Mute Monday - Christmas impressions

more Christmas impressions here

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

Thank you for the friendship and support you have shown me this year.

In the midst of all the holiday bustle, please remember to slow down and cherish the time with your loved ones. Life is short. Make the most of it. Always take the time to show those important to you that you love them.

Love,
Renate

Sunday flea market, brrrrrrr

Today is the last flea market of this year. It is minus 16° out there! Well, as far as flea markets are concerned, I am something of a die-hard. I put on many layers of clothes (and again, I know how an onion feels), got out my old, long! teddybear coat and drove to the flea market. Baby, it's cold outside!

I didn't take my camera. Most of the usual dealers and sellers didn't show up today. The big lot was fairly empty, booths spread out here and there, lots of nothing in between. Weren't many visitors, either. I mean, how crazy do you have to be to go out in that kind of weather to rummage through old stuff, while your fingers are aching from the cold? Exactly. A lot of the sellers didn't even really unpack their cars. And some were already reloading, to go home.

Here are the results of my scavenging:

some bits and pieces of old chains

some very vintage glass cabouchons, possibly Czech or Neugablonz

some sparkly vintage rhinestone pieces

After about an hour, I had to go home. My toes were hurting from the cold, my fingers were numb. I don't think I even saw all the booths. Doesn't matter. I am happy with my treasures and there is always next year! I did find one more thing, but I can't share it with you just now. My husband does check out my blog on a regular basis and it would be such a shame to spoil the surprise...

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday - stay cozy and warm!

Getting in the mood for Christmas

I hear the east coast of the USA had quite a bit of snow - just in time for Christmas. Although some of the people that are trying to get home or to family for the holidays might not agree. I hope you are all safe and cozy.
We had a little bit of snow last night. Not much, since the air is fairly dry, due to the very low temps (-10°C). But enough to dust everything with a bit of icing sugar, so to speak. The good news is, there will be sunshine today.
I was out early this morning to take some pictures:


fallen angel's wing powdered with snow

tiny twinkling lights

a rusty crown around a candle in a jar inside a wreath of mixed greenery
I will light the candle when dusk falls...

Have a lovely day!

Surprises and a new necklace

The mailman brought me a surprise! I received an envelope from France, from my sweet friend Esther. Go take a look at what she has been up to lately - you won't be disappointed!
She sent me this lovely tag/card! Red glitter on the lips of the angel! Oh Esther, you really are all about details!

On the card was this lovely pin! She knows that I love copper and green, so it is perfect! Thank you so much, my lovely friend!

Portrait of a Lady Necklace
Seems I am very into grey at the moment. Must be the weather! Another of my mother of pearl and resin focals, this time with a portrait photo of a beauty of yesteryear. Although I think she looks surprisingly modern. Teamed up with copper chain, freshwater pearls, mother of pearl facetted disks and facetted labradorite beads.

The S word again

Somebody said the s word. I know it. I can see it outside.
When I got up this morning, it had just started to snow again. It hasn't stopped yet. This is, of course, no major snowfall. But the sky looks like it wants to keep it up all day. Well, at least it isn't as gloomy and dreary as it has been for over a week.


We did go to a small flea market this morning, but didn't find anything I wanted to bring home with me. I didn't even see anything I wanted to inquire about!!

I am finishing up on my current Round Robin piece from Sharon and will be able to send it off to Esther this week. Hurray! I took some photos of what I have done and then loaded them onto my hard drive. Took some pictures of the snow while I was out there and then thought I would play with Photoshop Elements again. This is what happens when you play around just a little bit...





Hope you all have a wonderful cozy Sunday!

Morning sky and new earrings

Morning sky
This was a couple of days ago. I just had to take some pictures. Talk about an angry sky! This is about the only sun I have seen in ages. Today, we are having light snow. Just in the air, it melts on the ground. But they are predicting temperatures beneath freezing for next week. Brrrrrrrr.

Ballroom chandelier earrings
These are some new earrings I made yesterday. Vintage chandelier prisms at the top with rock quartz, rhinestones and facetted onyx drops. These are really big and bold!

I am working on a couple of necklaces and hope to be able to show something soon. But I really need to get to work on some earrings! With more metal work...

New necklaces

Some new work to show:

Joy Necklace
Mother of pearl focal with resin, encasing the word "joy". Necklace is made of facetted mother of pearl beads, vintage mother of pearl buttons, opalite glass beads and copper.

Medieval woman necklace

A portrat of a woman behind glass, combined with sparkly Czech glass beads, rhinestone rondelles, freshwater pearls and brass.

Testing temporary systems and a bit of the Christmas market

Testing temporary systems - systems seem to be GO for the moment.
Well, it seems my computer did have a nervous breakdown. The motherboard is a wreck. While waiting for a replacement (and only after that is installed, will we find out if there are further problems), I have been able to rig a temporary system with Max' laptop and my data hard drive as an external drive. So far, it is functioning.

Since posts without pictures are just not quite as interesting, I have a photo taken at the Christmas market almost two weeks ago.

A peek at my booth, Sunday morning, before things got started.

Okay, now I have to edit photos for my shop.
Talk to you later!

Houston, we have a problem...

I am struggling with technical difficulties again. This time it is not the internet connection - no, it is my computer. It has had a nervous breakdown - well, at least I think so. It just cannot seem to cope with everyday life... sigh! It is losing its mind and, as a result, so am I!This means, I do not have access to my photos, so I will not be doing much posting until we have the problem(s) (yes, we suspect it is more than one problem... maybe not just software, but also hardware) fixed.

Surprise in the mail

On the weekend, I received a surprise in the mail. My friend Esther of Mes illusions baroques sent me a little package filled with goodies and treasures. I'm sure you all know Esther - if not, hurry over to her blog - she is such an extremely talented girl and you will be amazed!!

Well, Esther is a girl after my heart - she just knew I was going to miss going to the flea market and sent me some goodies she found at a flea market in France. Look those beautiful antique (around 1900) glasses!

These wonderful little match boxes from the fifties - one of them is still full of matches!

An art tag, one of her gorgeous beaded rings (with my initial!) and she sent me some of the angels she has altered!!!

Look at this altered tin - amazing!

And this is what is inside!

She sent me a little bundle of lavender from her garden - I wish I could share the delightful perfume with you.

A specialty of Provence - lavender syrup. I can't wait to try this in a glas of sparkling wine...

Thank you, Esther, for your kind and generous spirit!

Sorry about the not so great photos - it is extremely overcast and rainy and I just can't get any decent photos taken.

sew different

I decided my Woodland Necklace needed something special when it is sent off to its new home, so I sat myself down at my sewing machine and improvised a little something.
A jaquard material, closed with antique glass buttons.

Image transfered to cotton and attached to the back.

Two little "pillows" of unbleached cotton inside, one with green silk ribbons to tie the necklace in place - to keep it safe during mailing.

et voila! I think this will do the trick!

When the postman rings...

Today, my mailman brought me something wonderful! And I apologize in advance for the photos - artificial lighting just doesn't do these justice!

Little porcelain bird
Some of you might have seen this little bird over at LeAnn's of SummersStudio. I just couldn't resist - this birdie is just so adorably cute!

Some of you might remember, a while back - we all wanted to "Get Excited - Make Things". This was a kind of pay it forward, which stipulated that you send out something you made to your participants in the year 2009. I'm thinking, we might be hearing about this some more in the weeks to come.

Well, I received this from LeAnn from this pay it forward:

One of her wonderful big lentil beads with chandelier crystals as a holiday decoration!!
LeAnn is an excellent craftswoman - she truly understands her clays and her porcelain pieces are made with so much love! In addition to this, she is a wonderful and supportive friend! Thank you, LeAnn, for every kindness you have bestowed on me in this year and for being my friend!!!

Seems like a good moment to thank all of you that I have come to know a bit this past year in the blog community. I thank you for your kindness, your support and your encouragement! You have helped me to push my boundaries and grow. Thank you for being there! I wish you all a most wonderful (and delicious) Thanksgiving with your loved ones!!!!

Round Robin landed

On the weekend, another of our Round Robins landed at my house, bringing the most incredible things along! I thought I would share a bit with you.

Look at this! Véronique (of Narrative Jewelry) was so sweet - she sent me several different kinds of tea and a present! Besides sending me a postcard with a vintage photo of a bicycle - just like the one I saw at the flea market last month!

She was so kind and made me a pair of earrings - please take a look at these lovelies!

Thank you, dear sweet Véronique!!! They are wonderful!

She also sent me Sharon's necklace - do you want to see this piece of beauty and wonder? Okay...

but unfortunately, this photo has been censored (hèhèhèhèhèhèhèhèhè), so you will have to wait until our Round Robins have completed their flight around the world!

Inspite of Advent - Sunday flea market

The way things have been going this weekend with the Advent exhibition - I decided to perk myself up and go to the flea market with Max this morning. To say things are going badly would be an understatement. I have had no customers this weekend. And to top things off, the electricity went off yesterday for one and a half hours in the entire area. Seeing as it isn't likely that anyone will come today either, I might just as well show you some flea market impressions. I took my camera along and took so many photos, I could keep posting for a week. Please join me again while I peruse the strange and ordinary memorabilia and castoffs of today and yesteryear.

What a combination of things - makes me think of a circus...

I bet this appeals to the child in all of us!

I think even the Easter bunny is on this table, which shows a slightly more exclusive selection.

No, not the ruins of Pompeii. Old columns and objects, possibly from India or Indonesia.

Lovely old lace parasol.

This painting reminds me of Esther!

A dollhouse collection.

And now for my loot! Following are the treasures I haggled over and brought home:
Antique glass beads and glass stones. Oh, these are just fantastic!

Some antique rosary beads, watch parts and another souvenir bracelet from France!

Some faux pearls and vintage rhinestone pieces.

Some wonderful secret keepers!

I hope you enjoyed the flea market today as much as I did. Have a lovely Sunday!

(Comment: I wish this flea market was every weekend - although that would be bad for my pocketbook. This one is once a month - which is why I so look forward to going!)

Another resin focal

I worked on another piece with a resin focal yesterday - this time I turned it into a bracelet.


This is a pale grey mother of pearl resin focal, combined with freshwater pearls in pale grey, rhinestone rondelles, crackled rock crystal beads and copper.

Now I have to get ready for another weekend of Advent exhibition. I wonder if anyone is going to come? The newspaper printed last week's advertisement again, instead of the new one I sent; meaning the dates are wrong. Do you think there is a chance nobody will notice that detail???