Father's Day

I had an idea to make a couple of shirts for my Dad for Father's Day. So I decided to buy a handmade Father's Day card to keep with my handmade mission. Plus, I thought it was a great looking card at a reasonable price.

Of course I wrote a personal message on the inside. But since the card had a white paper insert the recipient could take that out and replace it and use the card again.

Here's my Dad holding up the front. He is a BIG Mac/Apple person. We've had a string of Apple Computers: Apple IIC, Apple IIGS, Macintosh Performa, iMacs. My parents also have an iPod Touch so I thought the shirt was fitting for him.

The t-shirt was made with a special heat set vinyl. My husband runs a vinyl decal business. So we cut the vinyl out as we usually do then used a heat press to secure it to the t-shirt.

Voila! A brand new handmade custom t-shirt.

If you know my Dad you'd know that the message on the back is completely and absolutely true.

Thanks for being such an awesome Dad! We love you so much!

Lakefront Festival of Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum

My husband Steve and I are celebrating our 11th Wedding Anniversary today! So we decided that since the kids are at Great Grandma's we'd go down to the Lakefront Festival of Arts. I love going to art shows! Plus, after we were done looking at the booths we could walk around the Art Museum. So off to Milwaukee we headed!

It was hot, but windy at the same time. Luckily, all the booths were housed underneath this long white tent. It was nice to be out of the sun when looking at all the wonderful treasures, but it did make it a little muggy in there. I would have taken some pictures to share with everyone, but the artists don't like photographs taken of their work and I can understand that. I had fun looking at all the blown glass. There was even a guy that had blown glass vases that had a ceramic look to them. The colors swirled and they had rough matte texture. I have no idea how he accomplished a look like that. They were amazing! I love coming to shows like this and seeing other people's inspired works of art. It gets all of my creative juices flowing.

The Art Museum itself had some really great works of art. I didn't see any impressionist paintings which made me a little sad. I'm not sure we saw all the different rooms. I get turned around pretty easily in museums. I was able to see some art by Georgia O'Keefe, whom I love. They also had some antique furniture on display. I got to see a beautiful floor lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a chair/table with a stained glass panel by Frank Lloyd Wright and some stained glass windows by other artists. I love viewing antique stained glass. It's amazing the work that they were able to create with the limited tools and materials they had in those times.

So you might be wondering why I'm standing in the fountain. Well, for one thing it was hot and my feet felt like they were on fire, but there's actually a story behind this photo. The night I graduated from College, my friend Heidi and I went to a bar/restaurant to meet a boy (Steve) and some of his friends to celebrate our graduation. Well, you can say that Steve and I had our first date that night. We had fun listening to music, but decided to take a walk so we could get away from all the noise and talk. So we walked for awhile and eventually sat down on the front step of one of the local businesses. We talked some more and I positioned myself so I was facing him. I was trying to make it easy for him to lean in and kiss me. So I waited and waited and waited. No kiss. Then suddenly he jumps up and says he's going to jump into the fountain across the street. I have no idea why he thought that would be a good idea, but soon I was laughing so hard it didn't matter. He jumped into the fountain and promptly slipped and landed on his butt! He came back across the street completely drenched. He sat back down next to me, dripping water all over the place. A couple happened to be walking by just then and Steve said to them, "I just jumped in the fountain!" The guy says, "Why'd you do that?" Steve responds, "To win the heart of this beautiful young lady!" A completely cheesy line, but coming from a man like Steve it was very sweet. I'd like to say he leaned over and kissed me right then, but his shyness got the best of him. His friends showed up and he was getting ready to head home. At that point, I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. I said, "Are you going to kiss me or what?" Well, I got the sweetest answer.

So after all these years I figured it was my turn to jump in the fountain. Thank you for these awesome 11 years. I'm looking forward to more.

Conclusion to Smashing Glass

The final result to smashing the crap out of some glass. I think the bowl turned out pretty well.

Now... on to smashing some other colors!

Smashed Glass Update.

Fusing of the Frit Bowl is complete!

Now on to the slumping.

Here is a closer view of the texture.

This is the mold I'll be using to get the glass to take on a bowl shape.

Glass and mold ready to go back into the kiln.

Took the same concept and made some pendants. I did change the technique a little. I used a different schedule so the pendants would be fully fused and smooth.

I used a white piece of glass as the base, 3 colors of frit in the middle and a clear piece of glass for the top.

This picture shows the nice smooth texture of this pendant. In the future, I might make some pendants that have the same texture as the bowl.

Smashing Glass!!!

Today I put on my safety glasses and smashed the crap out of some glass. It was very therapeutic. I used my very cool Frit Smasher. Frit are small pieces or chunks of glass that can be used for fusing glass. Once I was done smashing I sifted the glass through some buckets with different sized screens in them. Then I poured the different sized frit into little individual jars. I was able to get 4 different sizes of frit for each color.

This is the frit smasher and 3 colors of frit.

Here is my glass ready for fusing.

This piece consists of a clear glass circle with 3 different colors of frit on top. I'm using a fusing schedule so that some of the texture remains. This piece is in the kiln now. Tomorrow I'll take a picture of the piece fused. Then back in the kiln for a slumping schedule so that it takes the shape of a bowl.

You know, looking at this picture now it kind of reminds me of pizza. Does anyone else see that?

Stay tuned for the upcoming pictures!

Maden's Super Birthday!

My nephew, Maden, had his 2nd birthday party on Saturday. So I wanted to share with you what I bought for him. A while back another seller had hearted my husband's decal shop on Etsy. I occasionally peek at the other shops that heart his shop. That's where I discovered this cool Super Hero shop. DiscoveryDenim's shop has a bunch of gear for your little Super Hero. You can pick from a variety of capes, masks, and cuffs. I chose the Red and Blue Cape that was personalized with my nephew's initial. My other nephew's name is Mason so the initial works for him too.

I shared my purchase with my mother and sent her the link to the shop. She thought the Super Hero Gear was super cute and wanted to buy the matching mask and cuffs to go along with my cape. We picked blue cuffs with a red rocket and a blue mask with red stitching. My husband and I sent a quick convo to DiscoveryDenim and was able to add the other two items to my order to save on the shipping. The shipping was low to start with, but it's nice to save a buck where you can. I really wanted to share a photo of my nephew wearing the cape, but the weather prevented us from playing outside. He was also dealing with an allergic reaction to some animals from a petting zoo he visited earlier that day. So he wasn't quite himself for the party. But hopefully soon he'll be back to his Super Hero self.

Maden opening presents.

This picture was taken right after he stuck his finger in the cake.

Hey, it was good cake. I totally understand.

Happy Birthday Maden! I love you.