I think I've made my signature bracelet. I call this one, "gypsy rose"... It's made of semi-precious amthyst (small rectangles and ovals and three large cubes), pewder beads, cloisonne, chips of aqumarine, turquoise and finished with an assortment of czech silver lined and frosted glass beads and a huge round silver clasp.



Another pic of my favorite... constrast is everything lol....





I call this set, "black beauty". Black venetian glass with gold inlay, ) These beads have also been in my collection for years, jet large round beads, round hemitite, gold AB crystals, czech fired beads and a sterling clasp. Bracelet and earing to match.






These little cuties are all glass and semi precious...leopard dots and bee stripes, hemitie, bali beads, garnet and czech beads. Some have a milliflor glass heart...

This is the milliflor bracelet. Many flower glass beads and chips of turquoise and two other that I don't remember the names of lol. My stone vocab has not developed yet hahahah..also a milliflor heart and silver lobster claw..

Oh the joy of being creative, well beading for now lol. Here are another few and one in the works which is causing me to swear a lot. This one is called "Sherbert". This is a three strand bracelet of light medium and dark values (the art pops into everything doesn't it?). I used both glass and semi precious stones. Pink Cat's eye and silver lined Czech glass beads. Amethyst, garnet, rose quartz and a sterling clasp to finish.



A close up of the dark pink glass cat eye, they are delish....



This one is called "Madam" lol. Also semi percious and glass. Large medium pink oval semi precious stones (the name escapes me at the moment), delicate cloisonne beads, rose quartz and pewter bali beads and a silver clasp to finish.


A close up of the madam...


This one is a simple but elegant little bracelet. I call it "for your eyes only". Glass and semi precious. Black and white glass beads with what seem to be eyes, round hematite, white quartz with gry veins, silver bali beads and clasp...

This is a short post. I just want to share with you my new adventure. Remember the bead buying and the reading and discussion and getting help from the master jeweler? Well here is the first presentation.

The Red venetian glass bracelet is called "Fancy". The bracelet is 8 inches end to end opened, 7 1/2 closed. It has three large beautiful red oval venetian glass beads(at least 30 years old and brand new), four designer venetian glass art cubes, gold and red small Czech silver lined glass beads and a stirling silver clasp to finish. Strung on Accu-flex. Limited edition. There will only be five made with slight variations....how's that for merchandising/ lol




A close up. I wish I knew how to take better pictures. The one above is at night and this one is out side during the day.

I have been working hard. I have been overpainting fabric. Sounds complicated or important doesn't it? Well overpainting fabric is just that. You painted some fabrics and the're ugly so you paint them again hahahahahha....oh well here is the Exquisite line. I call it that because they are really beautiful. The paint used is out of production so there will be no more like these. Each one is acutally a painted canvas of one yard or a bit more and can be framed as is or it can be quilted as a whole quilt or it can be cut up and joined to other pieces to create new art...

This is a sample of one of the exquisites....




Then there is the lovely line. They are not as shimmery as the exquisite but lovely all the same...lots of gold..



Then there is the wonderful line, no gold, very little or no shimmer, just beautiful color and wonderful all the same lol...I'm just having fun with this and it's just the way I see the fabric. The fabric has made me very happy today. All the wonderful colors. I guess overpainting is going to be a good thing for me....some of the fabric came out soft like the exquisites and some more stiffer. I guess the amount of paint used but still sewable (is that a word? well you know what I mean lol) if desired.


I remember the old man who gave me these paints. He had a story to tell which I wont retell here. Anyway, I was at my usual convention and competion was great among the paint manufactures. The manfactures would give their paints to artist to use and this is a great marketing stradegy. Well at the time I was and still am a helping artist (semi-retired) for the "DecoAmerican company". The old man insisted I try his paint and sent me the whole line. I have had it here for a while and he has died since some years ago. A while back, I had gone through all my paints and threw out the old stuff and so on and I was able to salvage some of his line and these are the results. I managed to overpaint 30 yards of muslin. They were beautiful paints just like he said. This is a great memory of Wally R. He was a sweet old man.

A lovely day in St. Augustine Florida. Every now and then I have to go to St. Augustine. And I have to go in the Greek Orthodox Church. I don't know why. I just do it. Today was wonderful, I so enjoyed it.
This is St Augustine... well a part. And then there is the old part which I love..

Here is some bling, bling that I bought... behind me you can see the old historic part of the town...


My friend Betty and her bling.....

A house by the sea...


This is part of the ole fort where the indians holed up when the Spaniard attacked.

Here is another view with the cannon...



Me with my feet in the sea....


Some of the funky stuff you can buy .....


And last but not least some pics of the icons inside the Greek church....

I think we had Better homes and Gardens here today...I made curry and did the other bedroom and hubby planted papaya and mango trees...I make my curry with a roasting chicken. It gives a better flavor to the curry and it stays intack for the cooking. I only did a half and saved the other half for another time. It's just hubby and I. I seasoned it with all the usual stuff and browned it and added lots of onion and sweet peppers....



Here it is in the curry sauce....I was doing it by guessing and it tasted pretty hot so I added some regular potatoes and sweet potatoe and apple. I boiled six eggs and added those 10 minutes before it was done.



Dinner is served... with freshly made corn tortillas on the side..


I changed out the other christmas quilt on our other bed and decided on the lone star quilt...



A close up .....



Close up of the mooses. I made the moose on the left about 5 years ago...



This is a sweet porcelain pixie I made a few years ago when I sold stuff....



Hubby planted 3 papayas together in the front yard today....



The tomatoes are coming along....



And the pineapples are peeking out too and growing...looks like a bumper crop this year...yes!!



And last but not lest my mango tree that I've been petting for two years...

Well it's time to change to summer quilts. I've been looking at christmas quilts for a while now lol. I still like them. Anyway here is the front room with "Delectable Mountains" on the bed. This is our second bed. We go from room to room lol. when I first made this quilt I didn't have a long arm so I just sewed down the seams one way and up the next. I never liked the way it looked. Now I finally quilted it fully. Even though it had the binding on and all, I was able to quilt it just fine....it looks really nice now..I'm happy!


Another view.... in the middle of the head board is a porcelain rose..actually hand made by an artist...mounted on a tile and her signature is on a tiny tile. I am amazed at the tiny bugs. The piece is so beautiful. It was a gift from a friend and I just had the right spot for it.



And then of course Pooh and company finish the look. The little quilt at the bottom is for Molly, she likes to look out the window ...that is....until the curtins go up.


Maybe tomorrow I can do the other room...ahh so many quilts...which one shallI choose?

Well today is Mother's day. Well I got news. Everyday is mothers day...but since they want to give me another one, who am I to object? I did what I wanted to do today. Son wanted to take me to lunch but I wasn't about to fight the crowds at the restuarants. Besides I had made a whole platter full of sirloin hamburgers yum yum. Now that's what I call good food hahhaha...Well tomatoe, lettuce, vadalie onion, mayo, katsup and sweet pickle all on 5 grain bread. I call that healthy lol....

Ok, now I feel like repainting my library. My library is a shelf unit where I keep all my favorite books...quilting books, painting, reference to art, my collection of Charles Wysocki, herbs, medical and you know the books we have ...oh knitting.....

This is the beginning of my poor neglected library...just pitiful...but not for long... I painted the insides a light blue and the outside a toned rose.. and the trim a light pink... I used the "Satin Enamels" by DecoArt". They are a great basecoating paint for large pieces of furniture and they cover in one coat.



Then I painted a design on the front...



I fidled and farted around and decided more is better hahhahaha...so I added some blue stroke work and leaves....


Then I started on the side ...one side only as the other side is going against the wall...smart eh?


Another pic....


A closer pic.


I used a very large round brush to do this..just the one brush..because I wanted to finish quickly. The paints I used are called "Traditions" by DecoArt Americana. These are some very smooth and very easy to blend paints. I double loaded and triple loaded the brush and just went to town. I did it all free-hand...no sketch or nothing. I must be mad...no it's full moon, that's what it is...