A Little Peace

Sometimes we all need a little peace but I found a deeper meaning to this earring and necklace set I created yesterday. I'm not sure what drove me to adding the peace charm at the bottom of the pendant but it seemed to balance out the oddness of using bullet casings for jewelry. Sorry folks, this set is already going to a good home tomorrow but if you want a set, just let me know.

I also have been busy making little drawstring baggies. I usually make them to use when someone buys a piece of jewelry or lately I've been making about 20 a month for the children in the oncology department at Mary Bridge Children's hospital. These were a special order for a Mary Kay representative who just happens to be my niece Shelby. She is really into the pink.

Last week hubby, my mom and both my niece and nephew and their spouses took a couple of day trips. Our first trip was to the ocean (Pacific) at Grayland beach. It started out cloudy with a few rain showers going but once we got there...nice and sunny. Such a treat. The dogs even got a good run in. We love going this time of year and during the week as there aren't very many people on the beach.

I like this shot as you can see Buddy the spaniel running in the distance, hubby keeping a watchful eye on him and Leo thinking he just found some food. We are always catching him with crab shells or something in his mouth.

My nephew and his wife just having a bit of fun. Oh to have that much energy.

My niece and her husband and I can just hear her saying "just one more shell".

The next day we headed up to Seattle to Pike Place Market then to the Seattle Center to view the new Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit and the Space Needle. We packed a lot into one day and our feet were sure tired at the end of it but we all had a great time and have the pictures to prove it. I highly recommend the glass exhibit...so worth it.

 My mom with my niece and her husband at Pike Place Market.

 You just can't imagine the beauty of this exhibit unless you go to it. My pictures certainly don't do it justice.

Here we are at the top of the Space Needle. It definitely was a picture taking day.

After a couple of days of high activity, I was glad to get back to our normal routine and just a little peace.

Finally a Sunny Day

Yes, yesterday was just beautiful and since it was so nice we set out on a day trip to the ocean. We stopped at the Westport Winery before hitting the beach and tasted a few wines. They were very yummy. If you haven't been to the winery before then it is worth a trip if you are in the area.

This weekend was record high tide and you could sure tell as we drove up beach road and we could see the waves. The beach in the picture is at Grayland and is usually very quiet and close to our property where we park the motor home when camping. We ate lunch at Bennett's in Grayland which is one of our favorites. They have great chowder. Actually, I don't think we have ever had anything bad there. If you want to check out some reviews here is a link. Then finally on our way home we stopped at Brady's and got some oysters. I think we will be cooking those up tomorrow for dinner. Humm, I wonder if I could get away with a little midnight oyster snack.

My paper charms that I have been struggling with will finally get in the mail tomorrow and I started working on a different swap of altered altoid tins. I finished a small one as a gift and am now working on the 3 larger ones. One thing about altering a tin, if you are going to paint it be sure to sand it first then use gesso as the first layer as a primer. I painted mine then glued some scrapbook cardstock to the front, bottom and sides of one. Here is what they looked like with the gesso. One tin will hold some of my matchbook note pads and some colored pencils. I'll post photos when I'm finished.

I did receive an altered tin early in the mail this week. It is a cute mermaid treasure box with all kinds of things a mermaid would collect.

It's always nice to get a surprise in the mail besides the normal bills. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Is It The End of Summer?

We spent a few days at the beach this week and you would have thought it was Fall. It was cold and rainy. I don't think it ever got above 63. When it really started to rain on Wednesday we decided that we had had enough and came back home. Yes, at home it was a balmy 80 and today somewhere in the 70's. So, note to those living in Washington and wanting to go to the beach, don't bother unless you want to get out of the heat as you won't find any sun there. I think Summer has definitely ended at the beach. This is my spoiled dog Leo, he thinks he is a baby most of the time.

I did get a nice surprise today in the mail. I had won a necklace from Laurel at Rue's Daftique. What a cool necklace and surprisingly it looks heavy but it very lightweight. It is the perfect mixed media piece and will look really funky with my odd assortment of clothing. Since I'm not working my attire is somewhat different as I usually just put on whatever is clean and sometimes I don't really match. I guess if just my hubby is seeing me it doesn't really matter does it? Here are the cool pics. First one is on the packaging...so cute isn't it.

Isn't this just the coolest necklace. I may have to make me some key earrings to go with it.

I think I told you last week that I had ordered the book Making Mixed Media Art Charms & Jewelry by Peggy Krzyzewski and Christine Hansen, well I took some inspiration from that book and created this pendant. It is kind of hard to see as the photo isn't that great but the base is a facet mesh strainer with a button mounted in the center and then a crystal on top. The dangle is brass wire with various sizes of glass beads. I highly recommend the book as it does give you lots of ideas and techniques from soldering around glass to resin making, using paper to create charms and other found objects. I'm now looking for a group to do some charm swapping. I think creating charms and swapping them with other people would be a fun activity. If you hear of a group, let me know.

Tonight I was searching though my beads for a new bead swap that I'm participating in and found some doozies. Lots of pearls, some pewter, seed beads and mis matched gems. I have so many that I need to thin out of my stash that I may have to have a giveaway....Ah something to look forward to.

Good to be Home

Well last week we escaped the dust, noise and mess of the renovations and headed to the beach. We thought it was supposed to be a nice week but I don't think it ever got over 57 degrees and it's mid July.  We were turning on the heat at times just to get warm. It was not my idea of a fun filled beach trip. I did get several gem trees made during my boring hours since I couldn't work on my tan. We headed back on Friday to check on the progress of the house, take showers and then head off to Tenino for a gem and mineral show. When we got back to town it was warm, this didn't bode well for the gem and mineral show where some years it hit over 100. Way too hot. Usually we don't take the motor home to the Tenino show as it is only an hour away but with the mess at the house we decided to just stay there and dry camp. It was a good idea as we did get to relax a bit and not be on the highway twice a day but it was warm. On Saturday it reached 91 and today about 87. We did have a good show, sold some gem trees and gem tree kits, plus I was able to teach 4 kids how to make trees, which is what I really like to do.

Now back home. Kitchen is completely finished including all the trim work and the dining room hard wood floors have been fixed, sanded and varnished. Yes, it is good to be home.

Relaxing with the dogs in the motor home at the beach.

One of my favorite shots as the sun goes down.

Mother's Day at the Beach

This weekend we took a little trip to the beach for the second motor home outing. This time we dry camped...in other words, no electric or water hookups. It wasn't as convenient as having full hookups but we survived and we learned a little bit more about the coach. So, not having any internet access I couldn't blog, tweet or play my facebook games, so sad...I think I'm really going to have to get me an air card.

The dogs wanted to share a few pictures from our weekend with you.

Mom, the sun is really bright today.

Wait, I know I buried it here somewhere.

Look, I found dinner.

Finally home.

Home Again

Back home from the beach and now the fun work begins of cleaning the darn thing. It is amazing how much sand can get into everything even when you are careful. I found sand in a shoe that I didn't even wear... how can that be?  So, it is off to the trailer today and tomorrow with the mondo vacuum cleaner to get in all the small crevices, mop up all wet places that turned to sandy mud and Simple Green to wipe everything down. I think I'll put my husband to work washing the outside before it gets put away for the Winter.

We really did enjoy our short overnight stay at the beach with the nephew. I told my bother to pack extra clothes and warm items since it gets cold there at night. He was able to get every thing wet except for one pair of sweat pant and a sweat shirt, so it all when into the washer when we got home. You can tell an 11 yo not to get wet, but it really won't work especially when you have a dog that wants to play in the water also. His excuse before we came home for getting wet was that a big wave hit him from behind...hummm I think I've heard that one before. At least the dog knew when to get out before that big wave hit.

Everyone have a great Sunday, get lots of rest and spend time with family if you can.    -  dana

And The Winner Is.......

Random.org has chosen my winner for the giveaway and it is Zafiro80. I've contacted her to get the information on whether she wants sterling silver or 14 kt gold filled and what color charms she would like. My next giveaway  I have planned is for the first week of November, so be sure to stayed tuned.

In other news, we decided to pull the trailer out of the beach property this weekend so now I'm down here using my Sprint broadband card with only 10 - 0% connectivity. Not too many cell towers at the beach I guess. I'm used to having several windows open at once and multi-tasking through my blogs and twitter and facebook, but down here I can only do one thing at a time and then it is sooo slow so this post will be short and sweet. Here is a little picture of the nephew, husband and dogs at the beach...thank heaven it was a nice day.

What's Got You Down?

Mine has been the cold from H&!!. I still have the cough but am feeling much better. If you follow me on twitter, then you probably know that I had a show last weekend. It actually turned out to be a very good show. Sold lots of gem trees and a few books. We always make lots of new friends and visit with old ones when attending these shows. This show was in Castle Rock, WA, which is a very small town very close to Mount St. Helens. We try to do this show every year and have been for the past 6 years so customers have come to expect us to be there. This year I didn't take my jewelry and concentrated on marketing the book and gem trees and I did have a few customers disappointed that I didn't have my jewelry with me. While the book is still fresh and new, it's best to focus my attention in that direction for awhile... or at least at some of the shows I'll be doing.

I'm most excited about a couple of new wholesale customers that I just landed the last couple of weeks. One is just ordering small gem trees for the Tucson gem show and the other is ordering books and kits for a local gem show he is doing. Yea... I like that one as I don't have to make anything, just put everything in a box and ship. Right now, with this economy, I'll take any kind of order I can get. Obviously I don't make as much money on wholesale customers as retail, but a customer is a customer and I like them all.

If you are reading this post and are wondering what book and what kits, I have them listed on my Etsy shop, so take a look around. If you prefer jewerly then I have that too on my 1000 Markets and ArtFire shops. Links to my shops are at the right.

I did get out last week for a day to visit the beach. It just happened to be one of the best days there all Summer. No wind and warm. The dogs loved being off leash, especially Buddy the spaniel. I swear that dog can run 40 miles per hour once he gets going.

I hope everyone is enjoying their week. I have a fun tutorial that I'll post here on how to make a penny pendant necklace, so stayed tuned and check back later. Cheers, Dana

The Never Ending Journey

Back from fun at the Beach. We finally purchased an air bed for the trailer so now we can sleep better and also a more comfortable chair. We have been putting off going to the beach property because we haven't been comfortable sleeping. Problem solved. We had a great few days, made it back for the 4th here at home since the dogs don't like fireworks. The beach is just one giant bang on the 4th as we have witnessed the past several years, so to give the dogs a break we came home early. Hopefully everyone remained safe through the 4th of July holiday.

We've been relaxing today along with doing upteen loads of laundry and I finally started on one of my competition gem trees that needs to be completed by the end of this month. It's not going as planned as the briolettes holes are too small for the tree wire, so now I'm rethinking what to do. If I remake the tree using smaller gauge wire then it will be too droopy. My husband suggested making loops on the ends of the tree branches and then dangling the gems off by wrapping them with smaller gauge wire....hummm, this might work, but not what I had envisioned. I guess I'll give it some more thought.

I just found a message from my publisher of the BOOK that they have finished the 2nd version, now back available on their web site and now hopefully this will be the last version until I have some major edits. I also received an e-mail from FedEx that a package had been sent to me from Morriss Printing, so yea this may be my proof and I can finally get these dang things printed. The last proof I reviewed had printer errors, so sent it back. What a run around that was.....note to self publishers everywhere, be prepared to review everything at least 3 times and then have someone else review it for you.

On another note, I'm glad everyone liked my featured artist (Bedazzled of Oregon) last Thursday, she is an amazing artist. If you haven't read that post, be sure to check it out HERE.

Here are a couple of pics from our few days at the beach. Me with Leo and Paul walking on the foggy beach one morning with dogs.