Spring Colors Popping up

We finally have a little break in weather. Getting started on doing a major clean up and redesign in my garden area. Now that we're all asked to stay home for 3 weeks, I have no excuse not to get things done. Annie of course likes that I'm home so she can play fetch all day! 
My son in law is from Holland so he brings back tulips for me. I've planted them all over my yard so it's fun to see pops of color everywhere. I had a squirrel last year replant some, so I'm also finding them in some very weird places but totally makes sense for a squirrel!

Alcohol Inks 2020

A big shout out to Sandy Allnock (artist and paper crafter) who posted a video using her Copic air compressor instead of a straw to blow the alcohol inks around. I was so excited to see another use for this very $$$ machine that I haven't used in years. It really is an air brush machine to use with Copic markers but when the price of Copic got very pricey, it wasn't cost effective for me to use it in a class room setting anymore. It sadly went into storage. Sandy did a great video on how to make sort of flower impressions using alcohol inks and the compressor. There is definitely a big learn curve but having to stay home for the next two weeks, I have plenty of time to practice. I think it also works best with the brighter alcohol inks that are new.  I'm using what I have, so it's a bit more challenging but until I can master making something close to looking like a flower I'm ok with old dark colors. 
THANK YOU SANDY!

The start of staying home.

Wednesday was the first day I stayed home all day on purpose. My office has closed down for the next 3 weeks and that's a little scary there's no income coming in. I have a small consignment booth at Cottage Crafts but of course they are also closed. 
Being a life long crafter, I do have enough supplies to keep busy for a long, long, long time. I'm slowly cleaning up my stash, starting with my iris folding projects. I'm building up my back stock of cards for my card rack at Cottage Crafts when they're finally able to open up. 
Next up is doing some very labor intensive cards, that I've had in the works for a long time but never had the time to do. Really it's the clean up that takes the most time. :) 

nature's easter egg hunt

I live next to an open space reserve, so there are always a lot of critters running around my place. Last year my son-in-law who is from Holland, brought back some tulips for me. I planted them in a pot out in my garden. Something dug them up and I thought at the time ate them. Well this year I'm finding them all over the property in what I can only call squirrel friendly places. It's like an Easter egg every morning as I look in secret hiding places to see if a tulip was planted there. 

In my garden 2020

After working all day getting things cleaned up on Sunday, I took some pics of things in bloom in my garden. My yard is a hot mess but in-between all that are some awesome blooms. Living on a  large hilly property things are spread out and there's always something that needs attention. We're coming up on having to weed wack everything down on the hillsides to prevent wild fires. May 1 is the deadlines and most of my neighbors wait until then to have a crew come in to get it done. It's very hard work because you have to carry a gas powered weed wacker on your back on very steep hills. I have a hard enough time just planting and pulling weed let alone having to carry anything heavy on my back!

The yard work is never done.

Spent all day on Sunday cleaning up the property. Climbing up and down the hill dragging/throwing all the down trees parts to the recycle bins. We have 4 recycle bins and yes we fill them up every week. I also weeded for 3-4 hours and it still doesn't look like I did everything. Annie had a great day, becasue with me being outside her ball was getting tossed almost non stop. The flowers are starting to bloom everywhere, which makes me very happy!

Sunset in Carmel 2020

Carmel Beach 2020

This was a lucky shot of Annie's ball hitting the water. Think this will be our Christmas card for 2020!
I like to walk the beach during low tide, much easier on our knees. While we were there, low tide was happening at sunset. I'm not a sunset taking picture kind of person. Annie was tired and really didn't want to walk the whole beach to play fetch so I stood in one spot to throw the ball for her. To kill time (pokeman stops were too far away to play) I decided to take pictures of Annie. I didn't know what the pictures looked like until I got home. This is a keeper!

Another Great Goodwill Find 2020

For some reason there has been a few more Goodwill stores opening up. There's on I pass on my way to work and I rarely find anything there. I don't know if it gets picked or they just get the new stuff. 
I got off work early, so stopped by on my way home. To my surprise I found this Dutch cow holding a a rose, which I haven't ever seen before. 
My daughter is getting married to someone from Holland and her grandmother's lucky charm was a brown spotted cow. Was just meant to be for me to would find this - well in my world. :)

New card rack at Cottage Crafts in Campbell - Coming in March

My cards for sale at Cottage Crafts. 

I was very sad when I had to close my card rack at Cranberry Hill. There were just too many card makers selling and the store hours made it hard for me to get in there to restock. 
After a very hard negotiation with Cottage Crafts, I'm setting up my card rack there in March. It won't be a money spinner but it's less of a risk for my to sell there. My cards are very different than the other card makers so there will be a nice variety. Plus my consignment booth is there so easy for me to restock everything at the same time. :) 

1960"s vintage owl glasses - SOLD

1960's vintage 14K gold owl glasses

When picking to flip goes right!  
I found a set of 8 vintage glasses at my local Goodwill store. I normally don't go down the clear glass aisle because there usually isn't anything vintage. The number one rule in picking is check out everything just in case. So on my way out I spotted these glasses. Thinking there had to be something wrong with them because it was in the evening and all the pickers had been through the store already. To my surprise they all were in great shape!  I purchased them on Friday night and sold them on Sunday afternoon for a nice little profit! I only had them in my booth at Cottage Crafts in Campbell for about an hour before they sold. Really made my day!

Creative Process paper weaving

First draft of the paper weaving sample

Many people think when we design for a card class, that we just sit down and make a card. There's a lot of thought that goes into what we design. The one big mistake I see new teachers and some big name people make is they design things that can't really be taught in the live classroom setting.  They do amazing cards and everyone will sign up to take the class but actually making it to match the sample isn't always successful. 
I do a workshop at FabMo once a month and I'm always looking for things that inspire me and can be taught. Since I never know who will be signing up and what level in paper crafting their at, I have to come up with simple designs. That can get very boring on the designing side.
I binged watched the Netflix show "next in fashion" and I loved it. Watching the design process and how they turned their ideas in garments is so inspiring!  One of the designers did a weave to create a pattern. That inspired me to pull out my random water color sample and do some paper weaving. This will be something we will do for this month's workshop. I love that everyone's card will be different and they will be learning a new technique.  

Puppies!

How can you not love puppies!?! I found this at the Happy Dragon thrift store last week. I was sure it had to have a chip or something but it's in excellent condition. I'm not sure of the age but it's not modern. There's also no marks on the bottom so no idea who made it. 
It's always hit or miss that the Happy Dragon. They've been around for a long long time and they know when they get the good stuff in. Prices are still good if you just collect but a little too high to flip. I stop by when I can but with so many pickers in the area, I don't get my hopes up. But isn't this the cutest thing!!!