We had a GREAT day at Sobo Style's Fall Arts Market! Katie's shop is just divine and full of unique furniture, accessories, gifts and must-have's!

Katie was adorable in her fall couture...

We brought some fun "Halloween" themed jewelry utilizing antique cameos, clock faces, glass charms, potion bottles, antique chains and pearls and they were a big seller :)


Julie and I have been playing with antique hardware, escutcheons, backplates and bits of old metal of all shapes and sizes...

LOVE Julie's new bracelets using antique lace and vintage rhinestone buckles! (Had to get one of these for myself)...

It was way fun setting up our stuff in Sobo's space, Katie's shop is just full of fun staging pieces...

We'll be at the Xenia fairgrounds this Saturday the 24th of October from 9-5 for an antique and arts show, come see us!

So my Trueblood season finale was last week and me and girls (Jen, Julie and Laura) sipped bloody martinis and I thought I'd post the recipe. Not my recipe, just one I tweaked a bit from online and I'd love to give credit to the originator but can't figure out who had this little bloody brainchild.

So first you mix up a bubbly witches brew of sugar in various forms...

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup water

and you boil it to within an inch of its life (a confectioners therm will tell you when you hit 325 degrees)...the problem is that you've got to watch the little demon every second because once you hit 325 you've got about 15 seconds until it turns into a burnt stinking smoking mess, so it hits 325 and you dribble some red food coloring in and it crackles and spits at you like the heathen that it is...you throw on your least flattering oven mitt and start dipping glasses like mad, then setting them on a REALLY fat cutting board. The effect is amazing, the taste is delicious. We served my own wicked martini which is a spin on french martinis:

slosh of vodka

slosh of sprite

splash of chambord

splash of pineapple juice

(add cranberry or more red food coloring for effect)

then serve and encourage all to lick the glass generously (you wont have to encourage very much, after a while they're all licking their glass enough to make their husbands green with envy). I also have tried red wine, and have to delightfully say that it doesn't alter the taste of the drink at all, just leaves a flirtatious glint of sugar on the lips after each sip.

It all comes off in the dishwasher after. If you don't have to worry about mess, try just junking it up to 250 degrees...leaves it very sticky and sweet like jam, rather than the hard candy route. And even if you burn it a bit it turns a luscious auburn color and tastes like caramel.

Have fun ladies! And wear protection! (oven mitts!)

Heather

I feel like Purple

So I'm have my hair appointment with my buddy Di King, or Di, or Diane, or Diana, she seems to respond to all three...anyway I see her gorgeous streaks of pale lavender in her white blond hair and I think...ummmmmm.......so some might know that in college I was a bit of a punk rock girl, lots of fish net and army boots and black lace and yes...purple hair. So somehow I just said "you gotta gimme some of that" and three hours later I was walking out with irredescent deep purple streaks hidden in my locks. OK, so that's how I did it, subtle, like an accessory, hidden inside my hair, to be shown off if I choose to.

So of course my 16 yr old Lizzy sees it and is floored and wants color because she can't be shown up by her mom,. So I take her in for pink streaks and this completely unassuming teacher is there, sees my hair, sees her hair and goes for pink too! We're starting a revolution! Somewhere in Cincinnati a 40-something teacher is meeting her class next week with a huge streak of hot pink in her short blond otherwise mainstream locks. I'm not sure if my daughter was mortified that I talked someone into pink hair, or maybe secretely proud of her not-yet-uncool-old-lady-mom.

Oh what a wet and wild day at Americana! After a rushed setup we waited for the crowds to gather post parade...boy...some people take their red white and blue outfits very seriously! Business picked up late morning and then the drizzle came...and then the rain came...and then the downpour came. We were stuck on Far Hills and in our little white tent, couldn't leave until 5pm when the streets opened up again. But...woo-hoo!!! Among the 300 vendors we took first place!! I'd like to thank the academy, my trusty needlenose pliers, my vast collection of adhesives, my daughter who can cut chain like a machine and my husband who pretends to overlook the heaps of vintage parts taking over the family room.

I'm ANTIQUE WATCH OBSESSED! I bought the most delicious batch of antique watch parts and have had way too much fun figuring out how to use them all. I mean, there's something nostalgic about watch parts...before quartz...before digital...before having a time keeper on every appliance in our house. Even my own watch died last Decemeber and I never bought a new one because why do I need to know the time when my cell phone is always in my hand? So now gears become art, the intricacy of the mechanics, the beauty of the fonts and etchings and jewels.

Here's a combination of watch guts and my glass pendants using antique french papers...

And another view...

Here's a view of antique movements...

My watch/butterfly bracelet....

And of course we need cocktail rings too!!

Here we have watch movements embellished with vintage flowers and rhinestones turned into lovely bracelets...

Chandelier Earrings and Bodacious Bracelets

Introducing my series of chandelier crystal earrings and I also wanted to show off the fun I had making bracelets with vintage pearls and sparkly bits, both huge sellers at my last couple of shows!

Antique Watch Goodies on their Way to Sobo Style!

Ooooooooh...nothing like taking your aggressions out on a poor piece of metal with your hands and steel tipped tools, I just love figuring out how to DIS-assemble...almost as much fun as the RE-assemble.

Many thanks to Katie at Sobo Style for partaking of my goods, here's a sample of what Katie and I cooked up for her shop. Am I nuts or are old watch parts just crusty and oh so yummy.