Focus on Life Week 15 - Aged Beauty

This week's Focus on Life is Aged Beauty and this is what Sally had to say:

There is always something so intriguing about old things.  Whether an heirloom or flea market find we are always intrigued by the back story of the piece that has caught our eye and the thrill of a possible story of family history, lost love or travel to forgotten worlds.  In the rust is character, scratches and dents are their badges of courage and the bare metal exposed by peeling paint is acceptance of time. 

 

Aged pieces have a beauty all their own, a beauty that draws us in to look a little deeper into a past time.  

 

This week focus on the aged beauty that may be an old building or an aging vehicle in a parking lot, items in a local barn, flea market, garage or in your jewelry box and snap a shot of a vintage beauty! 

 

Get to Snappin!

Sally

This week we have had really bad rainy weather and even a tornado siren went off the other night which I slept right through.  So, I have not been outside walking around, though I did on Monday and it was gorgeous but nothing that floated my boat to take pictures of.

So, I went around the house and took pics of things I have from my great-grandfather, my grandma and grandparents.

Enjoy:

The neck scarf my great-grandfather had made when he was over in Germany during World War I.  It is funny, they spelled his last name differently, it is supposed to be Dettlof.  We know his father moved from Germany and he must have changed the spelling when he came to America.

My great-grandpa's casket flag which his wife made.  The flag is smaller than regulation flags and only has 49 stars on it.

My grandma Mert's tea set she used in her home economics class in high school.  Please ignore me in the mirror :)  I have her tea set in my curio cabinet which used to be hers.

A close up of the tea cup and saucer.  I just love this!!!!

My kitchen table that used to belong to my great-grandmother and then my grandparents.  I told mom I wanted this table and I would fight the whole family for it :)  I have such wonderful memories at this table.  I would visit my grandparents and they would always be sitting around this table, especially during happy hour drinking beer and having snacks.  I remember learning how to tie my shoes under this table.  My grandpa made a board with shoe strings, sat me on his lap to show me how to tie shoes and then put me under the table while the adults sat around the table talking - like I said awesome memories!!!

Please head on over to The Studio Sublime and check out everyone's pics for the week.

Working in Mom's Yard and Focus on Life Week 14

This was a busy weekend working in mom's yard this whole weekend.

This is an image of mom's back yard right now after the lawn people removed the front tree, moved one of the trees to the front, removed another tree (that couldn't be transplanted) and moved another tree to the back corner of her yard.  She also had two large pine trees removed that she never liked.  As you can see her yard is a mess and I am not looking forward to trying to mow it.  I don't think it really hit mom until she saw the yard that her yard was going to be messed up by the time all the construction is done.  Oh - also while moving bushes to make a flower bed for mom they cut our Internet.  We have been without internet since Thursday night - how in the world did we live without Internet?????

So, because there was no Internet I helped mom in her yard all weekend (both of us feel old after all that work!).  So, mom and I went to Wrede's Rocks and got three yards of mulch.  I love driving this truck - it isn't a 5-Ton or a Hummer, but it is fun!

Mom smiling at me because I was having so much fun!

This is the front flower bed we got done.  I dug the holes for all the plants, mom planted them, and then put mulch on top.  It is hard to see but there is a flower bed going down the side of her garage.  Plus you can see the other plants, up by mom, that need to be planted still.

This is the front flower bed on the other side of her garage.  We cut out more limbs from the Choke Berry bush, pulled up some of her flowers mom wanted to re-plant in the back of the yard, cleaned out old stuff and laid down mulch.

This was a blessing when it came time to move the dirt and mulch to the back yard but let me tell you it was a pain in the ass to put together with "Man Instructions".  Lots of swearing was going on!!!!

This is a large flower bed mom and I made back in 2004, I think.  I cleaned out all of last years dead flowers and leaves, put more dirt in the large circle, and then mulch into all of the circles.  Like I said that wheelbarrow was very helpful!!!!

This is one of the flower beds the lawn guys made - we cut down the ornamental grass, mom re-planted her flowers and then we put down more mulch.  Back along the fence is where mom has one of her clematis bushes that I cut down, mom filled with more dirt and I filled with mulch.

The other flower bed the lawn guys put in - we cut down the ornamental grass, mom planted the tulips and then put down more mulch.  Mom and I want to make this flower bed bigger by going around the electrical boxes and pulling the front flower bed out more.  Again, along the back fence is another clematis bush that I cut down, filled with dirt and mulch.  So, this weekend was busy and kept us from thinking about not having Internet.  Next project is finish some of mom's flower beds and then it is off to my house to work in the yard.  I hope we both survive this!

I know I am a little late for Focus on Life Week 14 - Up Close.  This is my favorite type of pictures, the macro shot, especially of flowers.

This is a close up of the tree that was moved to the front of mom's yard.  Mom and I didn't realize it that there was moss all over the tree.  I just love the color and texture!

This one is near the bottom of the tree and I just made it the wallpaper on my phone.  Love, Love, Love the color and textures!

One of the branches.

So, that was our weekend.  This week is going over our inventory because we have a two day show the last weekend of April.  Need to see what we have, what needs tagged, and what still needs to be made.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and an awesome week ahead!

Focus on Life Going to be Late

Yesterday was the start of the first phase of the extension build. Mom had a total of four trees removed and two trees transplanted. Her yard is a mess which I don't think she realized would happen. There is also no internet at her house because they cut the line. The yard is spray painted all over with electrical marks and cable/internet marks. There were even flags. So I am trying to type this on my phone and swearing a blue streak because it is a pain . I will try and post pics later tomorrow if I can get somewhere to do it.

Happy Easter, Enameled Pieces, Google Reader Bye-Bye

First off I wanted to say Happy Easter everyone!  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter Sunday!  Mom and I will be heading over to my aunt's house for Easter lunch in a few hours and then we will watch the munchkins go on an Easter egg hunt.  It is always fun watching because the older boys are very devious when it comes to hiding the eggs :)

Enameling - two weeks ago I had a big enameling session (pendants and BSBP pendants) and yesterday I enameled some more. 

Some of these will be going out on Etsy, when I find the time to resize and post:

These will be made into earrings - or may just get listed on Etsy - who knows :)

Mom and I are thinking of using this design as a clasp - we have ideas already
how to use these clasps in necklaces - stay tuned for those pieces in the next
few weeks

These are the pieces I enameled yesterday:

Will be made into earrings

Fairy pendant

Reminds me of a stained glass window

A custom order piece for a friend - she saw our necklace for the Feb. ABS Challenge
and loved it but it was too big for her.  So, mom and I made a smaller pendant
and we will restring the necklace for her.

Newsflash!  If you didn't know Google Reader was going bye-bye on July 1st.  The only reason I know about it is because of a couple of blogs I follow have been talking about it: Brandi Girl Blog and Studio Waterstone.  I have signed up on Bloglovin and I have signed up at Feedley.  I need to look more into each of them because I need to know how each work.  I am so NOT a tech person and this is freaking me out because I have been happy with Google Reader.  This is making me nervous because I don't deal well with change and I want to make sure that you can still read our posts and see what we have been doing.  Cross your fingers for us - even though we have three more months to figure this out.

Yesterday was the 1st Reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Mom and I are next week - and yes we still need to assemble our pieces and take pictures.  So, come on back next week and check out what we created with the pieces from Jill.

Focus on Life Week 13 and 1st Reveal of the 7th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party

A angel statue at one of our local cemetery's

“I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…” Dalai Lama

This week's Focus on Life is "Have Faith".  This is what Sally had to say, "There are many of us wheo are religious and there are many of us who are not, but most of us religious or not have faith in someone or something.  A faith that gets us through our day, a sickness or even a death.  Faith is held by each of us, it is what keeps us believing that there will always be a positive outcome even if we can't see it at the time."



A sticker on my car window

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama

Head on over to the Studio Sublime to check out everyone else.

Today is the 1st Reveal of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party.  Head on over to Lori's site and check out all the participants.

I will be hopping later today and tomorrow.  Right now I want to finish this blog post, enamel pendants and a custom order piece, assemble the custom order piece and our Bead Soup piece.  While I am doing that mom is working out in the garage cleaning since it is so nice out.  Plus she wants to move all the sawing back out into the garage so she has her kitchen counter space back.

Focus on Life - Observe the Curve

This week's Focus on Life was Observe the Curve.  I seriously can't wait until it is nicer out because I would love to walk around and just observe what is around me - I hate the cold so not going out until it is warmer!

Instead I went around the house to observe curves and there is actually a lot.

The mouse I use on a daily basis at the house.

The glue bottle we use to glue down the patterns on the copper.

The jeweler's saw mom uses to saw out our pendants, plates and bowls.

The mandrels I use to make beads - which I will be doing here once I post this week's blog post.

The pan I use to put frit on to use in my beads.

So, those are just some of the "Observe the Curve" I came across in the house.  If you would like to see what everyone else posted head on over to The Studio Sublime and check them out.

Birthday and Weekend Recap

My office cube decorated

For my birthday this is what I came to work too - isn't it great.  Unfortunately the balloons didn't stay up but I think the office is still great!

I love the 40s hanging from the ceiling!

They tin foiled my chair, keyboard, mouse, monitor, phone, stapler, and a lot of other things - the individual pens wrapped was a nice touch!

For my birthday dinner mom and I went out to our favorite restaurant and I just had breakfast for dinner :)

I didn't decorate mom's office - I got her on her 60th plus she is now in another building.  So, I stopped at her house before going to work and dropped off her birthday card and present.  For dinner I took her out to O'Charley's and we both had the Cowboy Steak.  Mom also got wonderful news that the city has approved the building permit for the extension to be built onto the house - YAY!!!  Now she just needs to sign the contract and hopefully the builders can start soon!

Mom and I took Friday off to just work in the garage - of course that didn't happen.  Mom was feeling antsy so we went shopping (window shopping).  We went to Lowe's, Home Depot and Menards looking at refrigerators.  Mom has been thinking about a new fridge for several years so we just took the day to run from store to store looking at the different kinds.

We also went to one of our favorite furniture stores and were looking at a couch for mom and a chaise chair for me.  This couch is awesome - it reclines!!!!  Plus it is nice and cushy - a big must for a couch in my opinion!

Pretty Danskos

On Saturday mom and I had planned, again, to work in the garage but this time I was antsy.  So, after eating breakfast we went window shopping again.  I think we went to Hobby Lobby, Dress Barn, Sam's Club, PetsMart, and the mall.  Mom and I hardly ever go to the mall but mom need a new pair of dress pants and jeans.  When we were making our way back to the starting point we stopped into my favorite shoe store and look what I spied - new designs in Danskos!

Another pair of pretty flower Danskos.  As much as I love Danskos I need a pair of shoes I could wear in the summer time.

So, I ended up buying these pretty shoes.  They are so comfortable!!!!

Enameling session - can see pieces in the background

Sunday I did finally end up enameling.  I enameled our BSBP pendants and other pendants mom had sawed out.  It was a little nippy out in the garage so that is why the hood is up.  While I was enameling mom was cleaning one side of the garage and getting things down from the attic.  Now that we know I am going to moving back home we are both trying to purge our things.

These are the pieces I enameled yesterday and yes they will be going into our Etsy shop.

And of course I can't show you the pendants for the BSBP yet.  Here is a sneak peek.

That is our recap of the birthday's and our weekend.  I am looking forward to seeing what this week brings us!  Have a wonderful week everyone!