Leaving....on a jet plane....

I am SO excited to be traveling to my first Alt Design Summit in Salt Lake City, UT. I am meeting up with my fabulous (and ridiculously organized) friend Stella, she has our schedule for the week in PDF form including links to suggested restaurants and their menus! Being a sporadic blogger, I am hoping to meet bloggers that have stylish sites with dedicated followers and bribe them with jewelry;) I am also looking forward to meeting new friends and experiencing SLC! As an added bonus we are going to Sundance on Sunday to see a movie (stalk famous people)! And now I have to go and try to sleep so I can be daisy fresh for my freaking 4 am pick up! See you in Salt Lake!

BTW....I heard a rumor that little miss Ala made jewelry for FOUR hours after our class! Mmmmmmm....what's the age limit for employment?

My First Day Of Class

Let me start out this post by saying if there was a way to duplicate Ala I'd take 3! What an absolute pleasure of a kid. She is everything you would want any child to be, smart, funny, polite and just a joy to hang out with. We started out by looking through a couple of the books that I left for her and she took the task of marking everything she liked
to heart. At every Post it she would tell me what she liked about a certain piece of jewelry. I was really surprised at how sophisticated her opinions were, she really "got" it and was so excited to learn. It also gave me some idea of what I want to teach her in future lessons. For the first class, I taught her basic stringing around a focal point bead and she picked it up so quickly there was time to teach her how to make a focal point beads with wire. I am really looking forward to seeing what she makes with these techniques and I can't wait

for our next session!

My second half of the day as a student showed me what an amazing teacher Stacey Lane is! That 2 week Penland course more than prepared me for this class and I think I will actually be able to bring some new techniques to the class. It was also taught in the same classroom where I took my very first metalsmithing class about 10 years ago. I started reminiscing about the amazing people that have helped and encouraged me to get where I am now and I left that class filled with gratitude and the hope that I can pass on a little of what I have learned.

The teacher becomes the student.....

A couple of months ago a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in teaching her adorable daughter a jewelry making course as part of her home schooling curriculum. I said yes immediately. I love the idea of passing down what I have learned to someone that wants to learn, and teaching kids is the best. They come at it with no ego or self consciousness and a willingness to play and learn and experiment. Which is pretty much how I come at jewelry making and why I describe my life as being very Kindergarden-ish. (play time, nap time, snack time:) That my friend also happens to be an amazing masseuse and wants to barter for the classes is just a big fat glob of icing on the proverbial cupcake!

To get Ala excited about our first day and create a dialogue about jewelry, I dropped off a bunch of books that had tons of pics of jewelry in it with the instructions that Ala put a post it note on every page of jewelry she likes and a little description of why she likes it. This will give me some ideas of where to go in her lessons so she learns things she is excited about! SO looking forward to our first day together.

In a strange twist of fate and scheduling snafus, today is MY first day of a class I signed up for at The Visual Arts Center in Richmond. For those of you who don't know, Richmond has this amazing Center that attracts some very talented teachers that specialize in a million different artistic forms such as woodworking, fiber, and of course, jewelry making. I am taking a class with local jewelry artist Daniel Eaves on lost wax casting. In August I was lucky enough to take a 2 week course in casting at The Penland School in North Carolina with the talented Stacey Lane and I am excited to finally get back in the studio and build on that foundation with some new tricks!

So today I will start out giving back what I know and end it taking in something new! (Cue the Lion King's Circle of Life!)

A Thanksgiving full of joy and remembrance....

Two years ago, my amazing full of life father in law was diagnosed with cancer and we lost him a week after Thanksgiving. I have never met anyone more passionate about life and interested in everything around him. Whenever I would see him he would ask me,"What's your next show?" and this would start off an hour or so of his intent listening to me talk about my business. He would ask questions and give advice. He was a successful, self made business man who was still growing two companies after his "official" retirement and I was always so grateful that he would take the time to talk to me about my dreams and hopes for my future. He never treated my jewelry designing like a "hobby", his believing in me helped me to believe in myself. His passing left our world without his laughter, bear hugs and constant cheerleading in everything we did.

This year we were lucky enough to spend Thanksgiving in a beautiful home at the beach with family and new friends. There was lots of food, laughter, love and even some bear hugs! I am so thankful to have spent 5 days getting to know such a boisterous, life-loving group of people and am blessed to have added some new friends to my life.

Most days we enjoyed bright sunshine and mild beach breezes. One afternoon following a gray, rainy morning, a vibrant rainbow appeared over the ocean. The colors were bright and sharp against a sky fuchsia with the setting sun. We all ran for our phones and cameras to catch the moment and the miracle of it's beauty. None of our pictures captured all the colors or glowing pink sky behind it. In the end, we keep our precious memories most vibrant in our hearts.

I heart you St. Bridget's!

Whenever I go to a show filled with interesting, stylish women who "get" what I am trying to do with my jewelry it fills me with sunshine and rainbows! Seriously, tonight rocked and I appreciate everyone that came out to make it a success not only for me but for St. Bridget's school. I'll be back anytime you'll have me ladies.

These lovely ladies circled around 3 times before landing on the perfect necklaces for them.

Thanks for coming back!

I knew the seaglass belt buckle wasn't long for my table!

Karen has been a longtime visitor to my booth and this cuff had her name ALL over it. Thanks for coming to see me!

Sometimes it's hard to say goodbye to a piece...this was one of them!

Across from me this year was Kim Nix whose dreamy, soulful, beautiful paintings took my breath away. I took some pics but there is no way my blurry camera will do her wonderful artwork justice so check out her website for non blurry renderings. Here are some images I "borrowed" from her site:

Gorgeous!

It's always great to see Andrea Danner-Schultz and her adorable booth design, fab jewelry and paintings. Notice how her booth coordinates with her recycled cashmere sweater from Imagine That?

She is normally not this blurry.

All in all a fabulous nigh,t and now I will eat something because it is 12:00am and this was dinner:

So don't hate me if I forgot to spell check!

Christmas is coming...the poodle's getting fat!

Christmas is coming and I am having christmas anxiety nightmares. I had a dream last night that there were kids having snowball fights in front of our house at 4am and the whole city was decorated in a Christmas theme. We went outside to ask them to keep it down and then couldn't get back in because our house was covered with a Christmas themed cottage and we couldn't find the entrance. That was after I dreamed that I drove the 8 hours to a Country Living Show and realized I had forgotten my jewelry. Analyze that.

www.vintagetravelertrailerart.com

Looking for something to do tonight where you can drink wine AND get some holiday shopping done? Check out St. Bridget's Girls Night Out! This will be there:

...and this will be there:

This treat eating poodle won't:

See you there!

I hear ya Dad!

Every time I let my blog lapse my dad sends me an email. Since I haven't posted since last May you can only imagine how many I've received. So what have I been up to? I spent an amazing 4 days in Stone Mountain Park, GA taking part in Country Living Magazine's awesome show! I met so many cool people who "get" my jewelry and I just had a blast hanging out with my bestie Deanna King owner of Strawberry Fields Flowers and Finds who made my booth look amazing and was in general the best cheerleader a girl could want!

The gorgeous display of gourds on the way into Stone Mountain Park

Our bargain lunch for 2 at Cracker Barrel

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Forgot my sunglasses at home but picked up these "bad ass" shades at a gas station!

Nothing says "Country Living" like skulls with fire shooting out of them!

Booth shot, Deanna hung EVERYTHING! Best booth buddy EVER!

I have been trying to figure out a way to make cool leather cuff bracelets and was, until now, intimidated by snaps. I went to The Tandy Factory in Richmond and they should me just how easy it could be. Here are some pieces I made once I stopped swearing and got the hang of it:

The cuff bracelets are made out of recycled leather belts and that got me to thinking about belt buckles. I love them and have collected them for years, why not make some. Here ya have it:

A couple of belts with vintage bits sunk in resin

I have many shows coming up this holiday season and am looking forward to seeing everybody. I promise to try and keep up with my blog a little better....sorry Dad:)