"Swell Joolery"

Webster Definition: tom·fool·ery : playful or foolish behavior

Pronunciation: \ˌtäm-ˈfül-rē, -ˈfü-lə-\

Function: noun

Date: 1812
When I was at the Seattle Museum of Art checking out the Alexander Calder exhibit, I couldn't help but notice the display of his jewelry. In the written description of his wearable artwork there was a mention of how he called these pieces "Swell Joolery". Calder had such a fun sense of humor, this made me smile. His "Swell Joolery" is not recognized or seen as often as his large installations.
I make a lot of little earrings out of the little pieces of glass left over from the larger mobiles. Glass is precious and recyclable like this. If I have little pieces left over I can melt them down onto these tiny wires and bend little kinetic works of art. Very little, very happy, very wear-able. Indeed they are examples of playful or foolish behavior.
If you are interested in owning a pair of my tom foolery - Swell Jewelry - I just listed a small collection of them in my Etsy shop!

Snow Adventure

I went snow-shoeing with Tim today up on Mt Hood. We tried something a bit different, took the shoes up to Timberline and hiked around up there. In the past we've focused on trails down by Ski Bowl and Government Camp. Up at Timberline most of the snowshoe/cross-country ski trails headed straight down, but a nice lady at the lodge gave us the advice to head straight across the slopes to "Stormin' Norman" (one of Timberline's large ski lifts) and just keep going. It wasn't a terribly busy day on the slopes, so crossing the ski trails wasn't so bad. A little strange though. I am more accustom to following a trail and keeping out of the way of the speedy down-hill folks... this time we had to watch for them coming and run for cover! Even in the trees the occasional snow-boarder would fly thru looking for smooth un-touched powder. We managed just fine though, no close encounters! And the adventure was fun. I love Timberline and I have never been up there in the snow without a lift pass. It was interesting to just walk around. We brought a little picnic with us and found a spot outside the ski area where it was peaceful and quiet to sit and enjoy the snow. It felt like Christmas with the snowflakes slowly falling.

As usual I took tons of pictures, I posted some more of them on Flickr. Here is a funny little video I took of snowboarders hitting this little jump (and a few skiers) - we had to wait till the slope cleared to cross in our shoes - this was definitely the busiest spot to cross. I took this video while we waited. Lucky for us the lift seemed to shut down for a while and suddenly it was all empty for us to walk across.

Exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Craft

I have some work in a small exhibit at the MoCC. Check it out! I took pictures in case you can't make it to the Museum in person.
Its a great exhibit of DIY things you can find and buy on Etsy that are all made by artists here in Portland Oregon. Its part of a new relationship between the Museum, Etsy and PNCA. My little mobile making kit is included amongst good company...
A cheese making kit! This one really caught my eye... Tim and I have been talking about making cheese for Valentines Day... wouldn't that be fun!? Maybe?
A bag from Bossa Nova Baby - I love how they displayed it stuffed with yarn :)
And this awesome table (I didn't know that it came in pieces and you assemble it like a puzzle and paint the individual pieces how-ever you would like!)

There are many more goodies in the exhibit... it'll be at the MoCC for the next few months up in the Labs.

Yoga Ladies Hot Off the Press

Before my friend Jan left to go out of town I visited her studio and printed a few more yoga ladies... I sorta tweaked the first set just a bit (trimmed up odd ankles and wrists and whatnot) and also I had carved a Warrior Pose... all these test prints turned out great! Now I need to start printing these ladies into some glass :)

More Online Selling Venues

Okay - I've finally started setting up shop on Artfire.com and I am impressed in many ways. I cannot even count the number of times my eyebrows have lifted as features jump out at me. Hello - its FREE to artists! FREE. seriously.

And they are not joking around - this is a seriously powerful and playful platform. There are so many features that Etsy lacks, soooo many that I have to use EtsyHacks to get the job done (oh how I love you GreaseMonkey and EtsyHacks). So as I am setting up this Artfire Studio I am amazed at all the little things - like the ability to have a sale! OMG. Seriously, one click, in fact I could have different types of sales and coupons - yes coupons! Why does Etsy deprave us of such staples of retail. Sheesh. Oooh - get this - customers can mark my work so it appears on their Amazon Wishlist - wha?! Thats awesome. They give you statistics and they let you know when your products have been submitted to Google data bases. Okay, have I mentioned it FREE. Yeah, thats the best part. You can pay $12/month flat fee if you like, and get even more options and features... but you can list and sell unlimited products for an unlimited amount of time for free. damn.

Oh and I just found a button that I could simply push and wham - all my Etsy items are imported into Artfire at the click of this button. This blows my mind and is so simple and beautiful. I hesitate to push it. I had thought I'd use this opportunity to clean up my listings and freshin' things up a bit. But I do have a lot to list, and then I saw this button,"Item Importer" and it is incredibly tempting.

So far I can't say enough good things about Artfire. Although I really have just barely gotten started and I rarely meet people who know of this platform. I just had to share - all my fellow crafty peeps out there - if you aren't already listing on Artfire - why not?! Its free!

As the Sun Sets on My Beach Trip

I took hundreds of pictures in the last few days. Literally. At least 120 of this particular sun set in all its glory. Lots of dogs running on the beach, kiddos playing with sand, adults crafting and relaxing... we did a lot of beach golfing and my constant picture taking (with the continuous shot function) made for fun times analyzing the nuances of our golf swing. I really enjoyed beach golf. We had a completely empty beach, so it was fun to hit the heck out the balls and then run around trying to find them.
Lots of crafts and tasty cocktails were enjoyed as well. Oh and the food has been delicious! We tried to go easy on our wallets and shopped in advance at Cosco and Trader Joes... we have enough food to last us 3 more days. And it only cost us $17 per person from Cosco. That fits in my budget! This morning I openned my bedroom door to delicious smells of home-made frittata (Thanks Naomi!!!) and this evening Brandon and I sweated it out over the pasta roller and made spaghetti from scratch. It turned out great! And we even made one batch with avocado instead of egg (which turned out green and delicious!)

Here's a recipe from the trip - a specialty cocktail worth trying!

"the Spicy Ho"
- infuse vodka with jalapeno peppers (let peppers soak in vodka for at least a few days)
- squeeze a lime into a tall glass, put squeezed lime peels in glass as well
- add vodka and seltzer water
- mix and enjoy

Beautiful Beach

Its been great weather and absolutely wonderful company out here at the beach. My email box is overflowing... but this vacation is outstanding!!!