New Items for Sale

I finally posted some new jewelry to my ArtFire shop. Felt good to get some new items out there vs. just looking at them in my studio. They certainly weren't going to sell there. Here are just a few of the necklaces. Bracelets get photographed and posted tomorrow.

In my last post I mentioned that I started working on altering altoid tins for an upcoming swap. It is proving to be so much fun.

The rules where to decorate the outside and add goodies to the inside. I created a couple of matchbook notepads for one tin and the other one holds a mini scrapbook with embellishments. I still have one more to do and I think I want to try something different. Maybe a mini sewing kit or I could fill it with beaded treasures. Anybody have any ideas?

My desk has been such a mess with paper from the paper charm swap and now paint and paper for the altered tins that I just had to clean it off this afternoon and do something different. Out came the sewing machine and material and luckily I already had some pieces cut out for wine glass cozies. And now I can hear you asking what is a wine glass cozy and why would you need one. Well each year my family meets up in Eastern Washington and does the Spring Barrel tasting. If you have never been to an event such as this you might not be able to imagine a ton of people drinking wine and walking between the different wineries. Lots of buses, limos and large vans carting people all around and wine flowing liberally, so you have to keep track of your glass.

As you can see you can wear it around you neck never to get lost in the crowd again. 

Last year I made about 12 or 13 extra and sold all of them so this year I plan to make 20 extra and hopefully sell all of them again. In fact, I need to check the dates of the event and get it on our calendar.

Have a great week.

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.