Focus on Life Week 26 - Your Pick?

I love this week's prompt - we get to choose what to take pics of - what are we focusing on this week.  And this week and next week I am focusing on being an aunt - my niece and nephew are up for a two week visit from Oklahoma.  Mom and I only get to see them in the summer time so we are making the most out of it. 

Hold on - lots of pics of the kids and what we have done this week.

We usually pick up the kids, from my brother, at the half way point of St. Louis.  This year mom got a hotel so we could stay overnight and chat with my brother while the kids played in the pool.  Seriously, how can they not turn into prunes after being in the water for about three hours??!!!!  Sunday was our drive back to Indiana and then crash when we got back to mom's house.

Kaitlyn and Skyler in a bubble

When the kids are here we try and take them to fun and learning things.  This day we drove to Columbus, IN to a Imagination Station for kids.  I think they spent the most time in this room, the bubble station.  The bubbles were so much fun!!!!



I love how Kaitlyn is trying to suck it in so the bubble doesn't
get her

Love the expression on her face

Now what???

I love how open Skyler is here - he hates to have his
picture taken and any that I can get I love!

The bubble is going to get him!

Kaitlyn playing with bubbles

Skyler making bubbles

One night we played corn hole and I had to sneak this picture in without Skyler knowing (love that the phones now have cameras that can be reversed - he thought I was taking pictures of mom).

I think this is when he got a bean bag through the hole - 3 points

I think Wednesday night mom and I had to get out in the garage and move everything from the side of the wall so the electrician could get in to work.  While we were moving things we got out our piles of second beads (beads I made or mom made that we won't sell).  Both Kaitlyn and Skyler had a blast going through all of the beads.

Kaitlyn's pile O' beads - I think we have started a future
jewelry maker!

Kaitlyn with her Christmas necklace

I think Tuesday is when we went putt-putt in Fishers, IN.  Needless to say we thought everything was inside and it wasn't.  It was bloody freaking hot!!!!!  Skyler and I lasted one game and then we went inside.  Mom and Kaitlyn lasted 12 holes (out of 18) of the second game before they came inside to de-sweat.  UGH - being hot no fun, but putt-putt is!

Kaitlyn took her sweat shirt off after this picture was taken

On Thursday we all went to All Fired Up - Paint Your Own Pottery.  Mom and I have heard of this place but have never gone so we thought this would be a fun thing to do with all four of us.  I have to say Skyler did very well - he was very patient waiting for Kaitlyn to finish her master piece.

Kaitlyn painting her piece

Skyler painting his and touching to see if it was dry yet

We should be able to pick up all of our pieces either on the 3rd of July or the 5th of July.  I can't wait to see how everything turned out.

Now, the finale for this week.  We went to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm - I don't think we will do this next year because the kids didn't seem to enthusiastic this time (boy how they grow so fast!).  Though they did love the ice cream.

Skyler didn't catch me taking this picture - Kaitlyn is too
focused on her ice cream

 The kids did have fun on the rock (milk bottle) climbing wall though.  They each get better and better every year.

Both at the top ringing the bell

Both coming down after ringing the bell

So, that was this week.  It should be interesting to see what is in store for next week.  Thanks for stopping by and seeing what my focus was for this week.  Head on over to The Studio Sublime and check out everyone else.

More Extension Updates

I wanted to start this off with a cute pictures of baby birds I found in my backyard under one of my bushes.  The momma bird built the nest on the ground under one of my bushes amongst the weeds.  They now have flown the nest because they weren't out there the other night when I went to check on them.   I really, really hope momma was teaching them how to fly!

Extension updates:

Plywood walls went up last week - so exciting because now it gives us more of an idea of how big the extension really is.  This is the backdoor going into the extension.  I do have a door coming out of the office into my bedroom so two exits.

The back of the house with plywood walls.

Looking in from the backdoor into the bathroom.

My sitting area with the window covered up for now :)

This is the next day where the wrapped the house - almost like a present!!!

The back of the wrapped extension.

Mom showing me where the window will go - she will kill me for
posting this pic!

This is what I came home to yesterday - a roof on the house.  Mom had to talk to the contractors yesterday about several different things.  Once of the things Jim wanted to talk to mom about was adding another window in the bathroom area.  He had an idea of a port hole window and mom and I could make a stained glass piece to fit into it.  I really liked that idea - now just need to find a pattern and see what glass mom has to make it (she used to make stained glass pieces all the time).

I was bouncing in excitement last night when I saw all of this - this is so freaking exciting and it is happening!  Of course I was still bouncing with giddiness because I had a wonderful day at work too.  Mom said I was just glowing!

The interior of the extension with a roof on it - it looks so different now with the roof on the extension.

Looking up through the roof at the sky - I love this picture!

mom walking through my bathroom

So, that is the update of the extension.  It sure is trucking along now and I can't wait to see what they have accomplished by the end of the week.  Will try to keep you all updated but we pick up the kids on Saturday, stay overnight in St. Louis and drive back home on Sunday with them.  I am sure the next two weeks will be a whirlwind with them here for a visit.

June ABS Challenge Piece - By the Sea Side

Jackknife Village, 1926

Franklin Carmichael

Watercolor on Paper

(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

Surprise, surprise, surprise - mom and I actually finished a challenge piece before the end of the month :)  I think it is because this weekend we pick the kids (niece/nephew) up from my brother and they will be here for a two week visit.  Mom and I are trying to get things done before they are here since we know nothing art related will be done.

When I first see the challenge pieces on ABS I always send the link to mom to check it out.  A lot of the time it is mom who comes up with the idea for a pattern or sometimes it is a collaborative effort.  The idea for the lampwork beads is usually me - and boy did I have an idea this time. This is the pattern mom and I ended up using to saw out the pendant.  Mom did have two houses in the pattern but decided she didn't like it.  I think I like the abstract pattern because I really wanted to focus on the colors this month - love the colors and this is totally different from our usually color pallet - something new!

By the Sea Side

I seriously love how this piece turned out.  It is long enough to just slip over your head and I think it would look great with a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt.

A close up look at the pendant (oh, just so you know, we flipped the pendant when we made the bail and didn't realize it until we started enameling, it is showing the wrong side - but hey - it is abstract!).  I really like how the pendant looks - with the rocky ground below, with the water between and grassy hills and a blue sky above.

I ended up making the beads first - usually I make the beads after I have enameled the pendant so I know what colors to use.  I just loved the white, blues, greens, browns and gray in the painting - I found some frit that matched the colors and used white glass to make the beads.  Mom and I used Sodalite as accents with gunmetal spacers and gunmetal circles.

When I sketched out the idea for the necklace I knew I wanted a two strand of the lampwork beads but I had no idea what to do for the top.  Thank goodness for mom - she found some torch fired enameled beads I made and then finished it off with the Sodalite beads for accents and the gunmetal spacers.



By the Sea Side

So, that is how our necklace piece came together for this month's Challenge.  To see other pieces for this month's challenge head on over to the Flickr Group.

Focus on Life Week 24 - Green

Focus on Life Week 24 - Green: We are going green for this weeks Focus On Life photo.

GREEN! The color of balance, learning, growth and harmony! GREEN evokes feelings of calm and symbolizes self-respect and well being. What a great color to focus on!

Since this week's focus is on Green, I thought this would be appropriate because June 14th was the Army's 238th birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMY - HOOAH!



via Google Images

My bestie and me the day we rolled in from the box - two weeks with no shower
that is why the do-rag on my head :) Of course the uniform looks brown
and not green from all the dust at NTC

The day I graduated from PLDC - mom and me.  I look like a baby and don't
you love those '90s glasses :)

And here are some photos of the moss on mom's front tree - I love this pics!

Head on over to The Studio Sublime and check out the other "Green" photos for this week.

Completed Enameled Pendants

Enameled Pieces - Two weeks ago - Earrings, Wolves, Sunbursts.

The above pendants are from an enameling session two weeks ago.  The sunbursts were made for a customer - we made three different sizes for her to choose from and she went with the larger pendant.  The two wolves are in black/gray/white color scheme and the other is a brown/white color scheme.  And the last set of pendants will be a pair of earrings in my favorite color scheme "Peacock".  That is what I call the three color enamels I combine to get that color and I LOVE it :)

This is what I enameled yesterday - the top is a Koi plate, a hedgie pendant, a clasp, four turtles and the piece for the June ABS challenge. 

Close up pics:

This is the clasp - white crackle enamel and purple enamel (already have a necklace planned for the clasp) and the hedgie pendant.

The Koi plate - hard to see but it is in yellow, oranges and a red.  Once I get the back cleaned up mom is going to put it in a shadow box to give it a more finished look.  Plus I think if it is in the shadow box customers have a better idea of what to do with the piece - hang it on the wall.

The June ABS Challenge pendant and beads to go with it.  I now just need to go through our bead stash to see what we have to finish this necklace off - hey we might even get it done before the end of the month :)

 

Four turtle pendants - two of them mom wants to give to our contractors because their company is called Terrapin Renovations. 

So, the next step is to clean up the backs of the pendants I worked on this weekend.  Once that is done I need to take pics and get them posted out on our Etsy shop.  Not sure when this will happen - it depends on the weather.  Mom and I are working on the outside of my house trying to get it curb appeal ready for when I put it on the market.  We started working on it Thursday night, Friday and Saturday.  I seriously don't like yard work and you can tell - lots to fix up.  Plus I need to start painting the trim of the house because that hasn't been done since it was built.  Oh, and the my niece and nephew are coming for a visit the last week of June and first week of July so trying to get a lot done because nothing will be done while they are here!

Please be patient while I try and get the long list of stuff done :)  I hope you enjoyed the eye candy I know it has been awhile since we shared enameled pics.  Have a wonderful week everyone!