New vintage revamp jewelry designs in the shop: annieswearableart at etsy.com

My latest treasury at etsy.com (guess the song) 1st hint: seattle band

annieswearableart's
"see if you can guess..."
treasury:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=59957

see if you can guess the song!

ahhhhhh.....fiber!

We are nearly smackdab in the middle of summer, which means I'm working with mostly cotton for comfort here at annieswearableart. Here are a few pieces in the etsy shop that work perfectly, each is one of a kind to enhance your own personal style. Click on the link to find the latest additions:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5251760

The Cabin at Indian Creek

This is where we live. We moved from my hometown of Louisville in November of 2000 shortly after Mitch and I were married.

It is a modest log bungalow in the knobs of Southern Indiana; we love it.

The land is truly the master here। There is a wildlife reserve on the west side and we protect it vehemently, mostly by just leaving it alone.

The house requires little maintenance, as we have left the interior in its original log condition without paint. We will be making a few updates and repairs very soon, as it was built by a conservationist in the 70's, and needs some work. The back and front porches are on their last 'legs' and we had a lot of damage to our basement from the flood back in September of 2006.

The beauty of living so close to nature does not come without its tragedy. We were flooded a year ago September due to negligence of a developer, who drained, then bulldozed out our side of the reservoir upstream that at one time was a natural watershed reservoir, with loads of wildlife. It also acted as a natural watershed to protect the rest of the valley.

That reservoir at one time was a beautiful spot with abundant wildlife, and was frequented by families of Georgetown for picnics and fishing. When I found out that the guy set up traps to drown the beavers that lived there just before he drained it, I realized the type of person we were dealing with. He did not care about the land, the wildlife, or anything else other than his profit.

The developer had recently purchased a family farm directly behind it, and turned it into a subdivision. The homeowners at the lakefront were charged 10,000.00 more on the sale of the homes that had the view of the reservoir. So much for that selling point and view that later was left as an eyesore at his hands. Many of them are still furious.

He had intended to fill and build on the reservoir section but the township legally stopped him from doing so. He killed off all of the life within the reservoir, drained it, then let it overgrow into an eyesore. He even started dumping refuse on it. (Sounds sorely like an act of vengeance against the township because of their refusal to allow him to build on it.) The reservoir was shaped like a deep bowl, so almost 8 inches of rain and runoff from that new subdivision filled it up so quickly that the wall of riffraff rock he filled the north side in with could not hold the water. We, along with several other families, have our homes, downstream, on that north side. Our home is not in the flood plain either! Our basement walkout was literally imploded by 5 feet of water and debris from that wall of water as it came barrelling down the valley. I have lots of pictures and will share if anyone is interested, but must warn that they are difficult to look at.

It was probably one of the most terrifying nights of my life. My husband at one point, was trapped down in basement room that he had recently made into his office. The door was forced shut by the force of the water.

Mitch realized that once the pressure of the water equalized he could force the door back open. He could have drowned. But he could have also been electrocuted from all that water, as it happened so quickly we didn't have time to even turn off the electricity.

We are recovering slowly but surely and our home will be better than it was before. But we are on a budget so we can only do so much at a time. We are also trying to do it as 'greenly' as we can.

I will be sharing a few adventures (for example, the Prairie Kingsnake ordeal last week) of living here periodically, and the influence it has had on us, especially in making us 'green advocates' animal and environmental activists....not to mention the 4 legged homeless that have shown up on our doorstep only to become members of to come very soon! Other than the love, and caring for family and friends, and the work for my etsy shop, there is no greater satisfaction for me.

ंद्हेre we have the 'back 40' as वेलोvingly refer to the back acre, which runs parallel to the crescent shape of Indian Creek behind the house। There is a 'mini cabin' in the photo that was built by the previous owner for his granddaughter. They decided to sell the house in order to move closer to family in Tennessee...lucky for us!

Obsessed with Gemstones

Here are a few pieces I finished this week. You can find them in my etsy shop at annieswearableart.

I had to come up with some really special Mother's day gifts, and gifts for graduates this Spring. Lauren (niece) graduated from Transy this past weekend, and is heading to law school at NKU at the end of the summer. Besides my dear friends, we have 7 girls in the family that are very close(aunt, nieces and great-nieces and an adopted aunt!) and I didn't want to give them the same old same old....and decided to add jewelry into the mix with fiber art.
I started buying natural gemstone beads about 10 years ago-just would buy what struck my fancy at the moment. Every once in a while would pull them out and just admire, but never got around to making anything. But if you check in at my shop, you will find pieces of jewelry here and there...it has started. I'm in big trouble.
Now it's turned into a full-on obsession. The sitting and staring then packing away again is no more. I am spending more and more time absorbed in jewelry creation and more summer crochet pieces. Never realized that there are definite techniques, and how much wire-wrapping requires perfection of those techniques. Also have spent plenty of time in frustration of trial and error over the last two months with beads, cut wire and findings all over the construction counter.
I'm working on something special in the fiber art 'department', bringing back a favorite of customers, and hope to have photos with an offering in my etsy shop by the end of the week. I am so excited to be bringing this back! Those who are familiar with annie's wearable over the past 10 years will know what it is!! Surprise! It has a new twist, tho.