Some new cuffs for the Wheaton Arts show...

A new batch of cuffs right off the bench just in time for the Wheaton Arts Festival of Fine Craft this weekend! The show runs Saturday and Sunday, October 1 & 2. For more info and coupon for $2.00 off admission check out their website.

Wow... can't believe i haven't posted since August!

A lot has happened since my last post....sorry it has taken so long! We are doing MAJOR renovations to our house which we started in June. We have added an addition to the back of house which right now, 3 months into the project, is only a shell but when complete it will house our kitchen, dining room, pool table and living room (complete with a new fireplace!). So needless to say, right now my house as well as my life is about as unorganized as they could possibly get!

This is a photo of the back of the house before we started any work.

Since the above photo was taken we have jackhammered up concrete floors and dug 4 ft deep trenches from the front of the house all the way through to the back and across the entire back yard to replace plumbing pipes and to lay new ones. this whole process took seven 10 hr days and a total of 6 people. The photo below is of my friend, and one of the BEST neighbors I could ever have, helping to dig the trench in one of the bedrooms in my house. This room as well as the bathroom (second and third photos down) still look like this...

Another friend digging in the bathroom...

So now after all the work we have done (as well as the contractors) we have this:

So with our house getting larger, the livable space within the walls seams to be getting smaller and smaller as more work gets done since we are constantly shifting furniture and other items from room to room so work can be done. I will update with more photos as more gets accomplished but right now I need to get back to making jewelry before the space inside gets any smaller and I can no longer work in there! I do have a show coming up in a few weeks!

A lot of things have happened since my last post...

Thanksgiving came and went. This year for the first time we had Thanksgiving at my house. Originally it wasn't planned that way. We were supposed to eat at Tim's dad house but the Sunday before Thanksgiving they had a house fire and due to the damage to their house they could not entertain there. I offered up my kitchen to them and everything worked out fine. Just the fact that they made it out of the house unhurt and were here to celebrate (and cook for us all) was plenty to be thankful for.

A few days later was the Annual Holiday Artist Trunk Show was held at my house. In all there were 10 artists participating and the place looked great. I took some pics of everyone set up and before the place got too crowded. You can see them below.

Every year the artists hold a free raffle for the shoppers. Each artist donates an item to the raffle and at the end of the show the winners are chosen. This year's winners are:

Linda Norris- bracelet by Peg Jacobskind
Nicki Albertson- stained glass star ornement by Judy Gangemi
Mike Sweeney- mosaic Christmas tree dish by Abbe Gold
Eleanor Witkowski- fused glass hair tie by Ilan Yampolsky
Jo Penza- Package of handmade Christmas Cards by Lydia Land
Jenny Zayschly- mixed media trinket box by Jennifer Mishura
Debby Schwartz- set of 3 magnets by Lisa Kelly
Diane Dressler- 3 handmade soaps by Heather Famine
Deb Celhar- pair of earrings by Michele Grady

Congrats to all of this year's raffle winners and thank you for helping to make this a successful event for the 7th year in a row!

Hannah gets the creative juices flowing....

Well I was supposed to do a craft show today (that I really was not in the mood to do) but due to hurricane Hannah and a tropical storm warning here in NJ the show was postponed until tomorrow. (Not that I really want to go tomorrow either.....I don't like doing shows. It's a lot of hard work setting up & breaking down a booth especially when you have to get up so early). The hurricane wasn't as bad as they predicted but I am glad they decided to postpone the show. It rained all day and this event is outdoors so it would not have been fun. So instead of working outside today I worked inside and made some new jewelry. I still haven't made the pieces I've had scribbled out on a piece of paper since August but at least it's a start! I actually want to stay in my studio all night just to create some of those pieces but if I do, there is no way I'll be getting up at 5:30am to go set up my booth! So it's an early night for me tonight... Hopefully tomorrow will bring sunny weather, lots of customers and maybe even some new ideas!

Relaxation & Inspiration

My family and I just returned home a few days ago from our Mediterranean cruise and it has taken a few days to recover from the jet lag (which is why I haven't posted earlier!) We had a such a great time. We flew to Rome which is where we were to get on the ship. Before we went to the dock we did a little site seeing. We stopped at the Coliseum (below), the Vatican and Trevi Fountain (below) where we took a break to eat gelati and coronetti (an Italian pastry recommended by my Italian friend who lived in Italy most of her life), and some other sites before we had to get on our ship.

Below is one of my favorite photos that I took of the artwork inside St. Peter's. It is amazing how much detail is in it and it is painted in a dome on the ceiling.

Once on the ship our first stop was Sicily, Italy where we toured the town of Taormina (below).

It's a beautiful old town with lots of shops and the ruins of a very old open air Greek-Roman Theater. the theater is located on a hill where you can see the volcano, Mt. Etna, in the distance. Even though the theater was partially destroyed events are still scheduled there in the theater today. Our tour guide told us how he attended a concert there once when Mt. Etna erupted. How cool that would have been to be watching your favorite band and having red hot lava shooting up over the stage in the background! (The photo below is of the stage with the volcano in the background. You can't really see the top of the volcano that well due to the clouds.)

Our next stop was Athens, Greece. And no stop in Athens would be complete without going to see the Acropolis.

We also saw the ruins of the Temple of Zeus and the first Olympic Stadium called the Panathinaiko Stadium. It was were the very first modern Olympic games took place in 1896. (below)

We also spent a day in Kusadasi, Turkey. There they have the ruins of the City of Ephesus. It is an entire city buried in a bunch of mountains that they have been excavating for about 50 years. And in that time they have only discovered about 15% of what they think is buried there. In the museum they have a lot of the artifacts that they found and one of the items was this necklace.

Did you know that jewelry was the first art? Before people used clay to make vessels to carry water, store wine, etc. they used the clay to make jewelry to decorate themselves. Just a little fact I thought I'd share with you since I am a jewelry artist and all!

We also did some shopping in Turkey. The funniest thing were these signs. Turkey is known for their fake brand name items and it seems like they are very proud of this fact! These signs were everywhere!

Our last port was the Greek island of Crete. We saw the Minoan ruins of the royal palace of Knossos that was destroyed by earthquakes. It was very interesting to see all the "modern amenities" they had. Running water, sewage system, etc. This photo is of the inside of one of the rooms in the palace. The chair against the wall is the king's throne.

All in all it was a great trip and and I was very inspired by all that I saw and experienced. I plan to take some of that inspiration and turn it into new pieces of jewelry in the near future!