Christmas filled with love

Christmas was wonderful.

Hubby made his yearly oatmeal chocolate cookies. He bakes I eat.

Paige and Tyler

   

Tyler took this picture of Grandpa.

He took this one too. He was pretending to be paparazzi .

He took this one too. Notice that I’m wearing the gorgeous necklace that I got for Molly Alexander’s Secret Santa swap from the talented Cindy Wimmer . Looked fabulous….it’s my go to necklace for so many things.

Here’s my son with Tyler after struggling with getting the Bat Cave out of the box.

DIL opening her gifts from Paige.

 

It was another beautiful Christmas surrounded with family. Now, on to the New Year to see what surprises await!

My Secret Santa Recipient

My Secret Santa gift arrived for none other than Jan Thomason a wonderful paper artist. I’m so grateful to Molly Alexander  for hosting this Secret Santa swap because through it I’ve met two wonderful people that I wasn’t aware of before. My recipient Jan Thomason and my Secret Santa Cindy Wimmer .

The earrings are Argentium  silver. I  cut out the stars from sheet copper with my jewelers saw and fused them into the silver with the torch. I  cut individual beams coming from the stars into the silver with a cutting wheel using my flex shaft for sparkle. Shining down from the stars are pale pink and clear Swarovski crystals. The ear wire is sterling silver and also was handmade by me.

They’re very shiny which made them difficult to photograph but I did my best.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends, new and old.

Secret Santa you rock!

Today is the day that my Secret Santa gift arrived. I knew it would be something good because of the list of artists that Molly Alexander invited to participate. Such talented ladies that it boggled my mind. I was honored that Molly invited me too.

So, when the package arrived I savored the moment. Carefully, I opened it. The anticipation was overwhelming. I knew from the return address that it came from Cindy Wimmer . This was gonna be fantastic!

I untied the ribbon

Took off the wrapping

A beautiful box!

But Wait!!! There’s something inside the box!

What is it????

It’s a GORGEOUS necklace

It suits me perfectly. It can be worn long or doubled

and looks beautiful either way. I love the bright colors

of the beads that Cindy used. And her wire work is flawless.

Thank you Cindy for a most wonderful gift. I will enjoy wearing

it often and cherish it forever.

And thank you Molly for letting me take part in this fun swap.

Secret Santa

A few weeks ago I received an email from Molly Alexander asking if I wanted to participate in a Secret Santa jewelry swap with some very talented women. The recipient wouldn’t know who their Secret Santa is until they receive their gift.

I just mailed out the gift that I made to ( Oops, can’t tell ;o ) You’ll know who you are when you get it.

I was thinking of the Star of Bethlehem when I made these.

Merry Christmas to one and all

Christmas is almost here!

 The decorations are all in place. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the Secret Santa.

Yay Santa !!!!

DIL and I took the kiddos to see Santa the other day. Paige was being smart and asked for a “Red Rider BB Gun” and Santa laughed rolled his eyes and said “ for the thousand’t time your gonna shoot your eye out”.

Tyler had the same look one his face that you see in the above photo the whole time he was up there. Didn’t know what he wanted so he didn’t have much to say.

Tyler is entertaining himself while waiting in line.

They’re happy.

All in all it was a lovely day. I’m keeping busy with some special orders and getting ready for Christmas. Almost done with my shopping and decorating. When I have a chance to get some photo's I’ll post them.

Guess who we met?

Joe and I  went to Barnes and Noble where our favorite author was doing a book signing. Yes, we met Sue Grafton who was signing the latest copy of her new book, “U for Undertow” which just happened to be on both of our lists for Santa.

We’ve read her entire series which started with “A”.  I highly recommend her books. The main character is Kinsey Millhone a private investigator whose adventures are highly addictive.  You don’t have to start at the beginning if you don’t want to because every book stands on it’s own. But it sure is fun if you do start with “A”.

The best thing was that she is such a gracious lady. She had something to say to everyone she signed for and when I asked if we could have our picture taken with her she said yes. One of the store employees took a picture with my camera.

It was a real treat to meet her. I’m dying to start reading the book but Joe and I agreed it’s one of our Christmas gifts to each other.

The other fun thing we did was to see “A Christmas Carol” in 3-D.  Wow. The graphics were awesome.

Hope you all are having a great holiday season with all of the hustle and bustle.

Aahhhh, beautiful fall

This is a picture of the tree in our back yard.  I love it. It really makes me aware of the passage of time and gets me pondering on life and the cycles that we go through. Lovely tree, beautiful life.

Joe and I worked on the yard and cleaned up the leaves but the rest are still waiting to take their flight to the ground. I’m sure if I take an “after” picture more leaves will have made their trip down.

What a week-end!

I took all day yesterday to recover from a most wonderful week-end. Now I’m refreshed and back to myself.

The craft show, Trims and Whims, went so well! I don’t have much jewelry left. This is a good thing. I’ll be busy making new things now.

The weather was in the 70’s and I got to set up outside for both days.  I love fall weather but this was more like spring. Anyway, Saturday was the big “Light up Shelbyville” event. They close off Main Street and have entertainment, food venders and craft venders all leading up to the Christmas tree lighting. It’s all so festive and lovely. So, after a full day at Trims and Whims I packed up my wares and did a trunk show at The Keepsake Shop in town.  Then took everything  back to Trims and Whims on Sunday for another great sale day. By Sunday night you’d better believe I was totally wiped out but smiling. Here’s part of my booth.

There is also some photography that my son did that I was selling for him. I’m so proud of him. He doesn’t have any formal training and yet takes the most amazing pictures.

Most of the pieces in this photo have sold. I’m thrilled that people respond to and like my jewelry.  Here are new earrings that I’ve made. They’re fused Argentium leaves and Swarovski Crystal pearls. Very delicate and easy to wear. The necklace is copper with a Ruby Quartz drop.

That’s about it for now. I’ll post more pictures soon as I get them.

It's been awhile

I've realized that it's been quite awhile since I last posted anything. It isn't that I've been sitting here doing nothing, I just haven't written anything.

Anyhow, I've got a busy week-end coming up. Saturday and Sunday I'm doing one of my favorite craft shows--Trims and Whims. It's here in Shelbyville and it's always a good one. After Saturdays show closes I'm off to another event in Shelbyville. It's the Christmas tree lighting. Always a fun time but this year I'll be participating as a vender. I'll be showing my jewelry at the Keepsake Shop in town.

A busy week-end--more after all the festivities.

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday was my birthday and a great one it was. I love spending time with my family and my son, daughter-in-law and the grandkids came over and hubby took us all out to an Italian restaurant for dinner-yummy. Then we came back to our house for cake.

My cutiepie grandkids.

 

Me at 63---look at that cake. Mmmm

Hubby gave me a new camera. One that fits into my purse that I’ve been wanting for awhile. It’s so cool.

My son is a fantastic photographer and he made this picture of Queen Ann’s Lace (my favorite) and gave it to me. It’s so beautiful and I’ll cherish it always.  Paige made a lovely handmade card for me from her and Tyler.

I had the most perfect day. I am blessed with a wonderful family.

Lovin’ The Fall

This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. Cool, crisp mornings. Beautiful days, not too hot.

I’ve been working on some jewelry but don’t have pictures yet. I hope to get some in the next couple of days.

Paige was here yesterday and wanted to experiment making dyes from plants. Since I have no idea of the proper way to do that I just let her have a go at it.

She came up with some interesting colors.  It turned out to be a fun project for her.

Midway Fall Festival

The week-end at Midway way was a success !  I actually made money and had a good time to boot. Saturdays weather was beautiful and a lot of people came out. Sunday it rained all day but was a good day too.  Hubby and I stayed somewhat dry in our tent and were comforted with kettle corn, funnel cakes, cheeseburgers cooked on a grill and polish sausage sandwiches smothered  with sautéed onions . I love fair  food. It has no health benefits what-so-ever but it’s soooo good.

This train was on display. It was huge.

 

Here’s me trying to appear as dry as possible.

Here’s Joe. I’m so grateful he was able to get time off of work so he could help me.

I couldn’t have done this show without him. He’s such a sweetheart and he worked so hard helping me set up and breakdown and made sure that I remembered to drink plenty of water. What a guy!!!

Aren’t these Alpacas so cute. I wish I’d gotten pictures of them on Saturday when it was dry and their “do’s” were all fluffy and sticking up.

As the show was getting close to ending, Mary, who owns Damselfly Studio came by and wanted a lot of my pieces for the store. So, I’ll be working to replenish my stock. Mary always does so well selling my things and I’m so pleased to be shown at Damselfly. If you’re ever near Midway, Kentucky do be sure to stop in. She has great treasures in her gallery.

It was a great show and I look forward to doing it again next year. Today Joe and I feel like we were run over by this.

Could we be getting old?

No, just sadly out of shape I think ;o)

A show and a play

I did a craft show at the Shelby county High School over the week-end. It was their first one and unfortunately not very well attended. There were so many talented artists and artisans exhibiting too. Here’s how I set up my space.

This Saturday and Sunday I’ll be set up at the Midway Fall Festival in the lovely town of Midway. It’s the first year for me~~~~wish me luck.

Last night we went to see our favorite thespian, Paige, in the production of “Suessical the Musical”. Of course, she was magnificent.

Here she is outside on the way to the theater before the performance.

This is after the show with her friend~ The Cat in the Hat.

Grandpa and I enjoyed the show very much. It was funny, lively and just good entertainment.

Kudos to Shelby County Community theater for the many fine productions that they put on through out the year.