Too Much Fun!!!

Can there ever be such a thing? I think not!! I was very fortunate to be able to dash down to Shelton, Washington on Friday with my very good friend Darlene on the weekend. We decided to go to the August Bash at Frantz Art Glass for some fun, some shopping and to catch a couple of beadmaking demos. We left my place at 3 on Friday afternoon, got to the border at oh, say 3:05, and didn’t get to the other side until 5pm! Two hours!! No wonder people complain about going across the line! But once we were over that border, it was smooth sailing. We chatted and giggled and laughed all through the two hour wait, and the three and a half hour dirve!!  We had a bit of a detour when we got to Shelton (which is located near Olympia in the southern part of the state). We took the wrong exit and ended up in ‘historic’ Shelton. This is the part of Shelton that I’d seen oh so many years ago when I went there in 1999. The Frantz warehouse was around there somewhere in the middle of no where! LOL That was a mouthful! Anyway, we drove around for a few minutes, then found our way back to the highway, found our proper exit, and ta da!! Found our hotel!! I didn’t know Shelton had a Walmart!! And it’s HUGE!!!!! And it’s open 24 hours a day! But we resisted the pull of the big box store and went to our hotel to check in then off to find dinner. We slept soundly in our hotel, and were up with the birds so we could get to Frantz at the beginning of the shindig!! Okay, stupid me – do I wear a hat? No. Do I bring sunscreen? No. Did I think to try to avoid the sun or heat? Um, no!!! Anyway, we wandered along the aisle of sellers. I’m sorry to say there were a few people trying to sell their beads. And I don’t know how well they were doing – of course, people like Jen Geldarde, Kimberly Affleck and Andrea Guarino will always sell their stuff, but those that are not known entities are probably barking up the wrong tree – trying to sell beads to bead makers. Not your best target market! Especially when there is a ton of glass on sale! Glass will always win out over beads every time! I admit, Darlene and I caved to the pressure and bought a lot of glass!! We bought four different bundles of Double Helix (really expensive!!!) glass and split the bundles so we each got lots of that to try. We then wandered into the demo hall. The first demo we saw was Andrea Guarino – she is a fabulous bead maker – and I know the minute I sit down at the torch, I will be able to make that bead. Woohoo!! Don’t worry, when I get around to sitting at the torch, you’ll see my experiments!! Then Darlene and I wandered over to the glass store and bought too much glass again! LOL Not that there is such a thing, but seriously, how can you not?!?!?! I did need a few colors that I have been lacking, and stocked up on those. Got a couple of tools I wanted (they were on sale for 50% off!!). The cool thing Frantz organized was that we could drop off our basket full of goodies and they would write up the invoice while we went off and did whatever we wanted to. We didn’t have to hang around while it was weighed up and invoiced. That was wonderful! So we wandered over to the demo area again and caught Kimberly Affleck’s demo. She was showing how to make her famous seahorse bead. The one she made involved so many layers of glass before she even got to the seahorse part!!! Watching her work was awesome. She is very sharing with her techniques and tips. I think I’d LOVE to take a class with her – I bet it would be one of hte best classes ever. Did you know she took one of my silversmithing classes a few years ago? Rubbing elbows with the lampworking elite – that’s me!

Anyway, after Kimberly’s demo, we needed to go find lunch. But after sitting for an hour and a half in a seriously undomfortable chair, I was not terribly comfortable myself! LOL Had a bit of a ghost headache (I call headaches that are just lingering on the outside of my conciousness ghost headaches – usually the go away – not this time!). We met my Wet Canvas online buddies Pam and Angela (and of course Pam’s adorable son Luke), just as we were heading for lunch. Hugs and hellos were exchanged, though they were headed to the next demo, so Darlene and I went for lunch. After a brief visit with another online buddy, Jo (congrats on the new job Jo! I’m so proud of you!), the headache became a pounder (too much sun, I think!), so Darlene and I reluctantly decided to head for home. I wasn’t looking forward to the 3 and a half hour drive with a headache, but better than staying in the sun and heat. So off we went, and it wasn’t long in the comfort of the air conditioned truck, my headache subsided quite a bit, but I was totally beat!!! We left Frantz at 2:30 and got home at about 6:00 – and only 5 minutes at the border this time! Thanks goodness, I would have been really whiny if the border had taken another two hours!!

So a great time was had, though I would have liked to have visited with Pam and Angela a bit more. I think we’ll probably go again next year. It was fun and it’s always wonderful to travel with Darlene – we get to giggle and laugh alot!!

now back to reality for me! Bead show poster is almost done, just a few final tweeks. I have to make a couple of custom jewelry pieces today as the gentleman is picking them up tomorrow. Then some time at the bead torch is in order (I hope!!). Have a great day and a great week!! Cheers!

Done at last!

Whew!! The classes are now listed, Paypal buttons set up and registration has begun!! You should check out the classes – there’s some great stuff this year! (Fraser Valley Bead Show – I’m the organizer for those that don’t know! LOL Link to the right!). We already have a few people signed up so it’s looking great already (6 signups in less than 12 hours – with no fanfare or advertising yet!). The bad news – my class coordinator/organizer Lise, is in the hospital!! Blood clots in her lungs! She’s in her mid-30’s so this really shouldn’t be happening to her! If you could take a minute to send some thoughts or prayers her way, it would be much appreciated! I NEED her to be okay! I can’t even comprehend her not being okay. I’m sure I’ll hear more later today – fingers crossed it’s good news!!

I’m getting ready to leave town tomorrow. Hubby is going to be here alone with the critters. He doesn’t mind at all – he loathes leaving town! We won a FREE cruise to the Bahamas in 1999. He wasn’t going to go. Um, hello? Ar you nuts?! I told him I was going with or without him, so he finally relented and went. We both had a great time, but he was more than happy to come home again. Werido!! I love to travel, even if it is just a 24 hour road trip!

And as Ive been so incredibly swamped with bead show stuff, I haven’t had time to make any jewelry! Or beads for that matter! Not quite true – I spent a couple of hours making beads last weekend, but they sucked! Well, sucked for me at least. I sat down with lots of ideas, but the minute the kiln was up to temperature and the torch was ready, my brain went blank! I hate that!! Here’s the fruits of those labors (the first show it all the beads I made that day – some of which are UGLY!!), the second pic is of my favorites of the day – the zebras.

Nothing worth writing home about if you consider I’ve been making beads for some 9 years!! Ah well, they weren’t too bad considering I haven’t torched in MONTHS!!! Now, I’m off to the pet store to stock up on pet food, then to Walmart to get some sundry odds and ends to keep hubby out of the stores this weekend. Hope you all have a fantastic day!

And now the real work starts! :)

I just got the final bead show information from my class organizer. Now it’s up to me to get it posted on the website and start signing people up. Piece of cake. Well, sort of! But this is part of the job, so I’ll suck it up1 LOL! The classes are looking pretty good this year, and I hope we get lots of interest. We shall see!

As I’m heading down to the Frantz Art Glass Bash next weekend, I’ve decided to get some glass beads made to trade with those that are trading. Yes, I make beads too – been doing it since 1999. Makes me feel old to put it that way! But then when I think about it, I’ve been making jewelry since 1993 – that’s 15 years!! 15 years! Good grief – that long?!?!? Shouldn’t I be rich and famous by now? *snort* Like that will EVER happen!! Infamous maybe but rich? NEVER!! We spend way too much money for that! LOL!

Anyway, I must get to the studio and get some work done. Hope you have a fantastic Thursday. It’s almost the weekend, and it’s supposed to be a scorcher here. I’m going to hide in my basement studio and pretend it’s nice and cool! I sure hope I don’t have to go outside AT all this weekend! LOL I HATE HEAT! Cheers!

Monday rolls around again!

Well, I’m not impressed! LOL It seems that two of the three forums that I frequent (which means I log on to them when I’m surfing the internet – and spend countless hours at each one!), are both down today. What’s up with that?! Wet Canvas’ Wearable Arts Forum is my fav – the girls that chat together are wonderful and when I can’t log on, I feel like my friends are away on holidays or something!! I hate that! The other one that is down is the Jewelry Artist Network, frequented by many talented jewelry makers. Fortunately my third favorite (Lampwork Etc) is still up and running, but I’ve read most of the bits that I find interesting. Sigh!! Guess I might have to have a conversation with Randy or something! NOT!! He’s grumpy tonight – hope he cheers up soon! LOL I got some exciting news today – looks like I am going to be going to the Frantz Art Glass August Bash later this month! And I get to go with one of my dearest friends *waves to Darlene*!! We’re trying to convince our other friend to come, but she’s not having it! On one hand I want to bug her and bug her and break down her defences and she ends up caving in and going. On the other hand, I don’t want to pester her because I don’t want to force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. But come on, really, who wouldn’t want to spend a couple of days hanging out with me?! ROFL! I’m SO kidding!! I’m super high maintenance (picky eater, mobility challenged, sometimes snore, have way too many critter stories and so on!) so travelling with me is probably not the best fun in the world, but I’m a great navigator (most of the time!). Last time Darlene and I went away on a trip to Seattle, we could not for the life of us find the hotel she’d reserved for us!!! Took us forever! We did eventually, but it took FOREVER!!! Other than that, I’m a good navigator! And I’m not a whiner! I don’t complain about everything (I don’t think!). Maybe I’m one of those oblivious people that doesn’t realize what a PIA they are! What if I really am annoying!? What if I come off as an idiot instead of funny and cheerful?! Good grief, maybe I don’t want to go on this trip with me either! ROFL! I’m kidding, seriously, it’s going to be a blast and if you’re at all lampwork glass minded, it’s the event of the summer (well, second to the Gathering but that’s over now, and was too far away – Oakland, CA). So hope I see some of you there – I’ll be the one with the cane, trying not to be the center of attention. But as some of my friends will tell you, everyone knows me, and everyone stops to talk to me! Maybe this event will be different LOL!

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday, I’m going to post a pic and run! Here’s a shot of our little Miss Adventure. She’s the one that disappeared for a couple (actually 3!) weeks. She didn’t show back up again until Marv was missing, but she hasn’t stuck around. I do believe she has found herself a new place to live with a new family that must not have any other cats that want to beat her up. She looks spectacular, has actually gained weight and really seems to have moved on. No surprise, her mother and her grandmother did the exact same thing. Go figure!! Anyway, here’s our little Missy, hope she is happy in her new home, wherever that may be!!

Now, off to the studio with me, dh is watching some stupid Intervention show and it’s way too depressing for me! LOL Have a great evening! Cheers!

New Banner!!!

I was playing outside (so I’m over 40, I can still play! LOL) with Freya. We took Bob (our bearded dragon) out for a stroll in the grass. He wears a ferret harness and is on a retractable dog leash. He’s used to it, so he motors around the grass, nibbling the dandelions, trying to catch little bumble bees that fly by. The cat in my new banner (Goofy) was watching us with interest. Not that he gives a hoot about the lizard, it’s more along the lines of wondering whether he should wander over and scare Freya (she’s always called him ‘mean Gooby’ and for good reason. He’s scratched her on many an occasion!). I took this picture of him watching us and cropped it down for the banner – he’s my boy (Marv, the one that went missing is dh’s cat).

Yes, he’s VERY triangular (okay, he’s fat, don’t tell him though. He thinks he’s quite the looker!). He is full of attitude – but I love him to pieces. And I’m the only one he ever snuggles in any way. While we were outside, the newspaper lady came to the door to drop off the paper, and was telling me that she has learned that if Goofy is laying on the door mat, she has to stop, pet him for a few minutes until he gets up and moves or he takes swipes at her!! She knows he’s not being mean really, he’s just not done with you and if you move away too soon, or (heaven forbid!) don’t pet him, you get smacked! And if he likes you, no claws, if he doesn’t then you get the full force of paw and claw!! Can you tell we’re rather owned by our cats? LOL

Here’s a quick picture of Freya and Bob, having a little visit on the front lawn

Now, I’m off to take Randy (dh) out for brunch. Then it’s home to hit the studio and create!! Have a great weekend!

The Prodigal Cat Returns!!

Marv’s home!!!! He showed up at 4:30am, meowing at the back door!!! Not a mark on him, no traumas, just a hungry tummy! I had to wake dh up and tell him – he was being all tough guy last night, but I know he was taking it as hard as me! He immediately got up and had a quick cuddle with his cat (Marv really is his cat – he’s got dh wrpped around his little paw for sure!). I know, not the most earth-shattering incident as far as world traumas go by any stretch, he is just a cat (if you can dare say that about a fur kid!), but he’s our cat and our world was pretty shaken – but now all is right in our world again, and today will be a much better day!

I forgot to show you the two custom pieces that I dropped off yesterday, so here they are. First a very wide cuff bracelet with a ‘parrot wing’ jasper (customer’s claim, not mine) with fire opal and tourmaline.

And a wide ring – it has a very faint leaf texture and the stone is an amber.

Now, off to the studio with me. I have a ton of stuff to catch up on that I didn’t get done yesterday (too busy worrying about that damn cat! LOL!). Have a great Friday!! Cheers!

Good news/Bad news kinda day…..

Good news!!! The blue/green ‘monster’ necklace (forever after referred to as the first of the Geo Cosmo series) has found a home!!! I was at the gallery today when it sold! The woman (gorgeous lady, dressed in a stunning turquoise pantsuit with matching elegant shawl) bought the necklace to go with the outfit. HOLY SMOKES!! The whole ensemble looked AMAZING!! Absolutley AMAZING!! She’s going to a fancy wedding on Saturday and she is going to turn some heads herself (hope the bride doesn’t mind!)

Now the bad news. Marv the wonder cat has been missing for 24 hours. Neither dh or I have seen him since about 9pm last night. *sniff* If it were any of our other cats, I wouldn’t think too much about it, but if you know Marv, you could set your clock to his tummy. He is waking us up at 5 am every single morning to feed him. He’s spoiled and will only eat canned cat food. He eats canned food because of a serious illness he had as a kitten some 5 years ago (I think he’s five? LOL) and due to sinuses that are screwed up permanently, he will only eat canned cat food. And cooked chicken (dh still doesn’t understand that one does not leave chicken in this house unless it’s under lock and key!). Sigh. So no Marv since last night and we’re both very worried. I keep wanting to be positive, but it’s hard. So if you could say a little prayer (or speak to the powers that be or send a little white light or whatever you believe) that Marv comes home quickly and safely. He’s a huge part of our family and it feels weird without him.

One more good news though, Marv’s sister Missy has been unseen for about 3 weeks. Which means we haven’t seen her but can’t say whether or not she has been in or out of the house at all because we have the dog door, she’s totally sketchy and a little scaredy cat. Anyway, I was on the deck this morning calling for Marv and I heard a very distinctive meowing from the backyard next door. Yup, Missy. She’s alive and VERY well! I did a double take because she looked pregnant – but she’s been spayed for years!! So she’s obviously found a place that feeds her well and doesn’t have the boy cats that we have here (her three brothers and two uncles). She wouldn’t come into our yard (of course Stache had to go visit her and scare her off) but at least I know she’s doing well.

And finally some quick pictures of the leaves with their resin coloring. I don’t know whether to call these good news or bad news. I’m not 100% sure of the amber brown. But they’re all at the gallery, so done is done! What do you think?

And a similar leaf in the amber brown color

Here’s the diamond sweetheart ivy earrings with green

Here’s a couple of the amber brown ones

(hmm, crappy pic! Oh well, they’re at the gallery now! LOL!)

Two more and I’ll leave you alone!!

Okay off to putter a bit. Fingers crossed that Marv gets his butt home!!

Hot Stuff – again!

Nope, not whining about the heat, just hating it!! nuff said! LOL! But the plum trees are happy. I have one that grows up from under the deck then comes out the side and acts like a privacy screen between us and out neighbors. I LOVE this tree. I remember when we bought the house (9 years ago), it was more like a small shrub, poking out from beside the deck (you could see where the trunk was growing out of the ground under the deck). I made my dh leave it alone, as I really thought it was cute. Now it’s gorgeous. I’m not big on eating the plums, in fact if it never had fruit, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, but this year, the deck tree is loaded. The fruit is fattening nicely, and will be ready in September or so. Here’s a branch that overhangs the deck – if you look closely you can see it’s plums hanging happily!

And even though it’s sweltering hot here (okay, so 30 degrees Celsius is probably not sweltering to all – indulge me, will ya?), I do have some jewelry to show of. These pieces are all ‘pre-resin’. Meaning that tonight (or maybe tomorrow, depending on my mood and the heat!) will be filled with various colors of resin. These are the first selections in my “Falling Leaves” series.

And my favorite pair of earrings (they have tiny little diamonds instead of cubic zirconias. No, no special reason. It just so happens that I didn’t have cz’s small enough for the tubing I used! Oops!! I just happened to have a couple of diamonds the right size – see? Hoarding is a good thing! LOL!

There are more pictures, but the pieces are similar. They’re going to get different colors, so they’ll be different. If you want to see the whole kit & kaboodle, check out my Flickr pictures to the right. I’ll post them with resin when they’re ready, I promise.

Now, off I go to the studio where it’s nice and cool and I can spend the evening enjoying the coolness of my favorite room in the house! Cheers!

Another TGIF!

Friday again – time is flying past me at record speed!!! Thanks to all that ordered textured copper. I’m hoping to get the last of it out today, as it’s a long weekend here this weekend (and we have no Saturday post office stuff anyway!). I know there’s one order at least that will go out on Tuesday, but she loves me, so she’ll forgive me (right Rita?!?).  It would be so much easier if I were more mobile, but due to limited movement (I have a REALLY bad hip), it’s a challenge to get into the post office some days. But I will persevere and it will all be good in the end!!

This week has been a pretty laid back one, though I could certainly use a ‘do over’ on a few of the days! Mostly because I didn’t get a whole lot done, but since no one is holding a gun to my head, then I guess I’m doing fine! I did get to babysit my new grandson on Wednesday night. He was boring (in a good way!), and slept most of the time. But his wonderful parents (I do love them to pieces) need some lessons when it comes to packing a diaper bag! One bottle, no extra liner (though they did send lots of formula), lots of diapers (good!), wipes (good again!), a bib (good!), but no recieving blanket (huh?), no change of clothes (hello? boy babies pee everywhere sometimes, and spit up all the time!), no pacifier (okay, if the kid likes a pacifier, why don’t you send one! LOL!), no diaper cream (good thing he didn’t need it!). So dh and I are going out tonight and stocking up for our house. We’ll have our little emergency kit ready for when we get to Ibabysit and Kevin drops the ball. Tt was him, not Claire, we already established that one with them – he got the dagger stare from her! LOL She told him to quit being lazy and using the stuff out of the diaper bag at home so it’s ready to go when they are. But Kev is Kev! LOL He’ll never figure that one out! They’re camping this weekend – with a newborn. They’e braver than I am! LOL The other kids (Mark & Cecili and granddaughter Freya) are heading to Seattle with Cecili’s dad, a fun filled weekend filled with what Cecili likes to call ’super-shopping’! Her dad is quite well off and loves to spoil the kids occasionally – they’re also going to 6 Flags and Red Lobster, Cecili’s must-do’s! LOL Cody (our yongest) is working all weekend, so we won’t see him (he’s the only one living at home now). Though I do believe our oldest, Chris and his g/f Val, will be coming out to play tattoos with dh on Sunday. For the most part, this will be a child free weekend for us – more so than any other time in our lives at least! After 25 years together, this is the payoff, right? All those tough times, hard lean years, are finally paying off and we get some time to ourselves. Good thing we still like each other!! Now, off to the studio with me! Next post will have my leaf series to show you! Woohoo!! In the meantime, here’s a new baby pic!! This was taken on Wednesday night, notice that Marv is snoozing in the playpen with the baby! He was there first – he loves baby stuff!! He’d already checked out the car seat and decided the playpen looked more comfy. Crazy cat!! The baby didn’t seem to mind! LOL

Dayton & Marvy

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!! Cheers!