Charm Exchange

The monthly ladies jewelry group, ok sometimes more than monthly, decided to do a charm exchange for the holidays. We each were responsible for making 11 charms and will each come home with 11 different charms that we are going to trade with each other tonight at Debbie's house. I decided to use soldering for mine, since it's my new favorite thing! I took little glass blobs and put homemade paper behind them and cut words out of an old book that I found at a local library sale. This one says voice but all of them are different. These are the words I chose: vogue, hope, queen, heart, luck, chic, she-wolf, sweet, star and wink. It truly is amazing what words you can find in books. I do have to share though that it is very difficult to solder glass blobs (insert one burnt up soldering iron, cursing, frustration and an emergency trip to the Glass Art Studio for a new iron here). It was a great learning experience though and even though they have a few imperfections I'm very proud of these little charms. Like my friend Angela says "It's handmade girl, if you want something perfect get it made in China". I can't wait to see what the other ladies all came up with for their charms!

Anne's Birthday

This weekend I celebrated a friends' birthday and have to tell everyone about it because of the delicious restaurant that we went to. Anne chose to go to the new Aliante Station to the Pips restaurant. It was so yummy! I had eggplant stuffed salmon with butternut squash risotto with shall I say a few glasses of white wine. It was a great atmosphere and the food and service were amazing. We got seated by the owner who used to be a chef at Cesar's Palace and got a tour of the wine vault. I would highly recommend it!

The picture is of the earrings that I made for Anne. They are from the Dixie Young collection and are vintage crystal. Elegant just like Anne.

Welcome Home Dice

Last weekend I couldn't resist adopting Dice. She was available through the Heaven Can Wait Animal Sanctuary. I had kind of been looking around for a friend for Dash for awhile and finally found one. She is 8 months old and is very playful. I asked the people to find me a playful boy or girl about the same age as Dash. After petting her for a few minutes she rolled over on her belly and started to bite me. As everyone knows this is exactly how Dash acts. Dash was so excited when I brought her home and never even hissed or growled at her. He follows her around everywhere. I tried to tell him he was coming on too strong but he wouldn't listen. After about 5 days they became good friends and are cleaning each other and playing like you wouldn't believe! So now I have the perfect match of Dice and Dash.

Pincushion Cupcake

This weekend I made this pincushion cupcake at Carole, the ribbon lady's house. I can't believe that I actually made this because I can't sew. I don't even know how to sew on a button! I learned how to back stitch and knot off and sewed this by hand. Much thanks to Tanya and Carole for explaining all of the techniques to me.

Collage Pendants

I made these two double sided pendants for birthday gifts for Tanya and Jerry. I took my own layered collage work and put it behind glass and soldered it into these pendants. I am very pleased with the collage work and the soldering. I'm getting better and better at it! I actually finished the pieces with blue ribbon instead of chain to hang them from. I forgot to take pictures of the finished pieces before I gave them away.

Kumihimo Anklet

Oh my goodness, I haven't posted in so very long but I'm back and I have things to post! I made this bracelet in October using the Kumihimo technique. Well it was supposed to be a bracelet but it was so big it turned into an anklet.

She Learns How to Solder

This last weekend Mandy and I took a road trip to a class instructed by Beth Quinn at the Blissful Living Studio in Phoenix. It was a whirlwind trip as we left on Friday and came back on Saturday night but it was so much fun. Beth Quinn made soldering seem easy and I loved the class and the studio. Check out the two pendants that I made in class. I enjoyed it so much check back for more soldering projects soon!