The Magical Moore House

There is something magical about the Moore house. This is where we stayed while in Nebraska this past week. My husband's band played Jazz on the Green in Omaha on Thursday night. The singer, Meridith, grew up in this home. Her parents were gracious enough to let us all stay here for five days. The house is on a farm up on a hill that overlooks Elkhorn River. It is a very All-American looking home. I wouldn't mind living in a house like this one day, as long as the summer humidity did not come with it. :o)

Eldon and I spent some time on the patio. As we were sitting there we had several visitors. A horse walked by on his way to the stable. The Moore family dog, Toby, sat in a chair nearby. Then a butterfly fluttered by and landed on a chair. Toby had to sniff it. Delphi, who is the guitar player's 11 year old daughter also stopped by to chat. It was warm out, but the patio was the perfect place to rock a little one who needed an afternoon nap and check my text messages and emails.
One of the best features in this house is the stained glass window next to the front entrance. Mrs. Moore is a stained glass artist that does elaborate windows on many of churches in the Midwest. Her work is beautiful. The glass she uses is imported from Germany and has very interesting features. She blows several colors together and then flatten the glass to get the swirly rainbow effect. Some of her installations take 4 or so years to complete. I am such an impatient artist. I don't like anything that takes more than a couple days. Ha Ha! One of these days I plan to take a stained glass class. In addition to lampworking and fusing, I would love to learn the art of stained glass ... even if it were to take a couple months for me to complete something. When I was very young I was especially attracted to Tiffany lamps. My mother bought me a Tiffany style lamp one year so I have one, but the glass is cracked in one area. I would like to be able to repair it and make others!
I had never seen lightening bugs before. They were amazing, just like the bioluminescence in the bay when we went kayaking in Puerto Rico. I love anything that glows and sparkles like fairies. My husband caught them (I couldn't touch bugs) and put them in a baby food jar. We slept by the glow of lightning bugs that night! I had only heard of them before, but never saw them in real life. I was desperately trying to think of a way to bring some home to my older son Patrick. I guess you can't take bugs on airplanes.

EVA Etsy Treasury Challenge

OK. Etsy Project Embrace had a team treasury challenge. It went over very well, so my local team EVA is going to have one also and see how we do.

We are extending this to ANYONE. Not just team members, but anyone who wishes to participate and win the prize. Not sure what the prize is yet. We will figure it out at the EVA team meeting tonight and post on it tomorrow!

See the EVA blog for the rules to enter ...

http://eastvalleyart.blogspot.com/2010/07/eva-etsy-treasuries-challenge.html

July giveaway on East Valley Artisans Blog

I am doing another giveaway, but this time it is on the EVA blog. I am giving away another butterfly charm, much like the other one, but this one has flat instead of beveled glass.
Anyone is welcome to enter to win, just go to the EVA blog and leave a comment.

Etsy Project Embrace

My mission this week was to make some earrings for a woman in the hospital with cancer. The customer asked me to somehow incorporate her favorite animal -elephants, color - sea green and birthstone - opal into the design. I spent Wednesday buying the parts and began working on them on Thursday. I started piecing the earrings together and about half way through I get word the woman I was creating them for passed away. I didn't know her, but the customer, who was a former co-worker, knew her well. The customer and I exchanged some emails. I was also asked to make her a soldered shadowbox charm with an elephant on a sea green background. She asked me to finish the work in her memory. That is what I did. You can see the elephant earrings below. I think they turned out very nice.

(updated to show Elephant Charm photo)

For awhile now, I have been thinking about what I can do to help those who have been stricken with cancer. It touches so many of us. In my very recent past, I spent a lot of time in the chemo wing at the Mayo Clinic with a loved one of mine. I have watched her go through experiences that I wouldn't wish on anyone. She is a fighter and an amazing woman. You would not know what she was going through unless she told you ... and most the time she doesn't. She lives without letting many people know what a fight she is going through, because so often when you tell people you have cancer they treat you as if you're dying. The way she looks at it is that she wants to be treated as if she is living for as long as she gets to be alive, which is something I can totally respect. While I was working on the earrings, I received an email from etsy about their team Etsy Project Embrace. I read, "Etsy Project Embrace (EPE) is a Universal Coalition of Artists whose main purpose is to create awareness and support for people who have been diagnosed with cancer." It was perfect timing. I have also been thinking about joining a second etsy team. So I wrote to the team admin and became a new member of Etsy Project Embrace. As many members of the team have done, I will be donating a portion of all my sales to the American Cancer Society. I still have a lot to learn about my new team and team members, but I am excited, as well as honored, to be part of such an amazing team.

We Celebrated Freedom and Independence

This past weekend downtown Mesa hosted the Celebration of Freedom festival. I set up a table outside our business (M-Troniks)

with my Tricky Fox wares.

Along side me was my sister-in-law Melissa who makes Fizzables.

Fizzables are groovy, yummy, deluxe bath bombs.

I love that I have an endless supply of such a luxury, because I am a bath person. I like the long 'Calgon take me away' type soaks after a long day! The event was pretty packed with people. Fun! Fun! Fun! I am not so sure why it was on Friday and Saturday with a huge fireworks display on Saturday. Not so sure the got the memo ... Independence Day was on Sunday. So, Sunday we did other stuff. Had a BBQ with friends and family. Played Family Feud on Wii and went to the top of Camelback Mountain to watch fireworks all across the valley! Breathtaking!

Hope your 4th was filled with fun and family. I got new stuff that I will be listing in the shop soon. I am finishing up Waterrose's custom butterfly pendant today and making an elephant charm with matching earrings that someone custom ordered from me. I will make an extra elephant to stick in the shop. I will post pictures of everything upon completion.