Umm . . . Business Trip

Poor me. I had to go to San Francisco on business earlier this week and these were some of the things I was subjected to. These are views from the work area. The hills in the backdrop were beautiful. So was the Whole Foods in the parking lot -- talk about convenient!


A few of my work friends took me to the city and we had an amazing time having cocktails on the 52nd floor of the Bank of America Building.


Talk about fabulous views! The Golden Gate Bridge on my left, the Bay Bridge on my right, Alcatraz, the TransAmerica tower . . . the list goes on. It was breathtaking. And that chocolate martini wasn't bad, either.


More views of downtown San Francisco . . .



Then down to the water for a fabulous dinner at the Slanted Door. This place was amazing and weekends are booked weeks in advance -- I felt like a celebrity and my friends and I laughed and had so much fun!! It sat right on the bay. Here's a pic I took with the restaurant behind me.


So the business trip just kept getting progressively difficult . . . The next night, my friend Cece and her man, Dwayne, took me "over the hill" to the ocean. WOW.

It was about 10 degrees cooler on the west side of the mountains and the fresh air was therapeutic.


As were the views . . .



We stopped for some views of Pigeon Point Light House built in 1872.


I was so taken with the little shed attached to the lighthouse. Cute and kind of haunting at the same time. It originally housed the fuel for the lighthouse. I was amazed to learn that the fuel was lard. There was also a hostel that shared a parking lot with the lighthouse right there on the beach. I thought this was fascinating . . .


We headed south on the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Cruz where we ate an amazing dinner at the Crow's Nest. It was wonderful eating scallops from the ocean I was sitting on and drinking wine from grapes that were harvested just up the hill from the restaurant. Santa Cruz is beautiful with a cozy feel and I think Cece, Dwayne and I were some of the few not sporting dreadlocks in this laid back little town. In all seriousness, I did have a lot of actual business to conduct on this trip, but WOW, the evenings were amazing. Thanks to my California friends!!!

Latest Batch of Mosaics

Here are some examples of the mosaics I worked on while my boys were out of town.


I'm constantly searching for new and different things to experiment with and this tea light holder is the latest and most unusual. I got the earring at a little place called Wedgwood Antiques in the Ozarks. When I told the owner about my mosaics, she gave me the most wonderful chipped plates -- perfect condition for me.


I've accumulated lots of cool yellow dishes, buttons, and beads over the last couple of years.


I love to do cork boards because they're functional and artistic. We have one in our kitchen with a chicken. Jason doesn't really express his appreciation aloud, but I know he secretly loves it!

My friend, Lisa, was with me when I found this rusty grapefruit can in an antique mall and she looked at me kind of strangely when I picked it up. I knew it would go into a cork board.

I love this old, antique hardware. I got this piece in a lot on Ebay.
Yeah! Wooden spools! It's amazing what turns you on in your late 30's.

Old, wooden clothespins are pretty cool, too.

Here are Kelly and Jason circa 1990. I have nearly plucked my eyebrows into nothingness. This is better than the alternative several years before when they looked like Jason's.

And no, my weekend of mosaics would not have been complete without my usual obsession with switch plates. Purchase this one and be the first one on your block to have a soup spoon on a switch plate . . .
Or a very respectable Victorian gentlewoman . . . (SOLD)

Or a butter pat . . . (SOLD)
Or a flamingo . . . (SOLD)
Or a tiny shoe polish tin . . . (SOLD)

Or a blue brooch shaped like a bow . . .

Homecoming

As I've posted previously, my family has been in Alabama without me this week. They are due home in just a few hours now and I can hardly wait!!

Here's a pic of Jas and I on vacation this summer. I guess I should have spit out my gum before it was taken.

Here are Brendan and Dash in front of Shedd's Aquarium in Chicago this summer. Brendan starts high school this week and my brother suggested the punishment for anything below a B should be a crew cut and loose fitting pants. Ha!!!

Mosaics in Action

Our friends Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction purchased one of my birdhouses for a friend of theirs in San Diego. Here is a link to see it on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/modern_artifacts/2748557222/

Kelly Sue told me that their friends have a wonderful garden and it looks from the picture that "Feathers Foundry" won't be vacant for long!

Yes, I am still hot link challenged and trying to piece together this blog (notice the bright green still endures), but here is the link to Kelly Sue's blog. http://www.kellysue.com/blog/ You can also check her out in my faves. Thanks again, Kelly Sue and Matt for your support of my stuff!!!!

Jason and the boys are coming home tonight after being in Alabama since last Tuesday. I was feeling meloncholy over the weekend and missing them terribly, but I wasn't too depressed to do mosaics! More posts of what I've been working on are coming soon. Oh, and just a tip, if you're feeling down and lonely, I don't recommend watching Kramer vs. Kramer even if it did sweep just about every major category of the 1979 Oscars.

Fun with Switch Plates

Mosaic-ing switch plates is a blast! Depending upon who you ask, I suppose. And if you ask me, I could do it all day long. Switch plates provide a fun splash of art in a place people don't really expect. And just like mosaic-ing on other types of surfaces, I love to incorporate interesting elements to make them unique and surprising.

You'd be amazed at just how quickly your family stops complaining about the difficulty in flipping the switch; they don't even notice the big crocodile anymore.

Do you ever see an old brooch and think -- who WORE that gaudy thing? "The bigger, the better" is my motto when it comes to the brooches I put in my switch plates. (SOLD)

See, I'm not kidding. (SOLD)

This little cherub is right at home on the corner of this switch plate. (SOLD)

I may have had a set of these disco ball earrings in the 80's. Who could have ever predicted that I'd be "wearing" them again on a switch plate? (SOLD)

Switch plates can add a touch of whimsy in a child's room. I got the little ceramic doll at Sparks flea market. Erin and I have already requested our day off for the Fall show!!! (SOLD)

And for the grand finale of this post, I'd like to show you a couple of pretty recent finds. These handsome bookend-gents came from the Second Hand thrift store on 63rd and Troost. I simply could not resist. I won't even tell you where the chalk Kewpie came from because at this point, it's becoming quite clear that my favorite store is The Curious Sofa (oops).

Okay, since the cat is already out of the bag, I got this great letter "A" there awhile ago, too, and I think it looks fantastic with this photo I found on Etsy (if I may say so myself).

I'm getting ready to head down to the Ozarks to attend the Society for Human Resource Management Missouri conference. This might not sound too exciting to the average person, but I am REALLY looking forward to hanging out with my Helzberg Diamonds girls. Believe it or not, they make even the most mundane topics like employment law fun!