already

one year, i was so consumed in the minutiae of the indoors that i completely missed fall. it won't happen again.

spring break

during spring break this year, i went to work twice. on the other days i did fun things like:

sort paints! this wasn't fun for me, but i have a new understanding of how much of a craft stash i have created. it's a bit overwhelming and makes me want to paint a lot.

i took a brief trip to cincinnati to visit the jorgensons. i had a whirlwind day of shopping with jenni and aven. after breakfast at ikea, we went to jungle jim's (always a favorite), met simon for lunch at a delicious middle eastern restaurant, went to some nice local shops, and finished at crate and barrel and the container store.


at ikea, aven immediately claimed this adorable broccoli stalk friend. she carried it all through jungle jim's!

when i returned, jenni and i quickly made this tree decoration for aven's wall from ikea cork placemats and coasters:


the next day, i met jenny, heather n., and shellie at you are the potter and underestimated how long it would take to paint this:

i haven't picked it up yet, and i think that the pastel pre-kiln paint color hides what are certain to be flaws from rushing the process. but it was good to go there again.

almost a week has passed since spring break, and now my thoughts are focused again on work: getting ready to move into a new office, taking some students to bloomington tomorrow to watch their guitar teacher perform, and many other activities that will make the next few weeks seem to pass so quickly.

ice storm

i ventured outside today to take some photos of last night's ice storm. there will likely be another in a few hours. the next storm may cause more ice everywhere, which would take these scenes from beautiful to dangerous.












i forgot that ice storms make noise. the wind makes the icy branches crackle. it's pretty loud given the typical muffled quiet of winter storms.

hot chocolate and a book sound really wonderful right now. if you are anywhere near these storms, please be safe.

white out

so thankful today for the opportunity to leave work early, drive home safely, find the beauty in the trees, use my comfy cheap warm dry six-year-old payless snow boots, and eat delicious lentil soup.

have a safe and lovely weekend.

pendant progress!

My friend Heather said to me over lunch yesterday, "I think you should branch out, and make some pendants".

I'd been thinking about this before, enough so that I'd bought some wooden discs and bails a few weeks ago. I just hadn't started on them. Any branching out I'd been attempting before consisted of beads, and those attempts still haven't gone anywhere.

Pendants are a much simpler step to expanding the offerings at the Mirthmarket!

There are two in particular that I really enjoyed making. I just finished listing them. I'd love to hear what you think!


There are two sizes I'm currently working with. The pendant featured above (the silver tree) is about 1.5 inches in diameter, and domed so that the edges are narrow. It's much flatter overall than the smaller pendant below, which is 1 inch in diameter, and more reminiscent of the shape of Mirthmarket's rings.


I believe there will be many more!

Weekend update

Tonight I updated the Mirthmarket with a few new rings, including these:
This weekend there was a wasp in my hair and a ladybug on my shoulder.
I went to a jewelry party and visited Jackson's room.
I sat in a suite at the Pacers game and ate nachos.
I went to another party after that - caught up talking with another friend while eating lemon cherry cookies - I am really, really not a party girl. I am more of a have-a-conversation-with-one-person-and-eat-cookies-girl, so that worked out.
I went to the movies and saw Michael Jackson's "This is It" - I'm glad the film was made - so many people worked to create such a ridiculously elaborate production. There were short films, a mechanical spider and bulldozer, pyrotechnics, costumes...it was over the top!
This weekend the sun was shining and it was warm.
This tree looked like this:

I hope that you have a wonderful week.

Start to finish...

Here is what I made tonight. I had a rough idea of what I wanted the finished product to look like, but instead of leafy green plants, I made a red autumn tree. I can't help it.






Also, the Mirthmarket was featured on I Love Handmade this week. There are so many cool things on this blog! There are so many sites that feature Etsy sellers and other crafty finds, but really, this one has a lot of variety and really nice choices. (The blog creator's shop, Dig The Earth, is great, too!)

lovely leaves

on sunday, i was delightfully distracted by a tree.