The Land of Jen

What is it about girls named Jen? I tella ya, they are everywhere and they are the greatest. Take for example my best friend Jen with her funny laugh and tattooed arms. And what about my best cousin Jennifer with her fabulously thick hair and sweet disposition. Here, just look at 'em, all purty and out of focus:

And then there's my favorite kitschy vintage jewelry-making Jen of Naughty Secertary Club. More on her and NSC later once my super duper fabulous secret package arrives in the mail. Here she is eating one of the best foods in the world:

Then I came across another Jen this afternoon who made my hair curl (even more so - thanks 88 days of rain!). Her vintage fashion company is called Frecklewonder, and other than my pets, I don't think there's anything cuter. Here she is modeling a "sold" dress I wish I had.

Go on Jens. Go on with your bad selves.

Babe-raham Lincoln

Abe meet Wolf Girl, Wolf Girl this is Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president. Isn't he da greatest? I splurged on a bracelet from Naughty Secretary Club, and by "splurge" I mean I actually bought jewelry from someone else. My money tends to pour into my own jewelry design venture so that I rarely buy from others. Gotta spread the love around a little more.

The first pic is from NSC's web site since her photo is in focus, and the second is a lame pic of my furry wolf-like arm that I snapped on my Nokia just 5 minutes ago.

This morning I actually built my outfit around my Abe the Babe bracelet. Unfortunately, I can only give you part of the picutre. You see, the top I'm wearing from Anthropologie is no longer on their web site so I'm gonna show you one that's very similar. Only thing is mine has green in it, like in the Abe bracelet. I'm also wearing my brand spankin' new skimmers from Sugar. Love love love them. I wish I'd bought a sailboat to go along with them. I'm picturing sailing around the world with Joan Wilder and Jack T. Colton and his new alligator boots...

In a forest of tall, tall men

The fact that I got five hours of sleep last night was not the reason I was late to work this morning. It should have been, but it wasn't. And it wasn't the two hours of booty-breaking kung fu I did yesterday either. I can still walk today, but barely. No, it was traffic, everywhere I turned, every route I took. Grrrr. But on to better things.

Last night I went with Jason (tall) and Nikola (tall) to see The Rosebuds at the Cavern. It was such a great show. We'd seen them in Boston by chance a few weeks ago and the show was pretty good. But last night's show was a lot more energetic and electric. The audience was full of fans who knew the beats, breakdowns, and lyrics. Of course, there were a couple of those ubiquitous overeager head bobbers in the crowd. You know who you are. You are either so into the song your emotion takes over, or you don't know the song at all and you're trying to make up for that by bobbing your head to the beat a little too much. Either way, you're entertaining.

So Jason and I talked with Ivan (tall) and Kelly (short) about seeing them in Boston. They are super nice and you'd never know they were in a band until you saw them on stage. Real natural people. At the end of the set, the band came into the audience (of tall, tall men) and played a couple acoustic, group-centered songs. We all sang along to a jingle stick, a drumbeat, a guitar, and Kelly's (short) mini-Barbie baby grand piano. Really, I'm not kidding. It looked sort of like this, but old, on a music stand, and with Barbie stickers all over it (oh, and no bench because that would be silly):

I'm on a search for the cute (short) brunette who was snapping photos all night. She got a slew of me standing next to Ivan (tall) and his guitar during the group singing bit. I was real happy and I'd like to see if she captured that. I'll let you know if I find her (and the pics).

Art With a View: Naturally High

Got this in my inbox this morning and can't wait to see some great local art from the Decorazon Art Gallery. Plus, I get to support my community's coolest "new" hotspot, the Belmont Hotel. A Dilbeck creation, the Belmont features the best (tho pricey) cocktail in town known as the Beltini. I won't even bother telling you what it tastes like. Just scoot your boot on over to the Belmont and find out for yourself!

Art with a View: June 20-August 8
Reception: Wednesday, June 20th, 6-9pm reception

Sublime Stitching

Before I dove headfirst into the jewelry design business, I was a mad stitcher thanks largely in part to two people: my late grandmother who left me all of her sewing goodness, and Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching. I went ka-razy for her patterns when I first spotted her ad at the back of Readymade magazine and began embroidering anything I could find. So imagine my glee when I saw her most recent ad for a new pattern featuring artwork by Kurt Halsey.

Ain't it precious? In addition to Kurt Halsey's pattern from Sublime Stitching, I also bought a Happy Camper pattern, Bon Voyage, and Word Balloons, so my Halsey creatures can speak little words of sweetness and love.

Below is a little slide show of some of my first embroidered pieces with SS patterns. I have a lot more, including Rocket Man place mats complete with alien beings and rocket ships, but have yet to snap pics of them. Beware, these pics below were taken before a) I knew how to use Photoshop, and b) I had any idea how to use a camera.

From Tefi's Garden: Tomatoes

I picked these tomatoes this afternoon from my upside-down planter. Have not tried them yet, but plan to with some feta cheese, white onions, oliver oil, and balsamic vinagrette. Salt too, of course.

in the gardener's hand

Here is my second tomato plant, and so far it bears only one tomato which appears to be much larger than today's yield and is only now starting to turn red even tho I planted them at the same time.

Time will tell!

Okay, we just cut into them and here's a shot just before mealtime. Oliver is all about the tomatoes. They were, by the way, incredibly sweet and delicious, but with a tough skin. We'll let the next batch ripen a bit more and not be so hasty. That should yeild a softer skin.

Conjuring Hephaestus I

Tomorrow is my third metalsmithing class and I cannot wait. The hiss of the torch flame, the sound of pounding metal, the feel of the saw in my hand going up and down - it's as close to religion as I've come in a long time.

Our first project is a simple band ring. Last week we started it and tomorrow we finish the ring, which includes soldering with fine silver, filing, hammering, and polishing. Altho the ring itself is simple, there are so many steps to making it it's unreal. Who knew? When I become more adept I plan to outfit it with silver blobbies along the top to give it a textured, organic feel. Here are pics of it so far:

We also start the next project, which is a pair of pierced saw earrings on 1inx1in sterling sheet. That means we saw a design from the inside out (much like a punched hole in a piece of paper). When dealing with design, I love the idea of organic motifs, assymetry, and quirkiness. I wanted mismatched earrings that were still thematic. I settled on a very simple design that would be easy, funky, and hold up well with the saw. One earring has a cloud and the other an umbrella. I call it "Stormy Weather." Here's a sketch. More later!

It's a gnome, baby.

Yesterday was a very full day. It started off sort of slow, like most Thursdays do, but it picked up by late afternoon. Let me start from the bottom up. Last night I met some friends for beers at Lee Harvey's. We sat outside in the cool Dallas night and talked about all sorts of things. The most interesting was that my girl Laura is starting her own law firm. How cool is that? We celebrated with a round of Shiners and talked about the possibilities. I can't wait for her to get the chance to quote Pacino: "I'm out of order?! You're out of order! This whole court is out of order!" Earlier that night I went by Shambhala to get my quarterly spoils and some price tags for my second round of jewelry pieces. I was amazed at how well my stuff sold and how empty my jewelry cases are. Yikes! But this is good news. I'll be pulling together oodles more to take over there tonite. Also on the horizon: I was invited by the guys at Shambhala to be the Featured Artist for Bishop Arts District's First Thursday shebang in July. More details to come... Even earlier that night I went to my second kung fu class of the week. I've been going since March and only tonite did I officially meet some of my kung fu brothers. It's not a very conducive place for socializing as we are all respectful of the academy (read: minimal chit chat) and serious about studying the art. But for some reason three brothers introduced themselves to me last night and I was pleased as punch to meet them. In fact, one of them told me about his sister who is learning to be a metalsmith and jeweler, and another brother joined us for beers at Lee Harvey's last night. Keeee-yah! Yesterday afternoon, a short film got the ball rolling on what turned out to be a great Thursday. Reminiscent of Raymond Carver's writing, the film is called Gnome. It stars my uber favorite woman-I-don't-personally-know, Lauren Graham and a travelling garden gnome. I could give you a synopsis or a critical take on it, but I think it's best that you watch it for yourself. The film runs about 12 minutes (the end credits run a good 3 minutes) and it's worth every second. Here's what I told some friends I showed it to: "When I was in college this was the sort of story/film I aspired to write. I like to think I came close a time or two. Whatever happens to our dreams?"