Catching Up

Eleanor, a friend from my first year in England, and her son, Eden, came to stay in March. It was an absolutely lovely visit, and I'm sad that they've gone home now. Here's a small taste of what we did...

Exploring at The Gamble House in Pasadena

Selfies at The Getty

Intense Concentration from Captain Cutie

Peacocks in Irvine Park

Late afternoon sun in Irvine Park

Plus, we had a mini photo shoot at the local farmer's market...

Modeling Chaps necklace

And then I applied to be a vendor at Patchwork Show!!! This is the first time I've ever applied to a craft show, so I'm really nervous that I missed something or that the jurors won't like my work, but...I did it anyway! I'll never know if I don't try, right?  I find out in 2 weeks...

Plenty of Glitter...and then some...

Since returning from England a few weeks ago, life has sort of been go-go-go. We're getting ready for our biggest show of the year at work (children's book illustrations - yay!) and I've been working on a few jewelry projects in the mornings. James and I have been cleaning the house like mad (not fun). Plus the weekends have been taken up with a bridal shower, a bar mitzvah, and a bachelorette party. I've really barely seen James since our trip.

Last of the summer artist demonstrations at work - this is a watercolor in progress by Julie Hill

James and I have decided to try to cut down on the amount of TV we watch and do other things instead, which means we have "Wine & Cheese Hour" several times a week. YUM!

Work in progress on a family tree inspired piece of jewelry

Rumor has it...

I spent yesterday morning at Hamburger Mary's in Long Beach at a Sunday brunch drag show with the latest bride-to-be's bachelorette party. Bottomless mimosas, all-you-can-eat buffet, LOUD music, and outrageous drag acts. This one above was the most tame - the spitting image of Adele. But rest assured, there was plenty of glitter, sequins, huge hair, major makeup, and super high heels, and then some...

THEN I found a package of a double season of Gilmore Girls at Target for cheap, and guess what I spent the rest of Sunday doing? This will probably ruin the cutting down on the TV time for a little bit.

A Blog Post About Nothing in Particular. A Bit Like Seinfeld. (I'll be Kramer, you can be George.)

In lieu of a blog post about something specific, here's a random catch-all of what's been going on here lately.

Artist demos at work

Pasta-making in the kitchen

Visit to the Nixon Presidential Library

The most amazing kind of ugly but mostly awesome shirt I've ever seen - gold sparkly material with not one but TWO sequined elephants wearing party hats. Didn't fit me. Sigh.

Artwork drop-off time at the OC Fair

Beautiful 4th of July flowers from a client at work, complete with sparkly thistles that looked like fireworks. Not pictured are the patriotic cookies and chilled lemonade she also brought!

James looking fabulously patriotic at a friend's block party

New jewelry I've been working on

My July reading has gotten out of control because I somehow managed to finish 4 books in the first 10 days of the month. There's a little voice in my head saying "Whoa, back off, Tiger. Save some for the rest of us..."

So, how's summer treating you so far?

New Jewelry Designs, Oh My!

There's an antique place I love to visit for one vendor only, and this vendor has not one, not two, but THREE boxes filled to the brim with old photographs. This vendor is smart, because there is even a folding chair provided so people can sit and sift through the images. I always come out with about 6 - 10 photos, and I always vow to do something with them, but I just don't have the heart to cut them up. So I've started scanning and printing them, and then I started to make jewelry with them.

In process

Explore photo collage necklace

Tell Him photo collage necklace

Adore photo collage necklace

I'm using decorative papers, digital reproductions of vintage photographs, tea-stained text, glitter, beads - you name it. After a few failed attempts, I'm really happy with the results. (You can see all of the jewelry I've been making HERE on my Etsy shop.)

I've also made a Facebook page for my Etsy shop, so don't be shy - Like Me On Facebook! Let's be friends!

New Jewelry, Plus Some Mostly Senseless Ramblings

Okay, I know that as a southern Californian, I really can't complain about the weather. I'm pretty spoiled for nice weather. But. Oh. My. God. It's so hot. The heat and I are not good friends. There's a period of about an hour to an hour and a half, between about 5:45 and 7:00 am when our bedroom is actually comfortable to sleep in, and that's it. The rest of the time I spend sitting/melting on the sofa with a glass of ice water wishing it were mid-winter. I can't concentrate on much of anything when it's this hot. I tried to get some jewelry work done yesterday, but the pool at my parent's house kept calling to me. So this is how I spent the afternoon:


Ahh, relief

 I did manage to make some new necklaces last week, thanks to the benefit of air conditioning.



Tiny Houses, side one



Tiny Houses, side two



San Francisco Scenes, side one



San Francisco Scenes, side two



Butterflies, side one



Butterflies, side two

 Tiny Houses: fabric, ink, French text, papers
San Francisco Scenes: photograph by Jennifer Geisert, illustration by James Keniston (we collaborated!)
Butterflies: French text, papers, glitter, paint

All are now available at Chemers Gallery. I would show you the other two I made, but they sold already (yay!).

Another thing that's driving me to distraction is that my "studio" is out of control messy and on my big table I only have a tiny space in which to work. This needs to be fixed soon.



Out of control studio

I don't even want to tell you what the rest of the house looks like, and it's totally my mess. James has been amazing with the cleaning he's been doing. Our kitchen has never been so spotless. I think it's because he's having a love affair with Lime-Away. Just kidding. (He does love that product, though...)

Insomnia, Etsy, and Carmageddon

Despite my best efforts, I couldn't sleep last night. It must have been my excitement over the announcement of the Emmy nominees this morning, coupled with my distress over "Carmageddon" this weekend. Obviously.

So what's a girl to do? Oh, I don't know, re-open her Etsy shop?


Feminine Specimen at Sweetpea Studios



On the Wing: Lace at Sweetpea Studios



On the Wing: Crystal at Sweetpea Studios



Handmade with Love.

Head on over to Sweetpea Studios to see what else is new!

It's gonna be a two-coffee morning....