Everyone have a fun, relaxing but thoughtful Memorial Day!

This is my kitty Kya.  She knows now to relax, how to be happy -- all it takes is lounging on her favorite person, which is , ehem, me.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Memorial Day, while also honoring those we love who served or didn't,  who are gone or still with us.

I plan to spend some quality time with my kitty, work on some  necklaces for my next show, clean the house (ugh!), Think about my Dad who passed 2 years ago ( and was a veteran of the Korean Conflict) and think about my family who's still will me.... Monday we are doing a big family picnic.. something we haven't done in years.  We used to do them every Memorial day, Dad would man the grill with that grin of his.

My favorite food was "Barron Burgers" .

Dad would mix up the meat with seasonings (mostly garlic salt, onions & pepper )  a few days ahead, and have them pre-shaped into burgers.  It made the grilling at the park quick and easy, and they tasted fantastic!   Add in hot dogs and brats, chips, potato salad and cookies, and anything else folks would bring -- and don't forget the Frisbee for after diner family bonding.

Sometimes we would do steaks, but mostly it is the Barron burgers I craved.

cherish your loved ones.  We only get this one live on earth.

Farmer's Market Tomorrow!!! Sneak Peek

 Jerry and I will be at the Market with Bells on.... same location on 4th street South, just across from Hy-Vee's parking lot.  See ya at Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market!

1920-30's or earlier pocket watch regulator.  

Pocket Watch parts, and a crystal for just that special touch... 

More vintage watch parts dangling on retainer rings 

This is my new bigger piece... dragonflies dancing in the air around vintage clock gears and crystals bits.

A day in the life .......

Really nice vintage watch movement with crystals in a lovely silver bezel.

Tell me if this sounds familiar!!


Sundays are my main day each week to sleep in.  I cherish this, so even if I wake up fairly early (today it was about 8am)  I either try to go back to sleep or I read in bed or something.

I finally got out of bed around 10:30am, had breakfast, cleaned up, took Jerry to work, came back and got close to1-1/2 hours in the studio... prepped 3 pairs of earrings to finish later, and worked on matching up some watch part pairs for other earrings. 

Then I brushed my teeth, grabbed all my mom stuff - bill info, checkbook, and a double handful of new paperbacks for her, and ran Jess out to work, did mom's grocery shopping, Stopped by Culver's to get Me and Mom lunch, and spend some time with her..  I go out to her house almost every Sunday at least... I help her with her bills writing checks and  balancing the checkbook, help with any computer issues (hardware usually gets bumped to my brother Kit) I take out her garbage for the week if needed ( Kit beat me to it this week, yeah Kit!!)  I spend some time with her, give her books cause at 87, her main love anymore is reading books so I try hard to keep her supplied.  I got home around 6pm, and since I have to pick the kid up at 8pm from work ( and Jerry at 10pm) it seems like a good time to get my bills done and get a blog up, since I skipped Weds and Saturday doing my blog.

It's now 630pm, so I have the choice to -

1/ work on jewelry
2/ work on the kitchen
3/ fold  a week's worth of laundry
4/ make a grocery list and get my family's shopping done
5/try to get as much of all the above done.  All this by 735pm, because that's when I need to leave to get the girl.

I write this not to whine ( OK maybe a tiny whine) but to illustrate why no matter how hard I try, I just don't have time to get everything done. 

I know I'm not special in this way, I know I have it comparatively good actually.  Some folks have way way worse schedules and time issues.

But I sure would like to get more time to play in the studio on a Sunday!

working hard on earrings

I'm working hard on earrings, I'm up to 23 so far since I started on Friday, and I've got my big piece started... I'll probably try to finish up on the earrings through Wednesday and then really go to town on my big piece.  Then if I have time I have a couple more bracelets I want to do and maybe a few smaller necklaces -- all before my next show and Farmer's Market on May 26th.

I'll try to have some of the new earrings in pics on my next blog, these earrings are some that got made before the last farmer's Market. 

Starting point for this weekend

OK, another quickie, but that's because I'm working in the studio!


My goal this weekend is to make 30 + earrings and get the layout for my next big necklace done.   

Now I love earrings because they can be quick and easy, or really elaborate but still usually pretty quick to make.

So you can get creative and flirty with earrings but it's still not a huge chunk of time ( well maybe when you are going to do 30 + ... but still!)

Bigger projects usually take me weeks, because working with real vintage materials just takes longer. 

I usually spend some time researching what the vintage part is, so I have some idea how old it is.  I'm telling stories here, so the more info I know about the item the better the story will be.

I also want to make sure I'm using materials that are safe.  Some vintage stuff cannot be used because the materials are considered dangerous now.  Or maybe it's fragile and easily broken cause something is old and brittle... so I have to be careful how I use it to minimize damage or harm to my customers down the road ( which is why I use small light bulbs in earrings but no where else... even though I'm sooooo tempted...  I have some really kick ass designs in my head for them but I'm afraid cause they are fragile.)  (and yes, I've seen those bracelets made out of old xmas tree lights and all I can think of is how much that's gonna hurt when it breaks )

So my big project will be built around this camera front piece.  So that's where I'm at this weekend.

A quickie....

First, I had an absolute blast and fantastic Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market on Saturday and I cannot wait til my next one.... May 26th. 


Sold a bunch of everything really, but especially earrings, so this weekend I'll concentrate on earrings first.... but I have a couple of necklace and bracelet designs lurking around in my head as well. 

So of course this blog has pics of stuff that are not earrings!!!

Top is a simple necklace using a angel "coin" my mom got somewhere and a vintage bezel.  The key is also recycled from broken jewelry bits.

Bottom is a vintage pin back that I added the watch face and cameo to.  This sold last week.... one of these days I'll sit down and really get some pins out, since I've only got 2 right now. 

1st Farmer's Market is this Saturday !!!

YEAH!!!!!!

I've been bustin'..... something... to be ready in time. 

Every year my booth changes around to some degree.  Last year we did a bunch of changes such as adding bamboo table mats which worked great!


So this year I just tweaked a few things.   Still I feel better when I can spread it out in my studio to get a good idea how it will look.


So here is a sneak peek of one of my tables:

 The "new" part on this table is the suitcase in the back.. it's actually a sax case from the 1930's.  It makes a great raiser for the busts!


I have a couple other "new" displays, or displays worked in a different way than last year. 

And I have buckets full of new jewelry... here are some crappy pictures but you get the idea!  See ya 7-12pm this Saturday across the street from the HY-Vee parking lot on 4th st.