SuzeBlogz

Beads and Friends continue

Lucky, lucky Cheryl & Megan Darrow....by just the 2nd day of Beadfest they SOLD OUT of their fantastic VerDay patina kits and sheets of art metal in their Ten Seconds Studio booth

.... so...with no more to sell they closed up their booth and drove an hour south to come and visit me.

Good choice.

Perfect weather.

All set to eat outdoors.

I had to take them over to see one of MY favorite places, Calgo Gardens. Nobody leaves Calgo without finding something to buy...the place is so amazing.

then we took the tour of my house...(which lotsa folk say is like being in a museum or gallery)..Megan took lotsa pictures!

and then we went up to the studio

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after he'd had a few glasses of wine we asked The Lenster to take a pix of the 3 of us. He was a 'wittle wobbly" with the camera..... and we couldn't stop posing and laughing.  

Megan never lost sight of the glamour opportunity afforded her (LOL) while Cheryl and I were hysterical. The poor Lenster...he attempted to accomodate us with at least half a dozen pix till we found this perfect one that totally reflected the moment !! Mostly we were laughing because he was sort of 'swaying'!!

But, I digress....back to those FABULOUS VerDay paints.

I have a whole bunch of things I've put VerDay on...just waiting for the right project.

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You can't magine how simple they are to use. Cheryl and Megan had given me a small piece of art metal that they embossed and then added the VerDay effects to.....I applied the VerDay paint to a Memory Frame and included their piece of metal. Then created a necklace which I gave them as a gift.

Megan has applied VerDay paints to a wine cork...imagine the possibilities

 

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Beadfest was pretty fabulous. I bought some wonderful hand made beads from Diane Hawkey.

My taste in beads has changed dramatically over the last year and now I'm much more into, and appreciative of, hand made.

The adorable...and SO creative, Kellie DeFries with her great new tool the CrystalNinja!

Karen Totten had wonderful beads as well.

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and a glimpse into some more of the show

From Kabella Design (below)

 

and now.....

for the next phase of excitement...

cant wait to see what came in todays mail

from the adorable Corinna at Piddix !!!

r-i-p-p-i-n-g open the envelope as we speak....then I'll probably frame it !!!

Beadfest

Okay...so here's how it went...7 hours of walking up and down aisles on concrete flooring....complete disregard for the budget I set for myself and sheer exhaustion and a nasty backache by the end of the day...and

 

the BESTEST TIME EVER !!!

and why??

Because you see all your beading & crafting friends

Cathy Chlebana & Linda Molden Peterson

Patti from Wubbers (fabulous tools for beading & wirework)

Megan & Cheryl from Ten Seconds Studio/Diana from Suburban Girl Studio

 

Nancy Lorenz/Roslyn & Melissa from The Chain Gallery

and, Adam from PJ Tool

Lynne from Simply Pretty Stuff 

 

Some of Lynnes handmade rings !!

you get to shop

you find really cool stuff

Owner Brenda Schweder (R) of Now Thats a Jig

there's more to share and more to tell you about in detail so I'll just save it up for the next blog.

This was just a lovely little taste. Take a sec and visit some of the links !

Lets Do Lunch

I hadn't seen my friend Michelle Bernard in ages so it was time for a visit....and lunch...!

Michelle lives in the historic town of Ocean Grove, NJ. about 30 minutes from me.

Ocean Grove has a population of approx 3,400 people and it's on the Jersey Shore...so, yes..it was one of those communities hard hit by hurricane Sandy.

Ocean Grove was founded in 1869.

The community gets a lot of tourists and summer rentals and in 1975 Ocean Grove was designated a State and National Historic District as a 19th-century planned urban community. It has the greatest extent of Victorian and early-20th century architecture in the United States.

Michelle lives in an adorable house and she's got the whole art thing down pat when it comes to decorating...

her whimsical art is all over the cozy, super comfy, 3 story house

Michelle and I had lunch outside (we had great weather today !) at the SeaGrass restaurant..where we both had DUCK!! It was fabulous!

and we walked through the side streets to see some gorgeous summer blooms and more fantastic homes

we stopped in some of the shops

we had a great day...and...we are DEFINITELY doing it again before too long cause friends should always try to make time.

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In case you've forgotten to visit my ETSY shop lately...go take a peek..there are still some great pieces up there...

I don't know how you guys passed this one up???

Guess I'll be seeing some of you on Friday (Aug 23) at Beadfest in Oaks, PA. Come find me...I'll be walking around drooling !!

how to enjoy the weekend

It's been a long time since The Lenster and I sat on a lawn for a rock concert !

Jennifer was able to get tickets to see Kelly Clarkson AND Maroon 5 at our PNC Arts Center

and, we had a beautiful, no rain and little humidity night to sit outside

along with THOUSANDS of other die hard fans.

people who were able to get the real seats..the up close and personal seats..paid mega, mega for those tickets. We got there nice and early and claimed our fantastic, dead center, patch of grass. No professional level cameras are allowed so best I could do was my iPhone.

and...thank goodness for all the big screens cause once the concert began everyone stood up and screamed !! Oh, to be young !!!

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Today, (being another gorgeous summer day with low humdity and moderate temps) we put the top down on the convertible and took a little drive into Frenchtown, NJ (about an hour) to visit "Two Buttons"...the shop owned by author Elizabeth Gilbert of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame.

It is filled chock-a-block with Indonesian, Indian, Chineseand other Asian artifacts

Outside the warehouse type store sit many statues

people leave coins for good luck

upon entering you are greeted by

and then.....ta da...

 

yes...we are crazy.....

 

Opium jars.....yowza....we bought one !

They serve wine and they have a popcorn machine...such good service

 

Namaste....!

The Artsy Soul

One of my absolute FAVORITE stores...anywhere,  is The Artsy Soul in Manahawkin, NJ (an hour from me) ...

they had a class last night using Creative Paperclay...

Creative Paperclay is a non-toxic modeling material that can be sculpted, molded or shaped, and air dries (no baking!) to a hard finish that can be carved, or sanded.

My delicious friend Linda Hahola was going...so...was there even a moments hesitation....no way!

Shop owner Colleen Colquhoun (on the L) and Linda (on the R)

This store is chock-a-block jammed with the most amazing and creative art AND craft supplies ever. If you want it...Colleens got it.

So, we had our 3 hour class...Colleen supplied little kits full of filigree, rhinestones, paperclay, and she pulled out molds, and Vintaj Patinas, and acrylic paints and we went to town.

Zandra and Colleen get busy!

I get busy!

In the event you want to finish off the back of your clay, we used Ranger Texture Treads to create a pattern on the backside.

Then we removed them from the molds

Even though they can air dry we only had a few hours so Colleen baked them to speed things up

I was very caught up in making face molds. Other students did birds and flowers and starfish as well. We used acrylic paint on the hardened surface.

we drilled them, ever so slightly, so we could insert rhinestones if we wanted.

We had some time to use Polymer Clay too. We made little frozen Charlottes

which one gal painted adorably !!

and here are some of the lovely finished pieces..

and I finished up my piece at home

 

Can NOT WAIT to Play more !!

The Cool Shul in NYC

There are times when Off-Broadway shows are even better than regular Broadway shows. We hit upon one of those really comical musical spoofs with our friends Gail and Jerry.

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We park at the Port Authority station in Manhattan and have fun with one of the exhibits inside the building

Now we're on our way to see "Cuff Me" , a parody of the Fifty Shades of Grey books....and....It was certainly a whole lot better than the dreadful books (yes...I own up..I read all 3)

BUT......Even more unusual was its location....held in the sanctuary of an historic NYC synagogue

The Actors Temple is a full on working theater

for 90 minutes we laughed a lot !

Written by Virginia-based improv troupe The Pushers, Cuff Me is an unauthorized spoof that uses parodies of hit songs to tell the kinky story of the best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Grey. Featuring send-ups of such popular songs as Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” Cuff Me plays off of the immense cultural impact of the erotic book. 

4 main actors take on many parts

the movable 'scenery'...backdrop....was kinky and slutty! Perfect !!

after all..it was supposed to be The Red Room !!

(did ya read the books...then you know)

and then the actors greet everyone at the end

moseying on back to where we parked... we pass....

and then...

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on to dinner at the famous Harolds Deli in Woodbridge, NJ....Owner Harold Jaffe, (once of the legendary Carnegie Deli in New York), sells some of the finest Jewish deli dishes to be found in the New York City Metropolitan area. 

Here's proof...pastrami !!

with some turkey

a Knish big enough to feed a small country !

Kasha Varnishkas (MY personal fav) 

a 'slice' of carrot cake !!!

 

WHAT A DAY...!!! I'm stuffed !