Sunday, July 31, 2011

More Flowers

Today is my favorite day of the week, I Heart Macro.  I know mom and I have been pretty silent on the blogging front this week but we have a good excuse, we were prepping for a three day show this weekend.  I will be posting more about it tomorrow, maybe.

So, on with the fun of pictures:


These were shots of a lily in the front flower bed of mom's house.  I just liked how the sun was peeking over the roof of her house with the flower lifted up for some sunshine.  I also liked the second shot because the colors don't even look real, and of course I love all the pollen on the stamen's.





Mom and I finally found a place to eat breakfast on Saturday's.  Ever since our favoritest restaurant left we have been having trouble finding a place to eat at that we both agree on.  Now, we do.  Around the corner of the restaurant was a whole aisle of lilies and these are a few of the pictures I took of them.  If you guys couldn't already tell mom and I love us some flower photos!


Giveaway Announcements:

I wanted to give you a heads up about two giveaways that I just found out about:

Pretty Things:  To celebrate Golem Beads she has an earring pair that she is giving away.  Head on over to her blog and you need to leave your name in the comments to participate.  The drawing will be August 6th.

Humble Beads:  In her words, "Big Huge Giveaway - that's the BHG!"  Just head to her blog and see how you can enter her "Big Huge Giveaway!".

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Two Posts in One Day - Who Woulda Thunk?



Morning in the Garden at Vaucresson, by
Edouard Vuillard 1923 reworked 1938
Today was a very busy day for mom and myself.  I am going to start it off first with this month's July ABS Challenge piece.
Into the Garden
This month we based our piece off the colors and the tree in the painting.  I had ideas I wanted to do for this month's piece but we don't have a torch yet, so instead we went with this design.  The pendant is from Kim Peters at Singing Cat Studio.  The pendant is gorgeous and mom and I so recommend heading to her Etsy store and check it out!


Here is a better photo of the pendant.

Here is a close up of the beads we made for this piece.  I used a green class from Messy and the Monet frit on top of it.  The other bead is a base of light green with the apricot frit on top.  The accent beads are Rose Quartz and silver Japanese seed beads.

The ribbon we used is from JamnGlass.

Today was an enameling session.  I was able to finish up two wall hangings and two enameled bowls.


These are the pieces I was working on enameling.  I needed to get them done for the show we have this weekend.

This is mom working on putting necklaces together for our show this weekend.

Here are the finished enameled pieces:




Guardian of the Wood

Guardian of the Wood

 
Purple Lotus


Green Lotus Bowl

Here are the necklaces mom completed (polymer flower and beads are from BeeTree by m.e.)










That is it for us today.  Mom wants a blizzard so we are taking off for some ice cream.  Have a great rest of your weekend!

Ann Arbor Trip 2011 - Hot, Damn Hot!!!!



Teaser Shot for I Heart Macro
Well, my friend Lisa and I survived our trip to Ann Arbor.  Though it was a little iffy on the drive there because we were almost creamed on the highway by a PT Cruiser.  The PT Cruiser was in the right lane and didn't check their blind spot and almost took me out in the left lane.  Was not a good start for us, but as you see we both survived.  Though the heat in Michigan almost did us in (it is not nice to be sweating in places you didn't even thought you could sweat).

This is my girl Lisa in her piggy tails.  We were doing almost anything we could to keep cool.  I think this is the slowest we ever walked at the fair, but there was no other way to get through it.  You felt like you were melting in a kiln - now I know how enamels feel when I melt them to copper (OMG HOT!!!!)!!!!


I had to share a photo of the wonderful chicken Pai Tai we had for lunch on Thursday.  This is the second time we have been to this Thai restaurant and it has yet to disappoint.


This is the fair on Friday morning.  So many more people and much cooler then it was on Thursday.  I seriously felt sorry for those vendors sitting out in that heat it was miserable.


I didn't take any photos on Thursday because it was so miserable, it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other.  Now Friday it is a different story with the camera.  The university has some old and wonderful buildings.  This is the law building and I took some pictures of it to share for I Heart Macro.


One of the hallways in the building

The arch of the hallway

Stone carving of the flowers in the arch

The side of the wall with vines growing on it

The ceiling in the hallway
That afternoon we had a storm roll through, nothing like last year, but we still went inside for some ice cream waiting for the rain to pass us by to finish up our shopping.




After the rain
I thought I would share with you what I bought this year.  I went with a different theme this year, photography.  I usually buy ceramics but this year I wanted to do something different.  I have been looking at this artist's pieces for years.  I finally broke down and purchased four of his photographs and the fifth one was free.


Bodyscapes by Allan Teger
The artist is Allan I. Teger, www.bodyscapes.com, and he is from Vero Beach, FL.  I couldn't pass up these photos this year, I had to have them.  I now need to get them framed up on the walls.


I found this photographer on the last day of the fair and I am so glad I did.  I love his pieces and just couldn't pass them by.



His name is Brian Kainulainen, fine art photography.  His website is www.bwanaoline.com and he does have a Facebook page.  Needless to say I am going to be liking him on Facebook.  The one thing I forgot to ask to see if he does old rusted cars.  I love me some photographs of old rusted cars.

This piece I bought mom.  I thought what this artist did was really interesting and I wanted to go with something new for mom too.



The artist name is Teresa Moorehouse Howley, www.teresahowley, and she does "Narrative Sculpture & Storytelling."  It is cold casting in bronze and I loved her pieces.  I had to be good and only buy one but I am hoping she is at the fair next year too.

If you have lasted this far I will show you the shots I have for this week's I Heart Macro.  Now, you have Lisa to thank for these photos because I was totally oblivious to our surroundings because I was having too much fun people watching, so thanks Lisa!!!




This was your teaser shot and this is what the shot is:


A fire hydrant - I guess they paint them and then the paint starts to come
off and gives the hydrant an awesome texture

Another shot of this hydrant
This is the second and only different hydrant I got.  I think I would love to go back just so I can find all the painted fire hydrants and get pictures of them.  I guess that is just going to have to wait until next year!







So, if you lasted this long you deserve a medal.

Now head on over to I Heart Macro and see what other people are posting today.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...