One Lovely Blog Award!

I had a comment on yesterday's post from Angie of Angie's Suds 'N' Such, who had chosen my blog to receive the "Lovely Blog Award"! Be sure to click the links above to check out her awesome blog and Etsy shop! Thanks Angie!

Here are the rules:

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

These are the great blogs I am passing the award on to:

1) Masa Yume - Dream Come True
2) Tile Me Beautiful
3) Coco Cherie Vintage
4) Gaffer Girls

5) Trudette
6) Katery Designs
7) Inherit Hooked
8) Gemsmins
9) Ooh! That's Pretty!
10) Laurie's Jewel Box
11) Memoirs of Maria
12) Lillyshastyle
13) Pretty {much} Art

14) Out of the Pink Sky
15) Julieannart

Modern Wing - What a Wonder!

Last Friday I had the opportunity to visit the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. Although it just opened in May, I had already heard lots of great things and was excited to see it for myself. I must admit, I was so taken with the building itself that my interest in the collections almost became secondary! The artwork I had seen it before, but this building... it's amazing! Built by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, it is light, airy, open and crisp. You are truly looking at works of art while standing in a work of art!

Diffuse natural light bathes everything in the building. The exterior glass walls and roof are covered with louvers which provide wonderful lighting conditions for the artwork and the interior glass walls have pull down shades which can be adjusted in the galleries during different times of day.

The main corridor is breathtaking and open to the top floor of the building with a floating cantilever staircase and balconies on the north side. But for me, the icing is literally on the top of the cake. The third floor galleries house the Modern European collection and seeing the likes of Matisse, Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky and Dali in this setting took the experience to a whole new level. Between the canvasses of these great artists are picture-perfect views of the city and Millennium Park and above you, the architectural interest of the louvered roof - also known as the "Flying Carpet".

I was so absorbed in the experience it didn't even occur to me to take any pictures. But it's better that you go see it for yourself! If you can't, be sure to check out the Art Institute website and see what they have to say about it. You'll be impressed with what you see.

Something Different - Learning to Wire Wrap

This weekend I got to try something different.  I took a glass pendant wire wrapping class at my local glass shop, Alpine Stained Glass.  Last year the instructor - Jeanne - offered a fusing glass where I really learned a lot and I had a feeling that I would soon be hooked on this as well.  We started out with some copper wire for practice but we quickly got the hang of it and selected our own cabochons to work with for a finished product.  The pattern she taught us was fairly basic and a great one for beginners.  And boy, there's a real 'wow' factor to doing this!  After laying the ground work for the wrap, you place the cabochon into the wire and suddenly you're working on something beautiful!  I'm thrilled with the piece that I made and have already ordered supplies to do my own at home.  Now, I'll just have to keep myself busy with glass until it gets here!

What do you think of my first attempt?  I'm excited to keep working and learning how to avoid tool marks and trying different patterns.  Keep your eyes on my Etsy shop because I'm hoping some of these will make an appearance in the coming weeks!

At Work in My Studio

Today I'm working in my studio and I thought it would be nice to share these photos with you so you can see where I work.  We've converted a spare bedroom into an office which I share with my husband and I've put a large work table by the window so I can use it to cut glass. It's actually a pretty nice place to work since I can bounce back and forth between the work table and the computer as needed.  

My kiln however, lives in the kitchen on a rolling cart next to the sliding glass door.  For some reason, I wasn't too keen about putting the kiln in a room with carpet and the sliding door provides good ventilation should I need it.

Isn't it cute?  It's just a table top version and it runs on a regular household outlet, but it's perfect for me.  I can run a couple of firings in a day if needed and it never takes long for me to make enough things to fill it up!  Not too big, and not too small - yet.  They say kilns are addictive but I really like the versatility of this one.  I guess only time will tell.

And We're Back...

Here's hoping you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend.  Ours was a success with one of my husband's teams winning the tournament championship in their division and having generally nice weather for the whole weekend.  Now we're back to the grindstone and today I've posted another item in my Etsy shop in my new line called Cocktail Jewelry.  It's a cute little bracelet that is perfect for the martini lover you know.  Like many of you, today I'll be catching up on several fronts but I'm most excited about getting some new pieces into the kiln.  I haven't made anything in a little over 2 weeks and it will be good to be back in the swing of things.  So keep your eyes open for some new things from me and have a great (and short) week ahead!

Ready for a Busy Weekend?

I had better be!  My husband is a competitive youth soccer coach and every Memorial Day weekend his club hosts a big tournament.  He's coaching three teams so he'll be coaching as many as five games a day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday - not to mention the other games that he'll want to watch in between!  Needless to say, we'll be at the soccer fields from sun up to sun down all weekend long.  Why do I go, you ask?  When it's one of these marathon weekends usually I don't.  But Memorial Day weekend is a little bit different.  The weather is nice, people are in a good mood because they've got some extra time off and for me it's the kick-off to summer.  So today will be filled with errand running, cooler and car packing and laundry.  But tomorrow, as busy as it will be, I'll be enjoying the sun and breathing in the first breaths of summer - even if it is in a sea of thousands of people, we'll all be doing the same thing.

For the Love of Martinis - Cocktail Jewelry

I'm excited to have listed the first piece in a new line of jewelry in my Etsy shop.  For quite a while I've been making pieces that look like olives and have been thinking I could start making a whole line of cocktail inspired pieces.  Then I realized I have been doing it for a while and didn't even realize it.  In the coming days you'll see more pieces of Cocktail Jewelry appearing in my shop. Most of the pieces are inspired by my favorite cocktail - the Dirty Martini.  But you'll see others make an appearance as well.  What's your favorite cocktail?  Maybe you'll inspire me to make something new!