My Creative Space: Lint (and Stuff)

Overheard on my lap only moments ago:

Akiva:  Shani, if you come and help me with the laundry, I'll let you play with this.....(pregnant pause)...lint!

He then produced a fist sized wad of dryer lint and offered it to his bewildered sister.  I swear.

(She didn't take the bait, in case you were wondering, and he continued about his laundering unescorted.)

In other news:

The Huz has returned from his five-day hospital stint.  The kids had as much fun visiting him as they would on any field trip.

Look what's heading into the shop tonight:

I have been tumbling the same batch of glass for a week, with very little change.  Sure, the edges are nice and smooth, but there's been none of that "frosty sea-glass" effect I was aiming for.  I'll set out in pursuit of some better grit---did I really just say "better grit?"---tomorrow, and we'll see if that helps any.  Meanwhile, I was playing around with some nice, thick annealed steel wire this afternoon and ended up with this bracelet:

And I really loved it.  But then, I got to thinking.  And I chucked that puppy in the tumbler with a couple pounds of stainless steel shot, and looky here!

Shiny!  I have to confess, I've been playing with it all evening.  The kids are starting to think I'm strange.  So as soon as I get some decent pictures, into the shop it goes.  It needs a name, though...any ideas?

Also, it rained today.

So  I figured I'd hit you with a couple of gratuitous kid-with-umbrella shots.

And speaking of gratuitous:

That would be the 2 year old.  Clutching her security-Glee-booklet.

 Check out more spaces at Kirsty's.

My Creative Space: Roadtrippin'

The Huz, the Munchkin and I set out this morning for some serious Pesach shopping in Chicago---a prospect that filled each and every chamber of my heart with glee.  First and foremost, I was guaranteed 90 minutes of travel time in each direction, which translated into three hours spent making findings and components without stopping to wash dishes, flip the laundry, answer the phone, or help a certain small person with her "paperwork." 

Furthermore, Chicago has a kosher Dunkin' Donuts.

And a kosher Subway.

And a Chinese take-out joint, among others.

 We availed ourselves, astonishingly, of all three.
  
The actual shopping part of our day was close to painless, though it did involve three shopping carts and an appalling amount of back and forth on the merits of frozen fish vs. fresh.  And a really patient cashier, and a remarkably tenacious young man who helped load all of those groceries into my van, which seemed suddenly smaller once confronted by the bevy of bags we hoped to pack inside.


Anyhoo, the creative bit of this journey happened on the way home---sleeping baby, NPR droning ceaselessly in the background---and suddenly a design I've been working on just clicked.  I am completely and utterly spatially challenged, and things that are glaringly obvious to most folks tend to come a little slower to me.  So I'm sitting there, wire-doodling, and all of a sudden, boom.  Big lightbulb moment.  It'll be in the shop tomorrow...

Speaking of the shop, when I got home and put the multitude of groceries away, I checked my Etsy.  Wonder of wonders, my Magic Onion earrings had been featured in a treasury!  Much happiness ensued.

More stationary (and less gluttonous) creative spaces here.

My Creative Space: Etsy!

It's done.  For all of you who've been listening to me whine and moan about the rigors of Etsy-shop-creation, here is the fruit of our labor!  My teeny little shop, always greener, opened its virtual doors very quietly last week, and made its first sale while its keyboard-ravaged proprietress slumbered last night.  (Thanks, Nic!)

I hope your creative space has been as exhilarating as mine has this week...

(And on a more humble note, check out my gap-toothed daughter!)

Button, button, who's got the button?

In case you were wondering what became of (some of) the nifty vintage buttons in yesterday's photo...