Whew!

Happy new year and all that. No resolutions or "one word" or big this-is-how-it's-going-to-be post from me this year. I'm just digging right in!

I have to say, I'm more than a little relieved the kids are back in school. We had a really nice winter break but by the end I was getting a little... testy. And so ready to get back in the studio! I really only got one day of work in during the break. It was so nice to finally be back to the regular routine today.

I finished up some custom work and made to order pieces today but I have so much else on the go and ready to start. I can't wait to share it all with you! Hopefully I'll have at least a few new pieces for you next week. And some with *faceted* gemstones! (Gasp!)

In other news, after a short burn-out break, Aidan has hit the sewing machine hard once again. Here she is making the most of her last day of break:

And this is what she made, all with no help from me this time! She also made two other pillows (one for her sister and one for her Mama Stephanie who wasn't feeling well) and a blanket with a pocket for her stuffed animal (which she also made). She's a machine, I tell you!



She really, really wants to open an etsy shop.

I know I should be more professional about such things...

But...  WOOHOO!!

I had my best day ever  in the shop today and it felt really good. Thank you, thank you to my wonderful supporters out there. You rock my world!

Now I must get my nose to the grindstone and get my little shop restocked!

On that note, I did add this to the shop late last night:

White jade and sterling. Strung on a simple sterling bead chain to keep it on the affordable side.

Despite the fact that school starts next week (well, officially it starts tomorrow but I don't have classes on Fridays this semester), I will be spending extra time in the studio over the next few weeks so I can get some new items made and listed for you (and for me, because let's be honest, I do this for me). So keep an eye on the blog and my facebook page for news about shop updates.

I also wanted to take a little blog space to rave about my incredibly talented family. I mentioned after Christmas that my 8 year old daughter, Aidan, had taken up sewing and was proving to be quite the prodigy? Well, here are a few of her creations:

Grandparents, commence the oohing and aahing!

And not to be upstaged by our 8 year old, the Foxy one has been stoking her creative fire as well! She took a printmaking class over the fall, and our darling feline Spooky proved to be the perfect screenprinting subject. Here he is at Stephanie's art show debut:

And this one, which she just made for fun at home, is going in my studio:

[caption id="attachment_960" align="aligncenter" width="560" caption="Owl Comes to Realize"][/caption]

Yep. My family's pretty darn awesome.

I'll be back again with more soon. I finally replaced my 5 year old laptop, so picture editing and blogging won't be such a  time suck! Woohoo!

And happy Friday (in 10 minutes CST!)

xo

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.

♥

My Crafty Girl...

So our 8 year old, Aidan, who is  smart-as-a-whip, and mostly loses her, uh, composure during unstructured breaks from school (we often joke about the scene from The Simpsons where Lisa is out of school and having a breakdown, frantically crying, "Grade me! Grade me!"), has found something to keep herself occupied over Christmas... She's taken up sewing!

On Sunday we celebrated Christmas with our dear friends Michael and Laura. Knowing that Santa is most likely going to be bringing Aidan a sewing matching for Christmas, they got her started by giving her some "learn to sew" books. Aidan hasn't put them down since. Well, except to pick up her needle and thread. The girl is beside herself with pride over these little creations:

Echo the Bear:

Poochie Pup:

Valentine:

And a work in progress (this one is a Christmas gift for Foxy!):

(excuse the unbrushed hair; it is Christmas break after all)

She's made about six more since then but I'm not able to upload pictures because at some point when she and I were sharing a workspace on the table, the cord that connects my camera to my laptop got snipped by a pair of wayward scissors. Ahem. (Okay, I could stop here and lead you all to believe it was the eight year old who accidentally snipped the cord, but truth be told, it was me).

So as far as this break goes, so far so good (you should congratulate me for resisting the punny urge to change one of those "so"s to "sew")! As for me, I spent a few frantic days over the weekend finishing up last minute custom Christmas gift orders and now I've had a 4 day break. I'm itching to get back in there, but for now I'm enjoying some truly quality time with my family.

♥

PS. Buffalo Lucy now has its own Facebook page! Check out the link in the side bar on the right... (then click "like" to become a fan and get shop-related status-updates).