Miscellany Archives - Page 10 of 11 - Susan's Charming Trinkets & Art Circus

Back in the Saddle

Time to get back in the blogging “saddle”, I’ve been out of it for awhile. A long while.

Why haven’t I been blogging? Hmmm…I can’t quite put my finger on it. I try to write then do one of two things…write some words and hate them all. Erase, erase, erase. Or…stare blankly at the white screen…forever….and write nothing…even after hours or days of looking at the same page space. Ugh…so frustrating!

Couple that with the meanies in my brain that say, “who is even reading this? If they were they’re not now! What’s the point?”

Recipe for disaster…

What’s the solution? Damned if I know…so I asked my son.

His advice?

“Mom…just start by posting something simple!”

Um, what? Simple? Really?

Epiphany…try something simple to get back in the “saddle,” simple…

So that’s what I’m going to do. Check in on me tomorrow…

For simple!

Posted on August 8, 2014August 8, 2014 by susanmwb

My Favorite Show…(better late than never)

Bead Soup Hoppers…..you can find my bead soup here: https://www.susansartcircus.com/bead-soup-all-at-once/

Over Mother’s Day I had my booth full of things at the Bernardo Winery in San Diego, California. It was the 37th year that this show has been going on and about 10 years that I have participated.

The winery is a beautiful spot. Filled with antiques from the century they’ve been raising grapes on the property. Hundreds of olive trees line the walkways and buildings. Lush landscaping and flowers all around. Many small specialty shops and, of course, the wine tasting room plus they have a restaurant in the middle of everything! Needless to say it’s my favorite place and I get to be there (as long as Veronica juries me in) twice each year…Mother’s Day weekend and again the weekend a couple weeks before Halloween.

This time my whole family came on Mother’s Day. My son…

…he fell in love with my friend April’s Yorkie, Suzy. Isn’t she cute?

My daughter came all day to help out.

And my husband, well, let’s just say he found some new friends.

Whenever you get the chance go visit the Bernardo Winery…you won’t regret it!

Posted on May 28, 2014August 10, 2014 by susanmwb — 2 Comments

Christmas with Ice and Santa!

Christmas is coming?! Really? Didn’t we just do Christmas?

I have to admit that Christmas has not been my favorite holiday over the past decade. When you’re on the road, as I am, through the holiday season Santa is more work than pleasure. Add to that 10+ years of this love/hate relationship and thinking about Christmas seems really daunting.

So, several months ago I was sent some beautiful Rue Romantique pieces from the Ice girls and asked to do something for Christmas. My first honest response in my head was, “oh no, not that!” I’ve wrestled with it ever since…until this past week.

Knowing our blog hop was fast approaching I knew I had better wrap my head around it or be totally delinquent. Out came all the pieces and more from my design team stash…ribbons, the component Rue pieces, resin, bezels, papers….all of it all over the studio. I stared at it for several days. Pushing it aside I went back to my all time favorite material, shrink plastic, and just began to play with some holiday stamps. Then it dawned on me! K.I.S.S. Stop over thinking it and keep it simple stupid!

Merry Christmas and Santa emerged…

I pulled out the alcohol inks in red and green to add some holiday color to the components. Wrapped a bit of vintage ribbon to the bottom.

Santa had to have some shiny, sparkly areas so out came the iridescent glitter added to some ModPodge then painted into his fur, beard, hat, and sleeves. Also some glitter was added to the component piece then resin over the top to seal.

Here it is a bit closer so you can see how wonderfully the glitter falls into the component grooves then lights up under the resin. Santa and all the pieces also have a resin coating. Such a nice gloss to reflect the lights when these are hanging from the tree. The bottom crystals are also from the Connie Crystals…last blog post…beautiful, faceted teardrop shapes. They made the perfect sparkling end to the base of both.

Here’s to Christmas…a better relationship with Santa and wishing you all the meaning of the season!

Check all the fantastic Christmas projects for the hop!! Don’t miss any of them!

ICE Resin site http://wp.me/p1MCno-2W3

Lexi Grenzer http://lexigrenzer.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop.html

Pamela Huntington http://pamelahuntington.typepad.com/february_2007/2013/11/handmade-holiday-blog-hop.html

Jen Cushman http://wp.me/p1lhEq-Gb

Until next time…

Posted on November 7, 2013November 11, 2013 by susanmwb — 6 Comments

Forgotten Words…

Today’s task was to write up a short 100 word bio about my self for our Ice® Resin Team…not an easy task! But I found something that I had forgotten about completely and it’s pretty funny (at least to me!) Not even sure what or who I wrote this for and it may very well be on my old blog…not sure.

But, in either case, here it is again…

Quirks and the Divine (Divine Quirks..?)

My husband was quick to jump into this!

Known only to one other is the fact that I have an innate aversion to the tiny leftover bits of just about anything. I will leave the last dregs of the toothpaste, the last half ounce of mouth wash, a food leftover, and sometimes even the last bite on my plate. Weird, huh?
My family thinks I have kitchen OCD (technically shouldn’t it be CDO…alphabetical would be better). It makes me crazy if the pots aren’t hung on the rack just right, tools aren’t in the same places in the drawer, or the dishwasher isn’t loaded the way I would load it. I take it all apart and put whatever it is back together the “right” way then I can breathe again. And this doesn’t bother me anywhere but the in the kitchen…(okay, so if the toilet paper is upside down I turn it over…are you a paper under or a paper over person?)
My children were quick to point out that I always want to watch the same TV show or movie…all the time! Let’s see…I’ve watched the latest Star Trek movie about 20 times, the first Alien movie several dozen times, I’m on my 10^th or 11^th go around on the Tudor series, and I’m hopelessly addicted to Downton Abbey. Every time they come into the room with me they can tell just by about ten seconds of sound what is on my screen. I like the familiarity of it, is that bad?
No matter what time I need to get up I set my alarm clock between 15 and 30 minutes before that time. In the just waking up state of mind I can trick myself into thinking I’m going to be late if I don’t get up when the alarm goes off and if, in my morning haze, I hit the snooze button once I’m still on time! My husband thinks this is just plain madness. “You can still read the time on the clock!” Yes….but it’s psychological trickery for the gal who hates mornings. Nuts, maybe?! Does it work for me? Yes! Every time!

Divine?

Live everyday like the devil is chasing you! I believe that life is short and each day is precious. You need to find your path to be happy, laugh, love, and deeply live your life to the fullest. You only get one chance at it. If you don’t like your current path then change it…mold it, wrangle it, work at it until you can say you’re pleased with it. Don’t blame your unhappiness on others…you choose! You get to make your life passionate and happy! Now go blaze your trail!!

Posted on September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 by susanmwb — 6 Comments

Did you miss me??

What has everyone been up to? It’s only been a year since I was here last…ha! Where have I been? What have I been doing whilst my blog sits unattended? Well, a little it of this…and a bit of this…(very little)