Black thumbs? No problem!

The kitchen still isn't done, but it is close enough now that we got a lot of our living space back, and with the space came the room (and mental energy) to actually make stuff!  YAY just in time for the Holiday Craft Fair I put on every year at my office.

This group of work came about because I wanted to make my co-worker and good friend something special for her birthday and I knew how much she loved my succulents.  I have a house full of them, and three years ago for the Spring craft fair I brought in a bunch of cute terrariums with air plants, succulents, and the like.  They were a hit and since then folk keep asking me if I am going to do it again.

Well, no, on account of half the people killed their plants within a month (how in the world do you kill a succulent??) and also it was hard for me to let go of plants that I had been nurturing for 6+ months to get them ready for the sale.  But then it dawned on me that I could just make faux succulents;  sort of how Athena made the mechanical owl for Perseus in Clash of the Titans ('Not my beloved Bubo!').

So I made a few desk top terrariums (the air plants are real):

And a few adorable mini- terrariums.  The base is about the size of a quarter:

Pendants:

This is my favorite!  And the one I am keeping.

And, Christmas ornaments in two sizes!  But really, I think you could hang these in a window all year long:

In a strange twist of coincidence, the day I started on these, I saw that the new PolymerCafe magazine came out with the cover being succulents.  So weird!  I ordered it but it hasn't come in yet. They probably have a much better technique for making these than I managed - but we shall see!

Kitchen Upheaval

I've been living in a construction zone.  SINCE FREAKING MAY.  My kitchen remodel was supposed to be an 8-week job and has turned into this never ending nightmare that has left me without a kitchen, without most of the garage (the kitchen stuff is in there, and it is serving as the dog's living room while the house is being worked on) no dining room and half a living room since the kitchen cabinets have to be stored in the house (did I mention the garage was full) which means all my stuff from these rooms have been shoved into my craft room and it has been unusable for over four months now.  The stress alone has made me feel not very creative, but having no space to work has completely cut me off from claying at all.

The only time and space I have to do anything creative is while I am at work, so I have taken up embroidery.  It's clean, compact, and mobile.  Plus, you can pick it up and put it down at will.  Hence, this chicken:

It shall remain in this hoop and adorn the walls of the dining room.  If construction ever ends.  Le sigh.

Journals and Jars - holidays 2016

I got a few neat things done for the holidays, but not much else happening in the ol' creativity department.

A few journals:

 

and a special order jar to look like the recipients pup:

and I also managed to make myself a pretty cool necklace to match a party dress:

Other that, not much fun stuff is managing to come out of me.  I am in a slump at my day job, and I have convinced myself that the sadness there is bleeding over into my (lack of) creative self too. 

 I am taking some steps to try to fix that though!  I am part of the 2016 Polymer Clay Adventure.  There are a few projects there that I am super pumped about (and a few I really want nothing to do with but I am going to try to force myself to do them anyway.  Who knows, maybe something neat will come of it).

I am going to try to participate in the monthly challenges for the polymer guild I belong to, too.  I am coming up dry so far though, even though the next theme is right up my alley.  I also have my eye out for some kind of bead soup challenge type thing, but with polymer pieces.