Free Bling Friday Number 52!
It’s Free Bling Friday time! Congrats to Free Bling Number 51 winner, Jules, from West Palm Beach, FL. Congrats, Jules! Jules runs a fun little website in West Palm Beach called PBChick. Check it out here. This week’s entry is a simply elegant pair featuring one of my favorite semi-precious gems, Botswana agate. I’ve paired the agate with golden shadow Swarovski crystal rondelles and sterling silver. They hang approximately 1 ½” on sterling French wires. If you are the winner and prefer posts, no problem, just let me know! To be eligible to win Free Bling Number 52, simply email me or leave a comment in the comment box by midnight Thursday, October 9, with the subject line FREE BLING and include where you're from. The next winner will be drawn Friday, October 10. Don't want to miss a single Free Bling Friday? Click here to sign up for free weekly email reminders. Click here for the Happy Shack Designs website.
My Budding Fashion Designer
Busy weekend ahead, getting ready for the Thornebrook Arts Festival which will be Oct 4-5 in Gainesville. I've been procrastinating as usual and will probably be up till the wee hours of the morning all next week getting ready for the show. Also getting in a little Florida State football Saturday afternoon. Hopefully we'll fare better than that miserable showing against Wake Forest last week. What's up in your world?
Fat Book Entry #8: Famous Women
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North Florida Craft Revolution
Have you noticed that North Florida Craft Revolution link over there in my Friends and Faves? Well go check it out! I'm the team leader of this awesome Etsy team and we have a great group of artists and craftswomen (and I think a couple men!). Being the most active blogger in the group, I'm writing the blog. Go take a look! There are links to all our Etsy stores in the sidebars....lots of places to shop for Christmas presents! Buy handmade!
Breakfast with....Me!
Man's Best Friend
CC Weekly Creativity Challenge: Guitar
Fat Book Entry #7: Snarky Moms
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Free Bling Friday Number 51!
Sleeping Beauty has Awakened...and She's a Reader!
So back to the “being present” portion of this broadcast. You just blink, and BOOM!, one of your five-year-olds is “reading” at a sixth grade level. An over-exaggeration maybe, but it begs the point: so much happens when we are not paying attention. That’s the interesting thing about having twins. I have been paying attention enough to notice what Sarah’s strengths are and what Livvie’s strengths are, and they are very different. Sarah is very strong in the language area, as evidenced by that moment we had the other night. She also already has my knack for remembering song lyrics. I’ve always chalked mine up to being a musician; I’m a classically trained pianist and I’ve been taking guitar for about seven years now. Hers just seems to come with that strong grasp of words and memory. Livvie thrives in art, music, and motor skills. She doesn’t need much help from me to create some pretty impressive art pieces, and yesterday afternoon I watched as she set up her own little three piece band—of piano, Tupperware container, and piece of paper—and went to patting out a rhythmic pattern even my guitar teacher would be impressed with. The girl’s got chops! Watching this, I realize what will be one of my biggest creative challenges involving my children: how to bring out the best in each when they are the exact same age and nearly inseparable. My challenge will be in guiding them both to thrive in the areas they excel, yet still keep them on target in the areas they don’t…and figure out how to do it all at the same time! Yikes! I’m open to suggestions!
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Etsy For Animals Birthday Bash!
There are over 170 shops that are currently signed up to accept the 20% off coupon here at Etsy including the EFA Team Store, where you can find this print. For a complete list of those shops, visit the EFA website. You can use my code (SHACK) in any of those participating shops. It’s time to start thinking of early Christmas presents so check out the Birthday Bash! I'll have new items loaded into my Etsy store by the time the sale starts on the 15th!
Riverside Rocks!
I had a great two days at the Riverside Arts Festival this weekend! We had gorgeous weather, a little on the hot side, but thankfully Patty and I had side-by-side spots under a nice shady oak tree that kept us fairly comfortable. We were a little concerned with Tropical Storm Hanna on Friday, but we were able to set up the majority of our booths Friday evening with no problems and everything was nice and dry Saturday morning. I can’t say enough about the festival staff. The festival is run by the Riverside Avondale Preservation, all volunteers, and they were so incredibly helpful and friendly throughout the entire show. They also did a fabulous job jurying in artists, and every one there was top notch. I was in truly great company!
I always pick a favorite at each show I participate in, and this time it was Yvonne Miller. You guys know I’m a sucker for animal art, and when I saw Yvonne’s work, I fell in love. And she is such a wonderfully sweet and friendly person. See that beautiful yellow lab she’s standing next to in this picture? Yep, you guessed it; he now lives with me. For those of you who’ve known me for a while, you’ll remember Bear. Spitting image, don’t you think? I wrote some about Bear here. Even DH said, “yep, that’s Bear all right,” so I conveniently took that as permission to purchase. :-) You can see more of Yvonne’s work and read more about her here. Hi, Yvonne!
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Flying Home to Me!
Well, I splurged this week. I purchased some of Cyndia’s earrings a while back, and I had my eye on a necklace like this one for a LONG time…had it saved in my Etsy favorites. I had planned to buy it when I worked up some sales last month, but when I went back to purchase it, it had sold! I was so bummed! So I waited a couple weeks to see if that “I really want that” feeling would wear off, but alas, it didn’t. So I emailed Cyndia and she offered to make me a custom piece, with my birthstone in it at that. It hasn’t arrived at my door just yet, but she sent me this picture. I can’t wait to see it in person! DH always gets on me when I buy jewelry from other designers, but I am certainly not, and don’t ever think I will be, a metal smith with this much talent, so I’m happy to support someone who is! Visit Cyndia’s Etsy store here and her website here.
Hopefully I'll do well at the Riverside Arts Festival this weekend and won't have to worry about my splurge! If you're in town, come see me! I'll be in booth 75.
CC Weekly Creativity Contest: Sunflowers
The girlies and I had an art afternoon together yesterday, and we had so much fun! The creativity contest challenge on Creative Construction last week was “sunflowers”. We found these wooden sunflowers on the clearance aisle at Michael’s for a quarter a piece, and then we created the rest with other stuff I already had at home. These were tough to photograph, so they are much brighter in person! Click on the photos to enlarge for full effect. Click here for all the sunflowers entries.
I created mine (above, about 8" x 15") and taught the girls each step, step by step, as I was creating. We started with some old discarded wood and covered our wood with maps (as inspired by my wonderful artist friends Elizabeth and Wyanne!).
Then we painted water colors over our maps: I chose blue, Sarah chose pink (above, about 8" x 10"), and Livvie chose purple (below, about 8" x 10"). Then we selected the papers we wanted to use for the grass, stems, and leaves and started cutting and gluing layer upon layer.
The toughest part for them (and me, for that matter!) was giving the piece time to dry between layers. I’m not sure who’s prouder of the girls' finished products, me or them! Yeah! Update: I just found out that our entries won the weekly contest! The girls will be thrilled!