Under the Sea pillowcases complete!

Motifs from Aimee Ray of Doodle Stitching The Motif Collection. Look for it on Amazon or on Etsy under littledear.

Still stitchin'

I'm really enjoying the nautical motifs in Aimee Ray's Doodle Stitching that I blogged about here.

I finished the first of two pillowcases, and after getting some really cool threads at The Stitchin' Post in Catonsville yesterday, I stayed up late working on the second pillow case, which I will show you soon.

I also found some really great patterns for cross-stitch and a very cool book called A Rainbow of Stitches. The book's designs are for embroidery and cross-stitch. They are modern and what I would call IKEA-like.

Yes, You Can Buy Charm!

Even though I have a zillion paper projects to do, and even though I am tempted to write a rant on the lost art of spelling and punctuation, I set aside both those needs today, and after a nap and a yummy supper at Panera, I finished these two seaside charm bracelets for my etsy shop at the early hour of 2 a.m. I would have done a third, but I have some beads to pick up Tuesday that will just make a perfect antique brass one to go with these above of silver and bronze-sort of an Olympic trifecta of charm: charm bracelets, that is, chock full of charms like shells and fossils, lampwork, a little key, a lock, hearts, a pail and shovel, fishies and more. The handmade lampwork beads, including an octopus and starfish, are by Star Girls Jewels, also on etsy. Come check out my shop http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com/.

Charming, charming, charming

I guess I was feeling charming at 3 in the morning, because I woke up early yesterday/Friday, to storms, licking cats and a noisy water softener (again) and decided it was high time I assemble my charms from the ZNE http://www.zneart.com Castle in the Meadow charm swap last Sunday in Detroit. The bracelet in the bottom pic is the result. All but three were made by ZNE members in quantities of 25 each for the swap. The green glass rings, ruler bit cut for me by Kris of Retro Cafe Art Gallery in Indy http://www.retrocafeart.com and baby moon by Melanie of Earthenwood Studio http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com I added later. The soldered charm in the very middle, the Scrabble 'G' is by Donna of Bonnie Blue Denim http://bonniebluedenim.blogspot.com who was nice to enough to make everyone a charm with personalized initials, so mine has an 'S' on the back.

Immediately above my ZNE bracelet is the nautical charm bracelet I also made Friday morning, this one for my sister-in-law. It has procrastination all over it, since she had given me four charms from Michael's in late March and asked me to make her a bracelet like the one I got from Kat of Altered Kat or Great Musings on etsy and here http://alteredkat.blogspot.com. That one is the turquoise bracelet in the second photo from top. It has over 50 charms on it, so trying to make her four charms into something like that took me awhile to pull together. In the end, I used little glass fish from Debbie/Oh Kitten at Chubbyville, glass beads from Laurie of Loud Life on etsy and Living Out Loud http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com and also the mother-of-pearl charms from my Altered Kat bracelet. Who says I can't make nice and share?

And finally, in reverse order, the top photo is a review of my Art & Soul Hampton charm swap. Yes, there is a charm bracelet in there somewhere, along with 32 unique, hand-made charms.

Home Sweet Home or By The Sea?

Home Sweet Home or By The Sea? I'll take them both! Maybe someday my home sweet home will be by the sea. I'm a bit fond of Myrtle Beach. The sweet houses, top, are the 11 luscious receipts from Jeri Aaron's House Row Swap http://artfulgathering.typepad.com. I made my artist's dozen to send while in Myrtle Beach, in fact, on vacation in April and blogged about them here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/thinking-about-home.html.

I had almost forgotten about them when my package arrived from Jeri. I received great houses, from (top row, L-R) Virginia Madison, Jan Love, Sue Day, Kim Newberg (a fellow shabby sister), Susie Cazier and Anita Edmonds. In the bottom row (L-R) are Gloria H?, Gwynn Thoma, Susan Tidwell, Liane Ceglar and Gerdie Fisher. Many recipients are talking about adding hinges to make a folding screen-type display or mantle piece. Sounds like a great idea to me. I can't bear to put these away and not display them. For more eye candy and more houses, Jeri's blog is really a treat. Visit her older posts, too!

The 'By the Sea' page is a 4 x 4 I made tonight for the Chubbyville group all original page swap, hosted by Debbie Metti. I will mail this one off and get a different one in return. I am keeping all my monthly original receipts and other random 4 x 4's, and I will bind them into a book at the end of the year. My "Song of the Sea" page has a removable tag that can be used as a book mark. I attached the copper starfish charm and seashell with silk cord, after drilling a hole in the shell (and burning up a drill bit). Who knew seashells were so hard? I guess that explains how they survive for thousands of years. See you by the sea........

Mermaid and Seaside Swap in Progress, SIP

My SIP is not a WIP any longer, as it is now packed and on its way to O, Canada. But, I can't post a full look, just sneaky peeks, in case Lilli http://makemineblissful.blogspot.com might be reading. I figure these two pics don't give much away, and the bottom picture is a redux of some of the goodies Flickr swap hostess Michelle http://michellegeller.typepad.com of Hold Dear sent to me when we first tried a Mermaid and Seaside Swap. I am still enjoying those treasures! A mo' betta view after Lilli gets the goods!

On to Heather's http://www.speckled-egg.com nest swap, my Valentine swap with Teri/PumpkinSeedMama on ebay and Flickr, and my Easter swap with Viv of http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com. I think the USPS loves me.

A U2 Day

It is absolutely gorgeous here at the beach. The Weather Channel has been wrong every day, and even though I had a dream about Marshall Seese the other night, I may have to change my allegiance. In fact, it is so hot and humid my camera keeps fogging up. I had to wipe between photos, and I don't like to touch my lens. The weather makes one think it is going to storm every night, but something about the shore and the tides and the shape of the coast and the phase of the moon seems to keep it at bay. Gobs of seaweed were washed up last night, which is the first time this week, so something was different.

I swam in the ocean yesterday. It was so fun to just let the big waves knock me over. It's been a few years since I've done that, and I quite forgot the water is salty! I hated to come out. It's such an easy way to get sun and so relaxing! I don't like it unless it is extra-warm, which it was. Something slinky went past my leg; it was either a shark or a leaf. Something big and black was leaping way out; either a shark or a dolphin. My foot got sucked into a mucky hole and went thrwap thrwap when I pulled it out; either a killer crab or muck. As you can see, I am a wee scaredy when it comes to ocean creatures, another reason I don't swim too often. A nest of water mocassins by our pier when I was about 15 scarred and scared me for life. But, hey, this is the Ocean.

Shadow Boxing and Absurd Theatre

All my little beach treasures and mermaid paraphernalia got put to good use tonight- in my beach shadowbox and my Mermaid Theatre: What Arial and Flounder Did Next. I had such fun using my beach finds: rocks, shells, sand, feathers, driftwood and some purchased goodies, like vintage postcards, beads and pieces of net. The theatre box I painted with Liquitex Baltic Green and Pearl Ex Duo Green-Yellow as well as Gesso. Inside I added vintage clip art, green micro beads, pieces of bamboo, sponge, driftwood, a 3-D Mermaid with tatas enhanced by beads and "diamond"-tipped head pins. There's also a tiny message in a bottle (inserted by me) caught on an old fishing hook which is caught in an old net, that also wrangled up some driftwood and shells.

So what does one do with a Mermaid Theatre, you ask? I've planned all along to send both pieces off for hopeful publication in one of my favorite art mags, and when they return, I am sure there's a little girl somewhere who would like it. The shadow box is for my office, unless I cave in and give it for a gift. There are a lot of beach-loving Smiths.

A little more Beach...

YOU are HERE. X Marks the Spot

Okay, wait a minute. Sorry. That's actually ME and I am HERE and that X is a starfish (okay from a placemat). But, still, I am at The Beach and that's the view out of one of two sets of patio doors. We've been coming to this same condo in North Myrtle Beach, SC once or twice a year for 22 years, having scored one of those friend-of-a-friend deals. Rental used to be $10 a night for 2BR, 2BT, first floor, ocean front. Now it's up to $60. Oooh! Is everyone jealous? Come on down, the water's fine. Truly! October is a great month to swim in the ocean, and it's about 80F and sunny right now. Gotta run....

Little Pieces of Me

Pictured above and below are a few shots from around my house that I was inspired to share after seeing fellow blogger Kari Ramstrom of MN http://artsymama@blogspot.com/ published in the November issue of Romantic Country. How exciting for her!

Call me weird, but I like to keep my table set so I can enjoy my dishes, table linens and candles and rearranging them with the seasons. Since my kitchen is mustard and cranberry, this setting works about half the year. Then I like to go all white in the late winter/spring, and I also like to break out the silver and gold and maroon for the holidays.

The bowl of potpourri in the living room was an unfinished paper or bamboo bowl from TJ Maxx that I painted brown and turquoise. The word stones and glass pebbles came from Pottery Barn in a silver bowl/candle holder thingy I got on after-holiday clearance at Bath and Body Works for something like $2. Gotta love a sale!

The shells and bottles of sand go with my nautical/neutral bathroom and the little Halloween tableaus with grinning vintage ghouls and Peanuts are just temporary kitchen decor.

Travel ATC Swap-Off to 1950s Florida!

I am so excited about the cards I finished last night for my ArtChix travel ATC Swap. These were so fun to do with the vintage images I had from ArtChix Studio plus bits of nautical ephemera I had. I am waiting on a great batch of old Florida postcards from ebay (16 for 99 cents!!), so I can make some more. Upcoming projects include a sepia swap, Art and Scent swap (hmmm), pet faux postage creations contest (time for Larry and Lester to get famous) and, yes, a Halloween witch hat swap with Heather of speckled-egg.blogspot (check out new link at right).