happy halloween!

Mario & Luigi - Halloween 2008.

Okay I have to admit Halloween has been one of my "ba humbug" holidays. I love candy and sweets as much as the next person. And a good costume party can be fun sometimes. I know it's sounds wacky for a creative person to not enjoy dressing up and going all out on Halloween. And I do enjoy the dress up part but, honestly I have frightful teenage memories surrounding this holiday. Memories that include shaving cream, eggs, toilet paper, flour sacks and more. You see as I grew into my teens Halloween took a turn for the worst and I even stayed home some years to escape the torment that went on in my neighborhood after dark.



For the past 4 years (since I had my sweet little Ethan) Halloween is looking better. The kids so enjoy dressing up and trick or treating. I wish you all a frightening fun Halloween fill with more treats then tricks.

beading: natural

This is one of my favorite "go to" jewelry sets. It is casual, chic, super light weight and can be worn with black and brown. I created it out of natural wooden beads in varying sizes, swarovski crystal rounds in light colorado topaz, black seed beads strung on .019 diameter soft flex beading wire in original steel tone and finished the design with a simple hook & eye clasp and ear wires.

kids art: pumpkin pals

Ethan and Hudson's completed pumpkin pals

To celebrate the season, I hosted a Pumpkin Pals Playdate with the East Valley Hip Mamas Meetup group. Just in time for Halloween, the kiddos (ages 2-5 years old) decorated their own pumpkins. EVHM provided all the art supplies for this event, including a pumpkin for each child. Since this event was around dinner time, we had a Pumpkin/orange themed potluck dinner and the goodies were cheese dip and chips, orange chicken and rice, homemade mac and cheese, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies.

Hudson is in the zone.

Ethan contemplating what to paint on his pumpkin.

All 8 kids' pumpkin pals lined up to dry.

why i love to paint

Hudson painting at the Children's Museum of Phoenix

i love to paint because ...

• it makes me smile from the inside out
• i am at peace during and after creative expression
  
• i am able to create freely without the notion of "am i doing it right" that i feel in other mediums
  
• brush strokes, layering and color mixing are meditative and relive stress for me
  
• a finished piece evokes fond memories of the creative process, accomplishment and joy

beading: pendant gifts

This past weekend I met up with 3 of my favorite ladies: Erica, Laraine and Suzan. We are friends from high school who all turn 30 this year and decided to celebrate together in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is amazing that we have kept in touch all these years and even though we all live apart and don't talk to one another often enough it's like we haven't skipped a beat when we are together. I feel blessed to have them in my life. Erica was our hostess with the mostess and we had a fabulous weekend staying with her, Steve and of course Bella. I wanted to give these important women in my life a special gift. I picked out one of my original paintings turned resin pendant for each of them and then beaded a necklace to match the pendant design. Above is a photo of us on Saturday night all wearing our necklaces! (Laraine, Suzan, me and Erica) Check out each necklace below:

Erica's moon & stars necklace, as teenagers Erica was way into astrological designs so, choosing this pendant for her was a no-brainer.

Laraine's 3 daisies necklace, a long time ago I sent photos of my paintings to friends and family and Laraine commented on how much she liked this one so, I knew this pendant had to be hers.

Suzan's sunflower necklace, Suzan is a strong woman who is a lot of fun and this painting expresses that with its bold colors and sunflowers, which in and of themselves are cheerful so, this pedant was a natural choice for her.

Thanks for all the fun times in the past, present and future. I love you ladies!

beading: peach pearls

I purchased a beautiful strand of peach mother of pearl beads from Soft Flex Company's booth and the Glass Art & Bead Festival in Sonoma and lucky for you these can also be found online - 14mm peach mother of pearl rounds. Pearls are organic gemstones. They are formed when a foreign body becomes trapped inside of the shell of a mollusk. The pearl is a symbol of feminine wisdom, purity, and spiritual transformation.

I designed this bubbly necklace with 14mm pearls, small pearls as spacer beads, 3 swarovski cube beads in 2 sizes as the focal point, strung it on soft flex .019 beading wire wire and finished it off with a sterling silver 1 strand clasp.

beading: artistic stone

I based this beading creation off my good friend, Sara Hardin's free project idea featured on Soft Flex Company's web site. I made the design my own by choosing a different shape of artistic stone beads, using black accent beads instead of brown, and stringing with soft flex sterling silver extreme 925 flex .019 beading wire instead of soft flex beading wire in butterscotch and finish both the necklace & bracelet off with a sterling silver toggle clasp. This was one of my favorite designs to create and is so much fun to wear. Thanks for providing the inspiration, Sara!