graduation gift

i made this for our friends daughter, who just graduated from college.

charm display for surf shop

I made a bunch of surf related charms to put in my brother in laws surf shop. i then realized i needed something to display them on, so came up with this. i'll try to add more photos later of this - blogspot is having loading photo issues AGAIN!

Thursday i leave for Boston again for my Tim Holtz classes! i'm taking a total of 8 classes starting on Friday. yummy! i am going down on Thursday and will stay with Jackie. she is going to try and take a 1/2 day of work so that we can go play for a little bit and have dinner. can't wait. i emailed tim and asked about taking photos at his class. he said i could, but sounds like there are some stipulations on what i post on my blog (bummer), so we'll see!

Lots of things to get ready for - Fall is fast approaching!

here is what i've been working on the last few days.

picture #1 - this is an assemblage that i just started playing with. it is a cheese tray glass dome, a chintz plate, vintage ribbone and a nest. that is all i've done so far, but i see great things in its future!

picture #2, #3, & #4 - this is a retro frame from the flea market - kind of ugly. no glass, etc. so as i was doing bottle cap charms, i grabbed it to lay the bottle caps on to dry. as the selection grew, i thought it look really cool! so i made a centerpiece with an exlarge bottle cap and a soldered piece of glass and there you have it! i love this piece! and it was all by accident. i 'm going to make a smaller version on 2 pieces i got at a thrift store.

picture #5 - i really like this. it is just cool! i did a glass slide pendant, then cut with tin snips - a tin i had holding stickers into wings. did some weaving with "fun wire", used a rub on and then added some beads. now i just have to figure out what to do with it from here! any ideas?

I am in the process of doing 2 shows. the first one is Sept. 1st at Ocean Grove, NJ. I did this show the year before last and it was a lot of fun. very eclectic crowd. the next show i am doing is BLACK FRIDAY! i did this show last year and made $1600. so right now i am in work my ass off mode! need to produce lots of treasures.

also, in the works for my schedule is Artnsoul in October. I've started gathering my supplies (i'm taking classes every waking moment, so lots of supplies to cull.). then i've got Artfest coming up in April, which i am totally psyched for. i will be getting to see a lot of friends at this event and make more friends. my friend, Jan, from Texas is going and my friend, Lindsay from Tennessee (or maybe she is from there and lives elsewhere - i'm forgetting now!) also got the green light to go - YAY!!!!!!! and then my buddy, Kim, from Ohio, who i also met online and then face to face at Artiscape is going. She will have Julie with her and then others from her posse that i'm sure i will meet. Lindsay and i will try to get into the coveted "private" rooms. if we each don't get a private room, then we will share a room. uh-oh, what if lindsay gets a private room and not me and then i have to share with someone else? or vice versa? i think we might need a pre nup on this one! lol. kim, julie and her friends stay at a B&B and then Jan is bringing her beloved Frank with her, so they will stay in town as well.

so what else? for my birthday, (Sept. 19th - HINT HINT everyone!!!!!! - look i am a twin and always had to share my birthday, so as an adult i am a birthday hog! i can't help it, i like that to be my one very special day - does that make me sound like Forest Gump?) Why do you think i made that Miss Universe caliber tiara? anywho, i have decided to take a trip to Ohio to visit kim and julie! i've been promised lots of exciting shopping, thrifting, drinking, good food and fun - so how can i not go? COME ON!!!!!

October brings on Artnsoul, where i will meet my new BFF, Jan! she calls me little ninjja - so i love her! she is from Texas and just too cute! we spoke on the phone a few days ago for the first time (it is always email with us!) and it was really cool to here her voice! we will be exchanging "surprises" for each other and i can't wait! i'm almost finished with her "surprise". Also at Artnsoul, i've taken on some roomates. first will be Sammy who just needs a room for one night on thursday - glad to have her! then on fri, sat and sun, i will be hosting Lisa Myers Bulmash. can't wait to see them - probably right before bedtime!

Come Nov. I am to fly to Nevada for my father's 70th birthday to be held in Reno. I will be taking my son, Dillon. The event will be at some casino in Reno, can't remember which one. I am going because my dad asked that of me (which he doesn't make a lot of requests.....), but you must know that i absolutely DREAD going and get queasy thinking about it. Some of you know this of me, but many others don't: my older son, Tucker, who is 17, almost died in Reno. He was 16 months old and had to have some "elective" surgery for croup. the croup was not clearing up and was diagnosed by the ENT as "infectious trachyitus" or secondary infection to croup. Croup is a common childhood virus and it involves the trachea. yes, there was some concern, but it was never an emergency situation. The elective surgery involved traching tucker so that he could breathe through this tube in his neck, bypass the trachea and thus reduce the swelling. Tucker was the last case of the day and maybe the surgeoun rushed, but he used the wrong size trach on tucker. When he placed the trach, being the wrong size, he ripped a hole in tucker's espoghagus. after surgery, when tucker was hooked up to a ventilator to help him breathe, the air was pushing through that hole and going into his stomach (not his lungs). this created a collapse affect and stopped his heart. To have a nurse come up to you and say, "they are doing CPR on your son" do you have anyone to call? (i was alone.) was the most HORRIBLE thing imaginable. Tucker went without oxygen for approximately 10-15 minutes and was left severely brain injured.

So back to the present as i really did digress. I HATE Reno. When you fly into Reno, you fly right over the hospital where it happened. i have to close my eyes, it makes me sick. So you see, this is why i do not relish going there. Thankfully, i will have my beautiful child, Dillon, with me to act as a buffer.

Rockin girl blogger award

Today i was awarded the "rockin girl blogger" award by twin birthday gal (sept. 19th), Joanne thiemehuffman. Thanks Joanne, what a sweetie! i met Joanne at Artiscape. The first thing you notice about Joanne is her oh, so sassy bob. A hair cut so cute on her. I kept seeing her every where and we did a couple of trades. Then towards the end we traded again for something, but i was all out, so i told her i would send her something when i got back home. which i did! it was fun. the other thing i noticed about Joanne was her darling hand painted shoes that she was wearing. i still want to paint me a pair of those shoes! too cute! thanks Joanne, i appreciate it! Now i am to pay it forward and nominate 5 other rockin girl bloggers!

From the land of "some people just don't get it" and a few more tiara pics

When I have some time to make myself look presentable..... i will take a picture of me wearing my tiara!

So, i was at a BBQ yesterday at my friends house. She let me raid her shoe box stash so that i had some boxes to mail out these mannequins i've been selling in my etsy shoppe (as a supply) in addition to the few i've altered. so we were discussing this and that about my art and she asked what was the class i was taking in Boston. I told her all about the tiara class, soldering, making the charms, ets. There was another woman also standing there listening when all i a sudden she pipes in "is there a lot of call for tiaras?" I just sort of looked at her and said, well, i am not sure what your question means, but i took the class because of my interest in it. i don't really evaluate situations like that based on "the call for it". maybe i am being snarky, but i found it a little annoying because i get that a lot. they don't understand what it is that i do (huh, altered art?) another time someone said to me, "and you make money at this?"

So my husband and i were discussing her "silly" comment this morning because i was saying, "what is exactly was she asking?" that in order for me to take a class, i should evaluate the need for it? whatever happened to doing something because you like it? i surmised that this is probably a woman without a lot of art in her life!