So sweet......

We really had a great vacation - lots of sweet moments with my family.

I have a few shots taken at one of my favorite places to eat in OC - Catch 54. Good food, GREAT atmosphere.

I took these photos inside and outside the restaurant.

Before going out we took a RARE family photo....

And my daughter snapped an even rare photo of me alone.

On our way out of town we stopped at the Fenwick lighthouse. I snapped a few quick photos and then had some editing fun. :)

Love this 'aged' look!

Inside:

We'll be back to regular chatter soon!!

Heat and Sand.....

that has been the story of my life the past week.
(click on pics to enlarge)

heat
(lots of it)

and

sand

and more heat
(loads of it!!!!)

and

sun and fun

and some water thrown in. :)

and a strange lizard.....

I'm back in town, to check in at work for two days - and then its back 'downeeoshun'.

yay! :)

That's all for now folks!

A mad dash into September

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I haven't posted to the blog since the 3rd!


Whoa.

It almost feels as if I dropped off the face of the internet. Almost. I've been on, just not blogging.

I went out of town for a couple of days - up to the MD/PA line - and back and forth from PA to MD to PA to MD while visiting my brand spankin' new baby cousin! Wyatt made his grand entrance into the world at the end of August and Marci and Don opened up their home on September 5th to celebrate!


Little Wyatt is A.Maz.ING.



Truly.



I am greatly anticipating watching this little guy grow. :)

We stayed in a little hotel just on the MD side of the line and enjoyed some hiking and swimming and had a really good time as you can see.

We took out a rowboat. That's HARD WORK! Who knew?

Not me. But it was fun.

We only had enough time for a VERY SHORT hike, but enjoyed messing around as usual. ;-)


Here is Sam flexing some super muscles.



Poor tree. ;-)


Then I had a whirlwind of a time getting ready for my first ever show.

Yea, I know, I'm slow.




Its been a very long journey. But its been fun! I really really enjoy metalsmithing and I don't ever want to lost that joy.

However, when I heard (on Twitter of all places) about a new market taking place in September, I decided to check it out. The price was super low since its brand new I guess. And it was close to home so I decided to go for it.

Here is a pic of my tiny table.



Next came the hard part - cleaning all of my work and making new pieces to fill a booth! As it turned out I only took one table and I ended up with a nice amount to fill it.
A BUNCH of bangles and cuffs. I love love love how these turned out! They are weighty (most of them except the 'skinny bangles'...) and feel GREAT on.







I like that they can have phrases, meaningful to the wearer.

I also love that I can use all different kinds of textures.






Unfortunately they are kind of dirty in these photos. Consequence of handling them and packing and unpacking (photos taken after the show).






Next we have some earrings....








all metal and again all textured and stamped.









These are similar to a pair I made not long ago - I made a couple pairs for the show












Simple hammered hoops. :)

My favorite pair found a new home and I will need to make more of those. I want a pair and I think someone else wanted a pair. I can't wait to make those!



Then I just had to make something for myself. So I made this little tension set ring - sterling and amethyst. :)

I have worn it ever since.










So that has been my two weeks. I am just now getting back to 'normal'. As normal as things can get around here. LG started third grade and so we are adjusting to all the new schedules and responsibilities. He is growing up so fast. Where does the time go???? Tonight is back to school night, so I really must run.

Oh and if anyone knows of a supplier for small shamrock charms, an aquaintance is making bracelets for a charity fund raiser, strung beads, etc and needs shamrock charms - small - about 8mm. I told her I'd ask around. So if you know of a place, let me know please!

Have a great day all!

~Janice

Back to reality and LOTS of photos. :)

PEACE MAN.

Haaaaalllllloooooooooooooooooo! I'm back. :)

Which has its ups and downs for sure. Good to be back, but ya know.....vaca was really good too!

I popped into the blog from the front end and surprised myself with the colors! lol. I almost forgot I had changed it before I left! Too funny.

We had a GREAT time and I didn't 'over-sun' myself. Thankfully one of the benefits of aging is some wisdom. Not that I always call upon it or heed it, but I can definitely SEE it - the older I get, the wiser I become.

I started this post two days ago so I don't know how it will come up, should be interesting.

The beach was FABULOUS! The temp was amazingly mild. The water was warm-ish....and the waves were just right!

We had some great rainstorms but they were all at night with the exception of one. !YAY! On that day we went to see G-Force, very cute movie.

I did a lot of reading and relaxing, went through 3 books the first few days, unfortunately I didn't get much reading after that, but still lots of relaxing and enjoyment.

LG did a lot of this...paddling out, riding waves back in....

We swam a lot, sunned a lot, laughed a lot, and just generally had a good time.

After a week, I drove back up to home to pick up my daughter and take her back down (almost 3 hours each way) and then I drove BACK up Sunday night to work a couple of days and drove BACK down Tuesday night (my birthday!).

We also ordered food in a few times, as much as I LOVE to cook, this was great as we were on the go a lot. This is the largest pizza I've personally ever seen - from Captains (138th street?) - they do a 28" pizza. In my mind I thought, ok, BIG, good, we'll have leftovers. When I went to pick it up, I am sure my expression was priceless. Someone else had to open the door for me to get it through and then I had a devil of a time getting it in my car! I was going to just slide it in the trunk, but the car I took was FULL of beach chairs and boogey boards. No go. So I tilted it precariously on its side and managed to get it through the back door of the car. Too funny. The boys were shocked.

In addition to lounging on the beach or poolside, we went to the Boardwalk one night so LG and his friend could go on some rides and play in the arcade and we went to Thunder Lagoon waterpark twice.

We also went out to dinner at a fabulous little restaurant we found last year called Catch 54. All in all it was a GREAT two weeks.

Here are my two kiddos at the restaurant. The one from Catch 54 last year is my profile pic on Favebook. :) Aren't they too cute?

Random Beach photos:

He LOVES the water. I know he didn't want to leave. But return to the real world we must. :)

I did make one ring and two pairs of earrings on my little trip back up here for work. Will show pictures later or tomorrow. :)

Hope everyone is doing well - I've been trying to keep up on blogs while I was there (the library at 100th street is FAB-O!) and on my excursions back home - so I see a lot of you have new exciting things going on, I wish I could have commented on everything, but time was tight! Hope to catch up with you all soon.

Hugs,

Janice

Friday Favorites!

Sooooooo, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow - we must ALL know that vacation is a FAVORITE thing. :) I am going to Ocean City MD - we go every year. This year we are staying 2 weeks, which is new. We always stay at the same place so its like going home. I won't stay the whole 2 weeks, I'll come back up for work for a couple of days, but then I"ll go back down - so I still get over a week of relaxation. YAY!



I was thinking of other favorites on my drive to work this morning. There wasn't anything that was really sticking out to me, sad to say. Other than a bunch of philosophical stuff. But I had in mind more tangible things when I started this weekly feature so I don't want to get all esoteric.


Hmm, faves......what is a fave of mine? Hmmmm. ok, I have one. Nothing exciting, but this DID come to mind this morning for some reason and its come to mind again so here it is...



paste flux.


I like it.


I used liquid, prips I think, when I very first learned to solder. Sprayed it on, painted it on....used it, never thought much of it til someone recommended paste. Uhh, yeaaaaaaaaa. LOVE it. :) I am not sure what brand I use - only that it comes in a big tub and I've been using it for quite a long while and its still a quarter full. And it would be more full if I didn't constantly leave the durn lid off of it. Then reconstitute, leave the lid off, reconsistute - you get the idea. There is also a lot of weird stuff floating around in there - its a quagmire really. And its a rather disconcerting shade of grey now because I got some burnt toothpick in there....yea, its delightful to look at. NOT. But it works. And works well.



I like it.


What do you use?

Paste or liquid or something else? (firescoff anyone??)


I may or may not check in while I am at the oshun. Oh, thats how you say ocean in Bawlmorese.

oh, Bawlmore? Thats how you say Baltimore if you're REALLY a Bawlteemoron -- which I'm not really...but I like the nomenclature that surrounds the city.....



Honfest anyone?


Think "Hairspray"......




Oh, and what do you think about the new colors? Yes? No? Make em go????


I wanted to lighten up a bit.....

Janice