new...

The new collage bracelets that I made on the rainy forth of July weekend are now for sale in my shop!

buttons...

Yesterday, at the shady end of the Logan Square farmer's market, I found someone selling buttons.  Sometimes, digging through buttons is more of a commitment than I'm willing to make.  There is a lot of digging and scrutinizing involved, there's a chance your search will not unearth anything that interests you... and there's the button grime.  And, in this case, there was a lot of button grime.  But, there were enough promising buttons peaking out at me, so I decided to put in a little time digging.  Here are my finds.  I plan on using them in my necklaces... after giving them a nice button bath.

in the apartment...

I originally had picnics and sunbathing in mind for Saturday afternoon, but as the rain started to come down on my morning errands, I ruled these things out and decided to relax in my apartment until the coast was clear.  I popped in a movie and set up in my kitchen to work on some collage bracelets.  I've made a few of these in the past, but either given them away, or stubbornly held onto them for myself.  So, these will be going into my shop (along with some collage earrings).  Just a coat of glaze, and they will be ready to go!

p.s.  I did finally emerge in the evening for a rooftop party with killer brisket and fireworks in every direction!  Happy belated forth!

featured...

Tonight I discovered that I was featured on Modish, a design and style blog.  It was great to find out that Jena, the blog's creator, selected my work - and was also great to discover her blog!  She features a lot of beautiful, original design and handmade goods - check it out...

not-so-instant gratification...

This is a cup of espresso I enjoyed when I took my mother out to lunch for her birthday recently.  I will not be having another cup of espresso for at least another 27 days.  This is because I am three days in to, what I call, my 30 day "Get it Together" plan.  You can laugh now.  It does sound like a bad infomercial, I know, but I reached a moment when all the mundane, life maintenance kind of "stuff" that I had been neglecting started building up around me like sludge.  This brought me to the thought, "What if I just took the next 30 days and focused on getting it together?"  So here we are.  What are some of the things on my list for the next 30 days?  *Taking my car in to the shop (seriously, anyone who knows me understands that this has been an area of MAJOR neglect for quite some time.  A good question might be, does surviving 3 Chicago winters in a row with no heat make you a stronger person or a stupider one?  Let's hope I get the AC going for the summer)  *Going to the dentist (confession: I can't exactly remember my last visit, but it's been at least 3 years.  What's that?  No, I don't floss).  *Bring my lunch to work every day (a yogurt parfait from Starbucks does not constitute a good midday meal).  There is a variety of other to do's, but the biggest challenge will be the next one: for thirty days in a row, workout every day.  It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I'm too busy doing other things.  Or that's the excuse anyway.  But now I'm going to attempt to build a new habit so it's no longer something I have to drag myself to do.

So... what does this have to do with espresso?  Well, the whole spirit of this goal is to energize my life; to feel fresh - not in a dehydrated caffeine hangover.  I really enjoy coffee and espresso, and I do not plan on eliminating them from my life - but I think I need to loosen my grip on them (or their grip on me) just ever so slightly and let the exercising do the energizing.  I'm already passed the withdraw headache stage, so I think I'm on my way!!

birthday...

Today we celebrated my mother's birthday.  Thankfully, it was a crystal clear, sunny day (those have been rare in Chicago lately).  We headed downtown and had lunch at Terzo Piano atop the Art Institute, then walked around the modern wing and the garden in Millennium Park.  For her gift, I made this necklace.  The strands are made up of delicate Thai silver beads.  The pendant is made up of gold rings, labradorite and a hand made hilltribe gold fish bead from Thailand.  When I was finished making it, I wanted one for myself!

new...

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon and early evening working in my studio.  I made a few new necklaces - and spent this afternoon doing a photo shoot (in my kitchen: see my "sophisticated" photo studio set up below).  To see the full selection, check out my shop.