my dream house has.....

a huge studio on the third floor.  it has lots of large windows and a balcony with french doors.  it has brick walls and wood floors from an old barn.  the ceilings are ridiculously tall. my pinterest boards have tons of photos of oh-so-awesome antique and vintage pieces of furniture for storage of all kinds of this-es and thats that will fill my studio.   on beautiful days i will fling open my french doors and breathe in the fresh air while the sun shines in just perfectly to illuminate what i am creating. and i can hear the birds singing during the day, or the frogs and crickets chirping at night. 

i don't know when i will be creating in my new studio, but for now my studio is in the icky basement.  teeny windows.  the only way i am going to hear any birds, frogs or crickets is to turn my little tiny ancient tv on a science channel. 

i found every excuse to avoid going down there....even though i was so anxious to get to work play.

once i made it down there i was quite irked at myself for avoiding it for so long. 

i took this piece down to my studio and decided after i put a few puncture wounds in my fingers i would file down the points on it.....

during the process of filing the lethal tips to a less damaging dull point on  these prickly boogers i found a few that decided to take a flying leap off the piece and had to re-solder some replacements.


i knew last night that i wanted to use some green sari silk for the necklace, and i have to say it looks just how i imagined....i am a happy girl....squeeeee!

i was so wanting to do some spikes on a reliquary and began searching the studio for just the perfect thingy-ma-bob to put in such a reliquary and could not find anything....and then i realized that sneaky arty-a.d.d. had tricked me and so i put that future project on hold.  i have 4 necklaces to complete first.


i gathered my bits and pieces to quickly assemble these two.  i had enough of everything to make one for me and one to sell. 

if you know me, you know i love asymmetry, and ummmmm....unique design.  i am just not a girl that can be happy stringing pretties in a perfect little symmetrical cutsie pattern.  i just can not do it. 

this time though i was going to.  i pictured using the vintage plastic beads and fresh water pearls and dainty little swarovskis to make a necklace suitable for wearing to a tea and finger sandwich gathering.  uber girly.  

 one word went screaming through my mind and then my soul.....ugh-my-gawd-that-is-so-not-me-what-was-i-thinking-shoot-me-now-just-end-the-misery-i-just-can't-do-it.  *sigh*

i had the beads all in a perfectly pretty pattern and i ripped them off as quickly as i could and then.....

.....did this

i am a girly girl when it comes to make up and hair and nails and accessories...but i just look at this and think this is not me...this is not meeeeeee.  it is me because of the asymmetry and the unique tid bit i added with the tear drop bead....but it is not me me, if you know what i mean.  even my daughter looked at it and said  'it is so not you'.   but i will probably, maybe,  keep one for me in the off chance that i am invited to such a soiree that would require a dainty girlie accessory. 

here is a close up of the vintage pink plastic beads. 

at this point i had to stop for the day as the beast reared up its ugly head and i about fell off my chair.  this was the bad, bad version of the beast and it hit so quick it scared the bajeebers out of me.  thankfully my brain is finally settling down. 


and finally here are some pictures of the little glass vase that i soldered up last week.  the roses are from my garden....so pretty and so full of little pricklies....just like my thorny necklace above.

i think i have 8 or 9 of these left and next week i am hoping to solder them as well and maybe keep a couple of them for us and offer the others for sale on the nest feathers and twine etsy shop that currently is not open due to the fact that i need to stock the 'shelves' with goodies. 

it has been a kind of vanilla day here....the boys are having a really rough time of it with allergies and we have been having some pretty chilly weather compared to what we have gotten use to during this weird winter and spring this year.    as usual though mike provided us with 'flavor' for our bland  day

my hubby's dog ate something that had an undesirable outcome and was butt bombing us out of the room for most of the evening.  he could have made a skunk gag.   it could be the splat he licked up from the back step....a splat that looked like a huge drip of ice cream that had begun to melt...and then i realized we did not have ice cream.  guh-ross.  this dog can drive me nuts, but i have to admit he is a huge source of entertainment around here. 

i guess i need to check the washer...i can't remember if i have anything left in there or not.  maybe i will work up the guts to use the voice recorder on my phone and see if anyone will answer my inquiry as to who seems to want to  communicate with us. 

i hope you had a beautiful and blessed day.

g'night.  mwah!

ummmm....stuff i did today? i really can't think of a title.

i finished the first one today....squeeeee!   i love it....but after a minute or so of celebration i was not 100% in love with it anymore.   there was just too much space all in the middle there, and once i put it on i was not loving where the feathers hit.

i added another hook so that i could wear it this way too....and i am back on total and complete love.

this necklace has a lot of things i love.  my love of asymmetry, science, found objects,  and all things vintage. 

in the process of finishing the necklace above,  my arty-a.d.d. kicked in and i saw these beige-y pearls sitting in a baggie, and they almost perfectly matched the vintage paper i lined the reliquary boxes with ......and then i heard them whisper.....hey...you....stick us in one of those oh-so-soon-to-be-reliquary boxes over there.....hey you....don't ignore us......you know you want to....it's ok...put the necklace down and just do it. 

ugh....alright already.  i give in to you my arty-a.d.d.  i will do it.   i am glad i did, because it will take a good 24 hours for the diamond glaze to dry completely.   i have no clue what i will add to these at this point and that is because i would not give in any longer to the arty-a.d.d.  i went right back to work on the necklace.  yea me....

ok....so when we watch a scary or gorey icky movie we always do a happy chaser show to wash away all the yuck from our brains.....well after i finish a prototype or a first of a mulitple of something i kinda do the same thing.  i give my brain a little mini break and work on something little before starting on the second of something. 

i have some vintage plastic pink beads and matching pink freshwater pearls that i can't quit thinking about, and i think because it is spring, so i decided to put some vintage pink appliques under glass and solder as a focal.

 i soldered the first one, and did not like the dot placement.  when i don't like something i push it aside and then come back to it.  sometimes i have to fall in like with something first, and then love will follow.

i soldered the second one and liked the dot placement on this one much better.   i knew there would be no falling in love or like with the first one at this point.

  thank goodness i had other pink appliques to choose from, and quickly had another one under glass and ready to solder in no time. 

one thing i have learned is once you put dots on something, you can't really remove them with out it getting messy and the piece looking like there was some serious solder overdose going on.

 i knew this, but i hated where the dots were and figured if worse came to worse i would break the glass and remove the vintage applique smooshed between the layers of glass.

so i began to try to undot the piece and remove some of the solder....and of course it became a mess. 

right about the time i was ready to reach for the hammer and smack the ever living crap out of it and take my frustration out on this molten mess i remembered how years ago i made spikes on a piece that suffered a solder o.d. .  how perfect would that be?  these are suppose to be roses, i think, and rose bushes have thorns....so when life gives you sucky dots make thorns.....ok not as catchy as ' when life gives ya lemons make lemonade....but close enough.

it took me a minute or so of playing to remember how i did it a couple of years ago.  the first time i made the thorny spikes it was an accident while playing with the temperature on my soldering iron.  you have to turn it down, the temperature, so that as you lift the iron up the solder begins to cool almost immediately.  

i really like this, and i am thinking of keeping it for me.  on a short chain or strand of beads i think it would be fine.  anything too long and as i move it could flip over and stab me.  yipes!  i would have to carry a supply of band-aids and neosporin every time i wore it.  not good. 

i would love to be able to sell it, but i am afraid someone would get stabbed by the spikes and then it would be like mcdonalds and a lapful of hot coffee kind of thing.....and i don't want that.

the hubby and daughter said to just put a disclaimer on the listing....but i think the coffee cups had a disclaimer on them and that did not work for micky d's now did it?!

anyway...i just keep picturing the wear-er hugging some poor soul and putting a bazillion puncture wounds on them.  i think it is better i keep this one as it could potentially be a lethal weapon!

i know i said i would post photos of the progress of the weed killing, but i is so tired and i have about 40 ounces of water that has made its way through my digestive system and is screaming to break free to the other side of the ride.....so i am going to say nighty-night sleep tight and i will type at ya later.

big squishy hugs and sloppy kisses to you.