in the works / life lately

I'm a little tired of hearing endless raving about fall everywhere I turn. I didn't think that it was possible to say so much about fall colors, sweater wearing, and soup and pumpkin everything eating. Seasonal allergies, short days, and cold weather zap every last bit of reserve energy that I have from mid-September until sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Give me summer any day of the week. With that being said, I do still enjoy comfort foods and warm drinks this time of year even if I don't feel the need to talk about them all the time.

I've been working on holiday / show inventory a lot lately. Surprise, right?

I got it in my head that I needed something new for the remaining 2013 shows. I found a little tree at Target for $8 and made a set of music button ornaments for it.

Pretty much all of my creative time and energy lately has gone toward the wedding jewelry and stocking holiday show inventory, but I have found bits of time for other endeavors.

I led a craft night for a group of girls in my Bible study and taught everyone how to make paper pumpkins.

This winter I'm sure that I'm going to find a lot more time for these type of experiments, but lately when I've had a little down time and haven't gotten out to take pictures, I've been playing around with low light photography and my (new!) 50mm at home.

Jake and I took a working trip to Chicago at the end of October / very beginning of November. He was there for classes, and I was working remotely, but we were able to get out in the city a little with family and friends.

My writing load has (finally) lightened a little bit since we got back to Milwaukee, which was great timing because it has given me time to focus on shows and take care of a few projects around the house that I've meant to work on for you know, a few months or so.

Of course I had a kitty helper for that particular project.

Remember how I was just talking about this pose?

What have you been up to / working on lately?