SuzeBlogz

Happy Candy Day

Wishing you a safe,fun,& bewitching Halloween ! Good makeup job, huh ??!! tee hee.

This really RINGS true....

....Friends inspire !

The other day I clicked on my friend Cheryl's site at tensecondstudio.com and watched her really hilarious (albeit a trifle naughty !) video on filling ring blanks.

I thought WOW...We sell those ring blanks and I've always filled them with UTEE.
Cheryl uses her fabulous metals.

and then...she did this really inspiring ring by filling it with ordinary metal washers. Like from the hardware store.
Damn..she's so clever !

Now my little mind was racing up and down.
So......up the stairs I ran.....to my studio, grabbing ring blanks as I flew, reaching for the Glossy Accents (as the "glue" to hold everything in place) and....a few hours later...NEW JEWELRY ! Using all sorts of "stuff" I found in my room that I'd probably been collecting for years.

THANK YOU CHERYL !!!!!

KEEP INSPIRING ...I'll probably try to wear them all at the same time, knowing me !

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Have You Hot Waxed Today ?

I like "warm crafts"...so, if I'm not melting UTEE in my Melting Pot I'm warming up some Beeswax and getting the Hot Wax Stylus tool all fired up. This is a super idea especially when bad weather sets in....as in heavy rain, wind and, in some areas snow. The best place to be is in your cozy little house with your favorite crafts...right?!

Well...yesterday we had sun & warmth and today we had a blizzard ! That's the northeast for ya !

I had some cut wood (6x6) lying around that I got at the home depot store. Beeswax loves wood & today was a perfect day to play with it.

I brushed on a 3 layers of Ranger's Beeswax from the Melting Pot, brushing in different directions on each layer.
After each layer I heated the wax lightly with my heat gun to fuse the wax into the wood. You do this just until you see the wax shine. No longer. You never want to overheat beeswax.

Then, I held the beeswax cubes to my heated stylus tool and allowed them to drip on the waxy surface. With each drip I spread the wax a bit with the stylus tip. Eventually I had the whole piece of wood covered in waxy colors.
Fuse again with heat gun.

Then, I placed a heavy duty stencil on the surface and brushed the melted beeswax (from the pot) over it. This left a raised beeswax impression.
I brushed Perfect Pearls over the raised stenciled area.
I added some of the bronze 12 inch Rub Ons from GLITZ Co. and a few rhinestones.

Sometimes a project doesn't have to be anything more than an exercise in sheer enjoyment. I totally enjoyed this !

Now..I was on a roll...did this bookcover....I LOVE beeswax.

She's Melted

Congrats to a very good sport...the first person to literally be melted on my blog !
Cindy Trobough...you are a brave lady ! And you are such an attractive lady.....

Bless your little heart for submitting yourself to this! I hope you have a good laugh and accept my humblest apologies !!!!

This is my attempt to make you even happier......so.... with that in mind I'll be mailing off your winning "Monthly Meltdown" prize soon. I know you'll enjoy playing with Ranger's 2X2 Frosted Memory Glass and Memory Frames.

Next month...watch for another happy faceoff.

It Was a Faire Nice Day

First things first....I've randomly selected the October Monthly Meltdown Winner...and I need Cindy Trobough to email me her lovely face, all her info, and then be prepared for the meltdown and a nice prize. Thanks to all of you who were brave enough to want to be melted and we'll do it again next month. Sooner or later you may all win !

Now we can sing along...Oh, The weather outside was frightful, but the fire is so delightful...."..well...there really wasn't any fire and we haven't had any signs of snow yet (as the rest of the lyrics go) ...but..we did have one hell of a wind gust today and some awfully nasty rain.

The perfect day to go to a "hand made" Halloween Faire held at the Flying W Airport Resort, Medford, New Jersey. People can actually fly in ( in their cute little private aircraft) for the event. Too cool!
I thought about flying in on a broom, but...the rain that made a bit prohibitive....Imagine my spiky hair and all that hairspray filled with water...not a pretty sight !

Friends like Michelle Bernard and Suze Persechino dropped by as well, and our good friend Lisa Kettell had a booth & was selling her fabulous hand made items. She IS the original Faire if ever there was one. Great way to spend the day.

Lisa, Moi, Michelle, Suze P.

Here is some of Lisa's hat whimsy !

The hat Lisa made for me !

and, the little Ballerina Faire Bird for Michelle

and, some lucky patron grabbed up this fantastic glittery Faire Wand !

Bye Bye Faire Land...see you next year !

The Monthly Meltdown

Aha...menopause you're thinking....nah...far from it....think hilarious new monthly giveaway !

Back around the time of Ranger U, Tim and I were comparing the programs we've downloaded into our individual Ipod Touch (the new Ipod minus the phone part) and laughing at how obsessive we are with the silly games we pick to play on these handhelds.

So.......I have this program that "morphs" images and Tim thought it was hysterical....especially after he morphed a perfectly lovely photo of ME !

(NOTE: perfectly lovely picture)

BUT, to show you how completely hilarious it was...we were cracking up......I saved it !
One must have a really good sense of humor to allow THIS to be published.

NOTE: IM MELTING !!!!!

Then he suggested I do a BLOG giveaway where you send me your picture, I morph it and you get to win something. That means that YOU have to have a good sense of humor too. I'm calling it THE MONTHLY MELTDOWN

and.......it's so close to Halloween I figured......Lets start NOW !

Now......here's how it works.
1. You have to be completely comfortable with having your good picture AND your silly melted one shown on the blog.
2. You need to post a "Melt ME ! comment to the blog, I'll RANDOMLY pick a name on Friday evening, October 24th at 9 PM EST. That gives you some time to think about it !
3.Then, I'll email you to send me a good, clear, hi rez JPG pix of yourself (from at least the waist up). I'll morph it and post it.
4.Then you get to win a prize.....which I haven't figured out yet, but it'll be nice - I promise ! And, I'll remember to post this fun giveaway at the end of each month...so you'll have lots of chances to be melted !!

Now...just in case they're reading.....Tim, Mario, Claudine..I have great pix of all of you guys....tee hee......Beware.....Halloweens coming!!!

Fabulous Fall

Local artists came out for show not far from my house so how could I not drop by ?

That really wasn't a question. It involved shopping..of course I went ....and I got some really nice handmade home decor. Plus...I loved the "Take one...free, freshly picked apple thing" that went along with the outdoor show ambiance.

Designer Lauren Bellero from Red Bank, New Jersey, and owner of Mudslingers Pottery, uses Pit Firing to create her very earthy designs. Lauren studied clay for 15 years and is a full time potter. It shows in her beautiful work. I bought the 2 pieces below.

Not that I have any room for more home decor...I am the home decor queen...but, I switched up a few things...rearranged the placement of a couple of things and lo & behold...new room. ...no, not here....I just stuck them on a bench to take the picture.

Visit her website.....you can see some great closeups. Her work is impeccable.

Among other methods, she occasionally uses stencils to put designs in the clay. She did that to get the bamboo leaves design in the piece below.

In my next life I need to work for a home decor magazine. I love discovering new ways to find and use "stuff" !

Ranger Bends Over Backward !!

Wow...yesterday was one hell of a great Birthday. I am now 'that much older" and, of course, "wiser". And I've also picked the 2 winners of the Paper Artsy stamps sets. Keep reading.....don't want to do the spoiler just yet !

So.......I zipped over to Ranger at lunchtime for the birthday lunch. The gals at Ranger are a scream.
We ordered in local Chinese food, felt incredibly sleepy after ingesting all that MSG (even tho they swear they don't use it !) and then got a little nutz when it came time to do the special picture.

You know how it is when you say "Lets do a group picture" and everyone wants to stand in a row ? Well....Not this group...they wanted to bend over backward to make sure we got the real deal.
Well Jackie Mcaughlin wanted to bend over anyway.

Yesterday was Jackies birthday too. Jackies a kid ! Did you check out her shoes for crying out loud ???
I'm old enough to be her mother. No way am I gonna be bending in half like that. You should see what I have to go through just to tie my sneakers. Damn ! And I use a shoe horn that's probably 15 inches long. Seriously ! The Back Relief store is a favorite shopping haunt.
Cloris Leachman ('Dancing With The Stars', for the uninitiated) at age 82 has more flexibility than me.

A grape has more flexibility than me ! 

As for the rest of the upright team:
Michelle Bernard (L), Bonnie Egenton, moi, Patti Behan and Teresa Natividad all joined in the fun while we set the camera on a timer and I scooted back into the picture !

The Birthday Girls.

then it was back to work for everyone and I got back on the road to do my thing.

In the evening, after birthday dinner, I zipped over to my synagogue for services for the special jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. In Judaism it takes one full year to read the entire Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy and this holiday celebrates the conclusion of that annual cycle. It's a festive holiday and geared a lot for children.
One of the very cool things we do on this holiday is to take the Torah outside and roll out the entire scroll so everyone can hold it and be a part of its history. Here I am with my friends Connie, Gwen and Ken. And yes...it was coooooold !

Hebrew text from the Torah are all written by hand and are sacred writings.

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

I got so many absolutely wonderful birthday comments on yesterdays blog. Thank you all for taking the time to do that. It made my day. It really did.
and now.....the lucky RANDOM  winners are:
Denise D ( ddudziak@aol.com) and Suzanna (jsitton@bellsouth.net)

please email me with your details and off go the stamps ! CONGRATS !

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU !

Monday (the 20th) is my birthday.

It's also the birthday of other special friends...Jackie McLaughlin at Ranger and online friend Linda Miller.

Newswoman Connie Chung and songstress Anne Murray share my birthday. So does Tom Petty of 'The Heartbreakers', even tho his music doesn't do much for me! Actor Viggo Mortensen from 'Lord of the Rings' and Jerry Orbach (sadly deceased) who  I can watch any night on "Law & Order'. Oh, and that strange hip hopper Snoop Doggy Dogg. We share the same day too. What a claim to fame !

Lots of special things have happened on MY Birthday. For example, Queen Elizabeth opened the Sydney Opera House in 1973 but poor Burt Lancaster, famous American actor, died on my birthday. Oh my !
 
and......there are certain things I can ALWAYS count on happening on my birthday.
The leaves in New Jersey (where I live) are always at their gorgeous peak color. The World Series (baseball) is about to happen, but, if it doesn't involve the NY Yankees I never care, (and oh yes....Yankee Mickey Mantle had my same birthday !).

Pumpkins and Halloween stuff is everywhere. The temperature drops to the mid 50's and I can't put the car convertible top down any more cause it's way toooo chilly and I'd freeze my ass off ! Come to think of it...that might be a new way to lose five pounds !

So...because MY birthday is a special day I think we should have a special give-away.
My lovely & brilliant (that's a UK word fer sure), gal pal Leandra Franich, owner of Paper Artsy, UK has given me some of her faaaaabulous stamps to give away. She is the most, thoughtful best. I've made 2 groups.

Just post a comment and on Monday night, while the Lenster, the kids, and I are having Birthday cake and celebrating...I will pick 2 names - randomly sometime after 9 PM...that's the deadline. 9 PM on the 20th EST.

Then, after I let you know if you're a winner just email me your details so you can get YOUR birthday gift from me.

BIRTHDAYS ARE SUCH FUN !

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Let's face it.....shopping is our lifes work !
Far be it for me to be vague about about my favorite pastime....I can literally shop til I drop.

My good friend Linda Weinbaum from Westchester county, New York came for a visit today.
Linda and I were together on a trip to China last year and ooohed and aaahed over everything asian, buying more "stuff" to bring home and play with than was humanly possible to fit in a suitcase !

This was Lindas first trip to visit me in New Jersey (she's about 2 1/2 hrs from me) and she brought me a beautiful handmade miniature collage on a baby easel plus, she came loaded with gourmet food from Stew Leonards deli (which we don't have here).

So, we made (then gulped down) lunch cause we just wanted to hop in the convertible, put the top down, cruise around in the beautiful warm Indian summer weather, look at the colorful trees and use those credit cards !
Yup...I  could feel Linda's strong sense of moral obligation to support the NJ economy so, off we went.

First I took her to The Barn, a boutique shop at Calgo Gardens in Lakewood where she went NUTS over all the amazing flowers, gourd & pumpkin arrangements, handmade jewelry, pottery, garden and landscape furniture, handmade felt purses, blown glass and a wide variety of faaaaabulous eclectic art. She was panting & carrying on like a loonie ! You'd think she never shopped before !!!

I visit Calgo often but even I was panting. Every week they have new "stuff" and there's no such thing as over accessorizing....(is there??)

Then...off to the White Butterfly in Jackson where we tried on hand made shawls, smelled the delicious candles, tried on all the cool jewelry,  and Linda added to her Troll Bead bracelet collection and found more "stuff" to schlep home.

I found this wonderful patina angel with a bird on her foot that just called out "doorstop" to me !

I brought her home. She likes it here!

 

I've now had two full days of great girlfriends...I may have even maxed out the Credit Card.....hell....what more could a girl want !!!