Cookies. Coffee. Baubles.

Heehee....this was my afternoon snack today. Those animal crackers are seriously delicious....for being store-bought cookies, that is. 

I foresee another late night. I am barely formatting pictures right now and it's 7 p.m. Hmmmm.....my Monday postings have been getting really late.  I even cheated with dinner because I didn't want to take the time to make a full out meal. Instead we are eating yogurt and granola (breakfast for dinner...mmmmmmm).

Okay I need to get my butt in gear and get this fresh batch listed.

Tomorrow it's more gardening, some spring cleaning all while trying to keep the boys from re-tearing up everything!

(how exciting am I ?? ;)

EDIT: Okay, one day I'll get this all done on time....I'm exhausted. It just totally hit me and I am crashing. New work tomorrow!

Pearl Street

I have had such a fantastic couple of days.

I started my blog yesterday when we got home last night....but ended up fading out and fell asleep instead :) So here I am posting about yesterday to make up for it. It all started with a coffee date with my two monkeys at our local coffee shop. They get chocolate milk and mommy gets a nice humungo (is that a word?) cup of jo. We walked over there and had so much fun staring at the sky, talking to the puppies who walked by and picking up rollie pollies from our path. The kind of simple pure fun that only occurs with little ones.

Next up we had a snack and then headed over to 'our' park to hang out with some neighbor kids and practice some bike-riding. Later that evening we decided to go and hang out at the Pearl St. mall in Boulder. We are just a few minutes from Boulder, so we get to enjoy all the local activities there as well as the multitude of fun things that occur in all the surrounding small towns. There is seriously no shortage of things to do in our adopted home.

Here are a few images from that night:

These ladies were playing some amazing music when we first got there. The boys just loved it...as did Mr. Melnikov and myself. I think there was some dancing involved if I remember correctly ;)

Now this was the favorite....for anyone not aware of the local football goings-on in this area....the Buffs are a big deal. They had a pep rally-esque party on Pearl St. when we were there and the CU marching band was there to rev everyone up. Now seriously who doesn't get pumped going to games and hearing the marching band??

The boys absolutely loved it....and again I think the mister and I were guilty of a little hip-shaking as well!

We had a great day....another one of those 'we love where we live' moments.

And today was just as great, but I'll save that one for tomorrow.....it's movie night ;)

Shop update

I added this:


this:



and this to my shop just now.

If you'd like to mosey on over to take a look just click on the picture and it will take you to the corresponding listing. These are some of the pieces I made for the Louisville fair that needed to make its way into my shop.

Today was a nice day....I delivered a custom order ring to a lovely individual and we had a fantastic conversation over a large cup of coffee. It was great to get out for a bit (okay I admit it....it was 2 hours! ;) and get out into the world. One thing about working for myself is that I am turning into a bit of a hermit.

So I'm hoping to get one or two more pieces up tomorrow, but we shall see....I have my little monkeys tomorrow and they command lots 'o attention!

I'm off............

Gifts

Here are a few pics of the necklaces that I am making for my mom and sister. I thought I would share some images of the pieces, mid-process. Below is a pic of the bezel wall, which is made of fine silver and holds the stone in place. Underneath is the 'baseplate' of sterling silver. I first soldered the bezel together and then I soldered the bezel to the baseplate.

I am very meticulous with each fabrication stage. I have learned what works best for me in creating a finished piece of high quality.

The baseplate underneath will be cut away until it is flush with the bezel wall and then I will solder the bails (the piece that connects to the necklace) to the whole piece. There are a lot of other things in between that I do, such as filing, and lastly everything is buffed.

One day I will make some videos of my process and post. I am always curious to see how other silversmiths work....so perhaps some of you are as well ;)

For now I am off to have some afternoon coffee (this is my favorite blend of coffee in the world - the Adobe Morning Blend to be specific) and then I will finish the necklaces and post pics of them when I am done.

Adiós

Shop update complete

Everything is up now. I forgot to factor in visiting time into my schedule today ;) I had a great afternoon hanging out with my dad and husband on our deck. We had afternoon coffee (daily ritual) and good conversation, meanwhile my mom napped for like five hours! okay maybe two, but seriously it was a long time.

Okay so it is sooo time for me to get to bed.....:)