Silly Witch!

Here are a few silly witch pendants that are for sale! I'll place them in my etsy shop later...

All sterling silver components....glass dress and face. 

Love this witches.........picture taken with my phone so just know they look even cuter in person )

Life: Amazing and Strange

It seems that I seem to get myself back on track with blogging and then something else that requires significant attention crops up and takes me away again. So I say yet again.........I'm getting back to blogging on my regular basis!

Two weeks ago my beloved dog, China Girl, had to be put to rest. She was 15 years old and just recently began to go down hill....rather fast. Although it was not definitively diagnosed, she had liver cancer or possibly blood cancer. We did what was best for her, and put her to rest. It broke my heart and I was unable to do much before and then after her death.

I got myself back on track only to have our second dog, Winston, develop a neurological problem (pictured above)....he can not use his hind leg and falls. This means constant supervision and we have to assist him with everything!

I LOVE our dog/dogs and would do anything for them but this is challenging. To keep my sanity, I am doing my best to blog more and stress less. There is a Buddhist Relic exhibit here this weekend that I think I'll go to and see if I find peace in this...

On a bead note....bead making is therapy so I will be beading more today...my husband and I will take turns caring for our dog.

See you tomorrow.......here on my blog :)

Torching for Beads of Courage!

Good morning everyone. I know I've been away from posting here lately but I'm getting myself back in the saddle! Summer flew by, two big shows are now behind me, our house now has beautifully restored hardwoods and MOST things are back in place. Although it was so worth getting our floors done, the process involved a lot of labor for us! Packing, storing, moving everything as if we were moving out was much more than I imagined! But....we are 95% back together again.

Today I will be torching for Beads of Courage. All the beads I create today will be donated to this cause. I am a BIG believer in giving and feel that I could really put my talents to use with this organization. This will be my first of many torch days so when I announce the next one, I will also arrange for a way for YOU to be part of things too.

Great Resource Discovery!

I love social networking. You connect with people who you know plus you "meet" people who love the same thing as you......I'm talking beads! I've become friends with Kandice and Kim which of course lead me to their blog called Coloraddiction......What an amazing resource!! The color testing they do and write about is wonderful. So if you are a beadmaker, pop over there and check it out.

At the bottom of their post I also discovered this Tutorial resource. What a great find! Now maybe you all have been up on this and all this information is old news but wow, I'm thrilled with this new to me discovery!

Let me know if this helped anyone out....I know, it requires leaving a comment but please :)

Almost Show Time!

This weekend is the Arts at the Garden show at Sonnenberg Gardens. I love this show. Beautiful landscape. The show volunteers and personnel are so kind. The artists are amazing one and all. AND the bathrooms are the best!

As you can guess, my days have been filled with making beads and constructing jewelry. I'm happy with my new work but would love to have more. If I wasn't such a procrastinator I would have more but it just is what it is.....Summer life has been busy of course. House projects, vacations, and family gatherings all take front stage..........but don't worry, I do have plenty of new things :)

After the show this weekend I will be getting ready for another in just 21/2 weeks. Its always a mad race to restock after a show but I've been doing this now for 13 years so I'm fairly use to it....And school starts during this time too......ugh.....I need more summer vacation!

I hope you will come out to the Sonnenberg show this weekend. My booth is E-1!

Summer Life

We had a great time in Cape Cod recently......Beaches, sunshine, good food and bead shopping of course. Went to my most favorite bead shop.....Beadniks on the Vineyard and came home with some lovely items. I had to control myself since we rode bikes and I was the one with the basket....it was very full already with things too :)

I've been working daily preparing for a few upcoming shows. Its always a nail bitter to see if I will have enough stuff but I typically do.....I just love working a deadline I guess.

Abstract hollows have been a recent love. Abstract since they are not perfectly round but what we beadmakers call "wonkie". I decided to make it a look.....using very a very earthy color palette with a bit of silver. Don't know what I'll call this series yet.....thinking of Sediment or Canyon Rocks.....at least thats what comes to mind when I look at them. I'm also using some discontinued colors on this project.......not all but a few. Relish, Lechin  and ..can't remember the name right now... all were old colors that were discontinued for some reason. I hate when they do that since its those "old" colors that I like best.

Buttons! I just love buttons.......I often wonder if it is because my Non had jars of awesome buttons that I use to love to comb through and play with. I've got some really funky buttons to share at the shows!

Gathering of Artists

Yesterday was such a wonderful day spent with artist/teacher/friends. 

We painted, we talked, we laughed and we ate. Its so nice to be around like minded people who enjoy the same things. We plan on doing this monthly or so.

Over lunch we talked about all the photo apps that are out there such as snapseed, instagram, snap & sketch, pic stitch and others....I love playing around with images and tadaa is my new favorite app!

This is the image adjusted in Instagram first....the above is further manipulated with tadaa! 

Organizing & Consolidation

These two words seem to be the theme of my life lately. At work, our district is doing some heavy duty consolidating to save money. My school has been consolidated with another, my room has moved and I've been busy there reorganizing.

My home life is much of the same. We have been getting the hardwoods refinished upstairs and down stairs so we have had to move things out on each floor and then put them back in place once the floors are done. While doing all this we have repainted, I've reorganized and tossed out a bunch of stuff. My closet for one has never looked better and I'm so happy that this has forced us to consolidate. Our second floor is almost complete.....one more room to paint and one more closet (my husbands) to organize.....Ugh, the downstairs will be happening at the end of July and I'm kinda scared about that one! Kitchen appliances, living room furniture, dining room.......all have to be moved out! Once again we will be sleeping on the porch!

My art rooms at home....yes, I have two....one is for painting and such and the other is my glass studio, are being organized and consolidated too. My art room in our basement has been pretty much a nightmare since the beginning. There wasn't proper storage for things so they piled up. I now have a nice storage unit purchased at Michaels that holds everything nice and neat. LOVE IT! Now canvases are not easily hidden but thats okay with me.

So. I'm very happy with organizing and consolidating although its been hard work. I feel like we've done so much but being that we are still in process it still looks like a mess. Things will get better I know.  Things are finding their own homes and I'm passing on lots of goodies to either friends or the garbage man. By summers end my house and new art room at school should look awesome!

I Don't Feel Bad About it Either

It happens.

And I don't feel bad about it either.

My husband walks into my studio and shakes his head. He just doesn't get it.

Yes. I do know where everything is.

Yes. I do like a neat studio too.

Yes. I can actually get work done in chaos.

Yes. I will take neatening up under consideration.

No. I do not promise to do it :)

New tools!

Both from Jim Moore......love them!

One is for off mandrel work and the other takes beads off the mandrel for you.

I really didn't want to buy the bead remover one but it really does help with my tendonitis. 

Well worth the money for both of these!