What Would We Do Without Hobbies?

I don't know about you but my craft room is overflowing with stuff. I organize and put things away just to get it all back out again. I have a wonderful table that is quite large for the very small room (we put it together in the room) and I seem to only have about 12" of space to work in. I guess when I had the smaller table I had even less working space but really. I do have a ton of hobbies stored in there (room is only 7x9) from all but business jewelry making stuff to my sewing machine, plastic totes of fabric, sewing notions, gem trees and supplies, ATC stuff, rubber stamps, altered art, crochet books and yarns, beads, beads and more beads along with torches, firing bricks, hammers and all those metal working tools. When I think about all I have in that small little room, I'm kind of amazed I have any room to work at all.

I was hosting an art charm swap with a 4th of July theme and those all got mailed this morning so I was able to organize it a bit more. Here are the few jewelry pieces I made out of my stash of charms. I'm sure I will wear the earrings and necklace more than the bracelet but I like the look of the bracelet and after the holiday will hang it on the wall with one other one.

I also started working on some ATC's for a swap with the Red Lead Yahoo group, I haven't swapped with them before and am looking forward to it. I love ATC's as they are little works of art that you can store in a book if you don't want them out. Most of mine I keep in a sports card collectible sleeve in a binder as they are the same size as the baseball or football cards. These are the ones I finished up today.

Now to go and clean up my mess yet again. Maybe this time I'll actually put the boxes away in the cupboard where they are supposed to be versus on the floor.

I guess one of these days I'll have to post some of my jewelry creations with you. I do have some special orders to work on so I better get crack'n.

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week.

What's New With You?

Yes, I really would like to know. If you don't regularly blog then here is your opportunity to tell me and the world something about yourself. I can't believe you wouldn't want to tell the world what you are doing right now or what's new in your life. I seem to be lacking in that area lately, and I am sorry for that but I really have been busy.

I do have big news. I'm going to start teaching gem tree design at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA starting in December. I have 5 classes scheduled for that month in hopes that people will want to make some holiday gifts. Here are the dates and times:

Holiday tree classes will be: 12/5 10am-1PM 14CS1210-A and 12/18 10am-1pm 14CS1210-C. 

The Standard Tree: 12/5 2pm-5pm 14CS1210-B and 12/18 2pm-5pm 14CS1210-D. 

Kid's class: 12/21 1pm-3pm: 14CS1210-E

The number after the time is the product or class number so that if you want to take the class you can call the store (1-800-950-4232) and reserve your spot. This is so new they don't have them up on their web site yet.

I've also been busy with an upcoming benefit dinner auction called Harvest of Hope which benefits Mary Bridge Children's Hospital. The event is Saturday night but we have a lot of set up to do on the day of the event and previously we had all the planning, procuring of items and selling of tickets. Hopefully it will be a fun and profitable event.


I haven't been making much jewelry lately but have been making art charms and artist trading cards. I'm sure I have shared the link to my art charms group before but if you are interested in making little charms for bracelets or a necklace out of beads or found objects this is the group for you. We have a lot of fun and learn from each other daily. We just finished our first swap and are starting a new one for November.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtCharms/

Here is my first swap....we made over 30 bead dangles. The charm in the upper right was a hostess gift. Tutorial will be coming soon for those that want to learn to make it.

The other group I belong to is an artist trading card or ATC group on Yahoo. We create art 2.5 x 3.5 inches and swap, sometimes with themes, with other artists. This is such a diverse group and contains some really wonderful artists. Imagine being able to own small original works of art. You don't have to be a good artist just have the desire to create art on a small scale. Painting, collage, mixed media, pen and ink, digital, photography you name it, it all works. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/artisttradingcards/

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I'm off to work on a new project that hopefully I can share with you later this week.