Bears run wild to the Seascape.....

I got an amazing amount of work done yesterday.



This is the newest bag that I finished.....(I have another new one started too!!).

Any way, if you'd like to take a look at this one you can either go to Mama Roses Reincarnations and read the blog entry about it, or you can use the Etsy Store link.




And then there is the piece of jewelry that I finished reworking......

Four hours were well spent on this piece! You can see the whole piece by using this link.

Today I'm going to spend some time trying to learn some more new beading techniques...so I hope to have some fun things to talk about tomorrow!

Etsy Shop Opens!

I finally got it done, and have items available for sale on an Etsy shop. It just seemed like this would be a good place to put a few of the items that are coming out of Mama Rose's Reincarnations.

If you'd like to take a look at the store, you can click on the banner to go there.

a new bag complete

Fall is coming, the frost is on the pumpkin, and this new piece is finally complete to fit right into the season!

To see more of this piece, use this
link.



Yesterday we made our shopping excursion to Denver (I'll be SO glad when the Costco down here is finished -- hopefully sometime in the spring). I did get this afghan square (and almost half of another one) complete.

Lots of things to get done today, so its time to get to it!

sharing a peek....

of the new piece of jewelry that I finished yesterday.

This one is the result of Sunday's Play Day.

If you'd like to see more, use this link.






Finished another afghan square too.....

We will be making our monthly Costco run today, so I should get at least one more afghan square done if not a whole lot else.

onward and upward.....

Pumpkin Shreddie is done....

Ok, everybody say "aaaaawwwwwwhhhhhhh!"

Isn't he cute?

and he's only 6 inches tall!



Once I actually sat down to work on the finishing (he'd been sitting around in the pumpkin with no leaves or vine since Saturday), it went really quickly, and I'm pleased with the results.

This morning I sent his pictures off to an on line magazine. Now I need to create his page for my website and get it loaded up. And while I'm at it, I really should take down the pictures of the pieces that I sold while I was in Kansas City (oh, DUH!, I've just been a bit busy since then)

We have been invited to apply for a show in Ross Park, NY next August. It is an honor to even be invited, and now I have to figure out which animals I should send pictures of for the jury selection.

I've decided to send off one of my new "reincarnation" pieces to Stampington (they publish some of my most favorite magazines: Belle Armoire, Altered Couture, Haute Handbags) because I think it may fit one of their magazines. So today I need to get the description written then find packing materials, etc.....

Meantime, the laundry part of the laundry room looks so neat and clean that I'm thinking I should start working on other parts of the area too....lets start with finding out what is really in those boxes that have been sitting there for 5 years....sounds like time to divide and dispose!

into the fray!!

Play Day Report

One of the things that happens as I work on things that are for sale is that I tend to keep using the same techniques that I already know and am comfortable with because it makes the work go faster.

So for my Play Day yesterday, I spent some time teaching myself some new beading techniques.

If you'd like to see more of what I did, use this link.

So, since I played with beads yesterday, the little pumpkin bear isn't finished yet, but I'll be going back to him today.

First tho' I have work to do to make some order in the chaos of the laundry room after cleaning up the water heater mess.......at least now the stinky carpet is out of there (who in their right mind puts carpet in a laundry room -- especially a basement laundry room that has a drain in the middle of the floor?? oh DUH!!)

time to get to it.....

working on this and that......

Well, the little bear and his pumpkin are moving along.

I got the pumpkin done, but I needed a good picture of a pumpkin leaf to finish him up, which I found this morning on line....soooooo, hopefully today I will get him finished up.

While I was in Springfield last weekend, I got one of those phone calls -- my dad was having emergency surgery to repair a strangulated hernia.....bad news all around.

The good news here is that he came through the surgery well, and is now home recuperating.

So yesterday we went up to visit and help my mom with some things....changing the sheets on the queen size bed, gas in the truck......



I knit this square on the way up to Denver..............



and this one on the way home..............

which puts me only 28 away from doing 100 for the year................

meantime, I've been quilting right along on the quilt for my daughter. Last night I finished the last ring at the top of the quilt, so now I'll be working down the side...



I've not had a "play day" since before the wedding, so I'm thinking about taking part of one today and trying out some new bead weaving techniques.....

I finished another project!

This one is a bag for my own use, but I'll take orders for custom ones for someone else.

If you'd like to see more about it, use this
link.

Having been invited to submit a Fall themed animal to an on line magazine, I'm working on dressing one of my little 6 inch bears in a pumpkin.....very cute!!

Pictures of him to follow....hopefully tomorrow!

Time to get moving......

Good things accomplished.....

I made a trade at our show last weekend for some new materials to work with. If you'd like to see a bit more about them, here is the link that has pictures of the whole "haul".


Anytime we're traveling, I work on pieces that will be for sale in the car, but I also work on knitting that goes to charity.







These 5 afghan squares were completed during the 2 weekends of travel. This brings my total of squares to 70 for this year. I'd like to get 30 more done to bring my total up to an even 100 for the year.

Meantime my daughter pointed out to me that I should make her a hand bag that she can take to work and show off and maybe I can take an order or two from the folks she works with....sounds like a plan to me! I'll be quizzing her about what "features" she would like. I started working on a bag for me yesterday....its coming right along.

I spent time yesterday cleaning in the laundry room after Wednesday's water heater disaster. The concrete floor is now mostly dry, but there is still the piece of wet carpet to deal with as well as trying to make order again after having moved everything out as quickly as possible to whatever space it would fit in. This will take a bit of time.....guess we needed to get rid of some of this stuff anyway.

Home again......

The show is over, and we survived our trip home!



This is what our booth looked like at the show.

It rained on us both days in the afternoon, and it was generally cool (which is fine with me as long as it doesn't keep people away)

We did not do this show last year, and we will not do another one. While we got great comments about our work (for the most part); most of our work is just too expensive for the crowd. Unlike in Columbia, MO, where the professors from the colleges come to the show and buy things, this crowd was not as affluent.




While we were away, I did finish another piece from MamaRose. If you'd like to see more pictures and details about it, use this link.

So now I'm working on sales taxes and other paperwork and beginning to think about fall shows.....


time to get busy!!

Traveling and working

I finished another piece in the car on the way from Colorado Springs to Springfield.

To see the whole piece and learn more about what it's made up of, use this link.

And now folks, it is 9 pm, CDT, and I've been up since 3:30 am, CDT, so I'm a bit out of it.....more about our travels, etc., tomorrow.

A Sneek Peek

at the newest piece of finished jewelry

To get a look at the whole piece, you can go
here and take a look!

Today we have errands to run and then we will be packing the van for our EARLY (before dawn makes a little "butt crack") departure tomorrow morning.

gotta get movin'

Back from Kansas City.....

and spent most of yesterday doing laundry, unpacking the car, filling in tax forms and writing thank yous to my new customers from the show.




This is a close up of the new piece I finished yesterday for Mama Rose's Reincarnations.

If you'd like to see more about this piece, use this
link.

We are headed off to Springfield, MO, for the Cider Fest on Walnut Street this coming weekend, so there's lots for me to do today and tomorrow!

ONWARD!!

Saying a fond farewell

to several animals!



Clem, a truly amazing piece with a cernit face that my husband sculpted went off with a very nice couple to add to their collection.



Every dodo we had has flown the coop.....


as did one of our flamingos....



The joker has a new home too



and our version of Soma the Red Dog has been adopted too

An assortment of other smaller bears also found new homes by day's end.

To be honest, I felt like I was manning someone else's booth, having not had this good a show in quite a while with the critters -- just when I had begun to doubt if I should keep doing them, I got resounding confirmation that there is still a market for the quirky little critters we create.

So, tomorrow bright and early we head home with some emptier tubs and a long list of new pieces to work on sometime between now and next April's show in Nevada City; and now I need to start shifting gears for next week's show which will be in Springfield, MO, with our jewelry.

Kansas City Jubilee -- Day 1

Here's a new way to tell you are in Missouri -- when I got out of the car yesterday afternoon to go into the motel and register, my glasses instantly fogged over --- it was HUMID!!

This afternoon we set up our table and got to visit with artists that were arriving for the show.

This evening was the banquet (yummy chicken marsala!) and the Good Bears of the World fund raiser auction. There were a lot of collectors on hand to bid on the items that had been donated by artists that are here for the show as well as a number that are not but donated a piece anyway.



The center pieces on each table were one of these bears with a mylar balloon. At our table the balloon was a purple heart.

The center pieces were given to the person at the table with the birthday closest to today -- the DH was the one at our table, so this little bear is coming home with us!!







Martha Burch prepares to entertain us as the auctioneer






Collectors lined up to register as buyers for the auction.



Here are some of the 44 pieces that were auctioned off with all of the proceeds going to Good Bears of the World (the little silver and black puppy in the center was our donation)



Great company at our table -- this is one of the collectors with her companion bear that she (and her husband) brought to dinner.



We had a delightful dinner, followed by a cheese cake bar for desert. This was my creation---fresh raspberries and dark hot fudge ---- mmmmmmm!







These adorable pieces were available by special order as the convention "bear" -- notice the official looking miniature Good Bear being hugged by the little elephant (for those of you that are not familiar with Stieff's history, the first animals made were elephants, followed by bears)

Its show time......

We'll be heading out this afternoon to deliver the dog to our daughter and then tomorrow morning we'll be heading out to Kansas City (goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come --- can't you HEAR the music!?)

Anyway, if you're going to be in that area and you want to drop in on the show we'd love to have you visit.

(and if you print out the picture, we'll accept it as a coupon!)

A new bear and another make over

This is Rusty




This is the bear that I was having all the issues with his ears (you know, Flying Nun, ready to fly across the room ears!)

I finally got the ears done, and the original idea for Rusty (which has been the "working name" for this critter right along) was that SHE would be Rustie, and I would do a necklace with a sunflower or a beaded autumn leaf for her.

mmmmm, well, once I got the ears fixed and all of the feet done, this bear informed me in no uncertain terms that HE was a BOY and he didn't want anything to do with any of that "sissy" stuff. (that's what I get for putting an OPEN MOUTH on a bear!)

So, Rusty is in his fashion best. A nicely stiffened white collar and a handmade silk tie, complete with a genuine sapphire tie tack (I modified a stud earring finding to create the tie tack).

Now that he's done, I just have to put a tag on him and put him in the travel tub.




This is the other new bear that we had finished a few days ago, the one that would never tell me who she was.

Well, we're guessing that she wasn't talking because she just wasn't happy with her "look", so yesterday I gave her a make over.




This is Rosalinda.




In order to create this new look, there was major surgery involved -- the kind where I get to open the body seam and open the head seam and remove the neck joint!

That long neck and the upward tip of the head just wasn't doing it for her. Now she looks kind of like the little old lady bear. I'm considering knitting her a shawl!

This one too is getting a tag and will go into the packing tub sometime today.

I'm still working on two more pieces that I want to take to this weekend's show. My daughter had given me two very nice coffee cups, and I thought it would be fun to try a sort of gift basket thing with those cups and a little bear and some other goodies, so I'm working on putting those together.

Lots of stuff to do today, so its time for me to get to it!!

As if there wasn't enough going on already,

this week I launched 2 (yes TWO!) new blogs.

Being a split personality is such fun!!

For quite a while I've been trying to keep the animal art and the jewelry art on this site together, but its just confusing. And its hard to develop a website that way too, so we have decided to let our multiple personalities each have their own "space" to grown in.

Effective today (September 1 is a good beginning place), I will be posting things about my jewelry work over at Big Black Dog Studio. We decided on this name as a sort of tribute to our big black dog and because most all of the "fish" references (ok, Haring, herring -- its still fishy) were pretty much taken.

Also effective today, I will begin posting about our "green" projects on Mama Rose's Reincarnations

The animals are staying here at Esmerldas as that is where they began and that is the name our animals are most known by.

And so, as I work on new things other than animals I will post on those sites, but I'll be still refering to them here with a link for your convenience.

In other blog news, I have invited my daughter to contribute to Hattie's Kitchen and share her adventures with cooking and other household escapades. I'm looking forward to seeing what she will add to that blog.

So, as they say, watch this space for more adventures and links to what else we're working on.

The new bear is progressing nicely. Today I should be able to finish up his feet and then we can take some pictures!!



And there is a new critter in the pattern development stage now....the DH decided I needed a new animal to work on when we're traveling this coming week, so he's designing an ant eater.....they're really kind of cute.....I'll be making the first one out of wool coating or something similar to test the pattern before we move on to other fabrics.

Time to get to work!