We have one day left before school starts.. One! Not sure if I’m excited to take the kids back and establish a routine again or if I’d rather have another month or so off…? It’s a toss up.
Bead Soup Hoppers…..you can find my bead soup here: https://www.susansartcircus.com/bead-soup-all-at-once/
Over Mother’s Day I had my booth full of things at the Bernardo Winery in San Diego, California. It was the 37th year that this show has been going on and about 10 years that I have participated.
The winery is a beautiful spot. Filled with antiques from the century they’ve been raising grapes on the property. Hundreds of olive trees line the walkways and buildings. Lush landscaping and flowers all around. Many small specialty shops and, of course, the wine tasting room plus they have a restaurant in the middle of everything! Needless to say it’s my favorite place and I get to be there (as long as Veronica juries me in) twice each year…Mother’s Day weekend and again the weekend a couple weeks before Halloween.
This time my whole family came on Mother’s Day. My son…
…he fell in love with my friend April’s Yorkie, Suzy. Isn’t she cute?
My daughter came all day to help out.
And my husband, well, let’s just say he found some new friends.
Whenever you get the chance go visit the Bernardo Winery…you won’t regret it!
Christmas is coming?! Really? Didn’t we just do Christmas?
I have to admit that Christmas has not been my favorite holiday over the past decade. When you’re on the road, as I am, through the holiday season Santa is more work than pleasure. Add to that 10+ years of this love/hate relationship and thinking about Christmas seems really daunting.
So, several months ago I was sent some beautiful Rue Romantique pieces from the Ice girls and asked to do something for Christmas. My first honest response in my head was, “oh no, not that!” I’ve wrestled with it ever since…until this past week.
Knowing our blog hop was fast approaching I knew I had better wrap my head around it or be totally delinquent. Out came all the pieces and more from my design team stash…ribbons, the component Rue pieces, resin, bezels, papers….all of it all over the studio. I stared at it for several days. Pushing it aside I went back to my all time favorite material, shrink plastic, and just began to play with some holiday stamps. Then it dawned on me! K.I.S.S. Stop over thinking it and keep it simple stupid!
Merry Christmas and Santa emerged…
I pulled out the alcohol inks in red and green to add some holiday color to the components. Wrapped a bit of vintage ribbon to the bottom.
Santa had to have some shiny, sparkly areas so out came the iridescent glitter added to some ModPodge then painted into his fur, beard, hat, and sleeves. Also some glitter was added to the component piece then resin over the top to seal.
Here it is a bit closer so you can see how wonderfully the glitter falls into the component grooves then lights up under the resin. Santa and all the pieces also have a resin coating. Such a nice gloss to reflect the lights when these are hanging from the tree. The bottom crystals are also from the Connie Crystals…last blog post…beautiful, faceted teardrop shapes. They made the perfect sparkling end to the base of both.
Here’s to Christmas…a better relationship with Santa and wishing you all the meaning of the season!
Check all the fantastic Christmas projects for the hop!! Don’t miss any of them!
ICE Resin site http://wp.me/p1MCno-2W3
Lexi Grenzer http://lexigrenzer.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop.html
Pamela Huntington http://pamelahuntington.typepad.com/february_2007/2013/11/handmade-holiday-blog-hop.html
Jen Cushman http://wp.me/p1lhEq-Gb
Until next time…
