My Sweet Peas!

Loz and Dan, my two sweet peas, well they did come together in a pod! This photo taken a couple of days ago when they looked very similar...

Lauren on the left just bought her first horse, Condor a Thoroughbred gelding. Now both girls can go riding together, Danielle bought her horse, Mercedes a few months ago.

They still both work in hospitality and at the same place LOL.

I just wanted to post this lovely pic of them so some of my friends and family can see how they have grown, BTW they are a lot taller than I. Cuties!....

Inspired by Sally Jean - Soldering

The other night I had the pleasure to solder with a couple of lovely girls, eat Thai food and be inspired by a book that I brought back from the USA. The book, "Pretty Little Things" by Sally Jean Alexander. Every page is so adorable and inspiring to say the least. I love jewellery, soldering and little trinkets and stuff!! Love all things small really. (who doesn't?) So Jen Jones, Kelsey, Jackie and I got down and dirty and made some soldered items. I really wanted to make this wire dress form but got carried away with my first project, making a really deep 3D charm.

I was inspired by these wonderful metal objects, that have v cut in them that I was sent recently (hot metal type), not the actual hot metal type themselves but the brass masters that create the type. I have a dear friend send me some of the tiny brass pieces, which I am so grateful. Actually it was Jenny Crossley from the Ratty who first recommend these little gems, thanks Jen! I have always loved type whether it be fonts, metal or anything to do with type really. The shapes and forms are really interesting and love the letter"A"/"a". I did use on these charms, solder that contains a tin 98 percent tin and silver 2 percent mix, which is similar to the one Sally recommends in her book, although we can't get the one she suggests in the book here in Australia this one is from Bunnings in the soldering section and is for jewellery (lead free). Try to practice on the regular solder first because the jewellery one costs a little more than regular solder.

After playing around with the charms I had some fuses to open and put in messages, solder on a jump ring so it can be hung from chain. Opening the fuses can be tricky, first time I did it I drilled the top off, but that was too hard so I heated one end gently and then using small pliers pulled the top (cap) off the heated end. Be careful not to pull to hard or the glass will smash. Take out the fuse with small pointy pliers, even if you can't get it out, don't worry, just add your text in the tube and you won't see it. I add a jump ring to the top before gluing on the end with metal glue. Love little messages in little bottles or tubes they are so cute to hang with other bits and pieces.

The little aluminum squares my lovely daughter banged out (Sunday morning early to every one's amusement!) as she was making some metal tags for her new horse "Condor". She likes to make the tags so she can identify her bridals and horsey equipment. After hammering in the type she had used a permanent marker to enhance the type so it's easy to read - Thanks Loz....

Jenny made a wonderful cross, took her ages as there were 5 sections to complete the cross. I think Jen needs to get a blog and share her wonderful creations with us. whadda think girls?? So thanks Jen for having us over and giving us some beautiful charms and things and sharing your tape, polish and wiping nappies! LOL.

OH, and the info on the "brazillian" was so helpful Jen, LOL. I have made a mental note!

Love, JVO!!!

CHA show in Anahiem, California.

I thought I would share a few photos from my recent trip to the US. It started out at the CHA show, and as you know it’s the main craft trade show for the year. Amazingly they fit in 3,600 exhibitors into this venue, with 3 main halls all connected together and the lower floor housing the newest exhibitors. I don’t believe I saw all of the show, even though you get 3 days to view it, it is impossible to see everything. I always try to look closely at the new exhibitors and then concentrate on all the favourite booths after that.
I am probably not the best person to ask about the show since I don’t actually buy product from the show, as you may know I do not have a store. Usually I like to look at the trends get ideas for new product and generally see how the industry is going. I did call in and see lots of friends including my good friend Suze Weinberg, http://www.schmoozewithsuze.com/ who is one talented babe and a lot of fun to be with! Check out her site, she has a lot of cool product and a neat DVD out. I also managed to catch up with Stampington & Co who make a range of my stamps out of clear polymer. Also I had a short visit with our Em from Perth, who currently is living in LA with her family and is apparently coming back to Perth soon for a visit and teaching. http://www.embers.typepad.com/ check out her blog, it’s really lovely.

Suze, JVO, Emily

Catching up with Sally Wilson, designer of Delish Designs, who I had chatted on the phone with, its always lovely to put a face to a name. Her booth was stunning and classic, and there is a pic of us with the work of Maxine Hazebroek’s in the photo – good one Max!
http://maxinehazebroek.typepad.com/my_meanderings/

Julie & Sally

Jenny Sutherland from New Zealand, who I shared a room with introduced me to Leandra from Paper Artsy, and I know a lot of girls right here in Perth just love her stamp range. In the photo she is holding up some ATC’s sent from some of the Aussie girls, isn’t that nice she had them on display at her booth!

Jenny, Leandra & Moi.

My last day in LA before going to the mountains I had a side trip to Tijuana, which was amazing and such a colourful place, so here are a few more photos from that trip down to TJ.



S loads of chillis!!!

In my last posting I mentioned that I went up a hill in the mountains near my friend’s house, Sharilyn Miller http://www.sharilynmiller.com/ here is a pic of where I climbed up to before I got scared, well I am a bit afraid of heights!!! See the little red arrow that’s where I got to before it got too steep.

Sharilyn had the cutest cats, Rosie and Sparkle, not sure who this cat is but they both remind me of “Garfield” ! I bought a laser light and had them both running a race track around the house and up and down the stairs, it was really funny to watch, if you have a cat, get one you won’t be disappointed!


If you do go to Sharilyn’s site she had out an amazing DVD on how to make jewellery in her wonderful style. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get her to make the 15hr flight to come to teach in Melbourne or Perth? Any interested parties should email her!

BTW I did see chipmonks before I left the mountains on the last day and they were so cute. Naturally they came out of the woodpile near the house and when they got frightened they went straight back, talk about move and really skittish! The pine trees were full of birds and bluejays are so lovely to see flying past, bit of a neon blue flash! I gotta admit I really like the mountain life and one day I will go back up for a visit.

Do you remember "All the Rivers Run"?

On my return to Oz I had the good fortune to camp out at the Southern 80 in Echuca on the Murray River. I’ve never been before or heard of the race, http://www.southern80.com.au/ but it was amazing and fast. Can you imagine skiing down the Murray behind a speedboat at 160km per hour? The 80km race which the gurus complete in 32mins! These guys and there were kids as well must have a lot of guts! I also had my first real camp experience, like not having a shower for days! (did have a bucket of river water tho!) It was quite warm and dusty, not what I was used to, but it was one of the best trips I have ever done. Mind you there were these really big ants, I think they were at least 2.5cm long! And they were biters, only got nipped on the toe once, and that was because I was near a nest and we were stirring them up to see the soldier ants come out. The entry to the nest was at least 3 meters in diameter (no bull, excuse the pun!).

The camp fire seemed to bring out the pyromaniac in me, I always liked burning things when I was a child, so I was allowed to teardown any wood in the vicinity of the camp (a 1km radius) and burn it! LOL, and I did, burned wood the whole time. I also was hanging out with some bad camp dudes who gave me alcohol and cigarettes even though I don’t drink a lot or smoke. Well I did smell a lot of smoke hanging out at the camp fire. Each morning was so lovely on the river, birds singing, fire crackling, bacon and eggs cooking on the camp fire, only to be broken up by the speed boats racing down the river. If you get a chance to go to the Southern 80 GO it’s so amazing to watch, and you can dip yourself in the river to cool off if it gets too hot or you get too dusty. (just watch out for the little river shrimp they bite ya on the bum!).

While I was in Vic I caught up with Jenny Crossley, and her lovely kids, Nic and Matt and Mark, Jenny’s hubby.http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/ and I finally managed to meet “Audrey” in person and the crew (fleur de la muffin and Peggy). Audrey took to my chest straight away and asked nicely for something from the crisper in the fridge! Incase you didn’t know Audrey is JC’s guinea pig! LOL. Jenny makes the most beautiful art pieces and she has a style all of her own, so go to her blog and see her latest creations……

While I was in the “ratty” we went to this amazingly yummy restaurant called Thai Fusion, if you are in town go its so nice…..

See ya, JVO . . . . . .

On the Road

Last week I wanted to go to Mexico so I booked a trip while I was at home to go to Tijuana just after going to CHA.
I waited for the bus at 8.30am to be told it was cancelled. So later that day I found out how to get there on my own, against all my US friends saying don't go it's dangerous. Well I set off from the Santa Ana bus station and caught a bus which took 2.5hrs all the way down and which took you over the border into TJ (Tijuana). I caught a taxi into the main town and did some sightseeing and took lots of photos. I know that TJ isn't your typical Mexican town, but it was still an experience I had to have. I did Google Earth the place before I left so I really wanted to go. There were a lot of tourist shops, so I didn't buy any of the souviners, but I just wanted lots of photos and I also took some videos. I ate real Mexican food, the corn chips are to die for! and hung out at this cute little restaurant. I have to admit there were not a lot of tourists there, I guess being winter time and all. At the end of the day I went back to the bus station only to find out the bus had broken down, well it was a Mexican bus Co.! I waited around about an hour and a half and then we went on out way to the US border. The border was jam packed and we waited ages to go through. Apparently you get off the bus go through immigration and customs, go out the building and run up the street a little to where the bus will take you back to Santa Anna. Well I didnt know this cos I was the only english speaking person on the bus with all the mexicans (LOL). But I followed everyone and found my way. But was told that the bus would be an hour befor we left. Sooo I was freezing cold and needed a hot drink, so I took off down the road to get a hot beverage... well got back 10 mins later and there was the bus going off down the freeway!!! LOL so had to wait at least another hour and finally got on the bus back to the station. Well here is a pic of what its like over the "border".

At the moment I am in Idyllwild at my friends Sharilyn Miller (previous ed of Somerset Studio Mag) http://www.sharilynmiller.com/ and we are up 6,000ft in her mountain home. And guess what? There is snow up here!!! The scenery is to die for and it was a long (scary) windy road up here and took about 3 hours from Anaheim (where CHA and disneyland is). The squirrels are as big as cats (sorry almost!) and there are chipmonks here but I haven't seen any of those.
Earlier today I walked up the hill right beside the house, well I almost got to the top and got scared (it was a really long way to fall down, really!!) so I took some photos and climbed down..not the pic shown here (thats the peak) but it's so quiet and just what you would imagine a mountain town to be like. Sharilyns house is on 3 levels and I am sleeping in the loft bedroom uptop and it's just like something out of an Austrian village.. The weather has been so lovely here, at night it's a bit cold about zero to about 22c today but there are some spots with snow on the ground.
Thanks for looking....Julie