Thursday, December 20, 2012

Jeweled Bookmarks at Santa's Workshop

why am I feeling so light headed?
 The other day in my studio/Santa's workshop, I plugged a lamp in and sparks flew out of the outlet.  I have an electrician coming out in a couple of days to make sure I'm not about to burn our house down, but until then I figured I'd have to either work on jewelry projects in a different room, or just do it in the dark.  :(

But my awesome sister gave me an early Christmas gift which put a cute little band-aid on the problem until Milestone Electric makes it out here on Saturday.  I get to work in my studio after all wearing my new super cute head lamp!

jeweled bookmarks for Christmas gifts
I'm pretty sure my neighbors don't read my blog, so I think I'm safe in posting what part of their Christmas gifts will be.  I made cute little bookmarks with pretty little beads hanging from the silver bookmark.

Hopefully, my neighbors still read from books and haven't  converted to e-readers only... Otherwise my cute little gift is going to be a bust!
bookmarks for BOOKS!



Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I Am SO Selling... Soon, at Resparkable Vintage

I've been making jewelry for several years.  I started with a class at The Creative Arts Center (if you click the link, they still have a picture of me up on the banner!) where we learned how to saw and pierce sheet metals, solder, and do bezel settings and riveting. 

My friend Allyson showed me the basics of beading, which I liked even better than the class because I'm a girl who appreciates instant gratification.

For a while, she and I got really into using PMC and made lots of silver earrings and pendants.
After more classes and just learning stuff by making gobs of necklaces, bracelets and earrings, I think I've finally found my style.  I love to mix vintage components with beads and chains and make them into something new.  

I'm obsessed with the finding the vintage stuff!  Most Thursdays and Fridays I hunt at estate sales.  I have found amazing stuff and I'm always so thrilled to find something special that has a history behind it.

For a while, especially in our days of the silver PMC, Allyson and I had discussions that we should try to sell some of our creations because how much jewelry does one girl really need anyway?  And we needed money to support our new-found habit!

We'd show each other something new we had made, loving it so much that we'd say, "I'm SO not selling this."  We have continued that phrase over the years and still say it all the time. 

This past Fall, we put a few of our necklaces in Allyson's aunt's booth in Warrenton and they sold!
How cool- Stuff moved!  Which created more space, inspiration,  a little cash to make even more jewelry.

Soon, I'll be opening a Etsy shop. I had first secured the shop name, "I'm So Not Selling This", but decided it might be better karma to call it "Resparkable Vintage".  So that's it!  That's what the name of my shop will be.  As my friend Lindsey replied when I told her my final decision, "Done and done!"

I'll be using this blog to tell you about my progress with starting things up, and I'll post pictures of my finds, my creations, and of course all my other usual chit chat.  As soon as the shop is open, you can bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow... well, not tomorrow but soon I'll have the link on this website!

Please stay tuned, because in the weeks or months to come, I am SO selling!  


Friday, December 14, 2012

Before and After

I took this picture of a butterfly over the weekend with my iPhone:
I thought it was really pretty...
Until I tweaked it a bit and made this picture using PicMonkey.


Thursday, December 13, 2012

Singing Peacock

I am sort of in love with this picture.
I love the bird pin I found recently at an estate sale and I love my of "singing" pottery I got at a little shop in Fredricksburg over the weekend.  On top of that, I took the picture inside of my brand new light tent.  Love.  Love.  And love.

So I tried a little photo editing to make it even better...I stopped over at Fotoflexer goofed around with my photo for a little while.

"drawing"
"painting"     

And then, I monkeyed around over at PicMonkey and came up with this:

I think this final version if my fav... That, or the original.  How 'bout you?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Unwrapping

Today is the last day my hand will look like this:
Tomorrow, the wrapping comes off, and the stitches come out!  yeeeeeehawwwww!!!

Two weeks ago, when I got this surgery, this wrap served a good purposes- The compression  helped with swelling, and it kept things from bending around too much.

But now, I am ready for this effer to come off.  I'm ready to bathe and shower without wrapping my hand in plastic bags!  I'm ready to really wash my hands- and I mean really! I'm ready to start playing my guitar again!  And making jewelry!  And...And....  The list goes on and on.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate my thumb.  I never take the time to say, "Thank you!" to my thumb.  I take it for granted.  But once my trigger finger got so bad that it stopped bending, I realized how awesome it really is when it works right, and without pain. 

So thank you, my dear thumb.  And all the other fingers that surround you.  High fives for all my fingers on both hands!