Valentine's Day, really?

In some circles Valentine's Day gets a bad rap. It's a holiday made up by the greeting card companies, yada yada yada. Well, I still like it. Lots of holidays have lost their original meaning - but for me, most holidays are a reason to spend more time with the people you love. Tom and I have a tradition - we stay home, rent a movie, and get Chinese take out...going on thirteen years.

I know it might be a little early to be talking about *heart* day, but when you make jewelry for a living you have to start thinking about it a little earlier than most folks. So yesterday I was fooling around with a bunch of components from my Build Your Own bracelet and necklace series...I decided to put together a couple of lovey dovey pieces. You can make your very own or buy this very necklace and bracelet!

So, the bottom line is, hopefully you don't need an excuse to say "I love you" to your sweetie, but if you do then take advantage of Valentine's Day!

big blow out sale

This is no joke - I am having a move 'em on out, big-time, after Christmas, time for new stuff sale! I spent the day going through inventory and seeing what I still have after the holidays and I just want to freshen up my inventory. So, what this means is that I am posting 46! new items to my close out page! 46! Necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings - in fact, every ring I had left after Christmas!

Not a thing wrong with this little gem - she just deserves a permanent home! Radishes? Beets? It's up to you? I love 'em both quite honestly.

Okay, so you might think the pearls are cheesy or you may love them - but I can't help but put the bottlecap (that was rescued just before it was doomed for eternity to the trash) with the pearl - classy meets trashy. sorry, I can't help it!

I'm anxious to get back in the studio and start working on some new ideas I've had. This time of the year is so exciting for me - don't get me wrong, the holidays are great, really great, but they are about making a whole lot of orders. Now, this time of year is when I get to be creative and make the ideas floating in my head a reality. Technically I am not back in the studio until the 4th...but the wheels are already turning...

Happy Holidays

I know I am a little late with the holiday wishes. The holidays have been a little hectic around here. Saturday evening my mom and I watched The Family Stone and I just kept thinking how I would love a Christmas like that, just at home with out all of the running around, last minute all day shopping. I VOW to get all of that done early next year. In fact, I am so committed to having a more relaxed holiday next year that I have already set all of my deadlines for Metalsgirl for next year!

With all of that said, we did have a wonderful Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my best friends parents house, it's tradition. Every year. Then we all head home to open our one Christmas Eve gift - pajamas. Every year. Then Tom and I go home, light a fire and open our get to unload our stockings. Tom and I decided a long time ago that we would only do stockings, everything has to fit in a stocking. It's pretty fun and we have to get creative. This year I got a fabulous Jaime Jo Fisher ring that is unbelievably fantastic!!! Then Christmas morning we get the call from my parents that my little brother is up (even though he is 18 years old now he is still the youngest and gets to announce the beginning of the gift opening frenzy) and it's time to get out of bed and get over there. Then it's more stockings, mad gift opening, mom and I make breakfast tacos while the boys play with their new "toys", then naps, and then the neighbors come over for game night. Every year. These traditions mean the world to me.

How great is this ornament?!?! This was Preachers first Christmas with us back in 1999. Look, his nose still had some puppy pink on it! :) And Seven looks precious and so little, even though she was a couple of years old. I was not supposed to be in this photo but Preacher wasn't that into Santa.

And for everyone who has e-mailed to check in on Preacher I just wanted to let you know that he is doing so well. He had his last round of chemo a couple of weeks ago and we are all enjoying the time off. We have an appointment with the oncologist in a week to get a check up and see where to go from here. But again, for now we are just enjoying the no vet visits, healthy, hungry, happy Preacher. Having him here with us is the very best Christmas gift ever.

let it snow...pretty please.

Don't you remember how much you wished for it to snow as a kid? I grew up in Lubbock, TX and we got pretty decent snows every winter. Not sure how old Kim and I are in this picture (eight-ish?) or if we were auditioning for a Saturday Night Live cone head skit, but I do know we had so, so much fun on snow days. No school, walking the 10 blocks to each others houses, never realizing how freezing it was because we were having too much fun. I never grew out of that. I know a lot of adults who think I am crazy for always wishing for cold weather, ice, and snow - but I just never grew out of that kid like anticipation of "bad" weather. I love the idea of hunkering down inside and making soup, building a fire, and the occasional trips outside to see how much snow has accumulated.

Back to the photo: Don't you love the rudimentary snow man? Kid snowmen are the best! I don't know if you can tell but the mouth is made from a dog biscuit and the nose from half a dog biscuit. Ingenious! Poor Permella was probably not thrilled seeing that those treats were headed somewhere other than her belly. Not to mention it looks like I am choking her to get her to stand with us for the photo op. Permella was my childhood dog. My mom and dad got her when my mom was pregnant with me. Side note about that: my dad wanted to name ME Permella but thank God they got the dog before I came along!

Anyway, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

marathon baking

Yesterday was baking day. It's tradition. It started years ago with my mom and my best friends mom. The two of them would spend an entire day baking up a storm for the holiday while the three of us kids would play all day. It was heaven. Now that we are all grown up we get to join in. And this year was a doozie! I think we out-did ourselves. Here are some photos of some, not all, of what we made. Starting with home made peppermint marshmallows.

Here's the marshmallows in the pan. They wait for 10 hours before you can cut them, but since we baked for almost 12 hours! that was no problem! Typically I just make plain vanilla marshmallows - but int he spirit of Christmas we did vanilla and peppermint with this red swirl on the top.

Here they are all finished, covered in powdered sugar to keep them from sticking. I had one in my coffee this morning. Soooo yummy. You really can't believe the difference in the home made vs. the store bought. These are so soft and melt to perfection. And don't think I haven't tried roasting them - oh dear. And then there were the...

... Puff pastry cheese straws with pepper jack cheese and...

...More marshmallows paired with chocolate sandwich cookies filled with strawberry cream, mint cream, and espresso cream and...

... Asiago cheese stars and...

...Melt in your mouth thumb print cookies with cream cheese filling and...

... Macaroon stars dipped in bittersweet chocolate and...

...Cheese straws and...

...peppermint taffy. I'm gonna be honest. This was supposed to be divinity. My great grandmother made the best divinity but apparently it's pretty tricky. We even called for divinity advice from the expert (Tom's boss) and he said no humidity - but jeez, it's always humid here. Anyway, it tasted great and we didn't want to waste it, so it made really perfect taffy! Great save I think.

It was a lovely day. Christmas traditions mean so much to me and when you combine them with people that you love you can't go wrong. We laughed so much that my cheeks hurt almost as much as my feet after standing all day! But what we got out of the day was so much more than cookies and candy - we made more memories to last a lifetime.

round 17

Well, Preacher had his 17th round of chemo today. And it was his final chemo - at least for awhile. We still have to decide about maintenance chemo and I suppose there could be further treatments down the road, but for now we are done! Whew. I can't quite believe it's been six + months. We have been through so much and I think we have handled it pretty darn well.

I might sound like a broken record but I can't possibly say it enough - Thank You. Thank you for your comments, your grab bag purchases, your e-mails and phone calls, your advice, your shoulders to cry on, your trips with me to the oncologist - so many of you have done so much and everything, everything from the comment on this blog to the hand holding in the vet's office, it has all helped and made a difficult time so much easier. Thank you.

Don't think for a second that this means I'm gonna stop the Preacher updates! He has quite the fan club now (I think it's going to his head!) and I will keep you all in the loop with info and photos. I wish there was some way for all of you to be able to meet him - I feel sure you would fall in love. Everyone who meets him does. My friends like to whisper, in case the other dogs are listening, "you know, Preacher is my favorite." I know. He has that effect on people.

Good News!

Got the call from the vet just now - it's all good. Looks like it was benign and they got all of the tumor out. Now that we have the good news I will fill you in on some of what I purposely left out before - the tumor was on his penis. Lovely, right. Poor guy. Anyway, worse case scenario was he would get "it" taken off and he would get girl parts. So, needless to say we are relieved on many levels. Thank you for all of your good thoughts and well wishes. You're the best!

And another bit of good news: Preacher has his last official round of chemo tomorrow. We're pretty clueless on what to expect from here (even though I have read everything I can get my hands on) but we'll meet with his oncologist and find out where we go from here. I can hardly believe it's been six months since his diagnosis. It's pretty amazing. To say we feel blessed for this time we have had is an insane understatement.

So, go kiss your puppies or kitties and enjoy every minute you have with them. They give us so much more than they ever ask in return. I know there's a lesson to be learned in there.

wearing out my well wishes welcome

I hate to say it, but I have to hit you up for more good thoughts and well wishes please. Our little piggy, Pasqual, is having surgery today to remove a tumor. It's the type of tumor that is usually benign but can become malignant. So we have all of our fingers and toes crossed that it is going to turn out to be benign.

Pasqual started out as a foster at our house (as so many of them did). He was the first Pit Bull to be fostered by anyone in Blue Dog. And even though it was a bunch of dog people there were still some skeptics on the whole Pit Bull thing. But Pasqually quickly won them all over with his sweet nature, incessant kisses, and constant smile. Now several of our fosters have adopted Pit Bulls of their own and our group has rescued and adopted out countless pits over the years.

At a little over 10 years old Pasqual is a poster child and ambassador for his breed. And we are very lucky to have him in our lives. So, fingers crossed this is just a little snip snip and we're all done!

GREAT gift for a GREAT cause

Gift idea #2: Some of the best gifts are gifts that give back. That is absolutely the case with this calender. Everyone needs a calender - I don't care if you keep all of your info in your phone, you still need to look up at a calender from time to time. This one features Texas Musicians and their dogs and 100% of the proceeds go straight to the dogs. Blue Dog Rescue is a 501c3 non-profit with no paid employees, we are 100% run by volunteers who donate their time, energy, and love because they don't think dogs should be killed just because there is no space for them. This calender is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and helps us keep our heads above water through out the year.

Another cool option is to "Sponsor a Blue Dog". Blue Dog will send a holiday card to anyone you like and let them know that a donation has been made in their name for the holidays. It's a fun way to help an individual dog that has caught your eye and tugged at your heart.

PAPERooT

Last year I tried to share a few items that I thought you might like for holiday giving. I want to start with my friend Sandy at PAPERooT. I met Sandy at an art show that we did a few years ago. We were booth neighbors and we really hit it off. Most important - she's wonderful. Second, her art work is amazing!! I have bought several of her notebooks over the years as gifts and for myself. Not only are they useful but the are so cool! Her prices are insanely good - so if you are looking for a gift for coworkers - fantastic! Stocking stuffers - perfect!

...or consider tying them on the top of Christmas packages - I pride myself on my creative and fun Christmas wrapping. This year I am trying to make the wrapping itself part of the gift. So I really think these colorful notebooks would be much cuter and obviously more useful than your typical bow - don't ya think??!?! Check out Sandy's website. She rocks.

Austin Flea today

It's on and we're already having so much fun! Doing an art show in an old haunted bar is the way to go. Surrounded by friends and other awesome artists - can't beat it!

http://austinflea.blogspot.com/

Just as prissy as she looks.

If you've been reading my blog for very long you might remember the post where I introduced Jessica Beatrice. We had just decided to keep her and I posted her story along with a dreadful picture of her. I felt the need to redeem myself for that terrible photo - so when Tom got this full on model shot of her I had to share!

I swear she looks like a little show dog - but of course she's a rescue. She came from our local kill shelter where she ended up after having been hit by a car. She weighs about five pounds soaking wet so I can't really fathom how she could have been hit by a car and survive, but she did. She was beyond pitiful and so socially inept that we couldn't really imagine anyone wanting her for her personality - and we were not going to let her become some little trophy/status/purse dog! So she stayed. Gosh, I kinda sounded like a snob there. Sorry. Anyway, Tom fell for her pitiful act and she had him wrapped around her paw in no time flat. Now she prisses around the house like Linda Evangalista flaunting her good looks. It's completely lost on the other dogs but that doesn't stop her. It's embarrassing how much she preens for Tom - but seriously, she's ridiculously cute and she knows it.

round 16

Our boy is doing great. After all of the drama and scares of last week we are all finally resting easy. We got through the Thanksgiving week end fairly well. It was up and down but he did seem to be making progress each day. Then Monday and Tuesday were both great days. He went in for his regularly scheduled chemo today and not only did that go well but the oncologist felt like what ever mystery injury/disc disease had happened has resolved itself. ahhhhhhh, is my big sigh of relief.

In two weeks he has his last round of regular chemo before we meet with the oncologist to decide where to go from here. Do we stop chemo all together or go to a maintenance schedule? Whatever we do it will be what we feel is the best action for Preacher.

For now I am going to go sit by the fire and watch him sleep. It's amazing how much peace that brings me.

are you ready?

It's almost December!!!! I am sooo excited. Not only is it just a couple of days until December but we are getting a little cold snap here in Texas! I might be in the minority, in fact I heard the weather man say "it's going to be miserable" and I thought "speak for yourself!". Anyway, I love it. We went and picked out our tree today, put up decorations, and it was cold enough to bulid a fire! I can't tell you how many years we have put up our tree with the air conditioner on. It was so cozy tonight sitthing with the warm glow of the fire and Christmas lights, knitting while I watched Amazing Race. Just perfect.

So on top of just enjoying our lovely change in weather I am gearing up for the Austin Flea this weekend. If you live in or around Austin you should totally stop by! I am in some brilliant company like Stephanie Nance, Bolsa Bonitia, Flour Pots, Adaptive Reuse, Paper Root, Will Heron The show is at The Ghost Room @ 304 W. 4th between Guadalupe and Lavaca from 11-6 on Saturday December 5th. There will be beer tastings and music on top of all the great art. I am super duper excited - the only thing is that I will probably want to buy multiple somethings from every vendor there!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from the pie girl

Happy Thanksgiving a day late. I hope everyone has as wonderful a Thanksgiving as my family and I did. Thanksgiving is absolutely, hands-down, my favorite holiday. It may have strayed from it's original meaning or be nothing about that "first Thanksgiving" but for me it's about being thankful. It's all in the name, right? I love the tradition of it. Here's how our day goes:

I get up, turn the tv to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and start the pies. It was five this year. Two pumpkin (steamed the pumpkins the day before), two apple/cranberry, and one pecan. Tom gets up a bit later and helps me. We make fun of the made up dog breeds on the dog show following the parade, and then we pack up and head off to my parents house, only about five blocks away. This year we had 16 at the table. It was a wonderful mix of family and friends, new and old. We have the standard 8-10 that are always there, but we try to always have some "strangers" or "Thanksgiving orphans" at the table. My mom loves inviting people who have no where else to go and treating them to a wonderful meal and a special day. I love it that I can invite anyone and everyone I want and I know my mom will welcome them with open arms and be genuinely happy that they are there.

After we gorge ourselves on turkey and stuffing and potatoes and cranberry sauce and the-best-rolls-ever (Haley licked and extra one this year so no one would steal it from her!) and Karen's to-die-for corn casserole and fruit salad and pies and pumpkin cheesecake (who knew Isaac could cook!?!?) with fresh whipped mexican vanilla whipped cream (oh my lord)...well, you would think we would all slip into a food coma. But no, we rally the troupes and play charades. We've been doing this same thing for years and I love it! This year my best friend and her husband, kids, mom and dad came for the evening and the charades got a little more competitive than in years past but it was oh so fun! Let me just brag for a moment and say that I acted out the last and winning thing which was, ahem, "Get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed" - Thank you Lloyd for writing that down! How I got my team to guess that in the one minute allotted time I will never know. I had never even heard of it but apparently it's a Kinky Freidman song. Who knew?

And last but certainly not least, Preacher is continuing to do well. He's not 100% yet, but he's still getting up and down pretty well, wagging his nub, and walking on his own. So we are cautiously optimistic that he is on the mend.

Happy end of November everyone. Hope it was a good one.

Brighter days...

Well, let me start off with the most important thing : Preacher is doing much better. I think I had the sigh of relief heard 'round the world. It's been pretty much just like Dr. Daigle (our regular, best-vet-ever vet) said the first day we took him in "I think he over-did it and he's super sore. Give him 72 hours." But I find it next to impossible to wait and watch. I prefer to over-react and worry myself sick. I can't tell you how much all of your positive comments, e-mails, and phone calls have helped. So as of today he is walking on his own again, much more steady on his feet, and even got up to say "hi" when my dad came by (to take all of my chairs because everyone and their dog - yay Virgil! - are coming to Thanksgiving). Tom and I are relieved to say the least. I don't think we are 100% out of the woods, but maybe 75%. And that is darn good.

So since I had nothing to do (ha, ha, ha! bake five pies, make granola, clean house - my mother-in-law is coming, grocery store, etc.) I decided to make an advent calendar for my best friends two kiddos. The whole idea started because I had all these little Trapp votive boxes that I hadn't thrown away because "they smell good and I could wrap something in them". But they were piling up so I had this thought that I could paint them, number them, and voila, they would be an advent calendar. But in classic me form I started the project and then only had 10 boxes. So off to the container store for 15 more boxes. I wrangled Tom into helping me paint - he seemed less than thrilled to begin with but then I think he got into it and painted as many boxes as I did. Then he filled them with treats and toys while I tied them up with odds and ends of ribbon that I also hadn't been able to part with. We tied all of the boxed to a long piece of twine - and I have to say, it's pretty freakin' cute. It's like this long, colorful, Christmas-y garland of tiny boxes in red, white, pink, and green. I love it. I hope Declan and Mia do too!!

Preacher update

Just wanted to let everyone know what's going on with our big man. We took him to his oncologist this morning. He was concerned that the cancer was back and in his spine or central nervous system. The oncologist just called with an update. They did xrays and everything looked normal. So it still could be anything from muscular skeletal, to ruptured disc, to cancer. But something is causing a fair amount of pain in his lower lumbar area. So for now he gets to come home and be on some heavy duty pain meds in the hope that he gets progressively better over the next couple of days. If he does not improve or gets worse then we go get a CT scan and have to talk about the possibility of surgery. Not sure how Tom and I feel about that given the cancer and his age, but we'll just have to see.

For now we are hopeful and are choosing to be positive and believe that he is a big goof ball and over did it with the play on Sunday and, like his mom would do, injured himself with a very small amount of exercise and physical exertion!

Thanks for your well wishes, positive thoughts, prayers, love, everything!

jeez-a-lou, as Frank would say.

I'm telling you, I feel like I have been on a 24 hour roller coaster ride - and I am not a fan of roller coasters in general. So Preacher was fantastic yesterday and not-so-much today. In fact tonight we have been having to carry him outside to go to the bathroom. He's been laying/sleeping on the couch all day. We have every finger and toe crossed that this is a combination of a sore back and the pain meds knocking him for a loop. One minute I am convinced that it's just that and the next I am just sure that he is out of remission. And the truth is - what the hell do I know? But apparently I like to guess and second guess and all around drive myself batty with worry until I have someone that actually knows what they are talking about tell me what is really going on.

In the mean time, I think the other dogs must know that they should not be torturing Preacher. Normally if he is laying on the couch Pasqual has no issues with jumping right up next to him to cozy up - the thing is, Preacher wants nothing to do with that, never has. So he gives a grumpy growl and huffs off to find a new spot. Well tonight Pasqual, more gingerly than normal, jumped up on the couch but this time perched himself on the arm of the couch. Now, remember, this is a 55-60 pound pit bull. But he seemed quite content to nap on the not-so-comfortable-looking arm of the couch. Hmmm. Maybe he is maturing, he's 10 years old. it's time.

round 15 and a icky day so far

So round 15 of chemo was last Tuesday and I was remiss and didn't post anything right away. I think I have said this before, but when things are good it is easy to forget to update on his progress and it's surprisingly easy to begin to feel like nothing is wrong. Unfortunately we had a reminder this morning that everything is not fine.

Preacher had an amazing day yesterday. I brought a toy home for Vincent and Preacher promptly snatched it up and started racing through the house with it. Tom threw it to him a couple of times, he jumped up to grab it, he spun himself in circles, he was just a nut. He was Preacher six years ago - not old man Preacher. So when he started pacing last night and acting uncomfortable we were really surprised. This morning he didn't want to get up, when he tried he fell off of the couch. Tom came home and we took him straight in to our vet. They did blood work and our hope was that he just over did it yesterday and with some rest and pain meds we'd be a-okay. But his blood work showed an infection.

Our vet called up Preacher's oncologist and they discussed everything. It could be a couple of things: he has an odd, random infection and antibiotics and pain meds will fix him right up OR he has come out of remission and the cancer is in his central nervous system. It's too soon to know what that would mean - but don't think I haven't already tried to get everyone to tell me the long-drawn-out details of every possible scenario - for now we wait. We give the meds 72 hours to work their magic. If in 72 hours he is significantly better then that is a great indication that the cancer is not back. Of course waiting 72 hours is sheer torture.

We've known all along that lymphoma is terminal. We are realistic about the fact that he is 11 years old. But none of that is making this any easier right now. The past few months have lulled me into a real false sense of security. and now I am scared. Please send our boy some good thoughts and well wishes. Your support has certainly helped more than you can know. Now, go kiss your dog or your neighbors dog.

32 years and counting

I have had the same best friend for 32 years. Tom says that's not normal (I think he means it in a good way). Normal or not, we have been best friends for 32 years. Not on and off, no gaps and re connections, 32 years of having the same person to always count on, talk to, laugh with, cry with, get in trouble with (from sharing the same bathroom stall at age 8 so we could look through each other's purses and getting busted by the school secretary to shop lifting at 17 to over drinking and puking at age, well, recently). I really do not know what I would do with out her.

We met in the first grade. Ms. Wages. My mom and I had just moved to Lubbock, Texas so that she could go to grad school at Texas Tech. We knew no one there and it was just us and our dog. When Kim and I met I had no way of knowing that her family would become mine and vice versa. Her parents really kinda took us in. Her mom typed my moms grad school papers and together they traded off fixing our lunches (I am still scarred by the lettuce, mayo, and peanut butter sandwiches), one took us to school and the other picked us up. As a kid this just seemed normal - as an adult I realize that we were building this amazing history.

When I was 12 my mom moved us here, to Austin. Typically I think that would be that. Maybe we would write for a bit, but we would make new friends and move on. But our parents saw to it that that did not happen. They flew us back and forth frequently. They would share the cost of airfare sometimes, but they made it happen. And we never lost touch, never lost our connection. We still gossiped, ran up large phone bills, wrote lots of letters (well, Kim did, I'm not very good at written correspondence!), and spent birthdays together.
Eventually we all ended up in the same town, even our parents. We talk nearly everyday. Sometimes for hours and Tom asks "what do you still have to talk about??" I don't know. Anything. Everything. We have literally been through it all together - boyfriends, death of a sibling and grandparents, marriage, births of (her) children, life. It might not be every ones normal. But I am so thankful that it is my normal.

Fall. I love everything about it. I especially love all of the food that comes with fall and spending time in my kitchen making soups and pies. My kitchen is comfortable and bright and very, very me. I am already excited with anticipation for Thanksgiving morning...waking up and turning my little kitchen tv to the parade, cranking up the oven, and figuring out which pie to start first while Tom and the dogs sleep in in the other room. It is the best.

With Thanksgiving next week I have pies on the brain. It's about time to start peeling the pumpkins and steaming them, roasting the seeds, and counting out how many pie plates I am going to need this year. A possible 24 people at the table means a wholelotta pies! So everyone does pumpkin, right? And pecan? What else? What is your family tradition?

It's so easy...

Super duper excited to have these new little gems in my hot little hands!!! I wanted something like the itunes card or the gap gift card so my sweet husband made it happen. Now Metalsgirl has her very own little gift card! For now you can get her on etsy, but soon she'll be on the Metalsgirl website as well. She will arrive in a sweet little glassine envelope all ready for giving. Perfect for stocking stuffing or shipping to out of town sweeties.

Buck up!

I think it's time to flex my muscles and show what I'm made of. I might have gotten a little too big for my britches lately. Over the past few years I have been busy, real busy, with work. And I haven't had to do a whole lot to bring that work in. Well, I do work, but I haven't had to push, push, push to get my work out there. But it seems this whole economy thing might be catching up with me. And I get it. But it means I am gonna have to put myself out there a bit more. This is tough for me because I am not the "hard-sell" sales person and I never will be. But I suppose I could be a bit more aggressive about getting my work seen. So, seeing as how holiday ad space has come and gone I guess that means social networking here I come... I know it might seem self-serving, but I do think now is the time to buy handmade and locally owned and support the little guy. This holiday while we are all scrimping more than usual I think the more personal gift will mean so much more than the big expensive electronics and big box store gifts. Whether that is something from me or from your little locally owned shop up the road...it will make a difference.

Oh, and while I desperately wish that was my arm, it's not. It's my precious sister (not really, but really) Haley. And on her arm are the Vintage Brass Bangle Bracelets that I so loooove to make!

Gift ready to Give

Gearing up for all of the holiday shows is exciting, fun, and a teensy bit stressful. One of the most popular items at past shows has been this bangle necklace. I have several versions with different words and colors each with a card and boxed up ready to give. It's the best gift for boys to buy because it's just all done - let's face it, most of 'em like that. I haven't had these gems on my website yet but they are coming soon...

Austin Flea

I am super duper excited about this upcoming show!!!! First of all, I can not believe that the holidays are upon us. It always sneaks up on me. But here they are and I am so excited!! I'm pretty much a cheese-ball when it comes to all things between November 1st and December 26th. And I mean All Things! I would start playing Christmas music now if Tom didn't lay down the law. The day after Thanksgiving is when it gets to start. But he usually plays my very favorite Glen Campbell Christmas song at midnight on Thanksgiving. And I, without fail, let out that excited squeal as if it is the very first time. ahhh, I love it! The baking, the gift wrapping (no gift bags -ick!), the decorations, the tree, the smells, the daily cards from old friends and family, and all of the fun holiday art shows!!! This is the time of year where I really get to interact with loyal customers and fellow artists. Working from home is a wonderful thing, but it is a fairly solitary environment. So these shows are the equivalent of being around coworkers for me. We talk about our year, gossip, talk shop - and we cram it all into the one or two days of the show. It's great fun!!

I am doing two shows this season. I know fellow artists/friends who are doing up to five! More power to them and I hope they do fantastic - but I just can't manage it. So two it is. And I am thrilled about them both.
First, on December 5th, is The Austin Flea. It's at the Ghost Room and it's a one day show with other fabulous artists, live music, yummy food (Stephanie, you better make those Mexican chocolate cookies again!), and holiday goodies to get you in the spirit!
Second, on December 12th and 13th is Cherrywood. Another fun, fun, fun show! Great local artists and more live music! I so hope to see you out and about and enjoying all the festivities! And if not come visit me at http://www.metalsgirl.com/ !!