Here comes the sun

Wow. What a storm we had last night! My electricity was off from 9-ish until 4 this morning. I let my brother in law come inside before a house fell on him. It was the least I could do. :)

Not much going on in Craftville lately. It seems my job did not read the part of the contract that said they actually were supposed to pay me for services rendered--go figure-and after a year, I quit. It has been a long week of resume typing and cover letter including. I did make a pretty something today though while the baby was being quiet. Nothing fancy, just using up some things I had lying around that was left over from a couple of other projects. I think it's legal for a recycle artist to recycle...right?

It's hot in here and it is just me

HOT outside. Oh I know you southern belles are saying, "You think Wisconsin is hot, pft!" Yeah yeah, this Viking is waiting for her ice flow.

I have a few new bits in the shop. Most exciting is my score I got on some solar lights that the local home improvement store was getting rid of because of cracks-the solar part is functioning fine. That being said, A new element has been born to the unique euphoria. SOLAR! Go an check them out in my shop. There is more to come as soon as I get off this demon machine of addiction (my computer) and get down to the shop to talk some trash. I'm also thinking about some souvenir ideas for my shop. I am a fat quarter addict and I have a ton of scraps here. Keep your eyes open for freebies within the next week or so. Think bubbles and postcards...intrigued? Good. Muahaha...

I will be including pictures as soon as I get my camera back from the cabin. It seems I left it on the counter when I left. I hope no mice poop on it while I'm gone...ew.

Business cards

I finally took the plunge and got myself some business cards. I think they are darn beautiful.



This is the back side:


And this is the front side:

I was slumping some bottles tonight and thought I would work on something in the shop since it seems like when I leave that kiln and work in the house, I tend to forget and overcook my bottles. Since I had some wire twisted, I went ahead and made this little number. It is a ornament holder to hold those really special ornaments you don't want the cats/kids/dogs to knock down and break or if you just don't have the room for a tree but want to show off the ornaments you have.

The ornaments I have pictured are pretty special to me. They are antiques that belonged to my sister. A Christmas when she had left home and had no food, tree or decorations. She opened up the door to her aprtment one day to find groceries and these ornaments. That was more than 20 years ago. My sister passed away and I still have her ornaments. I came up with this idea to keep them safe from 4 kids 2 dogs and a cat and still be able to enjoy them. I'll be posting this model in my shop as soon as I have it cleaned and painted.

Working hard

Hi there readers. I have been working hard on a couple special requests for customers and haven't been here to write as I should.

I am making some wine bottles for someone who wants to mount photos behind them. I thought this was a great idea and of course has to be done with clear bottles. What a cute Christmas present for a family member. Anyway, here is one of my bottles with a photo of my daughter behind it.

The bottle I used is a little "overcooked" and I wonder if the bottle looks more like a sloppy piece of glass than a bottle. I may have to do another batch.

The other thing was a request for a tree-like thing that a customer could hang her handmade cards from at craft shows. It's still in its raw stage, but basically, this is what I came up with:



As you can see, I have a lot of cleaning up to do, shaping and sanding etc before primer and paint. The idea is that a short beaded string hang from each "branch" with a hook or clip that she can attach her handmade cards to. people can look at what she has while being displayed really cool. I thought this would be a really neat idea for hanging jewelry from. Maybe painted white
or solid black. How pretty would it be on a dresser draped with pretty necklaces and rings? Oh...I may have another idea for a Christmas present.

Uocycled bird feeder

This is a simple and quick gift for the earth concious bird lover in your life.

I found this copper bowl at the recycling center and took it home. I drilled 4 holes around the rim and strung jewelry wire through to hang it. I drilled a drain hole in the bottom and hung an old art deco necklace piece from a wire. I then strung pearls from a upcycled old necklace and voila! A really neat bird feeder! If you don't have jewelry wire, use chain from old necklaces. I recently stuymbled upon a big box filled with broken rosaries at a thrift store. The chains are already beaded for you, so you can just hook them on!

Holiday tip for the movie buff

Good Morning!!!

Today I thought I would suggest an cute and easy gift for the movie buffs in your life.

If you are anything like me, a movie is a quick and easy and relatively inexpensive buy for your last minute gifts, but rarely are these ever bought as a main present, but more of a stocking stuffer or a movie in addition to...here is how you can make that one movie a main event that your favorite movie buff will love.

First, dig out that flat cookie tin you got for Christmas a few years ago. You know the ones, everyone gets them, but after the cookies are gone the tin sits around taking up space because it's just too darned nice to throw out. Yeah, that thing. Make sure it is a nice flat one. You are going to spray paint it silver to make it look like a movie reel case. To make it super pretty, sprinkle some fine glitter dust over the top while the paint is still wet. Next, you want to wrap your movie in black paper, then embellish it with a collar, a white triangle for a shirt front and a black bow tie to make the whole case look like an usher's shirt. Its a matter of triangles and a couple of black dots for buttons. Experiment-this is where anyone can be creative.

After the tin is completely dry ( I would wait a good 24 hours) fill it with some home made gourmet pop corn. I love to buy the extra super butter microwave corn, pop it up, sift all the unpopped kernels out (those are never any good) and coat the whole works in white chocolate. YUM!!

Put your creation in the tin, lay your usher's shirt (movie) on top and tie off with a black, wide satin ribbon that you drew silver dashes on the edges to make it look like movie reel. TA DA! A super cute presentation for a super great gift! Enjoy!

Hats n things

It is that time of year again and since snow was falling in my backyard already 3 times, I decided to break out the crochet hooks and yarn collection that has been packed away so long. I had a pile of really really RED yarn and thoughts of the little neighborhood menaces, flaming hellions speeding the walkways on big wheels and my great nephew came to mind. Have you ever seen a hat and said to yourself, "Hey-I know that kid?"

This next one came to me after reading a Gary Larson cartoon where a guy had a duck on his head. it just seemed so right.

But as everyone knows, the focus of my site is wire working and reclaimed art, so Ill get to it.

Let me explain a little bit about this first thing. I had actuallyhad made it for myself. You see, I have this sunflower love that boarders on the psychopathic, so I made this sunflower thing for myself to hang my giant fork and spoon set that belonged to my grandmother. The thing is, when I got all the elements together it kind of reminded me of a Pier 1 explosion and I realized my inner interior designer hates me.

I then thought how cute the whole situation would be in a kitchen with vintage aprons hanging on the hooks-Adorable! Alas, I have no vintage aprons.

I've decided to give my customers the opportunity to enjoy the sunflower. It is a very big piece, so your going to want to have a bit of room made for it. It's a favorite of mine though, so I hope you like it.

The rest of the day I spent finishing up a few projects, painting and listing. I always tell myself that I'm only going to spend an hour on my shop, then it turns into a whole day. I updated quite a bit though, so instead of writing all about it, I'll just let you go and see for yourself. Enjoy.

The key and sunflower

I started out with the idea for windchimes, but both of these kind of gave me the impression that they could hold their own.

I am kind of toying with the idea of making an army of the sunflower things and swagging material through the ends and making some kitchen window treatments.

It may just be the sugar hangover talking, but I suddenly have such an urge to decorate...lol