A garnet heart flows....

A fab new site for us artsy fartsy types !

2011-11-29T20:19:00.001-08:00

Popping in quick to drop off the link to a great site for artists:

http://handmadeartistsforum.com/ ( I stuck their badge here on my blog, to the right and near the bottom )

I've yet to really look at it but so far I've seen areas to post photos of creations, various forums, selling help and so much more ! Can't wait to grab some quiet time, a hot cup of something and just peruse to my hearts content :)

As for my latest art creations...they are done and listed in my Etsy art shop but I shall still post the finished items here like I said I would. So see you again real soon.......

What I'm Working on Right Now....

2011-11-16T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone ! Always amazes me how time flies by. We've been busy with finishing up the gardening, the Halloween thing, family life, etc... and now here we are in that pre-Christmas, pre-holiday mode, with hot chocolate weather over here, and I'm looking forward to decorating woohoo ! --though I won't start until the beginning of December. I've a decorating project waiting to start, a tabletop thrift shop Christmas tree will be spray painted white, then I'll add some white mini lights and festoon it with lots of bright ball decorations. I got the idea from a recent magazine which showed off some unique trees, their large white tree with the bright ball decorations took my breath away ! Of course it was sitting in a much fancier hallway to add to the breathtaking effect ;) I just liked the look of the tree and will display it in our entryway, I'll take a before and after pic. for you.

So I have a few art projects on the go. For awhile I decided to stop making large altered art items, due to the higher shipping costs. After some time I decided to heck with what the shipping costs and just make what I love, what comes naturally to me. I'm a funny bunny, getting all concerned over shipping instead of thinking that someone might say "oooooh I really like what she's done and really want it ". If other's can list their large art pieces then so can I, so there !

Okay, here are a few shots of upcoming items. The first photos are of a pink plastic heart shaped music box I found in a thrift shop a few years back ( the lid was plain pink, I've since decoupaged the gold & floral paper ) with a cheap light pink felt lining which I've recovered with a real piece of velvet in fuschia.
Since Monday the box has been surrounded in red glitter, pink sequins, pink gel glue, glittered nest with a bird which I handpainted pink ( was orange ), pink blossoms on plastic green stems which I've flocked brown, vintage faux pearls, stars, glitter and more. I'll post the finished box in the next couple of days. It's gloriously gaudy !

The next project is much simpler, using a pretty pink mother of pearl-style cameo pendant around which I've attached pink rhinestones. I'm not yet sure what else I want to add, maybe a lush layer of lace ? We'll see :)

So now I'm off to make a nice cuppa tea. It's a blustery rainy day here, perfect for a big pot of hot vanilla chocolate, popcorn, a cuddly blanket and fun Christmas movies...maybe on the weekend. Until then I need to get these art projects done and find some vintage treasures to list in my vintage shop.

Take care all. I'll be back with shots of the finished projects ~♥~

" I'll have more poo please "

2011-10-30T21:15:00.001-07:00

Hello hello helloooo :)

Ever eaten the poo from kittly litter ? How about munching on some chopped fingers or carefully munching the ear wax from Q-tips ?
Well I did that tonight and let me tell ya, I'm a changed woman ! Oh yes. One bite of cat poo and the universe sang. The chopped fingers tasted just like chicken and the ear wax....apart from bits of it still stuck in my teeth, I am truly speechless. Really, I kid you not.

Supposedly this food is quite rare and only comes out once a year. It's appearance happens on an odd day called 'Halloween' every October 31st., a day and night where humans can dress in strange, freaky, horrific, funny things called costumes and then go around to various abodes ( usually in the evening ) where they yell at the occupants "Trick or Treat !" and then hold out open containers in the form of buckets, bags or pillow cases with the hopes of getting some kind of sweet and/or salty treat tossed in. This can go on for a few hours !

Okay, getting back to the poo and such....

I decided to try my hand at making these 'rare' foods for our son's school lunch -which happens to be on Halloween- and had a jolly good time. The poo isn't really poo sillies ! Hee-hee ! No, it's actually lightly melted and then molded Tootsie Rolls which are then creatively placed on top of ( some slightly immersed ) a cake covered with what looks like cat litter -BUT- our son is not a fan of cake ( except ice cream ) so I made a layer of chocolate pudding followed by butterscotch pudding and then covered with a mix of lightly pulverized oatmeal & pulverized oatmeal cookies. It tastes quite....tasty.
WARNING: when Tootsie Rolls are slightly warmed up and then pulled and reshaped, they re-harden harder than an unwarmed Tootsie Roll. So for those with dentures, you'll need extra Polident ! I don't have dentures but found I had to chew my cat poo a little slower than usual because I don't like the sensation of pulled fillings:

Now how about those chopped fingers ? Did I say they tasted like chicken ? Ha-haaa, nope. They taste like cheese, mozzarella to be exact.
I took mozza cheese strings, casually gave the ends quick rough cuts to make them look more finger-like and then took the middle & gave it a slow twist so when it broke in half the ends would look ragged. I then made nail beds on the rounded finger ends and stuck in half an almond ( you can use whole ones, blanched or slivers too ). A few finger joint creases were made with a knife and then I dipped the chopped ends into hot sauce ( or you could use ketchup, jam, other suaces ). Really easy to make !

Lastly: the ear wax covered Q-tips....yum ! ( imagine John Pinette making his face while saying "Yum !" ). These are a light tasty snack.
I didn't have any toothpicks so I took actual Q-tips and removed the cotton ends, making sure there were no cottony bits remaining on the little white sticks. I then took some mini marshmallows & pushed one on each end of the stick and proceeded to squish the marshies into cotton-looking blobs. The finale was melting an unwrapped caramel -melt until liquidy, about 20 seconds in the micro- and then dipping each Q-tip into the melted caramel creating gobs of rich ear wax. Another simple and fun munchy.

So there you have it. Gross but tasty treats for Halloween, or year round ! Gosh, imagine how your family would react to having kitty litter as a Thanksgiving dessert. How about tossing a few ear wax Q-tips inside a half eaten box of chocolates for your Valentine sweety ? You'll be memorable ;)

Well, bon appetit my friends. Have a safe & fun Halloween boogedy-boogedy-boogedy !

New Art Pendant Listings

2011-09-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

My latest wearable art creations now incorporate both sides of the children's vintage game tiles I've been using for my last art pendants ( which have just one side painted while the back is left 'as is' ).
With these latest pendants you get twice the art, one side has a hand drawn or hand painted image, the other shows off a collage using vintage paper bits.

It's good to get back into my art again, the Summer was rather distracting --not that I minded of course ! So my goal is to create something every other day. Goodness, I will try my best ! It seems every few months I go off somewhere and let my art and Etsy shop slide. How will people get to see what I do if I don't stick it out & keep creating & listing grrrrr ! So onward I go with a smile in my heart and a dance in my step :)

Here's the reversible pendants, two so far. I hope you like them:

Left is 'Train Spotting', hand drawn steam train image using pencils and marker. Right is 'Lush', hand drawn flowers using pencils, markers and shiny black 3d paint.

'Train Spotting' collage uses a train image from a 1943 National Geographic magazine, numbers from a 1960's math workbook, 'train' from a 70's dictionary, backed with tissue & underneath that is a criss cross pattern from magazine. The 'Lush' collage shows a vintage greeting card rose, 'flower' is also from vintage dictionary, backed with pink handmade paper, fan image from vintage Victoria magazine and a slice of glittered paper.

Pendants arrive with attached large jump ring and slip knot black ribbon so you can wear it right away.
Original art, not prints. I've several of these 2x2 wood tiles left, can't wait to see what my brain conjures up next :)

The garden before night.....

2011-08-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

Today I was in our back yard, as always, enjoying the flowers and keeping an eye on our veggie plants. We have so many tomatoes this year and thankfully the bright yellow marigolds have kept the tomatoes free of nibbling bugs, woohoo ! Alas though, the brussel sprouts ( my husbands fav. blech ) have been invaded by crowds of aphids, boo ! We need a ladybug army. Thankfully the rest of the vegetable plants are aphid free, cucumbers & spaghetti squash doing great, big red onions, plenty of carrots and a good load of runner beans ( which I'm leaving on the vines to dry ). Our blueberries were magnificent this year, so many !! The raspberries were just okay, a nice handful was all we got but they're still quite new to the garden. The comfrey exploded with blooms again and the peppermint & chocolate peppermint filled our half barrel to the max. For awhile I was concerned about the lack of honey bees, lots of furry bumbles though, but finally by the 2nd. week of Aug. I started noticing one or two honey's buzzing among the bee balm & coneflowers, yay ! I think those bees went to give their hive the location dance and now I'm counting up to at least 20 honey bees a day, do the happy dance ! And the dragonflies, such beauties !
Just before nightfall, around 8pm, I noticed how bright the flowers were and decided to take a few pictures. In these shots are Cosmos, Echinacea ( Purple Coneflower ), Bee Balm and other pretties. Enjoy :) Oh, I've also posted a photo of a vintage metal & crystal scale my parents had back in the late 70's. I'm contemplating whether or not to list it in my vintage shop as it looks quite nice where it is in the photo, gives it a bit of a Steampunk/Victorian look sitting on that lush maroon box & backed by the rich grey-blue walls. We shall see !

Hand Painted Pendants !

2011-08-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Good day all :)

My latest Ravensmagiclantern Etsy offerings are small hand painted paintings decoupaged onto vintage 2x2 wooden game tiles made into pendants:

I'm quite enjoying this area of creating, taking something I love to do ( doodle, small landscapes, etc...) and turning it into wearable art.

The game tiles were a thrift shop find several years ago. Each tile has a cute animal image on the back & a checkerboard pattern on reverse. I sand the checker pattern & edges so the paint will adhere, make my own bail which is secured into the tile, then I create my drawing/painting on artist quality paper. A first coat of varnish over top, let dry, then cut out the image and decoupage ( acid free gel ! ) on to the game tile. One more coat of varnish on the front & two on the back. Add a jump ring and necklace and voila !

Maybe for now I'll stick to making these small art pieces ? Sigh, it seems I'll start on something and then find some other artistic endevour a few days later. Perhaps I'll challenge myself to stick with making art pendants until there are no more tiles ! That's what I'll do :)

And here's a shot of what I use to make the pendants. Thank goodness for Sharpies too !

Have a fabulous cupcake filled day ( or cheese filled if you're not in to the sweet stuff ) ! ♥

Felt Brooches 'from the past'

2011-08-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

I was poking through some of my past creations, items I had listed almost two years ago, didn't sell and I put away and moved on to other things. **That is a negative habit of mine which I am conquering: giving up too easily. Where I learned such a habit, who knows ? It's not something I'm proud of and it makes me want to try harder to overcome it !!

So these brooches were made when I stumbled across several artists who were making their own altered art felt jewellry pieces. I really liked the simplicity of the backgrounds, a pretty blank canvas on which to create their own unique artistic worlds. Since I too love a nice background on which to create, I decided to see what I could come up with:

This is 'Bliss' a large brooch created on the backside of a vintage picture frame. Bliss consists of a white felt background on which I've sewn and glued various beads & baubles ( some vintage ), ribbon and a Bliss sticker, finished with acrylic paints on the edges.

Now in 2009 I was going through some personal changes and today I would not create such a huge mixed brooch, moving on to smaller creations. This is an item I would rather display --the vintage backing has a built in hook to hang. But that's not saying it won't look fabulous on someone who loves to be seen !

**Pic. taken with my laptop camera, doesn't show details as well as my digi cam.

Will list in my Etsy shop in the next day.

These are more felt brooches I made in 2009, they are more the size I would wear.

The upper brooch is called 'Purple House' with a fabric tree, painted roof/windows & tiny czech glass doorknob.

Lower brooch is called 'Shabby Vintage Paper Roses' using vintage greeting card cuttings along with fabric rose, felt flower, vintage bead necklace, various faux crystals.

These brooches can be hung on a wall or necklace and have some magnet sheet if you want to put them on your fridge or other magnetic item.

Listed in my Etsy shop.

All my felt brooches are hand stitched and have a shabby look to them. I create straight from my brain & heart and with strong attention to detail and lasting quality. I try not to spend too much time fiddling with the item otherwise I start to fret and feel the beginnings of a quiet paranoia I don't need ( some of you will know what I mean, that awful feeling of wanting to compare yourself to others, of thinking your item isn't worth the price you put, etc...). I know how much time and effort I put into these items, the joy of creating them and imagining the people wearing them, the people who are young at heart, like myself.

So I've decided to keep my Etsy shop 'simple' from now on. You will see 'paintings', '*whimsywear' and 'mini drawings'. Why ? I got very tired of creating one item and then moving on to something completely different. This way, my art will still retain it's own style of uniqueness but have a familiar background.

*The Whimsywear section will contain a selection of felt brooches and wooden game tile pendants ( or brooches or a combo of both, haven't yet decided ).

Paintings !

2011-07-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

My latest acrylic paintings:

Happy House on Candy Hill is a whimsical and magical place indeed ! This is where one of Willy Wonka's relatives lives, a very sweet hideaway where the trees and bushes all bloom with candy, YUM !
Today the owner has chosen to be blissfully lazy and is taking a siesta in their boat, so relaxing.

This painting is an enhanced copy of my handsewn felt brooch I created two years ago & listed on Etsy. A whimsical treasure for the young at heart :)

And this painting is called 'Marie's Gold'. Marie is a very happy bumblebee who has a secret.....she loves collecting anything gold ! Her golden treasures are hidden among the lush Marigolds in the garden of a bee lover.

Marie's Gold uses acrylics, markers, glitter, gold metal heart, small gold images from a vintage magazine and a few golden painted pennies.

My paintings are created on 9 x 12 canvas board, backs are signed and come ready to hang.

Once I have all the proper packaging and figured out a decent price, then I will list these paintings in my Etsy shop.

More to come..........xo

Hanging with a June bug & the start of a painting

2011-07-09T20:29:00.002-07:00

Well I've finally taken the plunge into the world of acrylic painting. It's been a deep desire of mine for several years & I've no idea why it's taken so long to start.
Now I am no Rembrandt or other fancy artist by any means BUT I love to draw, love colours, love fantasy worlds & whimsy, so I'm creating what comes from my own heart and not what others think I should paint. It would be nice to pick up a brush and create amazing worlds where people quietly "ooh" and "ahhhh", but that ain't me. Oh I could go back to some school if I really wanted to but I don't. I create from my heart, my spirit, my joy, my constant need to make something.
The paintings I plan to produce will, so far, have a floral theme with whimsy thrown in & will be created on 9 x 12 prepared canvas board. Paintings for the young at heart, for those who enjoy something a wee bit 'oddballish' if you will :)
I am excited for what's to appear under my brush !

Here's a wee glimpse of the start of my first painting 'Happy House on Candy Hill'. This painting is a loose copy of the handsewn felt brooch I made a couple of years back & listed in my Etsy shop ( and my dear birthmom Judy purchased it )

I'm really enjoying this painting route, it's a nice break from my altered art.

Oh I must point you to a wonderful site too. There's always quiet music in the background while I'm working but yesterday I just wanted to hear some nature sounds. So I looked and looked and finally found this site:

http://naturesoundsfor.me/

It's a mixer, super easy to use, for creating your own mix of nature sounds. I chose beach, wind in leaves, windchimes & birdsong and kept it playing over 8 hrs ! It's excellant for covering up any undesirable noises --such as our next door neighbors new & barking dog and the new young neighbors, on the other side, who like to bring friends over and hang outside for several hours. Give it a try, you may end up keeping it on all day !

Okay. My next show and tell is this cute ( I think so ) Ten-lined June Beetle. I noticed our boxer dog Jujubes was gently pawing at something on the ground. At first I thought it was one of those wee lizards that appear in the Summer but getting closer it looked more like a hissing Humbug candy. This thing had it's wee front legs up in the air & was hissing like a bat. If it could speak I'm sure it would be shouting "Get away from me !"

I picked it up with the potting shovel I'd been using and placed it up on our sundeck, on the potted daisies. It eventually crawled up one of the daisy stems and hung about for a couple hours. Quite a lovely creature !

This June beetle is a Scarab beetle and also goes by the name 'Watermelon beetle'. They can grow up to 1.25" & I think the one we found was about that long. This was a male with it's large antennae and their undersides have a browinsh 'fur'. They feed on coniferous needles and the hissing sound is made when they're touched/disturbed & their wings press against their body. A rather quiet creature but can have a painful bite if 'bugged' too much.

Early this evening I brought up a branch with pinecones, got Mr. June beetle to crawl onto it and then had him crawl onto one of the Douglas Firs in the backyard.

Nice to meet you Mr. June !

A few of my favorite things.....

2011-07-03T21:17:00.001-07:00

My art room has gone through a makeover & it's 95% done woohoo ! All that is left is to hang a couple of vintage Vogue mirrors & wait for the arrival of my poster ( mentioned in last two posts ). So while waiting, here are shots of two areas in the room showing off a few of my favorite things:

This is my 'Candy Corner' ! The large cupcake came from Cameron Rose , a fabulous shop in Sidney B.C. selling whimsical to sophisitcated items. The cupcake was one of their store decorations being sold for a ridiculously low price due to the candy cane being broken, so happy to be there at the right time ! The smaller cupcake was made by our son in his grade 8 pottery class last year. The glass pedestal jar contains bubble gum from Halloween ( not a fan of gum but I liked the pink & blue wrappers. Eventually the jar will be filled with Smarties yum ! ). These items sit on top of my parents vintage chrome Lincolon Beauty bread box which I use to store packages of Shrinky Dink & other products. The silver teapot and silver cake stand were also my parents & my most favored of their silver items. On the right, just behind the glass jars, is a print of a whimsical crow listening to music, a sweet gift from my birthmom. Lastly is the bedspring dolly I made back in '07. She really is created from a large vintage bedspring, the doll sits just inside the top part & then the decorating begins. This doll is named 'Miss Rosy Buttons' & she's surrounded by mixed roses, fabric, vintage buttons, jewelry bits, glitter and more. It was a gift to my mom. All of these delights sit atop a vintage dresser my parents had in the 60's, it was covered in a high gloss dark brown faux wood veneer which I painted over with white Krylon spraypaint & changed the copper hardware out for chrome. It does make a candy-like show & looks rather deelish against the Birdsong blue wall.

This wall is seen as soon as you step in to the room. What was once my paint bottle holder is now a home to some of my ATC's & ACEO's ( Artist Trading Cards & Art Card Editions & Originals ) which I always kept in a drawer ( thought it about time to display some of my work to keep me inspired ), along with various pictures & items from my childhood ( Fisher Price Little People dog & girl, a Tomy windup robot, Tams Bo Peep mug, party hat & framed silk fabric flower basket ). The kissing couple is a postcard which I framed in pink and gave to my dear husband as a Christmas gift ( though he said he liked it, it wasn't really 'up his alley', so I borrowed it back ! ). The Victorian style couple photo are the great grandparents of my birthfather ---I've never ever known any other great grandparents & I love this shot of them, they look quite happy. The floral box on the bottom right held a trio of Florentyna perfume items, a lovely scent I found for my mom from Marks & Spencers in Victoria B.C. ( sadly the store is no longer ) --it now holds stuff from projects I've yet to complete. A couple of art creations from past friends, some of my necklaces, a pretty medieval-style doll given to my mom ( the doll looks really easy to make so I may try my hand at one ), etc...

When I sit at my desk I no longer look up to beige-brown walls & images I thought were inspiring, now I look up and see freshness & inspiration and can't wait to start creating again !

Art room makeover is coming along....slowly.

2011-06-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

A quick pop in to show the fresh colouring of my art room.....

Before, the room was painted a boring shade of taupey-pale tea brown. Add to that the brown carpet ( which will remain until I have enough pennies for some peel-stick tiles ) and the brown bits of furniture from my parents 1960's years ( the top photo you can just make out my ugly desk --it was covered in 1960's high gloss brown fake wood veneer...which I removed ( thinking I had to ) to paint. Had my brain been in gear that day then I could have simply spray painted the entire veneered desk with Krylon, the spray paint you use on plastic, etc.... Oh well, I did think to spray the veneered dresser ! The only really nice piece of furniture is the bureau along the wall in bottom pic. That piece won't be painted but has been moved into the living room and will have new hardware and the ugly stick legs will be removed for some funky industrial style casters. Oh, the chair is quite nice too and comfy, may not paint but will make a cushy cushion with some bright fabric. You should be able to enlarge these photos, let me know if you can't:

And here is the freshly painted room. I saved several $$ by using some leftover white paint when we renovated our upstairs bathroom. The pretty blue is called 'Songbird', isn't that a lovely name ? It's such a happy pleasing colour and that was my goal for this room ---to bring happiness so I can keep creating art continuously ( that ugly brown was soooooo uninspiring ). I had thought of painting the entire room blue until I read that colours from walls can reflect off surfaces, canvasses being one of them. So the wall behind my desk, to my right and around the door is white and the 'feature' wall, the one I'll be looking at, is blue and the valance above the window and the closet are blue. Soon I shall be ordering the poster I mentioned in my previous post, can't wait to see that up and show it off to you :)

So there you go my friends. It's been slow only because I've had some wicked hayfever but thankfully the 'sticking a vaccuum up my nose' season is just about done -woohoo !!- and I can really get crackin on the room.

I'll be back with more fresh shots to showoff. See you soon :)

Canada Post Strike & Art Room Makeover

2011-06-21T00:15:00.001-07:00

Before I go off and play one of my room escape games on the computer ( love them ! ), I thought I'd better give you a head's up that my two Etsy shops will be closed until the Canada Post strike is over. I could leave them open but really don't like the thought of my customers and I wondering when the package will arrive, you know how a strike can muck up the best laid plans.....

So, since I'm not having to think about Etsy, I have FINALLY begun to paint my art room, woohoo !! I told myself " You can sit around thinking about it all day and where will that get you, a lot of wasted time when it could be at least half done by the end of the day ". And now here I am & happy that the room really is half done. I've painted 3 walls and the trim all white and my desk has gone from ugly brown to white. On Wed. I'm getting some robins egg blue paint for the wall in front of my desk & the large valance on one of the white walls. In the next two weeks I'll be ordering this poster: http://tiny.cc/yjp6n to hang on the blue wall ! It will be a good size to make me feel like I'm actually there. I love how it draws the eyes out and beyond. While you're there, why not check out the rest of the site --many fabulous posters, even full wall ones !
I'm quite excited over my art room, going from blah browns & beige to bright white & blue. The wrong colours can really put a plug in the creativity category so I'm lookihg forward to getting back to my art work once the room is completely done.
In the mean time, here are 3 shots of the room from May ( I've since done a ton of destashing & now today the rest of it is all in the middle of the room ). Sorry about the blurry ones, the new ones will be much better :)

I'll be back......

Good Day All :)

2011-04-01T15:15:00.001-07:00

Well Facebook has taken me away from blogging, even though I don't blog there it just seems there are so many places to post stuff nowadays, plus my Etsy shops and family life...oh I don't need to explain because I bet many of you do the same :)

So I thought I'd pop in here to show off a new treat: a Wonka Bar !
Actually, it's a Wonka Bar ring created by one of my favorite Etsy sellers Robinsjewelrybox .
I have been wanting to buy some kind of sweet treat ring from her for awhile but, like many others who peruse Etsy, there are a ton of wonderful Etsy creations that I've added to my favorites file and it's quite hard trying to pick just one item to purchase. So when my birthday came along I decided to go for it and Robins was where I ended up :) Go check her out for more delectable goodies !

And this shot of some sprouting hyacinths was taken for a dear friend of mine who lives on the other side of Canada. She bought me these, in a wee pot, before they moved from Vancouver Island B.C. to Newfoundland back in........oh goodness I forget exactly when it was....2002 ?? I'm sure she'll remind me :) Although the hyacinths may not look like much in this shot, their smell is divine ! They are a lovely yearly surprise & always make me think of my friend ♥

That's it for now. It's Friday woohoo and I'm planning to be a blob for the rest of the afternoon evening. Happy weekend all !! ♥

SURPRISE SALE in my Vintage shop, 20% off everything Tues. to Friday midnight

2011-03-15T14:40:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, been awhile yet AGAIN ! I'm here to blag about the surprise sale going on in my vintage shop ChocolateRoseMint ( click the underlined link or click my vintage shop on the lower right of my blog )From Tuesday until Friday midnight I am offering 20% off everything in the store and I will refund your 20% back into your Paypal within 24 hours. Come on over and keep your eye on the shop because I will be listing more items during the sale.

So why the sale ? It was my birthday on Monday and I reached 40 sales, so I decided "why not" & wanted to offer you a treat in return.

While you're at my shop you're also welcome to drop me a line. And if you're another Etsy seller, let me know so I can check out your shop too.

Have a great day all ~♥~

When I'm working......

2011-02-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

Having a lunch break so thought I'd pop in a quick shot of how my desk looks right now. Lol it's quite messy ! Yes, I've given up working all neat and tidy because it just does not work, I make so many things with so many bits & pieces, if I kept it all tidy then I'd be getting up and down every 5 minutes ! --though my legs would look fabulous dahling ! So I surround myself with the most important stuff & get any extra I need, but forcing myself to put back any remainders right away otherwise it will just be plonked on the floor or make the desk even more crowded than it already is :P
As for the actual desk, it came from my parents home and I 'think' my dad may have made it back in the 60's. It's a good desk, 6 large drawers and a center one, I'm thankful to have it but it's not something I would buy. Eventually it would be nice to get something with a larger surface & drawers on glides, the drawers now always get stuck & I use soap to lube them. There's also a 3 drawer dresser to my right, same make as the desk and one of the drawers is a pain, I wobble it like a mad woman trying to get it opened & closed, kinda funny actually.
Okay enough with the whining lol !

I'm finishing up 3 more items for the shop --the alarm clock piece ( see last post ) is coming along very nicely but I'm being very picky ( as usual ). I just won't list anything if something isn't attached properly and there's one gem that's being stubborn, if it doesn't work then I'll just think up some other solution. In the photo above I have two more game piece pendants, a 'flower candy' pendant and a bowling pendant. The flower candy holds a vintage porcelain flower taken from a damaged floral bouquet decoration of my moms ( I have a listing in my vintage shop for a few of these flowers ) and the bowling pendant has two vintage miniature wood bowling pins from an old bracelet. These will go into my Whimsywear section. Love love love making these creations !

That's about it for now, I'm hungry ! Ciaou all xooo ~~♥~~

If Marie was in WonderLand.....

2011-01-30T02:24:00.001-08:00

Just a quick peek at one of my latest workings:

This soon to be necklace is the innards of an alarm clock and it works ! I was going to make it a tabletop decoration but thought it a shame to just leave it at home, why not be able to wear it as a necklace too ?

My aim is to decorate the plain areas with gems, hardware and whatever else will work, you can see I've already started with a couple of twinkly bits & little cogs. The alarm arm has a peridot swarovski and yes it moves minus the metal part which makes the alarm sound. I'm really looking forward to how this turns out and hope to have it listed in my Etsy shop by the end of next week. The clock is still ticking and of course will be mailed only after it's wound down !

Oh and it's a rather pretty bunch of cogs, pink and white on golden plates --they make me think of the lovely Marie Antoinette items on Etsy, but my Marie is heading to wonderland with this piece, to meet up with Alice for some tea :)

It's about time !

2011-01-19T20:26:00.000-08:00

Hi diddley doh there folks !

We've been busy with renovations and mild chaos but now the renos are done & the chaos has calmed down to a gentle burp :) I am finally back to creating my weird whimsical art, woohoo !!

Show and tell time:

Little Pink House charms from a vintage playing card

I Wheelie Love You, whimsical kinetic necklace created out of a vintage furniture caster.

Alien Crybaby. Yup, crybabies can even be found in outer space ! Bottom half of a vintage Stanley latch with swarovski bicones, vintage red lucite drop and vintage rhinestone crystal

Circus Joy tag. Various paper bits, candy wrapper, etc...and a vintage shaker toy. You can play with this tag !

Is the editor really busy or just reading joke books ? Vintage Rummy game tile decoupaged with vintage paper bits from a 1954 Popular Science magazine

So there you go, just a few things I've made and listed in my Etsy shop and plenty more ideas running around my brain.

I will try to keep my blog updated more often, now that the home renovations are finally complete. So see you again soon xo♥

Okay, didn't get those goals done lol !

2010-09-02T23:16:00.000-07:00

Had to smile at my previous entry. The goals I posted....NADA, zippo, nuthin. I gained back some weight too :P Sigh, oh well, the world still turns & I know what I have to do will eventually get done.
It's the Summer and all it's routine bashing. I'm a stay-home-mom so any routine I have really gets mucked up when the gangs all here all day --I'm talkin my son AND husband. Of course I love love love them but do get just a wee tight in the neck when my intentions to spend a few hours listing items in my Etsy shop --during a weekday-- go out the window because of the extra noises, the extra talking, my dear man asking me if I'd like a coffee with him, which I usually say yes because, well, I enjoy having coffee with him. Okay, I'm also easily distracted ! There, I said it :P So I sell on Etsy and when our son is at school and my husband is working days, then I get lots done. The house is blissfully quiet & I don't have to think about anyone except myself. When I fully concentrate on listing then I can get 2-3 done and it feels great. Lately I've been listing maybe one or two every couple of weeks, not exactly going to get me posted in the 'how to succeed' book. But am I really that concerned ? Nope. Does it bother me that the house is in some disarray & my art room is STILL a mess ? Sometimes, but it's not like the world is going to stop and flick me off, it could care less, my friends could care less, our son doesn't even notice, the dog...is a dog, my husband isn't a fan of it but we keep things looking tidyish at least. I have fantasized about living in a really wow futuristic home where all your stuff can be hidden away with the flick of a switch, where clothes fall down a shoot and right into the washing machine which automatically fills & starts when it senses it's full --and then turns into a dryer. Where the grass is always lush & green and all dog poop decomposes in a few seconds from a special environmentally friendly spray, leaving a pleasant Spring fresh scent. Where those little bits of paper with tiny notes, the unused coupons, the events we wanted to go to but never did...all safely disintegrate & magically disappear when their expiry dates are up ( the paper on which the notes are written also has an expiry date ). Ah one day :)
I am thankful for having my family around & am not concerned about my parents items getting all listed. Etsy is a great place to sell items but I don't let it control my life & thankfully it is not something I need to work hard at --but we'll see what happens when I get back to my art, not that I plan on going seller crazy, that would take the fun out of it all. But, I do intend to refill my art shop & keep it filled --and that means having to make a plan & stick with it, even if I have to put Jujubes our dog in her kennel for a couple of hours.

Speaking of Jujubes, she's now 6 months, woohoo ! And getting to be a big lovely boxer girl too.
Pictures you ask ? Of course not ! Well, nothing really recent lately. Looks like you're going to have to wait yet again for photos.
Oh wait, here are two from August:

Playing with our son. She always goes for his head & usually when she's got her squeaky toy lol !

Jujubes is a real sweety and wow her fur is so velvetty soft especially around the head & neck. Soon it will be time for her spaying, but first she will need an ultrasound due to her having a heart murmer. She's had her murmer since 10 weeks of age & it's at a level 4 now. Apparantly it is a fairly normal thing in boxers and many have gone on to live long regular lives. The ultrasound is to make sure she'll be okay under anaesthesia. Apart from that she is a well loved dog indeed ♥

Well I'm out of blogging steam. Should have been in bed at 10 as my son & I are s-l-o-w-l-y getting back into the school routine and we both don't want to start cold turkey. I'm looking forward to getting in a full day again too.

Goodnight all :)

What I've been up to & a Fairy Garden link....

2010-07-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hello all :) Well it's certainly been kinda hectic around here since getting our boxer pup Jujubes. She is such a fast learner too & is already almost 3 times the size ! I'm going to have to get cracking and post pics.
I thought things were finally getting 'back to normal routine' when the Summer heat decided to turn up the temp., that's when I turn into a big 'ol blobbola & do practically nothing. Yup, I'm not a high heat gal, don't mind it if there's an accompanying coolish breeze, but when it's those days where absolutely nothing moves, where even the birds hide away, I'm somewhere inside doing as little movement as possible. Anyway, no complaints here, it is after all Summer and usually that's when it gets hot :P

No photos of anything today, just a quick bloggy post. I have been thinking about polymer clay pendants tho., a house theme ? There's just something about little houses that I love and I think it's to do with 'home is where the heart is'.
I'm not into altered art as much as I used to be and I've been leaning more and more to creating items that are similar in appearance yet still retain my sense of whimsy & eclecticism --it's just getting the items started ! My art room is a bit of a mess again, I've been listing vintage items in my other shop & really need to focus some time on destashing. But there's no panic here, it will happen.

My weightloss journey is going just 'okay'. Since getting our Jujubes, well my exercise schedule went right out the window ( I tend to go way off schedule for awhile whenever there's a big change ). I got down to 174 a couple of weeks ago & very happy about that ! But for some reason I decided to let loose & jump off the weightloss wagon for a few days. No overindulging, just eating foods I normally would leave until my free day ( Saturday ). Deep down I think I was a teeny tiny bit 'afraid' of being under 175 --that's what I weighed back in grade 5 ! It's as if my brain couldn't handle my being thinner. Why would I be afraid ? I got down to 155 in high school with the help of a boyfriend and felt great about it, so what's the dealio ? Bah, I'm not worried, it's probably just another of those things from my past that's trying to prevent me from becoming me --I have been changing lately since my mom's passing in '08, changing for the better yay !

Well I'm a ramblin on yet again lol ! The weight will come off, I've only 16lbs. to go woohoo !! Once the heat let's up I'll get back to walking & will start to see downward results again.

So here's that fairy garden link I want to share with you ( which was shared to me by my beautiful birthsister Angela, thank-you ♥ ).
http://sixtyfifthavenue.blogspot.com/2010/05/our-fairy-garden.html
It is such a sweet magical garden indeed and I hope it inspires you like it has me.

Well that's it for now. My goals in the upcoming weeks are to get my art room destashed, vintage items listed, start on those clay pendants, lose those pounds and maybe even get our living-dining room finally painted. Oh and post here more often, with pics. to give more interest lol !

Take care all ♥

Painting, puppy & low prices !

2010-05-27T16:07:00.002-07:00

SALE SALE SALE until Friday midnight ! See below for more details and links.

Hello everyone ! My family & I have been very busy these last few weeks. We've painted our house, from all white to a nice shade of grey-brown ( a bit like rootbeer ) with black framed windows/doors. When we first saw the house for sale, it was quite bland and had that definate 70's look, but now it looks quite sharp indeed. I'm looking forward to when we paint the living/dining area from salmon pink to a rich grey ! Will post pics. later.

AND.....we bought a dog !! For several months I've been perusing the rescue sites, hoping to find a fur baby we could save. Tho we did see many, none of them really took our hearts. I was beginning to feel a bit low when I tried searching the local 'used items' site. Wow were there a lot of dogs for sale ! One caught our attention, a white boxer girl pup. She had such a low priced compared to others so of course I had to ask why. The owner said she was already 10 weeks & didn't want her to get too attached to the family. Makes sense. So out we went Sat. May 15, first look we fell in love and we brought her home forever :)

Please welcome Jujubes:

The top pic. is when we first brought her home & the lower was taken this morning before our son got ready for school. She has grown so much & is a smart little cookie, already knows how to 'shake a paw', sit, down, stay, can sleep all night in her crate & is about 90% sure of going to the door for when she needs to go outside. She also loves to sleep ! Lots of praise from us is getting great results --if only all humans could do that with each other eh ?

We love her so much & look forward to many years with her.

~~Now for the sale !~~

I've been lowering prices in my vintage shop ChocolateRoseMint and decided to take off an additional 20% --but only until Friday midnight ( May 28 ). This includes my art shop too RavensMagicLantern woohoo ! Please stop by and check out what I have to offer. Mention my shops to a friend too. Prices are quite low compared to some jaw dropping prices I've seen on other sites. For example:

Vintage Sarah Coventry Austrian Lites Bangle & Clipons

---only $20 !!!

The bangle alone can sell anywhere from $30 up to $60. Such glittery shimmery pieces !

Only one available.

Now it's time to go make dinner, I'm hungry ! :)

My new Vintage Shop, wooHoo !

2010-04-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

A short while ago I was thinking of moving my art to a new Etsy shop so I could list only vintage in the old one, but my friend reminded me about my established art fans and all the hearts I've received for my Ravensmagiclantern shop -- you cannot move your hearts over to another shop and I wasn't about to get all my fans to 're-heart' my art. Call it a brain fart moment :)

I am happy to introduce you to my new shop just for vintage treasures ! It's called 'ChocolateRoseMint' and in this shop you will find many items from my parents home. I only list the non-sentimental goodies, many will probably be well below the prices other shops hope to get. And I would not be at all offended if you choose to buy an item knowing you could resell for more $$. I am simply happy knowing the item has moved someplace better and 'wanted'.

So far there are just 5 items listed but in the upcoming weeks I plan to post so much more ! Look for Royal Doulton figurines, Booths Real Old Willow, a few china floral bouquet decorations, some Dresden figurines and much more. But first I have to call some shops to scrounge their boxes ! Have to have proper packaging for these fragile goodies.

So please click the link above if the banner doesn't link. If you belong to Etsy then why not 'heart' me too ? ( adding me to your favs. )

Here is another shot of the sweet grandfather clock I listed today. It works too, I took this pic. while the pendulum was swinging away.

For awhile I had seriously thought about altering this clock: giving it a new paint job with glitter and lots of rhinestones. But I already have a large pile of stuff to alter and it was getting to be too much. So I'm offering this clock as a wonderful working collectible and/or something for another artist to alter.

( and in case you're wondering where the clock came from: in the 1970's my mom received this at Christmas from one of her friends. It came from Kmart and I vaguely remember it was in a box. Mom liked it but couldn't stand the 'tick-tock' sound, so it always sat quietly on the mantle. I liked the sound, thought it was relaxing, but a minute after I wound it up, mom would come in and stop the pendulum. Eventually it ended up in the attic and I think the reason for this was because it somehow got overwound and we thought it was broken, then forgotten. Many years later I re-found it and decided to try to fix it. All it took was a great deal of patience while I sat gently tapping the pendulum every few seconds, trying to get it to swing again. After about a good half-hour...it swung on its own ! But I never did get it displayed & decided to list it instead, hoping it will go to someone who will appreciate it so much more )

As for my art........

I will still create unique items and I've purchased a few jewellery making things from an Etsy seller in Montreal. Not yet sure what will become of the items but I'm thinking something quite romantic & very feminine, something with pinks, blues, birds and maybe some rhinestones. We shall see ;)

Gardening Joy & Opening a New Etsy Shop !

2010-03-28T15:06:00.000-07:00

So my husband & I got to enjoy a full 2 days & nights without our son ! One of his good friends chose to celebrate his birthday by going sailing with 2 of his friends, so his stepdad took the 3 boys to Poets Cove on Pender Island British Columbia ( about a 2 hour sail from Vancouver Island ) where they enjoyed free use of the resorts swimming pool, hot tub, tennis & basketball courts, along with beach fun, kayaking & playing in the dinghy. Sounds like a really rotten time eh, lol ! What a wonderful opportunity to really get away from it all and fully enjoy the outdoors. Yes, I was a wee bit envious ;)

As for my husband Jacques & I, we enjoyed our time by having a very tasty and filling lunch at Mary's Bleue Moon Cafe located in Sidney B.C. across the street from the aviation museum and a stones throw from the airport. The menu variety was fantastic, so much to choose from ! Jacques had the corned beef sand. with spinach soup ( thick with chunks of spinach, crunchy bread with spicy dijon and thick slices of corned beef ) and I had the chicken quesadilla with fries ( two huge slabs of quesadilla filled with cheese, chunks of chicken, green onions, not too thick fries with little bowls of sour cream & salsa ). I had to bring one slab home, the food size was very hearty ! Couldn't find any decent pics. for you to show off, but every wall was covered with memorabilia from WW2 to today, pilot photos, newspaper articles about the restaurant, the bar had a long plane wing converted into a glass holder, a huge plane engine cemented to a wall ( stunning piece of art ! ). Loved the atmoshpere. Will definately be going back !
After that we headed to Marigold Nursery & purchased quite a few plants. Home we went and spent just over 3 hours of planting. This is the year we plan on getting our large new plot filled up with veggies, blueberry, raspberry and English-style garden plants & flowers ! --but we did not work on that yesterday, instead we worked on the other side of the garden, filling in the bald spots with a variety of heathers, wallflowers ( smell like candy ! ), Irish Moss, lobelias, bacl eyed Susans, bee balm and several other colourful flowering plants. Our hopes are to fill in that area enough so we don't need to do any weeding ! My other hope is that the deer in the area don't 'find out' anytime soon lol ! --we will be finishing off our backyard fence too, hopefully that will deter them even more.

Here are a few before and after pics. of the garden. They don't look like much yet of course, over time things will begin to fill out, will post more pics. in a few months.

Before, churning up the bald spots:

After, even the bird bath got cleaned & I added a rock for those birds who might enjoy sitting near the water. The pics. look darkish but the area gets quite a bit of sun, especially in the Summer when the entire backyard gets filled with sunshine. The thing on the fence is a squirrel feeder, nuts are put in the jar & the squirrel goes into the house-looking structure and grabs the nuts without getting wet. Eventually I would love to hang a giant sun on that fence.

And speaking of squirrels, this fella ( or female maybe ) is quite a little piglet ! But I understand, the bird feed we have does contain some large bits of nuts the small birds don't eat, so they usually get kicked out and now this squirrel has some extra treats. We don't mind it being there, makes for some giggles watching it chew so darn fast. I think you can enlarge these pics. to see the details better.

And finally, no pic. to post but I plan on opening up another Etsy shop ! I've put my art aside so I can concentrate on listing a bunch of my parents vintage items. My art no longer fits in with the vintage items and i really don't want a jumbled up messy looking shop. I do have a shop name and it's already been listed with Etsy: ChocolateRoseMint. Yes it is a rather yummy sounding name :) It does represent 3 things I really like and seems to roll off the tongue with more of a softness than Ravensmagiclantern. And when I say the name to myself, I imagine romantic necklaces with roses and swarovski, pink chain, candy-like features. Please think good thoughts for this shop, I have so many little dreams and creations, it would be nice to have them fulfilled. As of yet I have not listed this shop for selling, which means I can take my time with creating new art pieces and a shop banner and then I will open it for all :) So remember: ChocolateRoseMint for altered art treasures by Tracy :)

Flowers, Teapot & Sewing Machine Oh My !

2010-03-24T10:20:00.001-07:00

It's been 2 years since my mom passed and I'm finally doing something about the 8 remaining moving boxes under our stairs. They are full of my parents smaller items and I am finally ready to start going through them & list the non-sentimental treasures in my Etsy shop.
The listing has already begun, so, for awhile, I won't be creating any altered art. In fact, if I keep listing vintage then my shop may just stay with vintage...I may end up opening another Etsy shop strictly for my art ! We shall see.

The weather here has been so nice and it is definately looking & feeling like Spring woohoo !

I stepped out onto our sundeck the other day and was pleasantly surprised at the site of seeing one of my moms planters coming back to life. I really thought her Lilies of the Valley had kicked the bucket, but there they were sprouting tall and proud. And to see two sweet lavendar violets growing along with them...well, my heart wanted to cry, I could see my mom puttering about her own sundeck, fretting and fussing over her big collection of plants.
The scent of those lilies will be so lovely, I moved the planter to a spot where I can see them from our dining room doors and always see mom puttering about :)

This fabulous teapot was a gift from my birthmom Judy :) My previous teapot was moms, nothing old, no stories to tell about it, just a simple pot with pastel flowers but it did the trick. But this new teapot is more up my alley, it's so full of life ! So what will I do with the other teapot ? Don't know yet, will keep it for now and let myself 'brew' on it until an answer comes.

Teapot by the amazing Romero Britto showing his New Day pattern. I bought the same patterned mug last year. This pot came from the same store too: Dragonhorse in Sidney B.C.

Brand new sewing machine ! A gift from my birthdad Terry & his happy wife Donna :) For a short while my birthsister Angela & I were trying to figure out a way to warm our toes without having to wear slippers or socks. So off I went and came up with my own idea of creating a little bean bag pouch bag you slip over your toes, it would stay on with a soft elastic around the ankle. The bean bag part was just on top of the toes and could be microwaved. Unfortunately, the bag just could not warm the ends of the toes, the main area that needed it most ! We wanted something you could walk around in AND sleep in while feeling like your feet were naked --that worked out well, but keeping toes warm..not so well. Oh well ! --back to the sewing machine :) I had to sew by hand because my moms old machine, well the large rubber band that got the rollers rolling...broke :P I don't know how old moms machine is but it's one of those super heavy black & gold Singer machines that comes in it's own table and you work it by using the knee lever. Quite a good machine actually. But now that I was given this fancier new & portable machine, well, like the teapot, I'm going to have to think about where it's going. Unlike the teapot, this machine does have memories of mom making bright orange curtains for their sundeck in the 70's...hmmm, funny, that's really the only memory I have. There are others so why this one memory really sticks out, I just don't know. Now the machine doesn't seem as important anymore. That's a good thing, will make getting rid of it that much easier. No it won't go in the dump (!), I'm thinking either UsedVictoria or Victoria Freecycle.
Anywhooo, really looking forward to using this new machine, still in the box for now until I can find a good place to store it

Thank-you Judy, Terry and Donna for the wonderful and very useful gifts ! --and the new memories ♥

Bored Monkey is excited ! --and my new banner :)

2010-03-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

Good day all. Well I finally listed my first diorama necklace, woohoo ! It's called Bored Monkey, quite whimsical, a conversation piece.

It took me much longer than hoped, but I had to make sure it was created properly. Instead of attaching a bail on to the back of this diorama ( because the backing is just magazine paper & sheet of plastic ), I drilled two holes and inserted some blue anodised aluminum wire to make a 'jump ring hanger'. It occurred to me a day later that the holes needed to be sealed ! Visions of a rain drop finding it's way inside the diorama & possibly causing havoc, oh no ! So I used my fav. awesome adhesive & then added 2 coats of more indoor/outdoor varnish. That should do the trick ! But I recommend this piece still be kept away from water --just to be on the safe side. He's in my Etsy shop with hopes of seeing more of the world & feeling less bored ;D

And here is my fresh new banner for my shop. Yes, it is kinda odd, but that's what I create so why not go all out ;) As much as I like to dream of a perfect neat and tidy shop, selling all the same items, well, ha-ha, I know that will never happen !

This is my banner from before:

Banners are quite easy to make, you just need a good picture editor and patience. Etsy asks your banner to be 760 pixels wide & 100 pixels high.

I use Microsoft Picture It ! Premium 10, it came with the Fuji Finepix camera I purchased over 5 yrs. ago. No it is not Photoshop but it does the trick for me. I'm not sure if Paint would work, you could try.

When I go into my Picture It program I first click on 'New' and then key in the size of what I want. Once that is done i can then go and find the pictures I want to play around with. I don't click the insert pic. button because it inserts the huge version of your pic. and can be a pain with resizing to fit a small area. Simply opening sep. pictures is better because then you can go and crop/change colour/resize/ etc... and then drag it onto your blank page ( or banner ). I tend to play going by the 'trial and error' method and, so far, it seems to work.

Making a banner for my Etsy shop is really fun ! I hope this new one represents my shop whimsiness and 'bazaar' feel.

That's it for today. I'm finishing off more tags, a pair of circus themed tags woohoo !

What I'm Creating & a Giant Cupcake !

2010-02-20T14:29:00.000-08:00

Little pink house charms, diorama, beaded pins & tag duos ! Diorama & tags are not finished. The diorama has

tiny bits that need to be sealed & then a wee bird will make it's home there. I still need to figure out how

I'm going to attach the bale.

Giant cupcake anyone ? Isn't this fun ?! I found this wonderful delight at Cameron Rose , a store full of candy coloured treasures, from purses to soldered collage necklaces to humorous cards/papers, Anahata Katkin journals, gorgeously wrapped soaps and so much more. The cupcake was part of their Christmas display and it ended up in the sale pile due to damage. The damage ? That candycane you see is slightly loose, that's all. It was selling at Christmas for $40 but I got it for just under $10 woohoo !
Cameron Rose also sells Krinkles during Christmas. What are Krinkles ? Oh so wonderful whimsical ornaments, check out the link: KRINKLES

It's a sunshiney day today, we popped outside to prune the apple trees, our son got his haircut and now we're just going to hang out for a bit. Have a lovely afternoon everyone :)

Fav. magazines & creating fun....

2010-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

Showing off my favorite magazines in the whole world !

Somerset Studio, Somerset Gallery and Cloth-Paper-Scissors !

I also tested out the laptop webcam, not the best pictures but will do for this post.

Upcoming new creations:

-little pink house charms

-another diorama, might call it Resting Time

-maybe a bunch of prettied up floral pins --I just need to create small cardboard boxes under 1" high, so they

can slide through the Canada Post 'slot o doom' :)

Received my lot of chains today too, they're soldered gold & silverplated & gunmetal, love them ! Just

waiting for some other goodies to arrive now and hopefully I can get to work on making

more dioramas.

Other ideas going around my brain: small papier mache things, house things, ring things....

A Bored Monkey and some Spring -- unfinished

2010-02-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

Good day all :)

Just about finished my two upcoming necklaces, one is a whimsical diorama called 'Bored Monkey', the other called 'Blossoms' ( not yet sure if that is the name I want to go with but it seems to work with the flower part & the 'blossoming' of new life ).

Bored Monkey was created inside a vintage miniature playing card case ( it was once a keychain ) and I've just installed a piece of glass to seal up the opening -- it is drying as I type this message & you can see the glue which will dry clear and show more of the diorama. Of course there will be better photos for Etsy.

Blossoms consists of a handmade papier mache-style branch with flocking ( thanks to Martha Stewart, what neat stuff to use ), a handmade wire nest with pretty sky blue cat's eye beads and some genuine imitation blossoms. It's meant to sit a little lopsided, kinda like a branch does in real life. Need to add more flocking but waiting for a couple of blossoms to dry.
I had thought of adding a tiny pink bird but I just didn't like how it sat on the branch, think it looks better without it.

Plus I've decided to inactivate one of my necklaces on Etsy, the extra little charm I had on it just didn't feel right, so I've since changed out the chain for another one and may even change the name.

Hope to get these fun necklaces listed Friday, Monday at the latest. Can't wait to make more dioramas too ! :)

Blabbing & Treasures from a Radio....,

2010-02-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

Goodness my blog has been ignored ! I've got a bunch of photos too, just been either too busy or too lazy to get here.
My birthsister Angela came out in January for a wee visit, always nice to see family. Soon after I finished off rearranging my art room and am quite happy at my fresh new setup --I can get to almost everything now just by turning in my chair, woohoo !
I'm back on my weightloss journey too, so far so good, it's not that difficult watching what I eat, water intake has never been a problem but the brain needs to be retrained into really wanting to exercise --at least I'm doing it !
My creative process has been slow. I guess if I had to put a reason it would simply be that I tend to go in phases, one moment all gung-ho making 2-3 creations and then some shutdown. Being a very visual person I tend to go into overload & have to back away from the art, allowing my brain to sort out and marinate on the ideas that can be created, instead of those wishful ideas that realistically wouldn't work very well for me. A couple of my wishful thoughts are: learning to weld and create large sculptures ( realistically, too lazy to want to put in all that work --and not willing to create the space for this kind of work ). Making large comfortable to hold coffee mugs & painting them with rich vibrant colours/flowers/comic-style art ( as much as I love colourful mugs & wish there were more made, I can't see our home with a kiln ). Nothing wrong with wishful thinking and if you can make some of those wishes come true then 'good on ya' ! I'll continue to stick with making smaller creations, just need to push myself more :P

Anyhoooo, enough of my blagging, the pics. below show a vintage radio my mom used to listen to when she was the cafeteria chef at a college here in Victoria.
The radio isn't a big collectible so I just had to take it apart lol ! That has always been a constant in my life, wanting to know how things work, wanting to see the guts of items.-- When I was around 10 yrs. old I took apart a lovely old sunburst clock my parents had back in the '70's, one of those large wall clocks with the bent metal arms to make it look like a sun. Well I took it apart with glee, fascinated by the bits and bobs and wires. Could I put it back together ? Of course not ! Had I been more aware of the classes in my high school I would have taken computer & mechanics, but nooooo, silly me was more interested in my boyfriend. Sigh. Do I want to take classes today ? Ummm, well I don't know. If there was a week long class to know some of the simple basics then I'd be interested, but not if it's 6 months or more.
( when I was little my most wanted 'toy' was one of those electronic gadget boards from Sears. Do you remember that item ? You could learn how to light a tiny lightbulb, make a radio and more. It looked like a small circuitboard with knobs, etc... I never did get that toy, my dear mom either thought I'd hurt myself or it wasn't something a lady did :( Oh well, that was then, this is now and I do what I can with what I know today. Thank goodness my dear dad, who did carpentry on the side for fun, allowed me to 'hammer and nail' when he was building an item ).
Wow did I go off there lol ! Back to the radio -- so as you can see I found some great little treasures to use in my art, I'm thinking some Steampunk creations here ! There are a couple of items that can click/move, hoping to get something fun-unique made with them. The last pic. is a closeup of the board & a neat picture for you to use in your art. Print it out & use as a background, alter it, tear it up, whatever your imagination can conjur. Enjoy ! :)

---now off I go to work on my 2 new creations: a nature themed necklace & a sweet diorama I'm calling 'Bored Monkey'. You'll see soon ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 EVERYONE ! ♥

2009-12-31T16:25:00.001-08:00

glitter-graphics.com

If there is righteousness in the heart,

there will be beauty in the character.

If there is beauty in the character,

there will be harmony in the home.

If there is harmony in the home,

there will be order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation,

there will be peace in the world.

So let it be!

A Sortof Wee Quicky ( mostly about video/computer games )....

2009-12-29T14:58:00.001-08:00

Just popping by for a quick "Hi !" and to say a belated Merry Christmas to you and yours. Happy Hanukkah & Kwanzaa too :)

We had a most lovely day with plenty of love & laughter. My 3 most fav. treasures: a Lush Winter Wonderland gift box, lovely birdhouse from our son and a wonderful 'photo painting' of a raven in Haida Gwaii --I'll post a pic. or two a bit later.

Today we took our son to Future Shop ( electronic/game/video toy store ) where he treated himself to some pre-birthday video games. His birthday is Dec. 30th, the big 14 ! He's having a friend spend the night & they'll no doubt be playing games for hours ( with a couple hours of swimming at the nearby recreation place ). Wow, if I was 14 again I'd probably be a big gamer geek too lol ! Though, I really don't play video games actually, mainly sit & watch our son or my husband on his hunting games. Our son & his friends are big on those Call of Duty games & I admit they do seem fun....for awhile. After watching a few minutes of the constant fast moving around, my head starts to hurt & my stomach gets a tad nauseous :P One of these days I might splurge & buy a game called Katamari Forever. I've never played KF but it looks like something up my alley, rolling around & collecting things on an ever growing ball. I think you then take that ball o stuff & use it to fix a problem.
I wish 'they' would create video games along the lines of Fly Guy or
Samorost or Haluz or Things Came Up To My Brain Museum or even Treasure Box , just to name a few of my fav. weird & beautiful point & click computer games. You can actually find them all here: Gamershood --click the Point and Click link on the left
Or how about instead of your basic racing car game, why not create a racing game where you're racing along tracks in space, but instead of being in a car, it's just you flying along like Superman. Maybe have some way to fly without controllers so you get the full effect of flying free, just use body movements ? Of course there would be more to it than simply flying around & trying to bump off your opponents. How about flying around to your fav. music & creating stunning visuals everywhere you go ( and be able to save your stunning creations as tv wallpaper or be able to print them out ) ? Obstacle courses and more ? Sigh, that's just me, living in a never ending dream world. All those war games out there might be great fun to many but all that constant killing gets depressing. To me there's no real 'life' in those games, just the ferocity of death & getting victory. And no matter how much of a 'nice guy role' you're playing, you're still killing. Okay Tracy, calm down now. I am very thankful our son & his friends aren't stupid over these war games, meaning, they don't go out & pretend they're shooting people or thinking it would be 'fun' to kill Nazis, etc. They keep the game play at home inside the Playstation system !

Okay, think I've said enough about games. I'm now in the mood to play Haluz :) If you give them a try, let me know your thoughts on them.

Now off to figure out what to make for dinner ( or just eat Christmas chocolate & nuts....burp )

Ttyl, Tracy ♥

P.S., almost forgot ! My Etsy shop will be closed until all the holiday stuff is over. Should have it back open by Tuesday :)

Oh Christmas Tree.....

2009-12-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

We finally put up our tree Sunday night. It's a lovely wee tree, a sister tree to Charlie Brown's :)

This year we added purple & gold lights, and this is also the first year we had our son decorate it alone. He did a fine job too ! I added the vintage party hat ( we had about 30 of these wonderful vintage hats from when my dad worked at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. I stubbornly held onto them but finally gave them away through a Freecycle site --happy knowing someone else will actually use them. This silver hat with the pom poms is my most fav., it makes me think of the mime Pierrot )

If I don't post again before the joyous holiday, then may you all have a most wonderful laughter filled day full of love. A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all !

Baking Goodness !

2009-12-19T01:59:00.000-08:00

LoL ! Baking goodness ! Yup, because it's the holiday season I believe any baking done for home/friends/family/get togethers/parties is all 'no fat no calories' woohoo ! Hey, I can dream right ? :D

To tell you the truth, my pants suddenly felt tighter 2 days ago, boo-hoo :( Oh well, I'll lose it in the new year ( and yes this time I finally mean it. After losing 20 lbs. early 2008, my dear mom passed & I gained it all back plus a few pounds more. Now after over a year, my body has begun to shout at me & I'm ready to respond ). Blaming it on the cheese cookies and fudge ( my head is disappearing into my shoulders )

So I thought I'd show off a few Christmas goody pics:

In the first two pics. are the beginnings of McLaren cheese cookies and party mints patties. Last pic. shows our son mixing cream cheese with crumbled cherry chip cake to make chocolate dipped cherry chip cake balls:

Here I am adding the food colourings to the party mint 'dough', what a shade of blue ! And those cake balls were fun to dip too !

A diabetics nightmare ! Not for the faint of heart --the beginnings of chocolate fudge using my two fav. ingredients: sweetened condensed milk & milk choc. chips !

Here are the party mints, just need to sit for a day so the wonderful mint flavoring soaks in

And voila ! A wee plate of very tasty treats ( choc. covered cherry chip cake balls, party mint patties, McLarens cheese cookies and a batch of peanut butter milk choc. chip cookies, with a few wrapped Peppermint Patty candies too. The fudge was firming up in the freezer --didn't last long ! )

Throwing in a shot of the upstairs bathroom decor. The candle centrepiece belonged to my parents, not sure if it's mercury glass but it is vintage kitschy loveliness

Finally a shot from last week when we received a wee dumping of snow. I took this without the flash, looking out our front window. There's just something about holiday lights glowing on the snow, takes me back to when I was a child. How about you ?

Christmas in the House

2009-12-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

A few shots of some of the treasures ( mostly my parents vintage treats ) I put out each year. Actually, I didn't put out everything like I usually do. Left in the box this year is my little village scene, instead I've made a scene with just Christmas trees, flocked reindeer & a few Santas. To the left of it is the tv with two Santa heads I found at Michaels, my one and only really big Partylite treasure is the skating snowman tealight holder with music box, the snowman actually skates when the music is playing.

There's our coffee table display with my fav. chubby snowman & funny greeting card from a dear friend ( Janis, you gave me this card over 10 yrs. ago ! ).

The fireplace is waiting for an electric insert ( previous owners haven't used it for over 25 yrs. and we don't relish using wood ) so it shows off more treasures --a couple of Christmas sock bears I made over 15 yrs. ago ( using my dear dads old socks ), a tree our son made when he was in kindergarten, thrift shop found jewel tree picture, moms kitschy animated Santa and a few other items from when I was little.

The next image shows a mixed media painting I made 'just because'. A porcelain bird sits on top & gold sprayed plastic branches hold tiny decoupaged images of angels & Santas. Copper tubing is home to 'Joy' and 2 sweet stockings.

The big bear was a prize my husband & I won at the Vic. General Hospital back in the early 90's. Very huggable !

Above the fireplace display hangs one of the trio of musical bells next to my bungy Santa --and the egg dude I brought from Ottawa happily rests inside the vintage wreath that still gets packed in its original box.

The musical angel is one of two ( also in original boxes ) standing in front of an old German advent calendar.

Two of my fav. garage sale finds are these lovely pictures. Everytime I look at them I feel instant peace.

Even the kitchen got a touch of Christmas this year. My newest items are the two small red trees purchased from a fab. shop called Cameron Rose in Sidney B.C. ( they're known for selling Christmas Krinkle treasures ! )

So there you go for now. As said, I didn't put everything out this year, wanted to keep the decor less cluttered. What's missing are a couple of small nativity scenes, trio of musical bells, a few small & large houses. I did take out my most. fav. music box of my parents, it's on the dining table, will post a pic. later when we have the tree up. We're getting a real one sometime next week !

Now off to make some cherry cake balls ! ( I wanted to make the red velvet cake kind but there was no RV cake mix to be found. So I went with cherry chip mix & added red coloring for a lovely pink mix, yum ! Baking photos to come too woohoo ! )

A shot of what's inside.....

2009-12-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

Well I had a bit of time before my husband got home from work so I took some shots of the opened Christmas boxes, just to give you an idea of 'what's in store'. There's the animated Santa my parents purchased in the mid-80's -- a real kitschy piece nowadays & still fun to bring out. Boxes of other kitschy things too, things I'm really going to think about whether or not I want to display them this year.

So there you go. Maybe tomorrow I'll get the decorating done & can post a shot for you :) Until then, have a great evening/day wherever you are !

To go all out or not this year ?

2009-12-02T17:02:00.000-08:00

So I finally hauled up the Christmas boxes the other day, it reminded me that I have to get back to exercising ! You miss a few months and wow does the body turn lazy, huffin and a puffin up those stairs. So needless to say I'm now doing my stretches and situps again and will begin the aerobics stuff prob. on Thursday.

Those boxes are chock a block full of Christmas goodies, quite a few from 'the past' oooooohhhhhh ahhhhhh. I've held onto many of the treasures my parents bought before I came along in 1967: 3 musical hanging golden bells, music boxes, stockings, ornaments, etc...AND for the last 5-7 years I always ask myself "why", "why do I keep decorating the SAME way every year with all the SAME stuff ?!" It's a bit odd, I'd rather live in an uncluttered Japanese-style and/or high tech house with just a few choice treasures. When I unload the Christmas boxes, I end up taking out everything and making displays out of it. The vintage colours and glitter bring out the child in me, but the rest of me feels that 'uncomfortableness' lurking in the back...I want to take away an item or two, clean up the areas, leave just one or two treasures. But it never happens and I leave it. Our son and my husband like it but it's not 'that important' to them. So if it's nice to have but bugs me, why do I still do it ? Have to give that question a good think.
So this year I'm going to try and see if I can leave some of the old stuff in the boxes. Oh we'll decorate the tree with some of the vintage treasures and I think I'm going to bling up the living room window too, maybe add some strings of lights around the living room or string one around the kitchen window so people in back can see the Christmas cheer. And I'd like to wrap soomething around the railing....Well I'm feeling better all ready, thanks little blog for letting me vent lol ! :D

ANYway, I'll post a pic. or two of what's inside the boxes and then a shot of the final decorating. Just have to get off my balloons and get crack-a-lackin, tomorrow for sure !

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday 9a.m. everywhere !!

2009-11-25T16:06:00.001-08:00

Yay ! It's that time of year again ! We've had our Canadian Thanksgiving but I'm looking more forward to the U.S. Thanksgiving because of their yearly:
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

woohoo !!

Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate all Thanksgiving days, the turkey, the stuffing, the family and friends. But there's just something aboout having a parade too :)

It's only been in the last 3 years that I've decided to make the Macy's Parade my own personal tradition. My dear husband and son are always at work/school and I'm home working on art creations for my Etsy shop. But now I take that day 'off' and get ready for Christmas --by watching the parade. Before this special day I don't think much about decorating, baking, etc...until after the parade, and then I'm all in that Christmas spirit :)

So for this year's parade I'm whipping up some homemade hot chocolate and maybe even some kind of cookie. After the parade I may head downstairs and start pulling out the Christmas decorations. Ooh it's making me all wiggly.

Drop me a line if you too will be enjoying this event. I wish I was right there for it. Just something about New York.

For our area ( Vancouver Island british Columbia ) you'll be watching either channel 14 (Kiro on CBS) or channel 18 (King NBC)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving U.S.A ! Many blessings for all of you xoooo

Here's even more info. about the parade:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy's_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade

Upcoming Vintage Inspired Christmas Brooches and Other Delights

2009-11-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

Showing off the first of my vintage & kitsch inspired Christmas brooches.

When I was a little girl, I always new Christmas was close when our old Woodwards store put out their big table of floral corsages. It was such a sight to behold through a child's eyes, the explosion of colour and glitter. The big glittered plastic flowers with big bits of plastic greenery, maybe some fake snow too. And each one of them would have it's own little plastic Santa, snowman or maybe a metallic wrapped fake gift or two. They were attached with either a long straight pin or a simple open c-clasp one.

It's funny, I never really loved any of them individually, but all together was magical. Nowadays I often think back to those early Christmas corsages, which in turn make me think of all the other magical Christmas stuff: when window displays were all about fun and fantasy and children would drag their parents to stop, look and dream ( unlike today where the ones here in Victoria British Columbia are so boring, lifeless, showcasing clothing/material objects and all about getting more sales ). I know I'm not the only one who misses those fun displays, so maybe one day soon someone somewhere will say "enough is enough" to the unmagical commercialism of today and make the effort to bring back some of the past, to lighten the eyes of todays children and re-lighten the joy of the adults too.

This pin was inspired by those memories of kitschy plastic flowered Christmas brooches and vintage Christmas cards. It's already in my Etsy shop --just click the shop on your right. Look for more in the upcoming weeks.

This floral necklaces was made 2 years ago. I will be relisting it again in the next day or two. Created with a real porcelain rose taken from a damaged Adderly rose table decoration. The necklace consists of czech glass beads, a few aurora borealis glass beads, swarovski crystals on the dangle and a section of curb chain from another vintage necklace. A modern goldtone lobster claw is the clasp if you should need it --necklace slips on/off quite easily. True 'trashion', the bone china floral decoration almost get sent to the trash ! Thank goodness I saved it. I made a pink one for my mom, but she is now passed and so I will be keeping it.

I listed this piece yesterday and was going to blog about it when I went back to check on it and couldn't find it in my Etsy shop ! It sold ! What a lovely surprise that was :)

It's called Beautiful Dreamer because the image of the lady & all the other lovely bits are assembled on top of a vintage Sankyo music box which plays the tune 'Beautiful Dreamer'. Originally a keycahin and found amongst a pile of plastic necklaces and earrings in a thrift shop. I think I paid under $2 for it ( !! ) and didn't immediately notice the Sankyo mark, nor even knew they were collectible. A year went by until I finally dug it out from under my own pile of vintage jewelry, it was then I took a good look at it and did a bit of research online. Many other Sankyo music boxes were selling for quite a bit more than $2, let's say $40 to $60, sometimes more ! But they all had a design on the front whereas the one I found was a plain goldtone box with a simple cheap goldtone keychain attachment. The plain face of it called to me big time and I could almost instantly see what it was I was going to do. Well voila, there you go, a lovely assemblage to go with the Beautiful Dreamer music.

It took me several days to decide if I wanted to list it or not ! I did wear it once to a friends, just to say I did ;) But now it is on its way to another music box lover, in Toronto Canada. She too makes gorgeous creations with small music boxes and music works, the website is Tuned Teeth . Check it out !

I hope to one day find another wee music box and make another lovely necklace like this. The lady getting this is definately getting a ONE of a kind creation :)

Free Images & feeling the Christmas spirit....

2009-11-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

I like Halloween but I LOVE Christmas ! Though I'm not yet ready to haul out the Christmas decorations, I am feeling in the mood to create some goodies for my shop.

So I'm going to make a few 'cute' Christmas brooches, using cardstock & various bits & bobs found around my art room --things like vintage Christmas cards, broken jewelry bits, flowers and more. Of course you mustn't forget the glitter !

My first brooch is almost done, but below the cardinal is the beginnings of it (vintage card bits,stars cut from a vintage candle tin wraparound). It now has flowers,glitter, a heart earring and a shiny coating of gloss ( fake resin ). I may add a small piece of ribbon to transform the brooches into ornaments for the tree.

The cardinal and flower will be part of another brooch. Fun !!

These next 6 images are scanned 1950's-early 60's Christmas card covers. They were purchased super cheap from my parents next door neighbor, who was a packrat ! She loved her thrift shops,garage sales and even bought a ton of stuff from the old shopping channel. She was so much of a packrat that about 20 yrs. ago her house suffered a fire, because of items piled up near the furnace :( Thankfully there was more smoke damage than fire but a LOT of her stuff had to be discarded in a large dumpster outside her garage. So my mom walked over one day and took a peek in the dumpster ! She brought home a couple of items, a porcelain bowl, some ugly brass planter with lions and doves carved into the brass, etc...

As much as it might have been fun for my mom to go dumpster diving ( and believe me I felt the temptation too, she had a lot of wonderful treasures ), I couldn't do it. It was after all, still the neighbors stuff ! If I had found an item and was able to clean it up, I would have given it back to her. But that's the way I work.

ANYWAY. About 5 years ago she got to the point where she had to have constant help, so it was time to find a care home. One of her sons had a huge garage sale. There were so many wonderful treasures, from Mr.Bean bears ( she usually would get more than one if she could ) to full bottles of unopened makeup to old bottles and more. I still kick myself for some of the things I passed on ( like more vintage cards and a Mr.Bean bear ), but am very happy with what I did find. One of these days I'll post images of 6 unique wine bottles from France. Each of them is dressed up in clothes and the bottle stops are handcarved wood faces. The best thing about them ? Each face has one large winking eye ! I've perused the internet trying to find anything about them, so far no luck.

The only sad thing about the garage sale....her son had no idea the value of some of her things, so it all went soooo cheaply. He didn't really care anyway and I wondered if his mom ever found out. Lots of very happy buyers that's for sure !

So these cards are on very thin paper and I think some of them may have had removable inserts. I saved the images at 300 dpi ( dots per inch ), which I've read is supposedly the best size to print out. You can also access them on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270380/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270620/

If you do end up using these in art, etc...I would love to know and see a pic. or two :)

Enjoy ♥

What my little studio has been enjoying lately....

2009-11-03T21:35:00.002-08:00

My art desk has been getting a good workout lately. I've found yet another form of art that i plan to stick with for awhile ( unlike my felt creations ! ).
I've dubbed this art 'Vintage Reinvented' and it is simply taking my big stash of mostly vintage broken jewelry parts and recreating them into fresh new jewelry.

For the longest time I would use only small pieces of my stash, hesitant to go all out because most of the bits I had only one of and would probably never find another of it's kind again. I also have some pieces that look too pretty to give away, but they're just sitting in one of my drawers. So if I don't make something for myself then why am I keeping such pretty things hidden away ? So what I've been doing is taking out one or two pretty pieces, putting them somewhere visible, leaving them for a day or two to enjoy & decide if I'm going to use them for myself or share. Well I already have quite a few pretty pieces my family & friends have given me and I really don't need anymore in my personal jewelry boxes, so I usually end up choosing to share the other bits. And it's a good feeling transforming these pieces into wonderful, perhaps even magical, wearable 'works of art' with the hopes someone out there will also find them just as magical. I also love to run my hands over the piece before reconstructing it, wondering quietly who the person was that wore it, are they still around, was it a special gift from a friend, a lover, a family member or simply a fun purchase for themselves ? Sometimes my heart will ache from not knowing exactly where it came from --but maybe it's a good idea I don't know, otherwise I'd never use the bits & bobs, they'd become even more vintage without ever seeing light again !

So here is a picture I took tonight ( Nov.3) of what my desk now looks like. I was doing so well putting everything away each night...when I was working on my felt pendants. But now ? Ha, forget it ! Just too many little things to constantly put away. And I find I tend to work better when surrounded by these tiny delights, they help to keep my mind churning out ideas for future goodies. Fortunately the rest of my wee studio is fairly organised, if it wasn't then I'd be feeling stress instead of joy.
You can just make out some of the 'stuff' I've been using for my 'vintage reinvented' jewelry....rhinestones, faux pearls, attachments, etc...

The piece below is what I am working on right now. It's a real music box, but miniature ! It had a keychain attachment but I felt it should be seen instead of getting banged up by a bunch of keys ! So now it's on it's way to becoming a necklace. The tune it plays is 'Beautiful Dreamer', and as you can see I've tried to create a 'beautiful dreamer' scene. Two of the 'pretty pieces' I was hesitant to use were the aurora borealis chain and the ivory coloured flower with rhinestone. I've since seen other vintage ab chain for sale on Etsy so am not too concerned about never finding more again ( I used some on my Candied Sugar necklace already listed in my Etsy shop ). But the ivory flower piece was one of about 10 others I took from a broken brooch. Even tho it was broken, it took me awhile to decide if I wanted to cut off the flower. Well as you can see, I did it and survived lol ! :) Really liking how this piece is turning out so far.

The next piece is called A Drop or Two and consists of vintage chandelier crystals (drops), vint. ab glass beads ( from earrings), 7 vint. diamond-like rhinestones ( from a rhinestone encrusted collar ), a vint. red flatback rhinestone and a vint. bright red celluloid flower ( from damaged brooch which has 2 other flowers ). The filigree backing and chain are part of a 1970's necklace. It's a rather romantic modish looking piece with a bit of a flapper influence ( I can see this worn with one of those flapper dresses from the 1920's ). Already listed if you want to see more pictures HERE

I have to say, the pieces I've made lately have been a bit difficult to list. I want to keep them ! Sure I could do that but then what would I do for my Etsy shop ? This is my lifestyle right now, being creative comes naturally and it's in my blood, and it's great having a place like Etsy to show off and sell my wares.

Well that's it for tonight. I'll be back again soon xo ♥

Been doing the Bling !

2009-10-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

Posting a quick shot of what I've been working on lately. Taking my time as usual ! These are deconstructed pieces of jewelry, stuff I've had for many many years, some over 20 yrs. and much of it found at thrift shops, garage sales and from friends.

So many times I'd look in my drawers of jewelry stash and just not use it to it's full effect. A tiny bead here, a small piece there, but nothing with any real "oomp!" --guess I was concerned that if I got in there and started using it, then I'd end up with nothing left. But of course that's not true these days, just look around the online shops, especially Etsy, you can find and purchase so many wonderful vintage bits and bobs. Our local thrift shops don't sell close to the delights one can find online.

So here are 3 creations I plan to list this week. Not yet finished but almost there. I need to go online and find out what the red flower material is, the name of it has left me. It came from a brooch, you can see the leftover bit to the right. That one has chandelier crystals ooh lala :) The purple pendant was a plain crystal cameo intaglio ( carved into the backside of the glass ) on which I 'wove' a bunch of sequins and beads. My most fav. though is the really 'blinged out' piece in the centre ! A Vintage necklace 'frame' houses an old rhinestone brooch. That was then framed with pink rhinestone chain and brilliant aurora borealis chain. Love it !! I'm still working on the necklace chain, not sure if I should leave it plain or add just a touch more bling.

Now back to work.......♥

Fall, Turkey Bounty, Pirate's Booty & Possibly a Tarsier too !

2009-10-20T21:35:00.004-07:00

Fall rituals: changing of the tree colors, leaves dancing & flying, a day or two or three of heavy rain, the flights of birds big & small, fresh bird seed & some peanut butter too, peanuts for the squirrels, pots of hot chocolate, rib sticking stews & chowders, candy corn & ghastly masks, cozy cuddly sweaters, flannel bedsheets, a favored pair of pink fuzzy slippers.....

(the neighbors breathtaking trees)

(a big pot of thick & rich Thanksgiving turkey chowder,with curly pasta, carrots,

peas,sweet potato,green onion,garlic,dill,seasoning salt

& lots of turkey broth --with bits of leftover

stuffing & plenty of pulled turkey. YuM !)

My Steamed Pirate's Booty earrings, just listed in my Etsy shop.

Vintage treasure,a boys discarded plastic coins & a touch of Steampunk.

This little fella will soon be in my Etsy shop too.
Meet Mr.Tarsier Charmbly. Can you tell he's REALLY happy to SEE you ?
His legs 'n arms are covered with funky napkin paper, & his middle sports a
whimsical image cut from a vintage Dutch image ( at least I think it's Dutch, had the paper
for quite sometime & forget where it came from :P).
His wee heart brad tells you he
has a heart of gold :)

This is the unique charm that comes with Mr.Tarsier Charmbly !
I've named it 'Horse Circuitry'.
A vintage playing card ( my parents had these horse cards since the 60's ), handsewn
with thread-beads-faux rhinestones. I don't remember where the circuit piece
came from ( I have lots of 'don't remember where they came from' bits and pieces ) but it's been
glammed up with glitter and gloss and a vintage glass chandelier with tiny swarovski crystal !
Yes, it's an odd charm, one I'm proud of :) You can use it as a necklace pendant, make a
bookmark, heavy earring, scrapbook decor, Christmas ornament and more !

Now off to bed.....g'night all ♥

Birds and Bounty....

2009-10-13T13:02:00.002-07:00

I so love looking out our sundeck doors and watching the birds fatten up for Winter. I've got to get myself another feeder to replace the suet holder ( just behind the squiggly branch ). I'll prob. 'tie' the suet holder in between the two arms, so that will mean more birds will be able to enjoy more food.
The plate is temporary, I wanted to see if the birds would actually feed off of it. Right now there's some ripe pear smeared with peanut butter and sprinkled with bird seed. It seems to be quite a hit !

The main birds so far are: red breasted nuthatch's ( love the racing stripes on their heads ! ), chickadees and others I don't know the name or just can't recall right now ( I think the black-headed birds, one on sundeck floor, is called a Towhee ).

They have their ranks & sometimes squabbles, but it's still such a joy watching them with a big mug of hot tea. A great way to wake up !

And this whimsical pic. is showing off our really small bounty of apples this year :P We've only been in our new house for a year, last year the tree was full of apples & I was able to make quite a few pies. BUT, we also have a full pear tree and a couple of days ago we picked quite a few, with the hopes that they will ripen this year ( we picked too early and they stayed rock hard ). Our toes are crossed, hoping to be able to make some tarts or whatever else is tasty in the way of pear treats.

And dontcha love the pumpkin bowl lol !! I found it at Michaels last year & could not resist it's whimsical face and wobbly googly eyes. It's a Dept.56 item ( just noticed the insignia last week ).

The pinecones fell, along with many others, from our neighbors pine tree. The smell is wonderful ! I am so looking forward to collecting fallen pine and cedar branches too, they're so Christmassy to me & make tealights in glittery red glass votives so festive.

Now back too arting, what's new :)

There's a Monkey on Your Chest ( or fridge ) !

2009-10-06T16:25:00.003-07:00

For the King Kong fans ! Here's another of my 3-in-1 pendants, soon to be listed in my Etsy shop once the gloss dries.

At first I was going to make a steampunk pendant but then my eyes landed on the King Kong image found from a vintage 'Evergreen' book ( a publication in England ). The vintage photo slide really adds to the piece too.
This is ooak -one-of-a-kind- because I took the image directly from the book and don't plan on making another ( if I ever did then the image would probably be a computer print ).

Great fun !

Look at what I got !! --and making a wrist cuff....

2009-09-30T21:18:00.004-07:00

Isn't this gorgeous !? I just could not resist purchasing this beautiful Cottage Garden bracelet from here: www.kimmsmith.etsy.com Kim is the friendly creator of this & many other stunning bracelets. It even came with a free gift of matching earrings, how thoughtful :)

Just look at the colours of that bracelet, right up my alley ! And the flowers are so joyful, they'll definately keep me warm as the weather gets colder ( they're also a reminder of what I hope a part of our new backyard garden plot will look like next Summer ).

Please run over to Kim's shop, you'll love the lush variety of bracelets offered, won't be disappointed and her prices are spot on too.

Thanks again Kim for creating this stunning shot of sunshine :) ♥

Okay, so over the last 2 days I've been working on a wrist cuff. It seems they are rather trendy so I thought I might try to throw a few into my shop. But first I had to make a 'test' cuff to make sure it was going to fit correctly and close correctly.

The first cuff closure I used was a small lobster claw which would be attached to whatever jump ring necessary for comfort ( cuff goes from 6-8" ). I did not like the result. You pretty well need nails to open a lobster claw catch. Also, it was too small and I thought of those people who might have sore fingers, it would be a right off for them !

So the next closure you can see below, a large keychain ring where all you have to do is press the ring inward and attach to the other side. It could have worked had the keychain ring not been so stiff to open. But then I also noticed that if a person had a small wrist and used the keychain ring on the very first jump ring, the keychain ring would have to turn sideways which would bend the cuff awkwardly. So off it came.

Finally I chose what most other cuff makers use -- a button and elastic band closure. Off to the drugstore for a package of elastic fabric covered hairbands and then find my box of vintage buttons.

Well, it took me a wee while to sew it all on so it felt secure and the back was fully covered with a

layer of pink felt to hide all the stitching and provide a layer of comfort. Oh dear, I've gained a bit of weight and the band had to stretch just a tiny bit further than 8", but it worked, was a little snug ( a gentle reminder that I really do need to lose that 20lbs finally ! ) and definately wasn't going anywhere.

I could have used velcro but I find that after awhile it looks rather grody, besides, the vintage button makes it look prettier with a touch of 'old-fashioned' charm.

I've still to finish off the fabric flower edges to stop them from fraying ( maybe add a rim of golden paint ) and will cover the card flowers with a special glasslike gloss.

The materials used for this cuff: the base is a type of moire peachy-pink fabric ( fake I think or does it matter, will have to research a bit ), handsewn are card flowers from a greeting card, fabric leaves, beadwork, lingerie lace and a recycled glass rose pendant from one of my old bracelets.

Do leave a comment letting me know what you think of this cuff. My personal opinion: I like it but am not too keen on the wonky blanket stitching, maybe just use plain stitches instead. I need to figure out a way to attach the elastic band before doing the artwork ( did it the opposite way for this cuff, had to make sure the stitches didn't show ). Also, I'm not fond of peach, which is why this is a test cuff :)

They're heading your way Donna ! :)

2009-09-26T18:50:00.004-07:00

These fun 5x7 felt pictures were made for my birthfather's wonderful wife Donna to give to her family members.
I had made a felt brooch for Etsy called 'Happy House on Candy Hill' with a very similar theme. It was probably the most liked item I've ever made ! My birthmom purchased it from me and ever since I've been thinking up ways to make other Happy House themed items ( there's a Happy House necklace on Etsy right now but called 'Purple House' instead ).

So there you go Donna, they were mailed out Friday afternoon regular mail and should hopefully arrive around the same time as Jean & Angela's parcel. ♥

No Fat No Calorie Cookies...and More ArT !

2009-09-18T19:05:00.005-07:00

Who would have thought that you can bake double milk chocolate chip peanut butter cookies with no fat and no calories ???

Well you can't :P LoL ! I was pulling your leg. Maybe in the distant future we'll find a way to enjoy these sinful treats without worrying about the fat, etc....but 'we' better make sure it's healthy for us and not going to turn and bite us in the butt by gradually turning people polka dotted with glittery pee and hair growing out of our gums.

So, I did bake a big batch of double milk chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. I use the recipe on the back of the Chipits bag & then added about 2 cups of semi-melted peanut butter. In the oven @ 375 for 8-10 mins. First batch turned out a tad too soft but still melt in your mouth perfection, second batch was a little more firmer. Got milk !?

Terry, some of these are heading your way !!

Oh I was soooooo close to actually doing this !

Tada !

These are a special homemade little gift for someone special :)

And last night I felt the urge to paint. So I gessoed these 3 5x7 canvases....

And this is what I did with two of them....

They're not quite finished and the pics. don't show off the glittery bits. As you can see I tried a night/day thing with attention to the glow around the night scene ( dots of yellow glitter represent fireflies ) and wee birds, bright colors for the day scene ( with yellow glitter representing the sun ).

Not yet sure what name to give them.. maybe 'a glorious day & eve at the candy tree house'..?? Too long perhaps ? Anyway, I'll think of something and may list them too. Will need to find a couple of hanger things first.

Tracy ♥

Two Fun 3-in-1 pendants in my Shop....

2009-09-17T15:24:00.003-07:00

Well my Etsy shop is finally starting to get filled up again woohoo ! I really love what I do and having a place to sell my wares from the comfort of home.

After some contemplation I decided to start working on a new 'line' of wearable art. This 'line' is kinda unique in that each piece can be worn as either a necklace, a brooch or used as a magnet ! Quite handy :) Great for that person who has it all, or enjoys being able to use something in more than one way.
These pieces are wearable and hangable art. The necklace easily slides out and jump ring bends down to hide for when you wear it as a brooch or stick on the fridge. The pendant can also hang from a hook, would look nice with a wee frame around it too.

So I've started with Purple House & Boo House. There's just something about making houses, comforting, safe, a place to be happy and even completely silly !

These houses all start with me putting on some fun music, then comes the felt and fun. It's neat holding the finished product, I'm so tempted to keep them to myself ! Each house comes with it's own silverplated chain & extension ( with handmade beaded hangy thingy so the extension doesn't fly around the back of your neck too much ).
So far these houses have taken about 2 days to complete so I think the pricing is pretty darn great !

Enjoy ! Please check my Etsy shop for more pics.
Now I'm off to work on another house....♥

What I've been creating......

2009-09-09T15:38:00.005-07:00

The Summer went so fast ! We had fun times, a great holiday with family, some wonderful blobby days too. Now it's back to a routine and back to getting more creations made for my Etsy shop ! --plus some goodies for friends/family and myself ;)

Speaking of family, Donna --my birthfather Terry's lovely wife, asked me to create a few of my Happy House on Candy Hill pieces. You might remember I had made a brooch which is now the image for my Etsy shop ( ravensmagiclantern ). Donna wants to give these pieces as gifts to nephews/nieces, only for display purposes.
This would be my first commision work ! Although it's been slow going, I now have more time to get these pieces made & look forward to showing them off to you once done.

Here you can see what I've done so far, a simple hill with water. Next will come the background, house, tree and 'candy' ( colorful puff balls )

I enjoy checking out the beautiful jewellery on Etsy and found that necklaces, earrings, rings & bracelets seem to be more popular than brooches. So now I'm on a mission to try to make 2-in-1 brooch-necklaces. I'm going to see what I can do with the 3 yet-to-be-listed brooches from my previous post, need to find me some decent inexpensive necklace chain first.
And now that my mind is on necklaces, I decided to try making a felt flower basket necklace.
Last week I purchased some pretty glass flower and leaf beads, swarovski crystals & new headpins, already seeing the outcome in my head.
Yesterday afternoon ( around noonish ) I started on the flower basket, it was fully completed 14 hrs. later, just after 2 a.m ! Was I ever tired this morning getting our son going for school.

Anywhoooo, let me know what you think of the finished treasure. Honestly, I keep looking at it & can't quite believe that it was me who made it. I'm normally not one to gush about the things I make, but I LOVE how this turned out ! And yes it was all done by hand.
The chain is constructed from two vintage necklaces and seems to wrok quite well.

Flower Basket necklace. Glass flower beads, glass leaves, felt flowers, sequins. All sewn securely onto handmade stitched felt basket. Vintage chain. Soon to be in my Etsy shop ♥

New bRooChes for EtSy !

2009-08-22T16:17:00.003-07:00

Woohoo ! Here are my newest fabric & felt brooch creations for Etsy: Bubble Tea, Cotton Candy Oddity, Ice, My Heart's a Flower and Blossom Blob ~~~

-My Heart's a Flower ( upper right ) was made using a slice of beautiful Japanese fabric my birthsister Angela gave to me, with addition of 3d bloom & a bubble encased single flower cut from same fabric.
-Bubble Tea ( bottom left ) consists of felt, acrylic paint & a gloss covered mix of beads
-Ice ( middle ) was made after observing the dreamlike interior of icecubes. Bits of rhinestone necklace, a chunk of local beach glass, vintage plastic beads, czech beads, sequins, glitter and real pink quartz spears.
-Cotton Candy Oddity ( bottom right ) has czech beads, pink fluff thread and a recycled piece of blue anodized aluminum
-Blossom Blob (upper left ) was made with some gorgeous cherry blossom fabric & embellished with felt blossoms, fuzzy balls & a plastic pink flower.

All with blanket stitching, all handsewn, lots of love and, as always, that wonky touch of whimsy :)

I'll be making a lot more, but I'm also thinking about trying my hand at painting ! Nothing huge, maybe 5x7 size. Images of things with flowers, maybe some collaging....let's wait and see what the gods of whimsiness place in my heart ♥

Been away...

2009-08-19T15:10:00.002-07:00

Hello hello hello ! Wow, been some time since posting. My husband, son and I took a wee vacation to see my husband's family in Montreal, then he dropped our son and I off to spend a week with my birthfather and his family in Ottawa.
Since returning ( last Sun 16th.) I've been slowly getting back into the swing of things. I was suppoesed to re-open my Etsy shop on Tuesday but, instead, I spent the day in a bit of a daze...pacing around, feeling 'closed in'. We got spoiled at my birth-sister's house with junky food and swimming pool. No pool at home :( AND I fell in love with some of her paintings, especially the one in our guest room. Now all I want to do is sell my parents 60's paintings and buy something big and wow ! Since coming home I've really noticed how tired I am of some of our furniture --from my parents house. Eventually we'll sell the giant dark wood china cabinet of my moms and find something modern, fresh. I'd love to find a long low glass cabinet with black glass top and silver highlights. My parents cherry wood dining table and chairs are quite nice, but I'm in love with those higher square tables that require the higher stool-like chairs. So what am I waiting for ? I guess right now it feels a bit overwhelming, all the leftover things that need to be done in the house. Spent a big chunk of $$ on renos, now I see all the little things that need to be changed. Oh well, one step at a time right ?
Since seeing my birthsisters Angela and Sunshine's homes, I'm finally ready to ditch the old and get on with living the way I want to live. Ever since I can remember I've grown up with lots of second hand stuff, not that there's anything wrong with it and I'm thankful for it, but now I'm tired of always pushing aside my wants and settling for the 'it's okay'. Time for fresh and lively !

Okay, ranted enough lol ! Look for new posts in the coming weeks.

Have a great day all :) xo ♥

A BeauTiful ThaNk-You & CooKies with TeA !

2009-07-08T20:30:00.004-07:00

Awhile back I found a lady online who makes beautiful altered art wonders. Her name is Kecia Deveney and she has a natural talent for creating things out of found objects, turning them into delicious shabby fun elegant ( and even Steampunk ) treasures, from necklaces to paintings to dollies with whimsical dressings !

You must, must, must check out her links - 2 fab. shops and 2 blogs:

-Etsy shop
'Lemoncholy's'
-Lovely blog
Lemoncholy's Flight of Fancy ( she's also posted her Facebook link )
-Her fab. shop of gorgeous eye candy for the body and soul
Lemoncholy's Studio
-Her other blog where you can find out about upcoming flea markets and other fun flea market delights:
Flea Market Junkture ( Kecia LOVES flea markets ! )

Kecia also teaches classes. If I were anywhere near her I would be one of the first to sign up !

We are friends on Facebook and I'm always looking forward to reading up on her latest finds and makings.
She had posted a picture of some found beach glass and so I decided to send her some of the beach glass my birth-grandmother had collected over 30 years ! Of course the parcel ended up getting stuffed with other wee fun finds too, couldn't help myself it was so much fun :)

As a thank-you to me, Kecia created a necklace using one of the pieces of beach glass I sent her. When it arrived I was so excited and thrilled at how lovely it was --and how much it means to me to be wearing something my birth-grandmother found with her hands ( she passed last year. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to meet her, if only twice and for a few short hours ).

The necklace came 'packaged' inside a most unique piece of art. It is so much like a mini quilt with wonderful stitching, lace, various fabrics and a sweet image of a child. I just love it and will proudly hang it in my art room, on the wall by my tv, so every time I look up it will always be in my line of sight :)

Thank-you Kecia for your beautiful treasures and for bringing joy to so many.

Isn't this necklace beautifully elegant ?
The child is part of a pocket sewn onto the 'quilt' piece, inside which was the necklace. Love the thoughtful details, such a delight
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After receiving Kecia's treasures I then popped onto Facebook to see any new updates. Another of my FB friends had spent the day baking a load of mouthwatering goodies.

Since it was raining today I too decided to bake something, something in which I could sprinkle some tea leaves !

I have well over 50 varieties of tea, in fact, I have my very own tea cupboard in the kitchen. It's stocked with boxes and bags of tea and all my tea accoutrements.

So, I decided to make whipped shortbread...an easy dough with few ingredients (butter,flour,icing sugar). I then divided the dough and in one portion I mixed the loose tea from 2 bags of Stash's Double Spice Chai & added a wee bit of cinnamon. In the other batch I added 2 bags of Stash's Earl Grey Green tea, some Formosa Jasmine and a handful of leftover milk chocolate chips. Yeh, I was feeling kindof adventurous lol ! Too impatient to let them sit in the fridge, I chose to make them drop cookies instead....

After approx. 13 minutes in the oven, they came out like this:

And after several bites, we decided the Earl Grey Formosa ones were the better tasting. The chai cookies were okay too but they left a wee bit of a bitter aftertaste. Maybe next time I'll bake some with freshly brewed tea leaves ?

That's it for today. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lovely new treasure to hang on my art room wall ( I'm wearing the necklace, had to put it on asap ! )...and then I'm grabbing a plate of cookies, some tea and my book for a few good minutes of quiet time.

Tracy ♥

A day in the sun

2009-07-03T21:36:00.003-07:00

It's been quite hot here and the last couple of days were spent being rather lazy and useless. So today I had to escape the house !
It took awhile for our son and I to get motivated, the heat really sucks the life out of a person. Even my husband Jacques, who is usually always busy, was stuck to the recliner for a couple of hours.

So we headed to Mystic Vale, a lovely wee sanctuary located next to UVic --University of Victoria. It's also right next to some farm-type land the university uses, and is a fantastic place for bringing dogs ! We had several greetings from quite a variety --boxers, labs, scraggly fluffy ones, a hunting dog. We can't wait for the day when we can finally get a dog !
Then it was on to the vale, a nice place to get away from the heat, even though it was still fairly warm among all the trees.
It wasn't a long walk, enough to get the heart pumping a bit, but we didn't really notice our hearts because we were enjoying the scenery. Here's a small sampling of the place:

Oh, first is a pic. showing what I had for breakfast. Every now and again I like to do some green juicing, today it was a mix of spinach, broccoli coleslaw and a carrot mixed with some apple juice, yum !! Then I had an avacado. Not your typical breakfast but it helped to make me feel more alive.

After our walk we decided to take a drive downtown ( Victoria B.C. ). I took several shots but didn't want to clog up my blog with too many. This shot shows the Empress Hotel , a very popular and well loved hotel looking over the very popular and busy waterfront. Many a busker has entertained many a tourist on that waterfront, it makes for a fun evening wandering the area and taking in all the sounds. Plus there are plenty of wonderful restaurants nearby, along with the wax museum, Parliament buildings ( or legislative buildings is the proper name but has gone by Parliament for so many years ) and Royal B.C. Museum.

After our drive we headed to Dragon Alley in Chinatown for a bubble tea, and then off home. I ended up with a bit of a headache, too much sun maybe ? But right now it's almost 10 p.m. and I'm feeling fine and very relaxed.

Looking forward to tomorrow evening ! We live about a 5 minute drive from the popular Butchart Gardens , and every Sat. eve. in July they put on a fabulous fireworks display with music. Our area is close enough that we will be able to hear the music and possibly see the higher fireworks, woohoo ! It will be our first time enjoying this. Wish I could take pics. for you, I'll try to catch one of the fireworks.

Tracy ♥

1980's Punk Rocker with Humbum & Other Delights...

2009-06-23T09:32:00.003-07:00

Today I'm visiting with my birthmom again & meeting with her aunt and uncle Renee & George. Looking forward to it and hearing about a supposed pirate in the family :)

But first I wanted to add a post, you know, trying to keep the ol' bloggola busy. So I start with this pair of old boots and pants...they were mine back in the mid-1980's. I've held onto them all these years too !
The boots were kept as a reminder of those years, when dancing almost everynight was normal for me, and my deep love for 'new wave' music ( I was a big fan of Gary Numan & Japan/David Sylvian, oh yes also The Cure, Cocteau Twins and many more ). The boots have rather large holes in the soles, maybe one day I might get them fixed ? Probably not...I tried them on and they don't 'look' the same anymore. As much as I still love seeing people with their dyed hair, piercings and gothic look, it just doesn't look the same on me nowadays. Oh well, prob. all for the better anyway, I prefer to wear minimum makeup these days & just too lazy to be bothered with all that black eyeliner lol ! The pants are another reminder of my crazy dressing days --but I do hope to get back into these ! I can get them up, just can't do them up at all, my tum area has changed quite a bit since then. Some of my friends have seen these and rolled their eyes lol ! --but I refuse to give up entirely my weird dressing ways :D Look out, one day I'll be one of those old ladies with the purple hair !

Upcoming 'Punk Rocker' felt brooch, woohoo ! This dude is being created from a drawing I did in the 1980's in high school. He's going to be a wee bit smaller than my other large brooches, so the facial features will prove challenging when doing the blanket stitching. He's going to be finished off with a cigarette and facial rings ( as in the drawing. I know smoking is horrid, but I'm making the brooch to look just like my drawing )

Here is a hum bum !

So, this is what i work with when making my brooches, a bag of snarled up floss ! It was given to me by one of my past paper clients ( when I delivered the local news ). At first I was just going to toss it but something told me to hold onto it, good thing I did .

Will soon need to restock on black floss.

Finally, some gorgeous fabric I purchased the other day. It's called Spring Sakura by Michael Miller. Of course it's much more stunning in person, really beautiful ! I'll be using some of it in my brooches.

Well there you go. And now I have to go and finish getting ready.....have a fulfilling day all :)♥

The Happy House and a Peanut Stealer !

2009-06-18T14:20:00.002-07:00

Forgot to post yesterday :P Well here is my latest brooch: The Happy House on Candy Hill :)

I will be making more of these fun colorful brooches. I love how this one simply looks happy, and it's already sold ! My dear birthmother Judy phoned to ask if she could buy it, I was very happy that she too loves cheerful things. So next week I'll meet up with her & then she's taking me to visit her aunt & uncle for lunch, looking forward to it.

I've nicknamed this crow 'Peanut Stealer'. A couple of days ago I went to fill the squirrel nut feeder ( a wooden base with covered 'house' into which a large jar is placed. Nuts are put into jar & squirrel can get them without getting wet ). I tossed a couple onto the lawn to encourage the squirrel to "come and get 'em !". Well the next day they were gone, of course thinking it was the squirrel. Nope ! I tossed a couple more and a crow swoops down and takes them ! So now I think the crow thinks it's going to get nuts everyday lol ! It sits in a nearby tree and gives 3 "caws" as if it's saying "want, more, nuts !" --and I oblige of course :) It's found the peanuts on our balcony railing too, and because I love crows and ravens, I think this is a very special treat for me and the crow. The nut shells are salted, which makes me wonder if the crow gets thirsty. Perhaps a wee birdbath nearby might encourage it to stay a bit longer.
Sorry about the pic. quality, this crow is fast ! It swoops in, takes 2 peanuts and off it goes.

That's it for today folks ! Friday I may pop out for breakfast at 'The Roost', a place where the free roaming chickens roam around your feet ! Starting another brooch too tho not yet sure exactly what I'm going for.

Show & Tell: Another brooch on the way, & one already done...

2009-06-15T19:15:00.004-07:00

Took this past weekend off and the family and I played lazy. Oh it was so nice to just sit around being all blobby, playing computer games, drinking tea & eating popcorn. Sometimes it's nice to not feel the need to do something !
A part of me is kinda hoping that when our son and I visit my birth father and his family ( in Ottawa early August )...we'll be able to play lazy & just hang out there too :)

Now for today's show & tell. I've always liked paintings of houses, especially ones that are 'happy', full of sunshine, open spaces, etc...So I decided to make my own 'painting' of a happy house --a handsewn felt brooch I'm calling
'The Happy House on Candy Hill'

Why 'Candy Hill' ? Isn't it obvious ? This is no ordinary house ! The owners of this house are distant relatives of Willy Wonka. They too adore candy and have found a way to grow it on their property. Even the tree sprouts colorful sweets 7 months of the year.
Oh, wait, of course it's not obvious to you just yet, the brooch isn't even finished ha ! Give me a few more hours.......

Planning it out...

Lots of handsewing...
It's coming together nicely...

And here is the brooch I finished a couple of days ago. I've named it

'The Colors of My Heart'.

Each color represents the 4 main emotions we feel: black for anger/dark moments, blues for gentle sadness to depression, pinks for all types of love and yellows for joy :) The large golden beads are for those unforgettable joyful moments. I've added smaller beads including an edging of bugles.

Like the rest of my brooches, this one is also on the large side because they are meant to be seen.

In my Etsy shop :)

I'll be back tomorrow to show off the Happy House brooch :)

Arting Outside

2009-06-11T19:46:00.002-07:00

We've been enjoying some pretty warm weather lately. I'm waiting for the day it 'breaks' and the cooler stuff swoops in ! --not that I want cooler stuff, but this warm stuff does affect the desire to cook/garden and clean house.

Anyway, today I chose to take my art outside onto the sundeck and inside the gazebo. The art room is fine but I was in the mood to listen to the music of birds instead of my usual trance music.
First I took a pic. of my dear husband Jacques. He chose to switch to nights for 2 months, so I get to enjoy him daytime now :)

Well here I am all settled in. I'm working on a heart brooch and I've got a Revello ready to eat --choc. covered vanilla ice cream bar.

This is the view from the gazebo. You get to enjoy the flower pots, the bird feeder and the hummingbirds all at the same time :)

My Revello icecream bar already half eaten ( those things have gotten smaller over the years ! )

Here is that heart brooch I was working on earlier. It's called ' The Colours of My Heart'. Each thread colour represents a feeling: black for anger/dark mood, various blues for sadness, pinks for love ( all love such as motherly, spouse,friend and sexual ) and finally, yellows for joy ( joy felt from a child, watching a meteor shower, feeling like running around a field, getting married, etc..). I've completed the thread colours, added a row of red, blue,pink & yellow bugle beads interspersed with pink czech glass beads and a few black beads. I could walk away from it now but I feel there is still something that needs to be added, maybe a small handful of beads among the threads...? I'll figure it out later tonight. Will get listed in my Etsy shop tomorrow.

My next brroch will be a house, something joyful and very colourful.

What a difference making these brooches ! I no longer sit amongst a desk covered with piles of stuff, feeling stress from the need to add tons of detailing and then wondering what the shipping will be. These brooches consist mainly of fabric, floss and maybe the odd broken jewelry piece here and there. The hand stitching is really relaxing too, plus, the shipping is fabulous because most of these brooches can be sent in a bubble mailer without worrying about boxes, woohoo !

So now it is 8:15 p.m., the birds are still chirping away outside, so I'm going to sit on the sundeck for a wee bit and take in the sunset and feeling of solitude that comes over the air at this time of night.

Have a great evening all :)

5th. times a charm ;)

2009-06-05T22:14:00.002-07:00

Hello again, here's is charm no.5 from the Heart Collective charm swap :)

I began with decoupaging some lovely paper and then some pink tissue on top. I was trying to go for an 'eye spy' design but just could not find the right images to finish it off.

Here is the back of the charm. Each charm has a wee mirror, for checking out teeth or whatever. Some are outlined in black, others in pink glitter.

A side view of the charm showing the cute fluffy candy-colour puffs...

Finally the pic. of the charm :) The 'happy face' is an advertising image cut from a 1950's Popular Science magazine. Wings and legs come from an ARTCHIX Studio collage. Totally silly and FUN !

Lastly , I thought I'd toss in a pic. of a bumble bee being 'saved'. We erected one of those screened gazebo's on our sundeck, but unfortunately it also seems to attract bees and flies. I love bumble/honey and mason bees and can't sit back and watch them die ! So out comes a glass, flat paper and my desire to save them from the confines of the gazebo.
This wee bumblebee was given a heavenly drink of water mixed with a little bit of honey. After about 1 minutes worth of 'drinking', the bee went from almost dead to an all out jittery mass ! It didn't take too long for it to start beating it's wings and take off ( almost taking me out in the process too lol ! )
Here's a pic. of the b-bee slurping up the nectar.

Well there you go folks :) I have to mail out the charms Sat. morning and then my family and I are off to Coombs, over an hours drive up island ( Vancouver Island ) --a wee 'village of sorts' where the main market area has goats on the roof ! Will take pics. to prove it :)

My Heart Collective Charm Swap....

2009-06-04T22:44:00.004-07:00

It was another hot day here today and is still very warm tonight. It was the kind of day where even walking in my barefeet...my feet were still sweaty, ick :P ( now there's a pretty picture to envision lol ! )

A short while ago I friended a wonderful artist, Julee Hermann, on Facebook. She was having a charm swap on her Heart Collective FB page. June 6 is the mailing deadline and I only had 2 charms to make.

Here you can see the 3 charms I created last year, using computer & jewelry bits, foil, glitter & a few vintage images/words. They were made using vintage wooden game piece tiles, there's 2 I put out to show you.
I first remove the shiny coating with sandpaper and then glue on the homeade bales. Sometimes I'll even glue a round mini mirror on the back --which I've done for these 5. The charms will each be different in designs but have the same base ( game piece ), mirror and bales ( even though 2 of the 5 bales will be blue instead of silver wire ).

Tonight I thought I'd show you how I made the last 2 charms --but I realised the pic. of the 5th. charm showed I hadn't finished the edges, so that one I will show you tomorrow :)

This charm I'm calling 'Starshine'. The silver glittery star was a perfect backdrop for the silvertoned rose earring bit. Game piece was painted black. A vintage Kodachrome slide is a nice neat addition.

I then created my version of a starfield by dabbing drops of white paint and then spattering with a wet paintbrush on both tile and slide. Once dry I brushed on a thin layer of satin varnish and then sprinkled on a touch of holographic glitter

Slide edges were painted black and then all was glued in place and more dabs of white paint, spatter and glitter added. Although mostly concealed, you can just make out the ever so slight 3d effect from the 'stars' on the game piece shining through the slide.

Gloss varnish finishes it off, not quite dry in this pic.

Check back tomorrow to see the 5th. charm, my most favorite one :)

Too hot to write !

2009-06-03T18:56:00.002-07:00

Wow I've been so hot lately....too hot to be a hotty lol !

It's been so hot that my poor flower pots have been needing at least 2 to 3 soaks a day, I can almost hear the plants whispering 'water' 'water'. Don't my little Johnny Jump-Ups in the above pic. look so sad ?

Anyway, I hope the rest of you hotties are finding safe ways to keep your cool.

Gotta go, too hot to write !

My Art Room all prettied up and ready to create in FINALLY !

2009-05-28T12:08:00.005-07:00

Yay ! My shoulders feel so light again :) I've been working on my art room, removing unwanted-unused items and this time really making the effort to get my room the way I really wanted it --free from ugly clutter, etc...My desk was covered with so much crap, I could still work but found that my creative energy would get sapped so quickly, and I'd end up going into the living room just for more elbow space.
So now I can finally say that I am truly happy with this room, and I can really get to creating which will add to my Etsy shop ( and hopefully bring more people to it which will hopefully generate more sales ) --always got the brain turning lol !

Let me indulge you with these pics :) I'm hoping you can enlarge them to see better details. First one is actually 2 pics. which I merged together. There's my paint and varnish shelves, my wall 'o fav. pictures ( the bottom right one of the cabin was painted by my birth-grandmother Frieda. She never felt she was a real artist because she didn't go to art school. Such a shame, her works were amazing ! This pic. of hers was just a practice one ! ). There's my fav. set of colorful drawers, filled with riboons,beads,watches,tags,sanding paper,glitter,paint pens,doll parts,candywrappers,etc...On top are drawers filled to the brim with broken jewelry parts ! On my desk is a pretty canister in which I store my most used glues. A future project waits for my attention. The desk and brown bureau were in the back bedroom of my parents home, it's vintage and hails from the 1960's. But what I really really want is a pair of stainless steel 3 basket carts in place of the brown bureau, so I don't have to always get up and search through all my papers/china roses/game pieces/trinkets/charms etc...I can just roll the cart to me :) I'd also love a larger desk with a glass top, one day. More art goodies are held in the vintage copper flour/sugar/tea/coffee holder on the dresser as well as the 2 plastic white drawers ( these hold all my clasps,chains,etc...for making necklaces and brooches )

I look out onto the front road with a lovely large cedar in which I enjoy watching the birds flit about. There's a couple of Vogue mirrors/images, I'm a fan of Art Nouveau and Deco. I made the blue framed picture behind one of my parents vintage 1960's chairs ( will soon make some covered cushions for this chair, and will change the faded yellow footstool fabric to probably pink, woohoo ! ) The picture of the redheaded woman -behind vintage lamp-was created by a dear friend of mine. I've strung white lights above the chair, makes a pretty fairy-like effect at night. And there's my dear teddy bear. He's over 40 yrs. old and can still growl when you turn him on his tummy. Oh the number of times we've had tea together :)

This is another of my parents furniture. I believe my dad made this piece and for a long time we couldn't figure out where to put it ! We enjoy the more modern clean-lined furniture and I found this piece looked too 'old' in our living room, but I refused to give it up. Don't you think it looks great in this room ?! There's my grandmothers ( my moms ) chiming clock, my moms jewelry box ( which now holds some of my incense collection ), a pretty Italian vase holding more of my incense, my parents vintage windup clock, vintage egg basket with florals, my fav. Pot of Gold chocolate tin and lots of other sentimental doo-dads, including the one Spring Dolly I had given to my dear mom ( in front of cd player ). My dear friend gave me the wonderful Eiffel Tower wrapping paper. Inside each drawer: left one holds all my soy tarts CountryHearts on Etsy makes wonderfully smelling tarts which fill almost the entire house with luscious scent ), middle holds a variety of flowers and end holds all my candles ( mostly Partylite )

On the left is my collection of Somerset Studio magazines, they sit on top of an altered bread box which holds more S.S. mags. Behind these closet doors you'll find a floor to ceiling high grey military locker filled with boxes and more creative doo-dads, next to it is floor to ceiling plastic shelving which holds all my mail stuff ( boxes, bubble wrap, etc...) as well as sewing, spray varnishes, big box of future art projects and various memorabilia. Can you see the 2 clay swallow nests ? They were a very cool find at my parents next door neighbors garage sale a few years ago. On one of the doors hangs a bag full of more items for future creations.

My mom used to display her lovely silverware tea set on the bureau, it really gleemed ! The teapots, etc...are in the china cabinet but I wanted to keep the tray out to show off my own glittery delights :) Jar on left holds swarovski crystals and broken rhinestone bits, jar on right holds nothing but vintage chandelier crystals. Small jar in front was my moms cold cream jar, it now houses vintage keys. The pretty plate with glass is actually a candleholder my dear friend made, fabulous way to recycle those vintage glasses ! Table it's sitting on was also made by my dad.

Just a closeup of the bureau. One of my fav. tiny treasures is the wee woolly sheep on top of the Asian-style box :) Oh yes, behind the cupboards lie about 40 1930's National Geographic magazines, 1980's fashion mags., blank envelopes and cards, vintage box of ribbon bits and a big box of hardware stuff ( nails, washers, pic. hooks, ton of stuff more ). My fav. journal rests on top --cover design made by Anahata Katkin

Well there you go, a wee 'tour' of my studio. My next 'goal' is to purchase a small flat screen tv for the bureau, one that's under 20". I don't actually want to sit and watch the tv, just something that I can turn on and look at while handsewing/beading. Ellen is fun to watch, and I also really like that these flat tvs have music channels now, so I can wiggle away to the electronic music :)

Now I need to fully complete our guest bedroom downstairs, thank goodness it's almost done. And then I've got to finish my stinky sock brooches !

Stay tuned for more artsy-fartsy stuff :)

Our Gear for Video Games Live tonight @ 8pm, woohoo !!

2009-05-21T16:35:00.003-07:00

I am sooo excited !

Tonight I'm taking our son Christian and myself to see Video Games Live !! It's a worldwide show where symphonies ( here it's our wonderful Victoria symphony ) perform music from the more popular video games of today and yesterday. Scenes from games play in the background, there are laser shows and sometimes even live performances from actors reenacting game scenes.

This is the kind of show where dressing up as your fav. video game character is 'the norm', but we won't be dressing as any characters. Instead, Christian made a computer collage of two of his fav. Resident Evil teams, which he then ironed onto a fresh black shirt, along with another Res. Evil image on the back. Looks really sharp !

I made myself a shirt too :) Instead of a scene from a game I just printed and ironed a wonderful raven and then placed 'Mechanical' above it ( actually I was going to put 'mechanical chicken' found from a 1950's Popular Mechanix magazine ( it was an egg vending machine they were talking about ), but then I wondered if people might mistake it for me being a chicken of mechanics, so just mechanical it was.
On the back is the wonderful 'rock,paper,scissors,lizard,Spock' diagram created from The Big Bang Theory --my most fav. show of all ! I am a big fan of Sheldon :)
It might be a bit of an odd shirt, but I like odd !

Here is my Resident Evil 2 necklace, just finished today. It's a shrinky dink pendant with red glass beading to look like blood droplets. Really loved making this, might make more for my shop.

Finally, Halo earrings !! Such a fun game. The real swarovski crystal drops give them a wee bit of elegance.

Well gotta go and get ready. We're heading to town around 6 so we can find a parking close to the theatre, don't want to be walking around town at night. Might grab a bubble tea and snack, there will probably be some fun stuff to do outside the theatre.

Woohoo !!

Mary's Felties, Charms and the answer to "what was that felt thing" ?

2009-05-19T15:27:00.008-07:00

Hi all ! Been a few days since popping over here :) So I've got a long one for you today and it's filled with fun treasures woohoo !

I would like to introduce you to a wonderful new Etsy creator and seller, her name is Mary and her shop is:

♥~~HappyFelties.etsy.com~~♥

Mary makes wonderfully whimsical and detailed wee felty characters, using a wide variety of colorful felt and definately a happy imagination.

I found her while I was trying to get an idea of prices for felt brooches. Her bright colors immediately caught my attention and I couldn't resist buying one of her creations. The wee blue cat was listed as 'Its good to be blue happy feltie cat brooch'. I'm still wearing as I type and won't be taking it off anytime soon.

Please go on, go on and check out her delightful wares. You won't be disappointed, a wonderful shop and wonderful seller and wonderful packaging too !

Mary, in the memorable words of Ahny "I'll be back" :) ♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, what are these charms ?

Well you may remember when Amber Dawn had her International Charm Swap ? ( April 28 ).

Today I received these lovelies and am so delighted with them ! The first lot are from Lorraine who lives in Liverpool England ! I love the eclecticness of these pieces and plan to wear them as a trio with added beads, will show a pic. later on. The atc ( artist trading card ) was such a beautiful addition, it will be sitting along with my other atcs in my art room :)

Please, pop on over to her wonderful blog and Etsy shop ( see pic. below ), she makes huggable shoulder bags and enchanting art bags --even ones for ATCs ! Thank-you Lorraine !♥

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Who's next ? Well it's a very sweet birdy charm from Pat Winter ! Isn't it precious ? This is one of her charms she was offering for the Charm Day, thank-you Pat :) I love the wee ribbon work, little blue 'egg', little bird, everything !

I plan to add this charm along with some of my other bird inspired charms, probably make a necklace or brooch for me to show off.

Pat creates wonders with fabric and thread, you'll be amazed at her ribbonwork. Please check out her Etsy shop ( and her Fairy brooches ) won't you: Patwintergatherings.etsy.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So here is the unknown creature from my prev. post. Say hello to Charlie the crow :) At first he was a raven, but the more I sewed, the more he began looking like the crow from an aceo I made several years ago. So now he's a crow.

Hee-hee, isn't he a sweety ? Crows and ravens are my absolute fav. birds ( next favs. are swallows and owls ). I find crows and ravens such intelligent creatures and rather whimsical too. One time, while driving somewhere, I noticed on the side of the road a pair of crows. One had it's head lowered while the other was very gently preening it, almost as if it was kissing the top of it's head. When the preening crow would look away, the other crow would wiggle over and gently nudge him for more 'kissing'. My heart melted, the sweetest thing I ever did see. Apparantly crows and ravens mate for life, another reason why I love them so much.

So when it comes time to call my husband and I a pair of 'old crows', well I certainly won't be insulted lol :)

Wee Charlie here took a lot longer to make than I thought ! Part lots of handsewing and part procrastination :P

The sequins came from my birthgrandmothers stash and outline his wing. I dabbed on some shimmery purple and black paint along his back, you know how crows and ravens have those blue-black feathers. His feet were fun to make, out of copper wire and then wrapped with DMC floss. I was going to paint his toenails black but decided the copper gave them a bit of punch. His funny smile was lined with beads for additional glimmer. Oh how I love this fella ! I finished him off by sewing on a simple safety pin. He is puffy and is meant to 'stand out' from wherever you pin him, not flat at all !

Oh, the glittery black fabric came from my garbage bag of fabric scraps. This particular piece belonged to my dear friend Kris.

Funny how you think you don't want certain things ( like fabric scraps ) and then a couple of years later you're so glad you kept them !

I look forward to making more crows for you :) Why not pop over and check him out in my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25142810

Now it's time for me to get cracking on Christians printed tshirt. We're going to Video Games Live on Thurs. and he wants a Resident Evil shirt. I'll post pics. of it later :)

♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥

Upcoming Felt Thing :)

2009-05-12T17:27:00.003-07:00

Can you guess what this is ? Hint: it flies :) I had this piece of glittery black fabric and am simply handsewing it by sight only --meaning, no drawn picture to follow. So hopefully it will turn out the way I see it in my head.

And here are the last of the Spring blossoms. They came with the house when we bought it last Sept. Not my personal choice of color but they still look rather pretty and I love the smell of tulips. The wee 'tree-bush' is a great spot for hummingbirds, they rest there and then fly over to our feeder on our deck.

Now on to the Summer stuff, woohoo ! Oh what should I plant there ?

Finally Listed These 2 New Brooches :)

2009-05-11T16:08:00.003-07:00

These felt brooches have been a hoot to make ! The first one is called Popeye the Pink Bunny, a whimsical and shabby wee pink felt bunny dude. His eyes and nose are vintage, glitter on his mouth and he sports a tiny red heart brad ( which can easily be removed if you want ). I named him Popeye because of the way I attached his eyes. Instead of poking the floss through to the back of the brooch, I decided to attach them in a shabby fashion, wrapping the thread around the base a couple of times so the eyes would stand (pop) out.

The 2nd. brooch, called Bliss, is a crazy mix of colors and beads and all started when I noticed the Bliss sticker in a package of K&Company stickers I'd purchased from Michaels.
To attach the sticker to the felt, I just stuck it on and then hand sewed the edging with beads and sequins. A vintage earring ( bottom right ) was glued to the corner and attached with more handsewn beads, including a vintage shimmery pink swarovski rivoli. There are other vintage attachments, edging was painted with Lumiere and the entire piece was handsewn onto the vintage cardboard backing from a frame ( you can even hang it up by the metal triangel. Just have to gently pry it away from backing ). Oh yes, there's a bit of polyfill stuffing to give it more depth and pull away from the sharp frame corners.

I really enjoyed creating these brooches but I think I'll stick to making the shabby whimsical animal ones for now. The Bliss brooch and Magnificent Marilyn brooch are enough for now. I tend to go overboard at times instead of sticking with my first idea. Here it was to create small brooches and I end up with Bliss and Marilyn. That doesn't mean I won't make these kinds ever again, I just want to stick to things that are whimsical and small.

My next felt brooch...not yet sure, but it will be silly :)

Forgot to point out, the Bliss sticker was varnished twice and then covered with Triple Thick gloss gel to make the sticker 'bendy'. Of course, the brooch is not meant for wet weather because everything else is not sealed ( it could have been done but would have made the piece look plastic ).

Bliss on Felt....

2009-05-07T13:36:00.004-07:00

What I've been working on today. At first it was going to be put into a double frame, the other frame would house a stitched happy-looking person. But as I kept on stitching I thought it would look much nicer as a brooch, why not wear your bliss for all to see...? :)

The 'Bliss' embellishment is actually a sticker which I then sewed onto some plain white felt. On the bottom right corner is a vintage earring.

I'm now just waiting for the paint to dry before I finish it off with a few more bobbles and then attach it to a padded vintage photo insert-stand-turned brooch.

Felt !!

2009-05-06T17:45:00.004-07:00

Well here you go ! I have a new love ( again ), it's felt ! I stumbled across some felt brooches awhile back on Etsy and just loved the way the creators used vibrant colors, the way their items almost screamed FUN ! So slowly I thought that maybe I'd eventually like to try it out.

Here is my very first felt item, in Marilyn :) Now I've never been a big fan of Miss M.M. but her image is so popular, and you can have fun with it too.

The image is a print which I decoupaged onto cardboard and then hand sewed onto the lovely pink felt. Of course Miss M. had to have her dose of stars and shimmery beads, plus a necklace with her very own chandelier crystal :) I used DMC black thread and stretchy metallic silver thread.
She was finished with another backing of pink felt and a simple brooch back ( the kind that you flip to open/close ).

The last thing I need to do is wear her around the house, just to make sure she sits properly without twisting, etc... And then into my Etsy shop she goes !

Oh I forgot to mention her size: she's a whopper at 7.5" long and 5" across ! Not for the shy type.
Took just over 3 hours to make.

Thanks for all your wonderfully 'charming' comments :)

2009-04-29T15:32:00.002-07:00

Wasn't the International Charm Day FUN ?! And thank-you all for such wonderful comments, they really keep me inspired ( and you know we all need to keep that inspiration up there ! )

I'll be posting Carols charm prize later this week. I was hoping to get it out today but yesterday I made the mistake of drinking 2 cups of my husbands coffee early morning. Throughout the day I just was not feeling 'right', it felt like my insides were having a revolt to me drinking coffee ( I'm a huge tea drinker ) and there were several boxing matches going on in my stomach and bones. By the evening I was one boneless headachey and very tired person. Weird ! I just got dressed today around 2 p.m. but feel like taking a nap. Thank goodness the boxing match has ended but now I feel all creaky. Looks like I need to take in even more water and flush all the crap out.

Okay, so there's my health for you today :)

Once I'm back to bouncing around I will be listing more Charmblies in my shop ( using some of the charms you saw yesterday ) AND I've been thinking about listing photo art cards too.

I enjoy taking photos and creating collages and have seen many wonderful art cards on Etsy. I first need to figure the costs of printing my own, where to find good quality card stock ( maybe Michaels ? But I'm sure I could find similar somewhere else for less ) and envelopes. They will be blank, I don't want to get too complicated with these. How does a 5 pack of cards sound ? $10 a pack ?
No harm in trying right ? I've been changing my Etsy shop, getting rid of the large complicated items, you know the ones.....they take weeks to make and either never sell ( because your price isn't what the buyer wants to pay ) or they sell much less than what you'd like, or they only sell when they go on sale ! Too much stress thank-you very much. So I'm sticking with small items, things that have similar shipping costs, etc....and so far they've been so much fun !

Well I have to stop writing, going to take a nap ( not a nap taker ).

Oh, the photo above is an altered one of a beautiful path my family and I found just a short distance from our area. I call it 'Solitude'

Winner of my Altered Art Playing Card Charm is.....

2009-04-28T15:01:00.003-07:00

And the winner of my playing card charm is.......drum roll please...............

CAROL !! Woohoo, clap clap, cheer cheer :)

CAROL, I will contact you via your profile and/or blog. I just need your address and away it goes. Congratulations Carol. This was fun ! And thank-you to all the other participants. I'll do this again, so come on back :)

Showing off some charms today --a long post !

2009-04-28T10:31:00.008-07:00

It's INTERNATIONAL CHARM DAY TODAY ! A big THANK-YOU to Amber Dawn of Inventive Soul for starting this fun event ( you can click on her link in the links list, or click on the Charm Day image upper right ). Hopefully it will become a yearly event too :)

So okay, I'm off to a slow start. It's 10:33 a.m. as I write this, been feeling just a wee bit under the weather but nothing that a good hot cup of tea won't cure.

Let's first start off with the charm I'm offering as a prize, woohoo ! I posted it yesterday too, and all you have to do is leave a comment either on the post below or on this one. When our son comes home from school today ( around 2:40 ), I will get him to pick a name ( names will be on paper and placed in a bowl ). The winner will be announced here in a new blog post, so check back by 3 p.m. ( pacific time ) to see if you're the lucky recipient of this fun charm !

These are Scrabble charms using actual vintage Scrabble tiles I found at a flea market several years ago. Last year I was all 'gung-ho' about starting my own style of Scrabble tile charms on Etsy, but it didn't last long because I just got bored. Yup, bored. As much as I love working in small format, these proved to be a bit too small for my liking. So I pulled them out of my shop and have decided to use them in other ways.

On these tiles I used a variety of items, from stars, to lace to vintage 1950's Popular Science magazines. The bales are handmade from sterling silver wire and then glued ( E6000 ) to back. Some tiles have a layer of Triple Thick gel gloss, others were sealed with a ployurethane varnish.

This goofy fun charm was a test. I had this acrylic chandelier pendant just hanging around and wanted to see how well it would accept an ink jet copy of part of one of my vintage valentines. But before I glued on the image ( using Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Glue ), I first glued on individual letters from a vintage dictionary, spelling out 'That's a spicy meatball'. Then I glued on the image and waited. Well, for some unknown reason the image peeled off after 2 days of drying ! The letters stayed firm. I decided to reglue the image ( same glue ) and waited about 4 days. This time it stayed stuck and I then dabbed some orange and pink glitter around the edges, painted back of crystal with Halo Gold Lumiere paint and sealed the back, really well, with polyurethane varnish. It's now been a couple of months and so far nothing has come loose, phew !

The other 'charms' you see were my attempt at Sculpey mini-foods. I've made several cupcakes using various beads, glitter, etc...a couple of donuts and my most fav. piece: a chocolate covered cherry ! The heart was just something random, mixing glitter into the clay and sprinkling on top before baking. And to let you know, I first tried pushing in hardware hooks but soon switched to homemade hooks. The hardware ones would split the clay, you can just make out a split on the donut.

Here is another test charm, using a vintage Buss Fuses container ( about 2" long and 1.5" wide ). I found it in my dear dads pile of woodshop junk and fell in love with its possibilities. There were a couple of fuses left so I took one, along with glitter and stars, layered it inside the clear plastic fuse case and covered all with a big dose of Triple Thick Gloss gel. The handmade copper bale was attached via two small drilled holes and glued with E6000.

Well, unfortunately I'm not super fond of this charm. I was hoping the glitter would be much glitterier and the fuse a bit more obvious. Plus, the coloring on the plastic stars began to come off and seep into the gel. Sigh. Oh well, it was a test piece and I can always remove the Buss Fuses box and use somewhere else. For now I may still wear as a charm but add some other funky charms along with it.

This is one of my favorite charms ! I should have taken a before shot of this pendant, darn :P
It started off as a plain clear glass 'intaglio' ( I believe that is what the cameo is, carved into the glass from the back ), the surrounding was a dull silver colored filigree metal. The cameo was quite easy to remove simply by rasing the prongs. My dear friend gave me some purple silk which I had to use on this cameo ! But first I glued some golden stars around the cameo edge, along with glitter of course, and then glued the fabric over the back. Once fully dry I sealed the back with several layers of varnish to 'tighten up' the fabric. The silver colored filigree surround was painted with Lumiere paint ( a rich gold purple ) and then I hand sewed a variety of beads and plastic stars, sealing with more varnish and finishing with a lovely rich purple metal rose. I just LOVE this charm !! If I could find more I would be in heaven :) I'm not a sewer, but sitting there, sewing on those beads, etc...was so very relaxing, and seeing it come together so prettily WHILE I was sewing, what a thrill !
I am contemplating whether or not to sell one of my Charmblies with this charm ( a Charmbly is a whimsical paper dolly that comes with it's own charm, in my Etsy shop ). If I come across more 'sewable' pendants like this, then I'll go for it. For now it's mine :)

These fun charms will soon grace my Charmblies in my Etsy shop.
--'Be the author of your own love story' was made with Scrabble tiles and using faux gems, pink bugle beads, a wee bit of pink glitter, paper, heart charm and words from some vintage book ( don't remember which one ).
--'I am' was created on the backside of a plastic eyeglass lens, using vintage 'magic numbers' paper ( it came from my 1970's Magic Hat toy ), the eye came from a vintage advert. about hypnosis, the word 'am' also vintage paper and the red 'burst effect' from a bag of super fun paper cutouts I found at Michaels ( sometimes they do have fun stuff ! ). Edged with black paint and sealed on the back. Not yet complete, I may add other smaller charms to it.
--'Marilyn' was one of those 'let's see how fast I can make a charm' challenges ( just a personal thing I like to do ). I think Marilyn was created in an hour. Her image was slightly altered to give her pink hair ( a light wash of watered down paint ) and then faux pink gems attached. I glued her to some recycled cereal box, added pink glitter and handsewed some thick pink thread around the edges. A pink anodized jump ring hangs from the thread and below dangles a plastic 'lucite style' heart on which I used a pink Zig marker on one side only ( really makes the pink POp ! ). Marker was covered with a coating of Triple Thick. Charm was finished with a rather wonky looking large pink eyelet ( I do okay with small ones but these large ones never work out properly for me, they always get that raised edge. Is that normal ? ) and handmade wire 'jump ring'. Oh, forgot to mention the cereal box back was covered with pink plum blossom paper. FuN !

Finally, these are shrinky dink charms I made from a computer collage using some of my own photos and collected images. You can see my original shrink plastic collage pendant ( with these images ) in my Etsy shop, it's called 'getting to the other side'. These two future charms ended up being too small for my liking ( wasgoing to use individually ) so I may create soome kind of fun dangly thing with both of them.

Hopefull you can click to enlarge these pictures. If they are clickable but look the same size, sometimes you can make them larger by clicking the zoom button on your monitor. Look for a small magnifying glass image on the bottom right, it will say 100% next to it. Click on it and you can enlarge the picture 125% or 150%. And as always, photos don't do any justice, these creations look much more awesome when in 3d :)

Wow ! There you go ! I'm tempted to post more charm pics., maybe when I post the winner of the playing card charm later this afternoon.

I hope you enjoyed going through my wee stash 'o charms and their descriptions, maybe they inspired you to make more of your own charms or start your first one.....? Would love to see a pic. if you do feel like creating :)

So HAPPY CHARM DAY EVERYONE !!!!!

---now go and leave a comment so I can put your name in to win my playing card charm :)

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

A birthmom, a nest and a charm to win !

2009-04-27T13:44:00.010-07:00

I am thrilled to show off my birthmom to you :) We had our first meeting last Thursday on a lovely sunny day at Island View Beach ( in Saanichton British Columbia ). We sat, gabbed and ate lunch munchies on a log from noon until just after 5, boy was me bum tender ! Then Judy came back home with me where she got to meet my husband Jacques and our son Christian :) It was all so very wonderful, lots of smiling and laughing.
Of course I couldn't help but wonder what similarities we had. Judy enjoys whimsy, crows and ravens, among many other things.
Although I will always love my quiet time, I do look forward to her and I becoming good friends :) I believe my dear mom and dad, now both passed, have had a spiritual helping hand in this meeting and that of my birthfather. It's rather amazing that in less than a year I've been reunited with both of them !!

This perfectly made robins nest was found in our large cedar tree that grows in front of our living room window. Photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. My husband has since taken another photo a couple of days ago, the nest was housing 1 brand new baby robin and 2 robin eggs. I'll get the photo up asap !

*♥*♥*Okay folks ! Here is one of my charms I'm previewing the day before CHARM DAY APRIL 28th !*♥*♥* AND YOU COULD WIN IT !! Please see my last blog about this special fun day or click on the link to your top right.

This charm was made in 2006, using a playing card, wire, broken jewellery bits, faux gems and shell-like 'chips' ( or teeth is what I call them ), along with dabs of paint. The card was attached to the back of some peel and stick floor tile ( remnants from when I was a teenager back in the '80's and wanted to move downstairs. My dear dad created a black and white checkerboard floor for me ).
This is definately considered an 'altered art' charm because of 'altering' the playing card into something other than it's normal use. It's 6" long and 3" wide with the wire. Make a necklace, hang in your window, turn into a magnet, whatever you wish :)

Would you like to win this charm ? All you need to do is leave a wee comment on either this post or tomorrows post. When our son comes home from school Tuesday afternoon, I'll get him to draw a name from a dish. Good luck !!

Come and play on Charm Day April 28th !!

2009-04-20T12:42:00.006-07:00

I'm so excited to be a part of this fun day !!

Amber Dawn of Inventive Soul is hosting a charm day on April 28th. Please join in and share your delicious charms !

Here is her posting:

If you would like to participate in my celebration of 4/28 as International Charm day, please become a follower on the blog I am setting up for this event-

http://www.internationalcharmday.blogspot.com/

I'll be giving away some amazing prizes to those who follow the event.
I am also looking for artists, crafters and designers who would like me to list them as participants on the side bar.
Do you have a discount to offer on materials to make charms?I will advertise you!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Do you have charm jewelry that you've made that you would like to share picture of?
How about things around your house that you have embellished with charms?
Do you have a charm making tutorial that you would like to share and be featured?
Let me know!
:o)
Thank you!
Amber

Posted some very important letters today...

2009-04-14T14:19:00.003-07:00

No fun or fancy pictures today. I don't know if I could even create art right now, my insides are quite shaky.

A few days ago I typed out a 7 page letter to my birth-mother, or at least, to two of her family members.
One of them lived in her childhood home but it has recently gone on the market and this person has moved, tho not too far away.
So I printed out 2 letters along with some photos of my parents and me, included the birth registration sheet and an advert for their parents 50th anniversary.
They were mailed early this afternoon and could be in their hands by tomorrow !!! Oh just typing that got me all shaky again lol !

It was 42 years ago on March 14th. 1967 when I was born and then adopted out by December.
My original name was Virginia Grove R. ( keeping back last name for their privacy, unless they say it's okay to post ).

I've had nothing but positive thoughts for the birth parents --but it did take me a long time to get used to saying birth 'mom' and birth 'dad', because I only had one mom and dad, the ones who adopted me. I'm sure you can understand that.

For years i imagined them walking the streets of Victoria, maybe living nearby, maybe even passing them. Then I found out my birthfather was raised in Ottawa. Well, I admit it kinda took the wind from my sails, all these years thinking he was here :P But there's still the birthmom. It scares me a bit that I've had no luck finding much of anything about her, but I'll keep thinking good thoughts.

Over the years there have been things that would make me think of them, especially the birth mom. Like: why do I feel sad/strange when I hear a certain Doors song ? Why do I love really windy days ? Why do I prefer more ethnic type foods ( sushi, sashimi, curries, roti, etc...) ? Why do I have such a deep love for ravens ? Why do I think that people who smoke pot are failing themselves instead of using the power of their brain ?
Of course it could all just be me and how my eyes, ears, heart and soul have ingested life...but maybe there might be a connection ? Maybe, when I was in the womb, I heard things, felt things ?
I am quietly hoping some of those questions will be answered. Then again, maybe her family won't want anything to do with me at all ? That would be sad.

If there's a possibility that one of the family members is reading this, then please know this: I keep to myself a lot, it just came naturally growing up an only child. I'm not much of a letter writer, nor do I make many phone calls ( just ask my birthfather ha ! ). So if you have any concerns about me 'bothering' you, you have no fear at all :) But, if we do meet then be prepared for lots of questions ! It's to be expected ---and I'm normally a quiet person too !
I just have these likes and dislikes, little things, little quirks, are they all mine or is there a connection ? Do I do something that maybe the grandparents did ? I drives me a little crazy not knowing, like having a see through wall built. You know they're there but you can't talk with them and can't break through the wall.

Okay, enough of my pining. It's time to see our son home from school and off to do some errands.

I'll keep y'all posted !! Think happy positive thoughts please :)♥♥♥

Free images woohoo !

2009-04-09T13:56:00.010-07:00

I've been going through a bunch of my mom and dads stuff and decided to share a few of the vintage paper things I found :)

These can be used however you wish. If you use them in your art then I would love it if you could send me a link so I can see your finished creation, oh pretty please :D

I've also posted these on Flickr.
---------------------------------

Found this many years ago in one of my dads military lockers ( rectangular metal chest ). I think it belonged to one of his friends who had moved to Calgary Alberta Canada

A wonderful humorous anniversary card from my dad to mom. My heart feels a bit heavy when I see these type of vintage cards because my dear mom threw away an entire garbage bag of them several years ago ( a couple years after dads passing ). I managed to salvage some but I'm sure there were plenty more of these rare beauties gone to rot. They sure don't make them like they used too !

Get well card from one of mom and dads friends

Wonderful RENO postcard ! Stamped 1953 on the back !!

The back. And remember...only YOU can prevent forest fires !

Right click on the image and then click 'Save image as'. Or, I think you can click to enlarge. Please let me know if the click to enlarge does not work for you, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, grrrr.

New ACEO on a Beautiful Day

2009-04-06T14:35:00.004-07:00

Hello again :)

It is a gorgeous day here in Brentwood Bay British Columbia. The sun has been shining warmly, the birds are tweeting everywhere, there's a gentle breeeze, ahhhhhh. I send warm rays to those who are still having to endure snow !

And here's a couple pics. of my first planters. They were made last week and are not only pretty to look at, but wrap the brain in a happy blanket :)

A few of my fav. flowers, violas, pink roses, hyacinths, carnations and even grasses. There's also a little fairy enjoying the view, and a few pieces of vintage beach glass:

This golden pot holds more violas, a funky glass globe, a wonderful twisted piece of beach wood and a glittery blue piece of broken fake carnival glass:

And here is my new ACEO of the day, called 'Fly My Love'. It's all about letting go of those you love, so they can grow into their own beautiful self.

Our son is 13, and already in the last few months since his birthday, I've noticed subtle changes in him and have had to adapt and learn to let go some of those things he once enjoyed as a child. It's a little sad but we are so excited for his future.

He still enjoys having mom and dad put him to bed tho, still enjoys the tickle fights and wrestling with dad.

So this ACEO uses my markers again but now I've added some paints --my fav. being the Halo Pink by Lumiere, love the glow it gives ! The bird is a rub-on by K&Company. Finished off with aurora borealis-style gemstones. It hasn't been decoupaged to the box backing yet, will get that done shortly and have it listed in an hour or so ( been a beautiful day but I've been sneezing up a storm, must be from all the new blooms and the ground drying out, so working has been a stop-sneeze-sneeze-sneeze-paint-stop-sneeze-sneeze-sneeze day lol ! ).

I hope you like my ACEOs :)

Doodles to ACEOs, I've got the fever !

2009-04-03T20:57:00.003-07:00

Hello everyone :) May I suggest you DON'T overindulge on Smokehouse Almonds ? I had a few too many on Wed. and my oh my, Thursday morning 6 a.m. came super fast and I was sick all day, blech ! I'm guessing my body couldn't handle all the salt and that I was bad and didn't drink any water. It was quite a gross feeling but I'm back to feeling about 98% normal ( the tummy is still making a few weird gurgly noises but thankfully that's all it's doing ).

Anyhooo, thought I'd show off what I've been doing the last few days. You've already seen my 'doodling' in the previous post and I'm showing them off again. I've decided they look more like ACEOs than doodles and have changed the section in my Etsy shop from Little Doodles to ACEO Doodles ( or something like that ).

And there's another one here that is unfinished, called 'Fly My Love'. For this one I'm going a little further than my markers and adding a touch of acrylic paint with a wash effect. It should be done by Monday ( weekends are for the family ).

Pricing these little art pieces is difficult. And that I am not one of those artists who can paint lifelike or has art certificates/awards on my walls, well, confidance needs to kick in big time. Oh sure, the people/animals I draw have a very juvenile look but that is the way they come out for me.

It's all about the fun tho, the colors, the energy they create. Just like my Charmblies and shrink collages, they are made with joy, with life, and more will be gracing my Etsy shop :)

A Doodley Doo Con Con Con Kachoo !

2009-04-01T00:34:00.004-07:00

Alrighty then ! Feelin a bit weird today, the moon maybe ? Or it just might be because I am who I am, kinda weird, kinda goofy and every now and again I want to shout it out, WHOOT !!

So today I added another 'section' in my Etsy shop. This one is named Little Doodles.

Ever since i can remember I've always loved colors, paint, markers, pencil crayons, etc...and over the years the desire to paint has grown stronger and stronger. BUT, and tell me if you are the same way, when I do get the necessary drawing tools ready, the fresh sheet of paper or canvas in front of me...I blank.

You see, I have a very active and colorful imagination. I see glorious swirls, birdies,clouds,blooming trees,tall buildings, and so on..but trying to paint them the way I see them in my mind...nope, doesn't happen. My hand gets heavy and instead of gracious delicate lines, thick blobby things come out.

Oh I've tried, but either my patience wears out, or I get bored quickly, or my mind wanders.

Soooo, I thought of what else I enjoy doing with paints, markers, etc...Doodling ! It's relatively fast and whatever comes out of my head does not need to be 'perfect'. Plus, I can make small doodles or big ones.

Of course I won't give up trying to paint what I see in my head...but for now I just like the ease of doodles, of simple swirls and lots of colors with markers and ball point ink.

And that's why I have a 'little doodles' section in my Etsy shop.

I listed this silly doodle today. Called 'Play With Me', it features a pen 'happy monster' and doggy with ZIG marker background ( see my goofy looking blue bird lol ! ) and a piece of newspaper.

Decoupaged onto a piece of recycled cereal box. Sealed with proper acid free, uv protectant sealer. Plain silly fun !

Tomorrow ( well, tomorrow is actually today. It's no longer Tuesday but almost 1 a.m. Wednesday ), I'll be listing another doodle which is a wee bit more colorful and romantic. Called 'My Heart is Yours', it uses ZIG markers, glitter gel pens, ball point and a few faux rhinestones stuck on. And yeh, I'm another of those artists that can't draw hands ! And that's okay, so there :P

I hope you find my doodles 'likeable'. Each one is considered ooak ( one of a kind ) because I am selling the original, no prints, and prices for them will be reasonable. They're all meant to be fun, from my heart to your home :)♥

Spring Delights and My Fav. New Goodies

2009-03-28T22:48:00.003-07:00

I love Spring, especially when all the cherry blossoms appear and the birds are chirping crazily in the morning.

The other day I couldn't resist buying some of those colorful sugarry Easter treats, simply because they are so Springy ! And I made a couple of pictures for you to use. I dumped a bunch of the goodies onto one of my fav. tea saucers, and then sat it on top of my dear moms yellow with gold flecks murano dish, making it look like a nest. I then surrounded it with a pink gauzy curtain. It looked so pretty, but I had to play around with the coloring and ended up with these two sweet pics. Oh how I would LOVE to have a glass bowl in that shade of pinky-red !

Then I played around with the hue, etc...and ended up with this neat-o shot. Makes me think of creamsicles and blue jelly bears...

..and speaking of nest, I sat on top a wee button with a sweet image of 2 little birds. The button came from a bag of other birdy buttons created by Popalicioustoo <--go see their Etsy shop, lots of lovely delights :)

------------------------------------

And now for another of my fav. things:

I was in Michaels the other day and came across a display of utterly wonderful delights consisting of collage flowers, oriental lanterns, romantic gypsy-like stickers and more. These mouthwatering creations were made by K&CoMPANY, check out their lovely website.

Their products are sold for non-commercial use but they don't mind if you use one or two of their products for resale in limited quantity and must be personally made by you --go and check out their Consumer FAQ's for a full description.

The floral images are rub ons, the other packaged treats are stickers, YUMMY ! I'll be back for more !

ARTchix Bi-Weekly Lottery, yay !

2009-03-26T10:08:00.008-07:00

~Flights of Fantasy~

~ARTchix Yahoo group~

Here is my entry into the ARTchix Bi-Weekly Lottery, the theme is Fantasy Imagination ( right up my alley lol ! ).
The person to get picked wins all the other entrants lottery treasures, woohoo !

Flights of Fantasy was created on a section of Kraft Mac n Cheese box. Bird images are official ARTchix ( you usually have to have at least one ARTchix item used ) and one of the birds is holding a real crystal dangling heart. The lady was transformed into a pink fairy and finished with stars, glitter, gems, paint and shimmery bits. Fun !

( This piece is also going to star in one of my shrinky creations too. I hope it turns out the way I see it in my minds eye. So keep your eye on my Etsy shop, look for it under Collage Pendants )

~Helga Strauss is owner extraordinaire of ARTchix here on Vancouver Island. The shop is so wonderful and art from all around the globe adorns the walls ( makes me think of a candy shop ! ).
She also has a blog, My Artistic Life, which you can access via my blog links on the right ( opens in a new window ). You can get to her store via her blog or my Wonderful Shops, etc...list ( again on the right )

If you've ever wanted to try a swap,contest,etc...then there are plenty with ARTchix, and all so much fun !! **please note, for the Yahoo Group, they ask that any art you post use at least one ARTchix item.

I'm so happy to finally be participating again in contests and soon a swap or two or three or...lol :)

...and if you join the ARTchix Yahoo group, then drop us a line and say hi --you will definately get lots of welcome responses ! And the art there is divine ( including the artists ) :)

My Etsy Shop is On Vacation & Unsealed Shrinks...

2009-03-22T19:16:00.004-07:00

Well I already had a bit of a vaction with our son during Spring Break. But now I'm taking a small break from my Etsy shop. Why ? Simply because I need to fully concentrate on my shrink creations and Charmblies. By Friday I should have a nice handful of new treasures to list :)

My Etsy shop will be up and running again by Friday afternoon, with one or two more new goodies, woohoo !

Ever wanted to know what happens to an unsealed Shrinky Dink ?

I took two freshly made shrinks outside to seal with my fav. varnish. I did not realise there was a very fine spitting rain...some drops found my shrinks and that was the end of them. The water basically 'melts' the shrink ink, leaving a lovely waterspot for all to see. I took one shrink and wanted to see just how much the ink would smear...not a pretty result.
So there you go, seal your shrinks !! And make sure it's not raining, no matter how fine it might be :P
Didn't take long to make more :)

This is the one I smeared on purpose. It also left a small ridge around the smeared ink.

An arrow pointing to one of the rain drops

Creamed Soda and Collages....

2009-03-21T21:11:00.006-07:00

Yay it is finally Spring ! Today was quite sunny, so I poked my head outside and let the rays fall across my delighted face.

I had bought a bottle of Cream Soda for our son and his friend, meant to give it to them 2 days ago but had left it in the car trunk ! I remembered today :)
Now pop is not one of my fav. drinks, I'm more of a chocolate milk gal. But if I do want 'sugar water' then it's usually Cream Soda. It has that wonderful rich pinky-red coloring and reminds me of carnivals.

Here are a couple pics. you can use. One was shot while looking into the glass. The bubble blobs are from me trying to add cherry candy flavoring, just to see what would happen. Well the flavoring didn't mix in, but it smelled oh so wonderful and looked quite pretty floating on top.
The next image was taken simply because of the sun shining through the glass, love that color !

Woohoo, here are two of my computer created collages I've made into shrinky dink pendants. They're now in my Etsy shop along with 3 other collages. I'm having so much fun making these and can't wait for Monday to come so I can get more printed and baked.
Each collage uses images from my computer collection along with other items I've scanned into the computer --vintage papers, photos, 3-dimensional bits and pieces and more. Some collages also have my own photos.
They are all carefully created and meant to be dreamlike, whimsical or just plain weird lol !
I'm still wondering about the ballchain that comes with the pendant. Maybe I'll offer either a ballchain or a black satin slide knot necklace ( for those who have a chain of their own, are allergic to certain metals or just aren't into ballchains/cords ).

I hope you like my new pendants :) Thanks for stopping in ♥

How about a cupcake with free images ?

2009-03-15T16:39:00.007-07:00

Good day all ! Here are a few photos for you to use in your art or wherever. Clicking on them will take you a larger version --just right click and 'save as'. If you do use them in your art, then would you be so kind and post a link so I can see the finished product ? I love seeing what people do with images :)

It was my birthday on Saturday woohoo ! My dear husband, son and I decided to head out on a short road trip. The weather was a bit soggy so we only drove up to Duncan B.C. I was looking at the mountains and wondered aloud if we could find a road to drive up one of them. We ended up on a wonderful back road that felt like we'd gone back in time, some of the houses were so old looking and one in particular made me think of the Crooked Man Who Lived in a Crooked House. This house was literally 'tilting' in the front lol ! There were cracks, the paint was peeling, and earlier there was a little dog laying on the front step, wonderful !
Feel free to use this photo in your art. I know I will :)

Here's a shot of Duncan taken from Mt.Prevost. Of course everything looks so much farther away in real life. Free to use.

This shot was taken half way up the mountain. I love it's mystery, how there could be something hiding in there, looking out at us. Feel free to use in your art :)

And finally, I couldn't resist taking a shot of the rich cupcakes one of my dear friends brought over. Her outfit even matched lol ! The frosting was oh so thick and GOOD ! There's one left, on the counter, in my field of view, and I'm being a good girl to not eat it. My dear husband is taking a nap. I could take it and make up some excuse. Oh I won't, I'll just have one of the almond tarts leftover ;P

A Cake and a Collage...

2009-03-11T19:38:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I was feelin kinda blue, a rather horrid feeling which haunted me for several hours. All I wanted to do was shed my flabby skin and sink into a really big hot tub with a glass of wine.
Instead, I ended up making my birthday cake.....4 days early. I figured since my husband, son and I are heading up the island for that day ( Saturday ), then why not just bake it now and enjoy it over the next couple of days. LOL ! LOL ! Next couple of days, ya right LOL !

...the cake is gone....consumed...devoured.

Am i going to whine about it, about the calories and all ? Nope ! It's a birthday cake, and you should know that birthday cakes have no fat or calories whatsoever ;)

I didn't put any candles on it, just wanted to bake it, frost it and eat it. Oh, I was going for the Red Velvet look but did not realise that to obtain a really red looking cake, you need to use more than a few drops of red food coloring. DOH ! Of course, makes common sense ---but since I was feelin kinda blue I guess my brain took some time off.
ANYWAY, it's a choc. cake with cream cheese frosting, left white in the center and a rich bubblegum pink on top. Very YUMMYYY !! Did it make me feel less blue, you bet :)

Today I took a break from Charmbly making and decided to play around on the computer. So I made this collage fondly called Sara in Her Cotton Candy World. The background is from a photo I took a few years ago.
There's a farm out here with dozens of cherry blossom trees and wow does their property look gorgeous around May. I'm going to take more photos this year.
Hope you like my collage, I have plans to use it with my Charmblies. Will post the finished results later.