Hold Dear

charms...

Hello there...it's me again...I have a couple of more posts to do that to catch you up with all the wonderfulness that's been going on with me lately. Then after that, I'm going to be taking a bloggy break while I go on vacation! Glen and I will be on an adventure to California! Can't wait...I'll be taking a class and then we are going to catching up with a long lost relative of Glen's that he's reconnected with and then I'll be going to visit my mom and sisters! The whole trip is just shaping up to be amazing and I can foresee some once in a lifetime memories! 

Last week, I joined my fun pal, Andrea, at her house, along with 10 of her friends for a face to face charm swap! What fun! There were actually 16 ladies total in the swap but not all were able to attend. All of the very talented and lovely ladies in the swap work together and I got invited to join since I am, well, lucky enough to be friends with the hostess!. And what a hostess she was!!!

Andrea had the best drinks and some over-the-top delicious food. Just look at this spread...

 

 

Andrea even prepared a "charm buffet." Each person laid out her charms and then we went through and picked one of each, buffet style. How marvelous!

 

I haven't put my bracelet together yet...some of the gals came prepared and assembled their bracelets right on the spot! Dude!

So here is my charm. Apparently there was a theme to this swap...summertime. I missed that detail and just soldered up some dominoes. That can sort of be "summertime" since sitting around playing dominoes and something I love to do when we go camping. Don't cha think??? :-)

I also brought along my collection of charm bracelet from previous swaps for show and tell.

 

This vision right here, with all the charms all tossed together like a charm bracelet salad just makes me so happy!

 

And then after we were all filled up with food, beverage, and charms, we had our picture taken. One of the gals had left already.

 

Thanks again to Andrea for hosting this exceptionally fun swap and I sure hope I get to join your talented group's next foray into swap land! It was charming!!!

token charms...

Hello there! Oh I sure hope you had a wonderful weekend! I sure did. Just so much good stuff. Glen, Miranda, her friend Trevor, and I went to a Beavers baseball game on Friday night and then yesterday, I joined two awesome girls, Jill and Emily, for a trip to the Barn House Flea Market. Oh girls and boys...it was all just so FANTASTIC! I have some pictures to share but I'm still sorting through them but I promise to get those up this week!

I do have a few quick pix to share of the most another charm swap I was in. I went for quite awhile not doing these but then all of a sudden, there were ones I just couldn't pass up! This was one hosted by the lovely Maureen Baranov and the theme was "Tokens!" She always inspires and challenges our little Charmsters group with the most delightful themes! I joined this swap thinking I would alter some old poker chips to be the tokens but then I was came across my stash of old Monopoly tokens and houses so I used those!

Here's the charms...

 

 

And then all packaged up...

 

I have some other charms I'll also be working on this week. My super fun friend, Andrea, is hosting a charm swap with some local girls and we're all going to meet at her house next Saturday for the exchange! There was no theme and so I took this opportunity to do some more soldering and I'm using some super cute mini dominoes I got on eBay. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!!! And maybe hosting this swap will motivate Andrea to do some ding ol' dang bloggin'! :-)

Take care...and hope you have an awesome week!

peace and love...

Happy Saturday to you all...we're enjoying our day here. Slept in, puttered around the house...and now Glen and I are heading out to go to our local Farmer's Market. We've got in mind to get some fresh corn and a few items for a picnic tomorrow. We'll be heading here with some friends. I just hope the promised thunderstorm comes through tonight and not tomorrow!

In artsy news, I've got several projects moving along nicely. I finished up my charms and got them mailed off for a "peace and love" charm swap which is being hosted by Brenda. Here are my charms...

 

 

When I was in the design phase of these charms, I just couldn't the whole "hippy, 70's" theme out of my head. And then when I "won" some awesome old Cracker Jack peace sign charms on eBay, I decided to  macrame up these groovy little numbers. :-)

Okay...time to roll...I've got about a million other projects in the works -- seriously, what's wrong with me? I'm supposed to be slowing down! :-)  -- so I'll be back soon to share more!

Have an AWESOME day!!

Another Charm Swap!

So I know I wasn't blogging too often there for awhile, but that's just because I was getting stuff done! In fact, I'm feeling ALMOST caught up with all the miscellany stuff that was going on over here! And good thing too because the fall term starts Sept 21 and I registered for a Writing class! Eeek! I just felt like I had taken enough time off to play around in Artsyfartsyville and thought I should get back to school if I wanted to keep up with my "a degree in eight years" plan! :-)

And because I'm getting caught up, I'm gonna try to catch up with some fun bloggin' too!

One thing I got to cross off my list, charms for the last charm swap for awhile! I still plan on making charms for Art and Soul (in October!) but this, my friends, is it! It's been tough, but I haven't signed up for any new ones lately. Yay me! :-)

This swap was hosted by Lori and the theme was "The Alphabet." Each person picked a letter and we were to then make 27 charms. In return, we will each receive charms for each letter of the alphabet and an "&." I can't wait! I chose the letter "X." I went for this one because I remember a calligraphy teacher once saying that X isn't just a letter, it's an event! I just always loved that! And it's true...how often do we get to write the letter X??

Here's what I came up with...

Do they look like Silver Clay charms?? :-) That's kind of the look I was going for! These charms are made out of white Fimo clay which was then stamped, baked, silver-leafed, antiqued, and sealed. Whew! These babies were involved!!! But I'm SUPER happy with the results!

Here's a whole mess of them in their little packages.

Hey check out my latest obsession...old license tag key fobs....

Aren't they dreamy??? I love this kind of stuff! I'm gonna make a bracelet out of these babies.

Oh and also, I added a few bits to the Hold Dear Etsy shop. Now I ask you, who can't resist plastic, fuzzy, fake strawberries??? :-)

See ya!!!

charm watch

I sure hope you're having a nice weekend...I sure am! Glen's home from traveling and Miranda's hanging around the house quite a bit since she just got a new toy...

SO proud of this girl! :-)

I'm also feeling pretty happy about our garden. The peas and beans are slowin' down but the tomatoes are kickin' it into gear!!

And right now, I'm sittin' here, totally diggin' on the Yoshida Brothers.

I have a couple of pictures to show you from two charm swaps and some pictures to show you from the BEST.EBAY.PURCHASE.EVER (BEPE)! :-)

The first pix are from a charm swap I mailed out last week. The theme of this one was "Viva Mexico" and it was hosted by Janet.

Here are the charms I made...

And a close-up...

I tried to duplicate a "wrought iron" look -- I used cut up pieces of a fan that I then painted and Diamond Glazed.

The theme of the other charm swap I joined in was "Heavy Metal." This one is hosted by Suzanne and I signed up for it the second I saw it posted! This is SO what I am in to these days.

But before I show you those charms, I HAVE to show you something else!

I started working on these charms yesterday and it just so happened to be the day that I received an item in the mail that I bought off of eBay. An assortment of watch parts. A MAGNIFICENT assortment of watch parts! Oh my stars and stripes, this was a FANTASTIC purchase! Miranda walked in on me while I was opening up all the little boxes and I said, "Take a look at my face. You may NEVER see me happier than I am right now!"  Heaven!!!! Here are a few pictures of some of the goodies...this first one is the one that tipped me over. All the bits inside of this one are gorgeous but I'm even loving the old box!

It just seemed to go on and on...

This picture is the kind of thing I dream of ...

This is SO gonna be a Moo card in the future!

There were a few more items in this lot such as some manuals and sheets of clock numerals...like I said, MAGNIFICENT!

So now before I get too distracted...let's get back to the other charm swap. Here are a few of the Heavy Metal charms -- and truth be known, I'm not finished yet! I incorporated some of the gears from the BEPE...

In other non-charm and non-BEPE news, I've been getting back into art journaling lately -- probably because ArtFest registration is right around the corner! These gorgeous pens are SO on my radar! They're spendy but oh how I love 'em!!! I've seen the Copic Sketch pens before but they had the Copic Ciao pens at Kinokuniya, the bookstore inside Uwajimaya, and the colors are amazing! LOTS of gorgeous translucent colors! Sigh...I want!!!

Okay... time to get back to the other people in my life... :-) I have a few house-related things to do and then later this evening, we're headin' over to the neighbors for a firepit party. I should take my ginormous bottle of Bailey's that's still leftover from the Art in Ashland shindig! :-)

Take care and super big hugs to you!!!

Howdy Do...

GULP!!! Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? Wow! I didn't plan on it but I think I just took an unscheduled blog break. I just haven't been spending a lot of time on the computer at home. I have; however, tried to keep up with my peeps and bop around Blogland as much as possible! Another instance of just being happy to be the spectator. :-)

So my sweet blessed life is very full right now. LOTS of stuff going on. And, very thankfully, it's ALL good stuff! Work has been really busy which is always a good thing. I also joined a Toastmasters group at my work which I'm pretty jazzed about. Oh and on another work-related side note, I got something in the mail from my employer that if I take early retirement, I only have NINE more years of working. Nine!!!! That's one less than 10! I've already been with this employer for 14 years so I can easily see hanging around for another nine. This is pretty much the light at the end of the tunnel, folks. A very happy, retired tunnel. This news is SO uplifting to me!

Okay...so our weekends have been absolutely FULL lately! Last weekend we went to a baseball game Friday night, then I volunteered at Pets in the Pearl all day on Saturday, and then Sunday we went to see Ringo Starr at Edgefield. What a fantastic weekend!

This weekend is only partially full...last night Glen and I volunteered at the Washington County Fair in the Washco Dems booth, hanging out with some awesome local politicians. It was extra fun because Miranda and her friend, Josh, came out to hang with us for a bit. Care to see a cute picture of this little duo?

So nice to see her in a happy relationship.

Tonight we're going to see our friend, Carl Wolfson, at the Jester Comedy Club with Glen's brother and wife. And then I'm VERY happy to report that tomorrow we ain't got nuttin' on the agenda! Ya-hoo!!!!

So would it surprise you to know that in the middle of all this busyness, I've actually been able to squeeze in artsy crafty time? Hey, it's what renews and energizes me so regardless of how busy life is, I will always find time for art! Even if it means letting the dishes sit in the sink! Sorry, honey! :-)

I was VERY happy I got to participate in Amanda's, of HodgePodgebyAmanda fame, Diamonds and Pearls charm swap. I had JUST found this ridiculously beautiful pair of old looking earrings at Goodwill that were full of diamondy, pearly dangly things so they were perfect to dismantle and use for the charms.  Here are the charms I made...

And the back...

Here are all the charms...

Miss Sweetness Herself, Amanda, even sent each participant a beautiful bracelet for our charms! How fabulous is that??? I haven't put my charms on the bracelet yet but Natalie did! Just gorgeous! Thank you so much Amanda for hostessing such a lovely party! :-)

I have much much more to show you, including the sweetest package of goodies I received from my new BEAUTIFUL friend, Sherri, but that deserves its own post! :-)

So for now, I'm off to enjoy a nice quiet Saturday afternoon and work on some fatbook pages for the post-ArtFest Fatbook that Kristie is hostessing. These babies are due in a few days...and they are still SUCH a work in progress...

Take care, lovely people!

Happy Day...

Hello my dear world...

I am feeling pretty much back to normal today and aside from the fact that I sound like I'm 3-pack a day smoker, this short bout of summer flu is quickly becoming a distant memory.

I've been working in my little studio and am caught up with circle journals and charms. Don't get me wrong...I've still got several to work on but as of today, nothing is overdue or due. :-)

Oh and before I forget, I have been having fun over at playlist.com. You can set up your own personal play list and listen to your favorite music at the computer. Yeah, I know an iPod with that speaker set up would accomplish the same thing, but I'm just not there, technologically speaking, yet. (YET being the operative word!) So I'm sitting here, listening to Baby Blue by Badfinger and watching the butterflies outside the window (there are SO many around here this year). So needless to say, I'm in a good mood.

To see all the songs on my play list so far, click here. If you have a favorite song you'd like to recommend, I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Okay...so back to art! I finally have pictures pictures pictures of charms charms charms to share with you!

I participated in two grunge charm swaps (I wanted to make sure I had enough charms to make a full bracelet!) and a mica charm swap. The first up is the GOING GRUNGE charms swap which was hosted by my very sweet friend Melissa.

Here are the charms I made...

And here's the ones I received...I LOVE 'EM!!!

Next up is the DIRTY DOZEN charm swap hosted by the super cool and super clever Maureen. I can't wait to meet her at Art and Soul!

Here are my charms...

And here's the set of DIRTY DOZEN charms I received...such talent!!!

Those Army guys were decorations Maureen used on the packaging of the charms she sent to us. She also painted the packages camoflage paint and stenciled DIRTY DOZEN. See...I told you she was super clever! :-)

And then last, but by no means least, is a mica charm swap. A quick side note, I've heard of mica before but it wasn't until I bought some in anticipation of Nina's class at Art and Soul, I had never used it before. I was talking with Kecia about it when she was here and she said you can just cut it with scissors and can also make it as thin as you want by separating the layers with an X-acto blade. I am now hooked and it is SO versatile and cool to tinker around with!

This swap was hosted by Carina and the theme was HOME. Here are my charms...

Front...

Back...

And then all the charms I received...

Such beauty!! Some of these are a little large to wear as a charm so they may end up as pendants.

Okay...had enough for now?

I also have LOs from two different circle journals done and at the ready, but I'll save those for another day. :-)

Cheers!