Blue Treasury

Well, I dropped my camera last week, so I can't show you pictures of project number 2 from my new jewelry book. Hopefully I get that fixed soon :)

So I decided it was time to make my April Treasury featuring Blue items from the NCTriangle Team:

Stuff I need *ahem* want in my kitchen

Now I have a love for coastal themed decor.  (Most of my friends would roll their eyes and say, "duh."  - We're real mature 30- and 40-something year olds...)

I recently saw all of these plate sets on another coastal blog and boy do I think I want all of them....

I could use these plates on a daily basis:

 

Fused Glass Sand Dollar Plates.



This one would match some of the Polish Pottery I have already aquired: 



Vietri Blu Mare Octopus Round Platter



And these remind me of items my grandmother has: 



Del Mar Dinnerware



Have you come across anything recently that your kitchen needs [*or wants*]?

New Jewelry Book

I bought this book: Mixed Metal Mainia: Solder, rivet, hammer, and wire exceptional jewelry by Kim St. Jean. I love it! It is by far the best investment in jewelry books I have ever purchased. It has gotten me over my hump in moving from just wire work and into metalsmithing. It was more than a year ago that I took a metalsmithing boot camp class at Ornamentea, and I went out and bought all of the tools and materials necessary to begin metalsmithing in my own home. But they just sat there... I would look at everything from time to time, and was truthfully unsure of where I should start and unsure of myself and my skills.

Kim's book is written at my level - I've already read it cover to cover three times and have completed project 1, a rather simple, but stylish cigar band ring.

Lucky for me, I have my own jewelry collection that always needs more pieces and friends/family that love an experimental piece as a gift. I decided to do three rings (just for extra practice) - one for me, one for a sister, and one for a friend :

I taped them down to my scrap piece of nickel silver (the left over piece from my class at Ornamentea).

After a couple of hours, I had them all sawed out. Mine was complete - I stamped "V"s on one side and "C"s on the other with "&"s going down the middle. The part that wasn't stamped, I used my ball peen hammer to add texture. My husband thought having out initials on the ring was a cute idea. I still had lots of work to do on Lauren's and Betsy's.

I decided that I did not like the "&"s down the middle, so I did Lauren's without those. Betsy and her husband have the same first initial, so I just stamped the "B"s all over the center of hers which ended up being my favorite one.

I'm ready for the next project!

Oh, how does your garden grow?

Oh, quite well, I'd say... :)

My garden is beginning to look like spring although these morning temperatures sure don't feel like spring!

My Irises are already in bloom: And my white dogwood:
And my absolute favorite, the pink dogwood!
As far as my fruits and vegetables, I have not made it very far this year. But I have weeded out the bed that carries my blueberries and strawberries! Can't wait until those are ripe!