Getting my Hands Dirty

It has been a whirlwind around here.  Lots of fun and exciting things going on.  The kids had a week of fun days at school, including crazy sock day, crazy hair day, future career day and hat day.  It was a week of fun to honor Dr. Suess!  So we had fun being creative all week!

 My Little Pony Socks

 crazy socks

Crazy Hair, Julia had a faux hawk with buns, and collin wore a wig

Future Career Day

Julia as an artist and Collin as an explorer

Hat Day

Then the hubs and I got away to NY to visit friends and spend some time on their organic farm, just relaxing and with no kids in tow.  We also got to see Enter the Haggis while we were there, which is always a treat!  

On the way up to NY, I found out I would be doing a jewelry show the next Saturday (the North Penn Select Craft show).  It's quite a nice show, and I didn't want to miss the chance to participate.  I needed to create some sort of pipe and drape, since it was an indoor show, AND make jewelry, since I was low.  

I had a great time figuring out my booth and making lots of new jewelry.  My hands were dirty and happy as I worked antiqued copper and soldered silver.

Thank goodness I had an old pipe style tent to work with.  There were size constraints, so it was a bit rigged.  Here it is in my family room being worked on

And here it was at the show.  I was really happy it all came together nicely.

Here are some of the new pieces I made for the show

 I didn't get a good pic of the finished bracelets.  I made a ton of them!  Oh my dirty sore fingers!

This pieces is sterling silver, crystal, polymer clay, fossils, bezels, pyrite, rutilated quartz.....its a show stopper!

This piece below is rockin' copper choker with ceramic, bronze, kyanite, 2 pieces of leeland blue!!!!, and turquoise (ceramic by marsha neal, bronze by me)

More polymer clay, ceramic and stone

I made more but just didn't get pics of everything due to time contraints.

My oldest son, Aiden, came to the rescue and helped me all day at the show.  My hubs and I had tickets, again, to see Enter the Haggis that night in Philly, and we had to get out of the show ASAP when it was over.  

We kicked butt with a 1/2 hour tear down and load.  I ran home, changed and was right back out the door.  Aiden and I also had a great time laughing and hanging out all day.

And got to see these guys again!!!!

These guys are just an amazing group to witness live.  They cross genre's, and have a wonderfully diverse following of people who just appreciate wonderfully written and executed music!  (they are extremely nice people too!)

Check out their Facebook page, and go and see them if you can!

https://www.facebook.com/enterthehaggis/?fref=ts

or you can just listen here to their newest release Mrs. Elliot here

Turn it up, cause its good!

http://www.enterthehaggis.com/

Yesterday I recovered.  I ran non stop for two weeks!  Oh yeah, we had our tax appointment in there too!  (both self employed).  

My kids and the dogs were all feeling the stress of the busy weeks and time away.  So yesterday after lots of snuggles and hugs, my Julia and I spent hours painting and she learned some new techniques to add to paintings.  She learned to start on the background first, we talked about varying shades, and blending colors.  She learned to stencil.  And she painted her own Pony on top so it would POP off the background.  She was hesitant to go in the order I was telling her, but she did it and now she is really proud.  I love that she got to work through the process of a painting start to finish, so she could see that it doesn't always look how it will in the end when you start, or are even in the middle.  

 (Julia loves My Little Ponies and draws her own versions endlessly.  She has made pony versions of all her friend and family too!!!)

I feel so refreshed after so much creative time, time spent around other amazing artists, time with friends we only see once or twice a year, time enjoying music I love and time with the family.  Now, I MUST finish a class, and prep for my April Bead Fest classes as well.

Have you signed up? Carving is going to be SOOOO FUN!

http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/content/teaching

Thank you to everyone who participated in my destash event as well.  You guys are awesome!  Hopefully I will get to make some more beads in the next few weeks as well and have a HUGE sale!  I will also be bringing beads to sell during my class at Beadfest.  I hope to see you there!