Spring Fling…

Tutti Fruitti

 I am busy getting prepared for my upcoming Spring Fling at Trends and Traditions, a local shop that carries my jewelry and a ton of really fabulous stuff.  Another artist and I are doing the event together next Saturday, April 30th and I am really excited to debut lots of new jewelry!  I love events like this with great music, fun snacks and lots of interaction with people.

Gaye of Bag Lady Originals makes fabulous painted silk scarves in wonderful bright, bold patterns.  The color blocking she does is so very current in fashion right now.  She and I are combining to create a day to really promote accessorizing – how it’s not only about clothes, but how you bring it all together with accessories that really makes you stand out.

Trends and Traditions is a happy place for me.  There is a lot of unique, wonderful stuff there that fits right in with my philosophy of fashion – it should be FUN and FABULOUS!

Tutti Fruitti Earrings

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Flower Girl…

photo from perfectgardeningtips.com

I get to have the most fun for the next 6 weeks!  A friend of mine owns Marinette Farm and Garden, a local Feed & Seed (and everything else) store, and they always put up a garden hut in the Spring.  Hearing I was laid off, she contacted me and asked if I would be willing to help in the garden hut primping the flowers and plants, planting planters and hanging baskets, and helping customers.

Does it get any better than this?!!

I have missed my gardens so much since my house had to be sold in the divorce.  I had worked for years to create those gardens, and to me they were like my canvases.  Leaving them behind tore a piece of my heart out…well, what was left of it, anyway.  I mourned the loss of my gardens, and since I now live in a rental duplex, I couldn’t start another.  I stopped looking at gardening catalogs and thought I needed to stay away from that part of my past.  Last year, however, my Dad tilled a portion of earth up outside and I stuffed it full of perennials.  After 3 years, I was gardening again, albeit on a much smaller scale.

And now this.  I think it’s really ironic that God is giving me back my gardening passion in this way.  Even though I don’t have large gardens of my own, I get to help other people make their gardens and homes more beautiful.  All of the knowledge and skills I learned over the years can now be put to good use.  Connie, the owner, has started calling me “Flower Girl.”

I get to dig in the dirt, play with plants and talk with people…”these are a few of my favorite things…”

What Do You Know, I’m an Artist!

Artist In Residence, Old Church Gallery

I don’t know why being called an artist always surprises me, or makes me feel all funny inside.  Does it sound pretentious?  Is it wishful thinking?  I don’t know exactly, but it still gives me a thrill and yet makes me feel like a phony at the same time! 

This past weekend my good friend Karen and I were the Artists in Residence for The Old Church Gallery in Cedar River, Michigan.  We brought our respective work and spent the day there, meeting the customers and having a ball together.  Karen Brabender and I have been friends since grade school, and we are each other’s inspiration for artwork in a lot of ways.  Karen does gorgeous mosaic glass paintings under the business name Re-Creations Mosaics.  She takes a lot of old windows and does mosaic work on the glass.  Anyway, the day was a great success and they have already asked us to do it again next year, and they are going to be having a lot more artists come in also.  People seemed really excited to see us working on our things right in front of them. 

I love the contact with people – I have always been very outgoing and I love to socialize, so these kinds of events are something I really enjoy.  I hadn’t had enough beading time lately, so it was nice to get back to designing and creating jewelry.  I have been so busy with other things that I have been neglecting my creative side – my internal artist – and that has to change.  That artist inside is important and I need to let her out to play more.

 

Cedar River Gallery with sign