Snow Recap, Dansko Shoes and Enameling Workshop

I woke up to it snowing Sunday morning.  I knew we were supposed to receive a lot of snow so I thought it might be prudent to start shoveling it.  I think it was around 7:30 when I started - it was actually really nice out.  No one else was out and it was nice and quiet. I think I ended up shoveling three times that day.

This was our backyard about mid-morning.  The snow was perfect packing snow for building snowmen or throwing snow balls.  I have to give a shout out to our neighbor, who had a snow blower.  The second time I was out shoveling he helped clear off the sidewalk and the front half of the driveway - which saved me to hand shovel the snow.

Now Monday was a different day all together.  It was bloody freaking cold!!!  This is me all bundled up to shovel in back of my car (there is no way mom's Mustang could drive in the streets the way they were).  We actually had Monday and Tuesday off from work - Purdue University called two snow days due to the freezing temperatures and snow.

Mom and I spent much of the time huddled under her snugly blanket watching Ancient Aliens.

Of course whenever mom and I got up to do something this is what we would come back to.  Lily and Sasha snuggled up in the blankets.  They were in heaven with mom and I there to snuggle with.

So, that is what happened this week with the polar vortex in Indiana.  Of course it is almost 40 degrees now and raining - so all the snow we had is almost gone.  Mom and I do have to go over to my house and shovel in front of the driveway - where the plows put all the snow - but the sidewalk is clear and the driveway is almost clear of snow.  It is global warming man - this freaky weather.

While we were sitting watching Ancient Aliens mom drew up a new pendant - this is for a challenge we are participating in February.

This is also what mom came up for the ABS January monthly challenge.  We are going to make this into a bib necklace.  I seriously can't wait to saw this baby out and enamel it!!!!

Last night I went to Englin's to pick up these Dansko shoes.  Mom and I each bought a pair when they were on sale but our sizes weren't in the store.  So, we had them special ordered.  I love them - they can be worn with both black and brown pants and I needed shoes to go with my brown pants.

Well, when we walked into the store I went straight for these beauties.  I AM IN LOVE - and yes - I did end up buying them though I had no business buying them.  My credit card is crying right now :)  But oh, you should have seen the smile I had on my face when I had them on and was walking around the store.  The sales associate said they just arrived with three other new types of Danskos.

Here are the other shoes that stole my heart:

Scatter Floral

Psychedelic

Cheetah - which mom ended up buying

Of course mom and I weren't done shopping last night.  This is what we ended up buying too:

Mom was out on the Internet looking at things and found out that Thompson Enamel was having a workshop around our birthday's.  We, which I mean me, will be taking the two day workshop on March 15 and 16.  Mom is going with me to keep me company.

I can't wait - the class is an intro to enameling but I seriously need a refresher on some things.  Plus I can't wait to walk around the place - so many pretty things to see!!!!

So, that is a recap of the week, Dansko shoes and enameling workshop.  Today I am having lunch with a friend, mom is sewing a baby blanket for me and we have to shovel at my house.  I hope we have time to saw out some pendants.

I hope everyone survived the polar vortex is having a wonderful weekend!!!

Prepping for the Winter Storm

via Google Images

Mom and I just got back from Walmart and this is pretty much how our store looked like.  We usually do our grocery shopping on Saturday or Sunday, but we figured we would shop today because of this big storm that is supposed to start tonight.

via Google Images

The snow is supposed to start around 9pm tonight and end really early Monday morning.  I think we are supposed to get 8-12 inches of snow.  The worst of it though is supposed to be the -40 degree weather.  Seriously that is freaking cold - I hate it when it is blow 30 degrees - that is going a little far for me :)  Mom and I have our fingers crossed that we don't lose power!!!  Our contractor even stopped by today to put more insulation up in the attic so my pipes (to the extension) don't freeze again.

via Google Images

Mom and I also mailed out a package this morning to the 101 Bracelet, Necklace and Earrings 2014 magazine.  We have our fingers crossed that they will like the pieces we submitted. 

January ABS Challenge Piece

Textile Design for Cretonne, 1928? 

by Lois Mailou Jones

Tempera on Paper

I saw this yesterday, the January ABS Challenge piece.  I told her I had a couple of ideas and she said she had a couple of ideas, so it should be interesting to see what we come up with.  Both mom and I love the leaf shapes and I love the colors - I think I am going to have a lot fun enameling the pieces.  Mom and I need to discuss our ideas and then mom needs to draw something up (you like how I said mom!!!).  I have my fingers crossed we will be sawing out some things tomorrow.  Hopefully we will be enameling next weekend.

via Google Images

Tonight and tomorrow night this is what mom and I plan on watching on the DVD.  I have mom hooked on this series.  I LOVE IT!!!  Mom also has this awesome snugly blanket that we share and the cats try to take over.  We also have some hot chocolate, for the Keurig, that arrived today so I am sure we will be drinking some tonight.

via Google Images

I hope everyone stays safe - especially if you are going to be hit with this winter storm in the next few days.  Watch for any posts on Instagram - I will try and take some snow pictures - about all I like about the snow is that it is pretty in pictures :)

2013 Year in Review

Word Cloud from tagxedo.com

I thought it would be fun to create another word cloud in review of 2013.  You can do the same thing by going here.

Here we go:

• The beginning of the year began with Focus on Life hosted by Sally at The Studio Sublime.  We were supposed to take a photo a week.  I was pretty good up to about October and then it all fell apart for me.  I did have a blast though and I thank Sally for hosting this wonderful blog hop each week.  It was fun to see what pictures I would take and what everyone else took during the course of the year.
• We only participated in five Art Bead Scene Challenges - I am really disappointed in this.  I have my fingers crossed that we will do better this coming year.  I am really happy with what we created for each of the challenges and you can see the pieces here.  I really see growth in our pieces which is what both mom and I want to see in what we do.
• 7th Bead Soup Blog Party - mom and I participated in this wonderful blog hop hosted by Lori, Pretty Things.  Our partner for this blog hop was Jill MacKay.  You can see what we created from the goodies Jill sent by going here.
• I think we participated in all of Erin's, Treasures Found, Inspiration is Everywhere, challenges this year.
• 2nd Annual Challenge of Music - I think this is the most favorite piece we have created (at least for me.
• 2nd Annual Challenge of Travel - this challenge was pretty interesting - it was a "Staycation".  You described your home town.
• Child of God hop - Back in August Erin had a story bead give away on her blog.  Erin was giving away two of her wonderful beads and all you needed to do was a leave a comment answering this question:
  
  
  
  If you are a Child of God and you can do anything, what is that anything you would want to do?
  
  My answer was:
  
  Erin,
  Again happy birthday and I am glad you were able to take some of it to do something for you!
  Thanks for sharing the story of Erv - he sounds like a wonderful man to be friends with!
  I would love to do something more for our military veterans. I especially want to do something at my university for them - I would love to have a Veterans Culture Center as a place to gather for events or have the ROTC students to come over and meet with veterans and hear their stories. A place to collect all the stories of our veterans who are alums and share them with the next generation.
  Thanks again for this awesome post!

• 4th Annual Challenge of Color - this time we created our own palettes to use for our pieces.  We created our palettes Colourlovers.com.  The piece we created was a dragon - which I have wanted to create for a long time - so this was a perfect opportunity!

• I turned 40 this year - I sure as heck don't feel like I am forty - but the proof is in the numbers.  But who is counting anyways!!!!  You can see a re-cap of my 30's by going here.
• The beginning of the extension build onto mom's house so I could move back with her began in April and seemed to be never ending.  The start of the build began here.  I need a page dedicated to just the build this past year.  That seems all that I talked about, and about, and about.
• My niece and nephew were here for their annual visit for two weeks this summer.  You can see all the pictures by going here.  It is always an interesting time when they are here for a visit.  They make you feel like a kid again.  I hope they don't want to stop coming to visit their aunt and grandma for a long time to come.
• We started something new this year - our pictures on metal prints.  We have been taking pictures for years and just storing them, so we finally broke down and had the pictures infused into aluminum sheets.  I need to get pictures of the prints taken so I can post them in the Etsy shop.
• I finally moved into the house at the end of November.  I took the last two weeks of November off so I could move my stuff to mom's house (now our house).  That was the first week - the second week was cleaning and painting my house to get it ready to show to the realtor and put it on the market.  You can see pictures of the move here.  You can see pictures of everything moved into the extension here.
• The last thing this year was participating in the 3rd Annual Holiday Ornament swap by Sally at The Studio Sublime.  Sally was actually are partner this year - now how cool is that!!!
• In December I finally broke down and went to the doctor - haven't been to a doctor (unless deathly ill and went to Urgent Care) in a very, very, very long time.  Mom has been after me and I know I need to take care of myself and not stick my head in the sand.  I had blood work done and found out I am Vitamin D deficient - so started taking vitamins.  I have scheduled my first mammogram for January.  I also need to break down and have my hands looked at again (they were really bad when I was painting and cleaning the house - I was wearing my braces, at night, for almost a month).

The goals for this coming year:

• Submit our portfolio to two of the shows we weren't selected for in 2013 and try one or new two new shows
• I have already submit a couple of pieces for a magazine but I want to submit more pieces in 2014
• Now that I am "Our" house I want us to get back into creating - we barely created anything in 2013.  I have already signed us up for The Echo Creative Blog Hop in February.
• I am looking for more blog hops to participate in - if you know of any please let us know.
• Both mom and I need motivation to exercise.  One motivation for me is that my HDL is low and I need to raise it by exercising or I will be put on medications (which I don't want!).  

  

  I need this guy chasing me on the bike!!!

 Well - that is wrap of 2013.  It sure seemed to go really slow at times and at other times it just seemed to rush right past.

I really hope you had a wonderful 2013 and that 2014 brings you much joy and prosperity!

Completed Inside Extension Pictures

Bathroom Window and Snow

Okay, mom and I finally finished putting up paintings this weekend - though we have two paintings we still have to find homes for and five paintings I still need to have framed.  I actually have more wall space than I thought I would have - shopping!!!!

So, here are the photos of the extension with all the paintings up.

Bedroom wall as you enter from the computer room - my dresser
and paintings

My very large bed - the cats use the step stool to get on the bed

The other bedroom wall with my Rena pictures

Wall from the computer room with paintings and litter boxes.
Ended up putting the litter boxes in the bedroom - it isn't as
bad as I thought it would be.  I do vacuum morning and night.

Curio cabinet with all my pretties - you can almost see my
Lucio pieces and you can see Lucio's red book in there.
Bottom shelf has my grandma Mert's tea set from high school.

Updated picture with more stuff on top and a painting. You can
almost see another Lucio piece and a Steve Sizelove piece too.

More of my paintings.  On top of the curio cabinet is my head dress
based off of a Alaskan tribal headdress I had to make in my
textile class.  You can also see my teddy bear dressed as a dragon.

My closet with book shelves, curio cabinet (of angels and dragons) and a
cat Koshka - I actually just thought of four more paintings that I made in my
2-D class that I plan on hanging above the shelves - need to
pack away some of the blankets so I have room

Update of the closet with paintings from Alaska and my stuffed animal collection

Looking into the living room and comfy couch.  My great-grandpa's and
grandpa Lee's flags and awards.  Plus my Reflections painting.  I have to
order another flag case for my grandpa Ralph's flag and I need to get
his awards hung.  I also need to order two gun holders to put up
two of my grandpa Lee's rifles.

Memorial Wall

My stuff from my time in the Army

Both memorial walls and Koshka.  That is her favorite place to lay - the comfy
couch.

Looking into the living room from the door

More Rena paintings

The TV and more Rena paintings

Hallway with a Rena painting over the fuse box

Hallway wall outside the bathroom

Back of the hallway near the back door with my barn door
paintings

Bathroom wall by the mirror

Other side of the mirror and right as you come in the door

So, that is a look into my new digs.  I hope you enjoyed the tour - since that is all I have talked about almost all year.  Thanks for your patience as mom and I got this done.  Now it is onto creating in 2014!!!!

Etsy Update and Picture Taking

ETSY Update - I think this is the first update in months...months I tell you.  Mom and I are slowly reclaiming our lives now that I have moved into the extension (pictures will be coming in the next few days because we finally hung almost all my paintings).  Thank you everyone for your patience as mom and I dealt with this project that seemed never ending.  I hope that this now means we will be creating more.

First I have re-opened the shop and I have listed three new pendants.  Sorry I don't have anything else new to list but hey, just reclaimed the computer room, next goal is the studio :)

Iris Pendant

Transparent Red Oak Leaf Pendant

Opaque Red/Orange Oak Leaf Pendant

I was also working on taking pictures of our pieces in shadow boxes.  I am having a real hard time taking pictures with the glass and reflections.  I have to take updated pictures for our portfolio to start submitting for shows in 2014.  This is what I have done so far - because I had to retake all the pictures again after I saw how bad they were.

African Mask in Shadowbox

Guardian of the Wood in Shadowbox

Turtle, Rose and Skull in Shadowbox

Tree of Life in Shadowbox

Tribal Mask in Shadowbox

If anyone has suggestions on how to take better pictures of the shadowboxes I would be ever so grateful!!!!

I do plan on posting pictures of the extension in the next day or two plus I have to do our New Year's year in a review of what we have done.  There were some creating things during this past year but not many.  So stay tuned for that.

Etsy Shop Opened

Our Lampwork glass beads - Celestial

Well, it has been forever since the Etsy shop has been opened - but I have finally re-opened the shop.

One of our goals for the next year is being better about adding new items to the store.

We are a little low on inventory - but now I am finally moved into moms I am hoping we start creating more.  Right now mom is working on making the computer room into a studio because it is so cold out in the garage to saw.  I will have to break down and make beads and enamel but that is only when we have pieces due or I have a lot of pieces to enamel.

I plan on taking pictures today of three new pendants, pieces in shadowboxes and jewelry to add to the Etsy shop.   Not sure how far I will get, because right now I am charging the camera.  I will post pictures on our Facebook site, Pinterest, and Flickr.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday and are recovering nicely!