Three Hearts, A Gift, And An Angel

The mailbox held a surprise a couple of days ago...a wonderful gift from Steph in Belgium. Look at the hand decorated envelope. Both sides were completely covered! There was a cool silver wire ring and some beads that will find a home on a new necklace soon. Thanks so much Steph for brightening my day.
Here are three new necklaces that I just completed. I have been into hearts and wire lacing and stitching lately.


And finally a little of playing around. This angel was made from a styrofoam tray that I had used as a palette, a crushed bottle cap found in a parking lot, magazine letters, and an old paintbrush.

Quote of the day:
Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Gil Bailie

Dewy Morn

All is pretty peaceful at Stillwaters farm this week. The company (7 wonderful family members) of last week has gone home, The puppy is now happy and playing outside again with our grandpuppy Grant whom we are puppy-sitting. I hope to get back to some semblance of a routine this week and do some creating.
Here one of the pieces that I managed to do last week.

Unhappy Dog and Happy Girls

Well...this has been an interesting week. I had to take Maggie to be spayed on Monday. She couldn't have anything to eat or drink so I had to keep her in the house all day until I kept took her in. A couple of my friends were coming out to fish in our pond and when they arrived they had about 10 other people with them to fish and then they were going to fry the fish here and eat them. I love my friend and it ordinarily would have been no problem at all but the dog was stressing me out. She does not like being in the house and is not house broken. All day, I had to keep saying, "Don't let the dog out and don't feed her." Finally I got to take her to town and got her safely home that evening. We have to keep her in the house while she heals, but on Thursday I put her on a rope so she could hang out outside for a little while and not get into trouble. The main problem with letting her outside is that she is not supposed to get in the pond because she mustn't get her incision wet. She apparently got bored and started picking at her stitches and got them to open a little and the area got swollen, so I had to take her to town to the vet and they gave her an E collar and some antibiotics. She is sooooo bored in the house. I've been trying to spend as much time in the basement with her as I can, but I can't stay down there all the time.



Also on Thursday I had two of my nieces here to have an art day with Aunt Sherry. We had a great time making baskets and jewelry and then I discovered I had to make the emergency visit to the vet, so I left them with my husband. He was thinking, "How can I entertain two little girls?" No problem...they wanted to go fishing, so he was happy to take them. When I got home they were playing pool and talking about how many fish they had caught. Happy ending for the day except for the unhappy dog in the collar.
Yesterday I took them with me to my friend Shawn's house to pick up my jewelry left over from her sale the previous day. It was like an art field trip for them to visit another artist's studio.
Today I get to stay home and rest with my puppy all day. Whew! A welcome bit of peace.

Creating and Enjoying Family

I just got to spend a glorious week with my older son and his wife and on last weekend and this weekend my other son and his wife were here too. It is so good to spend time with them. They make life more interesting. Last weekend we were celebrating my DH's birthday and I did a new painting for his office but forgot to take a picture of it. I'll try to remember to do that this week so that I can post it. Saturday night we officially kicked off summer by going to the local drive-in theater. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie. It was pretty fun except we missed about the last 10 minutes because the electricity went off.
Now it's time to get back to work. I did manage to do a few pieces of jewelry last week, but I have to put my nose to the grindstone now. Here are a few of the pieces that I've completed.

A Little R and R

Hi everyone! I was away from my computer for a few days. (That felt really strange.) I'm back, trying to get back in the swing of things. We went to the Tennessee River to spend time with my mom, brother, his kids, and our son and DIL. The weather was great until just as we were getting ready to leave and then it turned ominous.
Here are some collages that my niece and nephew made one night. Aunt Sherry always has some art activity up her sleeve.I think they turned out great. Their mom does a lot of arts and crafts with them, so they are pretty creative.

Here are a couple of pieces of jewelry that I finished last week and a weird little mermaid.



Outside, right next to my deck, is the goose family feasting on clover, while the dogs are ignoring them just a few feet away.

The Family Grows

Well...I should post way more often, and then I wouldn't have so much to say at one time. It has been an exciting week for the family. My husband's youngest sister just had her first baby...a little boy named Nicholas. I'd post a picture but I forgot my camera when I went to visit. He is ADORABLE! That makes 16 nephews and nieces that I have and 6 great nephews and nieces on my husband's side of the family (not including my two sons) and 3 on my side of the family.

I got in a creative mood and made him this stuffed sock critter. It was so fun, I think I'll make some more.

I got an email from my sister today with a link to my Uncle David's new website. He is a painter and was a painting teacher at Middle Tennessee State University were I went to college, though never took one of his classes. He wasn't married to my aunt yet so I didn't know him then and my emphasis was commercial art not fine art. I probably would be a much better artist today if I had taken his classes.
I wish you could meet him...he's very interesting. There are a few paintings on the site but more will be added later. I am pleased to have four of his works at my house.

Of course I have been busy making more jewelry and here is some of it. There are too many to post at one time.Silver and freshwater pearls.

Behind the stone is my first attempt at PMC.

Now I need to get to work and clean the house and plant some flowers and replant all of our sweet corn that the crows have eaten. Arrrrrrrrrrgh!

Goodies Near and Far Away

I have felt pampered this week! First I got a wonderful beaded bracelet from my DIL and then on Monday I went to the mailbox and found this wonderful surprise package from Steph in Belgium. It contained a cute stamp that she had made and a couple of tiny handmade books, yummy chocolates, teas and other goodies. Thanks Steph!
Then I went to pick up my jewelry from Silo Studio and Shawn was cleaning up her studio and asked if I wanted these cool glove forms and a jar of old bottle caps. I was also going to buy this print but she insisted that I could have it. Fun stuff! Thanks to Shawn too!

These are pictures of my jewelry at her sale last week. I am having trouble figuring out how to display all of my stuff so that it stands out and doesn't get too chaotic. Most of the necklaces are hanging on a tree branch. Shawn said that people liked looking at stuff on the tree.

The beaded cuffs bracelets are my DIL's Christaloos.