Weekend Jewelry Making

These are a couple of necklaces I made this weekend. The trick was I had to use things I already had and couldn't purchase anything. Oddly enough, it turns out I have tons of stuff hidden away in drawers, cubbies, boxes, etc. I'm not sure I have enough room for all the jewelry I can make without needing anything else! I also went back to basics on these and the 3 strand necklace I have one strand that's just strung on the beads, the next one was hand knotted between each bead (I found this bizarrely relaxing!) and the last was a simple chain made with sterling wire. I hadn't originally planned on using the quartz between the floral beads but it turns out with the loops 1/2 the beads would lay on their sides so not an attractive look. I'm actually really happy with how it turned out.

The green milk glass necklace was super easy but I really love the look of the dark steel chain against the green beads. I added the crystal for a little interest at the clasp so it can be worn in front or in back if I decide to add some layers. I've got a few more pieces started and I should be able to get them finished up over the weekend but I have a few house projects in mind... I haven't brought up painting a few rooms for a while now so I'm sure Rolland thinks I've decided against it but no, just laying low and will spring it on him when I bring home the paint! :)

Round Robin Charm

This is my latest round robin charm and it was for Sharon's necklace. I hope she loves it when it finally makes it back to her, it's gorgeous and I loved working on it! This is a soldered and patina-ed charm with a few little dangles added. There's a moonstone, a vintage religious charm and a skull bead. I love that they feel like they tell a story about an incredible adventure in an exotic land... or, that I need to get out more!

The one place I have tried to make a point of getting to this summer is our local Farmer's Market right off the McKinney square. We've had some tasty goodness including an incredible olive oil and some super tasty grass fed beef. If you find yourself looking for an outing between 8-1 in McKinney on Saturday, check it out! This is Anita and Rolland after I dragged them out pre-shopping.

Latest Marie Pages

In an effort to improve my tendency to procrastinate, I've been working on Marie pages for a swap I'm doing with my charmsters group. These are a few of the latest pages and I'm having a blast working on them. It's so much fun to play with the color and all the super fun scraps I've collected that are more than a little over the top.

I love journals but am the worst about keeping up with it. This gives me a great way to incorporate some of my favorite journaling images and techniques into the pages.

I also have a super cool new scanner/printer combo that's mac friendly and these babies come out bright enough you need shades! I'm loving the crispness of the images and the husband assures me I'm in no danger of loosing space with the larger file sizes. Whew!

Vegas with birthday boy

We've had a great day today finishing up by seeing Love which was awesome! Now after dinner,show,gambling and a late night snack it's time for bed.

Note: I'm super excited to have caved and got the iPhone where I can now blog from dinner! Pics will have to wait though.

Master Bathroom Finish

Here are the long awaited (at least to people who are related to us) final bathroom pics!
If you want to see the start to finish you can check out the set on flickr.

Now, I'm off to use the fancy new bathtub and pack since we're heading to Vegas for the weekend! Woo hoo. Tomorrow is the hubby's b-day so we're celebrating in style. Tickets to Love, dinner at Boa and Sunday breakfast at Bouchon!

Chicago pics and a finished bathroom

The bathroom is finally finished except for a few more pics to hang. I need to get the final pics uploaded and posted but it's crazy busy around here lately. I've been working late at work and then trying to get the house put back together so that's taken up most of the free time. I did manage to get the pics from Chicago finished and up on flickr so I can scratch that off the to do list!

Hopefully the next day or two will include bathroom pics plus a more interesting blog post. I hope you guys love the bathroom as much as we do. It's pretty awesome.

Bathroom update

As you can see, we're not the only ones who want to get their house back! This is Abby's standard procedure if I'm home and not letting her out of her confined area. It's also why we're going to have to sand and re-stain this bookcase. She is cute but a handful.

This is our progress pic as of today. Shockingly, it looks like some actual progress has been made although he did finish grouting the floor yesterday about noon and called it done for the day whereas I was thinking he could go ahead an move the light fixture, fix the drywall for the old medicine cabinet and inset the new medicine cabinets then grout and call it a day. Not so much in his planning. Apparently he's not a multi-tasking kind of thinker. More of a grout, wait, paint, wait, etc. We're now taking bets on whether he'll actually finish by next Friday. I'd like to be optimistic but there's nothing in this experience that would cause me to feel that way... seriously, I can't take another week of this mess!

Otherwise, it's a pretty good 4th with a brisket slowly baking, baked beans ready to be popped into the oven, only decision now is to make a baked good for dessert or stick to sorbet. Hope you're having a terrific holiday weekend!

Bathroom Madness

Okay, I have decided the guy working on our bathroom is trying to drive me insane. He called on Tuesday to outline the plan for finishing our bathroom this week. Important reminder, he thought he would be done Tuesday. So yesterday's items on the agenda were to center the light fixture over the vanity, grout the tile and install the toilet. Actual accomplishments? To remove 3 tile off the 1/2 wall around the bathtub. Honest to deity of your choosing, if he would've been here last night I might have siced the dogs on him. This is clearly poetic license as the puppies are mostly here for cuddling and Abby just sort of glares menacingly. I'm not exaggerating that we can't tell that they were here at all.

What's wrong with people? If I went to work everyday and the only thing I ever accomplished was to put up a graphic once a week there would be hell to pay. The good news is that I had planned to take an extra day this week for the holiday, mostly to enjoy the new bathroom and clean the house, but I'm starting to be just as content to lay into these people like there's no tomorrow. Rolland actually regretted going to work today since it meant he could be home to watch. Rolland tried to prep them on his time here that they really didn't want to have to deal with me. Yes, I'm fully prepared that we may be finishing the bathroom this weekend which I'm almost hoping for that outcome. We actually work our asses off on these kind of projects and I could finally take a freakin' bath!

If you want to learn how to get rich in the construction business, here is my advice:
1. Show up on time and when you say you will
2. Accomplish enough each day that your employers can clearly tell you were there
3. Do not cut tile inside the master bathroom therefore alleviating the gross water dripping across the bed room floor and covering said employers bedroom in a fine layer of tile dust every damn day
4. Do not leave your snacks, soda and wet clothing laying on their shelves and their bed
5. If you discuss some specific things that are to be done, write them down so you do not call them 3 times during their work day to confirm that you are doing exactly the wrong thing

I think I'm done venting to the universe now. I plan to continue to sit quietly in my studio until they head over at which point I pounce then promptly leave to go by Eco friendly cleaning products and some kind of good smelling something to put in the bathroom since it now reeks. We refuse to wonder what's causing the smell.

I hope you have an incredible 4th of July.

Happy Anniversary and bathroom update

First off, today is our 14th wedding anniversary and his love for R2D2 and legos is still strong...well, I think he likes me and the puppies too. :)

On the bathroom front, today was the day they had hoped to have the bathroom finished. As you can see from the pics that is unlikely given that they just finished the tile in the shower yesterday. That only leaves the floor tile, fixing the baseboards, grouting, putting the vanity top on, moving the light fixture, painting and adding in the linen cabinet, adding the medicine cabinets, fixing the drywall, priming and painting the walls then cleaning up all their stuff out of the garage. It seems unlikely this will happen today.

Marie Pages

This the Marie page I mailed last week and several bits and bobs are drying on the new one I'm hoping to mail out tomorrow. Of course, there had to be a "Let Them Eat Cake" pic and I was obsessed with the idea of a Marie cake so this seemed like the perfect fit. It also cemented my love of Copic markers and want to use them on absolutely everything. I also have bathroom pics to update but that will have to wait until the morning. Strangely, there's not that much progress to share. Go figure.

Watched the 2nd Harry Potter with my friend Suzanne since we're on a marathon to be caught up for the premier of the latest on the 15th. I think we'll make it since we're getting in two this week! Even the hubby has enjoyed re-watching. Tomorrow we'll need to play some catch up on the tivo, which is taping the latest Doctor Who as I type (YAY!), or next week won't be pretty.

p.s. Maya is back home and seems to be doing fine. The neurologist couldn't find anything so she's guessing she's one of the rare puppies that decides to start having seizures at 9. Should've known. But she's adorable and sweet so all's forgiven.

Bathroom progress... or lack as seen here

So these are the progress pics for this week. I have to say I'm a little bit underwhelmed by the progress that is not being made here. The guest bathroom seemed incredibly livable when it was going to be two weeks but I'm skeptical that results will materialize incredibly next week and it will be finished. I'll even grant he mentioned it might take three but this is looking like three weeks is even optimistic. I know there has been work going on by the amount of tools packed in front of my closet door making it virtually impossible to get dressed at 6 in the morning. Thank God Rolland has much better coordination or I would be wearing my fuzzy pink Uggs and blue bathrobe to work everyday. Seriously, there better be some plumbing in here next week!

On a much more fun note, my friend Bo and I ventured into a rarely visited (by me) section of Dallas to visit Jimmy's Food Store which was beyond tasty! We had to wait an inordinately long time for Bo's sandwich but this gave us plenty of time to see the guys behind the counter work their magic and to ponder the tastiness that must reside in the huge silver pot on the stove. If you find yourself craving Italian in Big D, this is the place for you.

Our outing also gave me a chance to stumble across this awesome sign

which just gave me even more opportunity to miss Destination Truth and to ponder whether ice cream really would work to lure these beasts out of hiding or if it's best to stick with the cigarettes and rum.

Latest fun

I have been obsessed with Lisa Kaus's Dollies and wanted to take one of her workshops but so far it hasn't been doable with the schedule or the budget. I decided to tackle one on my own and it's been in pieces on my desk for a couple of months but she finally came together. I decided to layer her necklaces just like I would mine and added a little sparkle. I definitely have not mastered Lisa's beautiful glazing and layering, or the limb attachment trickery, but as a studio muse I think she's pretty good.

Now, for my other obsession, charm bracelets. My husband started one for me forever ago which is gold, not the most budget friendly, so I decided to start one in silver for places we've visited (pictured). I'm not sure the chain is going to work since it tends to get tangled but I love all the little collected charms. One of my favorites has to be the carriage from New Orleans and the Sherlock Holmes collection from London. This is giving me the perfect reason to scope out more trips!

Bathroom before and after... day 1 of demo!

Before and after pics as the demo got under way today. I hope it's clear which are which! :)

On the Maya front, she is back to her regular puppy self demanding pets and lots of crying if she can't get us all herded in the right direction. We still made an appoint for the puppy neurologist next Thursday so we'll get the fully skinny then. Hopefully. For now, we're glad to have her back to herself.

Stay tuned for more fun bathroom progress pics. Now, I'm going to bed because I'm beat. I know it's 10pm but I get up early. :)

Never without drama

We came home on Friday and opened the door just as Maya, our Akita, was having a seizure. Thank God Rolland's a nurse and handled it while I willed the vet to say something useful. She had another one on Sat after having gone to the vet and getting blood work then she's just been sluggish for the last day. Tonight we heard back blood work's normal and they gave us a prescription. She's much more herself tonight after having slept all day and so far so good. Apparently they can just develop this problem and it's not always a sign of worse things. I've still put in an email to the puppy neurologist though.

In the meantime, we stuck close to home and I played in my art room. This is the page, front and back, I did for Michelle's Marie book. Kecia graciously hosted a swap for us to do for Marie books but this time we all bought books with ring bindings and did a mass send out of the pages so you just complete a page and send it off. We talked about doing it at Art Nest but never got around to it so I'm glad to finally put my book to good use. It's also helping me work through my girly goody stash in the ribbon and sundries box! The idea is to be over the top with the ribbons, beads, baubles, etc.

I'm still working on going through all of my Chicago pics but here's a link to the New Orleans photos since I can't remember if I posted it previously! I have thrown in a couple of Chicago pics, just to tied you over. :)

Demo on the bathroom starts tomorrow along with all the tweet and before/after updates. Going to be a busy few weeks.

Wings and Hats Controversy

So apparently the Van Cleef and Arpel window designer has not heard all about the wings and hats controversy sweeping through the mixed media world! I loved this vignette in the window along Michigan Ave in Chicago. It was a super fancy shopping district and I was terrified to take the pic. I was convinced security would snatch me up for taking a pic of their window. I worked up the courage to do it when a man walked out of the store and settled in front of the window and eyed all of the passers by. I scurried a way while Rolland laughed and then made fun of me being such a huge chicken. Finally I ran back, snapped my pic and bee lined it out of there. Clearly I decided the pokey was worth the risk to get my winged gentleman photo!