I'm Baaack...Twas a Tough Year - It is Much Better Now

Added a bit of Antique French tatting to this necklace to bring a bit of playfulness to the regal piece. I now have some wonderful outlets for my jewelry, felted work and vintage fabric sachets in a couple of shops in downtown Greenville. I am very happy to have them.

 Yes, I am making sachets. Special sachets stuffed with lavender, sometimes rosemary, both of which I grow here at home. These soft and delicate sachets have been made for centuries to freshen a closet or commode. They reflect my memories of living in France.
 Sometimes, it appears to me that mixing up the materials brings life into a piece. For example, I use my sachets as a beading opportunity to give the soft bags a few touches of beaded color. They are crafted from vintage fabrics that have softened over time, so I add some glass beads to round it all out, or fill them with dried herbs. My favorites are lavender and rosemary. Sometimes I try others, such as  corriander, cinnamon or anise.

I will be sewing and filling some sachets today. in addition to photographing a new piece I am working on -- a pretty asymetrical beadwoven bracelet in coppertones. I will add a photo of it to my next posting.  See ya soon!

Time to Make the Donuts...I mean Zucchini Bread!

Yes! It is the big whopper, and soon it will be two beautiful, warm and fragrant loaves of zucchini bread. One is for my neighbors, who are the best neighbors anyone could have. Yesterday, they made us a pizza from the tomatoes in their garden. It was a Margherita pizza and the tomatoes were sliced on top of mozzerella cheese and fresh basil and sliced onions. It was Heavenly! So today I am working in the kitchen on the zucchini breads and having a lovely time. OK, let's get on with the procedure.

Mr. Biggie

 Mr. Biggie was extremely happy and honored that he would soon be zucchini bread. So, he gave a great impression of a whale.

Time to remove the seeds...

Time to peel the skin ...

Cut the second half of the zucchini in cubes and place them in a freezer bag.

There it is! One of the two loaves I baked.  The neighbors were delighted to have the other half. By the way, I attached a link to the previous post for the recipe for this one. It is delicious!

 After baking all morning, I took Beauty the doggy for a walk outside and picked a nice bouquet of fragrant gardenias and beautiful pale purple hyacinths. A lovely end to a beautiful morning.

Bijouxfolle: MONSTER Zucchini

Bijouxfolle: MONSTER Zucchini

MONSTER Zucchini

Below are  gorgeous zucchini squash blossoms. The leaves are so large they provide shade by covering the zucchinis and I really have to poke around in there among the stems and flowers to find the squash that are growing.  Last night we had a small, tender zucchini  mixed with tomatoes, poblano peppers, basil and thyme -- ALL from our garden! There's nothing better than fresh veggies you pick from your own backyard garden. YUM!

I harvested this zucchini about a week ago. It measures 16 inches long and 4 1/4 inches wide at the bottom and 2 1/4 inches at the stem end. WOW! I will be making zucchini bread today.
Here's the link to the recipe I will be following. I'll let you know how it turns out!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/moms-zucchini-bread/detail.aspx

The body of the purse

To get to this point, I cut two pieces of fabric for one side of the purse lining and the other for the outside. I fused them together and used them as one piece.

The front of the purse is a piece of pink felt cut to fit the other side of the lining. I used roving and needle felting to create a butterfly and flowers on the front of the purse. I used sewing machine stitches to quilt the felt for detail and to attach a heart I cut from cotton cloth. I am now hand beading the purse to add some shine. I trimmed the top of the purse with vintage narrow pink ruffled lace and beaded that as well. Again I fused the lining to the felt to give the purse added stability.

The next steps could be to add more beading and later add  a magnetic closure and a strap or handle. I'll think about that later today.

Toodles! :-)

Beaded Purses in addition to Beaded Jewelry

Hi! I hope everyone enjoyed their barbecues yesterday and had a sparkling fireworks filled evening last night. We sure did! My little schipperke/pomeranian "watch dog" chose to wait out the fireworks in the bathroom until all the hoopla and noise disappeared. She is NOT a fan of loud noises, music or voices, but she is definitely a fan of loud squalks eminating from her rubber squeeky toys.

What I've been doing? The usual. Chasing beads, chasing rainbows. My most recent necklace is the one above. You can find it on my etsy shop janetkemp88.etsy.com

This necklace was inspired by a fairy tale. It is a whimsical translation featuring a jaunty brass frog, that is nestled between two stepping stones, in this case a vintage button and one of two bronze Chinese coins. Between the two coins is a lovely square, fern green, tangerine orange, and ivory white Ocean Jasper bead, entwined within a copper wrap. Hematite and jasper beads are joined by filigree beads and connect to a lovely metal pendant that features glass pearls, rhinestones.

Two glass pearl pendants, one with an antique metal adornment -- a Ferrule -- that once graced the handle of elaborately crafted French cutlery, swing from the pendant. The other side of the necklace is made from the remnants of an antique beaded French rosary that is very weathered. The white glass beads are tinted in spots with rust as are the metal wire connectors. Accenting the rosary beads is a lovely tomato red glass bead from Japan.

The necklace fastens with a barrel clasp. It is 23 inches long from one end of the clasp to the other end. The central pendant from the tip of the Ocean Jasper stone to the bottom of the longest pearl drop is 5 1/2 inches long.

So, has the princess kissed the frog yet? Let's hear from the frog, himself...RIBBET!

I'm taking another approach to satisfying my many years of  bead addiction. I am going back to my sewing roots and combining all manners of soft fabrics and fibers with bright shiny beads and semi precious stones. It's a colorful and tactile world that I am happily entering into and just makes beading even better!

Sorry to Be So Long Getting Back to You All!

I've been making pins for Spring that are lightweight and in pretty spring flower colors. This is one of them. Let me know what you think! Happy Springtime!