Great Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. James cooked a turkey and I made dressing by my mom's recipe which is really unhealthy but super delicious. James' mom brought over some great sides. I set the table with a sort of winter flower theme. I know I am a total dork about it. I enjoy setting the table for my mother-in-law's visits because she is the one who first inspired me to do it! She always sets a pretty table.

Anyway, all the food came out great and we totally stuffed ourselves and then tried to watch a movie but all ended up snoozing around the living room. It was pretty funny. My parents dropped in later in the afternoon and stayed late to play another round of 42. They won this time. It's a rivalry.

Otherwise I have been totally enjoying holing up at home on this long cold weekend. It has been really restful. I have been organizing things. I organized my "favorites" on my computer Thursday night - my list was getting unweildy. And today, I sorted out my vintage chains. It was fun!

I did take a drive out to the book store yesterday to get some maps and books for our road trip! We sat down last night and mapped it out. We are going to see Monument Valley, go to Vegas for two days, spend New Year's Eve with my sister in Colorado, spend two days with our friends Adam and Victoria in a cabin, sleep at a Wig Wam hotel, see Hoover Dam, etc. James is making a road trip mix on the Ipod. I am getting so excited!

Alchemy in Richmond, Virginia

Alchemy is an eco shop in Richmond Virginia. Amy McFadden, the owner, is a tattoo artist who had some extra retail space. Since she is interested in eco-friendly and socially conscous products she decided to open a shop to carry those type of products. She has gathered a great collection of products that are either made from recycled or organic materials. So, Ornamental Things' jewelry was a perfect fit for her shop. We met this summer when she contacted me through my website. I have enjoyed getting to know Amy and hearing about the development of her store. She has a great enthusiasm socially conscous living and it shows in her collection! She just sent me some pictures of the store.

Stitch Follow Up

I had so much fun at Stitch on Saturday! The music was great, the fashion show was the best yet and I got to see so many friends. The two grant winners were Chia and House of Dang - both incredibly deserving and talented.

I was happy with the way my booth came out. This year, instead of doing a table across the front, I made it a walk in so I was able to space out my work a little more. I debuted my shiny new banner with my logo on it. I also enjoyed seeing all my friend's booths. I love the creativity that goes into setting up a tiny, temporary shop. There are pictures on flickr.

Met lots of new folks including my fun and adorable neighbor, Nicole of Queen Puff Puff and her husband, Vince. Her purses and headbands are so cute! They were visiting from San Francisco. I enjoyed getting to talk to her all night and hope to meet up with her at other shows in the future!

Julie was a huge help to me in my booth which was mobbed! There were so many people in it that sometimes it was hard to get in and out. I couldn't believe it! We sold a lot of jewelry so the website will be looking a little sparse now. Don't worry though, I will get busy and make more stuff. One customer in my booth was the Austin store, Adelante, so you can now find my jewelry there!

I was so worn out that I just rested all day on Sunday. My parents were here so we had lunch at Hills Cafe and played 42 (a domino game). James and I won this round, woot woot! Today I am feeling energized and ready to get back into the studio and work!

Thanks to anyone reading this who came by my booth. It was lovely to meet so many new friends and get such amazing feedback on my work. I have posted pictures from Stitch on flickr. My only regret is that I didn't take more!

It's time for Stitch!

This is an exciting week because it's the countdown to Stitch which is happening at the Austin Convention Center this Saturday! It is going to be bigger and better than ever. You can check out www.StitchAustin.com for info and tickets. Did I mention there is a raffle? Here is what I submitted and you can bet that there is going to be tons of other great stuff up for raffle.



Also I am happy to have just added some new earring design to my site. My favorite out of this bunch are the golden lanterns as seen in the top picture. They're quite lovely on!

I will be spending this week doing last minute preparations for my first show of the season. I have got a bunch of new rings that will probably make their debut at Stitch. Hope to see you there!

Screen Printing Project

This one goes out to Kathy McTee! I finally got around to printing James' t-shirt last week. I was really pleased with the outcome. I tried it on several different colors of t-shirts and liked the black on olive best. I also printed some of my botanical screens onto shopping bags, paper and fabric. One one of them, I did a collage. I hope to add other stuff to the paper shopping bags, like make them more collage-y so that I can use them for gift bags in the future. They are paper bags from different stores - it's a form of recycling, I guess.



I definitely learned a few things like that you can only print a few times before a screen starts getting blurry - or maybe that's my inexperience. I also figured out the hard way that you need to print onto a flat surface. It was a fun project! Maybe I will use the botanical screens on some t-shirts for myself soon!