Traveling Apple Core Beads

Sometimes a simple email can make my day. Two days ago I received a simple message on my Etsy conversations inbox...."I talked about your darling earrings for the craft exchange on my blog today!" with a link to her Bei Mondi blog.

I had completely forgotten that a few weeks ago I uncharacteristically responded to a "round robin" craft exchange....it was from a good friend and did not require receiving lots of emails. So I sent off a pair of my apple core earrings, added my name to the list and forwarded the exchange to the required number of crafty friends. They most likely did not reciprocate since I have not received anything in exchange, BUT I did score some blog "ink". It's always cool to know someone likes what I did. Very encouraging.

Thanks for the link, Leslie! Check out her blog here. She's another artisan jewelry artist/mom/blogger/et al.

You can see more of my apples and apple core beads in my online photo album.

They are also for sale in my Etsy shop.

Feeling Slammed

It is simply amazing how little studio time I'm getting these days. I've gotten so involved with local arts groups that it seems I am only working on guild projects. Thank goodness deadlines motivate me or nothing would happen.

So, check up on me at the

• Kansas City Polymer Clay Guild (www.kcpcg.blogspot.com or www.kcpcg.org)
• Kansas City Chapter of the PMC Guild (www.kcpmcguild.blogspot.com or www.kcpmcguild.org)
• EveryDay Fisk Family Stuff (http://bylynettetoo.blogspot.com/)
• ByLynette's Etsy Shop (www.bylynette.etsy.com)

Gardening with Mom

June is for gardening - before it gets TOO hot and muggy in Missouri. (We sort of overshot and managed to spend the last 4 days sweating buckets!) My sweet 82 year old mother was visiting this week and we managed to turn a corner of my yard into an entryway to the garden. We dug out patchy grass and sod, laid down that black garden weed barrier, stepping stones and a layer of bark. We planted a few baby hollyhocks against the fence and some creeping thyme between the pavers....although it may not survive the current heat. I'm watering!!

Here are the results of our efforts....
BEFORE:


and AFTER:

I think I'll eventually decide to bury the downspout pipe, when it cools off a bit. Quite an improvement, huh?

Gone to good home!

Thanks for all the interest in the letterpress cabinet. It has gone to a good home in Washington state - and one of the movers had a couple old empty drawers he was selling at a garage sale, so I still have some empty spaces for workshop storage!

More about the Letterpress Cabinet

There are 20 drawers (sorry, my memory was bad..) and 3 are empty. View more pictures here.
Price is $1000 plus shipping - or you can come pick it up. Bring a truck - the cabinet won't fit into a car! I have tried!
The cabinet measures 25.125" wide x 20.75" deep x 44" high. I suspect that some font sets are split into two drawers, but not sure. The top of cabinet overhangs slightly, measuring 26.5" wide x 21.5" deep, not quite 1" thick.Weight of the 20 drawers with type (sans outer cabinet) is 188.9 lbs. An empty drawer weights 1.5 lbs. so the type itself weighs 159 lbs. I'm estimating the empty cabinet weighs 45-50 lbs but have no way to weigh it.

There are 3 sizes of Greeting Monotone™ Std Regular view font here

and several sizes of a Times Roman style including an italic, 2 sizes of what looks like Copperplate or Plate Gothic, a Bank Gothic Medium,
a nice script similar to this, a wide Gothic with really round C's, an engraved font similar to Bernard Modern, and a very tall, Blackletter-like title font that I cannot find in a font list. See below. Click any photo for a larger view or the view more pictures link above to see more.