Meredith's art show

Yesterday Meredith had her senior IB art show. Her theme was "Life is Beautiful." Here's my girl, with her work:

My Beautiful Baby Girl

My baby turns 15 today, and proud mother that I am, I just have to share some pictures...

Humblebeads...humble beading

I've been a huge fan of Heather Powers since I was first introduced to her work in the early days of BeadStyle. I love her beads, I love her style, and she's a super-nice person. When I was writing The Absolute Beginners Guide: Stringing Beaded Jewelry, I knew the bead glossary was a very important part of the book. I wanted to show as many kinds of beads as I could and help newcomers to the hobby understand all the choices they had. Heather generously gave me some polymer clay beads for this "visual dictionary" of beads.

Now that the book is finished, I wanted to make something special with the beads. I thought of all the things I admire in Heather's work: beautiful beads, natural elements, asymmetrical design, rich, earthy colors ... I must say it was a little humbling to approach this project. I wanted to showcase the beads, of course, but I also wanted them to be fully integrated in the work. Heather's beads are gems to be waiting to be discovered, not dominant focals shouting "look at me!"

So here's my little bracelet. Please visit Humblebeads to see more of Heather's work, or visit her Etsy shop for even more inspiration.

A room with a view

There have been many variations on the "old window as wall art" projects, but I just love the version I came up with.

All you need is an old window, a high-resolution photo, some foamcore, a staple gun, two eye screws, and chain.

First, I washed the window. Believe me, it was dirty. It had been sitting in our garage for ages. It's one of the only "old" things that was left in this house, so I had to do something with it.

After the bath, I let it dry for a few days. I wanted to be sure all the moisture was out of the wood. Meanwhile, I picked a favorite photo (I took this one last summer of the neighbor cows when DJ and I were on our morning walk). I ordered a poster-sized enlargement from Wallgreens.com.

I glued the poster to a piece of foamcore, and stapled the entire thing to the back of the window. Steve helped me with the eye screws and chain, and here's the result:

Look! Look! It's My Book!