Mr. Cardinal

Sure enough Mr. Cardinal must have been lurking in the nearby trees while Ms. Cardinal had a little treat at our feeder. He finally came over for a treat of his own. He was pretty hard to capture though, very skittish and nervous. I think he was just watching out for his sweetie so she could eat in peace. What a loving partner!

I was lucky to spy this guy yesterday in between running around. Another few busy days of prep and then some down time with the family is in order. I hope things are coming together for your holiday festivities. I'm feeling a little tattered and worn but I think the end is in sight.

Take care and remember to stop and enjoy the beauty along the way.

Ms. Cardinal

It's been busy here getting ready for the holiday season as I'm sure most of you are too. So not much creativity has been happening in the studio. I did take a few moments to enjoy our friendly Ms. Cardinal visitor. She doesn't seem to have a partner with her at the moment but I'm hoping he'll come along later.

She's been coming around to the feeder each day all by herself. As you can see she's very entertaining.

Her visits are usually not too long as the Mourning doves seem to be chasing her away.

What's a lady alone to do!

Take care and don't forget to watch the beauty along the way.

Tim's tag time...

Well it's that time of year again over at Tim Holtz's blog. The twelve tags of Christmas that is. If you haven't checked it out yet it's well worth the look. Lots of tips, tricks and techniques. I don't usually get around to getting all of them done but I like to play along a bit. So here is my variations of tag 2 and 3. Enjoy!

Great week.

I've had a wonderful week and beginning of the holiday season.

We had a great time at my Open House on Sunday. Thanks to all that came out and for all your donations to our local food bank. I brought in a large box of groceries to help them out during the holiday season.

To start off my week I found out that I won a Holiday with Matthew Mead magazine on Monday morning from Jennifer over at Adventures in Mixed Media. She was very prompt at mailing to me since I received it yesterday. I'd never hear of this magazine and am very pleased to be introduced to it. It has many beautiful and inspiring holiday images and ideas. I love trying new decorating ideas for the holiday so this will be very helpful. Thank you Jennifer.
Also this week I received another item that I won from Ten Second Studio. Back in October they did a raffle for Cancer awareness month with the proceeds going to the Susan G. Koman Fund. There were 10 canvas' to chose to win and I won the Suze Weinberg canvas. Isn't it amazing. Thanks Megan and Cheryl from Ten Second Studio and Suze. I love it.
So that was my amazing week so far. Wasn't that a great way to start December! I'm ready to start the holiday season!

Now I'm off to Tai Chi and tea with friends.

New necklace for Open house

I'm still busy getting ready for this Sundays Open House. Here is another sneak peak at one of many new creations I've made in the last few weeks. You'll have to come to the open house to see more. I've been trying to take more pictures of them but the sun has not been cooperating with me this week. I guess I'll have to get a light box made one of these days.

Getting ready for Open House

I've been very busy getting ready for my Open House this Sunday. Here is a peek at one of my new necklaces I finished today. If you live in the area come on by and take a look. I have about 5 artisans coming to sell their own creations. We'll be at 3557 Munster Rd. from 1pm - 4pm. Come have a coffee and do some stress free shopping. I'm hoping to help out our local Food Bank too. So if you can please bring a non-perishable food item.

ATC's

I had a great afternoon with my ATC group at the Painted Pony yesterday. We meet once a month. This month was one of my favourites since it was Steampunk. We each make one card and trade at the end of the meeting. If you're interested in joining the next meeting is on December 21 at the Painted Pony from 1:00 to about 3:00pm and the theme is "red". We didn't want to do Christmas but this gives you the option if you want. Here are the card from this month.

Wendy

Veronica

Olive

Michelle

Linda

I'm in a huge creative mood today! I've been beading, riveting, hammering, drilling. All in the name of jewelry. Gotta get back to the riveting.

Have a creative day!

Journal pages

After finishing my Vision Board yesterday I found I had things inside me that I still wanted to get out, so I made these journal pages. It's really just about the things I learned about myself while doing the vision board. Sometimes I make excuses for not having or being what I want. Things like this isn't the house I want, my studio isn't want I would really like etc. So this is a reminder to myself that those things really aren't important in the end. Being who I want to be and achieving what I want are not conditional to these material things. It is what I do with my life that will get me where I want to be not the pretty things around me. No excuses it's time to be grateful for what I have and just do what ever it is I want to do with my life.

Vision board

Yesterday I had Michelle Casey from Collage Your World over to my studio to teach her Vision Board workshop. We had a wonderful time. Michelle was a great teacher. I learned a lot about vision boards and about myself.

I started out unsure of my direction so I had planned to do a Passion Vision Board. But when Michelle took us through a visioning technique I had a vision of my new house come to me. This made it easier to find images for my board. We all had most of our vision boards finished by the end of class. I added a few more words to my board this morning and it was finished.

It was interesting to have this vision come to me but I realized later that I don't really need a new house. Many of the things I put in my board I already have. And the things that are not are things that are not really part of the house but part of me. I learned that new walls and windows are not what I need right now but to focus on my goals for myself.

If you ever get the chance to make a vision board I highly recommend it and if you're in the Ottawa area check out Michelle's workshops.

Busy week...

I had another one of those weeks that just whizzes by.

Saturday was a wonderful day at the Handmade Harvest show. The hosts Emily and Colleen of BlackBird in Almonte were wonderful and the show was a great success. To find out more about how the show went and view a few pics check out their blog.

Although I was tired on Sunday I had a strange urge to start to reorganize and tidy my studio. I had the Tin Man rearrange some shelves and bring in an old cabinet from the back room to use. I'm tired of just have ugly shelves for everything. I've had this cabinet in the back room for many year thinking I would refinish it but I really didn't have any where it could fit. So I decided I would use it in my studio. It's a little rough around the edges but maybe I'll paint it next summer. It makes me happy! Although I still have things I wanted to rearrange in the studio it was on to more creative and way over due projects on Monday. I finished an order for a little guys "first year" scrap book. I've been working on it since some time in the spring I think. Needless to say it took me a little longer than I expected. Once this was finished I took a little time for some card making. This was like a reward for getting this major project done on my to do list and I needed to replenish my card stock for upcoming shows. The rest of the week was filled up with mostly domestic chores with a little break for Tai Chi and Chai tea with the girls. I had done Tai Chi years ago and gotten away from it and it feels so good to be back at it. I'm really enjoying it.

Today in between cleaning house I was thinking about my vision board I'll be doing here with Michelle. She gave us some homework to complete before class on Sunday and it really got me thinking. Probably a little too much since my brain is usually in overload at the best of times. I think I'm going to try to do a Passion Vision Board for my first one. I'll let you know how it goes and I'll see if anyone wants to share their finished board with you next week. LOL.

So I'm off to tidy the studio for Sunday's workshop and then to a Glass Bead show tomorrow with the girls. Wow what more could you ask for in one weekend!

Handmade Harvest

Yes it's finally here. Tomorrow is Handmade Harvest. I've been busy all week preparing for it. The above necklace was the first time I used Wire Ribbon. It wasn't as easy as I thought to add it beside some chain. It took a few tries to figure out how to fasten it. I love that you can twist and pull it apart to get the look that you want.

Well I'm off to finish up a few more pieces for tomorrow. Hope to see you there. It's in Almonte at the Town Hall from 9am- 5pm.

And the winner is...

Thanks for playing along with me this week. Jennifer had it right with her first guess of Niagara on the Lake. And I picked her name out of the vase so she is the winner today. If you ever get a chance it's a beautiful place to visit. Too many wineries to count.
We had a tour of Chateau des Charmes. It was really interesting to see the process of wine making and learn about some of the history of this area of Canada.

Where was I?

Okay it's your final chance to leave a comment on where you think I was last weekend to win a tag.

Yes we were in Ontario.

We had a tour of this winery and I discovered that I do like Ice Wine!

You have until 3:00pm today to leave a comment and then I'll pick the winner!

Good Luck.

Win a tag.

Yes there is still time to win a tag. All you have to do is take a look at this weeks photo's from my weekend away and make a comment trying to guess where I was and you'll be entered to win a tag. Everyone that leaves a comment will be entered but if you guess correctly you'll get 2 entries. Tomorrow morning I'll put some photo's on that have a clue or two to help you if you haven't already figured it out. You have till 3 tomorrow to leave a comment.The trees in the background here is the reason why they are able to grow grapes here.
And unlike where we went last year at this time there were still some grapes left on the vines.
And yes we did have a taste or two of wine. Although the Tinman had more since I was the designated driver.

More photo's

I think I'm making this game too easy!

We saw these...

And these...

And more of these!!

Okay you've probably guessed a bit about where we were but can you pinpoint exactly where we were. You have until Friday to make a comment and be entered to win a tag.

I'll have more photo's tomorrow. Maybe some hidden clues too!

Sorry I forgot...

I forgot my cord for downloading pictures while we were away so I wasn't able to share our experience first hand. So I think I'll prolong it even more. And for some fun let's see who can guess where we were. I'm going to add pictures throughout the week to see if you can figure it out. Anyone that leaves a guess in the comments will have a chance to win a tag. If you guess correctly you will have 3 chances to win the tag. You have till Friday to make your comments.

Good luck.

Weekend away...

This is just a quick post before the Tin Man and I head out for a weekend away. I'll try to post some pictures in the next few day and see if you can guess where we are! Their may even be a prize in it for you.

Here is a card I made during a small Christmas spirit burst. Don't worry it didn't last too long. I'm saving it for the real deal. I find if I get in the holiday spirit too early I lose it by Christmas and it's just not as much fun. How about you when do you start to get into the spirit of it all? Have you started your Christmas shopping? No I'm not listening, I don't want to know! I have lots of time left. And don't be trying to tell me how many day there are till...

Have great weekend!

Resin Necklaces

So as promised here are some of my new resin necklaces. Most of them are on copper chains but the above one I added some pearls and coral beads for a change. I'm anxious to see how they do at the next show.
This one is a smaller version measuring about 2".
This was my largest piece, it came out about 3 1/2". This is a technique I learned at Bead fest back in August with Tracey Stanley. It's a fun technique but I'm trying to tweak it a bit so it's more my own creation. I haven't quit got there yet. I'll keep working on it though. That's what it's all about isn't it. Learning new techniques to make your own creations.

I was back at the Christmas card making last night for some reason so tomorrow I should have some cards ready to show you.

Have a great day!

Banner necklaces.

This a new design I created. I first got the idea to make these little banner tabs by cutting, texturizing, stamping, antiquing and polishing some copper strips. I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate them into a necklace right away but when I made the curl at the top it limited what I could hang it on so that made things a little easier. I chose this chain, which I have in both copper and brass, because it's one of my favourites and I don't get to use it a lot . It's on the fine side so it doesn't go with a lot of my other designs. Sometimes I use small amounts of it combined with other chain but I've never had a chance to let it stand on it's own. I think it works pretty well here. Once I slipped the tabs on the chain I immediately knew that I just wanted to keep it simple by adding a few beads and such. I'm happy with the end results, actually I think I may just have to keep the Dream one with the key for myself. LOL!

Next time I'm going to share some of my new resin designs with you.

See you soon!

Focused on jewelry...

Well if you remember way back when in January, I said my word for the year is focus. I'd like to be able to say that I've improved on my focus but that's probably debatable. I have my good days and my bad days. Lately my minds been almost solely on jewelry. Which may seem focused but it's actually on many types of jewelry that I want to try out. I have a few shows coming up so I'm trying to work on items that have been popular at earlier shows this year. And this is where the focus gets kind of fuzzy. It's hard to work on things I've already done before when there is so much more to try out! LOL. I did get some necklaces finished today, some new creations and some older creations with a new twist or two to them. I didn't get photo's of them yet so this one is from a few weeks ago. I'll try to get some more photo's taken in the morning and give you a peek at what I've been up to.

Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas already?

I'm not a fan of starting my Christmas shopping or the whole prepping for it too early. I generally don't start decorating until well into December sometimes not even until the kids come home for the holiday so they can help. Son #1 is a December baby so he actually likes to decorate and I enjoy the company, as apposed to son#2 who is much like the Tin Man and will avoid decorating if given the chance.

But last week found me making Christmas cards, due to a suggestion of having a ChristmasCard workshop. It seemed like a fun idea until I started to make cards and the Christmas spirit just wasn't flowing too creatively. I did manage to make a couple of card but as you can see the traditional Christmas colours that I usually enjoy playing with for the season just weren't there. So I went with what I had, which as you can see was blue. It's a good thing I don't send out too many card for the holidays or I may have to resort to buying them:( Now that just won't do.

Oh and then on the weekend I actually started my Christmas shopping...well if you can call picking up a $2 stocking stuffer started!!

Tag Tuesday

Hey I had time for a little fun this week. It's been so long since I've done a Tag Tuesday challenge I thought this one was an easy challenge to get me back into it. The theme is Black and Orange. And although it wasn't necessarily for Halloween. of coarse that's the first thing that came to mind so I went for it.

I'm not actually a huge Halloween fan. We live in the country and don't get any trick or treaters and with no little kids anymore to take out we ignore it for the most part. I don't even buy those little chocolate bars for the Tin Man any more. How mean is that!! Well someone has to have some self control around here.LOL!

So my tag is made with a back ground of Distress Inks and Glimmer mist. I put them on my craft sheet and then smoosh(yes that's the technical term) the tag around into it. All the elements are from the seasonal grunge package. I have very little left of this package other than the Halloween sheets. So I thought this was the perfect time to use them up. They're all inked up again with distress inks and a few are frosted with some stickles for a little sparkle. An easy peasy tag, maybe next time I'll be up for a bigger challenge.

Check out some of the other participants over at Kard Krazy. See what people can do with Black and Orange and not all are Halloween.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'm back...

Yes I'm back. At least back at the blogging. I haven't been away any where just a little under the weather, so kinda unmotivated to do the blogging thing. But I think I'm over the worst of the cold I had and maybe I can think a little better to do some writing here. Have I ever mentioned that I actually hate to write! So why have a blog at all you say? Well I guess the joy of sharing my creations with others out weighs the hatred of writing. I did read a blog(sorry I've forgotten where it was) about writing and the loathing there of, recently and I think it's help put a little perspective to it for me. His main message was to write how you talk. This seems too easy to me but I thought I'd give a try. So far it seems to be helping somewhat.

Oh well, on to the fun stuff. I've been doing a little playing around with inks and stamps. I made some bookmarks to give away at the Fibrefest and they seemed quite taken with them. So I've been playing with some other options. I try to use scraps of paper so the ones at the top are a smaller version that I'll probably give away at the next show I do. The ones at the bottom are a little bigger and I've laminated them. I used my Xyron machine for this. It worked pretty good although a few didn't work out too well. I wasn't paying attention when I took the picture and you can see the one on the top got a crinkle in the laminate. I'm hoping with a little experience with the machine they'll all work out perfect.

Gotta go now. I'm off to Tai Chi this afternoon. Have a great one.

Metal Exemplar

Well, I haven't taught too many workshops this year and I'm looking forward to this one in a few short weeks.

All the letters are embossed on Ten Second Studio metal and then attached to a 10 X 20" Gallery Canvas. I don't know if you can tell in the picture but the letters are different thicknesses which gives the piece a lot of depth and dimension. This is a great class if you haven't tried to use metal before as we're going to learn lots of techniques. But if you've taken some of my metal workshops before you'll like it too because I've added a few new tips and trick to this project.

The workshop will be held at The Painted Pony on Sunday, October 24 from 9:30am - 4:30pm. If you're interested their are still some spaces available in the class. Just contact Cindy at the store.

Snaps and buttons...

I've been busy preparing for some upcoming shows, so the other day I was taking photos of some of my newer items. I made these two bracelets for Fibrefest. It was interesting to see peoples reactions to them. It usually took a second look for them to see what they are made of.This one is made of snaps with pearl dangles.
And this one is made of small buttons with pearl dangles. I've been thinking about creating with buttons for some time now. These are only a couple of the many ideas running around in my head for button jewelry. Now to only figure out how to get them out. LOL!

Fall clean up.

Well, Fall means gardening clean up and that's just what the Tin Man and I did this past weekend. After we got the gardens cleaned up, the Tin Man cleaned and filled my bird feeder. So this week I've had the company of many friendly birds. This Blue Jay was very comical to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing what varieties of birds visit us this winter. Ugh did I say winter? No, no I didn't say that. You didn't hear it from me. LOL