Morning Muse

Last night I stood outside, looked at the stars and got sprinkled on! All around us were clouds and lightening, but above the cresent moon, the big dipper, and millions and millions of twinkling stars! How far can a rain drop travel from its parent cloud?

How I Wasted My Weekend or Showing in the Rain!

My goodness it's been too long since my last post! Lots has happened, my darling daughter has been retrieved from college for the summer, which means I have to pack up winter clothes and clean out dressers and closets so there is space for her stuff again!! lol
But for my more recent doings and in explanation of the title, I spent the weekend at a local 2 day event whose name I will not mention! Billed as a craft show, (ha!) I was dismayed and appalled to find it most resembled a flea market! I found that only a small percentage of the booths offered hand made items! The majority was cheap resale, and I do mean cheap! And not more than half of the hand made items were quality!
Saturday was exceedingly long, I started setting up at 8:00am, we opened at 10:00am and the rain started about noon I think and lasted at least 4 hours, oh joy. :{ The organizers asked that we stay open until 8:00pm which I did,(several didn't) break down took about 45 minutes, then 15 minutes visiting, then the 30 minute drive home. OMG was I tired! All I could do when I got home was hit the shower and then bed!
Sunday dawned cloudy but dry, thank goodness, opening hour was noon which was nice, but a wasted effort! Not one sale on Sunday and only 2 on Saturday! Only made enough to cover half the booth fee!!! What a lesson for me! From now on I will make every effort to attend before I show!
It wasn't all bad, I met some lovely people, Patti who is a member of one of the groups I belong to on Yahoo was there cooking with her very nice hubby Ron!
It's always fun to meet in person, folks you know online! The park where the event was held is beautiful, lots of huge old trees for shade, plenty of electrical outlets for the lights I had to use, people were very nice and complemented my work often, but only two buyers, sigh.
Oh well, a learning experience for sure, one more show I won't waste my booth money on. I think I will go again next year, but only as a spectator!

Thanks for listening!

Elm

News of the Day! And a Sale Alert!

Howdy y'all! Its a wonderful evening in West Texas and of course I spent the day inside!
I've been taking pictures of all the stuff I pulled out of my craft closet that I'm never going to use! It's for SALE! (sorry for the shout, I just hadda! ) You can find the pictures and prices on Flickr under GDDreams or click on the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/27807678@N04/ .
If you stencil, make dolls, paint figurines, or decorate your clothes please take a look. More will be making its way there in the days to come! Here are a couple of pictures of what's available. Please feel free to email me with questions at greendragondreams@gmail.com!!
Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!
The Green Dragon

Beautiful Day!

What a beautiful morning! (Isn't there a song in there?) Happy St. Patricks Day everyone!! Remember pinching is not necessary to enjoy the day!! lol
I found myself awake early today, so after collecting my am tea and all the pets, outside we went to sit and enjoy the gorgeous sunrise! And lovely it was, just being able to sit out side that early without a coat is wonderful! This is why I love Texas, yes it gets really, really hot during the summer months, but the mornings are absolutely wonderful!
We actually got rain last week (happy dance here) not enough of course, but the first we've seen in months, (and I do mean months) I don't think it was enough for them to lift the burn ban, but the authorities are thinking about it. Like we don't have enough problems with grass fires, let's let everyone out here in the county start burning their trash again!!! NOT! (Whoops, bad dragon, no ranting this morning!) ;>\
I actually cleaned yesterday, (yeah, yeah I know, what a shock!) the back enclosed porch where the cats hang out finally got to the "I can't stand it!" level, which leads to Mr. Clean (what a handy guy! ;>D) and clorox! Move the movables outside, hose them down, sweep, mop, wipe walls, cuss cats who are of course laying around looking at me like I've lost my mind, they're very good at that.
So that was my day yesterday, today I hope to get back to my jewelry, see y'all later!
The Green Dragon

Exhausted and Back!

Lordy, lordy, am I tired! Just got back from San Antonio Sunday and the running never stops! LOL Gosh, the errands that pile up when you go out of town for a week! Had to go take care of things for my Mom and help/support my stepMom last week. Glad to say that they are both getting better! Haven't really had a chance to do much with my jewelry, except to visit Szarka at Magpie Gemstones and coup some beautiful beads!! Gosh almighty that woman has gorgeous beads, check it out at magpiegemstones.com. I hope to get more pictures taken this week, so check back in a few days.

Thanks and Blessed Be!
The Green Dragontravel

Lordy This Is Hard!

Gosh, how did this get away from me!? Here it is Tuesday almost 2 wks later and I'm in a rush to get on the road out of town! I don't have any new creations to post, I'm just here to say hi and bye and promise a more complete update next week!
Thanks,

The Green Dragon

Weekend Adventure

Well, the weekend was quite productive for me! I was out in the boonies, no tv, no radio, very few people! Nothing to do but haul out my tools, wire and tutorials and have equal parts of fun and frustration! lol As you can see, I completed 2 bracelets and five rings, oops, make that 6, one ring didn't make it into the group picture. I really like the brass wrapped round copper ring, it is very pretty.

Monday As Promised

Well, I didn't promise Monday exactly, but I did promise pics of the 12 g Copper wire I beat into submission over the weekend! And here it is! The squiggle is 12g with fresh water pearls and I think enameled star fish with solid copper beads on 16g hand made head pins. The coil part is 12g core wrapped with 16g and large solid copper spacers. It was fun to make, not near as agonizing as some of my stuff! lol


On other fronts, it's a chill and dreary day here in my part of Texas. I went into town this morning to run errands, and of course forgot it was Presidents Day! Stinkin' federal holidays! Apologies to anyone enjoying a well deserved day off!! I just have a package that I wanted to mail to a customer TODAY! Oh well, boo hoo for me! (snort)
So back to town tomorrow for another trip to the post office, cause of course I didn't just do the postage on line, I have got to start remembering to do that so I can just give it to my mail man.

I have more squiggles to decorate and incorporate into fun necklaces and bracelets, maybe even something bea u tiful!! (snicker)

Please enjoy the pics, comments welcome and desired!!

Elm the Green Dragon

Sunday Pretties

It's Sunday! Thought I'd post a few pics of my jewelry, please feel free to comment, constructive thoughts always welcome!
The necklace is constructed of solid copper washers, beads and a handmade clasp. The gorgeous Turquoise is from Magpie Gemstones http://www.magpiegemstones.com the most wonderful supply of gemstones and turquoise on the web! That store can get a girl in serious trouble! I love it! In fact most of my beads are from Szarka's online store, great customer service and beautiful beads, what more could you ask for!? Okay, commercial over! (snort)
The earrings are lovely fresh water pearls and copper with sterling silver leverback ear wires.
It's a beautiful day here in West Texas, sun's shining, sky's blue, blue and cloudless. For some weird reason I saw the sunrise this morning, it was pretty but way too early! I've been working on a copper bracelet, just need to figure out what type clasp to put on it. Hopefully will have a picture to post of it tomorrow.
Hope everyone has a lovely Sunday!

Elm

This and That

Well time for post 2! Happy Valentines day! This would be a much better day if my DH didn't have to work 12 hours! Oh well! My wonderful sister gets to have her man with her today, he's home on leave from Iraq. Of course, they'll be spending the day watching my nephew play soccer! Go Connor!!
I squiggled some heavy gauge copper wire yesterday and then beat it into submission and flatness on my anvil (the 55 lb.variety) with my trusty 5lb sledge hammer! That was great fun! Now today maybe I can figure out what type jewelry to make with them! lol I'm thinking bracelets, we'll see.
Not much happening today, a front came through last night and really cooled it off, high of around 60 today (don't hate me, I just live here! snicker) so being inside is appealing.
Must go into studio, must spend time in studio.... eek! Sometimes my new studio intimidates me! Of course that could be because I'm a messy artist! Once I get started I forget to put things back when I'm done with them!!! So today I must go clean up my bench, I must, I must, I might? I WILL.

I Did It!!

Well what do you know, I finally took the plunge and started this blog! Now all I have to do is figure out what to write! lol
Let's see, a little about myself maybe? I'm a transplanted Yankee who considers herself a Texan after 30 years in the Lone Star state! I'm happily married to the same fellow for almost 29 years, one lovely girl now in college, wheeee, empty nest!!!! I'm owned by 4 cats and 1 dog, live in the country, make jewelry and occasionally clean house.

I love making jewelry, mostly I'm a stringer with some wire art additions. I'm in love with handmade lamp work and semi-precious gemstones, and the odd (odder the better! lol) found object. I've been crafty all my life, I think I made my first necklace at age 4 in vacation bible school! Don't you just love macaroni! lol I tried many different things over the years, sewing, stamping, painting, clay, but about 4 years ago the jewelry finally took over and push everything else to the back burner! Three years ago I realized I was making way more than I could wear or give away and decided to try my hand at selling. We have a wonderful artist venue here called the Old Chicken Farm Art Center that hosts a 1st Saturday of the Month for outside vendors like me! I truly enjoy this once a month oddessy even when the temps soar into the 100's. I've met wonderful people from all over the country, sold a few things and made some great new friends!! If you're ever out in the San Angelo area on 1st saturday come by and say howdy!