element in a new piece.

This is actually another piece inspired by a project in a past Bead Cruise booklet!  Finally used that leather clasp from Bandana Girl!

Day 19: Be inspired by a piece of art to create a new design.

Ok, slight cheat here... I did actually make a new piece inspired by Heather Powers' artwork on this day, below, but I figured I'd share the first two things that I made for it too since I'm so smitten.

This piece features a faux tin pendant by Heather Powers of Humblebeads along with some copper that I textured and Czech glass beads.  You can see the other necklace I made from this inspiration over on the ABS blog HERE.

Day 20: Utilize natural materials to create a new piece.

Wood, waxed Irish linen, brass, and polymer clay by Humblebeads.  Not all made of natural materials, but a healthy dose!

Day 24: Create a piece using vintage materials.

Not sure about the gold and teal beads, but the brass leaves are vintage.  I'm not usually much for gold, but love how these turned out!

Day 25: Put together a piece using seed beads.

It's not all seed beads, but I did use seven different types of seed beads in this long necklace featuring a lampwork glass pendant by Wendy Mosman.

Day 26: Use a color you don't normally use.

Mustard yellow isn't my normal jam, but I love this chunky hollow bead by Mary Ila Duntemann!  This one also fits the category for Day 31... big and bold! 

Day 27: Make a piece inspired by a book you've read.

Here's the pendant I made in response to A Discovery of Witches.  To see the whole finished design, pop over to my post about the January Inspired by Reading Book Club HERE!

Day 29: Use an Allegory Gallery wood pendant.

I had fun painting this wooden pendant with a lovely goldfish design by Andrew Thornton.  I kept the stringing simple and chose glass and coral beads on the smaller side.

Day 30: Create a piece inspired by nature.

I've been in a moth mood this month!  Pendant and larger ceramic beads by Gaea with a mix of other gemstone and ceramic beads on leather and brass.

Day 31: Make a piece that's big, bold, and over the top.

This Golem Design Studio pendant is bigger than my norm, but I fell in love with the rich, bright colors and had to have it!  Lots of Czech glass flowers and leaves help complete this statement necklace design.

A HUGE thank you to Andrew and William at Allegory Gallery for inspiring me to have the most productive January ever as far as jewelry making goes.  Not only have I made a ton of new designs that I love, I was excited to get to my bead table.  What a gift, my friends!

I suppose after neglecting many household chores and my taxes for far too long, that I should attend to some of that now.  But never fear, I've got another date with my bead table soon to keep working on the ideas that cropped up while I was working on the Bead in the New Year prompts!

Honey Do List December 2018

This marks the end of the third year that my husband Eric has been giving me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... it's the Honey Do List 2018!  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm hoping folks will continue to play along with us!  

Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:

For this month's challenge I wanted to make folks work with bright colors and designs.  While visiting Sarajo's mom in her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama we happened across this cute decorated alley.  This is why I like just walking around areas with my camera--you never know what you might discover!  

I have to say that it was kind of fun walking around downtown Huntsville with Eric... it's changed a lot since I was a kid and even since he was last there!  There's something to walking around a place with a camera (or with someone with a camera!) and trying to see the world through that lens.  We discovered a lot of cool nooks and crannies, little bursts of art hiding in a town that I've known my entire life.  

I took inspiration this month both from the bright colors of this alley's murals in general and the "Alley Cats" painting in the foreground in particular.  My first design is ALL about bright color!  I've been hanging onto this adorable heart shaped resin pendant with a sweet black kitty from Gaea for awhile.  It was the first thing that I thought of when Eric gave us this challenge.  With all the vibrant colors in the pendant, I decided that the smart thing to do was to start by going through the collection of bead mixes that I've got left over from a bunch of different Allegory Gallery design challenge kits and little gift mixes as well.  I plucked most of the beads that I used in this necklace from those mixes and then added in a few more things to round out my options.  

It's a bit hard to see in my picture (and apologies for the bad lighting... yay Minnesota winter) but the back of the pendant says "wander."  I used some fun new copper plated chain at the back and left it long with no clasp.

With the craziness of the holidays, I really wasn't sure I'd manage to make more than one design this month.  Luckily, I was able to carve out a little last minute making time and whipped up a second necklace!  I've had a sweet floral cat pendant from Golem Design Studio for a couple of years and am happy to have finally made something with it.  I kept this one fairly simple and just made links with Czech glass beads in the colors from the kitty's flowers and added brass chain at the back.  I just had to use a toggle clasp that had a flower similar to the ones on the pendant to complete the necklace!

While I was waiting (in vain) for the light to improve for picture taking, I managed to whip up a little pair of kitty cat earrings too!  I paired some adorable bow-tie wearing cat charms by Anna Bronze with some tiny lampwork beads and little Czech glass flowers.  The ear wires are bronze colored niobium.

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Art Elements Theme of the Month July 2018: Seed Pods

Another fun theme challenge from the team at the Art Elements blog this month!    Jen Cameron has chosen seed pods to inspire us for July.

I immediately thought of some fun components that I got from Anna Bronze at Bead & Button last year.  They have a couple of collections that are nature and spice inspired that were just perfect for this challenge.  Now I had just the excuse I needed to play with some of my little lovelies that have been languishing.  Thanks, Art Elements!!

I'm not entirely sure what the Anna Bronze component that I chose for my necklace is really supposed to be, but it felt pod like to me!  I decided to pair it with a lantern/melon bead from Gaea and some brass bead caps with a chain tassel hanging down for the pendant.  I added links with coordinating Czech glass.  The back is brass chain and the whole thing is long.  This necklace is currently at Unearthed Arts in Waconia.

Next up I played with some star anise seed pods from Anna Bronze.  These little cuties have multiple holes (at the 4 compass points) so it seems a shame that I'm only using one, but I wanted the pods to shine!  I just made some little bead links with some fun little melon beads for a small pop of color.  I feel like the texture of the melons also seems seed pod like.

In addition to the finished pieces that I made, I did make progress on a couple of other pod-related projects.  During Heather Powers' Fairy Garden Headpins class at the Adornments Retreat I ended up with a couple of headpins with a pod-like feel.  One of the items I used for mold making was some sort of flower bud, I'm not sure what the other little guy really was, but I liked the impression it made!  They don't look like much in this photo especially since I haven't painted them yet, but I think they're going to be cool once I get them finished!

When I got back from the retreat, I went looking in the garden and yard for other items to make molds of... one of the things that I found were milkweed pods.  I've really never seen milkweed up close enough to observe it's life cycle before.  When I left for the retreat the plants still had some flowers on them but by the time I returned it was all about the pods!  I haven't gotten out the polymer clay yet, but I did make what I think will be a great set of molds.  I can't wait to use them!

Thanks for stopping by!  This is a blog hop so check out what everyone else was inspired to create!

Guest Artists:

Tammy 

Raven 

Alysen

Anita

Cat 

Kimberly 

Rozantia 

Sarajo - You are here!

Divya

Caroline

Catherine

Kathy

Jill

Norma

Art Elements Team: 

Claire

Caroline

Lesley

Niky

Laney

Susan

Marsha

Jenny

Cathy

Jen

2017 Muffin Tin Challenge!

In the spirit of getting her followers pumped up and creating in the new year, Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame has once again thrown down the beady gauntlet and challenged us to participate in her Muffin Tin Challenge!  Heather set the reveal date for January 16th but I'm traveling that day, so I'm posting a little early.  The good news is, you may still have time to join in if you wish!!

The idea is pretty simple... grab a muffin tin (or similar container with multiple compartments) and fill each well up with all you need to make one jewelry design.  Then sit down and power through some jewelry making with a goal of finishing at least 6 pieces.  You can read all the details on Heather's blog HERE.  Full disclosure:  I'm not always the best about making sure I've gotten absolutely everything needed in my little muffin cups.  I tend to go with just grabbing the core items and adding to them as I go... that's just how my brain tends to work.  My muffin tin projects include some VERY late Christmas presents for my sister and niece, an even more belated project for my extremely patient friend Kathleen, earrings that have been waiting to be made for varying lengths of time, projects for this month's Honey Do List challenge, and more!

My "muffins" ready to bake!

I started with the lowest hanging fruit... necklaces for my sister and niece that should have been done ages ago!  I found a broken strand of fun orange sodalite pieces at the last Dakota Stones showroom sale and snatched them up immediately.  Most of my family (including these two ladies) went to Auburn University whose colors happen to be orange and blue, so this was a very lucky find!

Next up, a pair of earrings meant to go with the necklace I made for the December Art Bead Scene challenge.  You can see that necklace HERE.  The earrings are the same as the flower dangle off the bottom of the pendant.  Sweet and fairly simple!

Next up, a couple of pairs of earrings that have been UFOs (UnFinished Objects) for quite some time.  I have more earrings that are partially thought out, but at least I've knocked out a couple of them!

Next, in a fit of art bead madness, I made two more long necklaces with Heather's seriously amazing new "Gilded Bramble" bird beads as the main event!  (She has a few of these in her Etsy shop HERE if you are now drooling for one of your own!)  For the coppery one I used a ceramic branch by Diane Hawkey and a ceramic leaf by Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead.  The blue one features a pendant by Gaea and enameled bead cap by C-Koop Beads.  I really couldn't be happier with how these necklaces turned out!

And finally, my 7th "muffin" and 8th project from this challenge: I finally made a bracelet with the beads I picked out to work on during Heather's Inspired by Nature Retreat.  I learned a lesson... I did NOT need to bring extra projects.  I kept plenty busy working on the fun things that Heather had planned for us!

Stop by Heather's blog HERE (starting January 16th) to see what everyone else "baked up" for this year's Muffin Tin Challenge!  Even if you missed out on the official challenge, I recommend this as a great way to get some concentrated creating done!  I didn't finish making everything in my tin yet, but I'm going to keep on trucking with these projects... at least some of them!

Art Bead Scene: August 2016

I'm not going to lie, some of the artwork that the Art Bead Scene has chosen for their monthly challenges have been, well, challenging for me.  This month is no exception with the choice of "Park Near Lu" by Paul Klee.   The mix of colors and the abstract shapes really throw me off!  You can read more about the artwork and artist over on the Art Bead Scene blog HERE.

"Park Near Lu"

By Paul Klee, 1938

Since I try not to buy any new art beads for the monthly challenge (my monthly subscription to Erin's Simple Truths Sampler Club doesn't count by my twisty logic!) I was more than a bit worried about my ability to make something this month.  Luckily, when digging through my art beads I found a set of tribal beads by Gaea that I'd totally forgotten about that were pretty perfect!  (I actually won this set a while back for an ABS challenge so it comes full circle!)

I chose waxed Irish linen to keep to the primitive feel of the painting.  I tied the ceramic beads, some jasper, Czech glass, and brass along black and teal linen and then finished it off with brass chain.  The end effect is totally different from my usual style but I'm pretty happy with how it came together.
    

The Honey Do List: April 2016

This year, my husband Eric has decided to issue me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... we're calling it the Honey Do List.  Eric's two biggest interests are beer and photography (you can see what he's up to over on his blog HERE).  He's given us photography challenges twice now... so this month he decided it was time to bring beer into the mix!

Here's what Eric has to say about this month's challenge and the examples he gave to get folks inspired:

This month we're doing the Beer Challenge!  I'm a huge fan of craft beer and the recent boom of great beers has led to a lot of fantastic label art.  Your challenge (should you choose to accept it) is to take label art as an inspiration for jewelry.  I've posted a couple of examples of cool bottle art as well as corresponding art beads.  You can use these particular examples or use your own beer, wine, or even soda labels as a starting point.  Good luck!

Art Beads from left to right:  Kylie Parry, Golem Design Studio, Gaea, Unknown, Unknown, Staci Louise Smith

Now I am a notorious procrastinator... I mean, I tell myself that I just work better under pressure (and I probably do) but that's not the whole story.  No matter what my time constraints, no matter what it is I'm doing, chances are good that I'm going to push things to the absolute limit and wait until the very last minute to get things done.  Why is this pertinent information?  Because I got so excited about this challenge that I got to work right way... like April 1st right away!  And I've been super busy creating a whole slew of beer (and mead!) label inspired designs. 

I was excited that Eric picked out the label for Wicked Weed Brewing's Medora both because the artwork is super funky and because they are one of my favorite breweries that I've visited in our travels.  The beer itself is a sour ale aged in red wine barrels with one pound of blackberries and raspberries per gallon.  The resulting beer is beautiful to look at with it's fuchsia color and super delicious!

One of the pendants that Eric picked out for this one was a purple glazed heart from Gaea that I picked up in a destash bundle from her a while back.  I love that the glaze goes from a lighter purple to a dark blue shade with a little drip at the bottom.  I decided to use waxed Irish linen in two different purples for the bulk of the necklace.  I used a technique that I learned from one of Erin Siegel's Ornamentea bracelet tutorials and adjusted it for use in a necklace.  (You can find that tutorial HERE... it's a fun and easy project!)

In addition to the beads that Eric picked out, I found another fun pendant from Gaea in my stash.  The pale purple color and bumpy, alien texture work well with the Wicked Weed label.  I had just been working on reorganizing my beads and rediscovered a strand of purple and cream colored Czech glass rondelles.  If I'm honest, I really wasn't wowed by the beads on their own, but when I found the pendant I knew it was a perfect match!  I added in some smaller amethyst beads in between the glass links to pull in some of the darker purples.

While I'm not a big hoppy beer fan, there's something about Ballast Point's Habanero Sculpin IPA that I really enjoy (maybe it's the slow burn) so I was glad that Eric chose this label as one of his inspiration examples.  I've also been itching to design with the orange polymer clay pendant from Staci Louise Originals so I had to get something made with it.  The color and concentric circles in the pendant remind me of the fins of the fish (the sculpin, I presume) on the beer label.  There's also something almost compass like about the pendant's pattern that makes it feel slightly nautical.  If you're familiar with Staci Louise Smith's jewelry designs, you know she makes some amazing, chunky, wire-wrapped necklaces and often uses sari silk ribbon.  While my Czech glass beads aren't chunky, I did finish the back with a rust colored silk ribbon instead of chain as a nod to Staci's design aesthetic.

I didn't start out as a beer (craft or otherwise) lover, so I wanted to at least make a nod to another alcoholic beverage that's near and dear to my heart... mead!  If you aren't familiar with mead, it's basically a honey wine.  We happen to have a friend, Susan Ruud, who has opened a meadery in Fargo, ND called Prairie Rose Meadery and I wanted to make something inspired by her pretty labels.  Here are the results:

I had the sweetest little polymer clay dogwood blossom from Humblebeads that was just perfect.  Since the polymer is so lightweight and a smaller size, I kept things pretty simple.  All I used were some small Czech glass rondelles and these fun little hexagonal plated hematite beads I just picked up at a local bead show with small bronze colored seed beads in between.  I'm drawn to all things bee so I was a little giddy to be able to add a little nod to honeycomb into this mead label inspired design!

Not content to stop there, I made a second Prairie Rose inspired piece with a vintage porcelain pendant that I picked up in Asheville last year.  I went with a mix of Czech glass beaded links paired with brass chain and findings.  I originally wanted to hang a bee charm off of the clasp, but it just didn't behave quite the way I wanted it to.  In the end, that's probably for the best as there is already a lot going on with this necklace.  Sometimes simpler is just better... something I'm forever having to remind myself!

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Muffin Tin Challenge Reveal: Redux

Think way, way back to January and you may remember that Heather Powers hosted a Muffin Tin Challenge where participants were encouraged to fill a muffin tin with all the goodies needed for a project and get as many as possible completed during the given time frame.  It was a wonderful creative challenge that helped me get my creative mojo going.  I used the challenge as a way to make some pieces to submit to Create Jewelry, a special issue of Stringing magazine and, since they actually wanted to see a number of my submissions in person, I wasn't able to actually show off my finished projects for the Muffin Tin reveal.  Better late than never, I'm finally going to share the rest of my creations!

Here is how my muffin tin looked when I first started.  I finished 7 necklaces and 6 pairs of earrings during the challenge but still had projects left in 4 cups when the challenge ended.  (I'm happy to say that I eventually finished all but one of the intended projects... Jenny Davies-Reazor's pendant is still waiting for some love.)

Moth Collector: This necklace features a resin filled pendant that I made, a mix of silver plated chain, mookaite, rhodonite, and septaria.  I'm always pleased when I can successfully achieve asymmetry!

Seahorse Cove: Andrew Thornton's porcelain pendant was the starting point for this necklace.  I had grabbed this one and several others at his shop Allegory Gallery when we visited Ligonier last fall.  I used a mix of ceramic, glass, and apatite beads with sari silk at the back.  I'm thrilled with the way this one turned out!  I'm still pretty new to mixing fibers into my designs so I'm proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone.

Proud Peacock: This one started with a set of beads from Gaea.  I added some brass beads and some random gemstones in complementary colors and had fun playing with a mix of waxed Irish linen colors.  This one is BIG... a real statement piece for sure!

Lotus Blossom: My sweet husband bought me this ceramic lotus flower pendant from Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio for Christmas.  I added in a couple of types of jade and some brass beads along the waxed Irish linen.

Cracked Earth: This amazing sunflower pendant from Tracee Dock of The Classic Bead was in my wonderful grab bag on my first Bead Cruise.  Yes, it has been languishing in my stash for that long!  Well, the time was right for it to get out of cold storage and into a design mixed with red creek and crazy horse jaspers as well as some petrified green opal nuggets and some metallic peanut beads.

Last, but not least is Secret Sunflower:  This is the one necklace out of the bunch that actually got published!  I used a cheerful shadowbox bead from Round Rabbit and added Czech and recycled glass links in bright pinks and oranges.  This was my first time having a necklace appear in a national magazine so that was pretty exciting.  This is one design that I just can't bear to part with.

I'm very happy to say that all but Lotus Blossom and Cracked Earth found good homes at this past weekend's show, The Edge of the Big Woods Art Wander!  Another huge thank you to everyone who Wandered by over the three day studio tour.  It was wonderful to see old friends and make new ones.
This week finds me tired but happy.  I'm giving myself a couple of days where I'm not pushing too hard but still getting things done before I get back on what passes for a normal schedule around here.  Thanks for stopping by today... have a great week!