Fun at Zinnia's

Whenever I am back in Southern California, I always make sure to meet up with my good friend, Chris. Our favorite thing to do is to take a class together at Zinnia. What a fun store--GREAT people, lots of inspiration and lots more goodies to use in your art. Best of all fabulous classes to learn and have fun in. Here are the C(h)ris-es taking a class with Paul. Had a another wonderful class with Joe the week before making polyclay beads.

This is my canvas I made using an image of Keely the Farmer. I added a little Tristan on his tractor later. You can visit her website 'Dancing Frog Farm' and see her menagerie--it's a mini farm...mini goats...mini horses! There are 'regular' size animals too....BIG dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, lizards...a fun place to visit.

I'm closing my crispart.net site for now....

so I thought I'd post some of my favorite artwork from there....hope you enjoy!

This was my daughter, Keely's birthday present this year...a little Hawaii for her on the east coast. We had fun filling the pocket's with touristy stuff. The sunflower fabric on the inside is from scraps of her bedroom curtains when she was little.

Love the way this turned out...

A friend's daughter found this shell awhile back and wanted to do something special with it. She saw some of my sea glass jewelry and asked what I could come up with. Love the way copper looks with treasures from the sea!

Let me know how she likes it Karen...should be there today or tomorrow.

(the pic is taken with the granite countertop in our vacation rental as the background - - isn't it gorgeous? It's called 'Jurassic green' and comes from Africa. Picked it out at Jurassic Stone here on Maui -- they are the absolute best ever. Reminds me of tide pools)

350 Event at Zinnia in Pasadena

Be sure to stop by Zinnia in Pasadena today if you are in the the Los Angeles area. They have put together a fun art show event for the day. Kyle and I contributed some paintings as well. Won't post photos of ours until after the event since the artists are suppose to remain anonymous until after purchases. (Zinnia is always a stop on my mainland visits--Great shop--Fun people--wonderful classes.)

Events are taking place all over the globe for the 350 event awareness so check out what's happening in your area. Here on Maui there is the Reef Check Hawaii Survey in Kaanapali and the Blue Line Project in Lahaina, Kahului, and Kihei.

And if you are back in our old home town in the South Bay beach area, looks like lots of friends will be having fun at the beaches as well. Hope to see some pics of the Amazing Waving Human Tide Line.

Have a GREAT day!

Aloha!

Well, we are back from another trip to the mainland -- and no, escrow still hasn't closed on our Redondo Beach home. Think we will hold the title of the longest escrow in history. But we're close! And when we get to come back home to sunrises like this.....you just kind of shrug your shoulders and say 'oh well, it will happen when it happens' and go on to enjoy another beautiful day on Maui.

This gorgeous photo was taken yesterday morning on the beach in front of our vacation rental in Ma'alaea. If you are coming to come to Maui and need a place to stay, check with us for availability. Here is a virtual tour of our condo...

http://www.islandvirtualtours.com/593/

Fruit....

Our neighbors, Mary and Maile left a bag of these pretty Star Fruits at our door last week. We had tried them long ago on a trip to the islands but I guess the ones we had weren't ripe---VERY bitter. Even the kids (who use to like to suck on lemons) wouldn't eat them. These were sweet and crunchy! Made my lips do the tingly, tongue swelling thing so Phil enjoyed the rest of them. (btw....how can you be allergic to something you've only had one other time, years ago?????)

Okay, I was the first of all my friends to ever eat an artichoke or an avocado and I've always I've shopped in odd markets looking for interesting foods all my life...at least to look at since I can't eat many things due to food allergies, but this one surprised even me! We wandered around the farmer's market at the Maui Mall after our movie looking at the pretty fruits and vegetables when we came across this..... Pretty, yah? Pretty weird! The thing was over a foot long and at least 8 inches across....all gnarly and twisted and spiky! Sent Keely a pic on the cell phone and she summed it up pretty well...."Looks like a giant pear from an alternate universe".

Found this web picture of it growing. Said they come from India......must grow it somewhere here on island too. The lady selling jewelry next to the fruit said, "well, it's an acquired taste...." Think we might be skipping that one!

Hope you are eating something yummy tonight for dinner!

Found my other photos..

Here are some more lovely jewelry pieces made with sea glass....

Watch for more--have lots of glass to play with! And now that I have my package from the mainland from Diamond Bits I'm getting the hang of drilling the holes. So much easier with the proper sized diamond drill bits!

Sea Glass Goodies

Have been watching for Sea Glass treasures on my beach walks and collected quite a few pretty pieces. Was showing my neighbors and they showed me theirs too.....Whoa!!! They've been here a lot longer than we have! And best of all---THEY SHARE!! (thanks Mary & Maile!) So now I've been playing....

Thought I had more pics downloaded from my camera but can't find them...oh well! Better post this now and look later or it will be forever until I add another post...I'm not very good about posting regularly in case you hadn't noticed!

Hope you're having wonderful end of summer weather where ever you are.

New things on my ETSY.....

Have finally been posting some things on my ETSY site....jewelry, journals, and art supplies....check it out if you get a chance. Feedback welcome! Here is a little bricolage ( [bree-kuh-lahzh, a construction made of whatever materials are at hand: something created from a variety of available things) bracelet....

Won't find this one on ETSY though, my neighbor, Mary bought it up before I got it posted! May find one similar soon though. Will be adding more things in days to come.

New Logo by Kyle

Hi there! Okay, so I'm not any better at keeping up with this blog than I was with my other...oh well! So anyhoo, son Kyle is visiting from the mainland this last week before school starts. Great seeing him and doing touristy things. My arms still aren't ready to get back out on the board but we've been swimming and snorkeling. Yesterday I was showing Kyle the artwork on the packaging (and the goodies of course) from my order from Artgirlz (way cool stuff btw) and how cute Allison and Tracy look and the next thing I knew he had a cute little picture of me too! Here's how I put it to good use......

Thanks Kyle!

Here I go again....

Starting a new blog that is! Tired of paying for a blog that is hard to use when I see friends doing great blogs with freebie Blogger. Thought I'd give it a try before my contract is up next month with 1and1. For this first post, I think I'll show you a couple of goodies I just sent off to my daughter Keely for her husband, Tristan's birthday next week...huh??? Keely gets a present for Tristan's B-Day? Of course! We like to give presents in our family....so if someone is having a birthday, isn't that a good excuse to give everyone presents? Oh well, it makes sense to me! Here are Keely's goodies--won't show you Tris' since his need to be a surprise....

The bottom one is a little pin using a large vintage button from my Grandmother's collection as a base. Added the resin flowers and metal 'smile'. The little frog with the umbrella is a charm that we got on a past trip to Artfest together--I've been saving it for something special. Keely and Tristan live on a little 'hobby farm' called Dancing Frog Farm in Connecticut. The link is on the side to he left if you'd like to check it out. She raises Nigerian Dwarf Goats, Minature Horses, Ducks and Chickens in addition to the menagerie of granddogs and grandcats . She has a variety of Chickens and Ducks that lay, green, blue, brown, and white eggs. Saw these little chickie lampwork beads and knew she just had to have earrings with them!!

Well, that's it for today...we're off to the corner to watch the sunset....Aloha