A Busy Week of Work

I’ve not been gone… just busy making soaps & lotions.

I move on Saturday to a show in town for next weekend. She has private appointments the beginning of the week before the official shopping weekend so we move our products in early.

The set-up is great. About 10 crafters have products there from silk arrangements to jewelry to my soaps & lotions to wall hangings. All in a rustic carriage house. Just a great stop! My order for more cocoa butter arrived. Last time I purchased the cocoa butter in pellets and that was so great! Even tho I had ordered during hot July and some of the pellets had melted it was better than one 10 pound chunk. Guess what arrived this time? A 10 pound chunk! It didn’t take as long as I expected to chisel it into usable pieces. I repackaged it into 3 large ziploc bags.

But, oh yummy, it smells sooo good!

This week I made goat milk body lotion in just 3 fragrances since I found I was nearly out of my 100-count bag of bottles just as I was ready to get started! I also made a few more batches of Butterlicious Body Cream (c) to round out the inventory.

In mid-May I’m teaching a soapmaking class at a large craft day in Rock Falls. So this is the end of the wire (timing-wise) for getting soap made.

I did a batch of Red Clover Tea on Sunday (love the swirls!), Waterfall Mist on Tuesday, Baby Kisses with lotion added in today, and have a batch to make into Black Raspberry Vanilla tomorrow!

Today I cut the 2 earlier batches…. satisfaction!
After that and labeling was finished for today, I made bread, cole slaw with home made sf dressing, and grated a huge chunk of cheese. Along with keeping up with the men, cooking 3 meals, laundry, and a short nap!

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Spring Art Sale

K was thrilled to finally be accepted into the Spring Art Sale at SAIC! The artists are chosen by seniority and finally she is getting some as a junior/ 3rd year.

This is a public sale where the students of The School of The Art Institute of Chicago are given the opportunity to sell their work. Admission is FREE!

K will have her signature bags, jewelry, and scarves for spring! Other work will include photographs, ceramics, prints, sculptures, gifts, jewelry, paintings, drawings, and accessories.

Friday, April 18, 2008 – 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Saturday, April 19, 2008 – 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

MacLean Center Ballroom
112 South Michigan Avenue
(diagonally across from Millennium Park and just across the street from The Art Institute)

Feel free to email me if you need more information or a ride!

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A Birthday Today!

Phil had a birthday today!

He is still older than me.

I made him stir fry chicken & veggies for lunch and sugar-free cheesecake for all day. Blueberries were on sale the other day so I got those for the cheesecake but they are sure end of winter variety.
Tonight we went to Outback for supper and did some shopping for necessities. His sister called as we finished the last store. I checked out, started driving home, JP & I stopped at the convenience store, I continued driving, we played Chinese fire drill and JP got in to drive, and they were still talking!

I said we must be old — home at 8:35 p.m…..

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Bags, She Loves Bags…

These are not for any class but for sale… K hopes she is accepted into the Spring Show at the School where students can sell their work to the public. Since she doesn’t have a job and keeps ahead on her school work, she has a bit of time to sew here & there.

The fabric outlet she took me to in July & August has great pieces of leather for a pretty good price considering it is leather!


AND she got a 97% on her Meteorology test the other day! How do you like that Grandpa?

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Accessory Design – Fall 2007

K’s favorite class last semester (and overall) was Accessory Design. She still has contact with the instructor and we think he’ll be a good contact in the future as well.For the final project, she had a 5 piece collection that all went together. K designed the articles, made the patterns, and did all the construction. Once class was finished she could use it them!The pink purse has hand-beaded accents and a hinged closure. It is roomy and has extra pockets included a zippered one inside. I love how it hugs your side when worn on the shoulder.
The lavender fabric coordinates with the pink and this bag carries a laptop & the cords.

The wool hat was hand felted and shaped on a wooden hat mold. She made 3 hat pins with wool felted ends. I love that added touch! The scarf is wonderfully warm and molds to your neck. Rumor has it there will be more of these available this fall! I love the fingerless gloves but was not able to swipe them.The silver fabric covering the table is also the lining fabric for the purse & laptop bag.

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Sampling Class & Cell Phones

One of K’s classes is called Sampling. Not what she & her friends expected but she is working with it.

I think this project had to do with borrowing someone’s words.

She did the faces on the phone as free-motion embroidery on the machine. The edges are serged. The messages on the little yellow pieces are hand embroidery. The eavesdropping comments are done as free-motion embroidery on the machine. Have you thought about what other people hear you say?

@~~>~~

K (gray scarf) and her friend Steffany from last month:

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Angi’s Quilt

I worked on this the 7 days before my trip to Mississippi. I was hoping the colors would fit with her home and yes, she decorates in more of these bright/jewel tone colors.

And jewel colors are fitting, she calls me Jules.

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Back from Mississippi!

My blog has been quiet because I took a short trip to Angi’s! I met Angi online through Sonlight‘s forums, the home school curriculum we use. It was terrific to meet her IRL (in real life)!!!

(Well, the terrific time began AFTER I sat on the Moline, IL runway for 3 hours! By then it was past time for my connecting flight to have left Atlanta. I couldn’t change the weather so figured I’d deal with it when I got to Atlanta. Once there, my flight from 2 1/2 hrs ago was still there! I got on, Angi tracked it online, and I made it to my destination with my suitcase!)

On Wednesday she took me to see Biloxi and the Katrina Memorial.

This wall part of the memorial shows how high the water from the hurricane got. This is a good block from the coastline.

I really liked the collage of items that washed up and is arranged here.

She took me along the coast and the remaining destruction is just incredible! We had lunch before returning home.

On Thursday her older girls joined us to visit the French Quarter in New Orleans.

One stop was at Cafe Du Monde for beignets & coffee. I cheated and had 3 bites of Angi’s. An order is for 3 of these pastries!

They enjoyed the special coffee and the table ended up being coated in powdered sugar!

We took a carriage ride tour of the French Quarter which gave a good overview of that part of town. Pretty much all I needed of that part of life and we were thankful this was a weekday morning for our visit.

Of course, there are many more pictures that I didn’t post. So much to capture! I do regret not getting my camera out more when we were at her house. I’m missing pictures of some of her family so I’ll need to return!

Misc pictures….

Keller is 5 months old

Angi & Me!

Keller after his sister gave him a morning bath!

I had a wonderful time. It was warm (spring-like) and sunny. Angi’s family is a treasure and I enjoyed meeting them all!
Her middles are near JP’s age,

her olders near K’s age,

with a baby & grandson to top it all off!

Of course, I loved the baby kisses! 🙂

Angi & Gil are amazing hosts and I was truly blessed by visiting with them!

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Fun Weekend!

K was home for the weekend and our only big “job” was to do her taxes and complete her FA form. Neither took too long.

She was glad for sleeping in and not having to cook her meals. She saw some of her work friends on Friday evening. See her necklace? This was her first project in her Molds class. Something along the line of make a prototype, then wax mold, fill with silver, fire, file to finish type of process. She will file some more of the rough edges yet but that is a slow (and albeit painful to the hands) process.
Please post a comment that you’d like to see her Sampling project of cell phones and maybe we can get pictures from her! 😉

And while the camera was out, JP allowed a picture. Treasure this! The pictures of this teen are few & far between! JP’s news flash is that he was ask to be a regular in a Sunday weekend band at church! Woo Hoo!! He’ll play every other weekend and have practice on the off week. We are so happy for this opportunity. He loves playing — it just makes him happy!

Yes, the musical trait continues on….

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