Monday, August 29, 2011

SO... this whole having a friend die thing really sucks.

(yes, this is another personal life blog posting... but it's also art oriented, not that I have to justify my blog posts)

ANYWAY... it sucks.

And not only do I have a hole in my life, I'm not getting anything done in the studio AT ALL and that is messing with me BIG TIME because then I'm sad AND disappointed that I haven't finished what I need to finish.

I know that this will pass and that a new kind of normal (which is what my friend Halee has dubbed life after loss) will happen, but as a friend told me last Thursday (paraphrased) "when you have a friend like this, who has been in your life for a long time... even when you don't talk every day, they're a constant... something you just KNOW is out there... sort of like the moon. You know it's there even if you don't notice it every day. You would notice if the sun was gone, but you don't always notice the moon.... but once you realized it was gone, you would miss it. Its absence would throw you off kilter and things just wouldn't be right."

And that is EXACTLY how I feel. I'm off kilter. I miss my friend and the fact that he was a constant. (wasn't that what the word was in LOST too??? I think it was and it was the character's "constant" that kept them from going off kilter when time-traveling)

So I will keep putting one foot in front of the other this week... figuratively as I try to get work done and literally, at the gym. Waiting to find a "new normal"


tiny blah blah blah...

skipped the coffee and had a cold unsweet iced tea after the gym
music - not really. I wasn't doing anything long enough to really listen to music.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Today's post has nothing to do with art or glass or beads... BUT (say it with me... you should know this by now...) It's MY blog and I can do whatever I want to!!!!!!

Instead of the usual topics, today I'm talking books.... book, rather.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane


Get it.

Read it.
(with a box of tissues)

Love it.

Share it with people you love.


And YES it's a book about a toy bunny and YES it's a children's book, BUT it is so full of hope and love and life-lessons and it was shared with me by a dear friend... so I'm sharing it with YOU! Go read it!!!!!

"You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane)


beautiful.... right? I promise you'll love it!!!!!


tiny blah blah blah...

coffee- I treated myself to starbucks today. I needed the treat. It's been a rough week

music - Pandora- Chris Tomlin

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I've been all over the place on what today's blog post would be. I lost one of my biggest cheerleaders yesterday and I've kind of felt a little out-of-sorts all day because of it. I'll talk about it more on another day when I feel more myself.

SO today, instead of more talk talk talk... I have a short film! Do you feel like you're in high-school? Like I'm going to lower the screen and you're going to zone out to the clickity clack of the movie projector??? Hopefully not. This is a video filled with excitement and FIRE!!!!

(ok... maybe not so much excitement, but it does have FIRE!!!)

This a clip from a video that was shot of my demonstration at Flametree Glass in June. My good friend Marcy Lamberson was also featured as a demonstrator that night. If you go to the Flametree Website and click Demo Daze at Night you can see the full video that includes Marcy AND you can choose from other videos that were shot on other Demo Daze Nites. It was a LOT of fun and now I have a video of me doing what I love!!!

It's funny to watch how spastic I am when I work. I seem to be all over the place (but I'm going to pretend that's just how the film makes it look....you can pretend that too.)

So... without further ado... roll film!




There will be a quiz on Tuesday. :)


Tiny blah blah blah...

music - Pandora Chris Tomlin channel, which I listened to while bawling my eyes out... being honest.... and then I gave up making beads for the day.

coffee - yes and it was wonderful. I plan to treat myself again tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I've been busy making "spooky-cute" things lately. Here's one of my favorites...I'm doing a series of ornaments that are whimsical and a little Burton-esque for my art show this fall. I loved doing my zombie-girl totem last year and wanted to have a series that centered around that look. I knew that I couldn't do the Jack skeleton head again because it truly is taken from Jack... I needed my own spin on a similar shape. The funny pumpkin head above is the direction I took instead.

SO... what to look for in the weeks ahead? Zombie-girl and Mr. Quiet (that's what I'm calling him) totems and ornaments, as well as funky black and white spooky-cute stuff! AND a new version of Head Over Heels that is a little dark and spooky (cute) too!

It's a little bit of a departure for me, but sometimes I need to take a little trip!


tiny blah blah blah...

music today - more praise music (to keep my head in a good place while i make sort of dark stuff)

coffee - no... too hot. Chick fil a tea instead.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Where Inspiration Comes From...



Today, I was sitting in my studio, finishing up the day's work (which went really well and I'm dying to see when it comes out of the kiln!) and I looked at the clock... the same clock that has hung in my studio since 2000. It's a hand-painted funky clock... She's a Garden Angel and her feet are the pendulum that swing back and forth (but to be honest, I'm not sure where her feet are right now. She got moved from one spot to another and the new spot didn't have a place to hang, so she sits instead) OK... I got off track a little.

ANYWAYS... I looked at this angel clock and went WHOA!!!! The face looks SO much like the little faces I've been making in my studio lately. Then I went WHOA!!! (again, but not audibly) The dress and wings look like my fairy godmothers!!!!! OMG! I've been influenced by someone else's work without even knowing it!!!!!

At first I felt a tiny bit guilty, but then I let that go. I find inspiration in other art forms, so this isn't unique... it just wasn't PLANNED and it kind of threw me a little. Seriously, the face on this little Garden Angel could have jumped right out of one of my kits! If she was tiny, she'd be a Sunshine ring face!!

My work started making a shift from serene and lovely to whimsical back in 2000, so it makes sense that I was drawn to this clock. But over the years, as my work has progressed, I can definitely see that this one clock had a bit of an influence! (and this is why I don't go look at the galleries on the glass forums or at anyone's glass pictures on Facebook or Etsy. I just don't want their images seeping into my work!! And it's so easy to not notice it happening. Better safe than copy-cat!)

SO... a big thank you to Michelle Allen who created this wonderful clock that has seeped its way into my subconscious over the last 12 years. Hopefully the bracelet (?) that I traded you has made you as happy as my clock has made me!

Visit Michelle's FUN work at her etsy shop... Allen Designs


tiny blah blah blah...

music - yes.. my praise music mix. I need to focus on what's important lately

coffee - no and I really needed it!

Monday, August 15, 2011



It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!!!!!!!!

(ok... I know it's not the holidays, so it's not THAT "wonderful time of the year", but I'm definitely feeling wonderful because I can be a little more productive today with my kids back in school!! WOO HOO for the first day of school!!)

Working at home is NOT easy when you have 2 teenagers around... or little kids for that matter (been there too) I've played taxi and tour-guide and short-order chef for a good portion of the last couple of months while trying to balance running a business from home and for as little as I feel like I accomplished, I am WORN OUT!

When it comes down to it, however, they're my priority and as long as they're under my roof... sometimes work will have to take a back-seat to important things (like driving a kid to see his girlfriend or another one to get crazy orange and green shoes at the mall)

You would think I might spend today celebrating since I affectionately call this day Margarita Monday... but my big celebration was going to the studio to blow glass ornaments. I've been out of the glass studio for a couple of months other than little things here and there that had to be done for a particular piece... NOW it's time to get down to business and get ornaments made and sculptures made so that I'll be ready for fall shows. I wasn't REAL successful today (some wonky pieces or ones that have blown-out sides), but it was a good first step. I just have to get back in the groove again!

So, it's not quite time to crank the Christmas tunes in the studio, but my friend Lisa called today "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year" and I thought that Andy Williams' song of the same sentiment would be perfect!

To all you moms out there... HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! (I mean back-to-school!)


tiny blah blah blah...

coffee - DEFINITELY! The only bad thing about back to school is back to 5:50 wake-ups. It takes my 13 year old a good 30 min. longer than it takes me to get ready in the morning!

music - what a crazy mix... started with Bob Marley's 3 Little Birds, went to Starbucks and heard Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding then picked the other kid up to take him to school and George Michael was on the radio. Add in praise music in the studio and it's been a very eclectic soundtrack so far!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I'm doing the Happy Dance today, but I'm torn... torn between the Balki from Perfect Strangers version (aka The Dance of Joy) OR the Carlton Banks dance... or even this NEW happy dance that my friend Susan posted on Facebook. I'll let you decide which you prefer. I have my favorite... I'll tell you after you watch and compare.... and after I tell you why I'm dancing in the first place.








I think you can probably guess... I'm doing the Carlton Banks version. I'm a little nerdy like that (not that Balki isn't nerdy... Carlton just OWNS his nerdiness and I'm all about owning it!)

SO... why am I dancing you ask??? Because I found out today that I'm teaching 3 classes at BABE (Bay Area Bead Extravaganza) in November!!!! How cool is that??!! I'll have a link to the classes later next week when registration info is posted, but for now...

NOW IS THE TIME WE DANCE!



(is a tiny blah blah blah even needed with all this dancing??!!)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011






I did it!!!!!!!!

I got my application in IN TIME for Bead and Button 2012. I sent them SIXTEEN, that's right SIXTEEN class submissions and they received several recommendation letters as well. I put myself out there and now it's up to their jury.

I sent 4 lampworking classes, even though I would hope that if they choose a lampworking class, they ALSO choose beadwork. Mermaids and Fairies were the focus of the classes.

For beadwork, I sent them older stuff like Splish Splash and Halo Necklace and newer stuff like Flora Flora Bloom Boom, Sweetheart Bracelet and Springalicious, but I ALSO created new things this summer so that I could propose shorter classes (half day and more one-days) because that's what they need... choices and variety.

For those who aren't on Facebook, here are the new things...
Cirque du Sprout Earrings
Flora Florette Bracelet

Enchanted Blossom Earrings

SO, hopefully in this field of over 2,100 class applications (that was the count when I submitted...they assigned a number when you sent in your online app for each project) my 12 beadwork classes will catch their eye and if not maybe ONE of the lampworking classes will.


Cross your fingers and toes for me!! We won't find out until late October (which means that my samples are held hostage until then and I have to make new ones for all my teaching gigs!) but I will let you know once I know something!!!!!!!

For those of you who emailed Bead and Button... thank you. It really meant a lot to me to hear from you that you sent things in unsolicited asking them to have me as an instructor. :)


Time to design new stuff!!!!



tiny blah blah blah...

iced Cinnamon Dolce Latte was the drink du jour.
music - the new 80s/90s station in Atlanta... "Journey 97.9" LOVE IT!

Thursday, August 04, 2011

I need the blackboard of bossiness in the bead room.... not just the glass studio. I have a ton of stuff to do this week, but I feel like I'm sort of spinning around in circles, not getting any of it done the way it should be.

I know that part of this is simply because I'm exhausted. I was on the road for almost 2 weeks straight and "ON" most of that time. I loved every minute of it, but when I came home with a scratchy throat, I knew it was from talking too much, which verifies the "ON" thing. I need some rest and relaxation... but that is not a part of the life of a self-employed single mom.

Big deadline on Monday, so maybe I can take a tiny breath then.... maybe.

School starts in a week and a half and that will help a bit... maybe.

I just seem to look from one deadline to the next and there are some big kahuna ones out there right now.


and on that note.... back to beading samples!


tiny blah blah blah

coffee - NEED, but don't want to go out. No half and half, so that means no coffee.
music - listening to business strategies on itunes. I know that sounds lame.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Oh Bead and Button teaching application, how I love thee.

Let me count the ways...

I love thee for your confusing online instructions.
I love thee for your request for a million gazillion projects.
I love thee for your request for instructions and samples for all those million gazillion projects.
I love thee for your strict packaging/mailing guidelines.

But most of all, I love thee because thou mightest give me a chance to sell at the Meet the Teachers night.... so I put up with your other flaws and keep plugging away at this thing!


back to work!!!

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Back from Kentucky.... brain on creative-overload

This happens every year. I come home from the Gathering (the Glass Beadmaker's Convention) with SO many things flying through my head that I just can't focus.

I made it through the social anxiety things with flying colors. I think I'm back in my "zone" again, having been away and come back. I know who I am, I know what I do and I'm comfortable with it.... that wasn't always the case in the past PLUS you throw personal life stuff in there and it made for a few years of explaining why I'd been away, etc. Now things are just normal again and it's nice. I had a great time with friends AND was so flooded with ideas that I'm about to burst....

but first, that darn Bead and Button application! I can't do anything new and creative until that is DONE!

so, I'm off to work on samples (while day-dreaming about the new stuff)


tiny blah blah blah...

Starbucks coffee that is NOT from the horrible Starbucks at the Louisville Convention center. I can tell an unofficial Starbucks a MILE away!

Music - nope. I'm catching up on shows I missed!