Mittens!

After months and months of making things for other people, both merchandise and presents, I made myself something. My most favorite thing to knit - MITTENS!

In my opinion, mittens are the perfect knitting project. They're useful, designing them is fun and they knit up fast. I have no patience for sweaters and afghans, and socks wear out too quickly for all the work that goes into them.

Links:

Mittens - This is a free pattern and it's a gem. Easy to understand,  uses needles that are not too big or too small, and it's fun to customize with your own colors and patterns.

Amanita Muscaria - or fly agaric mushrooms - you know, red and white polka dot mushrooms. I adore them. If you have a pinterest account follow this link down the rabbit hole.

If you want a peek at my stash of pinterest mitten pics - click here.

Well, That Was Fun!

Some snapshots from Christmas 2014.

Suzy Snowflake sings to the lump of coal.

A very sparsely decorated, small tree this year.
Just in case we had to throw it out the front door during a pine allergy attack.

Everyone put their Santa suits on and got into it.

Delicious things were consumed.
Especially pink champagne for breakfast.

The brass unicorn came to the table.

Oops, oof. Something not so magical happened while we were sleeping Christmas eve.
So we never left the house on Christmas day which turned out to be pretty fun.

Circles and spirals everywhere.

J O Y

Doing my best to get with the holiday thing this year.

Lovely Love Charms

One of my standards - the love charm necklace.
Glass heart, vintage chain and an odd vintage charm.

That's right, a bust of JFK.

And below, a very old Monopoly shoe.

!!! Earring Alert !!! Earring Alert !!!

First I make some earrings, and then I make more earrings.

A Murder of Crows - lampwork glass and sterling silver

Cherries - lampwork glass and sterling silver


More skull earrings because I never, ever have enough of these.

Who is currently obsessed with little tribal bells?
I just keep buying them on etsy.

This pair has some old Danish coins that I found in a button box at an estate sale.

More 'berries & leaves' style earrings.

Like I said above, I am obsessed with little tribal bells.

Big wonking baroque pearls.

And, ta da, something completely new.
Sterling silver post earrings.
I used one of my small button molds to make pairs of glass cabochons. 

The Bone Yard

I still l o v e making these.

A little bit of glass, some rhinestones and some bones.

It's like holiday baking!

Tasty, fun treats for yer lobes.

Beach Glass Necklace

'Beach Glass' necklace - lampwork beads and sterling silver.

Glass colors? For all you bead makers who might be wondering...
Effetre clear (used some old scummy stuff), Pale crystal green, medium brown, hand pulled emerald, pale aqua and cobalt blue. These are not etched, they were tumbled in a rock tumbler.

Where I live, Rochester, New York, is on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.
If you could see across the lake you would see Toronto.
Beach glass hunting is good here, but brrrrr, not in winter.

The Bird Is The Word

Little glass bird charms on vintage chains.

Getting ready for the More Fire Glass Holiday Open House on Friday!

CRAFTACULAR !!! 2014

Ready or not, here it comes.
The 2014 edition of CRAFTACULAR

It's a super small show with just nine people - one of every crafty thing.

Here are the posters I have made in year's past...

If you're in Rochester be sure and come by.

Kisses & Sweet Berries

'Night Berries' bracelet

lampwork glass beads, bronze, garnets, labradorite and freshwater pearls

The leaves are made with Riechenbach "Magic" glass.

The little berries are Hessian Garnets that came from Dakota Stones with bronze cornflake freshwater pearls as their caps. There are also a couple of labradorite berries in the mix.

I got a little kiss from Miss Kiki while I was photographing the bracelet which I am sharing with you.

White Velvet Cake

Quick like a bunny - a superfast snapshot of all the beads annealing in the kiln.

Out of the kiln and onto my desk.

I found a film strip!
Who else remembers these from grade school?
Wait, I've veered off track.

Off the mandrels and ready to be cleaned.

I am missing some action photos.
The cleaned beads went into my rock tumbler all shiny and came out looking like velvet.

'White Velvet' necklace
lampwork glass beads and sterling silver

Love the clasp on this one.