Guncle time part three

antiques/junking, cottage, dogs, family, guncles, Hand painted, vintage paper/collage art
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Besides lots of good food and wine, how was the guncles visit?   Never long enough, for one thing.  We hit the jackpot on junking trips, one full day at Sparks Flea Mkt, two garage sale mornings, and one afternoon estate sale.

This window is from the flea.  I bought it for resale, but, uhm, oops, it somehow got hung in my hearth room.

Molly might not look like she approves, but she is just typically scared of getting her photo taken.  Or maybe she is upset about warning the guys that they shouldn’t be hanging it up, it should go into the inventory stash in the garage?  Oh well, if even the guard dog can’t stop the process, I guess that window belongs there.

Fate.  Beautiful, colorful, fate.  Isn’t that stained glass  ideal there!?

Time flew by, with all the shopping, cooking, eating, laughing, and lots of small chores the guys helped Rich with since I cannot use my right arm for much as it recovers from surgery. (Like hanging my spectacular, new window!)

Randy and I were left with limited time in the studio.  He worked on his handmade cards, and I also made a few, along with some door prizes for my upcoming class reunion.  These hand painted bookmarks will be packaged up with jewelry I am crafting, to make three gifts.

All of us found treasures in Sparks, and I’m hoping this becomes a tradition, and the guncles come back next season too.

Randy made friends there, as always.

Sadly, the cards I made during studio time were not happy ones.  Recently, too many people I care about have lost loved ones.  So I was creating sympathy cards to get into the mail.

There were also many quick trips to the hardware or grocery stores.  While on one run, I snagged Kansas sunflowers for the table for Kevin’s birthday dinner.  I looked everywhere for a cut flower bouquet, but ending up buying a pot full.

The plant has already started to bloom again, and will be a summer-long reminder of the lovely time we had together.  I miss you, guncles!

Part two of celebration week- a chicken party for me

Food and Drink, Hens, We're having a party
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Randy and I got some studio time in on my birthday.  Even with him being here ten days, we got remarkably little time to craft.  We might have spent most of our time garage sailing and eating fancy meals.
Which isn’t bad, huh?

The day began with facials.

And then the guncles surprised me with chicken hats.  I told them all I wanted for my birthday was a chicken party, with dressed up hens catching live bait fish from a bowl.  Some in our household were doubtful, but all got on board, we laughed our butts off at the  silly birds chasing each other to steal fish away from the fowl brave enough to grab them from the bowl of water.

I claimed the pink hat for my own, and tried a couple on some of the gals.  They didn’t seem to think it was as good of an idea as I did, so we let them go fishing without their cute bonnets.

Our two, tiny leghorns (both named Foghorn Leghorn, or Foggy) were the best feathered fishermen.

The three barred rock (all named Cruella Deville) weren’t bad either.  All of the black and orange girls (Hocus Pocus) didn’t even try, they stole wriggling fish from the beaks of the ones who caught them.  A few red hens (15 Ariels) weren’t bad at fishing, but mostly ran off with someone else’s catch.
They were hilarious to watch.

After that, I tried the hats on the rest of the party.

These girls weren’t fans either.  But looked adorable trying.

Honey’s fell right off, but her heart shaped freckle is cute enough, she doesn’t need a hat to look great.

Since no one wanted to wear the hats, we gave them to the chicken figurines to decorate our dinner table and then enjoyed a white wine pairing dinner.

Kevin’s red wine party began the week and my mirrored dinner with whites was at the end.  Lovely bookends for a delightful week with our bros.

A birthday party week part one- Guncle Kevin

guncles
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We had a festive week with the Guncles, celebrating two birthdays.

First was Kevin’s and we hosted a red wine pairing dinner.

Starting with a charcuterie board and La Crema.  I do not drink red, but tasted them all, and this one had a nice, creamy feel, like its name.

I baked Brie in puff pastry with herbs, walnuts, and fig jam.

Randy set the table in a fancy farm house style, with a mix of rustic and elegant.
Plus chickens.

Second course was pistachio, zucchini, brioche, and spinach stuffed portabellas.

The wine was a South American Malbec and I would’ve have remembered it without this photo because it just wasn’t memorable.  Okay, but no one’s fave.  We liked the mushrooms, though!

I didn’t get a pic of the third and best wine, Caymus.   We had it with grilled tuna and lemon pepper asparagus.  Randy bought Kevin’s favorite coconut pie for dessert.

The night was special, the company was the best.  We should make this an annual tradition.

A quick, and very much enjoyed jaunt to Juju

Good JuJu
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My arm is still not released for working during the Good Juju sales yet, but I’m slowly getting less exhausted and feeling better.  So I took the guncles there with me for a couple of hours where they could shop and I could help out as much as I was able.

But a small twist was thrown into our plans when Beth texted to let me know I’d sold a dresser.   We found a replacement for it in my garage stockpile, cleaned it up, and hauled it in.   The guys were fantastic to have around as helpers, I really needed their assistance with this.

The piece I brought in was an exact fit for the space that was left bare, so it quickly slid into the spot, and I did a quick reshuffle of goods.  A table had sold while we were on our way there, and another sold while I was working.  It was a busy furniture day for me, and I usually just sell smalls.

These purchases were very, very unexpected.

After the booth was fooled up I got to spend some happy time visiting my buds at juju, and talking with, helping customers.

It was a great day!  And if you want to go see all the fun people there, it’s open today too.

Some jewels for Juju

jewelry
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I’m off to my favorite flea mkt today with my favorite guncles.  But first I wanted to show you some of the jewelry displays for this weekend’s sale at Good Juju.  I’ll have pics of the rest of my goods later  wish me luck today!  I want to fill my truck.

A garage sale violin I couldn’t wait to start mosaics on, here is the start of the project

antiques/junking, flowers, friends, jewelry, Music
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Garage sales haven’t been prolific so far this spring, but what I’ve picked up has made up for the quantity in kick ass quality.

Like this vintage violin with inlaid mother of pearl flowers!

Just in case I’d hit the jackpot (don’t we always have that lingering hope when out junking?) I popped into a music store that specializes in string instruments to be sure it was “craft quality.”  I was reassured that it was old and beautiful, but in need of too much repair to be marketable, so I began digging through my jewelry supplies to find any shell, mother of pearl, or abalone bead that I had.

Our mosaic club now meets 3 days a week, and I drop by when I can and often bring other crafts, or just inventory that needs tagging to hang out and visit friends.   But I rarely do any glasswork.  I just like the company.  The group is varied, people come when they can, we could have two, or fifteen there.

At first, I thought I might collage the instrument, but realized it was an ideal candidate for some gluing and grouting instead. I covered the neck  with tiny, textured black tiles, then placed my shell pieces into flower blossoms onto it.

 Next was the tricky part, I cut those green leaves myself!

 I’m not much of a glass cutter.  Actually, I’m not at all.   The great thing about our mosaic club is that there are shelves and shelves, generously overflowing with precut, tiny squares of glass available in any color, sorted and ready to work with.  Wow, huh? What a treasure chest!

Makes me wonder why I do not create more, since the hard part is done.   And my pal, Shan is a professional glass artist, she offers to cut anything I need, I just do not want to take advantage of her.

Not only is there precut squares of glass to use (like the white ones I’ve started to apply).  There are containers of scrap glass.  That’s where I found the shades of green to make leaves that coordinate with the abalone leaves I’d added in the center.

The plan is to add a few more green vines, then fill in the background with the iridescent  white squares.  In tight spots, I’ll have to snip some of  those in half to make slivers or triangles to fill in better.  Then, I’ll grout it all in either dark gray or black.  The sides will be decopauged with sheet music, and I’ll leave the back as is, it has a lovely inlaid wood design on it.  The back is so pretty that I should probably display the finished piece on a stand instead of hanging on the wall, so people can see the inlay.

Hmmm…… looking at these photos, makes me want to pull off the squares around the scrolly holes and line the edges of it with tiny pearls first.  Then do white squares around that as I  fill in the background.  What do you think? Ooh, or itty bitty, shiny black beads not pearls?

Ephemera flags

antiques/junking, holiday decor
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These are different for me.  And not the typical, traditional style flags you’d expect.  My interpretation includes velvet ribbon, rhinestones, and a vintage brooch.

Or vintage wallpaper with millinery posies.
And of course, lace!

They’re displayed in a whole red, white, and blue zone, also different for me.

I added some of my quilty creations and genuine stone bracelets so the grouping still has my vibe.

The flags dangle from a candelabra topped with baseballs instead of candles.

And look at these cuties- what a find!  WWII Cockade rosettes from Japan made for sweethearts and mamas to wear in support of their loved ones.

But wait, the Japanese made patriotic pins for the USA during a war we fought with them?  I’m confused.

If you have any explanations, I’d love to hear them.

A class with Jen

friends, paintings
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During my shoulder recovery days, I’d planned to use my down time productively.  I was going to take advantage of having less responsibilities at Good Juju to see more movies, go shopping, visit friends, and experiment with loosening up my painting style.  Maybe trying to add an element of abstract into my work by learning to paint left handed.

Well, I’m glad I signed up for a class my friend was teaching at the Mulvane museum in Topeka because I needed that incentive to give that last to do item a go.  Because my weeks off weren’t as free and open as I’d dreamed they would be.  Instead of having nothing but time on my hands, I felt like crap, and my healing period was needed for healing.

dur

It was mostly spent watching 15 seasons of ER while dozing in a recliner.

Since I wasn’t feeling as chipper or motivated as I thought I’d be, I wasn’t doing much at all.  If I hadn’t signed up with a buddy and paid in advance, I wouldn’t have gone to that workshop  and had such a nice day, learning about my friend’s art process, and attempting to smear some paint around with my good arm while using a couple of her techniques.

Jen’s work is inspiring and each canvas is full of surprises.  It’s far away from my own territory when I paint, but her ideas were just what I needed to loosen up my own illustrative style and try to be more painterly.

Also, my recuperation scheme of learning new skills and enjoying myself wasn’t playing out as I’d hoped.   This class was a welcome nudge to get me out of my recliner and be  creative while mingling with friends.

I have tried to get something around the house or studio done each day, and at the beginning my tasks were simple.  As the weeks have progressed, I’ve been adding more activities daily, plus trying to walk 10,000 steps, weather permitting.  I also am working on my booth at Juju more than I’d expected.

Originally, friends and coworkers were going to redo my space each month for me.  But after arranging furniture in advance, into mostly shelving that was easily filled, I did not require friends to pop tagged items into empty spots for me, I could handle it one armed.

The dealers are all pitching in during sales to do my job, but I have surprised myself by being able to refill the booth between events with minimal help, mostly from Rich.  So quite a bit of my allotted “free time” hasn’t been as free as I’d expected.  This two hours of painting has been the entirety of my time with brushes.

But as the doctors tell me, this is a long, slow rebuild and I can’t be impatient with it.  There is a long stretch of time ahead of me, maybe I’ll still do more creative things from my plans.

Spring flower colored bracelets

jewelry
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My sling is off!  While it will be quite a bit til my arm and shoulder are moving comfortably, my hand is back in business.

When I opened my bead bins, my eyes went directly to the colors of spring.  Flowers peeping up from the ground are the inspiration for this pile of bracelets.

I’m not supposed to do any big movements, like using my arm to paint a mural.  But painting small canvases or making jewelry is encouraged.  

I don’t need much encouragement either.

After weeks of inactivity, I am missing my life and being creative.

On the other hand, it surprised me that I accepted my convalescence period so well.  I was not as resentful of my downtime as I expected to be.  I actually needed and welcomed those weeks to rest.

Even now as I am feeling better and doing more, I’m still taking things slow and my drive to be doing, doing, doing, is more of a trickle of energy than a raging river of it.  Well that metaphor might be twisted, but you know what I mean.

I’m glad to be recovering, and am trying to do a small project each day.  Instead of a week’s worth in one day like I usually do.

Spring tulips and the Easter weekend sale at Good Juju

flowers, holiday decor
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Aren’t these tulips so springy and bright?  They have such a realistic look, everyone is surprised to find they are fakes.  My friend, Mindy, had some excess inventory and offered them to a few of the dealers at Juju the other day while we were all working there.  There were a LOT of blooms.  I have plenty to plenty to use around my space, plus took these home.

This year, due to my surgery, I haven’t set out any Easter decor around the cottage, or even anything spring themed.  I was happy to have these.

I do have holiday goods at the antique mall.

For the March sale, I crafted quite a bit of bunnies and eggs, plus had a couple boxes of vintage too.  After the sale, it didn’t look like anything was missing.  But when I went through sales receipts I was surprised to see just how many bunnies had hopped away with customers.

In retail, you need to be a few skips ahead, so March was the time to sell Easter goods.  And our First Friday sale this week is actually the holiday weekend, so those who needed decor items, most likely already got them. And their minds were turning to all the things they had to pack away, instead of planning new arrangements.

Being smart, I’d have packed my own wares away and used the real estate space for another box of stuff to sell.   But I was enjoying the festiveness and let it stay.

Sometimes my displays are more about entertaining myself than good business practices.

Oops, did I admit that out loud?

Heck, I guess a lot of what I do at Good Juju is to make myself happy.

One of the reasons that I moved into a larger booth was to indulge my design and display dreams.

Im not really missing having my home all Eastered up, since I got to indulge myself at the store.  Now, of course I do hope that shoppers will be attracted to the goods and choose a few for themselves, but I know the odds are lower this month.

And I’m still happy to be doing it.   I hope you’re enjoying your holiday too, in whatever way you do it.  We will have a quiet day, just Rich, the dogs and myself, along with that joyful bundle of fake tulips.  Maybe a walk in the woods? Probably some physical therapy exercises for my arm too.

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