Working with glass has always scared me, but my husband finally motivated me to conquer my fear and signed me up for a stained glass class. Our first project was a fused/stained glass window. This project allowed me to understand how to work with glass (correctly) and got me excited for future projects.
When I met my husband 5 years ago there were only two things in his refrigerator, it was full of beer bottles and dead animals. Luckily there was a good explanations for this, he spent his quality time brewing beer and training birds of prey. At that time, he had a red-tailed hawk named Chaos that he would free fly and hunt with (hence the dead animals). Now fast forward to present day and he has founded a local non-profit dedicated to the education of birds of prey. He has cultivated his love for birds into a successful and rewarding business. He has also grown his love for beer and home brewing. His beers keep getting better with each batch and now instead of bottling, they go straight into kegs and through the wall to our kitchen tap setup.
Not only do I love his beer and his birds, but I love that I can be involved in both of these things. As for the non-profit, I am able to act as their creative director. And for the beer, well we take our beer seriously. Danny names each one and I brand them and burn them into custom tap handles. It is not a true business, but it is fun to have our own home “brewery”. A brewery that is of course inspired by the world of birds.
Four years ago I created a surf illustration for my now brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s wedding. They got married in Maui and they wanted an image that was surf inspired. After the wedding I painting and framed this image which is currently hanging in their house. Fast forward to present day and they now have a wonderful three year old daughter. My niece is already an outdoor guru with experience in climbing, surfing and skiing. She is truly an inspiration to toddlers and parents everywhere. Whenever my niece looks at the image I created she asks where she is (because she is missing from the art). So for her third birthday I added her into the image and printed the illustration on canvas. I didn’t have the time to paint it, but I used photoshop to get the same look as a painting and everyone was quite happy with the result, especially my niece.
My best girlfriend recently asked me to make a gift for her sister’s bridal shower. I love doing crafty projects so I happily agreed. My friend and her sister are both into baking, so the shower and the gift were to be kitchen themed. My friend gave me a quote/recipe that she wanted me to design and frame and asked if I was willing to create a recipe box, of course I jumped at the chance to practice my woodturning skills. Finally we decided that a custom apron would be the perfect finishing touch to the gift. My friend was very pleased with the outcome and I hope her sister will be as well. Creating homemade gifts for people is quite a rewarding experience, and I think it is more meaningful to the recipient when they see the care and thought that has gone into their present. I only hope that I will continue to grow creatively so I can take on more projects like this one in the future.
Danny and I got married this past September and we were on a tight budget, but we are the ultimate Do It Yourselfers so we decided that we were going to have a homemade wedding. I was in charge of design: the invitations, the decor, and the venue and Danny was the carpenter and the beer brewer. We teamed up and created: the beer system, home brewed bottles for our guests, the center pieces, the cake stand and loads of other wedding decor. It was not an easy task, but were very pleased with the outcome and minus the cold temperature and chilly wind gusts it was a wonderful day! Plus, I learned a valuable new skill, wood burning which I really enjoy and luckily there have been no fires in my quest for knowledge!