Peek at My Week (July 26-Aug 1)

Another week in the books and the start of a new month. This year seems to both be speeding through and dragging. I'm not sure how that's possible, but I think most people would agree. Keeping track of my days and weeks in these posts is a great way for me to reflect on how I spent my time and remember how I spent my days. 

I piddled around the house some on Sunday then dove into working on an art journal page. I just wanted to play, and that I did!

Once the heat of the day had burned off, we enjoyed some time in the pool and grilling dinner. 

Even though I was able to knock out almost everything on the chore/household side of Monday's to-do list, I did have time for CraftyHope business too. 

I listed these beauties in the CraftyHope Etsy shop and they sold almost immediately. I have to admit that I wasn't surprised as I thought they were pretty awesome too. 

Then, I took a little time to price the earrings from last week's marathon earring-making session for the booth at Southern Antiques and Accents (SAA).

We had some serious rainfall on Monday and everything was soaked on Tuesday.

Since there was more rainfall headed our way, I made sure to head out early to get the new pieces stocked at the SAA CraftyHope booth. 

It was overcast, but dryer on Wednesday morning, making my outside morning meditations a little more enjoyable. 

The variations in color on the Japanese Maple tree caught my attention.

The rain didn't stay away for long, but I was feeling restless, so after lunch, I decided to venture to a local Antique Gallery to walk around. 

While I didn't find anything at the antique mall, I kept feeling an internal tug toward a local Charity Shop. And, I scored big with the above finds! I even headed over to Goodwill to look around some. 

On Thursday, I wanted to hit a couple more thrift shops early in the day. And, had some success at the first of the three I visited. (I'll have a full reveal of my thrift scores in the next couple of weeks.) But, I needed to get some work done in the afternoon, mainly taking pictures of the pieces for Etsy. Since the good camera had defogged and the hummingbirds were pretty active, I sat on the porch and snapped pictures of the tiny, hovering marvels. 

Friday was a flurry of household chores and not much else. While walking through the kitchen, I spotted Zoe in the other room in an awkward position.

She never ceases to make me smile.

Since we can't enjoy nights out at the moment, Fridays don't have the same feel to them. I want to still enjoy the evening without having to slave over something hard to make. As such, I try to plan easy, but fun meals to kickoff the weekend.

This week, it was a comfort food bonanza including my favorite: homemade mac-n-cheese.

I spent part of Saturday morning struggling over and trying to decide what would be going into the next version of my Bead Box. 

As I wasn't feeling particularly jewelry-inspired, I became frustrated quickly and ended up pushing all these beautiful bits to the side for later. I'm hoping to finish stocking it today or tomorrow!

Pat had a gig scheduled for Saturday night, so he spent the morning resting and practicing while I kept out of his way and spent my morning at the craft desk.

Since jewelry-making didn't seem in the cards, I agonized over this mixed media piece. Agonized is probably too strong of a word...I really just played around with little bits and piece and rearranged the three elements on here dozens of times before finally making myself glue them down. 

My mom had been in the area, so she popped by for a visit out by the pool in the afternoon. And, with Pat away and the niece engaged in something else, I binge-watched the latest season of The Crown. (No one but me wants to watch it, so I have to wait for them to be away.) And, that finished out my week.

Now, how about some inspiration for the week ahead?

• These inspirational quotes from Designer Milton Glaser are perfect for any kind of designer. 
• Moois Van Me has another fun Earring Tutorial. 
• When I saw beads and buttons mentioned in this post from My Modern Met, I had to take a look. Korean Architecture is depicted in these beautiful mixed-media installations. 
• I am absolutely smitten with this work from artist Glen Taylor in which he uses unusual elements to "fix" broken china. 
• There is a very real possibility that I've shared this tutorial on making hooks using shank buttons before since the post is ten years old. But, come on, who doesn't need to see this again? 
• This Bee Tag-making tutorial from The Graphics Fairy not only shares how to make the tags, but also the printouts for it. Fabulous!
• I'm seriously tempted to try this Newspaper Jewelry technique from DecoArt. The video makes it look so easy and I have all the materials already. Though, the results remind me SO MUCH of the work of Sarah Shoot Mixed Media on Instagram. 

And, that's it for the week. I have a lot I want to accomplish this week, and I have a new bullet journal waiting to get broken in. But, most of all, I have new ideas on how to fill out that bead box! (But first, yardwork.) What are you raring to accomplish this week?