Accidental Altars

I find these little displays all over my house. I think of them as "accidental altars" because they display things that I think are too precious to throw out, but their arrangements are not deliberate. If I was more deliberate, people would call me organized.

There always seem to be stray plastic animals around the house.
These two have been perched atop my mica shelf for a few
years now. Although they're not glued down, they seem content
to stay where they are.

This old Scrooge pops up in my jewelry photos now and then.
These days he holds court among the crystals, in the
shade of the peacock feathers.

Buttons, milk pogs, old black snaps, and little bottles
the MOTH finds on his hunting-gathering missions.

I adore the little Japanese lamp the MOTH brought home.
Suddenly we had a new accidental altar.

Sun and Moon Inchies 4U

I used these clip art images recently for an inchy ATC swap. Regardless of how they appear here, you should be able to click on either image to get to a 1-inch square image to use in your inchy art.

These two images make nice alternating patterns. They also work well as polymer clay transfers that you can color in (before baking) with colored pencils.

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Birthdays and Beads

I thought I was on the 5- to 7-day blogging plan, but obviously I missed even that mark this week. Ah well, it's the last couple of weeks of the semester, and I have taken a rare fancy to keeping the house clean, which leaves a bit less time (make that ZERO) for making jewelry or blogging much. Don't worry, I'm doing plenty of typing. Just not around here.

So considering the above, I had to seriously question my sanity for volunteering to work for Betcey and Mark at the Bead Renaissance show yesterday. I woke up Saturday morning tired and achy from the work week, with a sink fulla dishes and dog hairs on the bed spread. I asked the MOTH "Why am I doing this again?" and he said, "Because you love it." And he was right.

I was late for my first and last day of work, LOL! But fortunately they didn't fire me, and once I got out on the floor I remembered how much fun I have gabbing with people and finding beads that match their crystals, etc. In a perverse way I also enjoy scouting for the show's well known perennial would-be shoplifters, though I didn't see either of them this year, darn it. It's so much fun to talk their ears off until they just finally leave. Hehe.

Yes it was fun, and I do love it, and when Betcy is around we always hit a nice restaurant or two at dinnertime. We celebrated Nikia's birthday on Saturday with Italian food, off-color jokes, brought-in cheesecake (an annual tradition), gifts, and whatever Betcey was drinking.

So today I'll play catchup. And it was worth it. :-)

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Rather stunning color combos

Have you found typoGenerator? You type your text into the box, they generate it into an artsy image. You can create the most inspiring color combinations here . . . makes me want to go slather paint on something. Here's what I made today:

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Free ATC Clip Art

Click on the image above for a slightly larger, ATC-sized image

A nice lass for this time of year, I thought. She's holding . . . an evergreen bough? A sprig of rosemary? She's perfect for coloring with pencils, markers, transferring, etc. Have fun!

Bead Fest Santa Fe 2010 Classes

Pardon my absence of late. It's that time of year when school, family, work and life all collide and squeeze the blogging right out of my day. ;-)

Today I got the email that Bead Fest Santa Fe classes are open for registration. I was a little disappointed that Susan Kazmer wasn't on the roster cause I'll sign up for just about anything from her. But there were lots of other mixed media type metal classes. Didn't know the teachers though, so I signed up for these:

Micro macrame jewelry 101 with Joan Babcock! Joan lives in Santa Fe and produced a marvelous book that Suzanne Cooper showed me recently. I want! I've loved Joan's work for years, especially her color schemes. And even though there are tutorials on the web, I'm one of those "show me" gals. So a-micro-macrame-ing we go!

And this one is a copper etching class. And again, I even have a book that briefly describes the process but I look forward to getting some face time with a real live instructor. Her name is Gina Crow.

It feels so odd to be registering (and paying for) classes way off in March 2010 but I've learned the hard way it's pretty tough to get what I want if I wait until I make the hotel reservations.

Only one problem -- both of these classes are in the evenings, which is going to severely cutting into my , er, fine dining time with friends.
margarita

In other bead news, I just realized (thank you Nikia of the rhinestone embellished vintage Coach bag!) that the bead show in Albuquerque is weekend after next. I get to see Betcey and Mark! Buying beads doesn't have quite as much thrill as seeing them because cause after all we have great bead shopping here all year 'round.