Almost a year has passed!

When I started this I had every intention of keeping it up.  Then garden season hit and I never looked back!  Between helping to tend the land we are blessed to live on, working part-time, spending time with my grand-children and attending the births, baptizims, and sadly funerals that wove in and out of our days, a whole year evaporated.

On January 7th we adopted a new member to our family. Buddy. He was abandoned near a monastery in Dunlap and when the Sisters found him and his sister they were diseased and malnourished  They nursed them back to health and we were incredibly lucky to have been granted Buddy. He is the best dog I have ever had. A perfect size for the bus, he is practically perfect in every way and too smart for his own good. He has definitely brought us joy.

On January 15th, our grandson was born, a surprise for everyone, and much of my time lately has been helping my daughter cope with a newborn and our lovely 16 month old Naomi who is still very much a baby herself, though walking, talking and climbing like a monkey.

Nico and Naomi...















We moved our bus to a new location on the property this past year and have been busy making it our own. It borders a nice garden area which I adopted and am slowly creating an herb, flower, rock and shell garden.

I created much in the last year and neglected to take pictures of most of it. Mostly it was gifts. For Christmas  I made 23 altoid box ornaments, each with a different scene inside- they took a huge amount of time but turned out pretty well. I didn't take a single picture of them.

We had a funky aluminum tree I bought at work that was fun. I wanted to find one of those spinning colored light discs they used to sell but instead found a multi-colored spinning disco ball that we 'mounted' on the ceiling (until it fell off) and it turned our little domicile into a Christmas wonderland.

Our bus became santa's workshop for awhile. Our grand daughter's are such fun to give to.

They are all enamored with the main character in the movie Brave and wanted to shoot bow and arrow like she does. My husband bought them a bow for Christmas, and each their own arrows and then he made each of them a quiver to keep them in!

They have been getting lessons out in the field and are getting pretty good at it.

I have only recently started creating again in earnest. I retired from my job at the thrift store for the second and last time and am working as many hours as I can in the studio. I have a new passion and had to rearrange the whole room to set up the right work space for it.

This is one of my projects in waiting pile. I was able to purchase an old broken typewriter and have been taking it apart. The mechanics and workmanship are something to behold. They sure don't make anything like they used to! The globe is going to be a fruit bowl and the maps are going to be glued to the bus ceiling one of these days. So many projects, so little time. I covered the bust you see to model jewelry but it turned out to be a little too busty in an un-giving sort of way. I will find another use for it eventually.

 I have discovered solder and the thrill of watching hard metal turn molten. I and trying my hand at some jewelry creation. My solder gun is a temperamental old thing that I am hoping to upgrade soon, but I am beginning to get the hang of it and really, really like it. I had bought the glass prisms at the thrift store with no idea what to do with them until I discovered solder. I am doing a series of feathers in them. Big fun.

I just finished this box and will list it on my etsy site this week. I am going to do a series of vintage sewing related boxes.

 But first I am going to make a couple more mobiles to list. They have been good sellers and are fun to build. I just put a quick one together for my grandson at my daughter's request. He seems to like it.

Well, there it is for now...my life caught up to date. Oh, except that I also discovered Pinterest this last year and spent hours and hours pinning inspiration. (I have given it up for Lent, and oh I miss it so!)  I learned to solder on Pinterest, and was inspired to delve into jewelry making...maybe if I spend less time pinning I will spend more time creating!


I resolve to keep this up better, now that I am earnestly pursuing a career on etsy selling my creations and the vintage treasures I find. I will theoretically have more time now that I am not 'working'.  But then again, yesterday was the first day of spring and garden season is upon us again...