What's Up Magazine - Tip your Hat to

My former colleague, friend and Event Coordinator Joy Hutter called me last Friday and said "I know it is last minute but do I have a deal for you?!" Of course I am slightly suspicious hearing that sentence but it turned out that What's UP Magazine's Annual Best of Annapolis and Eastern Shore 2009 Awards theme was "Tip your HAT to the Best..." and Joy figured between the prize money for best hat and the theme there was be lots of folks wearing hats there but there might be folks that were wishing they were wearing a stylish hat when they got to the event. When you think hats, who do you call? Why me of course, so I loaded up a zillion hats and number one client and friend Diana and we hauled dozens of hats across state lines and set up shop! We had a blast people watching and talking to attendees, award winners and the nicest health inspectors I have ever met! We even sold a hat to the mayor!

We saw swanky hats, vintage hats, hats shaped like hot dogs, and a three foot tall "ducks unlimited " number with ducks swimming the reeds. Very tall, very impressive! Almost as impressive as the Ketel Ice Bar, it was hard to fathom that the thing was actually real. Lots of people snuck up to it and surreptiously put their hands on it to really see if it was frozen. Diana and I had a giggle or three watching them be "sneaky".

The food was superb, the venue lovely, the event went smooth as glass. Thanks for including me, Joy!

Award winners and Hat Models!

Check out ALL of these beauties at last night's What's Up Magazone's Best of Annapolis and Eastern Shore! As it was late in the evening I didn't get everyone's name so if you want photo credit or to tell us about your award leave a comment. If you would like a photographic quality copy of these views please email or call me and I will send you one! Congratulations again!

A VERY eventful weekend.

It might be a indicator of a stressed out mother, but I actually offer my children bribes to avoid sleepovers and ultra zone. "if you DON'T have a birthday party I will give you a hundred dollars." I am sure my mom would think that was crazy but do you know what you spend to take ten kids to the laser tag place or the movies? I am getting off cheap. That's all a preamble to say my little baby boy turned TEN on Friday. Yowzee, seems like only yesterday (fill in the blank).

Son still managed to have a family dinner party with lots of seemingly video related gifts and a rocking birthday cake with dad the former chef's decadent cream cheese chocolate frosting. Oh and Bob also worked up a little flaming Bananas Foster by the birthday boy's request. Roll me onto the sofa. I'm full.

We had a great, steady day in the shop on Saturday, despite the totally schizophrenic weather we had a steady business with a LOT of first time visitors. Hopefully they will all come back and Christmas shop! :o)
Saturday night I had a hot date with my husband to go see the Nationals play down town. Driving downtown was smooth on a Saturday. We arrived to hear the melodious tones of "Oh Canada" wafting in on the breeze. I was confused because MY tickets said they were playing the Padres. Because I grabbed the wrong Saturday seats. Oh, the dread of what could happen. So I entered the Client Services kiosk and said to the guy behind the bullet proof glass"Please help me save my marriage". And son of a gun, he did. Printed us up new tickets with our credit card as a back-up. Now the possible painful part is we told him the seats next to the ones we were supposed to be in so we look like scam artists. Now Bob is playing phone tag with the Manager to make sure we are all square. Crisis adverted. I hope.
Sunday brought yet another example of why my neighborhood ROCKS. We traditionally do a porch sit on Father's Day called "Donuts for Dad", well Phil's lovely wife Sheila decided to up the ante with "pancakes for Pops". The neighbors that were not on vacation got treated to homemade waffles & pancakes and all kind of yummy breakfast casseroles. Yum!!!

A Stifel Family Tradition on Father's Day is I "let" Bob go to the hardware store without much of a budget and NO time limit. As I am tortured by my husband's ability to wander the grocery store for three solid hours you can imagine how long we could be at the Home Depot! This year Bob decided to take his "time" and drive to Pennsylvania and buy fireworks for the 4th of July for himself and his pyromaniac cronies! He DID got stuck in monster traffic so he missed Phil's ART Opening (more on that next time!) and dinner was REALLY late. But he got in a round or two of Risk with the kids and went to sleep with Shagadelic Mojo fireworks dancing in his head! (Yes, that's really the name of one of the displays!)

Listen to the Music

The weather cooperated , hooray! We had a blast listening to the melodious tones of the band and got to watch Lori & Heide crank up the torches to play with glass on Saturday morning. Margie and Maryann (oops, not pictured!) added some bling & ambiance to our outdoor happenings during the Tinner Hill Blues Festival. Thank you to everyone who participated this year!


I went in for for my twice a year hair cut on Sunday. After 15 years, my hairdresser Alice has quit telling me that she thought I moved (!) and now just asks how tall the kids are! I have been threatening to shave my head because I was so bored with my hair but short hair requires frequent trims so I wimped out with a shorter version of my current do....

Hard to believe the school year is almost over. Went to a wonderful graduation party on Sunday (yum!) and sat there watching the "kids" who look more like the "grown-ups" everyday. Guess that makes me the "oldster".

I am feeling a little schizophrenic about summer. On one hand I am really looking forward to taking a family break toward the 4th of July but I am plotting & planning ahead to the art show fundraiser in August and doing strategic planning for Christmas (eek!). But you know it will be here before you know it!

Last but not least, Stifel & Capra received a nice compliment from Sydney Trent, the new deputy editor of the Washington Post Magazine. In telling how she about enjoying positive news, especially stories about people pulling themselves up out of rough circumstances, she was kind enough to mention us specifically by name! With all the follow up rehab and phantom pain that Bob still goes through on a daily basis, it's kind of cool to know your personal story has an impact. Here is the link if you'd like to take a peek... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060502092.html

Tinner Hill Blues Festival is all this weekend!

The weather forecast for Saturday declares the sun will be out and we are joining the Tinner Hill Blues Festival fun with music, craft and sales!

Along side local area crafters, The Star Dust Dance Band will be playing from 10am to 2pm. The Star Dust Dance Band is made up of seven local musicians. The band began ten years ago with just two instruments and through the years has grown to its current make up. The band's basic library has always been the "Golden Oldies" of the big band era, but has recently expanded back to include tunes from the early Dixieland era, and forward to include the jazz form of the blues.

Together Stifel & Capra & local artist, Eileen O’Brien are donating 25% of all of the sales of her mixed media collage “Blue Note” to the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation. The gallery is open 10 to 5 on Saturdays. For more details http://www.stifelandcapra.com/ or http://www.tinnerhill.org/ for full event schedule.

Book Signings TONIGHT!

I am looking over today's "to-do's" and realizing it will be a fun albeit LONG day. Local authors Duane Evans and Jean Watterson will be a Stifel and Capra this evening to sign copies of their current books. All details are in the link to the right. Hope to see you there!

Open the curtain!

Open the curtain! On the newly refurbished bath & dressing room at Stifel & Capra that is. Robyn McGarry of RSM Enterprises aka the Paint Diva has finished out funky dressing space. It made its public debut at June's FIRSTfriday. I LOVE IT and so did the rest of our guests that scoped it out. Robyn also has multiple sample boards on display in the upstairs hall showing just three of her many faux painting techniques. A portfolio is on the way. (Hopefully she will get hers done before mine, will I ever get to it?)

I had a productive day yesterday making two pillows out of vintage linen, finishing a collage, dragging seasonal items to the store and packing up a MOUNTAIN of clothes that my family has outgrown to donate to charity. My neighbor Julie just hosted a kid's clothing swap but as my 13 & almost 10 year old are already taller than the moms I think that we have "aged out" of that activity!

This morning consisted up being alternately impressed and terrified by the the thunder storm we had a dawn. It was amazing. Sound like the Broadway musical "Stomp" out there it was so loud. You may recall, last year at this time we lost three huge threes in our backyard so I am a little paranoid. AM not looking forward to going to the shop to bail out the basement....

Mark your calendars to come to the books launch on Thursday night from 6 to 9pm. Support your local authors!

The fine eye of Hazel Brutsche'

There is a reason I don't work Sundays, it has taken me this long to recover from our fun weekend (mostly my feet are KILLING me!). FIRSTfriday of Falls Church brought a nice crowd despite the threatening weather, our in house jewelry repair expert Hazel spent the first hour and a half consulting with clients about their repairs. If you didn't get a chance to come out on Friday do remember that Hazel pops in the shop weekly to pick and drop off custom work so if you have a some work for her to look at, bring it in during our normal shop hours and we will work up an estimate for you.

Other than fixing every broken piece of jewelry in my box, Hazel has earned my unending gratitude by reworking some of my pieces. The necklace at the top had an inadequate clasp. I hadn't worn it for YEARS because it would fall off withing 30 minutes of me getting dressed! the original necklace had a large center bead like a string of pearls (I called it my "June Cleaver on acid" necklace".) Tricky part was I don't wear suits much any more so I mentioned to Hazel that I would love a way to make the strings more wearable. It so happened that Hazel was on her way to a big bead show so she scouted and scored this awesome pendant that really worked well with the malachite.

If you know me you know I tend to wear larger (ok, gigantic) earrings. Hazel also took the bottom drops and worked them into something more lobe worthy! I especially like the green running thought the stone in the bottom photo. As the copper gains patina (and it will as I am NOT a big polisher) the combination looks better and better.

Take a peek in your jewelry box and think, "HHmmmmmm, wonder what Hazel could do with this?"

Counting the days....

I know that the end of school year is here when those teacher present orders come in! Here's the latest entry in the cute kid contest! I will admit I am related to one of them so I am slightly biased....

I just unpacked some fun warm weather tote bags. They have a fun mix of vintage fabrics and images, retro embroidery and actual scrabble tiles and pages from old beauty manuels. They are a LOT of fun to make! And carry too. I drag around a HUMUNGOUS tote page with my great grandparents wedding photo on it. Reminds me of where I came from....

Saints be praised! The stairwell is painted!

It may not seem like a big deal to someone that owns their own scaffolding, but to us getting the 2 story high ceiling line painted was QUITE the feat! Actually I shouldn't say "we" because while I was tediously cutting in the upstairs hallway, Bob knocked out the entire stairwell! Oh my gosh, it looks SO much better! One less area to cringe about....
My client, friend and resident harpist Charlotte Roe gave me an unusual comission: to dress her Santo. Santos are plaster representations of Saints usually found in Middle & Central America. Charlotee gave me snippets and pieces of family lace & trim and I built her a modest covering. I normally make my art doll clothes like people clothes but because this little saint had one hand adhered to her hip it made it necessary to handstitch the clothing around her body. No changing outfits on this lady! I think she looks quite beautiful!!!

Hard to believe this weekend is FIRSTFriday weekend again! There is a LOT going on in town this month.... FIRSTFriday, the book launches, the jazz festival and last but not least, my vacation! Please get all of the details at http://www.stifelandcapra.com.

See you soon!

It takes so little to make me happy

Things that don't make me happy: two inches of rain in the basement of the shop (again!), driving to the only store in town that sells a particular something and they are out of it (Target & Smoots Lumber, anyone?) people that are late (do you own a watch?), laundry (does it ever end?), anything on Cartoon Network (this mom is not amused at most things that simply slay her almost ten year old son), rain on my parade (literally yesterday), having to hurry or multi-task (I am a slow & steady wins the race kind of gal).





Things that do make me happy: Calling an artist to tell her that I sold her first painting (Congrats Eileen!), hot coffee at 5:45 am (MiddleSchool starts TOO early), watching the light bulb go off when I am explaining something (sharing is great!),friends on the porch ( I have the best neighbors in the world!). And last but not least, my hot pink, they are not supposed to come in my size but the factory screwed up so I not only found them but they were on clearance, Chuck Taylor Hi Tops. Yippee! From the woman who never buys retail, this is a large deal, indeed.



Things to do in the next 48 hours: Start three commissions so I can deliver them (eek!) , paint the hallways & rehang the art. Strip the last two galleries so the new artists can move in (Welcome Angela, Beth & Becky!), pay the bills, hang the changing room mirrors, poles, and drapes, figure WHAT to do with my personal albatross, the infamous seven foot tall coat rack. ( you know the one everyone thinks is lovely but no one has bought yet) Oh yeah and run the floor for the rest of the week. If I look a little wild eyed this week,please be nice to me.

transformation -

Robyn the Paint Diva is doing the COOLEST paint treatment on the wall in the bathroom and dressing room. It is a troweled on plaster technique incorporating bits & bobs of jewels of all sorts. Remember last week when I was whining about prepping the area? Well, I did a COMPLETELY inadequate job from the looks of Robyn's meticulous work. I guess that is why SHE is the professional decorative painter! I can't WAIT until she gets to the color. Robyn is going to apply a teal blue color. It is going to look yummy! Robyn will also have sample boards and a portfolio at the shop so if you were thinking of transforming a space, she's your woman for sure!!!
















This trunk once was a scratched and battered storage box but now has been transformed to a fun & functional decorative piece. It came out better than I expected frankly! My mission for the week was to finish something that I had started before the move. So far this week I have finished the trunk, three collages, and the laundry!

Remember the quote on of this work when you are worried about what the world thinks....
Happy Wednesday!

Patterns & Painting

Amazing how one word can mean so much! Like "traveler", "broken", "loyal" or "indispensable" the words on my dipped wax dress shadowboxes or, more moronically "sure" as in Robyn, my paint diva asking me "will you have time to prep the bathroom walls that I am painting?" My one word response "sure!". In hindsight what I think is: "garbage!" if Robyn had prepped the bath et al I'd be done painting the cursed hall way by now and would be done painting the walls! What the blue blazes WAS I thinking, not much appraently! And ugh, do I HATE the smell of primer in the morning. There is actually no satisfaction whatsoever in scraping and priming walls a dingy white. ugh.

Ok, now that I am done whining, I will say I DID enjoy unearthing a midcentury wall paper from unlikely spots in the shop. This used to a be a doctor's consulting rooms and family residence in its first incarnation (pre beauty school & antique mall) and I really love this wall paper. Green and aqua are two of my favorite colors. I wish I could have peeled this paper to use it in a collage but alas, it just chips, so I made do with a picture instead!

We are firing up our first Little Falls Flea and Art Market this Saturday morning so stop by to see the perenially favorite Mary Moll of Merry Stitches, the MEH MIddle school kids selling their treats to fundraise for their big trip to the Odyssey of the mind finals, and the big Stifel & Capra sale tent. Hope to see you soon!

Ladies Night!

This lovely line drawing will stand in for our latest residents artists. Angela Williams penned this beauty. You can meet Angela, Beth Hudgins, and Becky ___________ after June 1st. Cheryl, Donna & Justyne, the ladies of Studio F are present, accounted for and have moved in so next time you are in, do stop in and see the wide variety of art they have hanging. (I will write about everyone individually soon. Stay tuned!)

On May 1st, this studio was still opened so my art dolls shared the spot light with DJ Gaskins of Lioness Press. I just started carrying her lovely line of journals, hand stitched books and whimsical accordian fold books. DJ had teeny little thought diaries up to full fledged dream journals. Take a peek and see where recording your dreams will get you. I know where mine have taken me!

A good time was had by all!

Thank you to everyone who came out to play this weekend! Both Margie from Down to Earth Designs and Charlotte from Harp Voyages put on quite a show albeit VERY different ones.

After the raucous crowd on Friday listening to Charlotte's Harp music on Saturday was BLISS! She played her original compositions as well as some of her personal favorites.


The resident artists did a fantastic job setting up their studios and transforming them into galleries for the evening. Phil probably made the biggest splash with his champagne greetings!

On a just as artistic but unusual venue - paint diva Robyn McGarry debuted her sample board for our next project: Trying to transform the icky bathroom and anteroom plus hallway into a fun and funky transition area and dressing room for all the vintage clothing shenanegians. I am SO excited about the concept Robyn put together and can't wait to see her in action!