condiment

These past two weeks have been action-packed with outdoor activities, and not the fun let’s-go-camping kind, or the let’s-play-in-the-garden kind. We’ve been working on making our yard picture perfect for this temperamental housing market (anyone interested in a quaint Southern Oregon home?). After a day laying edging and reseeding the lawn neither I nor my hubby feel like braving the kitchen and sorry-looking fridge to scavenge for dinner. Out to eat it is! After moderate debating, we decided to give a downtown Chinese place a try. The parking lot is always full, so it couldn’t be too awful, right? We entered to find a clean, busy establishment, even though it was after eight at night and a full menu with our favorites followed by several American dishes on the back pages. We ordered vegetarian egg rolls, veggie chop suey, and hot tea. Our server was quick to bring our drinks, and accompanying the tiny teacups and shiny pot was a bright red plastic bottle. Ketchup.

sketch

I am happy to announce the arrival of a new addition to my tool family, the Flex Shaft! No, this is not the lead character to a ‘71 film (or awful 2000 remake), and yes, this tool is for my work bench and not my panty drawer. A flex shaft attaches to a Dremel drill, with a long, well, shaft, ending at a hand piece that is held like a pencil. With an additional etching bit I can now draw on metal. Which, I don’t mind saying, is pretty freaking cool.

simple shapes

Hooray for a productive day in the studio! I’m in love with the shape above. It’s a 1” recycled sterling silver circle hammered, curled, and oxidized, with the outside brushed for contrast. I’m not sure yet what to call it, or if I need to add some gold wire wrap, or just leave it alone. Below is another new earring, a teeny-tiny hammered recycled silver piece wrapped with recycled 14k gold. Not cute, but sweet. There’s a difference.

I’m also excited to announce that I’m up at NIMLI.com now! Check out my pieces here.

a dandy landscape

There are two divided camps in the rampantly spreading aesthetic of American monoculture lawn gardening; those who care and those who don't. I fall into the latter category, and the above shot accurately represents the variety of species that thrive in our tiny front lawn. It makes my neighbors twitch to look at it.