Moving On

This past weekend was the last of my craft shows for the year (WHEW !). I love them, but they absolutely wear me out. I came home and slept for over 14 hours, which in my world is absolutely unheard of ! So, now I have a huge mess to sort through and re-organize and get listed on etsy. Also, at one of the shows I was approached by a woman opening a new gallery in Dublin, Georgia, so in my spare time (LOL) I need to start making items for when she opens her gallery December 1st.

I tried out for another community theater production. I've never been in a musical before, so I was thrilled to be cast in the chorus. We'll be performing "It's a Wonderful Life-The Musical", opening the day after Thanksgiving. I'm so excited about doing this play! We started rehearsals a couple weeks ago and the music is amazing. So, here it is the end of September and I'm singing Christmas carols all day long.

Craft Shows !!

Now is the time of year that I really look forward to. Let the craft shows begin !!! Due to the economic situation in the country, this year I have cut out all out-of-town craft shows, so that doesn't leave much. However, in this wonderful city that I live in (Aiken, South Carolina), we have a fantastic show that's going on 33 years. The show has 180+ vendors and about 30,000 visitors. I love being a part of this show. This year it is held on Friday, September 11th from 9am to 6pm, and Saturday, September 12th from 9am to 5pm. I'll post my booth location tomorrow when I get my registration packet. Please stop by my booth, even if it's just to say hello !

Custom Orders - LOVE 'EM !!

One of my favorite things when designing jewelry is to create a piece for a particular outfit. My voice teacher has a beautiful skirt that she hasn't been able to find jewelry to match, and it occurred to her that I could probably make something to match perfectly. She specifically requested that I primarily focus on the oranges with a little bit of green. I used Fire Agate, Apple Coral, Czech glass, Pearls and Mother of Pearl.

Here's her beautiful skirt, and the finished product:

Chaos !

I have signs on my car to advertise my jewelry business, so a couple that recently started attending our church saw the signs and asked if I would be interested in possibly buying her bead inventory. All I've ever seen her wear is a single strand of simple pearls, so I wasn't at all sure what she would have, so not knowing what to expect, my husband and I went over to their house, and my jaw about dropped. This woman had been making jewelry for about the past 30 years. She had contracts with dress shops, had employees working for her, you name it. She's not in good health now and has lost interest in jewelry. They've moved a couple of times, each time toting all these boxes of beads and findings. She decided it was time to part with all this, especially since she found a "good home" for it to go to. I briefly popped open box after box, just to get a general idea of what was inside, and then we agreed on a price. I loaded up my Honda Pilot (every square inch was filled !) and home we went. I am now going through all these boxes, and every time I open a new box I wonder what I will discover ! My studio used to be neat, but now my inventory has probably more than doubled. There are boxes of beads everywhere. I'm slowly trying to consolidate and find space, but right now it is absolute CHAOS, but it's also a lot of fun !!!

Featured in etsyBEAD "Totally Turquoise" Treasury

Rita from BaublesAndPearls grabbed a treasury to promote the etsyBEAD "Totally Turquoise" theme sale, and I've got one item featured in the treasury. YAY, thanks Rita !!

Economic Stimulus Sale !!!!

I have so much Fall jewelry that I need to sell to make room for Spring inventory, so throughout the month of March my etsy shop will be having a HUGE Fall Clearance Sale.

Bookmark this page and check back on Sunday, March 1st when the sale starts !
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5507576§ion_id=5963124

I'll be adding new items frequently throughout the month, so check back often.

Photos from "Inherit the Wind" Play

I recently had the incredible opportunity to participate in a local community production of "Inherit the Wind". It's an amazing story and really makes you think, which is the whole premise of the story. It discusses evolution versus creation. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd do something like this, but the opportunity came along and I grabbed it!! It has been a wild and thrilling ride. We began rehearsals before Thanksgiving, and the show didn't open until January 16th. It's been a long process, but definitely worth the trouble to be fully prepared. I've always thought I'd have stage fright, but on opening night I was surprisingly calm, which probably can be attributed to the numerous rehearsals. This has been an opportunity to meet so many gifted people and make some wonderful new friendships. Our community, though not large, is so blessed to have some incredibly talented people, and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to work with them. I also had the pleasure of working with one of my fellow co-workers, Lisa Fountain, and although we were already pretty close friends, doing this play together has brought us much closer.



Portrait photo from the playbill.









Keep in mind the era was supposed to be 1925, which accounts for the drab apparel. I actually made my dress because the costume selection was very limited.

"Mrs. Loomis" (me) telling Mr. Dunlap that "the minute Brady gets here, people are gonna pour in. Town's gonna fill up like a.....a rain barrel in a flood !"





Me consoling my "daughter" after she was scared by the Reverend talking about Henry Drummond being the "devil".










An amazing actor and dear friend, Patrick Williams, as "E.K. Hornbeck", a newspaper man from the Baltimore Herald.





Another wonderful actor and good friend, John Fowler (right) as Tom Davenport, the local Circuit District Attorney, interviewing prospective juror Jesse H. Dunlap (left), played by Dave Engleman.







Courtroom scene where I'm a spectator sitting behind the defendant, Chris Bowman as Bert Cates (right) and his attorney, Henry Drummond (left), played by Russ Snow, another truly gifted actor.







Lisa with her stage husband, Matthew Harrison Brady, played by a brilliant actor, Rich Herzog. In this scene, he's having a breakdown and she's consoling him. She sings to him a little bit of the hymn "It is Well With My Soul", and to put it in the words of the director, she sings "like an angel".




Backstage "waiting in the wings" with Lisa, one of my dearest friends, co-workers, and now also a fellow thespian.