On A Roll Now!

I am on a roll with the necklace pendants, fact is- it goes very quick! I have one more batch to finish up today and then I am going to focus my attention {if that is possible} to some stained glass things. My sweet friend Abby came over to play yesterday and made these 8 pendants! The ones that have the sorry excuse for soldering are attempts made by my friend Gail & I about 10 years ago when we had NO clue what flux even was {obviously!!}. I wanted to throw them away, but Abby saw a new life for them! Love how she used the wire on these lures.

Here are some of the ones that I finished up, and close ups of my favorites!

Well, I have a pretty good quantity of these, so like I said- moving on to stained glass things. Hopefully over the long weekend I can get lots done so that I have time to relax before my honeymoon next week!!!

"The Mermaid" ~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

I made this last night. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I love mermaids and the colors of the sea! I used one of the fairies I bought at a flea market and ripped off the skirt she had on and made a mermaid body & tail out of polymer clay. The first one caught on fire in the toaster oven! It smelled pretty bad! HA! So, the second tail turned out better- at least not burnt!


I still have more ideas for frames and jewelry that I am working on for the craft show. It's all about spare time and lack of it! I have less than a month to get ready for the show, it's June 14th. I feel behind right now, but I know that I'll be good when the time comes. I am going to be doing more stained glass things as well! Man, I just got tired thinking of all the stuff I have to do. But for right now, I have to get back to real work!!! Bye!

Another One Finished!

Here is another frame I made for 'The Nanny Girl Collection'. I am not going to put these in the Etsy shop yet, I will wait until after the craft show I am doing in June. After that, anything that is left will be listed on there. I have a couple more started, too. Lots of ideas, now I just need some time! Also, I am making some necklace pendants from the inspiration of this fine artist! I will not be selling these online, simply because it was not my original idea. Although I changed the main piece by using fishing lure parts rather than spoons, I am not going to 'copy' her idea then sell it online, I have seen it done and think it is very tasteless. I think it is something that will be small & fun & inexpensive for a local craft show, though. And whatever is left, well- look out family & friends, these might turn into Christmas and birthday gifts!!

Hope you all are having a good day. Back to work...

The Nanny Girl Collection

I am going to do a series of these stained glass collage art for part of a local craft show that I am going to be doing next month. I am calling them 'The Nanny Girl Collection' after my Nanny {my great-grandma}! This picture is her when she was about 4, I would guess. Doesn't she look miserable!?! I love it. It reminds me so much of her, always grouchy & ever so sassy. She would be so pissed if she ever knew I was using her picture in my art, oh man!! I like to think she would be a little proud, though. Secretly. She would never admit it. HA!

Anyway, here's the first one, The Lip Gloss Fairy. I have to admit, I had quite a problem a few years back. Quite a terrible addiction, actually. I would have bought every tube of lip gloss the store had to offer back then. Good thing I am over that- all that buying stuff I don't need...

Hope you all have a good night!

I am SO Spoiled...

What a great Mothers Day weekend I had! It started off on Thursday when Jake, Zoey & I headed back to Akron to visit my family. One of my best friends and I got to go get coffee and thrift store shopping {without the kids!} on Friday and that was followed up by a big cookout at my moms house. Only one of my brothers couldn't make it, so there were what, like 18 of us? Something like that. Then Saturday, my sister and I headed to the Flea Market...then I went to a baby shower for another friend, then got to play with my momma a bit & we took the kids to my grandmas and to my brothers for a visit. Then some pizza from the ole' stomping grounds, then I made a couple little gifts...

Sunday, we got up early and headed back home for my mother-in-law and Scott's grandparents to visit! They drove over for the day to spend it with us, and we had such a wonderful day! Too bad the weather sucked... Here are some of the goodies involved in this weekend!

You have to LOVE it when you send your husband an email with a link and all I say is "I want this" and this is what I get!! Thank you honey, I love it SO SO SO much!!! This beauty is what he bought me along with flowers all over the house! He bought it over at Krisin Hubick's site Retro Cafe Art. Love her stuff, very inspirational. So inspirational, in fact, that I needed to try this. I made this necklace for my mother-in-law.

The stones are the birthstones of her 5 grandchildren. She loved it, and I loved making her something that I knew she really appreciated. While I was at it, I made one {another one} for myself because 1.) a girl can NEVER have too many necklaces- and 2.) I just wanted to try it again! This is a pin that Andrea gave to me and I love it as a pendant!

Here is a beautiful pink hydrangea that Scott's mom brought for me. Honestly, I watered it right after I took this picture!! I don't have the greenest thumb {I get that from my mom!} We will plant that out front as soon as those painters are done!

And how about this as a fantastic surprise!!! I work for my brother-in-law, Wayne and Scott's cousin, Josh- and those two sent me this amazing Edible Arrangement for mothers day. Let me tell you that I have never gotten anything like this before, and I just LOVE it! Great job, guys {I mean Wayne, I know it was all you}!! Check it out!

Here's a close up of those chocolate dipped strawberries!

So, that about bring this Mothers Day post to an end, but not without saying that you didn't see any pictures of what my mom got me, or what I got her and that is because we didn't get each other any gifts. We usually don't. My mom is my greatest friend, my stress reliever, my confidence booster, my advice giver, my shoulder to cry on, she is my everything. She is the person I love so much and strive to be like. She is my best friend, my worse critic {yes, you are}, she is my rock. Being able to spend time with each other is our gift to each other, and it's the best gift of all. Happy Mother's Day, mom. I love you.

Clothes for the Princess...

I LOVE so much that I have a daughter to dress in pretty things! Now, for those of you that know me, you for sure know that I am not that girly. No lace, no ruffles, and not too much pink. I am totally a blue/green/purple kind of girl! But, my daughter just looks so darn cute in pink, how can I resist not putting her in it? I can't really sew well. I am going to learn. One of these days. Here she is in a dress I made. Notice how remedial it is with all the seams sewn so they fray. Good thing I like that look!! The buttons & ribbon were fun.

Trust me when I say that I inherited ALL of my creativeness from both of my lovely grandmas and my awesome mama! I have many, many memories growing up of each one of them making something. My mom has always knitted, crocheted and sewn as long as I can remember. She even used to make my sister and I identical outfits for special occasions {I'll find the Easter dress picture & post it later, mom!} But, here is a sweater that she knitted for Zoey. We found the pattern at a local knitting store, you can find it here.

Sorry, mom, that is the best picture I could get! She doesn't hold still very long, this girl!

And finally, I did a swap a few weeks ago with the sweet Nathalie of Kennedy & Friends Co., man, does she make the cutest darn tutu's I have ever seen! Zoey's room is lavender with black furniture, so I ordered a wrought iron dress form to display her tutu when she isn't playing with it. So, So adorable it is, check her out!! Nathalie also has a great blog, lots of great kids clothing ideas happening over there!

So, that's all for now, I am heading out for the weekend {again}. This time I have the kids in tow and hubby gets the weekend to work on my bathroom! Have a great day, Lisa

Back from Art & Soul!

I got back home Monday afternoon, but haven't had time to post til today! It's crazy how much I work I have to catch up on just missing a couple days! Oh well, have it all under control and am finally ready to share my pictures of my 'The Girls Got Gothic' necklace! Sally Jean's class was great! Andrea and I actually had almost 9 hours straight of uninterrupted creating! We even worked through lunch and stayed a little later, but we BOTH finished!! Here are some pictures of what I made:

The picture I used for the Gothic arch is a picture of one of the stained glass windows in our house. This is the back of the Gothic arch:

I found the brass angel wings at Vendor Night and loved how they looked on the main piece after I covered them with solder.

This was such a nice weekend, I have never been on an art retreat before and Andrea & I both agree that we need to do this more often {our husbands think it's a good idea, too}!

Sally was a great instructor. I already know how to do soldering, but just watching her with her collage techniques was a lot of fun. She makes it all look so easy. I 'think' about it way too much and she just 'does' it. Check out her website if you haven't, she does amazing work. I'm so glad I got into her class this year and hopefully can do a two day "Tiara" workshop next year!

I also realized after this weekend that I need an apron, too! I ruin so many shirts & jeans with glue & paint, and have actually NEVER thought about an apron! I am on the hunt-

Here is a picture of Andrea & I with out necklaces on after our class. Excuse our hair, make-up & bags under our eyes, it was a busy weekend!

Have a great day~ Lisa