The Lauritzen Gardens

We decided to take a few days and shop and stay in Omaha to celebrate my birthday early. We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel - lovely - our friends Fred and Shelley met us there and we had a fun time exploring the Old Market and dining at the Twisted Fork. Friday we toured the Lauritzen Gardens (right before 50% of our party got too sick to carry on...)

We're replacing lots of the light fixtures in our home, so I have an obsession with them right now. Isn't this lovely? 

 The pointsettia and model train exhibit is up through mid January. I can't keep a pointsettia alive for more than 10 days. This exhibit has been up for two months and all the plants are gorgeous.

 bridges built of sticks...another of my current loves.

 

 

 Happy Birthday to me. (Tune in my head...)

 Happy New Year to my Friends and Family and All Of You!

Pretty treats for the birds were everywhere outside.

Things That Are Round

 On Christmas Eve afternoon I made a few bracelets using leather and ball chain and lampwork beads I had made.  I like them so much that I plan to make more.

I used some bootie yarn (the yarn I make booties with) to crochet a jar of balls. Just because. I have a hard time doing nothing, so filling a jar with balls seemed like a good idea while sipping my end-of-the-day cocktail...

 I was delivering some jewelry to Liberty House and had to take a quick peek at all her lovely vintage goodness when I spotted this HUGE roll of woven strapping. I would like to make some bags, and this would be perfect for the straps!

 As I had promised myself that I would play with my new glass rods after I finished up the majority of my orders, I pulled some wonky stringers and then made some beads which will end up on bracelets like the ones at the top of this post.

just look at the green, orange and red one with it's pretty star!

Surfacing

Christmas orders just about did me in this December. It was great! Since December 1st I've had orders for 367 necklaces and 52 ornaments. That's Incredible! Thank you! Above are some necklaces I assembled for a friend. She showed me what she wanted with what, and I put them together. That was yesterday. Since December 1st, I've been getting up at 4am and working on orders. Most of them were one-of-a-kind custom pendants. Three hours later the sun would come up and look like this outside my studio window:

 I would work until the sun went back down... then have a cocktail. Most days have been 12-13 hour work days. Maybe I work slow....

 Here are a couple of favorites:

  

  Wait - I have to show you this. We have 15 big fat hens. They are all molting or lazy. Usually we get one. ONE. egg a day, which means that I had to buy store eggs. THEN look what someone laid. Doesn't that look like an add for "be yourself"?

Above: the lace from the wedding dress. Hand made. The customer had seven made for family. Beautiful.

These glass rods arrived and have been my motivation for getting orders done so I can make beads...

Again - thanks to everyone who ordered pendants and ornaments. And to everyone who came and shopped here at Two Dog Pond...Merry Christmas

Do Not Open Until Christmas

I wish I had something more clever to post about, but it's all in these boxes and I would hate to give away any surprises, so you'll just have to wait until Christmas.

This is this mornings stack of orders going out...





Maybe I should ask someone to give me a hand... oh wait.... looks like she did.