Fiber bead love

I've been working with felt and beads quite a bit over the last few days, spurred on by my appointment at Made boutique here in Phoenix. They are taking a few of my pieces to try out and see if they sell. I pitched them the fabric, felt, vintage pieces line that I did for a shop in Portland, OR that is now closed. The gal at Made seemed to like what she saw, so today I dropped off four pieces. Fingers crossed! If you live in the Phoenix area, I suggest stopping into the store. It's a great little shop filled with handmade goodness. Yummy!

As I was working on pieces for them, I got a whole head full of new ideas to try. I've made some new pieces that I really like, here they are:

I'm liking the boho-india inspired look of some of the pieces. And I have an idea for a whole series of seed pod inspired pieces using beads and embroidery as embellishment. I'm getting together with a friend tomorrow and am going to bring these pieces with me to get some feedback.

This week I also stopped into one of my new favorite stores, Green Table Gifts on Warner Road in Tempe for some advice on using Annie Sloan wax. The gals there are so nice and helpful! It feels like you've just dropped in on a friend when you stop in. Here's some photos of their place:

Full of vintage-y goodness!




And I'll close with some vintage goodness of my own; a new necklace and bracelet that are vintage-inspired:

Hopefully I will be getting some of these pieces up into my etsy shop soon.

A great weekend

I can't believe it's Monday already! The weekend was a whirlwind of visiting, swimming and movie-going, and it was a blast.

Saturday we visited dear friends of mine who I haven't seen in a few months. Time has a way of getting away from all of us! We ate a lovely meal at their home, talked for several hours and had the most relaxing time. Then in the evening another friend came over for dinner and swimming. We had a huge storm Saturday night and sat outside under the patio cover watching the magnificent lightening storm, which we get treated to during monsoon season. We finally went in when it started to rain, and boy did it!

Sunday another dear, dear friend visiting from out of town spent the day with us. We went to see the movie Red 2, and it didn't disappoint. Later we went to our weekly poker get together, ate delicious food, played some cards and laughed. It was a very full weekend and I enjoyed it immensely.

Today it's back to work. I am working on some new pieces for my first store that I will be in here in Phoenix. It's called Made, and I drop my jewelry by on Thursday. I'm doing something different for them, some pieces incorporating felt, sewing and beads. I'm very excited and hope it all goes well.

Tomorrow I will post some new photos of various projects.

Sick time

I've been out of commission the past several days due to a nasty stomach bug that has knocked the stuffing out of me. I'm feeling a bit better, but so tired and weak. Hopefully I will improve a little each day.

On the positive side, I hung my work at Pita Jungle, a great healthy restaurant here in the Valley on Monday this week. It went very smoothly and I'm quite pleased with how my work looks on the walls. I will be moving to different locations throughout the month. I'm very excited about this opportunity and am looking for additional venues to keep the ball rolling.

In the meantime, I have been working on jewelry as well. Here are a few photos of my newest pieces:

 I love the vintage look and the combo of pretty vintage pieces and letters and numbers. I may have to make one to keep! They all went out to Camp Hollyhock, one of my stores in Portland, OR.

Tea time

Here's today's painting for dailypaintworks.com. It's another encaustic piece I did a little while back. I love the softness of encaustic, how it blends and smooths.

In other news I will be showing my paintings at another local restaurant in a couple of weeks here in Phoenix called Pita Jungle. Very excited about this opportunity! Don't have all the details yet, but it will be for a month and the art will move around their various locations.