Sorting today

I am spending a little time today sorting through my miniatures.  I am trying to get ready for the National Convention in Charlotte NC, and need to find a few tools that I want to bring.  I know I have them somewhere, but sometimes they get misplaced.  Which in turn launches a full scale investigation of every box/drawer/container that I have my minis stored in.  It is getting better, because each time this happens, I vow to make sure it doesn't happen again!  So I get more and more thing that belong together - together.  During this process I often get distracted when I come across some of my favorites.  Earlier I found one of my very favorite things to collect.  Dragons.  Over the past few years, I have been collecting dragons from Nicky over at nickycc.com, you can also find her on facebook here.  She has the most amazing dragons!  I just love the expressions she is able to create.  If you have a little time, she has all of her galleries of past work on her site & it is really fun to look through.
Anyway, I also realised that I have never taken any pictures of them all together, so I wanted to post one here to share with you.

The lighting is not ideal, but we have no sun today, it is very overcast.  Regardless, they are still the cutest things and they always bring a smile to my face.  I better get back to my sorting and find the rest of my tools!

Take Care!

Steam Punk Distraction

I have been slightly distracted with steam punk stuff recently!  I started searching for watch & clock parts at local consignment & thrift stores to use in one of my clock kit projects, but then came across an idea that I HAD to do.  Last Friday, I decided to go check out a local consignment store on my lunch break to see if they had any cheap old clocks I could take apart for the gears.  I went in, explained to the guy what I was looking for and he gave me an odd look for a second, but then smiles and walks over to the sales counter & picks up this green plastic Folders coffee jar and asks me is this what your looking for?  Low and behold, it was exactly what I needed!   It was over half way full of gears & pocket watch pieces!  I was so excited that it was already done for me & I didn't even have to pay shipping!  They guy tells me that this has been sitting on their counter for over a month & they had no idea what to do with it.  (I really think it was supposed to be mine)  But anyway, it also turned out that a friend of mine has a daughter that was graduating from high school the following day, so I decided that she really need a steam punk necklaces a graduation gift.  The timing for all of these things could not have been better.  Anyway, after that long drawn out story, I thought I would show you guys how it turned out.

this is the pendant

This is how big it is.....

One of my favorite things about this necklace (besides the gears of course) was the necklace part of it.  I actually ended up using a guitar string that my daughter was getting rid of, and I think it works perfectly for steam punk!  The "M" is for her daughters first name, and the green is her favorite color.  I gave it to her on Sunday and she loved it!   I think for my first ever steam punk piece, it turned out pretty good!    I think my next steam punk item will be a mirror or I may end up doing the clock project in steam punk.  Who knows at this point - but at least I am having fun!

Take Care,