Tomorrow is my last show of the year at Olive Market on Olive, opposite McKinley School in Redlands. I made some new earrings, a couple of watch dial pendants and a 4 inch square size raggy Christmas tree wall hanging. After this its the Redlands Art Association Gallery Christmas show through to the first week in January.

I have no good photos of my new pieces, I’m hoping to get some tomorrow.

Market Bags

Inside bag – pocket & key fob

I was so thrilled with my small handbag made from Cath Kidston Monument fabric, and the ones I made for band (that I decided to make another one in this adorable spotty fabric with a black lining.

Its approx 8″ x 6″ x 1″ – a bigger version of my silk purses made from recycled ties. Long enough for a small note book, phone, pen and purse…what more could you ask for? Tidying up the studio the other day (yes, that really happens or else I start drowning in fabric!) I found the lovely vintage shell buckle which I thought looked great with the bag and made the white spots “pop”! The bag has a full length & width inside pocket (better than mine which was only half length – duh!). It will be finished for Sunday with possibly a sister?

I shared some memories of her with my boys because she was their great aunt – her invitations to join her when she went on holiday to Bournmouth and I lived nearby in the New Forest. We had some delicious meals together in the hotel, she gave me advice about how to order the wine and request the bottle be kept for her the following day! I heard how one had to have a strategy to get the best positioned sun lounger by the pool (getting up at the crack of dawn, “popping” down to the pool and putting your towel on the best lounger before a shower or breakfast)! When I arrived after work it was bliss to go for a swim together, then dry off on a lounger next to her and while someone kindly brought us afternoon tea! She spoke lovingly of my grandmother, her mother, and bits about her father who died long before I was born. As the eldest with three younger brother’s she learnt to hold her own, ruled with a rod of iron and could tell you great little stories about Dad!

For a long time she lived in a flat in central London, in “her village” of Marylebone. The red brick block of flats had a lovely old fashioned lift to each floor (something like the one in The King’s Speech) which was always an adventure to use. She had a cleaner called Mrs. Brown and it was a constant battle between the two of them – there was always a report whenever I visited. Yet when the lady passed away it was a sad day. I remember we went for a walk one day and Barbara showed me where Sherlock Holmes should have lived! The last time I saw her Will was only 18 months. We’d gone to London because I was pregnant and needed a scan to check all was well with the new baby (it was). Geraint, Will and I were staying with my sister Sarah, together we all went to the hospital and then on to meet Barbara for lunch. It was quite an event with two toddlers, but it was a lovely sunny day and she was thrilled to see us all.  And that is how I shall remember her, vibrant, full of energy, laughing with her great niece and nephew and enjoying her one luxury – a cigarette, a short one for most of the time but a long one for after meals! Bless her.

We had a wonderful turn out for Artists For A Cause last Sunday. After dire weather warnings all week we were spoilt with a typical Southern California November day – sunny and warm! Much to our relief. We rearranged artists locations 3 times to try and cover all eventualities. I think our final lay out worked well… Adele’s path was lined with artists, Margaret and her paper sculptures & Helen with her photographs were up by the patio and the delicious nibbles – thanks Mary.

Setting up – Candied Fabrics, Kathy and her pottery, Dominique and her fabrics, Marjke and her pottery wall hangings

and Dan with his wonderful birds and other metal sculptures at the end of the path.

Dan’s birds protecting his knight – they looked fantastic and made a bare piece of ground look stunning.

Vlad with his wonderful wooden boxes and Adeola with her paintings and jewelry were further along the path.

Somehow I managed to squeeze myself into the hall space.

Adele and her jewelry along with Judith and her photography shared the “parlour”, Linda and her glass jewelry were in the dining room with Janet and Fred while Shane set up incredible clay Christmas ornaments (that looked like glass!) in the small family room. Sadly, I ran out of time to take photos.

Many thanks to everyone who visited the show and supported the artists. You can see more photographs on our Facebook page, Artists For a Cause, submitted by the Associates of Redland’s Bowl.

For once my one moment of the week is me – I don’t even think I look like me! That tiny bit of grey hair waving at me from the photo (got to love digital photography) – will teach me not to do my roots for an extra week!

Penny Schwartz, a local Redlands artist and a fellow member of the Redlands Art Association  asked to interview me last week about my art and the up coming Artist’s For A Cause show this Sunday. I was so anxious because no one had ever interviewed me about my art before.

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So here I am wearing a button bracelet, my favourite button earrings which have 6 tiny rubies sewn onto them and holding 2 button bracelets in my hands. To read the full interview check out the link here or go to the Press Enterprise website and search for Liz Coviello.

Part of the article was about me and the rest was a nice advertisement for Artists For A Cause -listing the artists who will be participating this Sunday.

See you Sunday.

Linda@alamode hosts One Moment  she says “OM is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment.  Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, looking for these moments can promote balance in our lives.”

Thanks Linda I think we all need to do it no matter how crazy our lives are.

I’ve always loved steam punk jewelry designs and this year have bought a couple of lots of old dials on Ebay. Finally I’ve experimented with a few pieces of jewelry for myself.

This is one of my experiments…

I’ve used crystals on the dial, mounted the dial on a copper rose and for the earrings I added copper charms and used filled gold ear wires.

When I first made the necklace I used a heavy double chain but a lady at Art For Heaven’s Sake commented that the necklace should be more dynamic and I agreed with her. So Friday, I made one. I used a lightweight copper chain on the right (as you look at it) and then on the opposite side, I wire wrapped bronze coin pearls, pale green prehnite beads and copper beads. I was thrilled with the result.

Many thanks to all those people who came to Art for Heaven’s Sake and made it such a wonderful show. October was a delightful month weather wise for us all in Southern California – it was perfect for Art for Heaven’s Sake, a bit on the warm side but not too bad.

And then there was Red Dirt last Saturday! For the first time ever both Red Dirt shows this year have been cold, damp with snow on cars or vans coming down from Oak Glen or the mountains. We were in Smiley Park and the grass under foot was unforgiving – thanks Geraint for bringing me a mat.

Looking back at the October I did about half of the list, with a few extra’s – a Halloween quilt which became a 60th birthday pressie for a dear friend in the UK, a baby quilt for my friend Rosie’s new adorable baby, 2 baby quilts to replace those I sold at Art For Heaven’s Sake and some jewelry. Sadly Mei and I didn’t walk much, there just didn’t seem to be time which is crazy. We were able to pick 4 pumpkins from the garden for Halloween which was great. The boys had marching band practice on Halloween so some parents did “trunk or treat” and decorated their trunks and had loads of treats for the kids. Poor Will was horribly sick but Matt was kind enough to share his candy!

tree

So this leaves me plans for the rest of November

jewelry – finish tinkering around with a few new ideas.

Felting – do the 2 bags I made/ knit up some more yarn from my stash to replace the scarves I’ve sold

Gas stove – get it installed

Finish the sousaphone kit bags – they hang around and haunt me! – they were the last thing on my mind!

Tidy the studio which is drowning in fabric of all kinds

Try a domestic diva “twirl” through the house and shock everyone!

See you all at Artists For a Cause, next Sunday 13th November 10-4pm

Three weeks ago was the Preview of Champions, at Redlands High School. Its where local high schools bands performed for the first time their new shows. They aren’t marked but comments are given.  The new show marching band t- shirts were being worn for the first time so I just had to get a photo…

I was so excited they were together I tried to get a “nice” photos of them – for Christmas?

They were being so silly it was impossible

But I was thrilled to see them marching together on the field

alamodestuff Linda has started a weekly meetup based on taking a moment each week to really notice something as you go about your daily grind life. It’s good to stop and do this.

Art for Heaven’s Sake was busy and I was down in the garden, in the shade which was lovely.

My stall this year – I decided to decorate the walls with quilts, wall hangings and baby quilts.

(Note the new Christmas tree throw at the back on the right, cotton top, flannel back)

I made some new style jewelry for the show this year. I’ve fallen in love with Steam Punk jewelry, old watches, revamped and made into wearable art. Last year I bought some watch dials and I decided to experiment with a few for the show, rather than let them gather dust on my shelves. This is an example of the few pieces I made.

Vintage Bulova watch dials, mounted on a copper flower, decorated with green Swarovski crystals. The earrings had gold plated wires and I made a matching pendant and put it on a copper chain. I’m having second thoughts about the chain and might make something different for it.

Many thanks to the people who stopped by.

As for the rest of the month, I still have things to do from my list….

knitting – I sold most of my new hand knitted scarves I made on my travels back in February! And I hadn’t finished the 2 I hoped to finish! Oh well, time to finish those 2 and knit some more – happy television hours!

get quotes for gas stove installation – must do this ( its like having a play kitchen stove in the dining room, its just that its going to cause mess and chaos – as if I don’t have enough of that!)

Finish the sousaphone kit bags – they are haunting me and the boys would really use them!!

Pick the pumpkins – we have 4 lovely orange pumpkins in the garden this year.

Walk Mei – I’ve been too busy and tired, but this is back on the list as we are both so much better for it.

I did make some new shower gift baby quilts – and need some new neutral and girlie ones for November.

In the mean time domestic diva mode needs to kick in to repair the preshow neglect to the house!

And this post would  be incomplete with out the help of my little furry “supervisor”  as I took some photos….

Satisfied with her arrangement she then posed for the final photo!