What a beautiful and full day! Started my day with the Valley Sketchers at Summerset Farms in Santa Ynez. Such a great feeling there. The birds were singing, there was a small breeze and the heat wave had finally let up a bit.

 The warm Fall colors were everywhere! A very inspiring spot! Pumpkins make great subject matter. The farm is great. There is just enough shade to be very comfortable. It was great to see all the sketchers there and some very nice work! I had some left over bristol paper from making some ATCs for Halloween, so I cut up the paper and did one of my sketches on them. It is a close up done with my Noodler flex pen (I still love the pen). I think I want to add color with some caron d'ache, but I am out of time right now.

 The Summerset Farm is so warm and inviting. I would recomend it for a great place to sketch or pick some berries.The people there are so nice! I love all the rustic touches and old farm equipment. My Dad would have had some fun.

 I did this sketch last in my moleskine. I did a quick sketch at the farm with my brown pitt pen, then colored it with Copic markers at home.

The strawberries we picked were small, but beautiful. It is so fun to be out there with my daughter and Joe, walking along picking wild lookeing berries right off the bush and eating them. It was a super special fantabulous day!!

Stuff!

 I actually was able to work in the jewelry studio (AKA my parent's garage) for 4 solid hour on Sat. Wow!! Thank you Mom, Dad and Joe for making baby so happy while I toiled away. It felt very good to get so much done. I will need to do that one or more times before the show Nov 4th. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

 It had been a real long time since I had picked up the old torch, so I was very pleased when all the bezels seemed to come together so well and so fast.

 Got all my pieces stamped and flat. Now I need to sand down and trim the bezels, make all the balls of silver and balled up wire, and make some decisions on final designs.

This one will be for me! Gotta give me some new sparklies too. Its blue Laradorite. Love the color! I have so much to do at home and at work...I am so stressed!

 It did not help my stress any to have a big utility truck cut me off and take my side mirror with him. I was very shook up, but so glad that it was just the mirror. The rest of the car is spotless. I am now in a rental. I got a little SUV Santa Fe thing. I think I am upgrading it to a BMW tomorrow. I will get pics if that is the case.

The rain has cleared and the drive home has been gorgeous. Time to take some deep breaths and recheck my to do lists to make sure I do not leave myself short when it comes to finishing these pieces of jewelry. It would be super lame if I have done all this work only to be unfinished by the deadline....ugh!! Stress stress stress!

Jewelry in Process

It's a long process with all these time and energy interruptions.

 Got my stones all sorted out into projects, templates made, pieces are designed waiting to see how they progress before I make final design decisions, some bases are cut, some bezels were formed and sized (my fingers are killing me) and I am sure I am over ambitious with my quantities. I think this is the most bezels I have hand made for a show ever and I am not quite half done shaping them. Progress is progress and I will take it where I can.


 

 The bezels are looking good so far. I sure hope I can get most of this done in time. I am now going to make some check list/ to do lists and attempt to get a time lines figured out. I will keep posting the "progress" as/if I achieve it.

A Fine September Day

What a fine morning for a sketch with the Valley Sketchers! This was my 3rd time trying to sketch this particular windmill, and it is hard! I have yet to be happy with it. Oh well, it was the best one yet. It makes me want to do the blue one next. Our group was a little smaller this time, but we had 2 new guys show up. They had some real nice work. I sure hope to see them at our next sketch meet up in October on the 15th.

I think I like it without the color better

This one of the Solvang Bakery turned out really nice, I am the most surprised about that. It looked bad up to the very last then just found itself (magic? hehe) I really like how the lettering across the front came out. I am so inspired to sketch, yet again! I want to run out there and get a few more sketches in.

 This Gellato was great! yumm! and so dang pretty too. I feel like I have been running all day! Crazy! here are the beginnings of the paper mache birds. These will be in the works for a while. I hope to get that mural/screen done in the background soon too. I just need to fill in the oak trees, work on the cows a bit, finish the back and seal it. I need it done by the 18th of October. I got a piece to make due that same day for the Art Clinic's Dia De Los Muertos show. Off to the Jewelry studio tomorrow for some intense work. I really need to start these pendants and such off big tomorrow. BIG!! I hope to be posting some big progress on that soon.

September Sketch Day!

Yay! Very relaxing sketch day! I am pretty happy with my 3 quick little sketches.


So fun to draw scenes I've known since childhood. Always so nostalgic, I love it. Still struggling with this windmill.


This sketch of the Solvang Bakery came out much better than o thought it was going to.


This one was not sized right and I struggled a bit, but I am glad I got in the storks and the neat font on the Vinhus sign. I will be on my computer tonight loading better photos and posting more info. Great day so far, but I am already sleepy.

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A Thursday "off"

A relaxing stop at the Corner House Coffee to prep for my day after dropping off my sweet and happy daughter at her day care/school.


Had another delicious breakfast bagel sandwich. I got a few lists made and some jewelry quantities figured out. The Internet was out there so I did not start any posting. Then I was off to the hardware store, home to take out all the recycling and the trash, and then finally to the studio.


On the way, I found a bit of inspiration on the side of the road. I think I found my next screen/ small mural that I will start up next year. I even picked up some paint. I hope to finish the current one by the middle of October so I can get it moved out of the studio. While at the studio I started 4 paper mâché standing birds. I was pretty out of it from noon on, so I neglected to take any photos. I will be sketching tomorrow in my sketch group the Valley Sketchers all morning, but hope to make a quick stop at the studio for a bit to work on those or my tiny notebooks. Sunday is the big day though: I will be making a big start up push for all my jewelry projects so stay tuned!!

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I Finished This

Now back to getting some jewelry produced.


Here was some of the process:








And finally finished. I like it though it is a tad plain. I cannot wait to see the other entries.


.............Jill out!


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Crazy Day :)

I hope these photos are not too fuzzy, I took them with my I Touch. I got a due date so I am off to the SB Natural History Museum and the zoo of course. An all day trip.


It was fun with baby and baby's daddy. Almost last day for seeing the butterflies. They are so pretty.


I have been too tired or stressed to work on what I need to do these last 3 or so evenings. Friday I picked up my daughter at Henry's Beach. It was the perfect evening at the beach. We ran up and down the beach until like 6 at night after she had been there all day.... Wow.


Being at the zoo till closing, you see a different behavior in the animals. The penguins were very active. The new otters and family was all over. So cute.


Now for the arduous task of getting back on task. I need to pull myself up and get myself in order a bit and get to my gosh darn desk. I mean...come on self!! Hehe. I do have work to do and there is supposed to be electricity in the air (thunderstorm s) Wish me sanity!!

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Projects

I've got a lot of work I want to do with these stones and beads. I sure hope I find the time. I so want to make some good jewelry in quantity again. It's a real balancing act, and I hope I am getting better. I need to sit down and design all these things and make a game plan soon. I would be starting today, but I need to finish my piece for the Rock Paper Scissor show first. I will be posting some progress photos on that by the end of the week (I hope). It is due Monday the 12.....ahhhh!!!

 My daughter took some awesome photos at the car show last month and they were all pretty good (she is 3!) I took this one she took of a Corvair and made it my desktop at work. Work is busy right now making me tired. Joe got these beautiful orange heirloom tomatoes we had for dinner. So yum!! and so pretty!

Here are some more beads and stones. These are the new ones I got at the Gem Faire last weekend. The large oval is a Blue Laberodite (spelling?) and might be for me...hehe. Most of the square ones will probably go on my tension bracelets. I cannot wait to get started. So dang hot here tonight! I need to sleep, but so uncomfortable. Another big work day tomorrow, at least I have taken some of the day off to pick my daughter up from day care myself. That is always a treat!

Trying to Keep My Mind on Task

It had been a while since I had lunch at Garrett's. It's good food and only a block away. I was not feeling well enough to go to the gym today.


I am glad I squeezed a sketch in while I waited for the burger and fries to cool. I might add color later.


I cannot believe how much I ate. I must be hungrier than I thought.


Quick note at work: we like to label stuff here to make things easier, here is my contribution lol.
I am getting my head pretty worked up with ideas of what I want to get done for the Queen of Arts shows (I will probably be mentioning that show a lot in the blog posts to come) I have been making lists in my head and some on paper. I have a few new jewelry designs I hope to make. I really need to look at my stock of stones before we go to Gem Faire. I hope I will find the time to do that. I hate to over purchase! I will have to post all the goodies when I get them sorted. Back to work!

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