Back to Work!

My wish is that this finds each of you well and staying safe. It feels so good to finally begin to be hopeful that we might just make it out of this pandemic after all. We are grateful that we both have been been fully vaccinated and I hear from more and more people every day that they are, too, or at least on the path to it.

Having our shots has not caused us to loosen up much, though, We are still staying home for the most part except for medical appointments and my trips to the grocery store. We will be allowed to meet up with vaccinated friends outdoors soon and that is really something to look forward to!

Spring is here and suddenly everything seems so much better. Is it that way for you, too?

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I have some news and then we can catch up a little.

I’m back in the workshop and happy to report that apparently my creative juices have not forsaken me after a several months-long hibernation.

If it seems to you that April might be a tad early for Christmas, I’ll let you in on an exciting bit of news. I have been given a MASSIVE commission this year: 25 wreaths! Yup – you read that correctly – twenty-five. The original ask was for 50, if you can believe it. After I picked myself up off the floor and gave it serious deliberation, I felt I could not possibly turn out that many and still feel proud of what I had made. The pressure would have been too enormous, quite honestly. As it is, 25 is a LOT. In fact, it’s actually more than I got made in all of last year.

The really good news for you is that these 25 wreaths will all be available for you to purchase sometime in the fall. 😀 I will have more details to share in the coming months. One thing I can tell you, though, is that they will all still be shipped directly from my workshop to you by me.

I figure that it will take between 3-4 months to finish the commission which is why I am getting started right away. Once I get these 25 made, I will then turn to making pieces that will be available from me directly.

If all goes according to plan, there will be more Glittermoon Vintage Christmas pieces this year than ever before. My hope is that everyone will find their heart’s desire this year. The speed with which everything sold last year was pretty amazing and, sadly, my output was not nearly enough. I sincerely hope that 2021 will be so much better.

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Spring is definitely springing now; the garden is coming to life at an astonishing speed.

And this is what the path to my workshop looked like just yesterday:

Versus how it looked less than a month ago:

The hurried pace of the metamorphosis every year never ceases to amaze me.

We had a nice, quiet Easter.

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And then, I went back to work!

I spent a good part of one day straightening things up and vaccuuming up the detritus of tinsel and other assorted bits that were left from last year.

I came across a little wreath that I had started some years ago as an experiment and then put it aside as more pressing things came to the forefront. It seemed like the perfect time to finish it as a warm-up exercise.

This is how part of it looked when I brought it out of hiding:

It is made on a wire form, about 10 inches if I remember correctly, instead of my usual extruded styrofoam. I did get it finished and it looks pretty darn cute but I’ve not got a picture of it yet to show you. Once I do that, it will be available for purchase in the Glittermoon Shop! Stay tuned to my social media posts for that.

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And speaking of social media…I really do hope you are following me on Instagram especially, as I tend to post more on there these days, including photos of my garden and other assorted things, than on Facebook.

I seem to have more followers than ever these days, but with the algorithms changing again and again, I have the distinct feeling that fewer of you are actually seeing my posts than have in the past. So, I want to ask you to do this, if you’d like to be sure to see my posts in your feed:

First, on Instagram go to my profile page. You will see this at the top right:

Click on the little bell icon and you can select to be notified when I post something. This shows you the choices available:

And that’s all there is to it. Easy peasy!

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Now, back to the workshop… One day last week, I went out to go to work and I couldn’t get the door open! This did not give me a good feeling. And sure enough, a catatrosphe had occurred.

There are some plastic storage drawers across from the door and they are chock full of all sorts of vintage teacups, vases, and other assorted goodies that I use as the bases for Christmas canapés. Well, the worst had happened. For some reason that still defies me, the top set of drawers toppled forward onto the concrete floor and… you can imagine the rest. I figure a couple of hundred dollars worth of wonderful bits and bobs broke to smithereens. Naturally, to rub more salt into the wound, the things that broke were my favorite pieces. 😫

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But, that was last week. This week, I got started on…and then finished the first of the 25 wreaths. I was in a red mood:

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I started with the cute red foil bells and the charming pressed cardboard Santa from the 1940s and things went together very nicely, if a bit slowly. I’m still getting my mojo back, after all. The finished piece is pictured at the top of the post. I love how it turned out – so cheerful!

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That’s about it for now. I’ll leave you with a picture of Lillie, who is now 11 months old, surveying the world outside. We are so grateful to have this little being in the house. I would not have been able to get through these past couple of months of missing Emma otherwise. I still start to call to her every time I start out the back door. It was a lonely couple of first days out in the shop without my shadow to guard over me, I can tell you. And, for the first time in my life, I find myself feeling a bit sad when I look at the buttercups blooming right now. They normally make me smile but they are a little bittersweet right now. I’m missing my sweet Buttercup. Tincture of time, as my mother always used to say.

Have a lovely spring weekend, everyone. I’ll be back soon with more news. Let me know what you’ve been up to, I’d love to hear from you!