Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!

Here's where the fun begins folks. Presenting the finished projects, the stuff that's for sale. What I've been working on all summer long. The deal with these two (well three because I'm keeping one for myself) necklaces is that I've already sold them. I guess that means I can now say I'm a professional jewelry maker -- because, hey, I've been paid for my creations. I made these necklaces and sold them to my coworkers out of vintage buttons. I don't have too terribly much to say about all these necklaces I've been making. And if I did write a full profile of each, I'd have a lot of writing to do. You're going to see a lot. Like a lot a lot.

P.S. Muchas gracias to my neck models (a.k.a., the purchasers). All the rest of the necks (unless otherwise noted) are, well, my own neck. You'll get used to freckles soon!

Little Stacks Everywhere

All around my apartment are little arrangements. Preparing for this craft show or, more accurately, my booth at a shopping market, has turned my little crafting life upsidedown. And I'm not kidding when I say there are little collections of projects sitting out everywhere. Above you see a collection of Mexican bingo tiles with fresh coats of a kind of plastic lacquer that will make them hard enough to stand alone on necklaces. More details on that to come.

And here are some vintage/random buttons gathered together. Also awaiting their turn at the chopping block, or so to speak, when they'll be turned into projects. All of them have polished, flat backsides so they are ready for use. Sanding a hundred buttons is like a dream come true. (I've never gotten into sanding; if it could be skipped, it would be.)

And, yep, some more future projects. It's amazing to think that I've made any progress at all, since looking at these pictures reminds me that all I've done is set up more work for myself to do later. Yikes. Two weeks and a trip to Chicago thrown in... I better get busy!

And finally, here's a completed project. Woohoo! But like all the others, perhaps a bit difficult to explain. I'm just happy that there's one thing that I'm done with. I guess I do still have to worry about the packaging... I doubt this post has shed much light on my current bevy of projects, but it should let you know ... colorful, found objects...

P.S.

Here is said father holding said father's day gift.

Waaaay Old, But It's New To You

I tell you what, this one was hard to photograph. That's why you get half the project above and a super faded out pic below. I apologize my dears. I'm prepared to blame a lot of it on my summer's worth of computer issues.

This was my Father's Day gift this year. Yep, another thing I did in June and am posting about in September. Like I said, there's lots of baseball games to watch. I suppose you're lucky to be reading about this before November.

I've always thought of myself as the baby bear of our Goldy Locks family. I've got a Papa Bear and a Mama Bear and I'm the baby, the onliest one. So when in McKinney I spied this torn out page from a children's story book, I knew that I needed to buy it and craft it into something for my bear-obsessed father. He had a bear experience once in Estes Park, Colorado and has been inspired for life to devote time and energy to bears. And not in the Stephen Colbert blame all the evils of the world on bears vein. More like, love them, respect them, realize how fascinating they are.

And I wanted the frame to be extra special. And for the better part of a decade, my dad has dutifully kept the caps to his beers (when they aren't bent beyond possible use) and gave them to me whenever he remembered to so that I could use them for craft purposes. It all sprang from a project I did in college... I wonder whatever happened to that beer-cap table top? Oh well. So I've got a vase of beer caps and I thought that this would go together well for my father's sort of mountain lodge themed man cave. (Note that most Sam Adams' caps come from Red Sox watching experiences. You gotta go with the Boston lager if you're going to watch the BoSox!)

Oh and one more desk item...

Last but not least in this desk upgrade: the ink blotter. My friends, there comes a time when something that you love, something that you find very pretty and perfectly appropriate, something that someone you love gave you must go. It is old, it is dirty, it looks tired, it is worn out.

That's the story of this ink blotter. Stained from years of both use and storage -- poor thing was even used as a makeup tray (ultimate death to all white-fabric-based products) at one point and endured moving trucks, storage units and one accidental Modge Podge spill.

You see, the trouble is, I still wanted an ink blotter. I still liked the overall size and dimensions of ye olde ink blotter and, well, I'm cheap. So I decided to upgrade. I have a small stash of fabric (Have you ever heard the slogan, "She who dies with the most fabric wins?" because I try to avoid that) and I dug around for the right pieces to help me. I found the pink quickly and decided that was a great frame piece but i wanted something extra special for the center panel. At one point in my mother's industrious career as a fabric collector -- she is going for a hoarding title -- she worked at one of Dallas' high-end furniture and interior decorating stores. And she asked the designers if she could have the outdated, unused or leftover fabric sample books. They are a treasure-trove of fabulous pieces of fabric. The trick is finding projects that can accommodate upholstery-thick fabric that is less than two square feet.

My friends I'd been eyeballing this sample for years before this project came about and I finally had a chance to use these whimsical frogs and Lilly-pad fabric for something.

The assembly was super easy. I painted the old blotter with white primer a few times, For the flat parts, I stretched the fabric and used duck tape to secure it in place. I cut a few small pieces of bunting for the padded part, wrapped that in fabric and glued the whole thing together with hot glue. It's not a piece that can withstand being used as a Frisbee or anything like that, but in its place, it's just fine.

Lilly Explosion: Watch for Falling Pink & Green

I mentioned in my post from last May (just before I went to Denmark and the Czech Republic) that I had a new look ready to come right out at ya... And here it is. I decided that the red and gold were lovely and warm, but I was ready to express the Lilly side of life. One day early on in the Spring, I was feeling a little down and I decided to go to my favorite place ever to cheer myself up -- the paper store! This time it was Swoozie's in Preston Center and I found out there that Lilly P now does wrapping paper, paper plates, napkins and plastic cups! Pens and letterhead and picture frames and post it notes. I perhaps went overboard and bought it all, but as the Lilly ad posted on my office wall says, "Too much is never enough."

I got home with my Lilly treasures and decided to give this area of my home a makeover, pink and green and girly. I started with the backdrop. That's definitely wrapping paper on foam board and it makes a great place to pin up treasured post cards. The one of the airplane was sent to me by my most frequent pen pal, a well-traveled Naval Officer. Every time I see that plane I think of where it's going today and how much I'd like to hop on board, assuming that its flying me to Paris or Tahiti or Switzerland or Brazil. Plus the blue sky looks so crisp and inviting.

Next I decided that the lamp needed some doing over to look extra spunky. I spent a while getting the dimensions correct, but I finally was able to cut the right sized paper to cover the original design. And since I'm not sure if this Lilly theme will last forever (come January I might be awfully tired of all the pinks and greens), I decided to make sure that all the updating could eventually be removed without leaving a trace. I used a two-sided tape to attach the paper to the lamp, which, in case you didn't notice, has all kinds of corners and crevices. And from my old bag of tricks, I found the dingle balls to hang from the lamp shade. I feel like Lilly would approve. So useless, so cute, so ridiculous, so Lilly.

And just as a useless hint/trick -- The cord couldn't be hidden with this lamp, you can clearly see where the plug is and there's just no room for it to hide. I used the box that the frame came in with two slits cut in the back as makeshift cord storage. I carefully wound the unneeded bit and curled it into the box, which sits at the bottom of the books stack.

I surrounded the rest of the area with various other Lilly accessories and traded out the doodads so that they'd match, too.

Excuses, excuses

See above, my dad's speckledy salt and pepper hair, a Red Sox hat and the backdrop of a ballpark. That's my first excuse for why I've been a ridiculously awful blogger this summer. And well, it's not the only excuse I've got.

My poor little computer died, well, that's me being dramatic, but it had to have its little hard drive reformatted and all kinds of extensive computer surgery, which I am neither qualified to nor interested in discussing with my readers. And now that baseball season is winding down (on a somewhat positive note for my beloved Boston Beaneaters), I'm prepared to deal with the inevitable -- life in the off season.

Of somewhat thrilling note is my upcoming presence as a craft vendor at a local market. It's pretty fun. I did the calligraphy for my first ever wedding. Well, not MY wedding, but you know what I mean, the first wedding that I ever did the calligraphy for. It was really enjoyable and I'm anxious to take on another penmanship assignment. And, finally friends, I'm dabbling as a video editor -- I recently went to Arkansas to learn from a true master of culinary arts, provided that culinary artists always start with crisco and then add butter, to learn from my precious Granny the secret to the Granny Roll. When I finish editing that video, I'll post it on this site for those who want to learn how to make a very authentic from-scratch roll. We're talking lots of time, talent, elbow grease, and love. You gotta love your potential roll eaters A LOT to put in the time to make these things. Especially when the Pillsbury dough boy sells a decent version of the dinner roll that requires eight minutes and no talent.

Synergized: A Lemon Yellow Necklace

Click on the picture above and you should be able to be magically transported to another blog of wonder in which you will see the exact same picture but on an ever-so-slightly larger scale.

I bet you thought I just plum fell off the face of the Earth seeing as I haven't posted anything new in many many moons. Well, there, my reader, you are wrong. I am here. I am vibrant. I am going to have a booth at a market and well its going to be full of crafts and, dagnabbit, I'm busy making crafts. Like the above necklace. I made that. Yay!

As you must have gleaned from previous prior posts, I'm a little too in love with my Dremel. And inheriting a small collection of antique buttons from my mother and finding a warehouse full of similarly interesting buttons and realizing how easy it really is to buy a length of chain -- it was inevitable that I'd decide to make my own necklaces.

I'm calling this line the "Mother May I" line because of the prim and proper lady on the buttons. She's so cute, with her hat and her hair. I just love her, enough to saw a hole in her portrait, sandpaper her backside and varnish the buttons to finish. As Led Zeppelin would say "A Whole Lotta Love."

I'm not going to make any wild promises that I'll post more soon, but if I have the opportunity, I sure will. I have so many things to show you and so little will power to photo, photoshop, upload and write.