Slumber Party

We had another great slumber party this last weekend. I got there late; I waited until after the girls were asleep to leave the house. It was o.k., everyone was still in major crafty mode and, honestly, they were a bit silly at that later hour. I may have also been a bit silly myself, but that had nothing to do with the hour of the day.

I decided to make a ring that has been on my mind for quite a while. We have this bowl of vintage plastic animal that I am obsessed with. I swear, I have purchased at least half of them myself already and each time I am in the store I can hardly help getting another. They are all standard animals, but with really nice paint jobs (which is how you can tell they are vintage!)

This goat was just begging to be a trophy-head ring. I started by sawing the goat head off the body with a jeweler's saw and a #4 blade. It took just seconds. The whole thing glued together in just a few minutes and then I propped it up to dry. I have worn this a few times and people either comment or just look askance at me. This ring is like some kind of test; whether you like it or not I immediately know something about you once you comment.




Here are the parts I used:
Filigree-you'll need a flat one. I used the 6-petal flat pineapple in copper
Ring base-we are out of the one I used, but this one would work very well.
Glue-I used 527 but E-6000 would work, too.
Saw blade
Saw frame
A flat button

We are out of the animals...


The fabulous Susan whipped me up a peyote stitch belt for one of the tiny piggies from the animal bowl. I love this pig so much, he's so charming in his beaded belt. I think I may have to turn him into a necklace for Jo Packham. She's in Raleigh this week and I think a pig necklace (from a big pig state!) might be just the souvenir for her. Susan won't mind, I don't think...this would be a good time to point out that Susan is one of those customer/friends who I truly love, and not just because she makes pig peyote belts in two seconds flat!

 See more of Susan's work here.

Etsy Craft Night

While I was in New York last week I caught up with Emily (of Panopolie!) She is living in Brooklyn now, raising the world's cutest trilingual child. We miss her terribly but she is settled in to the cosmopolitan lifestyle and really enjoys Brooklyn. She took me to the etsy.com offices for Craft Night on Monday and we had a great time. It was an 'open' night which means that no one was teaching a project so we got to do whatever we wanted to. Emily wanted to make a zipper bag and I wanted to make a necklace out of quilt yo-yos. Mostly, we rifled through the well-supplied etsy shelves and chatted.


There was a group of etsians making kits in the room. I found out that they are all members of the {NewNew} Street Team and they were making giveaways for an event they were promoting. I was impressed with the level of chatter and laughter as they all cut and folded and stickered their giveaways.

I would love to have a picture of the yo-yo necklace here for the blog but I have somehow lost it...which is sad because it was pretty cute and summery and I was looking forward to wearing it a lot...hmm, maybe it's time to clean out my bag again?

Emily and I ended our evening having dinner at the French restaurant (but of course!) Provence en Boite on Smith Street. While the salade nicoise was not what we expected, we really loved the frites and the olives and the wine! It was lovely...so nice to see her and hear her voice. Emily, I miss you here in Raleigh!