trips, goodies and gas prices

i had to travel this week, and when i do i like to scout out new antique stores and visit old favorites. this is one of the many advantages of having to travel the state for my job! first, lets talk about gas prices. i have one thing to say about the current cost of gas.................ARGGGGGGGGG!!!!!


Enough said on that topic.

moving on to better things. i went up toward morgantown, west virginia. think WVU. i have been elected to the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Central West Virginia and i am so excited about this! what a wonderful organization. i have to stay the night when i attend a board meeting, so this gives me the opportunity to prowl for goodies for my altered art and jewlery making! and did i ever hit the jack pot this week!

i have a few favorite places i like to visit when i travel that way. one is Sisters Antique Mall at exit 69 (i think that is the exit number) off of 79 in Flatwoods, West Virginia. i can spend hours in there! this is about the half way point on the way to Fairmont, West Virginia so it is a great place to stop, stretch and search for treasure.

when i arrived in Fairmont, i saw a new sign that said Fairmont Avenue Antiques. ohhhhhh, a new place to check out! i was so excited. so, i went. and am i ever glad i did! i meet the nicest person there, and guess what, she designs her own wall paper! i have never met anyone who does that, and i saw some of her work and those of use who do altered art would just die to have some of her scraps! maybe she will start selling us some!



it was a lovely shop, with room after room of delightful goodies. i spent so much time in there! i found some wonderful items, some really old LIFE mags from the early 1930's, a new mag i had never seen before from the 1930's, an old doll in the nina bagley style. i found old buttons, wooden pegs, milk bottle caps, and tons of other stuff. this is now one of my favorite stores and on my "go back to list"! here are some pictures of this awesome store for you viewing pleasure!







i have unloaded the car, and now i need to unpack my finds, put them away, and maybe take some pictures of my favorite finds to post! the biggest thing i have found is that when i get these things, many times i don't need all of it. so i was thinking about putting together some kits or packages with some of these finds on my Etsy site for others to buy. what do you think about that? would you leave a comment if you think that is a good idea?

ok, i am off to play with my new toys! i am leaving tomorrow for our annual thanksgiving trip to oklahoma. this will open up a whole new search for goodies and treats! i can't wait to see what treasures i can find in another state! my hubby is going to see a football game, and he spent $200.00 on his ticket alone! so, because i did not want to go, i get the same amount to spend in the art stores, bead stores and antique stores! so watch out oklahoma, here i come!

new stuff on etsy

ok, i took the plunge and put some of my polymer clay beads on Etsy. Hope you guys will check it out and give me feedback about pricing and quality of pictures. Here are some of the pictures of what I have in my store. Click on my Etsy store link underneath my blog banner to go visit and give me some feedback. Thanks guys! I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out on this endeavor!

Mother/Daughter Day

we went to canaan valley for my hubby's firm retreat. while he was in meetings my daughter and i took a mother daughter day. when we arrived on friday night this is what we saw laying right outside our door.

needless to say, we thought that was really cool! on saturday we took off early and drove to davis to grab some breakfast. we had a great time but it took over two hours to get our breakfast. they lost our ticket! we enjoyed spending time together, but that much time? we giggled our butts off!




well, after our two hour breakfast we decided to go see Seneca Rock and then go to Seneca Caverns and tour the caves. we had a great time in the caves. can't you tell? i fell in love with some of the flow rocks and rock formations. Seneca Indians used these caves to escape the harsh winters, and the guide did a great job telling us the history of the caverns.





here are a few more pictures. i would love to be able to figure out how to do some of these patterns in my polymer clay work. hummmmmm......how to do that?



so, i hope you enjoyed the pictures, my daughter and i sure enjoyed the experience. we also saw snow, but we didn't get any good pictures of it. we were sad about that, but we enjoyed seeing our first snow of the season.

polymer clay bookmark for a swap

here is a bookmark i made for a bead swap (i was matched with a polymer clay artist). i really like how it turned out, except for the eyes. i need to work on that. let me know what you think. i know it is big and chunky, but that is my style. you definately won't lose this book mark! i have been making lots of polymer clay focal beads, so hopefully i will have some stuff to put on etsy soon. also, check out my new cool header! gail at the shabby cottage studio made it for me! you she does such beautiful work.

ATC's

this is my first ATC i have ever made. i really like this one! it is sassy and funny and i love the vintage look. it came out of a 1930's Life mag. in fact, all of the ladies in this series are from Life mags of the 30's and 40's.



here is my first try at making ATC's. tell me what you think. i would love the feedback. here is a picture of the two page spread. there are four two page spreads in the tag book.



make sure you check out the Shabby Cottage Studio to see what the Seven Shabby Sisters have created for november! even though i am the baby of the group (newest to this art form) i am on the way to developing my own style. so many of these other ladies are just top notch in this field, and you have got to see what they have created. Gail will be posting our work all this month. i highly recommend you check it out! and if you would be so kind, post a link on your blog to the Shabby Cottage Studio so others can watch our creative journey.



there are more ATC's that i created for this series. and a suprise! but you will have to go to the Shabby Cottage Studio website to see that! aren't i just evil?


so, which one of these is your favorite? please leave me a comment and let me know. also, any suggestions to improve are welcome too.
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My Studio

Here is my studio, all clean and ready for me to work! I love it in there. I still have lots of stuff to do in it, but I will work on it over time.



I worked in here on my first project for Shabby Cottage Studios. I can not wait until all of our projects are posted. I really enjoyed working on it today. Really got the creative juices flowing.



Here is a sneak peak of the beginning of my project. You will have to check back often to see the final project.





Here is my studio, all clean and ready for me to work! I love it in there. I still have lots of stuff to do in it, but I will work on it over time.





I will post more on this project soon. This was just a little teaser for you guys on my journey to altered art/mixed media. It will be interesting to see the growth in myself and in my art.

The First Assignment!

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, the Seven Shabby Sisters have received their first mission from their artist "Charlie" (please someone out there understand the Charlie's Angels reference)! I can not wait to start on this! Unfortunately I can not work on it tomorrow (have to take the daughter to the state finals for soccer all day) so I will have to wait until Saturday to dig in. Sadness, desolatioin, frustration! I want to play right now! But alas, I had to work for my business today (for those of you that don't know I own my own company called Leading The Future and I train non-profits, do grant writing, consult and do community development work). I love it, and it pays for all of my art supplies, but sometimes working for a living interfers with my artistic endeavors! But I work from home(except when I am traveling for a job) and can set my own hours pretty much, so I can't really complain.

Anyway, you guys will have to check out what mystery art we make! I can't wait to be able to share all of our designs with you guys! Can you tell that I am excited?

On a different note, I had to travel for a job today to a part of the state I had never been to before. The drive was amazing! Deep valleys, fast running rivers, waterfalls, all framed by the wonderful, bright, vibrant hues of fall leaves! Oh, I wish I would have had my camera. I know better than to travel without it. I so wish I could have captured the beauty before winter takes over the scene. Serves me right for not taking the camera. I have a great digital camera, but it is so bulky that I hate to take it with me. I would love to have one that I could fit into my purse for just such occasions. If anyone has a suggestion for a good one that fits those requirements, let me know. I will write more soon. Sorry for the short post, but so much is going on in my life right now I don't have a lot of time to write right now. i will try to post pics and catch up this weekend.