Oh, Canada!

Over the summer, I managed to find several old brass Canadian military buttons, at various flea markets and antique shops. I wanted to do a "get back to your roots", Canadian pride type of line. I really love the look of the brass... that has such a fabulous age old patina, with distressed leather. Add a bit of glam and bling to keep it girly, and heres what I came up with. 
Hope you like it!

      Introducing my "Oh, Canada" line. 

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Season Update

The weather is finally turning cooler after an absolutely fabulous first half of September. Up until yesterday we were still experiencing Summer like temperatures here, and I was still wearing shorts. However yesterday was cool and rainy, and the  early mornings are slowly getting colder.

At least now, I can spend time indoors creating jewelry without feeling guilty for not being outside.

I have a very busy Fall season, with four shows in November! What was I thinking ?!! On top of that, I am still supplying my designs to 3 local boutiques, and I am trying to keep my Etsy shop stocked as well. Good thing, I love what I do.

Mid December, is taking us on a trip to England to visit family over the holiday season. I have not spent Christmas with my side of the family since 1976! Ok, Im aging myself here....but hoping to have an amazing time creating lots of fabulous good ol' fashioned memories. I think by then, I will be ready for a nice little break.

I have now got my Etsy shop up and running, and featured here on my blog, see the right hand side. If you see anything you are interested in there is a discount if you purchase through this little app.

Well off to the studio.... saying I have lots to do, is an understatement!










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Vintage Glam

   

This is the second collection for Fall 2013, the Vintage Glam Collection. I love combining the worn, antique metal keys with the clean, dazzling sparkle of Swarovski crystals. The leather and velvet adds another texture, which I think works perfectly, with all the latest Fall fashions. 

Have you seen all the leather/faux leather in the shops right now?

And...is it just me, or is black....the new black??

Velvet is on trend for Fall 2013 as well, so some of these new Glam pieces have touches of velvet in a warm chocolate color.

 

                       I really liked this vintage looking brown leather...so classic and casual...great with blue jeans on the weekend!

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Falling into Autumn

Inspired by the change of the season, the turning of leaves, late summer plums on the trees and Autumn pumpkins, romantic Victorian Steampunk style and of course trinkets to repurpose...I experimented and came up with this layered cuff bracelet.

I have admired similar cuff designs, from other artists, so I thought I  would play around with various textures, and colors in a warm color palette, and see what would happen.

I started with the bronze metallic leather...perfect for Fall and a little glamorous!

Then added the layers of velvet ribbon in ivory and chocolate, vintage lace in plum and cream, and recycled sari silk in a gorgeous warm faded shade of pumpkin.

This cuff had a Victorian feel to it, so I added an antique pocket watch key, a Victorian button  some old pocket watch gears, a little brass keyhole, some vintage rhinestones, and a gorgeous Swarovski crystal heart that shimmers shades of the colors used to make the cuff.

After several hours of work, I'm pretty pleased with the way it tuned out for a first try.

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Summer Recap

I know..its been a long time since I blogged! It was nice to step back from the old routine and enjoy the summer, as it goes by so quickly, in our neck of the woods. I hope all of you had some enjoyable and memorable days of summer as well.

So to give you an overview of my summer, I am just going to recap some summer favorites.

Most Memorable Day-  Spending time in Victoria: taking the water taxi to Fishermans Wharf, going on a ghost walk in the old city at night, and enjoying the city nightlife afterwards.

Most Relaxing Moment- lying on the beach with my hubby, under the shade of a big oak tree, reading my book.

Favorite Color of the Season- Lemon Zest Yellow!  Not normally a color that I would choose, but  for some strange reason, I was consistently drawn to this sunshiny yellow this summer, and bought a several items of clothing in this happy color.

Favorite New Music- Ashleigh Mannix-A fabulous blend of folk, blues and rock, this Aussie singer has stolen my heart!

Favorite Movie- The Butler-  I dragged my husband and 15 year old son to see this movie, and surprise...they loved it! Thought  it was a good history lesson for my son. Very emotional movie.

Favourite Book- Salt, Sugar Fat- How The Food Giants hooked Us- Michael Moss takes us behind the scenes on how the big food companies, like Kraft, Coke, and General Foods hooked us onto processed foods, and all the false marketing and health problems related to these foods.You wont look at your grocery store the same ever again. I highly recommend this book if you are even somewhat concerned about what you are putting into your body!

Favorite Summer Fairs- Well, thats a toss up between the St. Marks Fair in Qualicum Beach, which is like one huge garage and art/craft sale that goes on for blocks, and the elite arts and crafts show called the Filberg Festival which is held in the gardens of the Filberg estate, by the oceanside in Comox. To me,  either one is a pure heavenly way to spend a day! Here is my friend checking out the amazing glass art at the Filberg Festival.

Most Fun- Sharing time with family and friends! Our kids and grand kids were all out visiting us on Vancouver Island, at different points during our stay. We also had visits from friends, as well as my husbands brothers, so it was definitely  action packed at times!

My granddaughter and me

The grand kids and my son

Everyone at the lake

My eldest daughter and me

Family and Friends

My youngest daughter and her fiance

My middle daughter and me

            What were the highlights of your summer?

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Collecting Pieces of the Past

My open house, on Sunday, was a big success!
 The sun shone, it was a gorgeous day, and so many fabulous ladies came out to shop. I raised a total of $227.50 for the Bragg Creek Flood Relief, and was extremely pleased. 

 I am now winding down for the summer, and will be travelling to the west coast for some much earned R and R!  Over the next few weeks, I will be searching out little treasures, visiting flea markets, yard sales and antique vendors, collecting pieces of the past to incorporate into my Fall designs. I love the thrill of the hunt, almost as much as I love designing!

I hope to post some of my fabulous finds, over the next few weeks, so keep checking back to see what I have discovered during my travels.

I wish you all a wonderful summer, full of family time, lazy days and plenty of time to soak up the sun!
Susan Pin It

Turning Lemons, into Lemonade

What a crazy part of the world we live in. You know our winters are long and cold. You probably heard or read about our June floods. Well, for the last several days, we have been in heatwave. Today it is currently 37C or 98 F!

So what do you do, when you have a load of jewellery that was initially made for a show that you were unable to attend, due to the massive southern Alberta flooding?
Well.....whats that saying about turning lemons into lemonade?
I decided to use my jewellery to raise money to put towards the flood relief fund for our town.

I am having an open house this Sunday, where 10% of my sales will be donated to the flood relief fund. I am also running a silent auction, where the winning bid will also go to the fund.

Here is the piece that I am auctioning off.

In the meantime, I am trying to stay cool! Pin It

Devastation

Last Thursday, many towns and villages in southern Alberta, as well as the city of Calgary experienced the worst natural disaster, that this area has seen in our history. Enormous amounts of rain, combined with the spring snow melt caused massive flooding. My little hamlet of Bragg Creek experienced a flash flood, that had many people running for their lives as the streets turned to raging rivers. Many had to be  rescued.  the river tore through our pretty peaceful town in the foothills with such a raging force, that many parts of town  look like a tidal wave went through it.  Two homes were tore away from the bank, floated down the river and smashed into the bridge. The main bridge was closed to traffic and people, and our house situated on the opposite side, along with hundreds of other homes were cut off from everything for 2 days. The good news is that most of us on this side, were far enough from the river, that we were all fine. 

On Saturday morning when the evacuees were allowed back into the town, and the bridge reopened, we all showed up to start the massive task of cleaning up.  My family spent 3 days at the restaurant were my son worked as a busboy for the past year. The owners had always treated him like their own, so we focused our efforts there, aas well as their home which was directly behind the restaurant.  The river had come directly through their property and business. The water level reached over 6 feet high, and the mud that remained in the restaurant was about 4 feet deep. The house was a mess as well. Keep in mind that these were not water front properties and were set way back from the river. The river changed course and came through the center  town. Both places will be bulldozed, there was no way you could ever clean that up. so we hauled everything out of both places, which took us 3 days, of wading through the mud, and salvaging what we could for them. 

The back of the restaurant on the left, home on the right

In happier times

 Another place that was devastated was the Trading Post, a place that had existed since the 1930s, by settler T. J. Eldson, who traded with the Stoney Indians. Part of this building is where the current owners live, and the front  was the actual store.

Here is how it looked on Friday.

We saw what was left of it yesterday. The road is gone, and now only river flows there.

There are so much sadness here, in our beautiful part of the country. Our town and the areas surrounding it will be forever changed. 

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