If I haven’t referred to it before, you may have guessed by now that I grew up in a small Minnesota town… A town of about 3,000 people. My graduating class had 118.

I live about 15 miles from my hometown. I was filling my car with fuel and ran in to pay when I was asked this question, “Which one are you?”.
I paused for a moment (possibly a moment longer than comfortable) while I pondered a variety of replies…
A few smart Alec replies too! Lol
“The favorite”, nahhhh, funny, but they wouldn’t get it! “The Tom boy” Not so appropriate anymore. “The curly haired one”. Nope.

I settled for “The Middle”.

“Ahhhhh” she replied, “I knew one of you graduated with my brother.” “Yup, that was me!” Which led us into a cordial discussion before continuing on my way.

As I drove on down the road, I pondered future answers to a question that is sure to stop me in my tracks again.

It is interesting being from a small town with two sisters… Very few people could tell us apart in our teenage years, yet we were as different as could be. My poor Dad was highly outnumbered in our household and his fashion of duct taping holes in his shoes was highly ridiculed. He was incredibly patient with us and I can’t imagine how he did it with hormones running rampant. The thing that was sure to get under his skin was the incessant giggle attacks at the dinner table. One of us would giggle about something that was infectious and pretty soon you had three girls giggling uncontrollably… It probably didn’t help that it seemed even funnier when my Dad got perturbed. My poor sweet Dad put up with more than his share of teenage abuse.

Yesterday my kids were getting ready for school and I was in my favorite position cuddling on the sofa with a cup of coffee and a blanket… Relaxing in my pj’s and for the first time in weeks. Kya said, “Mom, you have to come here and take a picture of the sky!”

It was colorful indeed… The beauty seems to fill your spirit and could not have been a more perfect start to my day! My day was filled creating! Twelve earrings, four bracelets, a necklace and two rings. I brainstormed a few product ideas and created an “exciting to me” new product that my kids even said “Cool Mom!” I have to keep it under wraps for now, but will show you in the near future!

Today we are off on a hockey marathon, I can’t recall if I shared with you that my son Keegan is back on the ice and doing great after his surgery! So thankful! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during that time!

And a big thank you for following, liking and subscribing to my blog, Facebook page & Pinterest. I always appreciate you being there to share my journey with! Have an amazing day!

Kris

Hello my friends… I have been thinking about you and wishing I had a little more time to update you!

Some of you have asked how Keegan is doing. Three and a half weeks post op, he was finally able to get his skates on over his ankle scar and skated at practice. He skated in his first hockey game Friday night. It was a bit traumatic for me, holding my breath hoping he wouldn’t get checked in his leg, but he was fine… Even after one check that almost caused me to hyperventilate!

Sawyer is enjoying swimming and boys choir and Kya started JO volleyball last weekend along with hockey, so everyday is filled with continuous activity.

I am sorry for not posting much since Dallas, I got a very large order in the most unique way… With the help if a new friend who made an amazing impact on me! The sun, stars, moon and planets must have been lined up just perfectly for the series of events to happen! I will share more about that later… Some pretty exciting connections! For now I have 67 more creations to ship by early February!

So I will be thinking of you as I create, wishing I could connect with you more! It’s true, absence does make the heart grow fonder!

I hope your days are filled with happiness! Kris

My wheels are spinning…

My day started with my friend Mary and I getting some “fuel” at the funkiest little coffee shop in Dallas called the Mercantile.

Mary and I met in 10th grade and became fast friends… It was such a joy to share this experience with her.

We returned to the show again and I was so honored to reconnect with my friend Debbie, a Dallas native who amazingly took time out of her incredibly busy schedule to come to the market, see my product and meet with me. I will be telling you more about Debbie in an upcoming post, she has a gift of helping people and shared her gift with me today. More on that later, but Debbie... Thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing your time and your gift with me today.

Her sweet husband Phil took a photo of us at the market.

My dear friend Mary, was laughingly stripped of her jewelry and made a mad dash back and forth to the hotel for me to grab some of my original jewelry line to display while the shipment that had been missing on a pallet was located!

We enjoyed more shopping time and fabulous connections and headed to lunch to Wild Salsa. I must tell you that I absolutely needed another course of the chicken chipotle tacos before heading back home.

I had to share a photo of another light fixture from Wild Salsa… Created with empty bottles. Love the fantastic use of unusual materials. We found out today that an episode of Dallas was filmed here, a tv show from the 80′s that will be premiering with the grandchildren of the cast.

We had about an hour of relaxation before heading back to the market for the Artist Mingle. The Artist Mingle was filled with fun, meeting buyers from a variety of states, hard working reps and a great staff. It was a joy to meet other artists as well! We met Lisa Frost for the first time, she resides in Wisconsin.

She had the cutest outfit on. Her line is a whimsical holiday line, her talent is amazing.

My line looked fantastic, the display was slightly different from Dallas.

We returned to our hotel and turned in early as our alarm was set for 2 am this morning for our 5:30 am flight out of Dallas. It seems somewhat insane, but i am excited to arrive home before my kids get home from school. Not sure that it is technically a red eye flight, but I assure you that I have red eyes.

Make the most of the beautiful day ahead of you! Kris

It has been quite an amazing week and I deeply thank you for all of your positive comments and feedback. My heart swells when I read your gracious comments.

This morning I am enroute to Dallas.

I apologize for not giving you the rest of the details on my trip to Atlanta… The week was a whirlwind… Amazing, rewarding and possibly addictive.

I have been to Atlanta before, but it has been many years. I forgot the how incredibly large the airport is… I had a warning from our friend Dave to hold on when you get on the tram and I sure was thankful for the warning… That baby rocks and rolls.

This was my first trip to Americas Mart and I had no idea of the sheer dynamic size of the mart. The mart is contained in 3 buildings that encompass 3 city blocks… The buildings range in levels upwards of 18-20 floors. Here is a photo of the fashion and accessory building in Atlanta.

I cannot believe the immensity of the mart and the thousands of products that are displayed. I can understand why people take days to shop there!

(ok… I started writing this yesterday morning before boarding my plane and never finished! I apologize! So today begins in Dallas!)

We were welcomed by the cutest Texas displays at the Dallas World Trade Center.

The untold secret at the markets are the cash and carry shopping available at many of the clothing and accessories stores. It is so much fun!!!

This is a snapshot of the interior of the world trade center.

My friend Mary and I had a blast giggling and shopping and exploring. After we closed the place down we went to the coolest Mexican restaurant.

The decor was fun…including the wall of bottles.

They had the most amazing chicken chipotle tacos… I could eat them bit breakfast, lunch and dinner! Mmmmm

Well we are off to market again this morning. Hopefully I will have the chance to share more photos from the Artist Mingle at the Demdaco/Silvestri showroom later on!

Have a fabulous day! Kris

I arrived at the Demdaco/Silvestri Showrooms as soon as I got there. I truly cannot tell you how amazingly well they reproduced my jewelry. This was the first time I was able to see the jewelry and gift line in real life other than an earring sample I saw at a visit with Angela in the Minneapolis showrooms. I am totally amazed!

The staff at Demdaco did an incredible job of displaying the products using cool bottles and distressed wood look and burlap similar to the style of my normal displays.

The Christmas tree is the coolest gold color and was a perfect backdrop to the ornaments in the collection. My favorite ornament is the one pictured above… It is glittered around the center with green glass and my wire work at the top. Combine with the other two ornaments and the hanging vase along with some other glass ornaments and silks from the Fantasea line, the tree was fabulous.

This is a close up of the larger ornament and the tree, I love the details, the mesh, and the colors.

The vignette of my jewelry in a distressed lantern was incredible.

The photo above is not the best photo, but shows all three ornaments in the line and the hanging vase.

Here are photos of the displays on the white shelf…

It was such an amazing feeling to see all of my design work in a completed line.

I am so excited about the wine bottle toppers, the detail is amazing and I can just imagine people gifting them as hostess gifts all over the world.

The votives looked great and the mermaid in the collection is so cool. The mermaid artist was not it Atlanta, hopefully I will meet her in Dallas next week.

So a little about my journey to Atlanta…

I was honored to meet some of the most amazing people…

I got a cute photo of Donna who owns Duck Duck Goose Gift Shop in Atlanta.

Here she is sporting one my necklaces… Doesn’t it look amazing on her?

I met buyers from all over the US and the Cayman Islands & Mexico. (the Cayman Islands is one of our favorite vacation spots before we had kids!) We hope to visit them some day in the future!

Another highlight was meeting some of the Demdaco/Silvestri reps. I must tell you that they are so amazing, gracious and hardworking. The show hours are grueling, and they work their tales off from 8 am until 10 pm for many days during the show. Thank you for all of your hard work! Having worked that side of other industries, I understand how challenging your job is! Thanks for all you do!

Special thanks to Ingrid, Angela and their amazing team for doing such a dynamic job with my work!

It was fun to meet some of the other artists as well, but I really have to run right now, so I will share more later!

Have an amazing day! Kris

I am super excited… I am sitting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport waiting to board a flight to Charlotte, NC and then on to Atlanta. It is such an exciting and surreal day. It started a tad early for me with my alarm rudely waking me at 2:30 am… I quickly got over the shock as the excitement started to build. The only thing that could make it sweeter is having Tom and my kids traveling with me.

Here’s a quick photo of the necklaces I am wearing today. I am sporting the layered look today, well who am I kidding, I always do! Lol

In fact the agent at security said, you may want to remove your necklaces, otherwise it’s sure to alarm on you! I couldn’t help but smile… He didn’t know that there hasn’t ever been a time where I haven’t set off the alarms.

I look forward to posting updates of my travels. I hope you have an amazing day! Kris

Yesterday I got up early to go create a very special set of arrangements. This family requested angel wings in two of their arrangements… I hope it is ok that I show you the finished arrangements, the wings look better in real life and I thought it was such a beautiful touch for this family.

The first arrangement hangs on an easel… Here is my before photo of the base greened and ready for flowers.

Here is the completed arrangement.

This arrangement includes some of my favorite flowers, hydrangea, lizzy anthus, ranunculus, ginesta, thistle, daisy mums and variegated pitt.

The angel wings don’t photograph well, but here is a side view.

The next arrangement is quite a bit larger and includes tulips, roses, babies breath and alstrameria, no hydrangea though. The wings look better in real life, you can see the crystals that look like sparkling dew glistening.

There is something about creating flowers that will help comfort a family in their saddest moments ever. Bittersweet, yet touching. I am thankful to be a part of the moment and offer my deepest sympathies to a family who has a painful journey ahead of them.

Thanks for allowing me to share… There is beauty in celebrating our loved ones… Better yet, celebrate each moment you have with them and make it your best day ever! Kris

I struggled with selecting a word… Because it is such a huge amount of time to focus on a single word. Life changes quickly…

However I felt that the word I chose would allow me to adapt with the change that will come in the year ahead.

I selected intention. Often I will tell my kids to do something with intention. Walk with intention… purpose.

I plan on spending my time on my business with more intention… The same with my family and my life. To be in the present in each moment.

I believe that the more things we put in our plate full our lives with distraction… I am hoping to streamline my distractions this year. I have always been a big goal setter, yet I have rarely set a business goal with my jewelry. In hindsight, it is a little shocking to me.

I would love for you to check out the blogs of my friends on the link above!

Have you thought about your word for the year?

Have a fantastic day! Kris

I am excited to share with you today some of the items from my gift line with Demdaco/ Silvestri. The coastal theme continues with a collection of wine bottle stoppers.

I continue to be amazed by how well they have reproduced my work.

Won’t they make a perfect hostess gift?

I can just picture the candle holders flickering with the glow of candlelight.

And the hanging vase with some sweet flowers fresh from your garden…

And because everyone deserves a crown, a choice of two crowns handmade especially for you… For those moments when you need just a tad bit of extra courage, prop it on and give yourself a pep talk…

After all, you deserve to be treated like royalty my friend! Please don’t ever forget that!

Have a royally amazing day! Kris

I am incredibly thankful and blessed by your comments, support and encouragement! The excitement to see my entire line at the Demdaco/Silvestri Showroom makes me feel like a little girl anticipating Christmas!

I have a little more time this morning and I wanted to share airless bit about my designs… The necklace above includes some gorgeous crystals, beautiful natural shells and some funky wire work. I designed the chain one link at a time with a wire wrapped crystal and funky wire work.

This necklace includes a variety of sparkly and natural elements that work so well with each other. Each element is carefully wire wrapped and united to create the bail of the necklace. The soft ribbon makes a beautiful necklace.

I am quite excited about this necklace, it is a staple for every wardrobe because it can be worn in different ways. It starts off as a long necklace with a few focal shells and crystals wrapped and the handmade chain embraces some gorgeous crystals. Easily detach the bracelet from the necklace and you have a new set… A shorter necklace that is a perfect complement to any outfit and a dynamic bracelet!

I enjoyed designing earrings for the line, shells make a perfect accent for earrings.

This bracelet might be one of my favorites of the line. They did an amazing job reproducing my original designs, I am so amazed!

In my next post I will share some of the non jewelry items. I hope you love them as much as I do.

Thanks for your amazing comments! Have a Fun-tastic day! Kris

The jewelry portion of the line released in Cycle 4, 2011 and the big debut of the line starts next week in Atlanta. I am starting to feel like a little girl waiting for Christmas! The line has not shipped yet but should be shipping soon.

The coastal side of the line developed when I was asked if I have ever worked with sea shells in jewelry. I had not and it was a fun new challenge to play and create with on of natures most beautiful creations.

I think you will see my work in a new light.

There is a fun selection of earrings…

A variety of bracelets…

Necklaces…

And rings…

I am so excited to share more with you tomorrow, but I thought it would be fun for you to see a glimpse today!

Have a fabulous day! Kris

I am amazed that the holidays have passed so quickly…

The past few weeks were filled with fantastic memories with family, an abundance of cooking, cleaning and even organizing! A much more relaxed schedule and even a nap on New Years Day!

I had some fun creating a series of necklaces with sea glass…

I have always loved inspiring words… They

Inspirational words have always helped me persevere through challenges.

So today we resume our regular schedule… Keegan’s progress has been amazing, he is walking without crutches, still favoring his left leg, but I am amazed at his improvement. I worry about his first day back to school, but he insists that he does not want to take his crutches along even if he gets fatigued. Determination!

I hope your day is filled with terrific memories of your holidays and you enjoy resuming your life before the hustle and bustle! Kris

Happy 2012! It amazes me the start of each new year, the hope, joy and exciting unknown… Like a new adventure.

I just have to reflect a little in all of the gifts in my life…

My husband Tom, who is the most selfless person I know, he encourages me to be a better person, supports me in my creative journey and is an amazing father.

My children, each so unique and each one has an amazing gift to share with the world… The journey to have children prepared me to be an advocate and to be a better Mom.

An amazing family, My Mom and Dad, who love me and support me through the ups and downs of life. Watching them through their journey has taught me determination and endurance. I am so thankful for their health.

My Sister, BIL and their family are all amazing. My sister encouraged me to try different styles of jewelry, and helped guide, encourage and promote my business. They are there for me at the drop of a hat. I am so grateful.

Tom’s Dad, brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews… Memories are a joy to create with you! A new memory of all of the kids catching their waffles as Tom threw them across our house was a fun tradition to behold. An amazing gift of incredible people we treasure.

Our Friends are there for us through thick and thin and so often a place to vent, bounce ideas and just be. I am blessed by you.

You, my amazing supporters, your gift to me is the time that you spend, commenting, reading my blog and being there for me. I am humbled by your time and extremely honored by your love of my creations.

My Flygirls… You are amazing, your gifts, support and encouragement!

Possibility, no one knows what the future holds, but the joy in the possibility has been an incredible gift this year through some challenging times! Thank you Angela, Demdaco/Silvestri for the possibility ahead.

and cheers to a future of

Undiscovered Joy… May it lead you on a journey filled with health, happiness and prosperity in 2012.

It is hard to believe that New Year’s Eve is upon us. I love that the dawn of each new year allows us the opportunity to recreate ourselves!

Our focus at home the past few days has been preparing for my husbands family Christmas, it is our year to host.

It was time to pack up my jewelry display, which is hard because I often have someone stop and shop. I think I came up with the best of both worlds… I created a display in my built in cabinets that we designed by our entry. It did not fit my full display, but a decent selection.

Five years ago, I struggled to find a kitchen cabinet color that I loved. I knew I wanted a distressed look, I initially decided on red, like a barn red color, but started to worry that I would tire of the color. I finally settled on black. It is my favorite color.

Our friend Steve who built our cabinets had never distressed cabinets before, in fact I think the thought I was a bit crazy! So I agreed to go in and distress them myself at his shop. 13 hours of sanding with a rotary sander until my hand was about to fall off, and I was thrilled with the results!

I don’t have a great photo to share, but here is one I took at my open house.

I am still happy with my choice!

We finally had a bit of snow, my kids were so excited to wake up to a light dusting!

I hope that 2012 brings you joy, peace and love and that all of your dreams come true! Kris

They released a video sneak peak of new products from their amazing artists… You will have to watch quickly to see photos of my jewelry that are included… the screen prior to the two photos announces new jewelry throughout their lines. It is so much fun to see my work included with such amazing artists!

Here is the you tube video. Hope you enjoy! I would like one of everything pictured!

More to come soon!

Kris

I was scrolling through my photos of Christmas Eve when I paused on a couple of photos of my kids and nephew climbing on my Mom and Dad’s fireplace.

It is quite a dynamic fireplace and takes up an entire wall floor to ceiling in their home, my childhood home that I grew up in since 8th grade.

This fireplace took years of work for our family to create. It started off with my Dad getting 13 dump truck loads of a brick building that had been demolished … All he had to do was haul it away. In three summers, my two sisters and I learned work ethic, how to overcome conflict and determination… Every summer day we had to scrape and chisel the old mortar off each brick, one by one until we had two double stacked pallet loads every day… Did I say for three long summers? This was done before we could do anything extracurricular.

I look at that fireplace now with a sense of accomplishment and pride.

I learned a lot from those old bricks… And my parents. My parents have collected antiques since I can remember, they have always had a love of cherishing cool old objects. I have my parents to thank for my love of vintage jewelry and my joy in repurposing unique and gorgeous items into my jewelry.

Thanks Mom and Dad. I now realize that so many of my childhood experiences have had a strong influence in who I am today.

I am so grateful for amazing parents and a childhood filled with rich experiences, even if it was scraping one brick at a time.

Have a great day. Kris

I was commissioned by a friend to create a necklace using a treasured keepsake, a page from her friends Grandmother’s bible. It was an honor to create for her.

Things are settling down at home and I am starting to catch up on my sleep. Keegan is getting stronger every day, he is completely off the pain meds and just on occasional ibuprofen. I took him to watch his hockey team play a game 45 minutes away last night. It was fun for him to see his friends and it was fun for me to hear his commentary on the game. Not quite as much fun that I forgot to grab his jacket, my poor kid. We walked from our warm house into our heated garage & I was focused on getting him in the vehicle. To top it off, It was a cold arena. I had a blanket with and he fought a brave battle between between being “too cool” to have a blanket on and being comfortable! About halfway through the game I coaxed him into wearing the blanket. Not one of my best Mom moments, but we are certain to not repeat that mistake!

As we head toward the new year, I have one more Holiday event to look forward to. It is our year to host Tom’s family for Christmas. The only day without a hockey game is New Year’s Eve… And so we will be celebrating New Years and Christmas at the same time. I have quite a bit of prep to take care of for our family of 30 so you won’t be seeing much creative coming from my part of the world for a few days.

I hope you have enjoyed your holidays and are enjoying some much needed rest!
Kris

The surgery went well, thankfully Keegan did not swell like the last time, so we were very relieved. They added the plate and screws to his knee, but we’re unable to retrieve the screws from his ankles. They tried pretty hard on his left ankle, but in the end the Dr felt like it would do more harm than good at this point to remove so much bone.

Gram & Gramps made a dream come true for Keegan on his surgery day when Grandma called him to share that she had a surprise for him when he got home, an Xbox 360. He was so excited and it was helpful to remind him throughout the challenging events he faced. Our evening in the hospital was share by our Niece and her husband Brad & Sarah. They treated Keegan like royalty.

The nursing staff was amazing… So helpful and nurturing. We also had a little jewelry shopping in our room when we arrived. They noticed my jewelry the day before at the preop appt. and asked me to bring some of my jewelry. it was so much fun sharing my work with them!

Keegan came home on crutches with one leg bandaged rather than two. I think the recovery would have been so much harder with both legs bandaged. We had another huge success in that Keegan is having NO trouble sleeping and we are pretty certain that the culprit in the past two surgeries was vicodin! His past two surgeries were followed by severe sleeping difficulty. For approximately 6 months after his first surgery he could only sleep 2-3 hours per night. The second surgery it started as soon as we got home and after a day or two I started researching the pain meds and found that Vicodin has that reaction with some people. We requested no Vicodin this time and he is sleeping like a dream!

He amazes me on a daily basis… So many times he thanked me for helping him… Adjust his legs, sleep on the floor by him, wake him up every 2 hours for his pain meds, rub his toes to help with the cramping. I totally appreciate his gratitude and am so proud of him in this journey.

I wanted to share a holiday tradition that we started in 2000, when Kya was just a few weeks old

We created a family tablecloth that appears at many holidays that we sign each year using permanent markers.(place a book or magazine to prevent bleeds).

We write a note of gratitude, memory or trace hands, draw a little picture… Whatever speaks to use. We treasure notes from our two Grandmas who have now passed… Admire the tiny handprints and read our notes of the past eleven years.

It’s not fancy, but it is a family treasure…

I hope you have enjoyed the holidays with your loved ones… Happy Holidays My Friends! Kris

Before we were married 18 and a half years ago, I agreed to have a home that our kids could play “ball” in the house… While at times it has been challenging and I do occasionally put my foot down (no golf balls or baseballs ) last night I watched with humor as the boys started with a birdie over the railing…

and ended with a balloon & rackets using my jewelry display as a net.

Such great memories… I remember so clearly the hours of fun we could enjoy with a balloon.

I am really enjoying the ages of my children… They LOVE wrapping presents! They kept asking me for more to wrap…

We did discover that it is quite exhausting!

In fact, my little chick-a-doodle fell asleep mid-wrap!

May your days bring you an abundance of joy! Kris

5 hockey games, 4 orders completed, 3 kiddos sleeping, 2 Boys Choir Concerts, and a cat in the Chriiiist-mas Treeeeeee ( well, my artificial upside down tree…. We don’t actually have our real tree yet. )

The race continues as I will need to be ready for Christmas by Tuesday Eve as Keegan’s Surgery is on Wednesday morning. I am so proud of him. He shared with me that he is not even scared yet. I asked him if he wanted me to share his caringbridge site with you. We created it as a way to keep family and friends informed of his surgery and recovery when he was 9, we had no idea how helpful it would be over that challenging week in the hospital. We will be updating it as we go and hopefully it will all go smoothly and he will not have severe swelling like he did the last time they put a plate in. I read through my old journal entries trying to find the cause of the swelling and blisters that covered his arm. I cannot find any explanation for it in my notes or in any of the records. The nurse was wondering if he had an allergic reaction to something topical during the prep. All I remember was that they could not control his pain and it is the most grueling feeling to see your child suffer. Keegan’s site is here.

Well, enough on that topic, I had a drawing from my open house for the first item from my new line with Demdaco/Silvestri… I am sorry, I
We couldn’t just draw one… We drew two names! Actually Keegan drew… It was official, I stirred the container of names and he drew without looking, twice!

And the Winners Are:

The Fabulous Kerry Peterson!!!

And

The Fantastic Melissa Brown!

I am so excited for you! You will each receive a piece from my new line as soon as it arrives! I will let you know when it arrives!

I hope you enjoy your day! Kris