2014 in photos

Just when I don't feel like I did much this year I look over these and am hit with what a long full year it's been!

Chloe got an awesome scholastic arts award...our friend, Maggie, was born :)

Birthdays...disco parties...school parties...

Gorgeous weather, goofy kids, new jewelry ideas tested out, showing my jewelry in a boutique...

Trips to Allerton Park for Mother's Day, Visiting old, great friends, loads of soccer traveling and art fairs...



Vacation back down to Charleston again :)

Remodeling the foyer, the start of Sawyer's new bedroom makeover, the girls got to meet ALEX MORGAN!!AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (as they would say)

We got to steal our friend, Kate away for a few days to stay with us from up north. More jewelry and lots of walks in the park with the perfect pre-fall weather we had!

School play :) My yearly ginko picture with the gorgeous fall blue skies, family visiting and getting together at Joe Rogers as usual.

And lucky to have family to see at Christmastime. My brother and family made the trek from NC. My dad and step mom from Fla...and silly Gigi Claus...what a sweetie.

Of coarse so much more I could have added (isn't it crazy now that we went digital to have THOUSANDS upon thousands of photos to sift through now!?) But I'll leave the recap at that. Looking forward to a full and happy 2015 :)

The last couple of months

Where have I been lately? Our lives are ruled by sports in the fall. Aren't most parents?

Gorgeous blue sky days followed with chilly unpredictable weather...welcome to fall in Illinois.

Chloe's competitive soccer team. They're nuts. 

The boys games are coming to a close this weekend. They're both really making strides and it's fun to see the changes and how they're taking to the game.

Chloe started cross country and has really excelled! She had a bit of an asthmatic episode that came out of nowhere which slowed her down for a couple of weeks. She was about *this close* to go to state!

And proof. One day you're in a tank top at a game and the next you're bundled up and freezing! About an hour after this photo sweatshirt and scarf came off and was sweating.

I won't lie. I'm totally ready for a sports break. I don't remember what it feels like not to have soccer or running plans over the weekend!!

I've moved! (Inside the shop)

Another lady and I decided we wanted to swap spaces inside The Blue Door. It's right up front of the shop as you walk in the front door. I love that you can see it from out side and even more so I love how the natural light reflects off of all of my glass beads now!

Even though I'm sure no one will read it I had to add a little blurb of how my beads are made. 

This really shows me how low I am getting on bracelets! Time to get to work! 

It took a week or so to get it tweaked. I think I finally like it :)

Announcement!

I'm so excited to finally share that I am part of The Blue Door gallery in downtown Springfield!

This is something that I have wanted to be a part of for many years but decided to wait until all of my kids were in school. 

There's my display all set up. I had a month after being told that I got in to obsess over my display and set up-lol. That's good and bad 😉 but at least it made it easier in the long run not having to bring all of my displays in with me. 

I ordered some of the most gorgeous recycled silk sari ribbons that were bound on the edges from Australia. They make gorgeous wrap bracelets paired with botanically etched copper bars. 

A few new pieces I've worked on this past month... 

As you can tell I've begun dabbling into enameling. Sooo much fun! I love having another element to mix with my glass beads...

That's all for now! Stop into the shop if you're in the area:)

Testing

Just testing blogger from my phone :) 

Making the leap

I bit the bullet and finally bought a really good art fair tent :)

Actually-it found me...ha. Two different artists were retiring after the Carillon art fair and sought me out-since I had an EZ up (and I was currently holding the crossbars during wind gusts when they approached!) so I was pretty easy target. I purchased a used Trimline from one of them and am SO happy I went for it!

I had a another show a week later and was soooo nervous about set up and tear done (alone) but it was actually much easier than I expected! A HUGE plus was that during gusts I wasn't a nervous wreck! I wish I would have done this from the get-go!

So here is my new-to-me tent and my current set-up. It felt so much roomier too-which makes no sense-it's 10x10 just like the old tent. I love it!

17

How on earth has it been 17 years since the day we were married? 17 YEARS! I remember it like it was yesterday-we were married on a Friday evening and it was crisp, sunny and cool all day with all the leaves turning perfectly. (yet today I sit in shorts and most of the leaves outside are still green- lol)

Anyhow, so much has happened in those 17 years and the best parts are shown in that photo above :)
Happy Anniversary, Trav!

Fall wreath

Still having the love/hate thing going on with Pinterest over here...(love being inspired but crazy antsy when I can't do these things right NOW!) --but when the hubby is free to actually do a couple things for me for prep then I fly through a project :)

Take this wreath I have seen bouncing around on pinterest-love the simplicity of it.

source

A scrounge through the firewood pile at my neighbor's house, then Travis slicing the log up and cutting out a frame from an old sheet of thing plywood and I was good to go :)

Here I just hot glued all the thin slices of log to the framing. Took about 2 minutes.

A quick trip to Hobby Lobby for a couple things. I loved the funky little flower that has beads and sparkles embedded in the center. It's funky without being too "HEY!"

A little cluster of pheasant feathers ad a roll of burlap ribbon-only because it was 50% off.

Don't forget the 40% off coupon :)

I think total I paid around $7.

I just did a gather of the burlap after unraveling the edges a bit, tied some jute around the gather and squeezed some hot glue up in there. (I'm very technical about how I do things you'll notice)

Then trimmed the stems off of the feathers and flower, poked them into the burlap and hot glued it down.

Here is the back if you're wondering. Just very thin plywood cut into a doughnut.

I may go back and unravel the burlap a bit more-I have to live with it for a few days first.

I was worried at first that it would be heavy and clanging around on the door glass when we open/shut the door but it's surprisingly lightweight. :)

Love it!

Happy Fall y'all!

Season change...time for the dining room to change up! 

We never eat in there...almost a waste of space, really. But you have to walk through to get anywhere and you look straight in there from the family room so I like it to look cute :)

I tend to just shift things around the house or make things...I'm not much into buying seasonal items. I like to change the color of things mostly- ie: books I use for risers and stuff like that.

My big 5 was printed to fit a poster frame we had laying around and was in the foyer. I found the 5 planter at Gordman's this summer and had to have it. The 5 is how many are in our family so I like 5's.
The L stands for our last name and was picked up at Hobby Lobby years ago and just decoupaged with scrapbook paper.
The copper kettle/pot thing is an antique and just fits in the fireplace opening.

I always have to incorporate something from my grandparents in each room it seems...The bible and old book came from my grandmother.

I threw in some hydrangeas from the front yard that were changing color.

Gourds from Goodwill, old Eucalyptus I've had for years.

The cabinet and shelves we built a year ago and love them! I'm so glad we did it. We previously had an antique hoosier cabinet set back in that nook.

Again, lots of grandparent items (old sewing basket, the Bostons, books, doily, photos...) 

Added more hydrangeas and the paper flowers that were made from brown grocery bags w/ black checkers for the center I taped up to the wall behind and on the fireplace surround (that we also built last year!)

{{I really need to do before photos of that room actually now that I think about it.}}

Art Spectacular at the Carillon 2013

~My booth this past weekend.~

The weather was GORGEOUS. Sunny and high of 72. The sidewalks were packed and there were people standing in line to check out. It was a fabulous show :)

Here's a peek at some new items I've been working on recently. 

 Lots  of copper with fused fine silver and bronze making an appearance. 

I love the warmth for fall :)

Gearing up for Edwards Place fair next weekend. 

I have tons of restocking to work on this week!

Thrifted jewelry display

 So...have I ever mentioned I love to thrift shop? I'm sure I have...and finding jewelry displays for my shows is always the best! :)

So I found this sad girl at a thrift shop awhile back. I had NO idea what to do about her. This is the only before photo of her...yuck, huh? It's just cotton fabric she's covered in but SO ugly and busy!

 My intention was to take her apart and start over but when I started tugging here and there I realised I would just destroy her so I decided to try out what I did with my full sized dress form....paint her!

Here she is with a couple coats of a beigey wall paint I had in the basement...trying to get all that pattern hidden!

 Then I took some burnt umber paint and mixed with glaze to help spread and slow drying time down. I smeared it all over with a paint brush then let sit for a minute or so and came in with a damp paper towel and swiped, dabbed, rubbed, etc to get a nice aged look. After wiping her down I went back in a couple times dabbing here and there adding a tiny bit of pattern from the paper towel. 

At first I hated the braided cording down her sides and wanted to try and take it off but now I love how the brown settled into the nooks and crannies and really finishes the look.

I then freshened up her black stand and knob after reattaching it and she's good to go!

Her original tag under her base says she's from TJ Maxx for $15. I paid about $2.50 I believe-Totally worth it for a little paint!

Since she's about 10 inches tall I'll just add one of my more petite necklaces on her and double up the chain around the neck. :)

Pretty cute, huh?