Heat Wave

Summer was slow coming to Southern California this year (WOO HOO) but now it’s here with a vengeance. The past few days temperatures have hit over the 100’s in many places. Which means I’m not a happy crafter my work space is outside, it’s under a patio cover but it’s still miserably hot out there kind of hard to concentrate on creating. I did manage to finish one new project. It’s a wooden tomb shadow box. I decided to do the story of a vampire queen living in her castle enjoying the blood of those who wander into her woods and ruling the demons around her. I enjoyed creating the story as much as the piece I might even turn it into a short story. I haven’t written fiction in years.

Despite all this heat I keep thinking about Fall and Halloween. I’ve been playing with some vintage photos on the computer and creating some Halloween/witch themed pictures from them. I’m not sure how I want to use them but I’d like to do something. If nothing else maybe I can use them for my Halloween cards this year.

Guess I should quit trying to avoid the heat and get to work. Here are a few pictures of the completed project and for the background story check out the Etsy posting: vampire queen story

I really do like Halloween!

Nacreous Alchemy had a good week it started off with an order for four pieces from a very nice customer and I was able to finish two new pieces as well.  One of them was transforming a traditional shabby chic shadow box into a far darker and less mainstream piece.  Those are my favorite kinds of projects starting out with one thing and making it over completely.  Here's the before and after:

I was at Michael's this weekend stocking up on supplies.  The girl who rang me up asked me if I really like Halloween. ;)  Even though the heat has finally decided to descend on us here in SoCal I'm already dreaming of fall and Halloween decor all over. 

Trip Highlights and Family Visit

I came back from my trip up North last Sunday to a house filled with family and friends celebrating a visit from my cousin and his family from New York.  So this past week has been busy.  I discovered a new tea room where we brought my cousins daughter and my Mom's god daughter.   They had a whole section of hats that you could try on we all had a blast slipping into different personas with each hat.   We had dinner out for my Mom's birthday at her favorite restaurant, Spaghetti Factory.  The decor in that place is amazing all the old velvet sofas, dark wood and gorgeous Victorian lamp shades. 

My trip up North was wonderful; the drive there was mostly uneventful. Upon approaching the Grapevine just as the sun was rising the mountains looked like a watercolor painting with varying shades of gray and lavender it was all just a bit soft and blurry. And while passing one of the many cow pastures I saw four black cows walking in line nose to tail with each cow just a bit smaller than the next. They were like a kids toy their sizing was so perfect. The best part of the trip was getting there and seeing the boy.  While there we did some site seeing. We went to Folsom prison and got scolded by a guard for taking pictures. In the town of Folsom we went to an old catholic church and cemetery and I got some great graveyard pictures. I can't wait to do some photo manipulation on them. I also got some nice shots of the American River. We went to downtown Sacramento to look at the beautiful Victorian houses and I found my dream home there.  Although there were so many beautiful houses there I could have had a dozen dream homes.  Leaving was difficult I miss the boy like crazy but it's time to get my creative groove going and gear up for what I hope will be my busy season. :) 

Tower in the old part of the prison

One of the gravestones from 1878

The American River

My Dream House