Please allow me to introduce to you ...

 MY NEW CAMERA!!!!  A Nikon D5100.  She is beautiful, intimidating, lovely, confusing, filled with adventure and I love her!  Her name is yet to be determined.  We haven't known each other long enough yet.  (but I am leaning toward Rosa Lee) I have found a wonderful photography blog to follow all about cameras, how to use them, what's what and etc.  In conjunction with the class I took this summer, it has certainly sorted out a few things for me.  The site is right here.

If you are even remotely interested in photography, visit the site! Darcy is an amazing photographer and seems to specialize in photos of newborns.  Who doesn't like to look at little bitty cuddly babies!?!  Her creativity, style and exuberance is so very refreshing!  And she doesn't only photograph newborns.  She has a tab on her menu that reads "31 days to a better photo" and it is very well done!  Even I can understand it!

It's a beautiful day here in the mountains and I'm off to test out some of the new information I read on photography, eventually.  I sincerely hope you all have a glorious day and enjoy every minute of it!

A couple of recommendations I'd love to share with you all, hence more introductions in case you don't know about them.  First of all, if you are struggling for some positive, creative type ways to help yourself out, visit Louise Gale's site.  She is awesome and wonderful and a real treat to study along with!  I have been using her creative "Big Dreams Small Wonders" planners and workbooks for quite some time now.  Look her up here.  She has some of the absolutely BEST ideas I've run into ... ever!  AND she is an artist herself, so that is helpful with her really "getting it" with some of our challenges and so forth.

Also, I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar hosted by Quinn McDonald, ("So you say you can't draw") who has recently written a wonderful book entitled "Raw Art Journaling".  She has also provided some amazing techniques to keep the creativity rolling, rather GUSHING in.  Her ideas are fresh and fun and her webinar was a presentation well worth the invested time, and it was FREE!  Perfect!  I learned about this through a website call CreateMixedMedia.com, which is a treasure trove FOR SURE for those of you interested in all types of media.  Go here to check it out.  You won't be sorry!  The site is hoping to be able to post a video of the webinar in the near future. 

Well, this day holds a lot in store for me so I must get on to it.  I am going to get to plant a boat load of garlic today.  And since we are expecting temps in the 20s by week's end, I really MUST get to it!  Then, I have a couple of commissions (whoo hoo!) to finish up and get delivered.  Busy, busy, busy!

Enjoy the glorious day you have been given today.  And create something!  Yay!

Blessings!

Roan Mountain, Carver's Gap for your heart and soul

Love the contrast of the red against the sky.  North Carolina blue, for sure!

 I would LOVE to tell you where/what these mountains are, but the only clue I have is they are all either Tennessee and/or North Carolina.  They are just scrumptious to look at and make your heart open up and sing when you are in amongst them!

One of the hikers we hosted for a night a few years ago celebrated his birthday on Sunday.  So, here's to you Justin!  Happy Birthday and happy memories of the AT, in and around Roan Mountain!

Always a white blaze, on a tree, on a rock or on a sign post.  It's a comforting thing to see when you're walking all those miles.  Justin (Tank) and his band of merry men (Tweak,  Moontower, and Acorn, who ended up having to bail a bit before the end) walked the entire AT a couple of summers ago.  Amazing!  We were fortunate enough to meet these young men and host them for a night.  Great group of guys who enriched our lives for sure. 

 Just meandering ....

 So many layers and dimensions.  It was BRILLIANT!

It is fall here, in a BIG way.  And it is glorious!  So much so that it is simply impossible to concentrate on anything in particular.  The colors are so vibrant and filled with life and joy.  This is by far my favorite season up here in the beautiful mountains. 

My sweet friend Teresa came up for a couple of days from Atlanta.  She went hiking with us.  We had a wonderful day ... can you tell?  Oh, and the wind was REALLY blowing!

No better artist than Mother Nature.  It was a glorious day.  And so wonderful to see Teresa!  Life is good.  Take time to count your blessings!

On a note of contrast, we are expecting snow mid week.  Now you know why this was so extra wonderful!  Plus, it was our wedding anniversary.  Lovely way to spend it!
  Blessings to you all!

Good Morning World!

Whew! What a wonderful weekend it was too!  And Mother Nature made sure the vistas and views were SPECTACULAR for everyone!  Oh gratitude, how I can feel you now.

So here are some show highlights!

 This was the climbing wall in the children's section right across from our booth.  It was busy from open to close.  The stream of people never stopped! 

A look at the crowd, the gorgeous sky, the beautifully adorned colorful mountain and the little town of Erwin, TN.  And the lady in the foreground looking at me like I have three heads!  This was at the crossroads of the merchandise vendors and the food vendors.  It was quite crazy there!

 In honor of Breast Cancer Month, October.  I don't usually take this one to the shows as I've grown to love it, but this month was special so she went on the tour.   She's back up on my wall now :-)

 Front left hand side of our booth featured these things the first day - which of course all changed on day 2.  Part of the fun - redecorating!  The earrings up on the top represented a whole lot of happiness for the UT fans.  The festival was a sea of orange shirts on Saturday as there was a Tennessee football game that day at 7.  A lot of people stopped to buy the UT flip flop earrings that Shannon made from clay.  And they were THRILLED.  Sure are a lot of football enthusiasts in TN!

**(Note to self: always make local football team earrings for a show-makes people happy).

Shannon's beautiful crochet work is featured on the front right hand side.  (and my pumpkin stepping stone)  Her work is all so unique and her patterns come from her own imagination.  They are show stoppers for sure. I even picked up a crochet hook and started working during the show.  Her work is contagious and inspiring!

 Our very sweetest model, Mason.  He LOVED Shannon's stuff A.LOT. I tired to email the pictures of Mason to his mom, but the address must not be right.  If you're reading this, Mason's Mom, please send me your email again! The photos of Mason are BEAUTIFUL!

 And this guy, what an incredibly good sport!  Shannon makes new born boggins and I guess he just couldn't help but try one out! Good job, Travis!

 This was the mosaic wall on day 1.  As things sold, it changed around too.  I was very happy and felt honored to have sold some of my pieces.  It's hard to know if anyone will like your work enough to take it home.  Thanks to some very wonderful customers!  Both note boards are now gone.  And Frances, the owl has gone to a new home!  It's interesting how people are attracted to different styles and colors.  There really are all kinds of tastes out there!

Some inspirational messages for your day!  I love this display because it is colorful and happy!  Just like a festival should be!  We saw lots of folks walk by eating turkey legs and things.  Now, that's happy!

 Shannon's hand sculpted polymer clay table.  She is amazingly talented and has some incredible sculpted animal pieces.  But also some fun little "guys" in logs (log noggins).  She makes little heads for key chains and charms with toboggans on them (boggin' noggins), and these guys ...

crabby noggins.  Teeny tiny hand sculpted faces in shells.  Wow!

She also does things like this sun - which is a favorite piece.  Simply exquisite!

This piece made it's debut this show, a sweet, happy, colorful piece.  I got lots of ooohhhs and aaaahhhhs over it.  We'll see how long it stays around. :-)

This is the journal table, with some odds and ends, and some hand spun ceramic necklaces by our friend, Sarah Greene.  Her work is also impeccable.  We had a lot to choose from and we are ever so grateful to all the customers who chose their favorites and took them home!

Here is a front view of the booth, which of course evolved as the day went on.

And here is a side view.  We were lucky with our openings on each side so we could "represent" as people were approaching from the sides, since no one really comes at you from the front!  And this sign is lovely and big and people can surely see us from afar!  And it didn't hurt that we were next to an apple vendor!  Kept us hopping.

We had a great weekend, we are VERY grateful and we are exhausted.

Most of our work will now be on display at The Rusted Periwinkle in Elk Park, NC.  Please drop by anytime to see it, email us, or call for an appointment to see us else where.  (828-260-7948).  We gladly accept custom orders and love filling them!

That is all.

Blessings to you all!

Been busy

Sneak preview of some new stuff for

The Unicoi Apple Festival

October 7th and 8th, 2011

8AM til 8PM

(this weekend - YIKES!  YAY!)

 A blackboard made from vintage glass cups and tiles, glass marbles and hand made pottery letters.  This piece was FUN to make! And I love the way it turned out.  Hope someone else loves it enough to take it home!

A pumpkin stepping stone for the fall.  Inspired by Paul's reminder that it's good to have some fall colors in a fall festival.  He's so smart!  Anyway, I am tickled with the way this grouted out.  These things are NOT so easy to grout.  Especially this time of year with the on and off warmth.  It's all tile and grout sealed since it will more than likely live outside.

 I've been a journal making fool for a few days.  I've done a lot of interesting combinations this time.  Some of these contain spiral notebooks, one has a composition book, and some just have note pads, some of them have some awesome sketch pads.  Those are my favs.  When I get a little more time, I'll show the innards.  I do have a few of the inspiration journals for the show too.  Still have a lot to do!

 You've seen this prince before, but I just love him ... so I'm showing him again.  Ribbit.

I'm carrying on.  

Blessings!

Many miles yet to go ....

Before the show commences on Friday morning at 8AM!  This show runs 8 AM til 8 PM which means it will be DARK when we close up for the evening, both days, Friday and Saturday.  Should be interesting!  Looks like we will have decent weather.  Of course our fingers will remained crossed, which makes grouting very difficult (ha ha!)  Anyway ... this is what I've been up to until now.  Tomorrow begins the journal marathon.  My favorite part!

HAVE you ever noticed how happy sunflowers are?  I LOVE them.  Just wanted to start out with a happy vision for you.  You're welcome.

getting ready to grout this one ... last week.  It was dark by the time I finished it!  So, she's finished now but I can't get a decent picture of it. Maybe tomorrow when the light is right?

grouting ... it's a messy job but someone has to do it!

Gonna get to grout this one tomorrow - (if it isn't snowing or something equally ridiculous)!

Frances the owl is ready to rock n roll!  Hope someone falls in love with her! She's glass as opposed to tile.  A change from my norm.  My mom loved owls and we accused her of being part owl sometimes.  That is why this owl is named Frances.
Will post more pics of the new pieces as they fall into the completion category. 

Thanks for checking in.  Hopefully there will be something intriguing on here for you!  I appreciate your interest and your support GREATLY!

Blessings!