I Got The Blues!!!!!!!!!

And boy do I have the winter blues bad! Going on week 3 here of no ambition, LOL! I want to be motivated...really I do! BUT, something is holding me back.

With that said, I do want to say welcome to all my new followers. Thank you for finding me interesting & crazy enough to listen to what I want to say :)

On a positive note, I did have the opportunity to go with my good friend Lynne and 2o year boutique owner http://www.longgroveonline.com/merch-pages/Olivias/Olivias.html to the Deerfield Clothing Show http://www.thedeerfieldshow.com/DeerfieldMainPage.html. For you designers out there - the spring color trends are brights! Orange, yellow, green & turquoise. I finally feel that I'm at a point in my career & inventory that I can start designing now for Spring & feel a bit ahead of the game. Instead of all this "realtime rush" where I am designing in the specific season. NUTS!

I am looking forward to going to going to the Midwest Vintage Clothing, Jewelry & Textile Show held annually @ The Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin, IL http://www.catspajamasproductions.net/. It's held 2/26 & 27 & I love going Friday night when you can dress vintage & get a reduction on your entrance fee...fantastic caterer provides wonderful food & there is a vintage band...and of course you can have a cocktail. It's always fun to browse around with some wine, LOL.

There are several vendors who I only get the opportunity to see once a year & I look forward to catching up with them & seeing what goodies they may have in store for me to acquire & repurpose. I get some of my most extraordinary finds from some of these dealers.

Okay...I'll close now, because I know its not so peppy this time :) I have to find my feature list for doing the People Who Have Touched My Life...Touched My Art Series...maybe that's why I am frustrated!

Two more things: I am thrilled to be a new member of the VESTies! Vintage Etsy Society Team. This is spearheaded by my good friend & ardent supporter Martha of OpenDoorStudio http://www.etsy.com/shop/opendoorstudio. Martha is so savvy at finding some way cool vintage finds. It is her idea to bring together people across the country, with a concentration of people in Illinois to discuss & share on different levels about their vintage shops and artisans who re-create with vintage finds. More about us on our blog @ http://vintageetsysociety.blogspot.com/.

Secondly, I am running a contest on twitter that my 650th follower will receive custom designed earrings http://twitter.com/blastpast64.

Promise to be back soon, in much better spirits & with some fabulous photos & stories to share!

Bridal Bliss

Okay...okay, I will be the first one to say that I generally avoid bridal orders. These lovely women are experiencing so many emotions, I simply don't want to add to the drama, LOL! That's not to say that I don't do them, but I have to have a really good feeling about the person & the design concept :)

With that said, I have to say that my old friend Kellie was the most superb....flexible & easy-going bride to work with in my career! Kellie & I met years ago through a local email chat group called Chicagoland Moms. When all our children were younger, we would get together at a local McDonald's, Chuck E. Cheese... whatever agonizing, er wonderful play environment our kids would enjoy. We also organized dessert nights, Mom's Night Out & some other activities. Although we don't get together now as we used to, we have all managed to stay connected through Facebook.

When I was starting up my Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/ablastfromthepast I really was overwhelmed by the idea of photography. I had always heard that the pictures needed to be superb because afterall, this is your significant selling point on the web. As an exercise, I decided to photograph all my personal designs in groupings & post on Facebook for my friends & mentors to critique. Kellie took a peek & got in touch & asked me to design her wedding jewelry. I was so jazzed. My husband was giving me the business about being behind on something I was like "hey, I got an order JUST from posting sample pictures, leave me alone, LOL."

Much later a mutual friend would ask how did we accomplish this without ever seeing each other or my seeing the dress in person. I haughtily replied that I am just that damn good. Okay, so that was bratty...but seriously, having my designs in & working for Olivia's Past in Long Grove has really given me the opportunity to hone my skills in designing for fashion. Kellie emailed me some pictures & I was able to discern by the dress style & knowing her personality, what would go best.

Kellie is just as funky as I am. Spirited but soft-spoken & gentile...but she has a wild, interesting "I don't conform" attitude. As I'm reading her describing the wedding & the fact that her & her daughters would all be wearing "chucks" to the reception. For those of you who don't know what those are (come on!!), Converse All-Stars! My girls wear 'em too! And of course in true style, this event took place on New Years Eve.

Kellie is the perfect person for a cha cha. She saw one of mine & wanted one to go with her dress. By the time I was done, I called it the monster - I liked it even better than mine...but that's how its supposed to be, right? Made pretty much entirely of 1950's components, the most rockin' confetti lucite, silver polished swaroski & old rhinestone balls - it truly was glammy.

We won't talk about the little bumps in the household that had me sending the bracelet UPS overnight just 2 days before the wedding. I will tell you this though, any other bride would have strung me up. Kellie is so laid back and for that I am truly grateful!

I always feel the best design comes from your soul. I'll let you in on a little known secret. I am best inspired when I listen to music. I mean my whole house rocks when I'm in the studio designing & am "in the zone." My family has learned to tolerate it & often sneak peaks to laugh at me...because at any given point you could catch me popping up from my chair "getting my groove on." The reason I am sharing this is because all good things happen for a reason. I had a good free flow of karma & peacefulness going on when I was designing this - listening to Peter, Paul & Mary. About half way through the design, The Wedding Song - There Is Love started to play. And yes...I was bawling like a baby. Kind of hard to see when your wrapping headpins - but I just let the tears flow, everything happens for a reason.

I wish much love and happiness to my friend Kellie, her husband & family. And thank her from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to be a part of her special moment.

Heavenly Heirlooms

I love what I do, but I have to say that when I'm given the opportunity to take someone else's treasured memories & create beautiful works of art that they will wear forever, I am truly honored.

A good client at Olivia's Past in Long Grove, IL came to me a few months ago saying she had her grandmother's jewelry & wanted to know if I would be interested in re-creating them into something functional & wearable. There were several pieces to the collection, 4 brooches & 2 sets of earrings. I readily agreed & took this project on.

I felt lucky that I had a bevy of beautiful cut glass & crystal to choose from. My challenge, was finding filigree or stamped metal designs that would accomodate the largess & greatness of these brooches, without overpowering them...a sort of back drop to the real star of the show. I did the same for the earrings as well... a little more dainty & graceful.

As I sat designing these pieces, I really thought of how I would want to wear them. Bold & embracing, sparing no detail in the crystal & cut glass... only the absolute best of what I have hidden away in my studio would do! By the time I finished, these three pictured here, brought me such pride & great envy. I wanted them for myself!

I had the good fortune to have a trunk show at Olivia's Past this weekend & to present my finished work to my client. I told her before the "great unveiling" that I loved them so much, I wished I was able to keep some of them for myself! She chuckled & said, "now I know they're good if you wanted to keep them." The look on her face & the gasps of the other customers standing around was all the joy I needed. My crazy tempermental artist mind received total affirmation that if for one moment I still think that what I do isn't important, then I have only myself to blame.

The client was over-joyed, the surrounding inquiring minds were all a chatter & I was beaming with pride & joy. Truly, in my opinion what this is all about. Bringing joy to others through my art. To be given such an opportunity to bring a cherished memory to life in something that she will treasure forever....to of had a hand in that.... well, it makes me emotional even as I sit here posting this now.

I am humble & grateful that I helped to reclaim these old beauties.... give them a new life... and to be given the chance to design as I like... bold & funky, without hesitation. Blessings & many thanks to my lovely client who gave me this opportunity.

Lots O Doins' Around Here!

WOW! It feels like forever since I've posted. It's been a crazy life as I'm sure everyone feels with the holidays upon us. All is quiet in our household... the kids are doing fine. My artistic life has been a little bit hectic!

I've previously mentioned that making the step to be on the internet was a big deal for me. I'm not as computer-savvy as I used to be. This past week really challenged me. Learning how to create an Etsy site www.ablastfromthepast.etsy.com and the blog were of huge emotional exhaustion to me. Maybe I'm getting old... learning new stuff is a challenge. And investing the time & balancing between this and design is huge for me. Things like Google Analytics and SEO are still making my head spin. So I'll wait... till it gets a little quieter around here and dive into that.

My husband decided to upgrade us to Windows 7.0 which ended up creating all kinds of challenges for me and my website. As of tonight, I can happily say the last "tweak" was accomplished and hopefully it will no longer take me 4 hours to upload pictures! Oy!

What's going on artistically? Well, I just completed two trunk shows. I just landed a small, but promising account for at least the holiday season at a local antique gallery & I'll be holding my 3rd annual trunk show at Olivia's Past in Long Grove this Friday & Saturday. As always, I am perpetually behind in creating new designs - but will hopefully manage to pull out a few fabulous things from my over-tired mind.

Hopefully this finds you all just as busy & hopefully having success! Until next time....