Dragon's Fire Enameled Necklaces

One year ago I took my first course in small metals and I fell in love with the process of enameling copper. It's actually a really simple process but it takes time to complete and clean all of the metal. I sell these pieces across Memphis at a few different shops and they look like dragon's fire when if you do your enameling correctly. 

Thus I present to you - Dragon's Fire. 

Find them in the shop now for only $8 + shipping and handling. 

Around the House

Around the house with my entry way and studio mate Enid the anti-social fat cat plus a ton of work covering my work area. 

Adventures in cookie making

During the weekend I try to do something interesting with the kid and this weekend was her first adventure in cookie making with my Mom at her house.I really wanted to make Halloween cookies so she could take with her to 'school' (daycare but its actually more structured then your average daycare) this week for her class' Halloween party in addition to the fruit tray I'm providing. Anyways, after much  sampling of cookie dough and the kid practicing her cookie cutter abilities we ended up with almost 2 dozen cookies. It was a pretty good haul for a toddler's first foray into cookie making. My mom and I can't wait for the winter holidays to start to do it again with her. 

Thriftiness Adventures

Reading,Writing, Letters, Math, and Crafting books for my classroom and for teaching the kid. Most these books came from bargain barn side of the largest  goodwill in town where they sell items for less then $2 in the entire store area. I got these books for only 50 cents each. 

Mo' has been responding the best to board books as well as books made mostly of photographs and I found a nice haul of them today in the regular goodwill store.

I seriously wish this was in my size and not a 2t for the kid. It's the perfect magical girl sweat shirt. 

 I spend the majority of my time shopping at thrift stores because being a teacher and a parent I have to stretch every dollar. I lucked out with my most recent thrift finds with some great instructional books for teaching lower level students and even though I teach art I have to incorporate reading,math, science, and writing into my curriculum every chance I get.  I also picked up some new story books and clothes for the kiddo. (Keeping up with clothes that fit a growing toddler is a daunting task)

Bag Lady

I admit it. I have a bag addiction. I own several different kinds of bag, purses, and wallets and I always end up killing a number of them along the way as a result of the abuse I put them through on a day to day basis. Back in 2005 I started to make my own pouches to keep my undergraduate art major bag of tricks organized since I had to carry so much junk with me back then for various classes. Not soon as I made my first bags for my self my oldest cousin (20+ years older then me) and my mom's friends began to want them and then I began to sell them every year at different holiday shows which has proved to quite rewarding. 

My latest foray into bag making has evolved over the year. I first began by hand-stitching every bag with whatever material I could get my hands on at the moment. Every bag was different and then I got my sewing machine and I began to develop a pattern to use for each and every bag. It made the product more uniform and I switched from buttons to velcro. I am now going from velcro to zippers with my newest bags and finding wonderfully new and nerdy fabrics to make them for the up coming shows I'm attending this season with these awesome industrial feeling zippers on them. Hopefully they will make the impact my usual work does this time of year. 

When I am not trying to take over the world....

...my daughter is trying to squish my cat Starbuck into lovable piles of goo. 

I know, I post a lot about the kid and the cat but they're just so funny together. 

By the way I have another cat but she's an anti-social fat cat who only loves me and when I am alone. 

Yes, I named my cat Starbuck (the one being squished by the kid) from Battlestar Galactica. 

The anti-social one is named Enid from Ghost World. 

(All four of my pets have names from various scifi/fantasy shows or comic books)

Sailor Moon on my Fingers!

I have an obsession with making crazy little things out of polymer clay when the mood strike me. My latest incarnation are these sailor moon brooch rings. The top one is from the original manga's first few issues and the second is based from the show. I am happy with how the manga version came out with the bow since I didn't accidently burn it like I do so many other poly clay things when I'm not distracted.