Must Share

One more thing... I keep forgetting to share one of my favorite blogs.  I love things that are colorful.  I have always loved looking at (and arranging in color order) a box of crayons, colored pencils or markers.  I pin colorful, beautiful things on my Pinterest inspirations board.  And about a year ago (maybe a little longer) I found a blog that is devoted to sharing colorful photos - it is AMAZING!  So if you enjoy colorful things as well you must check out Plenty of Colour.

Winter...

Apparently, I spoke too soon.  Winter decided to remind me that it is still here and in Dallas that means ice.  I would be more upset about it, but all the icy roads and cold temperatures (-2 with the wind chill) mean we got a day off school!  As much as I prefer warm, sunny weather, this ice day came at a time when I could use a day of rest (recovering from being sick), so I will be grateful for my day off, bundle up in my warmest coat and remember that it will be 60 degrees by next weekend.

Sadly, I did not get to break out the art supplies today - everything is all packed up in boxes in preparation for my move.  It is my hope that in my new house I will slowly convert one of the rooms to what I am calling a "real, live art studio".  I have big plans in my head!  But until I have photos to share of what I imagine will be a wonderful, colorful, arty studio, here are some pictures of some of the ice Dallas had this winter.

Spring!

I know that most of the country is buried in snow and having lived in places where it is cold and windy and snowy until almost May, I feel bad for you.  However, it is spring in Dallas!  It has been sunny and in the 70s this weekend which makes me so happy!  Now, it is Dallas, so this could change any day now, but usually this is the time of year it starts to stay warm and sunny and makes me love living here so much.

Enough gloating, onto art things!  Once again, it has been a while since I posted (but less than a year, so that is progress).  I was in my first arts and craft fair this fall which was very exciting!  I loved putting my booth together and figuring out how to display my jewelry.  It could still use some tweaking before the spring fairs, but I was satisfied with it as a first attempt:

I also got new business cards from moo.com which I LOVE!  You can use as many different photos of your work as you want, so I didn't have to choose just one necklace to put on the front.  It was funny to watch people flip through them and choose the card they wanted to take.

I am finally adding my big, "wearable art" necklaces to my Etsy shop.  I really like them because they are so colorful and bright, but since they are polymer clay, they are not heavy.  I need to take a few more photos with models, but I already put a few photos on my facebook page.  I have not made anything new in a while, but over the Christmas break I did my first big experiment with printmaking.  I loved it!  I am just using styrofoam from restaurant to-go containers, but it is working really well.  I will try to post some images of my favorite prints for you to see.  Until then, here is the most artistic thing I have done lately: (Settlers of Catan cookies for my brother's birthday)

Earrings!

I have finally put some earrings in my Etsy shop!  I have made a few pairs but I wanted them to look a certain way... I just couldn't make up my mind what way that was.  After a few trials and errors, I added a crystal to each pair and finally go the look I was going for.   I have four pairs that are ready; two are already in Etsy and the other two pairs need to be photographed, but should be there later this week.  Check them out:

Pinterest

As you may know, I really love Pinterest!  However, now that the novelty has worn off, I no longer spend hours upon hours on Pinterest, pinning tons of things everyday.  There are some days that I don't even look at Pinterest (if you can believe it!).  I still enjoy it a lot though, and these days there are three main areas I pin in: 1) lesson plan/classroom ideas, 2) recipes, 3) art/inspirational pictures.  Now, I have a personal pinning policy that I started use. I read a blog post (I really can't remember where or I would link to it...) about a woman who was no longer going to use Pinterest because she felt that it was not ok to use other people's images without their consent and without giving them credit.  Well, I was too much in love with Pinterest to stop using it, so I decided to only pin images that take you back to the original source (disclaimer: I may have a few lingering pins from before I implemented this policy - I am not perfect... but I try).  This is harder than you may think.  Many images are links to nowhere or just to another site that has several pictures.  Others are links to people's blogs who tried a recipe or project they saw on another blog, so I follow their link back to the original and pin from there.  I feel that this is my best pinning policy because this way, my pins link back to the original author (giving them credit) and I am ok pinning their images because I know it is possible to block pinning capabilities if you do not want your images pinned.

Now, all that was to say that I recently pinned a chocolate berry tart recipe.  It was originally very disappointing because I saw a beautiful, mouth-watering, delicious-looking picture of one on Pinterest that was a sad case of it being a link to nowhere.  But after seeing it, all I could think about was making a dark chocolate berry tart, so I did some googling.  I did not find the source for the beautiful, mouth-watering, delicious-looking chocolate berry tart, but I did find another recipe for cute, little, yummy looking mini-tarts.  So I pinned that instead.  I happen to have cute tart pans that I have been waiting to try out, so this is the perfect recipe for me!  Here is my link in case you want to check it out: http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2012/08/no-bake-blueberry-truffle-tartlets.html.  I will let you know how they turn out!

(photo from loveandoilveoil.com)

Light Switch Covers

I have been making a few light switch covers.  I started because I wanted one for my room, and then I thought I would try out some different designs.  They are fun to make and it is nice to have a bigger space to work with.  However, they can take a really long time to make!  I will have to figure out what to charge for them and add them to my shop.  Here is my favorite so far:

Hello again!

Well, if anyone is still checking this blog after almost a year of no posts then you are an amazing optimist and I am awed and impressed!  I am using this summer to dive back into blogging and tweak my Etsy shop, so look forward to more posts about my escapades in art making, cooking and whatever else comes up.

For now, I wanted to share the new line of necklaces I am working on.  I decided to use my drawings as inspirations, so I made a intricate purple necklace and a greenish, turquoise paisley necklace:

After that I decided to try and make large necklaces that were either parts of my drawings or mini versions of them.  Here is how they turned out:

 black and white checkered background with swirls and yellow daisies 

colorful circles/mini mandalas 

funky hanging balls on a streaky pink background

I think I like the purple doodle necklace best, so I am going to try a few more in that style and see how they turn out.  Look for all of them in my Etsy shop this summer! 

In case you are interested in what I'm cooking these days, yesterday I made chocolate banana bread that is wonderfully delicious!