Up the Driveway and Around the Corner

A Peek at the Farm in Decline

I have often photographed the farm that I pass on one of my favorite walk. Recently it went up for sale, and was obviously left vacant. In the last few years, it served as a nursery for bedding plants, and hosted a yearly "Pumpkin Patch" in the Fall. But there have not been animals here or heavy farming done in a long time. 

My little trespass yielded some interesting pictures, though. 

 

Catching up!

As Summer ends....

.....I realize that I have been neglecting my blog. 

Whether it is jewelry or photography, or simply daily life, there is not much reflected on these pages.

So here you are.

The first four pictures are from a visit Sara and I paid to the Orange County Arboretum, in Montgomery NY.

This is a bee balm flower from my yard.

One of my displays from the Catskill Fly Fishing Center in Livingston Manor NY. They have a marketplace every summer, and I had pretty good luck this year selling my jewelry there. 

Fox Glove growing wild at the Fly Fishing Center.

Cardinal Flowers.

Had a great crop of White Eggplant!

I'll try to post some more during the week!

Beach Blog Hop

Glass Jewelry in Scrumptious Colors  

It's been a while since I did a blog post, and I'm pleased to show off the pieces made for this blog hop. 

When Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treaures offered a bead set for a Beach blog hop, I had just purchased some cultured Sea Glass from her, and I was so impressed with that set, I jumped at the chance to order more and participate in the challenge. 

I would love to share my pictures of the Sea Glass challenge beads as they arrived, but I accidentally deleted them from my camera. But I will say, that when I started playing with my new beads, even before I took them off their temporary stringing material, an idea started to form, taking inspiration from seaweed strands, bubbles, and the color combinations that were presented by the beads themselves. 

First, I labored to construct this necklace. I took it apart twice because of miss-counting beads. When I realized that the end pieces still weren't going to be able to match the third time, I decided that matching them was over-rated. Since the piece was going to be long, and somewhat heavy, and it was made with two strands of wire, I placed crimp beads at certain points in the body of the necklace. So each time I took it apart, I had to trash the wire and crimps. Sad. But I like the final version quite a lot. 

Along with cultured beach glass, Lisa included some of these brass charms. They made a lovely focal cor the necklace, and I still have one of each to use in another piece. 

Rest of the beads suggested bracelets and earrings, with a few left over to combine with other beads in other projects.

Thank you Lisa, for sponsoring this opportunity to "visit the beach!"

Here is the list of participants.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Becky Pancake, Becky Pancake Bead Designs

Kari Asbury, Hippie Chick Design

Susan Anderson, La Main Tresor

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Margaret Pelech, Margaret Pelech's Blog

Lisa Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Carol Briody, A Beads Life

Karin Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Gloria Allen, Gloria Allen Designs

Rosee Floss Hanemaayer, Silver Penny Artisans

Saundra Farren, Something by Saundra

Beti Horvath, Stringing Fool Jewelry

MaryAnne Kelly Hobbs-Fernie - TBD

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Kelly Fletcher – TBD

Linda Anderson, From the Bead Board

Diana Chavis - TBD

Alenka's Birthday Butterfly Blog Hop

A Return to my Earring-Making Roots

When Alenka, of Pepita's Handmade suggested a Butterfly Blog-hop, in honor of her birthday, I hopped right on. I seem to need a challenge every once in a while to get my creative juices going.

And I knew I wanted to to make these simple but effective earrings. I have made this basic design before, and I always sold anything I didn't hoard for my self.

So here we are. So simple, fairly easy, but so pretty and spring-like. I started with making a little "body" for my craft-store purchased butterfly links. Hanging a coordinating bead dangle gives them a little swing. 

Peach and light green seed beads, with sweet matching green  dangles. 

Perching green butterflies on a "leaf."

Butterflies look pretty in pink. 

Purple-y  body colors are set off by amethyst glass drops that change color depending on the light.

I loved digging through my stash for the beads used in this project. I hope the other participants did too!

Here is a list of their blogs:

1. Alenka (Pepita) - hostess --> http://pepita-handmade.blogspot.com/

2. Monique (A Half-Baked Notion) --> http://ahalfbakednotion.blogspot.com/

3. Beti Horvath -->http://stringingfool.blogspot.com/  <---You Are Here

4. Kathy Lindemer --> http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

5. Kepi --> http://kepirasmussen.blogspot.com/

6. Christine Altmiller --> http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/

7. Amy S. --> http://blogspot.amybeads.com/

8. Dini Bruinsma --> http://angazabychanges.blogspot.com/

9. Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers) --> http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com/

10. Alicia --> http://www.allprettythings.ca/

11. sheilaposter --> http://catswithbeads.blogspot.com/

12. Therese Frank --> http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/

13. Rebecca White --> http://morganafeycreations.121hub.com/

14. Rachel Mallis --> http://www.mintmonarch.com/#!blog/c1jlz

15. Liz E --> http://beadcontagion.blogspot.com/

16. Ana (ACBeads) --> http://acbeads.blogspot.com/

17. Jasvanti Patel --> http://jewelrybyjasvanti.blogspot.com/

18. Carolyn --> http://carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com/

19. Nan Smith --> http://wirednan.blogspot.com/

 

And the winner is....

(no it's not the Oscars!)

The winner of the polymer clay covered mug from "Grow Your Blog" is : Susan Leschke of Threads of Inspiration!!

Hope you enjoy your new brush holder!

Ordinary. Extraordinary. Everyday. Last Five Days!

Valentine's week edition. 

Sally Russick gave us a gift this month...fifteen days of photography prompts. The nice thing about Sally's photo challenges...they take a bit of thought as well as just choosing a nice picture. 

Here are our last five prompts:

11. Macro

12. Temptation

13. Sweetness

14. Love

15. Togetherness

11. Tiny signs of spring (okay, they're in a flowerpot in my kitchen....)

12. These little treats are kitty crack. Very tempting to our three cats.

13. Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

14. Themed Valentine's Presents: Spicy food and a Sweet movie.

15. Jim and Bebop, two of my favorites, Together!

Lots of love Folks!

An InLinkz Link-up

CREATE. SHARE. INSPIRE :: Belated Week 4

How many weeks late? 

Shelly Graham Turner Gave us some art prompts for Winter. I did well keeping up until the end. But....I always knew what I was going to do to portray the idea of "My favorite winter destination." Not much for winter vacations, I thought of a local tubing park where, when the kids were young, each year we celebrated a family winter birthday if the weather cooperated. 

I captured some pictures last winter, and used them as inspiration for this bracelet. 

Walla, I'm done. Finally.

So, what did I do? I took the protective plastic from a roll of bead stringing wire, glued on some white fuzzy fabric, lined it with a piece of ribbon, and then took shapes inspired by the tubing hill photo, and sewed them to the fabric. I might even make another one. Someday.  

Ordinary, Extraordinary, Everyday. Days 6-10

More challenging challenges!

Sally Russick's Challenge continues. This list of prompts covers days 6-10, and presented me with more need for thought. 

6. Minimal

7. Daily Chaos

8. Words

9. Night Time Calm

10. Outside

My biggest problem? Trying to photograph the Daily Chaos. We had a snowstorm, so everyone kind of stayed in place...not much chaos. So, here's what I came up with:

6. Minimal. Who needs more than one cardinal? 

7. Daily Chaos. Parking in weird places to keep out of the way of the plow. 

8. Words. Binge watching Orphan Black.

9. Night Time Calm. 

10. Outside. How cool is this to find an Outside Valentine.

Have a look at some more five day wonders.

An InLinkz Link-up

Ordinary Exaordinary Everyday

A Five-Photo-Challenge!

Sally Russick is at it again. She is hosting a photo challenge, with a twist. We are to take five photos, responding to five word prompts; one each for five days. The idea is to take the photos responding to whatever the prompt says to you. Go with the flow. Then we do it all over again. 

So here are the first five: 

1. Reflection

2. Wrapping

3. Kitchen Ritual

4. Paper

5. Repetitive Pattern

I'm going to try to go with a minimum of words here... wish me luck!

1. Reflection - Cast aluminum plane. 

2. Wrap- I am Babushka Lady

3. Kitchen Ritual - Chopping Onions

4. Papers - All Day Training

5. Hounds Tooth Check Scarf

"Check" out some more photos.

An InLinkz Link-up

Grow Your Blog!

Another opportunity to see who is out there, and make new friends. 

Self Portrait taken for the Focus on Life Challenge.

Last year, I happened upon a blog hop aimed at helping us spread the word about our blogs, and maybe even get new followers. Vicki at 2 Bags Full hosts the "Grow Your Blog" hop, and it is quite an endeavor. 

So, here we are, and I hope that you are enjoying your hop! 

I started my blog when I decided that I wanted to communicate with more people who had an interest in hand crafted jewelry. I participated in my first jewelry blog hops, and joined several Facebook groups. Then I joined a photography challenge that went on for TWO years! Currently, I am participating in Shelley Graham Turner's CREATE. SHARE. INSPIRE challenge. 

Some of my interests include making Jewelry, Creating in Polymer Clay, Photography (especially birds and flowers) our Family, Pets, Cooking, and anything else that sparks my interest. 

How would you like this mug to hold your pens, pencils or paintbrushes? You can win it by leaving a comment below. The winner will be chosen at random on February 17. The mug is covered in polymer clay. 

You can read more about how it was made here. 

Here are some other recent projects. 

Jewelry Display at Christkindlmarkt, Port Jervis NY

Fruit Cake. 100% fresh fruit.

Polymer Clay Beads, Made to match the scarf in the picture.

Queen Ann's Lace

Orioles on the Apple Tree.

Holiday Pins, made of Polymer Clay!

More Polymer Pins. 

Colorful Fungus!

Old Clemson Bros. Building, Middletown, NY

Special order Pendant.