Rockin Ride Karaoke Bus

Today is a rough day to have crafty frustration. I was up late last night helping Cory ring in her 30th birthday on a karaoke bus that drove 17 of us around Austin. Needless to say I’m a little worn out today and my throat is scratchy from my rendition of “Midnight Train to Georgia”. Anyway I am playing with a top secret crafting tool for my book trying to make something awesome I saw in 9 to 5 and I am having issues. I even took a trip to Memory Depot to see if the people in the store could bestow any wisdom on me. They had a few good suggestions, but my necklace is still not coming out how I envisioned it. It is a crafting tool that I have used super briefly in a field piece on Craft Lab once so I don’t have a ton of experience with it. However, I love it and I know it has a lot of possibilities! After going to bed at 3am today might not be the best day to try and hone a new crafty skill.

I leave you with some pictures from the last two days of Cory’s birthday extravaganza. The first picture is of her and my husband Chris on drums. She has been taking bass lessons and for her recital she gathered some friends to do some cover tunes Sunday night at Hole in the Wall. For only one practice together I thought they sounded amazing. Then here are a couple pictures of Karly belting out some Madonna, Cory and her dad Tim dueting Sonny and Cher and then the Rockin Ride!

Craft Lab twice a day!

Hey when did Craft Lab get moved to twice a day? Where have I been? Funny they never tell me these things. Oh well. So anywhoodle looks like you can watch Craft Lab at 11am Central and 2:30pm Central Monday-Friday on the DIY Network. Maybe they are getting ready to show season 2! I just recently found the “Craft “Lab Channel” on the DIY website. You should check it out there are some fun snippets from Season 2 like making vintage collage photo art with Michael DeMeng and a Flower Spider made with Jonathan Fong! Ok lemme tell you what is on this week!


MONDAY: Crafting with Dad and a Wire Basket Doll.
TUESDAY: Origami and Floral Art
WEDNESDAY: Garden Sphere Mosaics and Wire Drawing (That episode is the one in the picture above)
THURSDAY: Altered Book Techniques and Heat Tool Techniques
FRIDAY: Recycled Paper Making and High-Tech Crafts

Don’t forget to watch my Austin Craft Mafia pals and I hang out on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:30pm also on DIY Network. Dang they changed the time on Stylelicious as well didn’t they!

TUESDAY: It’s Animal Magnetism and Karly makes a purse that looks like a hamster running on its wheel.
THURSDAY: Tina, Susann and I are Putting It On and I make some wacky headbands.



I have been thinking about filming Stylelicious a lot lately. Doing this book reminds me of the experience. When I do Craft Lab I don’t make any projects so I have some script to memorize and I familiarize myself with the guest, but beyond that there is not a lot of prep-work. On Stylelicious I was on 17 episodes and we all came up with our own projects and not only made them, but also made all the step outs. Then rehearsed the segment over and over with our producers. This is a picture of Kate and Nicole helping me practice Thursday’s episode of Stylelicious. It was a TON of work. The book is a very similar beast except instead of producers you have an editor. I need to have 25ish stepped out full projects and 12ish mini projects. So not only does that mean I show up at the photo shoot with the done bracelet, that means I also need to bring 3 other bracelets in various stages of progression for all the how to pictures. Ya see what I mean. In book and TV land there is never really just that done item, that would be way to easy. It’s the step outs that kill me and add all the work on top. OK I need to quit complaining and go and make some book jewelry. I hope I can find my pinking sheers. Last night at the Austin Craft Mafia meeting I had Jenny teaching me a blanket stitch so I could work on book projects as we discussed various crafty issues. Did I mention I have not even started the writing portion of the book!

Bead Bloggers

I have been a bad bad blogger and I know that. Then after not really posting much of anything this week I am just reposting my bead blogging links for you today. It has been a super busy week around here. We are at the official one week mark left for the book and I am in over drive. Just yesterday I sat and did things like used metal files one minute and then embroidered the next. I’m telling you I am pulling out all the stops for this book. I also got asked to do another project for Adorn this week, so I need to think deep thoughts about that. On top of that another charm bracelet was requested by a company to be in an ad this holiday season. That is two different ads I will be in during the holidays, weird. Then as if that was not enough QVC came a calling. What would I sell on QVC? I can’t say I am not intrigued and curious, I’m just not sure what I would sell since I don’t have huge bulk quantities of anything. I’ll keep you posted.

Today is another busy day. I have a contractor coming to look at my garage which we are having converted into a studio for me. Remember when I posted the pictures of my messy studio? Well you should see the garage. Cleaning that out is going to be harder than making it into a room. This evening I have an Austin Craft Mafia meeting. Later tonight my friend Cory is having what we are calling a bass guitar recital at Hole in the Wall. It is her first time to play out and my hubby is doing the drumming for her. Not to mention more jewelry book fun in my spare time today. Dang do I need a picture of a flower outline B-A-D. Ok anyway onto the bead bloggers group. My blog link that they reposted on their blogs was the one about my bead buying trip to the North East. I thought I would post a few pictures of some of the loot I have been organizing and sorting. There is not even room in my current studio for these shelves so they are in the game room! No your eyes do not deceive you those are Cabbage Patch Kinds, Strawberry Shortcake, The Mona Lisa and ET.

Art Bead Scene Show off those art beads with a free earring project.

Bead Arts Robin Atkins has started a year-long Bead Journal Project. Here is Cyndi's contribution for the month of July!

Jewelry and Beading, Tammy suggests that you start planting your jewelry beads in July, so you can bead weave a cool beaded tree for the holidays.

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Mother's bracelets are true classics! Jean was comissioned (by her husband Jim's pal, Rob) to create a very pretty one for his wife, due in October. See what they created together by phone, and find out if the mother-to-be liked it or not!

The Impatient Blogger Margot whines about her "stupid thumb" and shares "fabulicious" photos and trend spotting thoughts from this year's Summer CHA Show. Yipee!

New Crafty Curios on Etsy

I almost forgot to tell you that I added a bunch of new fun stuff to my Etsy store like this vintage red plastic chain. Some of the goodies I scored on my trip were for me to keep and some were for me to put in my Etsy store. Keep your eyeballs peeled for new additions!

Speaking of new additions I know it seems like forever since I have added new goodies to Naughty Secretary Club, but that is because the new website is coming and I am waiting until that is complete. I can’t wait to show it to you and the new and improved shopping cart!

Chris and the Cuke

Did I ever tell you that my husband Chris has a crazy green thumb? The man can grow anything. We have a veggie garden around the side of our house that is sprouting off tomatoes, peppers and the biggest dang cucumbers you have ever seen. Look at the size of that thing it is bigger than a babies arm. Last night Chris made us a cucumber salad with the wares from his garden that I thought I would share.

CUCUMBER SALAD
1 1/2 cucumbers, peeled, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 jalapeño chili, seeded, minced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
Place cucumbers in medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt. Toss. Chill 1 hour.
Drain cucumbers and return to bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in another bowl. Pour over cucumbers and toss to coat. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Refrigerate.)

We had the salad, stirfry and eggrolls as we watched Big Love. Dang next week’s episode looks juicy.

The Sampler in Home Companion Magazine

While I was away I received an email from Marie at The Sampler that some Naughty Secretary Club bling had made it into the current issue of Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion Magazine. If you look very closely at about 4:00 on the circle you can see a Naughty Secretary Club woody necklace in the picture. Whoo-hoo!

Speaking of press I did an interview for Marie Claire magazine this past week and found out that I am going to have 2 pieces of jewelry in an issue of Altered Couture this year. Hooray! I’ll keep you posted on when those things come out.

Bead Shopping, Fancy Hotels, Art Shows and More.

This blog could be so long I almost don’t know where to start. That being the case I think I will sum the last week and a half up in a shortened version.

Thursday before last my mother and I flew to the north east to go to a flea market in Brimfield, Massachusetts. Touted as the largest in the country, it was definitely smaller than Round Top here in Texas. However, the show is 3 times a year and apparently the summer show is the smallest of the 3. Either was it took my mom and I 2.5 full days to see everything and honestly I’m sure we didn’t see EVERYTHING. The flea market was set up much like Roundtop where there were outdoor fields along a small road full of vendors. You just kind of slowly meandered your way down to the end of the road. I scored oodles of treasures like an old 1960’s swimsuit, vintage wrapping paper and cards for Crafty Collage Curio Packs, check out all the watches I found for Tardy bracelets and more. Luckily my mom and I had each packed an empty suitcase to fill up with our loot.



There were a few vendors that I wanted to tell you about that you can check out online for awesomeness…

While wandering the hot and dusty fields I found myself in a tent full of super cuteness by Emily of Crazy Cakes Designs. Check out her blog roundup of Brimfield and her Etsy store. Buttons, chenille cupcakes, baby blankets and more her stuff was really adorable.

I spent quite some time in the booth of Andrew pf Accessories of Old. I loaded up on vintage jewelry and mom stocked up on his selection of vintage buttons, ribbon and trim.

Another interesting phenomenon I saw is that lots of people seem to be making new Bakelite jewelry. They are using vintage Bakelite pieces but they are carving, gluing and molding it into new pieces. Bakelite Couture was my favorite with some amazing pieces. Check them out on My Space too. Bakelite Bracelets also had some new/old pieces of Bakelite.



In other interesting news for those of you that sew you might know who Wrights is. Well there outlet store was in a neighboring town so my mom and I also spent quite a bit of time there so she could get goodies for her Barkcloth purses.

On Sunday we headed for Providence, Rhode Island to do a little bead shopping. Thanks everyone for your suggestions we hit 3 different places in the course of two days and let’s just say I have 8 boxes of vintage beads, baubles and charms being shipped to me as we speak. I looked like I had been making out with a dusty box at the end of each day and my allergies are still killing me after digging for it, but it was worth it. I can’t wait to play with everything and make new and exciting jewelry, but alas I must be strong all the projects for my book are due on the 31st of this month. I might not even open the boxes when they get here to resist the temptation. Oh who am I kidding?

In one of the stores I ran into a fellow Etsy dealer who I chatted up as we waited to have our beads counted. Be sure and check out Tracy over at Epoch Beads for some really cool vintage jewelry supplies. Her friend Atomic Veggie also has some awesome things.

Wednesday mom and I flew back to Dallas. I could have gone onto Austin, but my friend Erin was having her birthday celebration in Dallas that Friday so I decided to stay in town for a few days. Hope drove up to McKinney on Wednesday too so it was a regular family reunion for a few days. On Friday Cory, Erin, Karly and Sarah all drove down from Austin and Hope and I met up with them for our big night out on the town. We had 2 rooms booked at the W Hotel which is quite fancy pants. We swam in the Infinity pool which had an amazing view, sipped cocktails in the bar and enjoyed the terry cloth robes. For dinner we went to a restaurant called Amuse which was wonderful. Here we met up with Erin and I’s friends Stevie, Becky and Kim from high school. It was so good to see everyone. After dinner we headed down to Exposition where we went to a place called The Monkey Bar and met up with another high school friend Eric and his boyfriend. This place had a slight tiki theme that I enjoyed. After awhile we made our way over to another place called The Fallout where we all danced around to 80’s songs until the lights came up. Fun was had by all and I think Erin had quite the birthday.




Saturday it took Hope and I almost 6 hours to get back to Austin due to the rain and traffic. Once we did I was home for maybe 2 hours before it was time for me to leave again and go out. My friends Tim and Katherine’s salon Method was celebrating their 1 year anniversary and all the art adorning the walls where pieces by Hope. Needless to say I was a little “under the weather” from the night before so I left a little early.

So now here I am sitting at my computer and blogging for the first time in over a week. I need to spend the day unpacking, sorting mail and catching up on things. First however, Chris and I off to have Migas. All the Italian food I had on the East Coast was wonderful, but nothing beats Tex Mex and I need my fix.

Bead Bloggers

I am back from my whirlwind trip to Massachusetts and Rhode Island and have tons to tell. However after a long day of flights and an evening of replying to emails I think all I have the energy for is to post the gossip from the Bead Bloggers for this week.

Art Bead Scene Soups on! Beadmaker Elaine Ray stirs up some great design ideas and inspiration at the Art Bead Scene this week.

Bead Arts Cyndi is starting a new series especially for people who want to get into designing their own original work.

Jewelry and Beading As part of her Christmas in July theme for the month, Tammy at Jewelry and Beading has a super easy beaded wreath that is perfect to do with the kids.

Katie's Beading Blog Katie shares a sneak peek at the artists who share projects and inspiration on series 700 of Beads, Baubles & Jewels

Savvy Crafter Tutti, Fruity, and Felty Pebbles! Candie can't decide if they should be strung in a bracelet or magnets. See for yourself!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean gets about as serious as Jean can get, and discusses what this past year writing her book, Links, was like.

The Impatient Blogger Another fabulous free project? Can it be true? Yes! BQOTU Margot Potter shares a third free project from her sensational new book Sparkletastic! Viva La Sparkle!

Felt Club, Beta Valentine, Swaparamarama and More!

Ok I lied I have one more blog in me before I leave town this afternoon. This one is going to be quick bullet points.

1)If you live in Austin and feel like seeing a band tonight, might I recommend Beta Valentine at Emo’s Lounge. Sure I’m married to the drummer, but even if I wasn’t it was the recommended show for Wednesday in this week’s edition of The Onion.

2)Tomorrow is the last day to go and vote for the Fred Flare Next Big Thing Contest. I’m not saying who you should vote for, but that $1000 prize money sure would help with the shopping I’m about to do at the flea market this weekend.

3)If I was not going to Rhode Island and Massachusetts this weekend I would be going to Los Angeles instead. Why? Because it is Felt Club and I am a sponsor. There are 250 swag bags at the door and every one of them has a free Naughty Secretary Club Pea Pod Necklace in them. Be sure and stop by and say hello to Jennifer Ramos in the Textile Fetish booth, gotta give a shout out to my Austin ladies. Two of my favorite Craft Lab crafters will also be vending Nicole from Queen Puff Puff and Laura from Charcoal Designs.

4)Also this weekend here in Austin at The Workshop on 6th Street is the Miniswaporamarama from 6-9pm which is preparation for the big swaporamarama in August.

Laptop into a Typewriter

Wow something must be in the air today about Stitch. So far this morning I have gotten two different media requests and a new sponsor signed on. Whoo-hoo! Don’t forget you have about a month left to apply as a vendor at this year’s event.

One of the places that wrote me asking for some press information was a fun website called Craft Gossip. Since I am obsessed with all things office related this month working on my book I almost fell out of my chair when I read about the lap top conversion into an old type writer by Mary Robinette Kowal. How awesome is this thing! Wish I had thought of that.



Ok today I am furiously packing and getting ready for my trip. I leave tomorrow for Dallas and then on Thursday I leave from Dallas to Providence. When I return to Dallas I am meeting some friends for a stay at the W Hotel and trip to the Ghost Bar there. So I am having to pack flea market clothes, swim suit/spa clothes and going out clothes. This is a lot of planning for someone like me. Wish me luck. I just remembered 10 minutes ago to pack a pair of shoes besides tennis shoes. I’ll try to blog while I am away, but I’m unsure about the status of internet at our hotel.

The Summer Sampler

I almost totally forgot to blog about the most recent box of loot I got from The Sampler! I heart The Sampler so and I try and participate as often as I can, this month I had a bunch of earrings shipped out. What did I receive in my box of goodies you ask? Well I’ll tell you.

First up a whole lot of swag like postcards, business cards and flyers. I flipped through them, but mainly recycle them. No I don’t throw them out, I throw them in with my own swag with all my orders I ship out. So in other words I get swag from The Sampler and then I stick in one or two pieces with each of my orders that I ship out and keep spreading the word for those people.

I really thought the two postcards made out of old board games were really clever. They are made by a company called Chickeney. I got one that was a checker board and another that was some game with 70’s graphics and birds chirping. She covered the back with a heavy card stock and typed in all the details like where to put your stamp and sending address.

I mentioned my cute bobby pin I got from Nut and Bee last time I posted about The Sampler, but this time I scored a cute card with an octopus and the hotdog! I swear octopuses are hot right now. I said it forever ago when I got interviewed at Craft and I just noticed they mentioned in the New York Times article about the Renegade Craft Fair. Annette over at Nut and Bee has her finger on the pulse of cutting edge craft trends and ubercuteness. This reminds me Nut and Bee and Naughty Secretary Club are both winners of the Fred Flare Next Big Thing Contest. Have you voted for your top designer so someone can win $1000?

Who doesn’t love vinyl stickers? Especially ones with veggies bathing in soup. I know I do and that is why I was happy about the 5 mini “Let’s Eat” sticker set from Orange Pop.

There was a small baggie of artful gift tags in my package by Little Tile Gnome. Come time for the holidays you can never have too many gift tags, especially arty ones.



I don’t handwrite many letters but if I did I would use the exquisitely packaged handmade map envelope from Donovan Beeson I received. What I am really excited about is while perusing her Etsy store she has a book made from vintage envelopes that is adorable! The concept and the sparrow covered envelopes curls my toes.

I heart gnomes so I was drawn to the little 1” button by Noms. When I followed the link to their Etsy store there were oodles of adorable hand painted clay gnomes begging to call my garden home.

It always makes me happy to see fellow Craft Mafia members in The Sampler, even happier when what they contributed is something I will want to wear and use. Polka dotted button earrings from Pepto Girl Industries of the Sacramento Craft Mafia fit the bill perfectly!

Remember the other day when I had insomnia? One of the blogs I wound up on was that of Sierra Bailey from Manic Trout. When I opened my Sampler package there she was again in the form of a bottle cap magnet with pink fuzzy dice inside. I already put it on the magnet board in my dining room.

My favorite in the pile probably had to be from Enamor. There was a small acrylic ant pin that I heart. The picnic packaging was also an adorable touch.

Other fun goodies included a copy of Bust, excerpt from Croq, Bath Goodies from Sheba’s Secrets and a free pattern from Pretty in Punk.

Craft Lab on You Tube

Do you get google alerts? If you run a small business you should, they are free. I get them for Jennifer Perkins, Naughty Secretary Club, Austin Craft Mafia, Craft Lab and Stitch. So basically when those words appear on the internet I get an email about it. When you enter the words you want to get alerts about just be sure to use quotes. For instance if I entered Naughty Secretary Club rather than “Naughty Secretary Club” I would get emails about every post on all three of those words. I recently got a google alert about Craft Lab leading me to You Tube. I did not realize that there are several different little snippets of Craft Lab on You Tube that various people have posted. They are all from the infamous season 2 that I keep going on and on about wishing DIY Network would air. The clip I got the alert about was an episode called Beaded Jewelry where I make jewelry with Maya Brenner. Maya is a well known jewelry designer in Los Angeles and the author of Beaded Jewelry: Create Your Own Style. Thought you might enjoy the clip and get to see some jewelry making from Craft Lab in the process.



Now that I have wet your appetite for Craft Lab, let me tell you what you can see this week at 11am Central on the DIY Network. MONDAY: Chris DeRubeis and I airbrush a skate board and helmet. Chris came back for season 2 and we airbrushed a guitar and sadly my airbrushing skills had not improved much. It is super hard, that is why I was so impressed with my airbrushed Naughty Secretary Club T-shirt. TUESDAY: Connie Okdie and I re-create the ocean floor out of polymer clay. WEDNESDAY: Susanna Conaway and I make a stained glass picture. THURSDAY: Chef Ray and I do some fruit and veggie carving. This guy makes me giggle he goes super duper fast it was a wonder I didn’t chop my finger off trying to keep up. FRIDAY: Bethany Mann and I make some funky gift wrap. Bethany came back for season 2 where we made some punk rock eggs that were awesome. Be sure and check out Bethany's Bitter Betty Industries.

If that is not enough you can catch the Austin Craft Mafia ladies and on the DIY Network Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2pm on Stylelicious. TUESDAY: Tina Sparkles, Vickie Howell and I show a few tricks to try. In this episode I show you what to do with your broken necklaces. Sew them to your clothing of course. THURSDAY: Hope Perkins, Susanne Kohane and Tina play with men’s ties!

Remember if you heart Craft Lab and Stylelicious write DIY and let them know. If you miss Craft Lab on HGTV feel free to drop them a line too!

Books and Bead Bloggers

So yesterday morning about half way through watching the Notorious Bettie Page at a little after 6am I finally went to sleep. I woke up around 1 in the afternoon yesterday, so at least somewhere I managed to squeeze in 6 hours of sleep. I woke up becasue we had a contractor coming to look at our garage which we are having closed in. The bid was quite a bit higher than I was expecting, but I really want a new studio out of the house. We are getting a couple of other quotes as well. Has anyone ever had their garage closed in? What’s the going rate on that kind of thing?

Yesterday Chris and I weathered the bazillionth rain storm this week, ordered Chinese take out and watched Internal Affairs (The original Hong Kong version of The Departed). My main goal for yesterday was to spend the day working on my book. I made a pair of earrings, hair goodie and 1.5 necklaces. I am pretty pleased with the necklaces thus far, one I only narrowly avoided drill disaster and almost ruined the whole thing the other is having drying problems. Without giving too much away about the projects I am using photographs and glass, trying to attach the two. I first used decoupage and it would never dry and stayed thick and white looking. As if the picture and the glass were too close and not letting air in to dry it out. Isn’t this how marble magnets are made? Several hours later I took my mystery glass objects and washed it off as well as the pictures and tried to reapply with clear glue. This immediately seemed like a better choice. I could see the pictures and they were lying flat on the glass and not beveling up like with the decoupage. There are a few tiny bubbles like when working with resin but I keep trying to squish them away. This morning the glue is still wet. Is it trapped between the pictures and the glass? Is it because 24 hours has not passed? Could it be the humidity? Hopefully it will eventually dry. My next question is how shall I seal the back? With a marble magnet you use a magnet. Hmmm, that is today’s dilemma.

Speaking of books one of my label mates is in my bead blogging group. We have a little thing going in case you have not noticed where we all post each others links weekly to our own blogs. Saturday is my day to post so here ya go….

The Impatient Blogger
Margot shares a FREE project from her fantabulous new book, Sparkletastic! Feel lucky? You should!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean shows "A Study in Teal" , a never before displayed "Party Dress Bracelet". Party Dress Bracelets, or "Party Bracelets", are one of her signature designs. Two of these were shown in Belle Armoire Magazine's Salon. Dress up every day! Life's a Party!

Savvy Crafter
Check out Candie's wine charms that she made with objects she's collected in China.

Jewelry and Beading
With summer here, the heat is on, but Tammy at Jewelry and Beading is already thinking of the holidays and offers a Goofy Reindeer ornament project.

Bead Arts
It wasn't easy to make "Queasy"! Cyndi shares some of the design dilemmas she encountered in entering the Ugly Necklace contest.

Pink Espadrilles from France Make Me Do a Happy Dance

What do you do at 3 in the morning when you can’t sleep? Well if you are me you buy pink espadrilles from France with pictures of creepy tattoo kids. I was tired as Chris and I ate frozen pizza and watched 9 to 5 earlier this evening. Once we got into bed I watched Law and Order then the First 48 and still no sleep so I decided to get up and get productive and make some jewelry. Of course that did not happen. I made a cute as all get out head band for my book while we watched the movie that I checked on and it looks like my glue is going to dry dark. You know when glue turns your fabric dark from getting it wet. I’m hoping it will dry and turn back to it’s normal color by the morning, oh wait it is the morning. Is there any way to prevent that or is it just a glue hazard you can't avoid?

So back to my new shoes. Since I never wound up making jewelry I instead started blog jumping. You know where you go from one blog to another and end up on all these blogs you have never heard of and will never remember how to get back to. Well somehow I ended up on Danielle Maveal’s blog Gold School where she had blogged about this website called String Republic in France. The website apparently commissions different artists seasonally to do series of shoes and these by Dav Guedin were by far my favorite. The porno themed ones by Keepmesane were awesome and tempting, but I decided to just order one pair at a time to see if I like them.

It was as if I was stalking Danielle tonight (If your reading this, don't worry I'm harmless). I found her blog through a Flickr picture of a Dolly Parton necklace she made that is going to be a door prize at Felt Club next weekend. Oddly as mentioned I was watching Dolly earlier in the evening and my friend Erin's birthday is this month and she is a huge fan so the pic caught my eye. While blog hopping I came across a new online magazine I am smitten on called Carpel Tunnel and there on the front page in a collage was one of Danielle's rings. I floated around some more blogs based on some links I found at Fly Girl and wound up on another new and exciting blog I had never seen before called Snowflakes and Cupcakes and there again was more of Danielle's jewelry. Maybe her name kept coming up because as I sat on the porch this evening I was telling Chris how I find it amusing that for the Fred Flare Next Big Thing contest I gave them my middle name Danielle so when people are re-printing the story they are referring to me as Jennifer Danielle Perkins. Makes me giggle, or maybe I am just deliriously tired at this point.

Rain Rain Go Away

This rain thing is really starting to chap my hide. As you know here in Texas it has been rain, rain and more rain. Every day is drab and dreary. I have not personally experienced all the flooding a lot of people are talking about. Not sure it has been as bad in Austin as it has been in some other places. All my plans for outdoor parties involving grills and swimming for the 4th of July are down the tubes, happy Independence day by the way!

I wanted to show you some pictures of what has been happening around my house with all the rain. It will also happen tonight if anyone shoots off fireworks in my neighborhood. My dog Lucy and cat Georgie are not fans of the rain either, especially thunder and lightening. Chris and I have a theory that kitty has only learned to fear the thunder and lightening from watching Lucy. First sign of a storm and Lucy is like a child who was raised in Oklahoma or some other tornado prone place and knows to go into the bathroom to seek shelter. She lays in front of the toilet and kitty cowers in the back by the piping. The other day when it was raining kitty was sitting in this empty box just facing the wall. So ya see people are not the only ones effected by all this rain. My dog misses her walks and her old arthritic bones are sick of sleeping on the bathroom floor rather than her comfy bed. Kitty prefers relaxing in a sunny windowsill rather than under beds and behind toilets. The entire Perkins-Boehk Family misses the sun. Forecasts show rain with thunderstorms through next week.

When I say Naughty Secretary Club, what comes to mind?

You have read me hinting around that I am finally writing my book tentatively called Naughty Secretary Club Jewelry. Please feel free to send over wittier titles if you have one. The theme is going to of course be jewelry in my traditional big, obnoxious and tack-a-liscious way, but with a secretarial theme. I was an administrative assistant for almost 4 years straight out of college, hence where the name of my company came from. I am trying to rack my brain and remember all the tools of the trade that I used back in those days so that I can incorporate them into my book. I have asked you for help in this area before, but since I have to have all my jewelry projects in by the end of the month now I am kind of begging. The kinds of questions I have are…
Can you think of songs like “Take This Job and Shove It” that have to do with working in an office?
Any movies such as 9 to 5 that make you think of administrative assistants?
Did you ever make necklaces at your desk out of paper clips?
What makes you think of secretaries: phones, typewriters, white out?
What are your job duties as an administrative assistant? I filed, typed reports, answered phones, opened mail, made travel arrangements – those types of things.

Just anything that makes you think of office life that you think I might find applicable for book research would be super duper awesomely helpful.

I have to say last time I posted some questions and searched for advice on this topic a handful of people wrote to me slightly offended about the use of the word secretary. That just breaks my heart because I would never think of that term or profession in a negative light. Again I was a receptionist/secretary/office assistant for almost 4 years. My sister was one for 2. I am bringing empowerment to the word and having fun with a profession no different than if I was a doctor when I started my business I would have been the Naughty Doctor Club and writing a book on making jewelry with gauze and alcohol wipes. When I personally was a naughty secretary I wasn’t exactly working I was making jewelry under my desk and that is why the book is going to have a similar vibe.

Fashion on the Roof of a Grocery Store

Everyone had tons of fun and Vickie and Dave’s Wedding party. Not a wedding, they had already done that a month ago, an after party of sorts to celebrate. It was on the roof of the Whole Foods here. No it was not just a party on the roof of the grocery store. This is the flag ship Whole Foods, the largest one in the country. In the winter they put a make shift ice skating rink on this roof. The view was lovely, the food was yummy and all my friends were there so I was in heaven. The picture is of my best friend Erin, my younger sister Hope and I. In retrospect I’m not sure the straw fedora was an awesome idea, but oh well. I wanted to show you guys the picture because I am wearing one of my two Lily Allen dresses that are back from being altered! I am saving the green one to wear to Karly’s wedding in September. The red dress I have on is actually really puffy at the bottom and wide. People remarked that it looked like a Flamenco dress. I felt like I needed to use the handicap stall in the bathroom it was so wide. I was just happy I got to wear the dress.

Since it’s Monday and you know how I like to keep you posted on what you can see each week on Craft Lab, here is the rundown. Short week since they are doing special programming on the 4th of July. Today watch Rene Parker and I make lime green paper mache masks with polka dotted lipstick. Tuesday Laurie Mika and I make a polymer clay mosaic table top. Thursday Clare Crespo and I do a little Food Art and make jello aquariums! Friday we wrap up the crafty week with Geraldine Newfry and I making a resin long stitch journal.

Ok I’m off. I have an appointment to get my hair done in 57 minutes. A photo shoot at 6 for a top secret fun thing. 49 more projects to make for my book. I whipped up one last night that was so easy using men’s ties. My mother and I boiled and baked rulers until midnight, but that project still needs some tweaking.

Bead Bloggers

Sorry I have been MIA latetly. I have been helping Vickie with her wedding, my mother came into town, there were some deadlines and I just found out I have to have all 50 projects for my book done by the end of July. All I have today are my weekly exciting links from my bead blogging friends.

The Impatient Blogger
Margot shares a little of this and a little of that in this glimpse into the life of the BQOTU™. Follow the link to see her newly updated website with fabulous new designs for your viewing pleasure. Yee haw!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be Done!
Jean shares a photo of a collection of her published jewelry pieces which travelled to an unlikely place this spring-- Quilt Market! and explains why this took place!

Katie's Beading Blog
Take a sneak peek at one of Katie's new projects for Beads, Baubles & Jewels and learn how to make a fun, easy cell phone charm.

Jewelry and Beading
Tammy has fun with faux pearls in this Swarovski pearls earring project.

Bead Arts
Cyndi joined the Bead Journal Project, started by Robin Atkins, and in this post, she shows the beaded journal page that she has created for the month of June