I hope everyone has had a wonderful 4th of July. It has been low key here. We just hung around the house. The weather has been weird dark all day and then raining in the afternoon and evening. Me, the hubs and the boys went to Goodwill last night. Our big venture out! lol Anyway, I found two brand new canson albums for $2.00 a piece and I also snagged an artist zine with printable clip art as well as a clay transfer book with clip art. They were like a buck a piece. My son needed speakers for a stereo that my sister gave him and he was able to get two nice ones. Once he found them he said “ok, I need to leave now, this place is weird. I got what I needed” lol while the youngest was busy digging in the bins and didn’t want to leave. My husband seemed to enjoy himself looking through the junk as well. I didn’t dare go over to the jewelry counter or I would have been there for an hour so I stuck to the craft section.

Here’s a picture of a page I did in my art journal today. It is of my Mom and Dad when they married in 1963. If my mom was still alive they would have just celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. My second oldest son (speaker boy) looks so much like my dad. I’ll have to post a picture of them together soon. Anyway here’s the journal page. I played with it in picassa and increased the saturation to make the colors pop.

I’ve also been knitting a lot. I love to knit but I can’t stand how long it takes to make something! I’m making a blanket and am determined to have it done by the fall. I’ve tried crocheting, which works up faster but I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I do ok with smaller pieces but not large. Knitting works so much better for me as I don’t drop stitches like I do in crocheting but knitting takes longer to see anything. Oh well, it’s a lesson in patience. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Here’s my first attempt at using 19 gage dark annealed steel wire. Deryn Mentock inspired me with her article in the spring 2008 Belle Armoire Jewelry Magazine to make collage pendants with old watches. She is an awesome jewelry artist and I love her work.  I’ve been wanting to try her style of wire wrapping but honestly have had a hard time following the directions to do it. I have a very difficult time following written directions. I’m more of a “show me” kind of girl so that is why I know I’d benefit from taking a class with Deryn. Maybe someday. Anyway, that is what I did. It took a bunch of tries and it isn’t the best but I think if I keep working at it I’ll get better. I wanted to share it with you, my cyber friends who encourage me and give me feedback. I’ll post more as I work at it.

I just got this yesterday in the mail, Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino. I love their no fuss art journaling style. My next purchase is going to have to be their newest book Journal Revolution. So here’s what I did in my journal today. I took Max to see Kung Fu Panda and here’s my page in honor of our first movie for this summer.


I can’t remember where I got the Asian papers and things but the envelope was a perfect hiding spot for the ticket stubs. I snagged Po from Kung Fu Panda from a Happy Meal box that Max got the other day. I inked the background in Distress Ink and stamped a dragon and other stamp around.
I’m still trying to work with the dark annealed wire I purchased the other day. I think it’s something I just have to keep working on and I will share as I go along. Have a great weekend!!!!!

The charm on the left is something I just completed. It needs a chain or ribbon. The one on the right is something I finished a few weeks ago. I miss being creative so badly. I just picked up some dark annealed wire from the hardware store. Deryn Mentock (Something Sublime) makes beautiful reliquaries, jewelry and collage art and uses that wire to make her links and other things. Love her stuff, you must check out her blog in my favorites. I wish she’d publish a book and would love to take a class with her. Her article in Belle Armoire Jewelry was the inspiration for the watch collage charms I have been making. When I have something to share with the new wire I’ll post it here. Have a great week everyone. I’m off to a water park tomorrow with my kids and their youth group. I love water parks and especially like the wave pools. I’ll try to post pictures when I come back.

Our township pool has had a total makeover and is like a mini water park. I thought I’d share some pictures from our afternoon at the pool today. My youngest son was so cute as he said while he was munching on a snack he said “This is the life!” I even went down the slides a couple of times. All this for $260 for a family for the summer. It’s gorgeous. There’s a hydrotherapy section for adults only. Max has called it the hypnotherapy pool, the hyper therapy pool and the psychotherapy pool. He’s 8 and still mixes up words sometimes. lol I didn’t get pictures of everything today but there’s also a lazy river and a large play area for babies and toddlers plus a separate lap pool. I’m more excited then a little kid.

First of all I’m glad to be back to blog land! It’s been a roller coater to say the least! I think I’ve mentioned before that I have had some health issues lately. I’m starting to finally feel better. Hallelujah! But I am getting ahead of myself. My son graduated last Wednesday! What a relief! He was biting his nails, we (hubby and I) were biting our nails but he did it! He graduated with over 1100 kids. Yes, he graduated with 1,137 kids. It was really difficult getting good pictures during the ceremony so I’m caving in and buying some from the photographer they hired and I’m thinking about getting a dvd of the graduation. It was so overwhelming…..bitter sweet….so happy that he made it but so sad that my baby is a grown up! Here are a few shots. The first one I’m strategically hiding in the back ;). My hubby is on the left and the little guy is my youngest. You know who the graduate is.

This next one is of my three boys together. In two years we’ll have another graduation and then my youngest will graduate in 10 years. I know time will zip right by so quickly!

This one is my Dad with Nick.

Here’s my baby practicing for is graduation.

Onto other things. Lets see. One of my neighbors started a book club and our first selection as “The Little Lady Agency” by Hester Browne. It’s not a book I think I would have picked on my own but it ended up being a cute summer read. I’m also reading books about thryoid disorder. As I mentioned before I have hypothyroidism and have been having an awful time for quite a while now. My blood work is always off, either my meds get bumped up or down and I’ve been feeling like a zombie since before Christmas. Anyway, I feel like I need to educate myself about this disorder which is not easy to understand by either the patient or the medical community. Most doctors do not know alot about thryoid dysfunction so many times patients have a hard time getting disagnosed and treated. Anyway, I did a really “grown up” thing the other day and called my doctor and questioned her reasoning on lowering my meds again since I was feeling so much better. I understand according to my blood work my levels were off again but I verbalized to her how I am scared to start feeling bad again since I just started feeling better last week! So she said instead of lowering my meds every day we’d go every other day with two different doses. Long story short (that might be too late, sorry) I feel like I was heard for once. Not that this doctor has been dismissive or anything but I rarely question their decisions and this was the first time I did. If I hadn’t said anything I would have started taking the lower dose of synthroid instead of asking about alternating. I’m learning that I HAVE to ask questions and advocate for myself because this has been going on for too long.

What else? Well, I haven’t made any art or crafts lately. That’s my next move. I saw something really cute at Rebecca Sower’s blog. Go to her blog (in my favorites) and check out the photo frame with material and buttons and trinkets. So vintage and cute! I am working on purging the accumulated stuff junk crap in my house.  I told my hubster that I want to rent a dumpster.  He thinks that the mini one that the trash company calls a trash can is enough!  HAAAAA!  I am on a roll and I want to keep going.  I threw 2 trash bags of stuff out of my chest of drawers in my room.  Now I like to give away as much as the next guy but this was, well a lot of intimate wear and just plain junk that I would not want given to me.  Bras and lacy things that were much much too small and if the day ever comes that I can wear some of it again, well it ain’t happening!  I mean really!  lol  I hung on to a lot of the stuff because I paid a lot of money for them but it just made me sick everytime I needed a pair of panty hose or a slip to have to dig through the mass of pretties that haven’t fit in so long.  Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Hopefully I’ll be back soon with something pretty to share with all of you.  Thanks to those of you who made it through this entire rant!  Love and Hugs!

Hello friends…sorry I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. I just wanted to let you all know that I do not know when I will be posting next probably atleast another week or so. However, I wanted to say Hi and I hope all of you are well. Take care…until next time…

All she needs is something to hang from and she’s done. I think I’ll use a cord for this one as well. The watch case is a combo of gold and silver tone. The picture is from 10 two studios and I added a rhinestone, a vintage button and some tiny beads. I sealed the picture with gel medium instead of resin this time. I’ll probably be adding this one to my Etsy shop in a few days. I think the reason why I’m enjoying this so much is the combination of jewelry making and art together. Ever since I started making collages and assemblages last year I have been trying to figure out a way to combine jewelry with art and this seems to be it for me.

Happy Friday to everyone. I have been busy getting ready for a visit from my mother in law. She’s very sweet and has her hands full as a caregiver to my husband’s step father so I want to pamper her this weekend. I have a big soaking tub (no jets) but a nice big separate tub in my bathroom that I’m going to get ready for her. I know she’ll enjoy that. I’m making lasagna for dinner tomorrow night, so I’m going to get that taken care of today. I have taken cues from my baby sister (youngest sister) who is the queen of preparing ahead of time when she has company. Somehow I got the procrastinating genes and she got the organized genes. There are 4 of us, I’m the oldest, she’s the youngest. I am so much calmer when I think and do ahead instead of trying to do everything at the last minute.

Here are the pictures I said I’d share of the rhinestones I scored on Ebay. The lady was so generous, adding a ton of extras to my auction.
Yes, some of them are broken but I can use them. I’ve got to work on my soldering skills. Remember the disaster the other month? Soldering jump rings should be less stressful then trying to soldering a frame around glass. We shall see.

Next, here’s my latest necklace. The word “A Jamais” means forever. I took one look at this 1940’s girl/young woman and thought she looks like she’s waiting for her beloved to come home from the war. The watch case reminded me of the windows in a ship. I found a button with an anchor on it and wired it to a mother of pearl like vintage buttons and attached it to the watch case. Here’s a few pictures. The piece will be on Etsy sometime today.
Have a terrific weekend everyone and don’t forget to create some art!

Well, I am on a roll. I am having so much fun making these mini collages in watch cases. This is the 2nd one I will be putting up for sale in Etsy, probably tonight or tomorrow. I have a 3rd that is almost complete. I received my Ebay auctions in the mail today. I will post pictures of the rhinestone jewels and watches I bought from a terrific seller. When I post the pictures I will post the seller as well. She was wonderful. Sending me twice as much rhinestone pieces then she advertised. What a nice surprise. Anyway, I can’t wait to dig into that stuff but for now here’s my latest colllage watch pendant necklace. The one close up shot the picture in the pendant looks grainy and that is not how it looks in person. For some reason these collage sheets are hard to photograph close up. Anyway………..

The word “adsum” in the collage means “I am here” in Latin. The lady in the picture is holding a cute little doggie. I love Ten Two Studios collage sheets! I need to purchase some more as I am beginning to run low. Take care friends and I’ll post my next necklace ASAP.