Happy New Year

To all those who stop by my blog I want to wish you a happy new year full of promise and possibilities. As a family we celebrated at a New Years Eve party and I must say that fun was had by all, it is really nice to have children that are old enough to stay up past 8 o'clock.

Each new year hold such possibilities and I'm always excited to set some new goals. I've been reading (more like browsing) the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and I really love the class concept. My plan is to start again from the beginning and to complete the tasks she assigns. While reading this past week she hit upon some issues I really struggle with ... perfection... in other words wanting my art to be perfect before putting it out there for the world to see. It stifles me, makes it hard to work because really is anything ever truly perfect? So this year I will strive to be imperfect and productive.

Angie

Feeling Love-y

It's changeover week (again) . I'm busy taking down all the Christmas cards and setting up Valentine's . In spirit I thought about posting some vintage Valentine's but came across these "kissing cuties" in my image files and had to share. So while I'm busy working hard I hope you can be inspired to make something darling with these.

Angie

From our house to your's

Merry Christmas!

It was a whirlwind day with baking... wrapping... and cleaning. We are looking forward to evening mass, the arrival of Santa and a restful tomorrow.

Angie

Shabby Brooches

Finally putting those tutorials to good use. While puttering around the studio waiting for the glitter on the Christmas cards to dry I almost finished these two brooches, just need to attach pins to the back then they're all done.

Does anyone use brooches anymore?? I love them on my scarves in the winter months but other than I'm not sure.

Very therapeutic just sitting down with a thread and needle, it has quite a long time since I've done that.

Things here are moving along... packages are shipped, Christmas cards are addressed and stamped, not sure if they will make to their destinations before the big day but at least they are on their way. Last night we had a bit of a hiccup in the household...a broken dishwasher..ugh.. I guess it is never a good time to be without one of those. Can you say paper plates and plastic flatware?? I can, at least until after the holidays!

Angie

Disconnected

Hello again, boy has it been a while. I have felt very disconnected lately, I'm sure it is just this self imposed busy life converging all at once. Today I'm at home with the kiddos on their first day of Christmas break. I would love to be out and about finishing up last minute shopping but we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the UPS man with my new cell phone..this gal has been off the grid for over a week. On the bright side I finished up a bunch of handcrafted gifts and downloaded pictures from my camera so now I have something to blog about :)

Let me start out with Mr. Robert who celebrated his 10th birthday this past week. Oh my how can it be he has been in the world with us for a whole decade???

Now you have to keep a secret if you read on because I have posted pictures of some handcrafted Christmas gifts...no telling...

I asked my mom for some of her favorite family snapshots at Thanksgiving with the intention of making ornaments for her tree. These are made using the with the same process as the faux glass tiles. The one below is my favorite of the three, it's her mom and dad taken while they dating, I don't know the exact age of the image but I guess it would have been in the 1940's.

My mom with her brother and older sister.

One of her whole family.

For the gals at the Bellevue Beadery, where they sell my work, I wanted to make them each a handcrafted pendant. These are made using the techniques I learned from Stephanie Lee's online class taken in the fall.
I made one extra and finished it into a necklace for my dear friend, Danielle, in New Jersey.

Here is a quick shot of my worktable...still making beads for the Beadery, both custom photo tiles and a few chilly penguin beads for consignment.

There is still much to do...ship packages (God Bless the post office's automated shipping center), cards to mail, packages to wrap, cinnamon roasted almonds and biscotti to make.

Until the next time..hopefully it won't be so long...

Angie

Treating myself to handmade

I wanted to show you my two self indulgent purchases from this past weekend at Winterfair. This was my first time attending the holiday art show in Covington, Kentucky and boy was it a lot to take in.

This little ornament was calling my name, I have a deep love for all things in a style of the Arts & Crafts movement.

Then I came across this little gem at a lampwork bead booth. The time and talent it takes to create glass beads is beyond my comprehension and though I admire them I've never owned a piece. Then in the back of this booth I found beads created around vintage skeleton keys...the heart swooned, a charge card appeared from the wallet and home with me it went. I was sad to see this wasn't a local seller (you know in case I need another one) but she is on Etsy, her shop is beetslive and her pictures do a much better job of showing her beautiful work than I did.

Angie