Birthdays

Today my daughter turned 9. so for the next month I have a 12 yr old, tow 9 yr olds and two 7 yr olds, none of them twins. My daughter and step son are exactly 11 months apart to the day, so for 1 month a year they are the same age. And my son and step daughter are just under 5 months apart, so they are the same age for 7 months a year.

I always make a special cake for the kids birthdays, and for todays I did a cute gummy bears at the beach scene/theme.

I cut out a section of the top cake layer and filled it with a mix of blue and green jello, and added gummy sharks. The floaty tubes are gummy peach rings and of course gummy bears. I used marzipan for the beach blankets, ball, sand pails and scoops. The sun shade is a small truffle paper on a toothpick with gummy pieces securing the cup. I used a tooth pick broken off to make the footprints in the sand. It was pretty fun to make, and the kids liked it too, jello AND cake!!

Tomorrow I take my first official polymer clay bead making class. Which is being  taught by my RL friend Elaine of   http://www.tooaquarius.com/ She has wanted to teach me for a few years, so this should be fun. Later in the week my 2 eldest daughters are taking classes from her as well on making critters. I may post about it tomorrow, IF I remember my camera. I am awful for forgetting it and wishing I had it.  I'll try to remember to put it in my back pack for tomorrow.
C'ya!

Bowl full O fun!

 

Last Month at a family reunion I went to the local farmers market. There I found a couple of women spinning wool yarn at their display. I spotted this gorgeous purple wool, and brought it home. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to make with it, it was just to gorgeous to leave there! After a couple weeks I decided to make a bowl with pulltabs, and expand my catalog of items I make with tabs. Perfect thing for the wool! So here is my first can tab bowl! I like how the verigation comes through in each row like I switched yarns. I think I might make a few more bowls, maybe slightly larger.

The second item I am chatting up is this fun pull tab purse. It's a custom order and each row is a different shade of green. I actually have over 16 different greens in my horde! Some shades are pretty similar, but side by side are different.  I tried making a button loop closure for under the flap, and I think it turned out pretty well ( small pic). I had my daughter model the bag for me, and you can see my messy studio in the background!

Anyway I am now making a blue bag in multiple shades, and after that I have a project to represent my hometown for a juried in art show this fall. I haven't done an "art" show before so this should be interesting to try!  More pics and progress when I complete them.

makin' stuff

I am still trying to create a little free-er, and more art inspired. This bracelet uses several fillet crocheted triangles in different sizes and metal colour, copper, gold, silver. Originally they were layered together as a pendant and earrings. I decided to attach them all together for this asymertical but geometric designed bracelet, after ripping apart a few older pieces that have been in my stock for a few years unsold. I kinda like this new design it's fun and funky and I hope this new direction will sell, time will tell right?

This is what the triangles  pendant and earrings looked like before. yeah my photography has improved a lot in that time too LOL!!

some of my new work is still similar but showing more of the crochet work, less simple chaining.

I am rather liking the lacy disks behind the beads look right now.

Currently I am working on a pull tab bowl using hand spun and dyed wool I got at a farmers market. I'll be sure to show that one off when I am done!

trying new things

I am planning to push my creative boundaries a little. I did my first freeform wire crochet last week while at my Tuesday Makers meeting. I must admit it was a bit daunting, having no idea what stitch was going in next or in what direction I should work. But it is a pretty artsy piece, I decided to add a chain and make it a bib necklace. Wearable art, I am sure someone out there will appreciate it, but I know it's not everyones taste. I might keep it too, but being me I'll have to make earrings too LOL!!

I was at the local art galleries summer salon show this Sat. And it occured to me that I really need to get myself into the fall/winter one. Wondering if I should just do my usual or make more artsy stuff for that. Maybe a bit of both. Hoping I get the time to make a new purse design I've been pondering too.

Well right now I need to concentrate on getting Adaira ready for diabetes camp and prepping for my parents 40th anniversary surprize party this weekend.  Should be a crazy week as usual!!

Family stuff

I have been rather busy with the family lately. My middle daughter Kaylens birthday is in Aug, so if she wants any friends to come to the party we have it in June. I always make the kids special home made cakes, and she wanted a flower garden with her name in roses and gummy worms all over. I have very little skill with icing technique. So I used skills learned from polymer clay sculpting that my friend Elaine of Tooaquarius taught me and used marzipan to which rose extract and red food colour was added. The girls liked it.

The same weekend there was a big annual Picnic in the Park, a family fun day, with games, food and live entertainment. My eldest daughter was a volunteer face painter and got to paint her littlest brothers face.

And the museum put on a mock trial and used volunteers from the audience.... yeah they picked me. I was told to improv my lines if I wanted, so I hammed it a bit. It was fun, and a nice end to the day.

Alyia, our youngest daughter had her friend birthday party this past weekend, she asked for a unicorn cake, which is much easier than the rose garden was!

And I leave you with the PS2 family airband, Kaylen is in the back on drums, Alyia is our lead singer, Braydon and Geran are our guitarists, Adaira isn't in the photo, I guess she must be the manager, LOL!! Note the rockin' PJs onstage!

I been blogged!

I just got a message that I have been blogged about! How cool is that? She has an awesome blog  going, and amusingly chose a lot of the pieces I have done with Elaines beads. I had no idea she was planning anything, so there's no interview, she just pulled info from my shop. Very nice surprize. I wonder if I should try to do a few artist interviews on here when I can't think of anything of interest to report. Ok here's a link for you to check it out:
http://vabeachquilter.blogspot.com/

Tab mania

I have been working on some interesting orders in the last few weeks.  The first is a large, large bag, about twice as long/deep as my usual bags, and it has a divider in the middle and 1 large pocket in each side. I used about 620 can tabs. My daughter at 5 ft 2 is my model.

The other project which is for the same customer is a tank top made of 744 can tabs. She wanted it unlined to wear over any other top. Luckily my daughter the model is the same size a ladies small. The top is a first for me, as far as can tab creations go. And humble as I sometimes am... I think it turned out really well!

The next item is a necklace I made for the creative challenge thread on artfire, the theme is/was wind. I used thicker wire to crochet the sodalite and blue lace agate into a bar, and then made a cute, whimsical red kite

to float into the sky. I may donate it to the kite festival this month.

So my next order is another black purse, I love the orders, but could wish they wanted some colour! after that I'm doing a green purse with all different shades of green, a nice change!