My Dream Bathroom

Ok, I think I could take a bath in this room...what about you? 

 I wouldn't mind having this bathroom either!  Yes, please.  I'll take it just like it is.

I'm collecting pictures on Pinterest for the house we're hoping to build next year.  These two bathrooms made it to my Pinterest.  Now, whether my bathroom ever looks like one of these...well, that might be another story.....but in the meantime I'm just gonna play like, 'kay?

Shannon

Photos:  BH&G

Indie Business 3.0 Launch Party

I took the wonderful online class Indie Business 3.0 taught by Leigh-Ann, Jill Murno and Lisa Leonard.  It was so inspiring and helpful.  I still have a lot of material to work through.  I am in the middle of a move from KS to TX, so my shop is not fully stocked.  Sooo, now is not a time for me to launch new products, but a lot of my classmates are launching new shops, new products or new blogs.  There are some really cute places to visit in this list!

Happy clicking!!

My Shop

New Shops!

Pursue Joy

Rouge & Whimsy

Jonelle Maira

Zora Belle

Bibeez Baby

Lilac Lime Studios

Meredith Pannett

Project Anthologies

Stella Grace Boutique

Made by Kait

Craftzee

Random Gypsy

Kate Pixley Designs

Just Because

Photo by Jodi

Pink Pepper Jewelry

Wish You Were Then

Tag...You're It

Pickled Poppy

Nola Love

Geeky and Sassy

A Sign of Life

Hey Daisy

The Painted Frame

Dawn Stitches

My Happy CA
Sew Indy
Asymmetrical Joy
Stitched in Faith


New Blogs!
Sew Indy
My Simply Great Life
One Man, One Wife, and Our Life
Random Gypsy
Just Because
Blissful Creations
Pieces of Me
Sweeter Lemon
Remarkably Domestic

My Happy California
Asymmetrical Joy
Operation Stitch
Nola Love

New Products!
Little White Chapel
Froggy Girl Designs
Karis Kisses
Modern Republic
Fawn Over This
Kamika Kraftz
Some Odd Girl
Eleventh Monkey
Bonita Rose
Lou C's Designs
Pulp Sushi
Heart & Soul Pieces
The Luna Tree
Green Dandelion
Eef-Ink
Random Gypsy
Zuma Lilly
Lollipops
The Busy Bean
Linkel Designs
Funky Faith Designs
Buggle and Boo
JanMary Designs


Whew!  That's quite a list!  Hope you have time to visit a bunch of them.  There are some really cute items, pretty jewelry, fun things!

Good luck to all my classmates!

Shannon

Artifacts Jewelry for my Scientist Daughter

I made this necklace for one of my daughters for her birthday. She is not a girly girl, and doesn't wear jewelry that often. Really the only time she wears jewelry is when she is dressing up a little for church or for some particular event. So I tried to tailor this necklace to fit her and her interests. She got her degree in biology with a chemistry minor. She wants to get her masters in a particular biology discipline. She works at the zoo. She wants to get into research. She loves biology, astronomy, geology, creation science, physics, ancient history, politics...yeah, conversations with her are sometimes just a wee bit over my head.

I ordered a stack of books for her (that she picked out) from the Creation Research Society - books about cosmology and creation, natural limits to biological change, the genesis of germs - sounds like fun reading, huh?

Sooo, you can see why I chose the items I did for this necklace--

Some of the beads I chose are basically antique artifacts...

The first two items are freshwater pearls (elements from nature...)

Then an old typewriter key for her initial (she likes old stuff...)

The little black button is a vintage shoe button. (...old stuff...)

The little white disc is an antique African ostrich bone bead. (antique, artifact...)

The tiny copper bead with the ostrich bone bead is an antique African brass bead.

The large white bead is an antique African yak bone bead.

The blue and red disc is an antique African trading bead.

Then I hand stamped the word "Artifacts" on a nickel tag I cut out...



The little blue disc below is an antique Venetian glass bead used in trade to the Africans in exchange for spices,  peppers, etc.

The brass charm below the Venetian glass bead is an antique African handmade brass charm that they use as decoration on their little babies' hats.

I made the copper bezel and inserted a "nature-y" line drawing.

The button with two holes is from the Civil War era.

The blue and red disc is another antique African trading bead, and coupled with it is a tiny antique African nickel bead.

Then there is an antique African brass bell.

And, finally, an antique African water buffalo bone bead.

Hopefully, this will be a piece of jewelry that she enjoys wearing because it is a little bit of history....

Shannon

Pinterest Obsession!

I recently discovered Pinterest.  I had never heard of it until people in my Indie Biz 3.0 class started talking about it.  LOVE!  It is one of those places that you can waste spend many hours discovering and drooling!

These are a few of the pictures I have pinned onto the Farmhouse board I created.  Oh. my. goodness.  The inspiration you can find on Pinterest!

 I have started some boards for the farmhouse we are hoping to build when we move back to Texas.  What a great place to keep all the ideas I run across online!  And every time you pin a picture to a board, it saves the url for that picture, so you can find your way back to the original source.  Sooo helpful.  Sometimes in the past I have saved a picture in my google notebook, and have wanted to go back to the blog or website I found it on, but have been unable to locate it.  With Pinterest I can always find my way back to the source!!

 If you want to see the boards I have started on Pinterest, go here.

Oh, how I WANT these lockers in a mudroom!!  Love!

If you are on Pinterest, I would love the link to your boards so I can browse!

Shannon

Indie Business 3.0

This class is SO FUN AND INSPIRING!!!  I'm soooo glad I registered for it!  Some of the class assignments are fun projects like this notebook.  And then other classes are brainstorming and filling out the worksheets in our notebooks.  As we work on different projects and assignments, I have this wonderful notebook to collect all my information in one place.  Inside the front cover I made a pocket for holding info that I'm not quite ready to transfer onto my worksheets.

To make the dividers, I traced the outline of a regular office supply divider onto chipboard so that I would have my spacing right.  I cut out five dividers.  Then I just decorated them with scrapbook papers and some little metal embellishments.  I had to get the metal in there, because most of what I create is either from metal, or has some metal on it somewhere.  Silver, obviously, draws me like a magnet.  But I also LOVE the look of mixed metals, whether it be in the jewelry I make, or the servingware on my dinner table.

One of the sessions we have been working on is Constructing Your Style.  I had so much fun with this.  It truly did help me to refine some of the things I already knew about myself.  Ok, I said fun.  Finding the pictures to represent my style was fun.  HOWEVER, creating a digital collage - that was less than fun.  I used several different free sites online trying to create a collage that I could print out for my notebook and upload to my Flickr.  I spent HOURS.  I finally got this collage done on Smilebox, and was able to print it out for my notebook.  But could I upload it straight to Flickr?  No - not unless I wanted it to be sideways!  So I finally took a picture with my camera and got it onto Flickr that way.  I really hate being technologically STU.PID. 

But now that I have fiiiiiinally succeeded in making one collage, I may make another one with some more pictures for my style.  Because I wish I had included some clothing on this page.  I would like to spread this style across the board in my life - my house, my clothes, my blog, my website, my jewelry.

It's a fun process to refine your style!  I have also found a book at the library called Style Statement, by Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte.  I've read about a third of it so far.  It seems to fit right in with this Indie 3.0 class!

I'll put up more pictures about the class projects soon.

Shannon

Adapting to a Very Small Space

Ok, so I have lived through the past month. My hubby has been working in DC for the past few months on a short-term contract job. (He's back now - yea!) While he was gone our house sold, so I had to deal with all the house repairs, contractors, packers for most of our stuff, and move us into a small apartment without him. Not the kind of things I am good at! But, we got it all done and moved into an apartment till mid-May. The week after we moved in, hubby came home - and, comically, he is home to start a new job which will have him working from his home "office" a lot of the time. We're here till mid-May, when we will move HOME to DALLAS! Yea!!!!!!

In the meantime, we have all five claimed our own little spots in this small space we're living in, and it's working for us. We're all just consciously trying to be considerate of each other's needs for quiet and space.

This is my view from the chair I have claimed. I pretend I'm already living in a wonderful farmhouse in Texas, and this is my own brick wall, with woods beyond. It's a great place to sit and look outside and think about my assignments - I'm taking the WONDERFUL online class - Indie Business 3.0. Lisa Leonard is one of the teachers. We started this week - it's soooo inspiring and enlightening! Love it!

This is my "studio" - I work on my Indie Biz notebook here, and I work on my jewelry here. Hopefully in our next house I will have my own studio again, but until then, this works.

By day this is hubby's home office, by night this is his game arcade....

This is Lexi's piano studio.... She is a piano performance major in college, graduating in May (which is why we're hanging around here till mid-May). Much time will be spent in this corner....

Rachel hides out in the girls' bedroom when she is home...as long as she has her computer and books, she's happy.....

This wall of electronics is in the bedroom that my hubby and I sleep in, but it seemed like the place to put Peter so that we could close the door if he has games going and we want some quiet. He's usually on his headset talking to someone online on xbox or pc games....

And, just in case the stress of tight quarters gets to anyone, we have this......

Now that we're settled, I can enjoy my Indie Biz class. And start looking for a house in the Dallas area!!!!

Shannon