rose bowl

Yesterday I shared a booth at the Rose Bowl Arts and Crafts Fair (part of the monthly Rose Bowl Flea Market) with my cousin Britany. We only found out late Friday night that we were approved for a booth so we had to throw a display together in one day. Other than the fact that we were completely unprepared for the surprisingly cool weather, I think we pulled it together pretty well. We each sold a few items and came up with some great ideas for next time. I'm in the process of taking some photos and will have a few new items up in the shop in the next couple days. Also, be sure to check out Britany's Small Adventure shop. She has a lot of cute items as well as cards for several occasions and even re-useable envelopes for gifts and such!

candy

floral forays

If it were up to me, I'd have all sorts of flora inside and outside of my apartment, but Mike raises his eyebrows when I start to wander through the plant section of the farmer's market. This is not to say that he's any sort of evil, plant-hating dictator, it's that he knows my history of inadvertently killing most plants that come into my possession. It started in college when I killed an orchid, a miniature rose plant, and a bonsai. Much to my dismay, my skills have not improved and I've been fully or partially responsible for killing a poinsettia, a chrysanthemum, a lavender plant, a succulent, and a marigold within the last couple years. This is all to say that instead of trying to grow any more flowers, I've taken to making my own. I'm not quite sure that I'm sold on the colors, but I'm experimenting with shapes and textures. I decided not to trace anything beforehand as I want each to be unique, complete with its own flaws.

my alternative to wearing rudolph earrings to christmas dinner

Lately I've been spending way too much time looking at tasty recipes online in anticipation of all the family arriving so I decided to take a little break to do some jewelry making. I had little pieces of chain leftover from the necklaces so I made some party earrings. Although I love Christmas and decorate and bake and listen to Christmas music as much as possible, the one thing I can't bring myself to do is wear Christmas clothing and jewelry. I have no doubt I'll probably own several Christmas sweaters and necklaces that look like Christmas lights by the time I'm 50, but I'm going to hold off for a few more years.

little sad, little happy

This is Spike. He was squished by the guys who come to do the gardening around my apartment last week. Poor Spike.

The "berry" necklace took on a completely different form than what I had originally pictured, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out and glad it's finally complete. I used three different sizes of red coral beads and then threw in a bit of amazonite just to catch the eye.

no thumb twiddling here

Mike has been out of town for the last few days. I've been so bored in the evenings that I've actually been more productive. I also got a few different types of chain so I've been able to play with different necklace ideas.

close, but...well not close at all

I really thought I would have finished the "berry" necklace by now. I actually did about a week ago, but the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. So, now it's sitting in pieces on the table as I work on the new design I have in mind. While I was getting input from Gina she mentioned making sets. For the most part, I'm not too fond of matching jewelry sets, at least as far as my own wardrobe is concerned. But then I started thinking about putting together pieces that compliment each other without looking exactly the same. I think something like this would look nice together. This would be my version of a set.