Labor Day Weekend! Or where did the summer go?

Well, my good intentions for posting every week just flew by and now the end of summer is here and I'm finally posting again. It's at least been a very busy and successful summer. We have at least 1 more, possibly 2 more days at the Waldport Wednesday Market. Really a fun market with lots of vendors and lots of customers, so a win, win in my book.  This past week I was there all by myself, Becky had a little vacation visiting her granddaughter in Utah. Couldn't have done it without Roger's help and a little moral support from my friends, Elsie and Dee.

I featured jewelry this week and so displayed some nice pieces with my little windblown mermaid up front.

After selling this suncatcher design last time with a hummingbird, I tried the same concept with a butterfly, dragonfly and fairy on board.

Also, tried my hand at some iridescent ornaments with a seashore theme.

And my Vintage Velma dolls are still quite popular. Here we have Bubbles the Clown, and Mollie LeCroix.

This is Izziana a cool Mayan cat who wouldn't stop spinning for the camera.

And my newest creation, Ms. Elnora Pigwidgeon, and I see Izziana peeking over her shoulder back there.

Market Day!

My friend Becky and I are once again sharing a booth for the summer farmer's market. This time we're at the Waldport Wednesday Market in Waldport, Oregon. Reedsport's market seems to have folded for the time being, but we'll keep watch to see if they'll make a comeback. Gotta say though, Waldport market is FUN! FUN! FUN! and a hopping place! This week was week 6 and our 4th time to market. Now, that we've got the routine down, I'm going to try and post something every week about the market and hopefully anything new I've created.

Here is an overview of our booth. Becky focuses on Hummingbird Feeders, Suncatchers and Sea Glass jewelry while my focus is on Suncatchers using beads, wire and driftwood, beaded jewelry, and fabric wrapped rope baskets.

New, this week are this pink dragonfly suncatcher,

A small, blue beaded octopus wrapped around a piece of driftwood. 

And this heavily beaded ocean scene with dolphins, seahorses, shells, starfish and a tiny little hermit crab to cap it off.

I've had this resin mermaid for a few weeks. This is my first try with resin and bits of sea glass. Not bad for a first go. 

And here is Jerry's (Becky's husband) first try at a fancy birdhouse. His attention to detail is wonderful and I hope he does some more. 

Also, a shout out to my little purple hermit crab sitting out front greeting our customers. 

I Heart Pins!

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of the things I love to do is go through jars of broken jewelry and create something new from all the treasure bits. These little heart pins start with a denim heart cut from old jeans. Glue on some coordinating bits of broken jewelry and charms and you have a cute new bauble.

These are all tagged up and ready for the next craft bazaar I go to. Probably not til summer, but it's nice to be ready.

Vintage Velma

The past week has been a lovely journey through all my treasure jars finding little gems for Vintage Velma dolls. I created 5 this week for my summer market inventory. If I can keep my friends from snapping them up!

First up, Flora DeLee. 

She's a happy little mermaid who travels along the coral reefs of the Pacific Ocean looking for blooming coral to add to her extensive collection, which she keeps in her hat. 

This is Graciela DeVille, Cruella's kinder sister, who spends her days thwarting sinister animal abusers and making sure her sister doesn't get hold of any puppies.

Let me introduce you to Minnie the Mayfly. She's a bluesy barfly who buzzes around the nightclubs of  New Orleans singing the blues and dancing with fireflies. 

Miss Kitty is a southwestern cowkitty who keeps villains and outlaws at bay with her cute kitty whiskers and mighty paws of steel.

And Pearlie Mae a mermaid with a purpose. She swims along the bottom of the ocean cunningly coaxing oysters to give up their treasure in exchange for one of her curly locks.

Chunky Chic!

I love, love, love chunky bracelets and what better way to use up some big chain links gleaned from my broken jewelry treasure jars. I've also been collecting some chunky beads over the last year or so as part of my suncatcher obsession and decided to put the 2 together to make some chunky chic bracelets to add to my inventory for the summer craft shows.

Most of the large chain comes from old necklaces found in my treasure hunting, but this last one I actually had to make the links from copper wire because I couldn't find a good chunky chain in copper. They were actually kind of fun to make.

Watercolor Paper Cuff Bracelets

I found this tutorial on Pinterest to make these beautiful cuff bracelets. Very easy to follow and each one comes out a little different.

This one uses Twinkling H2Os for the color and silver (anodized copper) 16 gauge wire. The twinks tend to blur together a little more than I like, but it still came out pretty.

Another one with twinks and silver wire.

This red one uses Distress Paints on watercolor paper. I like the vibrancy and that the paints stay a little more separated. Less mud. Again silver wire.

This one uses Brusho powdered watercolor and makes a nice vibrant background. It gets a little more muddles when the varnish is put on, but essentially keeps the color integrity. I used straight copper wire for this one. Love the teal and copper combo. I mostly use handmade paper for the backs of these, but I'm toying with the idea of coloring the back of the watercolor paper with a coordinating color and skipping the whole backing process.

Majestic Waves

The weather report the last couple of days said that there would be 20 foot swells off the coast, so we loaded up a picnic lunch and headed for Shore Acres Botanical Garden out at Cape Arago and got to see a wonderful show yesterday. I've never seen anything like these huge waves crashing against the rocks and cliff. Sunset Bay just below was even hosting about 20 surfers catching 6-10 foot swells.