Etsy Metal Blog Carnival: Summer's a'comin'!

This month's Etsy Metal Team blog carnival topic is about summer plans and dream vacations.

I am excited to be going to the coast of Maine for a week with my husband, daughter, parents, and brother. We're all staying in this beautiful house. We've been to Maine a few times on vacation and I just feel this incredible connection to the coastline. Water makes me calm and content, and I love searching for interesting rocks and pieces of seaglass. I'm sure we'll kayak, go sailing, hike, visit the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, build fairy houses, and hopefully work in a day trip to Monhegan Island. If I were every to win the lottery, I would buy this house and start using "summer" as a verb.

Any vacation near the water is a dream vacation for me. We are dreaming of renting a villa on Lake Como in Italy for a couple weeks next summer. This is a dream that (fingers crossed) might actually come true. I adore Italy.

I'll also take my daughter to St. Louis to visit family later this summer.

Finally, I hope to use this beautiful new rolling mill to "roll out" some new designs!

Check out what other team members have to say on the subject!

Laura Jane Bouton

Lou Hunter

Rebecca Bogan

Andrea Ring

Abella Blue

Etsy Metal Blog Carnival: Where do you live?

This month's Etsy Metal Team blog carnival topic is "Where do you live?"

Well, I live in Stone Mountain, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. I've lived in the Atlanta area since 1996, and in Stone Mountain since 2004, when my husband and I bought our first house here. Stone Mountain is most famous for the mountain itself, the largest exposed granite dome in North America. There is a large carving on one face of the mountain depicting confederate heroes, and down the street is a cemetary with confederate graves. Georgia actually has a holiday called Confederate Memorial Day. As a non-native southerner, I really don't get all the adulation.

The mountain is surrounded by a huge park with lots of family activities, as well as bike paths, hiking trails, campgrounds, and a great playground. You can walk to the top of the mountain, or take a gondola. Walking up is great exercise, and I love getting above the world for a while. Being able to walk to all of this from our house is wonderful. The strange thing is that, while the mountain is maybe 1/10 mile behind our house, we can't see it because of the masses of huge pine trees in our yard. Trees and plants grow on the mountain as well--strange to see them growing out of a big rock! One of my favorite times of year is late August/early September when the yellow daisies bloom on the mountain--masses of them (see photo below). It's just gorgeous.

For the record, where else have I lived in my life? Berkeley, CA (where I was born); Moraga, CA; Flint, MI; St. Louis, MO; Northfield, MN (college); Montgomery, AL; Decatur, GA; NYC, NY (summer internship); Florence (study abroad) and Venice (internship), Italy, and London (study abroad). Not to mention in my own imagination!

See where other Etsy Metal members live:

Laura Jane Bouton

2Roses
Inbar Bareket
Laney Clark
Abella Blue
Cynthia Del Guidice
Rebecca Bogan
Erin Austin
Deborah Lee Taylor
Theresa Kwong