Peek at My Week: July 29 - August 4

Another week whipped past me and now we're almost in the middle of another one. How did that happen?

Despite having a "helper" this week, it's been hard to get anything done. Once she's in my lap, I can't bear to disturb her!

I spent more time on the raised beds. I only have one that wasn't covered in weeds so I used it when I transferred more compost tomatoes into it. Like last year, they've seriously drooped. But, I'll wait and see if they perk back up like before. 

The purple color of my single Crepe Myrtle stopped me in my tracks. Isn't it lovely?

I also took pause outside the pole barn when I spied something poking up from the ground. Yes, three years here and I'm still steadily finding buried treasures!

The old hinge had a beautiful patina on it. I hope to start assembling some of these finds into art at some point. 

I did steal some time away from the property to enjoy a night out with one of my best friends for her birthday. We enjoyed some drinks and a cheese plate. It took some work to find a place near me that had both a good beer selection and a good cheese selection. We're thinking we may need to open our own beer and cheese place. Ha!

I played with much more tin - experimenting with a variety of designs. However, for the most part, I spent a huge chunk of time just punching out tin.

I also worked on home decor projects like finishing up the other two chairs. The above was the before.

Now I have two of each of these re-covered chairs. I adore the mismatched-ness of them.

Art was hung and re-organized around the house. I made this earlier in the summer and finally sealed it to be hung outside. There's been a real lack of artwork in the house as most of our pictures are buried in a room that's begging to be unpacked (waiting for some bookshelves to be built). The lack of items on the walls has started to drive me a little batty. To remedy that, I grabbed a bunch of art from the craft room and hung it in the hall and in one of the bathrooms. There's still the rest of the house to worry with, but it's a start!

Oh, please tell me you find this amusing too. Pat says it's not all that funny. 

See, the Doctor of Physical Therapy is Dr. Walker. Funny right?

I ended the week with a large margarita at our local Mexican restaurant. Yes, that's a single serving. I think the mini pitchers are so cute. It may look bigger than it is because I have TINY hands. It was so good!

Here's some of the inspiration I found this week:
Art & Artists:

• Please go look at the embroidery work from Cayce Zagavlia. You won't believe it's embroidered. It is. It's mind-boggling amazing!
• Here's a compilation of ads that use negative space in beautiful ways. 
• This paper art from Yuli Brodskaya is phenomenal. The colors and the texture achieved are likely to make you want to just stare at it forever.
• Colossal shared this building that unzips from sculptor Alex Chinneck. It's wonderful!

Television:

• Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was one of my favorite shows growing up. As of late, Mr. Roger's has been given a lot of attention. One of his actual neighbors shared his story about meeting him.
• Have you heard about Making It on NBC? It's a craft competition show. I've been waiting months for it, and it finally premiered last week. So, you haven't missed much yet if you want to jump in and catch up. 

It's time to make this week count, and that means actually getting some stuff done. How's your week shaping up?

Peek at My Week: July 22-28

I've been a bit lax in doing these weekly posts, but definitely want to try to get back to sharing these glimpses into my week. I feel like it adds a personal touch to my blog and helps me make a real connection with y'all. And, I really love making those connections.

What's been happening around here? Well, it's summertime so the days are almost unbearably hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms. Yet, this past week we saw a real lack of widespread thunderstorms. The ones that rolled through seemed to miss Silverlox (our property) entirely.  It was rather odd.

I worked some on trying to get the garden back in order. Weeds have taken over my raised beads so I pulled out the one vegetable I had planted there: carrots. Alas, you can see the result of my lazy gardening in the jumbled mess of carrots. I should have separated the seeds a little more. Lesson learned. Once those were pulled, I used the weed-eater to chop down the rest of the plants in the two overgrown boxes. I've since laid cardboard over what remains of the weeds and am hoping that will aid in smothering them so I can use the boxes to plant again in the Fall. 

I began to tackle one of the home decor projects that have been eating away at me. My generous sister-in-law gave us two pairs of chairs a while back. I wasn't super-keen on the cushions but was positive I could change them out to suit my taste. It really was pretty easy, and I may share the process on here later. The old look is the chair on the left with the new one on the right. This was just the first set, I have another set to go with some different fabric (as I am just using remnants).

I did quite a bit of tin work this week, experimenting with different ideas and techniques. I really enjoyed the process and result of the Harvest Moon Earrings I made in October so I toyed around with that some, fiddling with the process. As well, I made a pair of bead caps with tin (they're blue and just above the white paper in the picture above.)

While at my mom's one day, I worked on other projects from my bead box. I'll have an update on what's new in there very soon. I also took one of my nieces to the DMV (joy) to get her driver's permit!

And, then there was more tin jewelry experimentation as I layered mismatched discs for a patchwork flower look. After that, it hit me that I could create a bail with tin too. Oh yeah, there will be more of these, possibly with more layers.

We've also been watching Castle Rock on Hulu and the newest season of Orange is the New Black on Netflix. We're REALLY digging Castle Rock! It's from Stephen King and JJ Abrams...what's not to like about that?

I've shared quite a few tutorials and other inspiration via social media:

Jewelry

• Easy wire-wrapped pendant DIY at Moms and Crafters
• Double Pendant Cord Bracelet at The Beading Gem
• Using Memory Wire from CraftyHope (that's me ;)  )
• Bracelet Trio and Long Necklace Tutorials from Lorelei as sponsored by Beadchest
• Embroidery Thread Wrapped Bangles via Oriental Trading

Other Crafts

• How to Sew a Fabric Bowl at Craft Stylish
• How to DIY Tin Can Vases in Two Styles by Kreativ K

And, for some other inspiration and tips

• Crafty Chica shares How to Price your Crafts
• This Book Art Bracelet at Craft Gossip is pretty awesome
• Cat Kerr is sharing some of her amazing-ness is her new class, The Collector.
• A Japanese artist is making needle-felted cats that look lifelike!

I'm itching to dive back into the tin, so that's all from me for now. I hope July has treated you well. Can you believe it's almost August and time for school to start? I cannot.

Peek at My Week | May 20-26

At the end of each week, I like to show a quick round-up of what's been going on in my corner of the world. Some of this includes what I've previously shared on social media, some of it was simply stowed away on my camera roll. As an addition to this weekly review, I'm going to start adding a few inspiring, funny, or interesting links that I found during the week at the end of the post. Let me know what you think of the addition. 

Over the week, I worked with altering leather for The 100 Day Project. 

48: This first piece proved to be a real test of my patience. I originally was going to do the cuff I made on day 51, but the snaps I had weren't right, so I had to use another piece of leather. I was happy to have learned to add snaps to leather at least. From there, I wanted to add the Tim Holtz tag, but riveting it on took me MUUUUUUUUUUCH longer than I had anticipated. I was determined though and finally successful! And, I really like it too. It's a shame I've since lost it in the craft room. Seriously, I've been searching for it all week. It's just...gone.

49: A belt that's been in my stash forever was the base for these earrings. I think cutting out the shapes so they somewhat matched was the hardest part. 

50: This was the other leather belt I have on hand. I used the embossed tin piece I made for day 19, using eyelets to rivet it to the leather. 

51: I was able to pick up the right size snaps for that leather belt and quickly add them to make it a cuff. It needs some finishing touches, and I need to work on where to position the snaps, but I totally dig this upcycle. 

52: I awoke with a design similar to this result in my head. It was just a matter of executing the use of leather, eyelets, and beads to get the desired result.

53: This project should have been a snap to make. But, I learned that I really should think through designs before adding permanent glue. It came out fine in the end.

54: My beading friend, Divya of Jewels of Sayuri, shared a great tutorial that included leather and ribbon crimps. She totally inspired me to do something similar.

As for the rest of the week...

Sunday was completely consumed with making that bracelet. I used ALL THE TOOLS to try to get it to work. 

Monday was a full day that started with some gardenia admiration. Y'all! I can't get enough of these.

Leeloo was up to her own antics...yup - that's toilet paper pulled from the master bath, through our bedroom, and into the craft room. Yay! It wasn't near as fun to roll it back up.

Luckily, I was able to recover by having lunch with a friend. We almost completely devoured these fried pork skins and queso at Dragonfly Foodbar. Don't judge - they were SO GOOD!!

On Tuesday I got to feel super old as my oldest niece received her class ring, signifying her becoming a senior in high school. Super old.

On Wednesday, I admired the gardenias again as they were gloriously still dripping from a rain shower.

There were other flowers to admire this week as well. The zinnias I planted forever ago have finally begun blooming. Now to wait for the sunflowers and see if the daisies ever show up.

We had a ton of wildlife visitors this week. I found a baby Scarlet King Snake just under the lid of the pool skimmer. He startled me, but he's a "good snake" and not dangerous at all. We've had bunnies in the yard all week. They're so skittish, this was the best photo I could get of them. And, yesterday these baby armadillos emerged from under the porch. (I had an inkling that there were babies about.) Seriously y'all, it's the armadillos that are the biggest nuisance of these three. While they are great at eating the ants, they leave holes all over the yard. And, I'm prone to tripping in those holes. We're going to have to do more catch and release. 

It's a three-day weekend here in the States for Memorial Day. Here in South Alabama, we're waiting for Tropical Storm Alberto and expecting wet conditions all weekend long. During one of the showers yesterday, I pulled out my newest supplies to try more acrylic paint pouring on my own. I went with a dirty pour method. The above canvases are still wet in the photo, but I'm absolutely loving the process. You can bet I'll be sharing more about it later as I experiment and learn.

As for the links I promised, 

• Made Urban has an article on Where to Sell Handmade Crafts Locally. You may be familiar with the options they mention, but it's a nice reference to have on hand.
• Suzanne Walcher wrote on The Grace Notes Blog for Bella Grace Magazine a post about "The Other List" that is made up of simple joys and happy actions. I adore this idea. I hope you do too. 

That's the week for me. We actually have a reprieve from the storms for a while today, so I'm hoping to have a bit of outside time. But first, to figure out what my altering focus for the week will be. Hmmmm..... Any suggestions?

How's your week been?

Peek at My Week and April Challenges & Prompts

Pat was still out of town most of this week, which was a shame because it was not only Easter but also Spring Break (for the nieces). We were all disappointed that he wasn't home but tried to make the best of it. 

If you remember from last week, I had prepped for Easter by baking. I waited until I got to my mom's to decorate the mini cheesecakes with frosting, chocolate eggs, and toasted coconut. I think they're just too cute!

After our Easter meal, one of the nieces (TAG) went home with me. We dropped off her luggage and checked in on the puppy before heading to the Fairhope Pier for a stroll. 

While TAG slept in on Monday, I took Zoe (the dog) out for a walk. We stumbled on this beautiful butterfly wing.

Once we were all up and moving about, we headed down to the Gulf (of Mexico) for a walk on the beach. We would have stayed longer, but the coast was packed with people. At least this view made it worth the short drive. I'm looking forward to heading back down there when it's not Spring Break. Before heading home, we stopped for dinner at Lambert's Cafe (home of the throwed rolls - yes, they really throw them. TAG was hit in the head with one. She talked about it for days.)

Tuesday was full of activity as TAG's sister and her boyfriend drove over to get in the pool. Alas, the pool wasn't ready so I took them to lunch while waiting for the pool to be serviced. 

It took longer than expected for the pool lady to come by, so we amused ourselves. The kids got in the hammocks. Yes, Zoe too! She doesn't like to be left out. 

Meanwhile, I worked on getting my seedlings transferred to their new homes. 

After the pool was vacuumed, it was ready for swimming! It was still far too cold for me, but two brave-ish souls ventured in. You can see the hammock (on the right) was moved closer to the pool so it was enjoyed by the third youngun'. 

On Wednesday, we focused on an art project that began with some spray painting. Fun, right!?

By the end of the day, we each had an awesome piece of assemblage art. This is TAG's, mine is in the collage below.

Thursday was a mixed bag of activities. This was really one of the few pictures I took all day. And, it was from eary in the day. In the afternoon, TAG was returned home, her sister was taken shopping, and then I headed back to Silverlox.

On Friday, Pat was coming home! But, his flight wouldn't get in until midnight, so I kept myself uber  busy so I wouldn't go crazy. The day started with the Bead Peeps Swap-N-Hop Reveal. The majority of the rest of the day, I was a little manic about cleaning the house so it would be super nice for him. 

I did eke in a bit of creative playtime and altered the bottom of an old tin by running it through my embossing machine. I love the results!

In an effort to clean out the fridge, I made these amazing nachos for dinner and ate almost all of it too!

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day as it rained most of it. We went to Harbor Freight for a few supplies, had lunch out, and eventually went to the movies to see Ready Player One. We both really loved the book and had been waiting anxiously for the movie. I was seriously bummed out when I realized that Pat would be out of town for the release. So, we made sure to go see it. It was worth the wait!

Most of my projects this week have been for #The100DayProject (taking place on Instagram) which started on Tuesday (April 3rd). This year, I selected #altering100 as my personal hashtag as I hope to spend 100 days altering some of the materials I have stashed in the craft room. Most of these will not be completed projects but just supplies to use later in my work. As well, they won't all be jewelry-related either. It's still early in the project so there's time to catch up. And, if you miss a day or two, it's no biggie. Don't keep that from letting you finish out the 100 days. This project is great for encouraging and developing your creativity. I had a ton of fun and learned so much from last year's #make100earrings project. Please let me know if you play along. Here's what I've made so far.

1- From the start, I knew I wanted to alter these washers in my stash with dictionary paper. It was a quick and easy process to start the project. 

2 - This was much more involved. As I mentioned above, I got the niece in on it too as she made her own assemblage piece from some of the found objects I had collected. 

3 - I pulled out the Vintaj Big Kick to texture blanks. It was a Vintaj extravaganza as I used Vintaj blanks and patinas to complete the pieces. 

4 - As mentioned above, I embossed the bottom of an old tin in the Big Kick. I used a couple of sections to make small bezels and play with Vintaj Patinas in them.

5 - Working with more of the embossed tin, I punched it into circles, colored with alcohol inks, and sealed with resin.

This is just one of the challenges going on right now. I shared the Challenges and Prompts I found last month, so I thought I'd share those again this month too. 

• Of course, there's The100DayProject
• The Artisans Create Together Facebook Group has their own Inspirations Challenge. This month it is Showers and Flowers. You have until noon on April 30th to submit something to the album for a giveaway. 
• Art Elements has announced the April Theme as Horses. The reveal will be April 29th. 
• Our friend Sarajo at SJ Designs Jewelry has divulged the Honey Do List inspiration for April with the reveal date set for April 23rd. 
• The We're All Ears April Challenge at Earrings Everyday is "Paradise Calling". The deadline for this one is April 20th. 
• Art Bead Scene has revealed their prompt for April. You have until April 30th to submit your design. All the details about their April Monthly Challenge are available on their blog. 

I'm sure there are probably loads more inspirational challenges and prompts out there for the month that I'm missing. If you know of any, please leave me a comment and I'll add it to the list.

So, how was your week?

Peek at my Week: March 18-24

Yesterday was bonkers. I didn't know if I was coming or going. I actually forgot it was Sunday! So, you get a Monday peek at my week.

Through the whole week, I participated in my friend Tiffany's art journaling challenge. You can see more from the challenge on Instagram with #useitupfillitupchallenge and learn about it on Tiffany's Southern Gals Designs feed. 

Last Sunday was consumed with working on replacing the floor after our plumbing issues. First, we had to remove all the tiles that the workers cracked. It was an effort in itself to get them out without cracking more. 

We also picked out tiles that were in the yard (from when we pulled up the kitchen flooring), cleaned them, and figured out where they would go. Thank heavens we kept them because we haven't been able to find terra cotta tiles anywhere else! The tilework (and Pat's drained car battery) consumed the whole day. 

While going about my chores on the property on Monday, I noticed this blue eye on my split leaf philodendrons.  I'm sure it's a sign of something horrible, but I find it intriguing. 

And, because of the torn up sunroom, Zoe spent several days in the living room with us. She didn't seem to mind. 

By Tuesday, the thin set (tile glue, basically) was just about cured.

I busied myself with my plants - I really need to get them in the garden soon!!

One of my nieces asked for any paints I didn't want for a group project she was doing. That gave me the chance to sort through my paints and organize them - by color naturally. I did throw out a bunch of dried up ones and gave her a ton of the ones I no longer wanted. Yay for the pretty organization.

I also played with tin and my disc cutter for a little bit. I'm hoping to get back to that project in the next day or two.

Oh, and I cut into the most perfect avocado - big news!

Pat finished the grouting on Tuesday evening, and by Wednesday morning, it was starting to look like a disaster had never occurred! Thank heavens for a handy hubby.

I spent the rest of Wednesday at my mom's as usual, getting very little accomplished. 

I'm not even sure what I accomplished on Thursday. According to my Bullet Journal, I got new tires and worked on jewelry. And apparently, tired out a kitten. 

Again, Friday slipped away from me as I posted my Project Inspiration for Easter and listed this pretty necklace.

 Saturday was mostly about being outside, where I discovered this treasure buried out in our woods. I'm still amazed at the things we find out here. Don't you just love the moss on these binoculars? Oh, and I need to get a picture inside one of the lenses too - there's a collection of tiny rocks in there. 

I also worked on weeding my raised beds in preparation for my seedlings. I found a ton of earthworms. Is it weird that I'm excited about worms in my garden? It's weird for me. But, it's true. 

I was supposed to reveal my Swap-N-Hop pieces today, but the reveal date has shifted until April 6th. Though, there are a couple other challenges that I should have reveals for during the week - hopefully. Stay tuned for that!

How was your week?