Fine Art, Popsicles and Bad Mommy

We had our opening at Locopops Thursday night. The paintings were very well received. The critics were, you could say, impressed. Or they were just enjoying their pops.

The funniest thing was the expression on all the faces of the 'regular' Locopops customers who were a bit confused watching us all talk about the paintings.

After the opening we adjourned to a nearby establishment (the Player's Retreat, we are that kind of swanky gals) for drinks and french fries. In this picture you have proof that I am a bad mommy. Nora has a glazed expression on her face caused by her watching Mollie eat a whole plate of french fries. Or that expression could say 'gee, my mommy fed me three pops and now french fries in a bar-what's next?'

The next day she ate a balanced diet with no fried foods, took two naps and played with wholesome, handmade toys all day. Not a pop was had.

*we all love the PR as it is the place Janet used to get drunk, the place Libby used to work, the place Galen used to love to play darts and many, many more reasons.

Cupcakes and clean plates

We had delicious double layer Twins Cookies last night to celebrate hubby's birthday. They were made by the magicians at Twin's Kitchen. Yummy. The generous twins sent along a box with four sweet extra cupcakes that somehow remained hidden in our fridge until just a bit ago. Both girls asleep, hubby just home from work, the house a serious mess and we are putting on some music and cleaning up and licking the icing from our fingers. I have other, actual, work to do here on my trusty laptop* but I am blogging in between putting up all the dishes and dollies and colored pencils and hubby is washing, washing, washing.

Since we trade off time with our girls and time at work we are rarely in the same place at the same time except for breakfast and dinner (we always eat together!) and meals with children require a good bit of child-level and or interrupted dialog. The nightly clean up is one time when we can finish our sentences and even ask questions. You know, have a conversation. I seriously love to clean the kitchen with my husband.

So, dishes to wipe.

Oh, the Twins are at the Moore Square Farmer's Market on Wednesday. They'll also be at Ornamentea for the Designer's Downtown Market on July 19th. That's right out my front door. Extra yummy.

*why is it called a laptop when it lives on my kitchen counter? shouldn't I call it a countertop?

Color screen earring tutorial

These earrings feature large kidney wires and flat floral screens. I have backed the screens with some paper smoothed on with resin. The paper adds a nice bit of color to all that metal, sort of like stained glass windows. These are very lightweight and not hard to wear at all.

To make your own pair you'll need:
2 antique brass flat floral screens, I used the 16 Daisies Plate but you can use any flat filigree or stamping
2 antique brass large kidney wires
2 antique brass jump rings, 7 mm
red hand dyed silk, cut two 2" pieces
large tube crimps
Paper (I suggest trying some Decopatch)
Diamond Glaze
plastic wrap (tape this to the top of your table to keep the Diamond Glaze from coating your work space!)
scissors
chain nose pliers

Cut two pieces of the paper to fit just inside the back of the screens.
Using the Diamond Glaze, coat both sides of one piece of paper and carefully place on the back of the screen. Press down with your fingertip. Set aside and allow to dry about 20 minutes. Repeat with the other screen.

Feed one piece of the red silk through a large crimp, through a jump ring and then back through the crimp. Pull until the crimp is close to the jump ring and flatten the crimp with your pliers. Repeat with the other piece of silk.

Open one of the kidney wires and feed the end through the hole at the top of the floral screen and then through one of jump rings. Make sure the screen hangs 'forward' on the ear wire. Repeat with the remaining parts to create your second earring.

Here's a shot of the back to show the paper details:


I did a couple of projects like this for the book that didn't make the final cut. I really like backing Filigree with paper-it adds some nice color without adding weight. Since these orange earrings go with my current hair swirl, I will probably wear them quite a bit, they are lightweight and pretty.

Getting time away from the business...

I was looking at the photos tonight. We did have a great time on our vacation. Nora learned to blow bubbles:




























I decorated my friend Charles' hat with a big felt flower that made it very warm:





























Cleo did some really brave waterfall exploring. She was up a bit too high for Mom's comfort level but I restrained the voice in my heart that wanted to shout "watch out, you'll slip" and she did just fine.





























I did some very simple and very pleasing (to me) stitching to some of my assortment of thrift store sweaters.
























My husband, Galen, even finished his own crafty project. Watch out, folks, next thing you know he'll be helping you at the work table. As long as your project is finishing a leather craft kit from 1976 you'll be in good hands.

























We had such a great time, it was relaxing and easy and now, after being home for 6 days we are caught up on the laundry and have unpacked and put away everything, even the beads and paint and paper. I am still finding pine needles in odd places, but that could go on for months.

Since my husband and I both work in the business it is hard to take time off in a big chunk. If you work for someone else there is a sense (at least there was for me) that my vacation was owed to me. Even if I had things to do, I still was fine leaving when my time off was scheduled. When you work for yourself there is not that sense of someone owing you anything. There is, instead, a sense of you owing time and energy to the business, the staff, the customers. At least, for me there is. We are also always so far behind what we would like to have accomplished that there is a big sense of being too busy to take off. There is always something you could be doing to make the business better. Our list ranges from cleaning the gutters at the store to creating sample boards to finding a new, better supplier for something we need. Our good friends, Charles (with the adorned hat) and his wife, Nancy, were the ones that first proposed this annual trip and we just booked it in the hazy glow of January. That's why this trip works. We book it so far in advance. We can't back out or get too busy, we go. In the end, the gutters wouldn't have been cleaned even if we had stayed home that week. If you are in business for yourself, how do you make yourself take time off? How do you keep yourself operating at a sane level throughout the year?