Well I am doing my second craft show, this time at Piecemakers in Costa Mesa as part of their annual Harvest Festival, which will have over 80 vendors, live music, food and a hay ride.  And it’s all Halloweened out so it will be fun!  If you’re in the area tomorrow between 9 and 4 p.m. stop by and say hi!

I was scanning through my image library and I had nearly forgotten the kind of disaster my place was when I first moved in.  I still of course have temporary bouts of dishevelment, especially after my craft fair a few weekends ago (I’m still trying to figure out where to store the tent and tables, and all the displays), but overall it is a long voyage from where it once was.  And it is sooo good to feel at ease and more organized in ones space.  Here is a little picture book of some of the transformations…

Well I just finished and added some new necklaces to my shop which are miniature little paintings covered in resin.  They are fun and different to make, and I can’t wait to make more different kinds.  Even little dried flower ones.  There’s so much that goes into making jewelry!  I’ve done it for hobby, but now doing it for my shop is much more time consuming.  Searching and finding the pendants, and chain, jump rings and lobster clasps (and all the metals have to match), and then there’s the packaging…there’s so many little pieces that don’t have anything to do with the artwork.  Luckily I’ve done resin a lot before, so that part was not new.  Although I did kind of have amnesia about how finicky a material it is.  Bubbles and hair and dust, oh and the MOTH!

Making these necklaces is a nice break from…my screen door which I just made!  I thought I was crazy to attempt it (and so did everyone else) but what am I supposed to do when my door opening is 42 inches wide?  That’s like hospital size.  There are no screen doors anywhere with those dimensions.  So, being an artist, naturally I would just make one.  Hours and hours later, it’s done.  I’m almost surprised it turned out good and I totally am happy I have one now.  I can enjoy the breeze.  I will never make a screen door again.  I would help someone else make one though.  Maybe I’ll do a tutorial, but in the meantime, here it is:

Yes, my interior door pull is a glitter bangle.  I still need to Lily proof it (add a little hook) but other than that it’s done.  I made it just in time for the Open Studio last weekend, which was awesome!  There was a good turnout of family and friends and it was really cool because my neighbor Salvage Vintage had a big party too.  And the backyard looked soo pretty, like a wedding could take place.  I’ll share some pics as soon as she shares some pics.  In all my last minute amnesia, I did not bring out a camera at all!  I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Next weekend (Saturday, August 20 from 7-10 p.m. to be exact) I am hosting an Open Studio event in my live/work space in Long Beach.  My neighbor, the very beautiful vintage boutique Salvage Life is having their grand opening party on the same night so there will be lots of things to see and things to do.  The shop owner Beth is having a fashion show, on-site screenprinting and a DJ and I’ll have refreshments and beverages.  If you are in the area, stop on by!  In the meantime, I’ll be cleaning….for more information on the event, go to the event’s facebook page here.

I’m embarrassed my space is such a mess (the table is actually the cleanest part), but I guess when you are in the middle of like 10 projects, that is bound to happen.  I thought I’d pop in on this lovely day and share some new things I’m working on that will go into my etsy shop very soon: handpainted mini paintings in necklace form.  Next up I’ll put resin in them, then add the chains.  I might end up wanting to keep them all…bwa ha ha ha.  No that is not the plan, but you know, some might be “poisonous”.  Kind of like the fresh baked cookies that accidentally “break” when you take them out of the oven.