Wine Tasting @ 20 Brix

Some of you may already know, I have a night job as a bartender at 20 Brix.  I get to work with my sister-in-law Cambrey Hastings and Tuesday we worked a great wine tasting. 

This time I had the pleasure of meeting Hunter Vogel, the label owner of Treasure Hunter wines at the 20 Brix wine tasting brought in by Purple Feet Distributors.  They featured 5 red wines.  My favorite right now is the Man O' War Cabernet.

Chef Paul Borraco paired a 5 course meal to pair with each wine.  Grahm, Dylan, and Josh assisted Paul in the kitchen to prepare and plate this for 25 people while still taking care of all the normal restaurant business as well.  Between each course, Chef likes to come out and talk to our people at the tasting.  I think my favorite quote of the night was after one guest told him how great the food was he says, "I enjoy creating mouth adventures."

Hunter Vogel was one of the funnest people to listen to of all the wine tastings I've worked there.  After the tasting and bottle signing ("Thanks for letting me put my Pinot in you."-hahaha!!) I was able to get some pictures of him with our General Manager Clay Mitchel, Cynthia,  and Chef Paul. 

Yup, I also get paid to work there.

Beaded Leather Embroidery

I thought I would show you a bit of a behind the scenes for one of my favorite art forms.  Leather embroidery is the art (or craft) of stitching very small beads called seed beads onto leather by hand.  Patterns must be figured out, gemstones set, and you must have strong hands!  Getting a needle through leather can sometimes be a real pain. I'm nursing a couple of needle pokes now actually.  I'm working on a new project called "Sun Spots".  Here you can see I'm reusing car leather samples which would have been tossed in the trash had they not been "rescued" by my father.  (Three "R"s, right? :D)

I've been working on it for a couple of days now and I'm happy with the results so far. Here is another piece of mine all finished called "Native Earth" shown below.

Most of my embroidery pieces are at the Nature Shop in Rowe Woods in Milford, Ohio if you would like to see them in person.  I'll also have "Sun Spots" and much more at our show coming up in September, Old West Festival.

A Bit of History



Beaded embroidery is very beautiful, and also very period.  Some of the first known pieces of beaded embroidery were done in the 12th century on German church vestments. This medieval style of embroidery was usually sketched onto parchment, then embroidered, and then the beaded vellum would be used as an appliqué, and applied to the fabric. The embroidery was usually done in laid work, meaning that the beads were strung onto one thread, laid on the design in the desired manner, and then couched into place with a second needle and thread.

By Giuliana di Benedetto Falconieri

Embroidery and most other fiber and needlework arts are believed to originate in the Orient and Middle East. Primitive humankind quickly found that the stitches used to join animal skins together could also be used for embellishment. In 1964, a Cro-Magnon hunter’s fossilized remains, 30,000B.C., was found at a dig in Sungir near Vladimir, Russia. His fur clothing, boots and hat were heavily decorated with hand stitched horizontal rows of ivory beads - bead embroidery? You bet!

Chinese bead embroidery in Siberia, 5000 and 6000B.C., include elaborately drilled shells stitched with decorative designs onto animal hides. Mosaics of Byzantium, 500A.D., depict embroidery of clothing with silk thread, precious stones and pearls. It is possible the Chinese thread embroidery from 3500B.C. was the origin of thread embroidery as we know it today.

http://www.beadwrangler.com/samplers/embroidery1/embroidery_history.htm

Hippie Must have

Summer is here! I can't speak for everyone but for me summer is about being barefoot.  There is nothing i enjoy more that lazing in the sun, reading a good book with my bare feet in the cool grass.  It is because of this that recently I have become a little obsessed with barefoot sandals.

These beautiful items of jewelry are perfect for weddings on the beach to chilling in the garden.  These ones specifically are made by 4mydolly.  The thing i love about her barefoot sandals is she gives you options, you get to choose the color of the thread and the beads and even offers two bead colors!   Although that now leaves me with the predicament of choosing between silver thread  with grape colored beads or black thread with gold beads, so many decisions.

The best thing is they look like real jewelry but are stretchy, making them easier and more comfortable to wear.  Which comes in handy because you can wear them with your flip flops, pumps or heels for a funky new twist.

There are loads of different patterns, methods and materials that can be used to make barefoot sandals.  For all of you talented people who know how to crochet check out this tutorial.  I think these Barefoot sandals are just beautiful and really quite simple to make. 

Whether you buy a pair of barefoot sandals or make your own I can guarantee these are a hippie must have for the summer.