Christmas Past.......

Christmas is over and boy am I tired.  A lot of cooking, wrapping and not so much shopping - most of it was done online.  Here are a few of my holiday decorations.  I love Christmas and decorating for the holidays is one of my favorite things.  Taking it down - not so much.  My daughter, Baille, says next year should be more minimal - how do you do minimal for Christmas?  I guess we'll try.  More pictures of the gold room a.k.a Dining Room another time.  Today is going to be a day to rest and surf the net for ideas for next year.  Enjoy your day!

Halloween Mantel

I love reading blogs and I get such inspiration from the many blogs I follow.  One of my favorite is the mantel parties that are sponsored by Home Stories A2Z. She is currently having a Halloween Mantel Linky Party and I am excited to share my mantel with you.  I love the vintage Halloween look and my anchor is a poster by Will Moses called "Girls Night Out".  Everytime I use this picture in my decorating I smile.  This year I used some fall colored candles along with my vintage looking characters and come pumpkins and gourds in my Crate and Barrel cylinder that I purchased many years ago.  This cylinder makes a wonderful addition to any season just by changing out the filler. 

I also love Vintage inspired Halloween boxes and I have a collection of several from Rick Conant combined with some that my kids and I made many years ago after seeing them demonstrated on Martha Stewart.  I am so happy with how it turned out this year.  Hope you enjoy looking at them and hop on over to Home Stories A2Z for links to other Halloween mantels.

p.s.  I'm new to this whole blogging thing so please bear with me as I learn how to take and post pics and links.

Learning to Photograph Jewelry

I have beens struggling with photographing my jewelry for posting on Etsy for sometime and due to the fact that I wasn't able to get good photos I have been delaying posting my jewelry.  Today I found a tutorial in one of the blogs that I follow on how to photograph jewelry with a point and shoot.  I decided to experiment with the macro setting on the camera and see what happens.  Well I think that they turned out pretty good - if I do say so myself.  I still need to find a suitable background to photograph my pieces on and play around with the positioning but for the first time I don't hate what I photographed.  Check it out.  These are two pieces that I had on my worktable - one is a finished wrap bracelet and one is a kumihimo piece that is in the works.

Fall

I love fall.  I love all the colors, the crisp fall air and the color of the sky in fall - so clear, crisp and blue.  Fall is such a great time to cook those wonderful things that it was way too hot to cook during summer, like apple pie, chicken and noodles and wonderful soups.  I've just begun my fall decorating and each year when I bring out my collection of pumpkins and leaves it make me happy.  I am hoping to take some photos of my fall decorations to post here in a few days.  Hope you are enjoying the transition from summer to fall at your house.

Crafts

I love crafts, I love making things.  I make jewelry, quilts, purses, knit items.  Over the years, I have found that my interest in all of these things comes from a love of color, particularly that found in fabric, beads, and yarn.  The only problem is that I sometimes collect too many things - too much yarn, too much fabric, too many beads.  Today I was introduced to a new app for the iPhone which will likely enhance my craft addiction call craftgawker.  I am currently loading this app and I'll see what great things it has to offer.  Happy crafting.

Waffle Sunday........

Plain or chocolate chip.  My family loves waffles and Sundays are the perfect day for these homemade goodies.  I have used the same recipe from my red and white checked Better Homes and Garden cookbook for years.  Egg whites are whipped and folded into the batter making them light and fluffy.  My family never gets tired of these.  During the summer months when strawberries and peaches are in season, fruit compote is my topping of choice on these tasty morsels.  I have taken my waffle mix on the road when we go on vacation and my trusty waffle iron goes with me.  Does anyone have a favorite waffle recipe that they have been using for years?

Life can sometimes be made up of simple things.  Waffles on Sundays!

Got to get better at this!

Blogging seems to be so natural and easy for some folks but for me it is such a challenge.  I love reading other people's blogs and get so inspired by their ideas and happenings.  I wanted to get into blogging so that I could promote my jewelry and to participate in the blog parties that seem like so much fun.  Over the course of the next few months hopefully I'll get better at this.

On the Design Board Today

I have been working on a Jeannette Cook's Mastering the Curl  bead kit that I purchased awhile back and hopefully the third time is the charm.  I have unsuccessfully started and stopped this project three times.  The bead stitch used in this project is peyote and I enjoy doing peyote stitch however I either made the rows too wide or didn't start new threads correctly so my worked had to be ripped out.  I figure this is good practice.  Here is a peek of the not quite finished project.  

First Post

Hi, I am new to blogging - at least as far as being the blogee.  I follow many blogs and love exploring all the creative minds that are in the world.  It totally fascinates me. Up until now I didn't feel like I had anything worthwhile to say in a blog.  I am a jewelry designer and I am hoping that this blog will help me create an outlet for getting my jewelry designs out into the world.  For anyone reading this blog please be patient with me as I find my way and learn.  I hope to customize the blog over the next few weeks and come up with something worth reading.