Farm Girl Studio

Finally a bead update :P These are a great size for focal beads, 50mm x 22mm Wonderful statement in any design. I love the spring colors too. The sun is shinning here on the farm and the temp is in the 60's, so we are going to enjoy the day outside. I will be listing these three later today in my Etsy shop, check it out!

With gas prices the way they are we are trying very hard not to drive unnecessarily. You know not making "little" runs here and there, so when we do run errands it can be a marathon. Willow has moved from a car seat to a booster seat, and taking a nap in one of those is hard on the neck. I had been looking for a travel pillow I could keep in the truck. I didn't want to pay a ton for one either. I looked online to see what I could make. I not only found something I could made but I could also recycle. This is so cute and it works great too. My model is taking a bath right now or I would have shown you this in action. Betz White has a great blog with lots of refashioning and recycling tutorials. If you remember my felted flower pins,, thats where I got the idea from. Here is the tutorial for the neck roll. This came in very handy on our recent trip to Chicago!

There is a Starbucks just a couple of doors down :) This is the park we walk through House I grew up in,, it was blue back then Willow and her "little sister" getting their picture taken So Pretty Great Art My mother just happens to live 1/2 block away from the house I grew up in. So when we go back it is interesting looking at the area with older eyes :) I am from Oak Park Illinois, it is a western suburb of Chicago. It borders the city limits and is pretty built up. Most things are within walking distance or you can hop on the metra and be downtown in just a few minutes. One of my favorite things to do when I visit my mom is to take an early morning walk to get coffee. There are two,, yes two coffee shops just across the park. These pictures are from our coffee walk.

I can't say we miss much from living in the Chicago area, but Brookfield Zoo and Chicago's great food are two of them :P. We were able to make it out for a visit last weekend. Usually we don't go together as it is a project to have someone take care of the animals while we are gone. The farmers markets will be starting in a couple of weeks and will be keeping us very busy on the weekends. Turns out we pick a fantastic weekend to go. The midwest has been raining and cold, the sun shone and it warmed up just in time for our trip :D. My mom lives near the zoo so we stopped by her condo, dropped off our stuff, picked her up and where off. They have changed the zoo alot since we have been there last, we missed some of the older houses but the new animal homes are so nice. I really got my exercise in that day as we walked all over and left the zoo at 6pm when it closed. Here are pictures from our trip.

Ah relaxation, who doesn't crave it? A friend of mine said to me the other day, "we are an exhausted culture and are always looking something that promises relaxation" So here is my contribution to relaxation. These pillows can be heated or cooled as needed. Just pop them in the microwave or freezer for a bit. Don't use them hot on your eyes, they don't like that. A cool pillow will not only help with sleep but reduce puffiness and dark circles. I used scraps of fabric I had in cotton, velor, and silk. Any fabric will really work for this project. I filled mine with rice and a couple of drops of lavender oil, but you can use flax seed, lavender flowers or chamomile also. Here is a link so you can make your own eye pillow. Lets try to relax a bit today.

This is the jewelry I made, she picked the drop pendant on the silver chain, the Vintaj necklace with the ring. Pearl drop vintaj and silver earring and the faceted light yellow drop earring. I am sure that all artists have had it at least once. I think custom work is the hardest to work through. Worrying if the piece will be the right color or style. We all have that design or idea that sits in our minds trying to make it' way to our finish product. That is frustrating but in a different way than custom work. What we the artist see is usually always much different than what the customer has asked for. Then there is making an gift for a person, working from what you know of that person. What we see as a persons style may not be what they see as their style. I experienced this a couple of weeks ago while making a birthday present for an old friend. Shira and I have been friends for the better part of our lives. We are very different but we have a connection and kn

Sunday my friend Kim and I headed up to Madison to go to the horse fair . The weather this weekend has been very cold, we had snow on Saturday but Sunday was a bit warmer. We went up last year together and decided to make this a girl outing every year. Both of us have been saving money for this trip all year. Last year I was surprised to even find a guy selling strands of beads :) I love it when my interests overlap lol. I have been on the look out for a pair of Cheeks, they are kind of like chaps but shorter and with fringe. I was happy to find a great tent outside where they hand made chaps and cheeks. There where a really cool pair of hand made half chaps that I got to wear around for a couple of hours to try out but in the end I got the cheeks. They fit like a glove and keep you really warm. I have no excuse not to ride now lol. I found a cute pair of white boot for Willow at a great price too. Some of my other purchases where, brushes, lead ropes, a great green rope halte

I pulled my old but in pretty good shape bike out of our pole barn. It has been there, never ridden since we moved here 7 years ago :( bad me. I was happy to find that all I need to do before I ride it is replace the tires and tubes. I will be doing a complete tune up just to be safe. Here is a site with lots of photos that show you what should be done when you tune up your bike. Here is a picture of a similar looking bike, I love the vintage look of it and think this basket will be sooooo cute. I think I will make it in pinks and grays though. We have a wonderful walking/bike path in Galena that follows the river and goes through the woods. Willow and I will be regulars this biking season. Have a great day and create something beatiful!

I have found some really YUMMY things and I must share them with you. Being Gluten free puts a bit of a damper on the foods I can eat so when I find something that is good and gluten free it's a good day :D. Here are my newest finds, Let start out with the Chocolate. Ghirardelli Squares and Lindt Lindor Truffles I am never going back to cheap chocolate again. I also love Boursin with Wild Rice Works sea salt and black sesame I think this may be my new go to meal.

I have to admit I spend a good potion of my internet time reading other peoples blogs. As of late I have be obsessed with sewing and refashioning sites. I just love how creative people are with clothing, I have so many ideas I can't wait to work on them. Don't worry I still love my glass and jewelry and will be posting more jewelry very soon. I am working on a new line, so check back. This is going to be just a small listing of some of my favorite sites for refashioning. Made by Lex Sew Much Ado Sew Liberated White Tangerine Dreams Is is a new one I just found Adventures in dressmaking

This is a great bracelet design for both girls and guys, looks wonderful with summer clothes too. My friends Jess and Trish found this link from the Rings and Things blog. When we went to the Madison bead show we picked up what we needed to make these. The tutorial calls for 6mm beads but you can change the size, just remember that larger beads are going to be really heavy. I made some single wraped ones, I love the red one so much I may keep it for myself :P. Instead of the leather I used hemp and it worked great too. For the larger beaded ones I used a heavier wax cotton. Give this a try and send me pictures of what you did, I can't wait to see everyones bracelets.