"Arts and Flowers"

The "Arts and Flowers" Event turned out to be a great show. I am very happy at the turn out. I went above and beyond my goal! Yay! Now its back to work; time to get busy on some new designs. I am definately looking forward to coming back and participating again next year. I met so many great people, made some new contacts and am motivated all over again;) I have another show on Saturday; much much smaller, so I will be busy making some new items for that one all day tomorrow. Will post some progress photos on that soon. Yesterday I made to commitment to participate in Victorian Christmas in Nevada City California where I will be sharing a booth with another artist/jeweler and good friend from Verdi. The fun part about that is we have to dress in Victorian Style Costume. Should be fun!

4th of July Weekend

Its been a busy couple weeks. I was at the West Street Market last Friday at the Opening night of Art+Music night featuring some great bands by The Holland Project.

Here is a slideshow of the event http://www.uniquehandbags.net/Galleries/Shows/

After the event, I went to Colfax for the afternoon to visit family before heading back home. I recently added 4 new leather and vinyl zipper coin purses to my Etsy shop. One is shipping off to Canada today, yay!

I'd like to focus more on making some larger bags using this technique of cutting the flower petals in a more organic way.
I am having fun experimenting and getting to know my new machine. I am finally getting some use out of it. I cant believe that I ever went without it. I love my old home Singer, but what a big difference my new Bernina Industrial makes!

Indie Sacramento Craft Fair

I have been planning on participating in the Indie Sacramento craft fair for over a month now and it was finally here. I decided to make the whole trip a family event as well and and brought my husband and kids and stayed in Colfax at my in laws on their beautiful property which is on the way to Sacramento. The first photo was taken in their driveway on the way out to the show on Saturday morning. My camera is not so good with distance ; a little blurry, but here are the deer I saw as I drove out on Saturday morning in the rain. I thought that the rain was suppose to stop on Saturday for awhile but . . . . . . .

it rained the entire time. It never stopped, not even for a little break. I did not have a canopy but managed somehow to stay dry under a tree. I thought it was a good turn out and was a surprised that people were out shopping. I had a great time meeting new people and other Etsy crafters and all the people who stopped by my booth to look at my work. See Photos from the event at the link below.
Here is a flickr slideshow and gallery of the entire event.

After the show I returned to Colfax and visited with the family and did some relaxing. The kids had a chance to play ball once the rain let up on Sunday before heading back to Reno. The geese with their little babies were so cute to watch.

La Bussola Art Reception

I added some photos from the art reception last night. We had a good turn out and it was lot of fun. Thanks to Ashley of Paisley Anne Home for making it so much fun with the raffles and to Paige of PursenallyByPaige for providing all the yummy snacks and wine. I will be adding many items to the shop all month long, so if you didn't get a chance to come by last night you still have lots of opportunity to see our work.

Click here to see the entire album on flickr

Thanks to everyone for showing your support and making it a success!

Painting at La Bussola - Day 3

I spent all afternoon at the gallery finishing up with my painting. Tomorrow I will be bringing in my merchandise and getting set up. I had a little time tonight to work on a new wristlet.

Painting at LaBussola

This is what I accomplished today. Tomorrow I will be finishing up and adding color. I really wanted to have it all done but it is taking much longer than I originally thought it would. I am excited about the whole show and finally getting it all put together. Ashley and Paige were also there working on their spaces. I love what Ashley is doing with the green and her logo. Paige is almost done with hers. It was fun to have them both there and chat while we each worked. More progress photos tomorrow.

I had the opportunity to finish the raspberry and lime wristlet I started working on last night. Love the color combo of this one!!

Accepting Ideas for Show Names

I made a huge 8.5" red leather lily brooch yesterday while messing around. I would like to make more flowers, hair pins and bags along these lines with some different types of flowers. I am just beginning to experiment and this lily was my first. Its now available in my shop
uniques.etsy.com





Here is a photo of the front of the postcard I am working on for our show in March.
I would love to collect some ideas from anyone who has a good idea for a name for the show.
Its 3 of us. I make handbags and accessories out of leather and Paige Jennings makes purses out of skateboards and Ashley makes plushies , bird mobiles and hand painted furniture.
If you would like to leave me a comment with any ideas that would be great!! This would be a huge help. Thanks so much!

ArtSource Party and Showing

The party and showing at ArtSource Gallery was great. I met lots of people and had the chance to do some networking with some other designers, artists and photographers in town. Here are a few photographs from the night. Most of them came out blurry so I am only posting a few of them.