Making a Picnic Table

I need a table for my backyard. Currently I have a great little yard, but not a great table to sit at... there's my beloved "bucket furniture" made entirely of paint buckets and round pieces of wood, but they sorta fit a tea party for 4 year olds...My dad handmade the picnic table I grew up with, so I love the idea of making my own now... Tim offered to make me one - I LOVE that idea... in the long run I think that would be spectacular (I even printed out plans for a sweet table that folds in half to make two benches - this video is a must-see! click this link to check it out)

Seems I am the only one at my house that thinks the folding table is amazing (Tony thinks its too small, Tim thinks its silly) so its back to making a simple picnic table. We thought starting with making the benches would be great, and putting an old flat door on top of a pair of saw horses makes for a fast table.

A trip to the Rebuilding Center was all I needed to get going on this project (thanx Maggie for giving me a ride in Colonel Mustard!) - I picked out a big flat door from the "dollar door" section and a whole bunch of wood to make the benches (the wood is reclaimed from someone's deck - all pre-treated for outdoor use and already seasoned and dry - I got all this wood for $20!)This is the door I picked out, its huge (and it had little wheels on the bottom which made it easy to roll out to the truck - gotta love that!) and it cost $1!
The best part was as we were driving to the Rebuilding Center, Maggie spotted an old table on the tree-lawn of a house we passed - it was free! It was just waiting for me! It needs a little TLC, but its simply awesome. I may put the door on top of the table (makes it bigger and flatter and it just seems too easy to not do) which would keep the sawhorses free to make the benches.
It already looks so happy in my backyard! Yeah for picnic tables.

Mobile of Rainbows

After some serious procrastination I have finally finished this beautiful mobile of prisms. A big thank you shout out to my friend Maggie for making this happen! Without your help I don't how I would have done this!
Here's the story - a customer of mine gave me a prism collection to make a mobile. Lots of prisms, at least a hundred I would guess (I never did count). The sheer quantity intimidated me, but the fun of all these rainbow-makers tickled my brain.
I told my friend Maggie about the project and she lit the fire under my butt to get going on the project. We got together 3 or 4 times to complete the mobile. At first it was just a matter of digesting all the little (and big!) prisms, connecting strong plastic coated steel wire to each one (fishing line degrades in UV light).
In the end I think the mobile turned out gorgeous. Its hard to take good pictures of a mobile, especially one so busy and translucent as this one... but I think I captured the process :)

I especially like the big ball prisms, they were my favorite - they are at least 2" in diameter and absolutely wonderful! If you click on the picture above (or any of the pictures) they get bigger so you can see the detail of these awesome prisms.
There were 5 prisms I picked out right from the get-go, sorta the geeks of the bunch, the odd ones that stuck out like sore thumbs. I made a small mobile out of just them :)

Earrings for Pammie

Sea glass... little pieces of colored glass that have been tumbled by the ocean and left with a satin finish and rounded shape. Who doesn't love finding sea glass on the beach!

Well these little earrings are not actual sea glass, they are handmade by me (not the ocean) and they are etched (not tumbled) but the look is scrumptious and similar.

My Aunt Pammie passed away recently (leukemia) and with her last breath the world lost an amazing woman. Sad does not cover it, my brain has been pretty confused processing her death. I wasn't sure whether I felt it was appropriate to writing this story on my blog, but I decided to share.

Nearly every time I saw Pammie we would visit the ocean, the Jersey Shore or the beaches around Santa Cruz - when Pam was at the beach she was smiling.

There was an amazing service held by her family and friends a week ago. I took with me these earrings that I made in her honor.

I seem to process things by keeping my hands busy... and I wanted to make something while I thought about how much she had meant to me.

I started with one piece of glass that looks like sea water and cut it up into tiny bits. Once fired with little wires embedded in them I put them in etching cream for a night to achieve the look of having been tumbled by the ocean. Faux beach glass. I then made little sterling silver ear wires for them (thanx Judi for hanging out with me while they oxidized and tumbled - the bubbly and strawberries were wonderful).

I think Pammie would have like them.

In all I think I made about 2 dozen pairs of sea glass earrings to take with me. All of her close female friends, her daughter, sister-in-law, and nieces - they all got to picked out a pair of earrings, I kept the last pair.

It was quite touching to see everyone wearing them out at her memorial. They were glowing in the sunlight. Makes me choke up just writing this and looking at the pictures.

Pammie I loved you
and I will never forget you.

I am inspired now to make more sea glass earrings to share in my online shop. A portion of the proceeds from their sale will be donated to Hospice of the Valley.

Weekend at the Portland Saturday Market

My weekend at the Portland Saturday Market was so beautiful, and so exhausting. :)

I love when this quartet plays for us in the morning. I tried to capture their beautiful location with the Willamette River and the Burnside Bridge as their backdrop, out in the sun on the promenade... I don't think they made as much money there as they do in front of the Skidmore fountain, but man they looked beautiful and I enjoyed their music very much.
It seems like the construction on the fountain in front of my booth is nearing completion. I eagerly look forward to being able to cool my feet in the water on hot sunny afternoons. And when all the construction is said and done, we will also finally have our PSM Stage back with local musicians to entertain our ears during the day. I can't wait.

Snacks on Commercial Flights

I was under the impression that domestic commercial flights had stopped offering complimentary beverages and pretzels. No biggy to me (although its a drag that you can't get thru security with a never-before-opened bottle of water and then are forced to purchase another bottle for $5 in the airport gift shops... but thats a whole nuther rant)
Last weekend I flew down to CA on Alaskan Airlines. It struck me that not only did we still get beverages on the flight - we got snacks too!

Pictured above is my snacks from the flight home - the "Snacks du Jour" was a tastey cracker/pretzel kinda mix. They offered free soda and whatnot (I'm a cheap date, I just like water) and they even offered complimentary beer or wine.

You got that right! Complimentary beer or wine. Yep.

Alaskan Airlines used to be well known to me for the complimentary beer/wine service. I had really thought they had stopped doing this years ago. But low and behold the service is back!! (or did it never go away?) They serve micro-brews from the Pacific NW (for my flight it was a MacTarnahans) and local wines as well - no other domestic airline has ever offered me such good free beverages - my boyfriend loves this service - but they only fly up and down the West Coast.

Oh and then after the snacks du jour we were treated to a chocolate in the form of Almond Roca.

Yeah for Alaskan Airlines. They get a thumbs up from me!!!

Mobiles in Motion

Today I am sending out a mobile to NYC for a movie production set.

It will be used in a set for a movie called "Remember Me" starring Robert Pattinson. In the movie his love interest is an artist and the mobile will be decorating her studio or where she is studying or something like that.

I also once sent a mobile to the crew that designed the set for the series "House". I don't know which show it was used in... but it was pretty exciting to get contacted for that project. I like that show, I have only watched a couple of episodes, but they were great.


Big thanx to Kathryn for making these connections happen! You rock!!

All the Little Cuts

My fingerprints take a daily beating. I don't know how glass artists prevent getting all the little tiny cuts. I don't. Combine this abuse with a black Sharpie pen (I use sharpie on glass to trace lines around stencils and clumsily turn my fingers black) and I've stains the cuts as well!

Today was just a day of cuts, I got myself with some thick paper (ouch, paper-cuts are the worst) and then somehow took off a chunk of a finger on the edge of my screen door, then a few run-ins with the sharp edges of glass. *sigh* Its amazing the way the hands heal. Thank you mother nature.