A Beautiful Day

Spent the day in Kansas City...

Braved the cold

Coveted things we couldn't afford

Played and ate

Revered totems

And now I'm about to finish off my beautiful day with my beaufitul wife, some chocolate fondue, and a glass of wine.

'Night, night!

xo

My Winter Song to You

Last winter Stephanie put this beautiful song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson on a CD that she made me (oh yes, the mix-tape is still very much alive! At least it is in our relationship. When life and housework and parenting and work get in the way and we don't get the same chances that we used to tell each other how we feel about each other, a carefully curated selection of songs goes a long, long way. ♥ )

Anyway! Last winter Stephanie put this Winter Song on a CD she made for me. We were having a particularly rough year (it had been a year since Alice was born; having a baby is hard enough on a couple but having one with uncertain medical and developmental issues adds stress on top of stress) and the song made my eyes well up with tears every time I heard it. The hopefulness of it. The acknowledgement that the good stuff might be buried under a foot of snow but spring is coming and our love will see us there. I'm telling you, it made my heart swell every time.

I got a new CD for Christmas. And I'd made one for her a few months before that. So we've been listening to those and I haven't played the one she gave me last year for a while. Then today I stumbled across this on Pixie Campbell's blog:

OMG! How have I not seen this before now?! Breaks my heart it's so sweet!!! Is love alive? Oh, you bet!!

Here's to a love that sees you through the rough winters so you can truly appreciate  spring.

xox

New Tools!

My lovely and amazing wife bought me a dapping set for Christmas.

Ohhhh!! It's so fun!!

I made these for myself (they're actually copper!):

I've been wearing them almost every day since I made them. They're super light and versatile. I will make some of these for the shop soon, I promise. BUT last night (my first time in the studio in 2011!) I made these:

The story of how these came to be: The first thing I did with my dapping set (the night I made those copper earrings) was to take one of the small silver disks that I use for the signature buffalo button I put on the back of all of my pieces, and dome it. I practiced this a few times before moving on to doming a larger piece of metal. So anyway, last night when I went back into my studio to work,  I had a few of these tiny silver dishes sitting on my bench. It struck me that they'd make great little earrings. So I soldered some posts onto them, cleaned and sanded them, and there you have it! I'm wearing a pair today and I absolutely love them. They're small and simple but just interesting enough to solicit a second glance:

These are listed in the shop now!

Megapost!

Well hello again!

I promised I'd be back with a little more content and boy do I have content for you...

First, the continuation of my last post: The Foxy Ring!

It's as if it was made for her. ;)

And now, a few shots of some of the work I finished over the last couple of months and weeks that I wasn't previously able to share...

I love, love, love this ring. It was a custom request as a gift for a very special someone. I was pretty much given free reign on this one and I love what came out:

Built of sterling silver and chalcedony. I may have to make myself a matching one.

And then there was this necklace...

with these

Carnelian, aventurine, and sterling.

And then this:

Leather, onyx, and sterling.

And then it was Christmas!! I have to say, Santa spoiled us. We were four very happy girls.

Aidan (with her edgy new haircut):

Alice (with one of my new dapping punches):

Aidan got a sewing machine from Santa and I think we found her calling! She spent a day just "stitching" paper trying to get used to how to it felt. Here she is doing a maze from the sewing practice book Laura bought her. She was determined to get it right before actually sewing anything.

The next day she decided to give it a try with thread (and here I'll take a little credit for myself since I managed to get the thing threaded even though I've never even seen a sewing maching up close before! I didn't even know it used two separate threads or spools or... whatever!). She practiced for a while on scrap pieces of fabric and then she spat out two pillows in a matter of about an hour! Here is Alice sleeping with the first one. Alice has not let go of this thing since Aidan gave it to her on Friday. I mean she has literally been clutching it to her chest  in her highchair while she eats:

Then today Aidan decided she wanted to make a bean bag animal. A penguin. So she came up with the design, I helped her cut out the shapes from the fabric and she sewed them! (it was even her idea to photograph it leaning up against the sewing machine like this. I'm telling you, the girl's destined for etsy!):

His name is Pingo. She's very proud. So am I.

All in all, we had a really nice winter break. And I didn't even get to the ice skating or the baking or the driving-around-looking-at-Christmas-lights-in-our-pajamas-drinking-hot-cocoa...

Hope your holidays were just as nice.

♥