New recipe and new art

I've recently got in a shipment of brass findings and have started to do some necklaces. I've never really used focals like this before. I love the vintage look and style and want to really show that in my work. Please pray for me though, everything I make I want to keep! I need to either sell some stuff or get another neck. Some of the beads and other findings I'm adding are vintage and some are new. I love being able to re-purpose old jewelry into new. Some pieces are so dated with their look but are really still useful to re-purpose. I like that everything doesn't need to be new and fresh. Pearls can have paint missing and chain can be worn.

Anyway I made this wonderful chicken recipe I got from watching Martha Stewart. She had on several guys that own their own restaurants in NY. One of them had a recipe for Buffalo chicken wing meatballs. I tried it and wow! I love them, no mess when eating them and the same great taste but a little less fat because you don't use the skins and they aren't fried you cook them in the oven. I used chicken breasts 2 lb and I cut it up in 2 in pieces then put it in my food processor and got it to a nice large grind. I did 2 ribs of celery the same way but a fine dice. Then added in a bowl 1 2/3 c bread crumbs(I just used what was on hand progresso Italian), 2 eggs, 2 tsp salt to the chicken and celery. I melted 1 stick butter in saucepan and then added the 1 c Franks original hot sauce mixed and used a 2 inch cookie scoop for the meatball size. I rolled them and placed them touching and came up with 46 meatballs on a cookie sheet then cooked them for 20 min at 450. I made my own blue cheese sauce instead of the regular blue cheese salad dressing. It was 2/3 c blue cheese, 1/2 c sour cream, 1-8oz cream cheese and 1/2c franks sauce in a sauce pan and heated till the cheese melted stirring constantly. It makes it much more intense than just mixing the ingredients and serving it cold. But once the sauce it done the first time and we ate more for a different meal I didn't heat it again. These turned out really spicy and so good. I would try it with the original before you go spicier or you could even put sauce over the top after they're cooked. This recipe was so much faster than doing the wings and about 5 fill you up where most people eat about 10 wings.

A New Direction

I've started to contemplate all the things I love and don't love about my life. I'm heading into my (gasp) forties this year and  I can't believe so much time has flown by. I was so busy running through my life I didn't take much time to really enjoy the daily things of living life. So this is the start of a new year and direction in my life I'm searching out more JOY!

 I have a small son , he's 22 months old and such a blessing. I've been taking more time when I put him down for a nap to hold and cuddle him before I put him to sleep. Then today I layed down in the bed in his room till he fell asleep and just enjoyed the music I turned on for him and listening to him sleep. The laundry will still be there when I'm ready for it but, I need to search out and enjoy the little things. Before I was always in a rush to get him down so I could run around the house and do chores, I think I've finally killed that sense of urgency to have everything perfect.

Another new direction I am taking is what I cook. I'm going to use up a lot of what we have in the kitchen then I need to cook healthier and more veggies. I've started to read that Eat-Clean Diet and the Maker's Diet books. I do pretty well with not having refined products in the house but we will still have the occasional boxed product and way more carbs than we need. So now I'm focusing on veggies, at least 1/2 our plates or more are going to be veggies. I know a lot of people think that there is only so much you can do with a veggie but I used to eat so much better and feel so much better. Here's to embracing the veggie! I have started making these green drinks at least once a day for all of us. The drinks have broccoli stems, kale, romaine, wheat grass, cucumber, ginger, spinach, two apples and some carrots. I know what you're thinking but they aren't that bad and we get such a boost of energy. I've filmed my son drinking them because it is funny. As soon as he sees it he starts to whine for it. I give him a straw and he sucks about a cup of it down. When you get to the end it's a little more like chewing it. I just add more water to his and he sucks the rest down. AMAZING HUH! The hilarious thing is because my son does it so easily my husband won't complain about it at all. HA!

So my goals for the year is: more joy, healthier eating, creating more art and taking more time to enjoy life!

Blue Bird Love

 I love birds and what they symbolize.  I started several canvas's for more mixed media pieces. I love the textures and colors of this one. I'm starting to use new products like joint tape and heavy gel medium. I used to worry so much about what I would use because of the cost of supplies and I didn't want to have something turn out bad and waste all of the materials. It's taken me a long time to get over that thought process. One day  a girl I watched online gave a talk about some products,  art and her process, she kept saying something about getting over the "preciousness" of what we use. Then it just clicked for me to stop hoarding supplies and start using them. It's been a freeing experience! I've created more in the last year then ever before. My next project is a nest. I know it sounds a little wierd but I saw one once and loved it. I really enjoy the freeing experience of doing mixed media and not being so concerned about fine detail work. I would get so nervous trying to get everything so perfect I didn't get lost in the art and just feel the joy of doing it. Anyway I think I'll live with this for awhile then put it on my etsy site (or maybe just copies of it) ;)

A New Year to Create

Wow, the rest of the year just flew by. Before I knew it Christmas had come and gone and I hadn't posted for months. My son has been keeping me going and I started and finished a business class. I'm looking forward to starting my own business on-line besides the etsy shop and doing more jewelry and mixed media. I've temporarily set up a painting station in the middle of my kitchen. It sounds weird I know but it's the only room I can gate off from my son and still be able to watch him. Plus I have this huge counter top height table in the center where I can paint etc. I know I need to write more it is very therapeutic for me. Everything had just started culminating all at once and this was one of the extras that got booted for awhile.

I just picked up the latest "Artful Blogging" magazine and am so inspired by the beautiful blogs. I highly recommend the magazine if you've never read it. I have to say this is the first magazine I have read from start to finish every word. Usually I just read a couple articles here and there in other ones and focus on the pictures. My 22  month old son helped in the reading,  I would lay him down for a nap and read it out loud to him till he fell asleep.

I made several handmade gifts this year for presents and devoted a lot of time to the season so I haven't created much to sell. I did find a sorry little bunny that I painted. Here's the before and after.

I just love how she turned out with the hard candy crackle finish and pretty collar. I have a thing for bunnies so I pretty much think I'm keeping her.

 I have completed a painting but most of my time has been on the computer looking for found objects and vintage jewelry to repurpose. I've become a rhinestone addict. Not very many people still wear brooches or rhinestone but I love the repurposing of them into new necklaces etc. The Rosa and Josies blog has really gotten my creative juices going again too,  such lovely rhinestone creations. I'll be posting my new creations soon.

Repurposed Adornments

I've recently started to do more jewelry. I love the books that show how to re-use items that you no longer wear into new items or to take vintage pieces and re-make them into more vogue pieces. Here is a necklace I made from a vintage glass brooch. The beads were recycled from a vintage necklace with vintage buttons, brass findings and glass pearls. 

I wholesaled this assemblage to a chic store upstate for re-sale. I've been listing some creations on my etsy site too.  I've married new pieces with vintage to make some very pretty items. 

Recycled Art

This has been a crazy two weeks I found out about a Recycled Art Exhibit in Alamosa Colorado about three weeks ago and decided to enter a couple pieces. Because I have never been to this show before I really was worried about what to create. This show is usually only open for people in Alamosa to enter pieces too so I was so excited to be able to enter two pieces. So in order to enter pieces you have to send digital photos before they are due and the "jury" decides if they are accepted into the exhibit. Each person can enter 3 pieces and they will let you know if they are selected. Well, the deadline was just two weeks away and I had no idea what I wanted to do also the pieces had to be 90 percent recycled material. The picture on the front of the postcard I found advertising the exhibit was of some plastic bags weaved together as a wall hanging. Nothing against that type of art but that is just not me. I love assemblage and altered art and decided to do two wall hangings and one drawer which I had never attempted before. The first one here is a cupboard door re-purposed as a background canvas for the piece. I has found some horseshoe nails (I believe) at a re-store shop and loved the look of them and wanted to use them for a project and this is what took shape above. I also added a vintage padlock on the bottom of the heart not shown because I found it on the way to the exhibit at an antique store. This one was accepted and is to be on display all of August.

This piece was also accepted for the exhibit. I had a lot of fun making these pieces I haven't worked on larger creations for awhile everything has been jewelry and smaller fabric collages. The funny thing is I've been harboring most of the materials I used in this project for awhile. I hate to throw things out and am trying to reconcile being a pack rat with trying to keep the house decluttered enough to be able to sit down and eat and watch t.v. You may laugh but sometimes and especially last week we almost didn't have a place to sit. I used to have a plaque that says "Creative people are seldom tidy." I thought it was funny and made for me but I have seen some other artists homes and studios and have heard some stories and I think it's true for creative people. Try as I might but by the end of the week the house looks like a bomb has gone off and with

a 16mo old that isn't exactly a good thing.

Anyway this was also done on a cupboard door sanded a little but mostly left as it was and things glued to it. If you can make it out it says "2 Grow and Learn is Key" with all the elements and words.

The next project I did wasn't accepted ;( I think it was because it was too girly! which I thought was funny. Who cares if a couple people on the jury didn't like it as much but if it sells and they get their commission why should they care if it doesn't meet their taste. My dear husband was very upset that someone didn't want my work. He doesn't really understand my altered art and assemblage sometimes but he didn't understand why they would not accept it. I do love the man!!! He doesn't get my mad and sometimes crazy need to create all the time but he supports me and puts up with the mess (most of the time). Occasionally I agree with him it does get old having a wiped out house. Our solution... we are gonna move! Hopefully we can get a large house and turn a basement into a studio for me :) ! I have been dreaming about a studio for years.

Anyway here's the pic of the third piece. After the exhibit is over if they don't sell I'm listing them on my etsy site for sell. Right now I am living with the "Soar" piece before I can part with it. I tend to be a girly girl even if I don't really dress like one.

On the next post I'll be showing some jewelry that I've started to created from vintage pieces that are re-purposed. Cia

Artist retreat and such

It has been forever since I've been able to sit down and write. This is a new piece I made the other day. Jewelry has been my passion of late. This is a rose quartz pink carved rose with glass pearls, seed beads and Czech iridescent pressed glass beads. The chain is double rings of antiqued brass. I have been drawn to the antiqued brass because it doesn't tarnish or change like silver and isn't expensive to work with. I making a ton of pieces to take to a store in Denver where a lady is interested in my creations.
When I was out yesterday I ran across the book "Rejuvenated Jewels" by Amy Hanna. I love this book! She makes such beautiful things. I love the fact of reusing items to make something new. She mixes metals and mediums. I love antique and vintage items and rarely buy them because they're usually beat up a bit and now I think I can find ways to incorporate them into some of my jewelry.

I went to an artist retreat a little over a week ago in Durango Colorado. This is the wonderful place I spent the retreat in. Obaro Cabins is on the Florida river . The cabin has two sides with a dividing door. There is an upstairs bedroom and a pullout sofa in the living room. This is such a beautiful place I am looking forward to returning with my husband. It was a four day three night retreat with about eighteen women I had never met. This worked out great for me because I hadn't been away from the baby or my husband for 15months and I needed somewhere fun and safe to travel by myself. We worked in watercolor, inks, collage and also did some writing and acting. The instructors talked about getting into areas you've never done anything in before to re-start your creative abilities and think of new things. The writing exercises were a little challenging for me but they brought up all kinds of feelings and new memories many of the women hadn't thought of in a long time. One of the exercises was to think of an article of clothing you had worn and when and why it had a strong memory. I loved the inks section, we did a mandala which is a circle cut into sections and everyone takes a different section. In the section you look at some pictures and a word is written to embody the mandala and you're suppose to ink something in that represents that word. I had fire and the blue gold and red section to the upper left is mine.

I became so entranced by this I had to work after hours to finish it one night. I'm looking forward to getting my own set of inks and starting a mandala myself. The pictures that weren't finished the instructor was going to finish and then all of the twelve that we started are going to be printed into a calender for all of us as a keepsake. We had full days from 8:00 a.m to about 5:30 p.m. The breakfast and lunch were provided and appetizers and wine for the evening. The caterer was great. She made a feta, butter, thyme and lemon spread that I fell in love with and lemon usually isn't my thing. We had a roasted red pepper dip also that I could have eaten on anything. The most unusual was a lentil and beet salad that was really good and light. I enjoy pickled beets in salad but haven't ever had lentils except in soup.

Anyway every night I sat out on the deck and read "Pride and Prejudice" and loved the cool nights next to the river with some wine then went inside next to the fire and worked on a collage I wanted to do to take home. I'm still working on it a little slow going but it should be done and I'll post a picture. The picture down below is the river not twenty feet from the cabin.

What a beautiful view!