Lady with the Pink Poodle

This is a photo of a necklace I made and named "Lady with the Pink Poodle". I got very inspired and excited to make this necklace after reading my friend Katrina Fong's blog. Katrina is the daughter of our friends Bob and Kathleen Fong, who are members of the St. Paul Lutheran Church where we were members for six and a half years in Sarasota, FL. I watched Katrina grow up into a beautiful, young lady. Katrina is very talented in art and is now a junior at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota. As one of her assignments last year, she was to describe a person whom she could have no contact with in a piece of artwork. She said a lady came into the place where she works with a poodle that was dyed pink! This was her inspiration for her assignment. You can read about her paintings she did on the Lady with the Pink Poodle from her blog -- http://katfong21.blogspot.com/2010/05/lady-with-pink-poodle-4-18x24-acrylic.html (Copy and paste this link into your Internet browser to read Katrina's blog and see her artwork.). Take a look at the other pieces of Katrina's wonderful artwork that she shows on her blog. After getting caught up on Katrina's blog last week, I started thinking about this Lady with the Pink Poodle. I envisioned her as wearing pearls, diamonds, high-heeled shoes and exuding lots of money. I HAD to make a necklace and name it Lady with the Pink Poodle! Katrina was ecstatic that I wanted to write about her artwork that inspired me. All of us artists enjoy getting inspired and excited about our work and wish all of our expressions of art came about in this fashion.

My Friend's Websites

I was looking through my "Favorites" list on my computer today and I ran across some of my friend's websites I saved to my list. I took a look at each website and also caught up on some of my friend's blogs. Then, I decided to write a blog about these websites that have some wonderful products for sale. You could add these products on your Christmas shopping list for friends and family.

Bob's niece Catherine Dreher is selling bath and body products that she makes and sells through her shop called Catie Beth -- http://www.catiebeth.com/ She and her husband Scott adopted a baby from Ethiopia and she is using the proceeds from her sales to pay for that adoption.

Emily Sappinfield is the daughter of Bill & Linda, good friends and pastor who married Bob and me. Emily has a shop on Etsy where she sells her handmade bags, hats and toys -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/BuenaSuerte

Amanda Klekamp is my nephew Eric's wife. Amanda is selling Scentsy candles and such -- https://alsklekamp71.scentsy.us/Home

Our friends Alberto & Mary Tomas own a fine art gallery -- http://www.marytomas.com/studiogallery/

My friend Cheri Bates wrote a book on poetry that she is selling - http://www.cafepress.com/Cheri45Bates

And be sure to check out NeeNee & CheeChee's Beaded Things -- http://www.etsy.com/shop/NeeNeeandCheeChee

Please check out these wonderful websites and start -- or perhaps finish -- your Holiday Shopping!!

Destination: Unknown

Bob and I woke up this morning and decided to take a drive in the country since it was such a beautiful day. We headed southwest with no particular destination in mind. We ended up in Granbury in time for lunch. Granbury was settled in 1854 and it has a model town square that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The square is built around the court house in the middle. We took a walk around the square to see what was there, then decided to have lunch on the patio at Stringfellow's. When I was finished with my lunch, a butterfly landed on my plate and enjoyed sucking up the sweetness from the bread from my sandwich. Bob and I walked around the square again and into several of the shops. We saw lots of beautiful hand-made jewelry and crafts. Then, we decided to drive on to Glen Rose, since it was only 17 miles away. This quaint, little town also has a town square built around the court house in the middle. It wasn't as busy as Granbury, but again we walked around and into the shops on the square. It was a wonderful day for discovery of some new places and a beautiful day for a drive in the country. You can see more photos at http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKMTI

I don't need a class!

Yesterday my friend Mary Kulpon and I went to the TX Bead Fest at the convention center in Arlington. I love to go to these bead shows when I can, as I always see new beads and use of beads and even use of household items for jewelry. I made a few bead purchases that I will use in new jewelry in the future. These bead shows always have several workshops you can attend if you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money! Since I have not worked a full-time job in the past three years, I don't want to spend over $100 on a jewelry making workshop, although I love the jewelry made in these workshops. At this bead show, there was a glass case that had some of the finished pieces of jewelry from the workshops. As I was waiting for Mary to finish her bead shopping, I looked at these unique pieces of jewelry. I loved the Wild Woman bangles by Deborah Mauser. The workshop was offered for $135. Today I decided to try making one of the Wild Woman bangles, only I made a cuff instead. Above is a photo of the bangles from the workshop and my finished Wild Woman cuff. I don't need an expensive bead class to make unique jewelry!