A Button Swap

I've had this fascination with buttons for a long time. I use them frequently now in my sewing and art work. I have even created a button tree sculpture with them. Well I joined a button swap hosted by Cindy Wimmer and on a recent trip to our antique store here in town I found a ton of cool buttons and they were cheap. I think a small bag was only $1.95 with the larger one at $3.95. So, I got all these lovelies for under $10.00. Now my swap partner doesn't know what I'm sending her but at least two of the buttons will come from this stash.

These are the coolest metal buttons. Love the windmill one. Wish I knew how old they were.

Not sure if these are old but they came out of the same metal stash at the antique store, they are metal (probably brass) edges with a plastic button inside. Love the little heart motif.

This button was so unusual, it is plastic but has all these symbols on it. Good size for a clasp on a bracelet I think and since they look Egyptian, I have just the charms to put with it on that bracelet.

Another cute little button, looks like a robot to me.

This didn't come from the antique store but was in my stash and I just had to share. This is my favorite special button that I will probably treasure forever and never use just because.

I hope everyone had a great Easter if you celebrate. We had a huge dinner at my mother's with lots of family and friends and great food. If you want to see what I've been up to in the ART world, check out my blog Basically ART.

Here is a sneak peak:

Home at Last

Well we have been home for several days and it feels like yesterday. I really can't believe how time flies. If you check out my ART blog you will see some of my fun old book finds and what I plan to do with them.

One of the first things I did when I got home was make some more body cream. The last cream I made was a face cream but this time I wanted to add some Coconut oil (shouldn't use that on your face) to see how it would work. So I played around with my recipe and got to work. This one is really moisturizing but too thick. I think I'll try it again using less if no Stearic Acid.

It has a nice light scent of coconut but it doesn't linger after you put it on. If you want the recipe, leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it to you.

I had someone ask me about all my supplies... well they do tend to grow like any hobby that you start to get into. The little purple bag holds most of my essential oils. Here are the essentials that you need to make your own lotions and creams.

• Scale
• Whisk or stick blender
• Pyrex measuring cups (I use a 4 cup and a 1 cup)
• Containers
• Spring water or distilled water
• Oils (various...could be grape seed, olive, caster, sweet almond, jojoba, coconut, sunflower, cocoa butter or more exotic like mango butter or Shea oil.
• Emulsifying Wax (this is to help your water and oil blend together and not separate)
• Preservative (I use a paraben free one that you can get at www.thesage.com)

I'm sure that most of you have some of these ingredients already. If you don't want a preservative in your lotion then you will need to either keep it refrigerated or use it within 2 to 3 months. The Sage blog has all kinds of recipes and shows steps in making your own lotion so check it out.

I did play with making some charms this week. I had to finish up a set for the Springtime in Paris swap (forgot to take pictures) and now I'm working on Nest charms for another group. These are fun but I have to make a total of 18 of them - only 9 more to go.

Next up is a button swap hosted by Cindy Wimmer over at Sweet Bead Studio (see button on the right top). I have a growing collection of buttons and thought it might be fun to do a little blog hop swap. I also found some really cool old metal buttons while at the antique store shopping yesterday. I'll be sure to post my finished creation here at well as on my ART blog since I'm not sure if it will be art or jewelry... maybe a little of both?

Have a great Sunday.

A Few More Wineries

As promised, I will share with you our wine and food tourings from the Napa and Sonoma Valley today. Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day and so we decided to head out to Sonoma. We walked around town and visited a couple of our favorite shops and had lunch at Murphy's Irish Pub. We ate lunch there last September when we were in town and it was really good so had to go back. As we ventured around the square we also found a shop that had all kinds of Fair Trade items so I purchased a few of their hand made wrapping paper from India. The kitchen shop is a lot of fun to walk through also.

For our wine venture we decided to hit up one of our favorites which is Imagery. They have a wonderful art gallery of original pieces that have been featured on their wine labels. All of the art pieces must have the Parthenon located somewhere on it. It is always fun to see if you can find the images in each piece of art. Here is DH in the Gallery, and yes that is a glass of wine he is holding.

Our surprising stop was on the way home but just a couple of miles from Imagery and that was the BR Cohn Winery. It was there, so I had to stop... didn't know anything about it. We were very surprised to find out that Bruce Cohn, the Manager of the Doobie Brothers Band is the owner. Who knew? There are so many famous people spread out all over the valley here that you just never know who you will run into. The wine was pretty good but the find of the day was their small olive oil and vinegar tasting room next door. They had the best 25 year old Balsamic vinegar... wow is all I can say.

Photo courtesy of http://brcohn.com

As you can tell some of the photos are not very good and I'm sure you guessed it that I am still using my phone camera. DH has the Nikon and hasn't downloaded all the photos yet for me to swipe a few and post out here.

The weather today was a bit iffy but we had a tasting and tour planned with Jarvis Winery. It was recommended to us as they have a nifty wine cave with mineral specimens. This tour is not for the budget conscious as it does cost a pretty penny. It is worth it but you know the saying, if you have to ask then you can't afford it.

Photo courtesy of http://www.jarviswines.com

All their production of wine is done in the caves. The above photo is just a small portion of the cave and barrels they have stored there.

Here we are next to a natural spring that flows through the cave.

It was a wonderful tour and the wines were out of this world. So smooth and drinkable. If you ever have the chance to taste these wines, do so, it will be worth it.

After that lovely experience it was time for lunch. I had already decided that I wanted to go back into Yountville to pick up another bottle of port so we decided to have lunch at Bottega. Bottega is owned by the famous Food Network Chef Michael Chiarello. Yes, I am throwing names around now but I did actually get to see him. He was in the restaurant visiting with some of the diners in his cute little chef's apron.  I'm pretty sure he wasn't cooking but the food was pretty darn good. We split the Caramelized Brussels Sprout Salad and DH had the Halibut over risotto as his entree and I had the Butternut Squash pasta something. All I know is that it was very good. Here is a picture of it.

As you can see, I had already started eating when I decided to take this photo. Oh so yummy. We didn't have a reservation but since it was before noon we were able to get a table. I do recommend making a reservation if you plan to visit just to be on the safe side.

Next stop was to taste a little more wine at Hope and Grace winery. I just love their Chardonnay and can't help myself from buying a bottle whenever we are in town. Since we just happened to be near we stopped to get some dessert for tonight from Bouchon bakery. I'm still trying to hold myself back from digging into that Chocolate Eclair.

Well tomorrow is another day and one to look forward to. I'm not entirely sure what exciting things we will find but I'll be sure to let you know.

Wine, Olives and Olive Oil

I don't know, can you guess where we are? Yep, Napa, CA. Here we headed South for some warmer weather and a bit of sunshine and what did we find but rain and overcast days. I do have to admit that the days are about 10 degrees warmer but still no sun. On the trip down we stopped in Corning at the Olive Pit to try some of their tasty olives. Lots of good choices there plus they have all kinds of other food items as well. I found a Fig Balsamic Vinegar that was to die for.... so yummy I just want to drink it straight out of the bottle.

The last time we came to Napa, I posted several reviews on the winery's we visited, my plan is to do the same thing just in case you are ever in the area. We visited Rutherford Ranch on Sunday and Jessup Cellars on Monday, both were extremely good this time as well as in previous visits. Today we tried an Olive Oil Tasting at Round Pond.

This was very different than what I expected. You get 4 little shot type glasses with about a tablespoon of olive oil in each one, then you are to pour one in your mouth, swish it around and then let it slide down your throat while you cough. Yes, cough. They did bring out fresh veggies to try along with the oils which was a good thing. They also let us try the vinegars and simple syrups. By far the vinegars were our favorite. They are considered a Boutique Olive Oil producer, so they make in small quantities right on the farm with their own mill. Interesting tour but once we had swigged oil, we really needed some wine, so off to Peju we went.

So this is the outside of the winery. They have wonderful grounds with lots of sculptures. I snapped a few photos with my cell phone while DH went around with the big camera.

We haven't quite decided what we are doing tomorrow but if it is interesting, I'll be sure to let you know.

Cheers

Flower Headpins

I saw a post a couple of weeks ago from another blogger, Joanne Tinley, who had made these fantastic poppy headpins. I really wanted to do something similar but not exactly and started playing today. If you want to see her wonderful headpins you can check out her Etsy shop called Daisychain Extra where she sells all kinds of handmade findings or she has a great blog you might want to read called Daisychain Jewellery.

So, here are my little headpins. These are quite a bit of work with all the soldering, cleaning, antiquing and then polishing but I think they will make some really cute earrings or maybe I'll put several of them together and make a fun ring. Who knows. What would you do with them?

Are we having fun yet?

Playing with Wire, or is it Fire?

Do you ever just an idea but can't figure out how to make it into something? Well that was me yesterday. I went into my studio/craft room and decided to just play for a bit with no pressure to make anything. Low and behold, I was able to do a couple of new things with wire. This first is a spin-off from my Crystal Ladder Pendant and is a Lark's Head knot. To do it in leather, string or ribbon is one thing but to do it in wire.... oh my !!! Fingers hurt. I did come up with a trick... probably not new to those of you that love to work with wire, but you heat your wire with a torch until it turns red, quench it in water and start looping. If the wire gets too stiff again, just heat it again.

Once you are finished, if you don't like the antiqued look of the fire scale then you can put your piece in pickle and then polish for that bright shiny look again.

This piece was made using 14 gauge copper which makes it a heavier piece. I've decided I like the curled ends versus those that have the small balls. I even made a pair of earrings using 18 gauge wire. Lots of fun once you get the hang of it.

Now these are probably going to be my favorite earrings and and I'll just have to make me a pair in silver.

These head pins were made using 18 gauge wire and I love the effect of the simple knot on the end. I may have to wear these tonight.

I've also been working on some art charms for a swap. I previously showed you some of my wooden "Z"s that I was tangling on well these are mini bottle caps that I inserted a small piece of an original Zentangle. These were a lot of fun. I still have a couple more wooden pieces left to complete to finish out my set.

I hope everyone is having a great week.