Long weekend away,

I have had a fabulous week. First of all I had a wonderfully fun halloween. We did our usual small family party at our house where we have a bunch of crock pots out for good eating, costumes if you want, trick or treating rounds with the kiddies if desired, sitting on the porch passing out treats, and new this year relaxing in the newly installed hot tub out back. As you can see this year I was Little Red Riding Hood. I had fun carrying around beers in my basket to pass out to deserving parents. (My first recipient was a man dressed in a pink ballerina tutu who actually pirrouetted for me!) I must admit that some trades were done with the beers as I was very open to accepting them as well as giving them away.

I made my nephew into a globe decoration as I had previously done with my neices. I just couldn't make him into a fairy, so we made him pose (rather reluctantly) in a dragon costume and then I glittered him up and surrounded him with his own treasure. He seems to be happy with the results.

We left fairly early on Saturday for our long weekend to Ohio wine country (east of Cleveland). It was beautiful weather with temps reaching in the high 60's and even along the lakeshore it wasn't to cold. We visited many of the wineries and ended up coming home with over a case of assorted wines! Such wino's huh? Craig's favorite winery was housed in the church you see above. The dismantled the building and moved it to where it now stands. It still has pews inside and you can clearly see where the alter was placed. The beautiful field picture is the view from across the street. We were pulling out and had to stop and get the camera back out because the lone tree amidst all the well kept rows of vines was stunning. We rented a beautiful house along the Grand River and the picture below is the backyard from where we stayed. It was very peaceful and relaxing. It was a perfect anniversary trip in celebration of 12 years of wedded bliss.

'Thank you so much for stopping by.

Halloween Extravaganza

I'm joining in the fun with Vanessa and the festive Halloween Extravaganza. After all, Halloween is one of my mostest favoritest days of the year. Who could resist a day where you can dress up however you wish, visit with neighbors and receive yummy goodies?

The wise old fortune teller warns me. According to her open minds are dangerous-your brains could fall out!

She's full of other advise as well, but I think you can believe that she doesn't know quite as much as she thinks she does. I guess that's what happens when you are stuck in a crystal ball.

Actually, the type of halloween I simply adore is filled with fantasy and dress up and letting those childhood dreams of fairy tales and magical kingdoms come to life. In honor of this, I have followed the lead of Tina Wright and her magical fairies she shared in Somerset Studion Gallery-Summer 2008. I loved her creations and the fact that she made them out of a wine glass really intrigued me. As soon as I saw them I wanted to make one of my own.

I used some fun photos of my 3 neices and went to work. Of course I had to add wings and glitter and fluffy furs. Crystals and crowns and fairy wands too. I stuck with themes of believing in yourself, play, and dreams because I hope that all 3 of these beautiful girls allows herself to do what she wants in life. And I think these 3 factors-if sufficiently explored-allow someone to truly know oneself and leads one to know what they will be happy doing in life.

The beautiful fairy wearing the black skirt has been expressing her creative self in amazing ways lately. She made this art all by herself. I love the way she's naturally employing mixed-media techniques of layering and using multiple materials. I visited her yesterday and loved that she wrote out the words, cut them off and then glued them on instead of just writing them where they ended. The cat cutout has been embellished with flower shaped crystals too. I thought this was pretty impressive for a kindergartener to accomplish all on her own.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a fantastic upcoming halloween

She's back!!!!

She's back! My friend and therapist has finally returned and she looks damn good too! Lets go back to May when she left for her spa visit. She had an old crackled finish which covered her beauty. Her keys were chipped and in many cases completely missing. She was tired and scuffed all over on the outside. Inside she seemed to be falling apart more every moment. Not holding a tune like she used to and basically just old and abused. One ugly toad of a man told me to scrap her-there was no hope of fixing her and she was junk. Thankfully my hubby and dad talked some sense into me and I got a second opinion.
I found a lovely woman who looked her over and said "Oh yes, she's fixable" and "I think she's worth it." So much was sorted out here on the home front as far as timing and finances and in May she left for some much needed rejuvinating work. As you can see she got a manicure and a pedicure (with such shiny metallic polish!)

She got her name freshened up over her nails as well with a tattoo that is a replica of the one she wore for so many years. She has some authentic name tags and serial information preserved

inside her.

She had a very nice rest and even got to lay down for a portion of her visit while she had new strings put inside. Nickel plated pins and German hammers restored her voice and she can once again boom with authority. Her face lift is truly a remarkable thing as all her fine lines and age spots have disappeared. She received no stain, just a high gloss laquer finish to allow her beauty to show. And to hear her sing, oh I wish I knew a way to share that with you. She truly is amazing. Her low notes boom and her high notes sparkle. She has an amazing feel when you play her now. She simply springs to life the minute you sit down with her.
So what am I doing taking pictures and posting here? Simply a small break from playing. You see its been 4 months without much practice and while my friend had a nice spa visit, I haven't been restored and my back is complaining after playing her for 4 1/2 hours. I'll be going back for more in just a minute though. I just wanted to allow each of you to see that this story did have a happy ending and share in my joy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michigan Breast Cancer 3 Day

This past weekend was beautiful for the Breast Cancer 3 Day in Michigan. Walkers and crew alike had a life changing time and this is a tribute to all of you incredible people.

Cleveland Breast Cancer 3-Day

I had a wonderful time at the Cleveland 3-Day. Enjoy!

The Return of my Muse...

August has been a whirlwind already! I just dont know what goodness to share first. After focusing primarily on the harp music, my muse wanted to play with mixed media again and she truly outdid herself. Earlier this year Kara at Mother Henna organized a personal healing and inspiration card deck. She did a marvelous job of coordinating between all the artists and we were rewarded with a gorgeous deck of cards. I've been wanting an appropriate place to keep my treasured deck, but just didn't know what I really wanted. My polymer clay was calling me so I went there to start. I love playing with UTEE overtop of my clay to give nice depth to pieces. I began to wonder if I could recreate one of my cards in clay. I started by sculpting out some fish in a pearly orange mix. I added some scales and fin detail then brushed over a layer of a yellow pearlx to make the little guys shimmer. OK, I decided that these were useable. Now I had to make a pond for the little swimmers. My first try, I painted a pond right on the box lid, surrounded it with clay rocks and filled with UTEE. When I baked this one, the UTEE bubbled up really bad. I ended up scraping it all out and redoing. I still had alot of bubbles, but it was ok. Unfortunately the rocks weren't creating a seal and the UTEE was leaking out of the pond and I couldn't achieve the depth I was looking for. It still turned out cute, and you can see the first one in finished form atop the purple box.

My second attempt, I made the blue water out of clay also, made sure I had a good seal around the rock bottoms, and tried again. Success!! Much better level of depth on the orange box topper. I continued to play with the purple box. I used a mixture of 4 or 5 paints to do a mottled background. I made large polymer clay rocks, drilled holes in the bottom corners of the box, and added the rocks for legs.

I added swirls of glue and coated them in 2 colors of glitter. I glued down a braid of fibers to add more texture. On the end of the fibers I tied 2 polymer clay hearts. Finally I added metal word tags such as dream, inspire, hope. Some of the metal tags have a glass bauble glued over them to make them pop.
The orange box was made using many of the same techniques. I used various stamps to add a discreet pattern that adds interest and depth. I sculpted a large goldfish to dangle off the fiber braid end. I added a star crystal to dangle from the middle of the braid, and a small swarovski crystal to brighten up the other end. I used letter stamps to add words as well as metal tag words.





Oops, I almost forgot about the inside. I used sticky backed felt, cut it to size and lined the bottom and sides of both the lid and the base to give a cozy finished look to the project.




So, what do you think? I had so much fun making these because I got to play with paint, clay, stamps and fibers all at once!




Lets see, I have adventures at the fair and an overnight camping trip pictures (I went dragonfly hunting with my camera) to share but I think that will wait until my next post. It seems amazing that its August 6th already. I want the remainder of summer to crawl by because it has been beautifully relaxing and rejuvenating. I do hope all of you are experiencing the same.

Glitter Toes

Craftyhala came up with the grand idea of having a "Glitter your Toes Day!" and picked out today to do the sharing. If you go to my sidebar I'll guess that many of the Glitter Power Sisters are doing the same.

I'm off to do route safety on a training walk for the MI Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. If you're not familiar with these walks, they are 3 day walks that cover 60 miles in total. Each walker must raise over $2,200.00 in order to participate. Each year they raise millions of dollars to further research and fund underpriveledged women in getting screened and treated. I have been involved with the walks for 5 years now, and will be on event for my 7th and 8th event in August and September. A very talented quilter from my church made and donated a quilt for me to use in my fundraising. I am selling raffle tickets for the quilt for $2 each, or 3 for $5. If you're interested you can donate online here and then let me know where to mail you tickets.