Back again, from a long time gone...

Well, it's been forever since I last posted, and so much has happened...some with my art, much with my family, and many things that certainly intersect between the two. It's hard to figure out where to begin, so I think I'll just go back to where my last post left off and hopefully at some point we'll catch up...to what's going on today... or not, we'll see I suppose :)

In my last post I mentioned I was going to the Welburn Gourd Festival in Fallbrook Ca. Well I did go, and what a tremendous experience it was!

Not only was my friend Barbara Hallman's gourd work fantastic as always, selling like crazy, the day in general was just beautiful. It can sometimes be pretty hot and dusty there, but the weather was
mild, the energy relaxed and I found loads of beautiful gourds to work with this Fall. Is she not amazing?

She makes these huge animal masks, but this was a set of

small ones I loved. Check out their sweet eyes.

Danny loved these little fish she made!

Another wonder of the day was a chance meeting with the wonderful artist that taught me knottless netting so many years ago! Leigh Adams is as cool as I remember. I think it's easily been over 11 years ago that I took her class. Here's the little creation I proudly brought home that day. Notice those lovely uneven hitches, sagging off the bottom?( and that's actually it's 'good' side:) Eeeek!
But I sooo loved it then, and I still do today.
Today Leigh is the artist in residence at the Los Angeles Arboretum and has done some absolutely fantastic work in sculpture, mosaic and glass. She told me a little bit about a fairly recent work I can't wait to see in person known as the serpent trail. This gigantic glass tiled"Dream snake" sculpture created for the children's garden at the LA Arboretum is actually, visible from the sky! If you get the chance you've got to check out her work.

So now after all these years of knottless netting myself, I'm back to teaching as well. My class this past July at my sweet store Gilding the Lily in Fullerton was great. (It's been such a blessing to be able to "work" there on Sundays surrounded by a constant flow of beauty and inspiration thank you Nancy!) My students were so fun and so talented!

Here's a picture of the little kits I put together.

My lovely students... and a few of their projects...

What a wonderful day it was, to share art, laughter and fun. Well, I feel like I could go on and on , but for now I think this is plenty and hopefully my next post will be sooner than a month from now.
Love and light,

Bridgette

Teaching at Gilding the Lily!

Well, at the encouragement of family, and many sweet friends like you :) I'm getting back to teaching. I'm so excited! This July 17th I'll be teaching a new class called a Fairy's Haven, at Gilding the Lily in Fullerton and we already have sign-ups! I'm hoping to fill the class, which I 'm thinking should only be about 7-8 students. I'll talk about how to safely deal with the tiny African peyote gourds I love to use, I'll share my knot-less netting, various other cold connection techniques and more.

It should be lots of fun. My goal is that everyone goes home with a finished piece all their own. I'm working on collecting supplies for my little kits and am taking a trip out to the Welburn Gourd Festival in Fallbrook this weekend for another stash of the unique little gourd beauties. The hunt for just the right ones are always such a big part of the fun. Oh that reminds me! If you happen to be going this weekend to the festival you have to check out my dear friend Barbara. She's a multi-talented artist, who does some fantastic work with gourds.Here's just a couple of my personal little pieces, but to really see her work check out her blog, she paints, sculpts and carves and will be offering her highly collectible, award winning wares this weekend at the Welburn Festival and did I mention that she just finished recording her first CD? Yep, she's good... :) Stop by her blog if you get a chance. Well I better be going, I've got some shortbread cookies in the oven screaming to be dunked in some leftover ganche. I'll let you know how they come out. Ciao, for now!

Prayer Beads Past

As many of you already know, years ago, in what seems like another life, I was a high school Religion teacher. I adored that job and my students. Even though my subjects were often Church History, Morality or Social Justice I usually was always able to sneak in a fair amount of “Art”… just couldn’t help it. One of my favorite classes was an elective class I was able to teach on Prayer. For one of our lessons I talked about how in many cultures and religions some form of prayer or meditation beads are often used. After studying a number of these various religions and cultures, I thought it would be fun to have the class make our own strand of prayer beads. I gave each student a block of clay and split each block into four sections, so they could trade colors with a few others if they wanted to. We had about 30 girls in class so each student created about 30 similar beads. I dimmed the lights, played soft music and had them create in silence. I asked them to think about what intentions they might add to each bead as it was created. Their work and quiet meditation was amazing. After at least two class periods their beads were complete, I brought the trays and trays of miniature works of art to the Home Ec. Kitchen and baked them (this was of course before I knew you were NEVER supposed to bake polymer in your regular oven!)After they were done we had a beautiful prayer service in the Chapel, where each girl traded one of her beads with everyone else in class, we then knotted and strung them on waxed linen cord. Every student had a strand of prayer beads from her Senior religion class. It was really cool. As I thought about teaching again, I was reminded of the small silver tin

I used to keep my own prayer beads in. As the teacher I never really was able to complete my own strand for some reason.

Aren’t they pretty? I think maybe now after all these years, these beads deserve to be strung and placed somewhere special.

Look what came in my Mail...

Every now and then I decide I need some "new"which often ends up being some"old" craft-object inspiration. Often times when I do, my compulsion to acquire every last one in existence seems to take over. Yes, it happened with my teeny,tiny Charlottes, which inspired my Querido pendants, my slew of empty watch cases which became and still do become my tiny watch case collages,

and now there's these very cool vintage skelton keys...any ideas? I've got a few... :)

After the Glitter is Gone...

Well, is Glitter actually ever really gone? I think not. It's still sprinkled along the hearth, certainly in the carpet and even outside on the Wishing Tree... but that's another story. Once again Glitterfest was such fun and I'm so grateful for all the wonderful artists that surrounded me and the fabulous people who stopped by my booth! I finally got to see the very talented Sherry from Got Art and thank her in person for the lovely tree collage she sent me. and my sweet friend Lisa from Vintage Bling who nearly sold out of her fabulous Bling Babies! You've got to check these out.

Now this week, amid the wind down for my kids at school, and attempting to get my house back to a pre-Glitterfest state of less confusion (who am I kidding) I made just one little stop by the Goodwill around the corner from my house and found some very cool props for Glitterfest Fall and beyond! Just thought I'd share a bit of my haul! I LOVE this old little chair, which I may have to fight Bella for...Mr. Owl is fantastic, my big splurge at $9.99 that I just couldn't resist . And then there's these brand spankin' new beaded thongs... that match my new turquoise painted toes just perfectly! Of course there was more, but we'll have to save that for later :)

Ciao for now!

Glitterfest is almost here!

Some little girls almost ready for Glitterfest!

Stop by Saturday and see us :)
but get there early, because we're only there from 10-3
Ciao Bella!

Spring on the Wishing Tree

Remember how stark the Wishing Tree was...

Well, it's not anymore.

Happy Spring!

So Long Overdue and a few Thank Yous!

Wow, I can't Imagine it's been a whole month since my last post. I'd like say I've been furiously busy with all sorts of "fun" stuff to share with all of you, or keeping up with all the wonderful new growth on our Wishing tree, but unfortunately that's not exactly been the case. My Mom was very sick and needed care after spending over a week in the hospital, I had huge commitments at school, and life just seemed to plow on. Thankfully my Mom is healing now, my commitments at school lessened and creativity abounds once again! Can't believe Glitterfest is next week! My little studio area has crept over a good portion of my living room floor but my family is patient and loves me. Here's what I mean...Quite a while ago I got a beautiful "Random Act of Kindness" in the mail from the lovely and generous Sherry from Got Art. I kept wanting to do a post just for her because her package came at a time when I really needed it. Blessings are like that. :) Thank you so much Sherry. Your beautiful Tree collage has a special place on my wall right next to our front door so I see it last,whenever I leave or first when I return home. The colors and textures are so perfect, but my photos certainly do not do the piece justice. Such a thing of sweet beauty and kindness sent to me completely out of the blue! How sweet is that Sherry.

And of the Pasta Maker...it arrived! Thank you, thank you Cheryl! I'm so excited. The quality looks great and I see ravioli in our near future :)When I finally get back to cooking for fun, I'll post a yummy pic. But for now, I better get my Glitter on!

Ciao for now!

I WON a Pasta Maker!!!

I know that sounds funny. It's just that dorky me didn't even know I had entered a giveaway. But I did and I won! Here's what happened. A few weeks ago, I was reading the blog of one of my new blogging friends Cheryl. She has a wonderful blog called Healing Woman and had sent me the beautiful Dreamcatcher for the Wishing tree I wrote about, in my last post. Well, she wrote this very detailed, yummy recipe post about this fantastic lasagna. Homemade noodles, roasted tomatoes, she even had the recipe for making the ricotta, the whole nine yards! Now I know that for those of you that don't know me in my "real" everyday life you may not know that I cook. But I do and so does my creative husband Ernie.

Here's a few Eats we've made...

My Lemon Cake
(pretty easy, just used one those fancy flower pans)

Potato Cheese Empanadas & Chimichurri

Ernie makes a killer flaky dough!

Mango Berry Mosaic
Another flashy,but pretty yummy ice-cream, sorbet treat,
perfect for serving in the ODLS!

Ernie's Red Velvet Cupcakes my Lenten
(oops I mean, Easter favorite)

Seafood Paella

You get the idea. But my point is we love to cook and of course eat. With that said, you can understand how entranced I was at the sight of Cheryl's inspiring food post. So I commented. I had to! Well if you commented you were automatically entered in this amazing giveaway for this beautiful pasta maker. And I WON!
Ernie & I have been wanting to do the homemade pasta thing for quite some time now, but never seem to get around to it. I think having this fun gadget to assist us might be just the thing!I'll let you know when it arrives!

Thanks again Cheryl !

I hope to make you proud :)