new earring tree

When I was little, I remember my Uncle's garage being like a treasure trove, full of cool pieces of furniture and train parts and all sorts of things I wasn't supposed to play with but I wanted to explore and crawl all over. I was a destructive little kid, which is probably why I didn't spend that much time back there, but I do have some vague and very cool recollections of his collections.

Today, he is taking this furniture - mostly from a farm in Iowa, and turning it into really wonderful handmade wooden picture frames. He calls it "You've Been Framed" and they were featured at my Backyard Bazaar. My favorite frames are the ones that aren't painted, but are distressed wood. They are made from antique wood, and it's really neat to own something that a)was made from something other people may have thrown out, and b)has a history, and c)is handmade by someone I am related to.

When he started making his frames, he asked me to come help him set up an etsy site - and his daughter, my cousin, was making rings and selling them too. It was so much fun to have this in common! We started talking about my earrings and I mentioned I didn't know how to display them... and last night I got delivered to my doorstep this amazing earring tree! It is made from antique walnut from a farm in Iowa, and I LOVE IT. So THANK YOU SO MUCH Uncle John. It's beautiful, and I love it. I will be taking it with me to the Patchwork Indie festival because it's perfect to show off my earrings! It's a work of art in and of itself! I will take better pictures later, but I was so excited that I wanted to write and post immediately!!!

Last night in class I drank coffee at about 9pm, which was a mistake - because then I was up til about 2:30am working on my earrings. I'm a little weird feeling and zombie-like this morning, but hopefully will stay awake long enough tonight to go home and make even more!

I just looked down at my hands while i was typing and realized that I am wearing 3 handmade accessories and I am very pleased with that. I am wearing earrings that I made, a ring that my cousin Becky made, and a ring that my friend Dani made. It's like the feeling I get when I eat food that I grew in my garden - it's so nice to know where it comes from!