A few more holiday designs and some other fun things ...

Well - I have a Christmas tree in the house - but that's about it. No decorations up yet. I have to get working on that since I'll have friends over on Sunday for a Christmas party! Work is getting in the way a bit - since a project just poppped up and, of course, they want it ASAP. In the meantime here are a few more things I listed ...



Just click on the pictures to find them for sale!

Last of the holiday and winter designs ...

Our days were getting colder and more like winter - but now we've warmed up again. It's just cool enough that Gino and Max go out to sunbathe. Max just got over an infection and is back to his raucous, rambunctious self! Gino sure is happy - he didn't like it when his "bro" was just sleeping in his basket. He did enjoy eating all the food Max wouldn't eat when my back was turned! We have to be careful to keep Gino from turning into chunky Gino. He does like to eat!

Here are a few of the new holiday and winter designs I've just listed. More will follow as I take the pictures.




Have a great Christmas and a wonderful new year!

cserpentDesigns at the Fallbrook Art Center

I delivered my goodies to the Fallbrook Art Center. It is undergoing major interior renovations right now in preparation for the show. I'm going back up in early December to see how it all comes together and to check out all the other gorgeous art items for sale. Here are a few of the designs I made for the show ...





Click here to see more of what will be selling in Fallbrook.

Where you can find me in December ...

I got accepted into 2 shows in December. Many of my designs will be for sale at the Fallbrook Art Center Art of the Holiday show from 12/1-12/23. Entrance is free and many other artists will be selling their items as well.

On 12/4 I'll be selling at Artisan's Alley in Coronado. I'll be in booth 100. I'll be sharing the booth with my glass blowing friend MJ. So if you're looking for handmade Christmas gifts pop into either place and I'm sure you'll find plenty of beautiful gift possibilities!

And - here are some recent creations to whet your appetite ....

Random II Bracelet



Purple Melon Earrings


Pink Peppermint Earrings

And some recent pretties I've made ...

Earrings in both my Etsy and Artfire shops ...

A dog's life ...

As I sit at my computer editing picture files I notice my little Westie, Max, snoozing across the living room in one of our chairs. He's a very relaxed little dog! I just had to get a picture of him as he snoozed - except he woke up as I turned on the camera - surprise!

Rain, Thunder and Lightning Oh MY!

We had a wonderful day filled with rain, thunder and lightning. This is a rare occurence in San Diego so I loved it! It was a new experience for our Westie Max (he joined us in February) so he had to run outside and bark at the thunder everytime he heard it - LOL! They both got haircuts last weekend - aren't they cute?



And here is Max up close and personal and a happy Gino after chasing his bro around the yard ...



And here's the rainbow that showed up after the rains finished up ...

Senior Olympics Soccer Tournament Craft Fair!

I'll be selling at the Senior Olympics Soccer Tournament again this year. I'm still too young to play but at least I'll get to hang with my teammates this way. Here are some of the gals who will be selling with me:



We'll be at Hourglass Field in Mira Mesa (just south of Miramar College). Park in the Miramar College parking lot. We'll probably be there from 9-4 - but the schedule may change once the games schedule is known. Here's a mapquest link if you need it: Hourglass Field. Hope to see some of you there!

Here are some of my latest creations that you can see in person at the craft fair!

Published!

My California Girl bracelet is now published in the August edition of the Bead Trends magazine. This sterling silver charm bracelet is filled with colorful lampwork beads, flip flops and sunglasses charms. This bracelet is for sale in my cserpentDesigns Etsy shop.

Tube beads!

My brown Ghana tube bead bracelet with yellow opals was one of the designs featured in this beadingtimes.com article on using tube beads.

Rhinestone Cowboy!

Ok - sorry - no cowboys here - but I can't help think of that song when I talk about rhinestones - LOL! A friend asked me to make some earrings to go with a rhinestone necklace she bought. I had never done anything with rhinestones so, of course, I had to dive into it with both feet! I now have a LOT of rhinestones and settings so I'll be doing more with rhinestones. She need hers done in brass so that's what I'll be using for all my new designs. Here is the final creation




It involved 22 soldered components, oxidized the whole thing, set all the stones and - voila - earrings!

Haircut Day!

Since my normal groomer (mom) had hand surgery I had our neighborhood mobile groomer come by and give the doggies a haircut. Max sure looks good but I didn't recognize Gino - LOL! I asked for a Schnauzer cut, didn't realize he would be sheared! Good thing hair grows back - we want him back to his fuzzy, snuggly self as soon as possible.

Before:


After:

Time flies!

Wow - where did May go?? And now we're well into June. Here are some recent earrings I finished up. My goal right now is to finish up all the partial projects I started so I can clear more items off my bead table. We'll see how successful I am - since new things always send me off in another design direction ...

May Gray!

I'm enjoying our May gray weather here in San Diego. We'll have an unlimited supply of hot and sunny weather soon enough so while we're cool and cloudy I'm going to enjoy it! Here's a necklace to honor the weather:



A beautiful combination of handmade, twisted and etched lampwork beads and silver needle agate.

And now - some more new things that I listed in my Etsy shop.


A copper necklace with a substantial snakeskin jasper pendant and a luscious tan, coin pearl necklace in gold.

Enjoy!

New creations ...

So I have a LOT of designs to list after the craft fair and the listing has begun! Here are just a few of them:

A fun and colorful bracelet in purple, yellow, turquoise and some summery aqua art deco style earrings


A fun, purple wrap bracelet with gorgeous furnace glass and a chocolate lover's delight bracelet


You can find all my jewelry designs in my Etsy shop

Encinitas Street Fair

As some of you know a glass blowing friend of mine (GlassByMJ) and I (cserpentDesigns jewelry) shared a booth at the Encinitas Street Fair. Here is our booth.



This was not a successful street fair for either of us. From what we could tell folks were buying pet things (the guy selling dog hats behind us seemed to have a lot of customers and we saw many a bag with dog prints in the hands of people), people hats (the gal behind us selling hats did OK - but not great) and food. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it seemed that folks were out to walk and eat and not so much to shop.

I did see one issue with our setup - we didn't have sides on the canopy so it was hard to see our items with all the hats and things behind us. If we do another show we'll be sure to put some sheets up in order to block any distractions behind or beside us. Our setup needs some tweaking too - so we'll do a prelim setup (with 2 6 foot tables next time instead of just one) and get some critiquing from friends/family.

How I store my beads - part 2!

I posted a while back on how I was storing my beads. It involved Darice bead boxes and file boxes to store them. Here was a picture:



Behind those boxes is a bookcase and a closet! Needless to say I couldn't get to the bookcase easily and I could really only get to one side of the closet. Earlier this year I saw some bookcases for sale on Craig's list for a good price and they had a nice interesting design so I bought them and hauled them back home. Thank goodness for my SUV! They slid right in and a bungee kept the hatch down. Here they are after sanding and prep and before painting.



It took many coats of paint and some help from hubby to get them upstairs to my beadroom - but here they are in place and full!



I'm still reorganizing some things on the shelves and need to finish tiling glass mosaics into the insets on the doors (I have 2 insets done on the bookcase on the right - if you look REAL close!). But they sure have cleared the floor space in my bead room and the bookcase on the right has a pull down "desk" which gives me a place to package things when my desk is full - or 2 beading places when my mom comes over and wants to make something.

Ok - back to beading. I'm doing a show on April 24th (Encinitas Street Fair) so I need to build up inventory! If you'll be at the Encinitas Street Fair that Saturday be sure to look me up. I'll be near G Street.