A Fabulous Fall

It has been a crazy fall this year, with every weekend jam-packed with activities. It has been exhausting but fabulous! Since I have been so busy and scrambling for free moments, my new blog approach is more photos, less writing. My October in pictures...

Ofcourse, there was my first craft show!

And then my 10 year high school reunion. Yikes! Time flies...

We squeezed in our annual Shenendoah Trip. Instead of a full weekend we had to cut it to a single day.

We traveled to Tennessee for Matt's family reunion. I met his dad, Ray, and stepmom, Daisy for the first time. I had a blast and can't wait to see them again!

Had our engagement shoot...

And ended the month as Kermit and Ms. Piggy.

I'm tired just thinking about all I have done! Time for bed...Good night all!

Engagement Pics

A friend that I studied art with in college has been making a name for herself as a wedding photographer. Liz Hough is photographing our wedding next year and we had some engagement pics done this past weekend with her. Check out her website... http://www.houghphotography.com. Here is my favorite one that I've got a peak at so far. We're thinking about sending this one out as a "save the date" in postcard form. More about these little cranes later...

Pictures from Art on the Avenue

Here are some pictures of my first art vendor experience. All in all it was a great day and I think I'll apply for this show again next year. Now that I have my display pieces made, getting ready for a show will be a lot let stressful!!! My wonderful fiance was a huge help making the display and he even hand painted the enticements sign!

Thank goodness I have wonderful coworkers who lent me the tent and two long tables!

Close-ups of the display. (Click on pictures for larger image.)

More detail shots. As you can see, I have a much larger inventory than is posted on my website. Finding time to photograph and describe each item has become almost impossible for me. (Kind of like finding time to blog!!)

Enticements at Art on the Avenue!!

I know it has been forever...it seems I am always photographing and thinking of what I want to blog about but never get around to actually posting...my iphoto is full of all kinds of interesting things that you'll probably never see. I promise I'll try harder (although I'm sure at this point I've lost any readers that I had!)

Meanwhile...here is some very exciting news: I will be at Art on the Avenue this Saturday from 10am-6pm. It is my first vendor experience, so if you have time, stop by! (And PRAY for good weather!) My head has been spinning getting ready...I'll write about the whole experience when it is over...hopefully I'll have some valuable advice by then.

P.S. Mention my blog and receive the discount from above! Hope to see you there!

I have fallen off the face of the earth.

No posts for the past 20 days...I don't know how I'll ever get you caught up on the craziness that my life has become. I promise to return soon...hopefully before another 20 fly by.

Off to NYC

We are off to NYC today to visit ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair). There are always many cool things to see- expect many pics upon my return. The coolest of all, ofcourse, will be Matt's pieces that he will have displayed in the Meatpacking District. I am so proud of him! His hard work and perserverance to reach his goals motivates me so much. It is one of the main reasons that I started my jewelry business. I'll leave you today with renderings of the pieces he'll be showing. The first is called "Spoke Lounge" and the second is a coatstool called "Sprout."

Oh so crafty!

Another thing I was up to last week (yes, the list goes on and we are not done yet!)... making bachelorette invites for my good friend Erin. I feel quite crafty! I found making them during a stressful time quite calming.

Front Page!

Apparently a treasury that I was in made it to the front page of Etsy early Sat. morning. Ofcourse no more than 3 people probably saw it because everyone else was in bed! Oh well, found a screen capture on flicker and here she is.... My Blue to Green Earrings are in the bottome left corner. Thanks to morewarped for this great treasury!

Studio Take-Over!

Besides the fact that I have been extremely busy, there is another reason that I haven't been able to make anything recently. As I've mentioned before, my fiance and I share a studio space. Woodworking is not the best medium to share your space with! Currently, Matt is making 4 pieces of furniture to be exhibited in NYC during the International Contemporary Furniture Fair next weekend. He is on quite the time crunch and has turned not only our studio space into his workshop but the living room and balcony as well. I think it is fortunate that we are both artists, we understand that sometimes our work has to come first. I know that this is a great opportunity for him, so for now, I'll put my creating on hold and let him take-over! Here are some pics I've taken over the past couple weeks of the apartment explosion!

Celebrating Local Design

After returning from an amazing weekend, it was back to work. Later in the week, Matt (my fiance) had an event to attend at the Design Within Reach in Adams Morgan. The event celebrated local furniture designers, and one of Matt's designs was being exhibited. Here is the bench that he made by hand in the bedroom of our last apartment. Also shown are two of the prize-winning pieces- a bookshelf by Tippy Tippens and a lounge chair by Christian Wicha.

One of my favorite things about DWR is the variety of lamps that they have. I am going to need a large house to furnish all the lamps that I would like to buy. Here are some shots I took while hanging out at the exhibition...

I'm baaaaaaack

So I have had a crazy-busy couple of weeks and my blogging has suffered because of it. Ready for an update? You might want to grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable- this may take awhile. It all began with an unexpected wedding. One of my oldest friends, Joffrey called me on Tuesday with news of his wedding on Saturday. Luckily, I had no plans- I knew the weeks coming up would be busy so I had left the weekend open to mentally prepare. Instead of chilling out, I caught a ride to West Virginia on Friday night. Joffrey and Kelly took over their friends Joy and Kevin's house, an adorable cabin in Harper's Ferry. It was a gathering of their closest friends and family, everything about it was just a genuine celebration of their love without the frills and stress of many weddings. The most touching part of the whole weekend was seeing how happy Kelly's eleven year old daughter was and how the three of them have come together to make a family. I hope that when I get married, people will feel love like I could feel from Joffrey, Kelly, and Brody.

I think I'll break the rest of my story up into chapters...stay posted, more is coming (and this time I mean it!!!)

I'll explain tomorrow

So I ran out of time today...but I'll explain my weekend and this picture tomorrow. As you can tell, it was beautiful and romantic...and so unexpected!

Two Treasuries

Found out about both of these last night. One treasury features a piece of glass jewelry and the other silver. Thanks to Magillie and Astashtoys for including me in these beautiful treasuries. Don't worry, I will still post about my amazing weekend tonight!

Busy Weekend!

Well, I missed my usual Saturday Seller post because of a crazy, wonderful and unexpected weekend. I'll explain in detail tomorrow! But for now, I want to show you some of my latest bead purchases to spice up some of my silver jewelry. I have a special affinity for glass beads (imagine that- me liking glass!)...in the first picture are hollow glass beads and the second is a colorful variety of czech glass beads. I think I am also going to make some hollow silver beads for my next firing (whenever that may be!!).

Happy Earth Day

I took this picture outside of my apartment on Sunday. I think the buds all opened on the same day- I walked outside and was taken back by all of the pink that had magically appeared!!

Spring Give Away at Nfall2rt * Design Studio!

Visit Nfall2rt * Design Studio to enter her Spring giveaway. The grand prize is a sampler pack of 5 spring designs note cards.

One way to enter the drawing is to visit Nancy's shop, pick out your favorite item and comment about it on her blog. Finding something you like should be easy- Nancy has a wide variety of items and everything is beautiful. Choosing just one will be the hardest part! There are also other ways to enter and you can have your name entered more than once! So click here to see more details.

My two favorite items (couldn't pick just one!) are from Nancy's Contained Series. I love how she translated a (mostly) two-dimensional concept into a piece of jewelry (and you know how I love rings!!).

Give Them a Break

I have been saving this compilation of young Etsy shops for a treasury but I have had no luck getting one lately. I'll keep trying but thought I would go ahead and share these sellers that are trying to get a start on Etsy- and let's face it, it's not that easy. So go check out their shops and give them the break they've been waiting for!

Row 1: Elin Art, Jennifer Bingham, MiniCyn, Vintemporary
Row 2: Silver Enticements, Villarreal Ceramics, Creations Libellule, Sass & Peril
Row 3: Dajoli, Andi's Prints, lovemaestore, Magillie
Row 4: Melissa Beach Photography, A Little World, Rich Ant, Materia Textil