Open House Eve

I've been putting in long days getting ready for the open house that starts tomorrow. Kimberly asked me to bring in some paintings, so now there's a mini gallery of my paintings on one wall.

We have the display tables ready to lay out the jewelry in the morning. If you are in the Ames area, be sure to stop in and say hello.

TV commercial update for Prairie Fibers Co.

I saw it at 9:30 this morning during Martha Stewart. (It's a local commercial for the Ames/Des Moines market on channel 5). I'm shown knitting in the middle of the commercial - but don't blink or you will miss me! They really got a lot of product in 30 seconds.

By the way, Rosy Gardens, the bracelet pictured above, is available to buy. Email me if you are interested. It hasn't made it to my Etsy store yet.

Work Work Work

I'm taking a break from Nevada Uncorked preparations. The show is Oct. 6th, 1-7, THIS SATURDAY! Happily, I've had a flood of ideas to keep me moving ahead with new jewelry; however, time is running out. I still need to photograph & tag all the new items.

This past weekend, Todd & I made weights for the tent. I'm blessed to have such a clever & helpful husband. We filled 3" PVC tubing with concrete. Chain runs through the core for strength and a heavy eyelet is attached to the top of the column. We were getting set up to make them when a thunderstorm popped up. The lightning was pretty fierce, so we waited for the storm to pass before we completed the job.

The weather forecast for Saturday is showing rain, but I'm hoping and praying that will change. My prayer is for a dry, warm, and very gentle breezy day.... something like the day in the photo I posted today. This scene is taken on the road I where grew up (at the farm behind the trees on the right). I added the Irish Blessing for a special request last year.

If you're local, I hope to see you at the show Saturday.

Frosty Mugs

I finally sat at the jewelry design board long enough to get a necklace and earrings made earlier this week. This necklace started with a set of lampwork glass beads I found at a bead show in Des Moines last spring and they were made by Tanya McGuire. It's great meeting the artists who make lampworked beads. I admire their skill and ability to work with fire.

This set was etched for a soft look. Each bead has a swirl of silvered ivory. While designing the necklace, the lampwork beads made me think of root beer floats, creme soda, and dark ale - so that's how I came up with the name "FROSTY MUGS". Some designers name all their pieces, but not me. I guess I could work at it more.

Sometimes I labor for hours over a design before the final stringing, but this one came together relatively quickly. I needed that encouragement while getting ready for Nevada Uncorked on Oct. 6th. I used freshwater pearls, Czech glass, Swarovski crystals and sterling silver to complete the design. I made a couple pair of earrings to coordinate and have more beads that would work for others, but it was time to work on another necklace.

Show Preparations

Tonight we ordered business cards, labels, postcards and note cards. I suppose I'll do it on my own one day, but it's great to have a techno savvy husband to make sure everything is formatted correctly.

I decided to try having some notecards printed with the image of one of my acrylic paintings. It's called Daffy-dil.