Sorry I've been absent...

I'm just sick, and it won't go away. Hope to be back soon!

Congrats to Nanz Aalund!

Congratulations to Nanz Aalund for winning first place in the category of earrings for the 2009 Jewelry Arts Awards! I looked at her website and her jewelry is wonderful and she has great tools for jewelers to buy. Definitely check out her website. These earrings are made of 22k gold and epoxy resin. (You know I love resin!)

and I smiled!

You may have seen these fantastic plates somewhere on the Internet. Well I love them! I'm truly a big kid and who doesn't want to play with their food! Hint hint Joe, they'd make a great Christmas present for yours truly! Their sold out until December on many websites so it's perfect timing.

The Uniform Project

I came across this interesting project, called The Uniform Project. The point is sustainable fashion, she is wearing the same dress every day and changing it with accessories (there are actually 7 of the same dress). She is doing this also to raise money for education in India, enjoy her different looks...
(I liked how her tights in this photo went well with my one sketch below, she is actually going to a costume party in this photo.)

More sketches...

Fabulous!

I found this website Green Grass Design and it had this fabulous wall decal!

Check out this one and this one for the corner! ha ha ha, I want them all!

Sketching Homework, Theme 'Layers'

I wanted to share some of my sketches I've done this week. A friend of mine chose the theme, layers and we have to draw 50 sketches. Many of my jewelry sketches don't look like jewelry yet, I'm just working on ideas.

Balloon Inspiration

Please enjoy the wonderful balloon sculptures of Jason Hackenwerth. I found them and love them! I want to see them in person!

3 classes in one week!

Nope, I wasn't taking jewelry classes, I was taking cooking classes! I've been trying to get out and about and explore different areas and meet people so Joe and I thought cooking classes would be fun. Joe found three local schools that looked good so I wanted to try one class at each to figure out which school I enjoyed the most.

First I went to The Western Reserve School of Cooking which is located in Hudson Ohio about 30 minutes south of me. The class I took was a participation class on Root Vegetables. At first I thought the classroom was a little small but class was great. I got to help with several dishes, and interact with my classmates. It felt like a family environment, I really loved it! 3 hours for $67

Second (actually on the same day) I went to the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking located in Chesterland Ohio about 36 minutes away to the north east. This class was hard to get to. I left home at 5pm and just made it there when class started at 6pm. Some Ohio roads seem to be designed to cause accidents. I took a class called Fabulous Figs, also a participation class. It's hard to judge this school because the woman who was supposed to be teaching it backed out the night before. So the Chef teaching the class had 24 hour warning. He did good considering that but I felt removed from what was going on. We all sat at separate tables. Another woman asked to participate when he was making fig biscotti so I also went up to help. But that's about all I got to help with. He also wasn't very talkative which meant we had to keep asking what was going on. I didn't like the fact that we weren't seated somewhere where we could work on food, we had nice place settings in front of us. If I wanted to sit and watch someone cook I could do that for free (TV). 3 hours in the $65 range (I probably won't give this school a second chance, I loved the third school much more.)

Third I took a class at the Viking School of Cooking located in Lyndhurst Ohio about 30 minutes away to the north east. Again this school was through a bad traffic area for a 6pm during the week class but at least it was at a mall so I can wonder around, grab a drink somewhere. I took a class called Thai Taste Explosion and loved it! It was another participation class and we made many dishes, the staff made several more and we all just had a great time. Several of the ladies I worked with live in my area. I found in the other two classes the people lived really close to the school and not near me. I loved their kitchen, we literally all sat at the counter with our cutting board and knives in front of us. So it was obvious we would be working for our dinner! 3 hours for $89 (our cucumber salad, grilled Thai chicken, spring rolls and dipping sauces, oh and wine!)


The good about these classes is it's fun, gets me out of the house and interacting with other people.

Helpful tip. During these classes at all the places you get 10% off of any merchandise (cooking stuff) you purchase. I believe for all of them that also meant future cooking classes. So don't sign up online for a bunch of classes. Sign up for one and while you're there sign up for more and get 10% off. Hands down I loved the Viking School best, it did cost more but it was such a nice kitchen to work in (far larger than Western Reserve). I highly recommend Viking and they have locations and classes all over the country.

I want this in my yard...

I found this image online today and I love it. I want an shrub couch! I cut my grass today with my eco friendly lawn mower (similar to the one shown above). I also cut my hair, not with the lawn mower. I even let my husband even up the back of my hair. That can take me over an hour to get the back just right. I also went to get my Ohio license today and learned I have to go take a test! Are you kidding me! I've been driving for only 10 years. I also can't find my title so I had to order a new one of those from Maryland. All in all I need to do all kinds of stuff and got to five different places to make my driving in Ohio official. Makes me want to move back to Maryland!
Tomorrow I'm taking two cooking classes, I'll let you know how they go!

More 3D in jewelry...

I found this jewelry created by Meghan O'Rourke. It is made of dyed aluminum and I love the color and depth! Please go look at more of her work and be inspired!

Paper Art

I don't know if you've heard but the Museum of Art and Design in New York is going to have an exhibit on art made out of paper. The piece above is titled, 'grand island’ by Chris Kenny, 2008. I love how he cut out parts of the map and put them together, I love maps!

Here is another one of Kenny's. I love how each piece pops off of the page differently.

Cuttlefish Bone Casting

I made this piece back in 2006, it was a one day workshop on cuttlefish bone casting. You cut the cuttlefish bone in half length wise. Then in one side carve out your design. Well I wondered why not carve designs on both sides that don't necessarily line up. I love how it turned out. Hopefully I can try this technique out more when the studio is all set up!

Ohio Jewelry and Metal Arts Guild

I attended a meeting this week of the Ohio Jewelry and Metal Arts Guild. It was a lot of fun. We had a destash and I bought a couple of neat tools. I gave away some books I no longer wanted. I wanted them to go to good homes.

We did this really cool assignment where we had to close our eyes and draw what we did yesterday. Well the day before the meeting I unpacked my books and put them on my books shelf so this is what I drew with my eyes closed. (image above) Before the next meeting we have to make a piece of jewelry from this drawing. I plan on playing with the drawing more to think of all my different options and ways I could make a piece. I'm really excited.

I've also made at least one really good friend in the group and we're going to get together about once a week and push each other to try new things, teach each other, and give each other challenges! Yeah!

My etsy purchase!

I bought this lovely skirt from my friend, The Garbologist's Wife! Thank you so much it's great! Check out her etsy store!

Garden Before and After...

Before we bought the house obviously the front garden was full of weeds. To the right there are daylillies and hostas that have been chewed up by the deer. Obviously not worth keeping since the hostas where chewed to the dirt!

Another before view of the front garden. If you look by the window and see the pointy bush, that got pulled out. Every time I walked into that bedroom I thought someone was looking in the window, scaring me to death! Also some plants were saved and moved further out. Our roof covers more than the house so some plants just weren't getting any rain.

TaDa! My Mom was a huge help and we planted things she brought up, mainly deer proof plants. I saved the two holly bushes they had. I readjusted all the rocks and put some mulch down. This is probably a weeks worth of work. We did a lot of spraying on the weeds.

Another nice view of my lovely garden!

Just wanted to show you my sad banana tree. My Mom brought it up and the deer keep on chewing it off! I keep on sprinkling red pepper, or hot pepper on it to give them a bad taste.

And no the banana tree will not get bananas, our growing season is not long enough. But if I can get it to live, next year it will be really tall and tropical! I also have an apple tree in the yard. So I'll have apples and bananas! (you know the song)

My mom bought me a great lemon tree as part of my birthday present and this is it on the front porch in it's new pot. It will have to come in, as it gets colder, but now I can grow my own lemons!

Next to the lemon tree is the spider plant I just potted. My mom brought it for me. Spider plants are great at filtering bad things out of the air so it will go in my studio. Cool recycling fact. I found the pot (previous owners left it behind) and there was nice potting soil they had dumped out back, so I didn't have to buy anything! There are openings on the side of the pot all the way around, so as the plant grows I'll stick parts of it out those holes and it'll look great!

Thanks Mom for all your help! I'm doing my best to water every day and chase those deer away!

Now that I have the cord for the camera...

While my sister was visiting I took her to Chagrin Falls which is in the Cleveland area. The Falls are right in the middle of the town. It also has a lot of really cute shops. I bought a neat old candel holder while we were there.

Below is a picture of my sister taking a great picture versus my amateur photos. Check out her awesome website.

Another view of the falls.

We also went to Treemont and stopped to photograph this beautiful church. We went to Treemont to go the art galleries and we did go to a few but the area was kinda sketchy. And the shops were far and few between. I'm thinking we didn't go to the right area. Hmmm...

Then one day we went to the Beach in Cleveland, the air show was going on so we got to see quite a few planes buzz by! If we had had the apartment another week or two we would have had a fantastic view of the air show! I still like our house better.

We went to the Brandywine Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

A close up of the falls.

We also hiked around that area, I like taking pictures of trees.

I thought these leaves with the sun above were gorgeous.

I was impressed with how big and old this tree was.

We had a good time and saw a lot of things while Kelly was here, I think we wore her out!

I'm back!

Please meet Bentley, our lovable Hahn's Macaw. My sister Kelly Heck took this wonderful photo of him. He is actually a very quiet bird, though he makes honking sounds. So we named him after a car, Bentley. I'm sure you'll see more photos of him!
Since I've been gone I've been unpacking and cleaning like crazy. As I unpack I'm trying hard to get rid of things! One person, wait two people only need so much stuff. I unpacked my books last night and made a whole box of books I'm going to take to the destash at the Jewelry club meeting tonight.
September 3rd was also my birthday! My sister Kelly came to visit. She helped me clean some, thank you! And we explored the city, went to Chagrin Falls, the beach, saw part of the air show, ate some great food and took photos!
Hope you all had a great labor day weekend! I gotta go get more done!