What to do...

Have you ever made something you totally loved and then after a while decided you didn't quite like it as much as you thought? I have a few of these pieces sitting around and I have been trying to figure out what to do with them for a while now. Do I take them apart and start over? Do I sell them at a discount? Do I add more detail to them to make them better? hummm..what to do, what to do...any suggestions????

2010 Philadelphia Flower Show

This past week was the annual Philadelphia Flower Show but since my camera and computer were not getting along at the time I couldn't post any pictures. Now they both seem to be back to being friends and are allowing me to download my pictures again...My uncle is a member of one of the groups exhibiting there and got us exhibitors passes so me and my sister went to check it out. This was one of my favorite exhibits. It was called "box" and was made up of stacked metal shipping/storage containers. Inside of each container was a different floral display.

This is the dining room inside of one of the containers. I would love to have this as an outdoor space!

close up of the table "leg"

This is a close up of part of the outside "alley" that was created along the back side. The contrast in colors of the graffiti and the flowers really caught my eye!

inside another "box"...the white on white was really pretty despite the "mess"!

etsy store

I just reopened my etsy store again after not being able to keep up with it for awhile during the construction at my house since we are doing a lot of the work ourselves. So check it out! I will update daily with one of a kind items not found anywhere else as well as some of my favorite pieces...And as soon as I figure out why my camera can no longer upload pictures to my computer I'll post some updated pictures of the progress at my house... that will have to wait til next week though because I am off to Pottstown, PA this weekend for the Owen J Roberts High School 30th Annual Craft Show!

the coolest idea..

I just came across the coolest idea today while surfing the web...you can check it out here. A group of jewelry artists have come up with the idea to make one ring a day starting Jan 1, 2010for a total of 365 rings from each person! I wish I knew about it earlier because I am SUCH a ring person and would have joined in although it would be really tough with my studio still torn apart!

New Beads

I just got some great new beads right before Christmas. They came from Auntie's Beads. Now I just have to figure out what to make with them! my studio is torn apart right now due to the construction and moving it from one room to another so as soon as i get back to work I'll post some photos of my new studio and new work!

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!

Construction and BMAC...

With all that has been going on at my house with the construction and trying to work around it all I did manage to get enough things together for the Buyers Market of American Craft Show at the Philadelphia Convention Center this past weekend. I had to use half of my outdoor booth mixed with my indoor booth because I couldn't get to some of my stuff but it still looked great and I received many compliments on it anyway (pic below). The BMAC show is wholesale to the trade only. There was some really great artwork from all over the US and Canada there again as usual. I even got myself a new necklace from artist Beth Taylor. (we traded which I LOVE to do!) Check out her site. The necklace isn't on the site but you can see some of her other cool things! I also met another jewelry artist Erica Stankwytch Bailey who makes some really awesome jewelry as well. It was really good to see some friends (Olga Ganoudis , Regina Ewer...check out thier sites too) I don't get to see that often and to make some new ones as well (and selling my jewelry while I was there didn't hurt either!) All in all I made out pretty well.