It's Thursday... another cold day in Atlanta.... and it's Todd Gilbert's birthday!

Happy Birthday Todd! You are OLDER THAN ME!!!!! HA!!!!!!!!

Todd was in my elementary school classes until 6th grade. Every year he would make a big deal about being older than me. When you're in elementary school, that's cool. NOW I relish the fact that somewhere out there, Todd Gilbert is 2 days older than me... and I think about it every February 5th... that this funny kid is having his birthday somewhere out there, not having any clue that I'm celebrating it for him. :)

Happy Birthday Todd!

back to the beady blog...

I feel like I should have something important to say today, but I don't. I've been reading blogs of friends lately and they seem to always SAY something. Me, not so much. I know my blog didn't begin as something trying to SAY something, but sometimes it seems wasted space... just my chatter.

oh well...

Things I'm chattering in my head about...

I'm wishing I had time to make beads this week. It's just not happened yet. On the days I've had time, I haven't felt good OR it was too cold in the studio. I'm not forseeing beadmaking this weekend either. I'm spending it in a much more important way... with friends.

My mind is FINALLY full of ideas that I want to pursue. It's been a long time waiting for the ideas to start flowing again, but they have. I'm SO happy that I hadn't permanently lost my muse... just shelved her for a while.

Other random thoughts - (need to make a bullet list, otherwise I look totally scattered here)

• I have enough glass, but there are new colors and even though I said I don't want them yesterday... I do. It's HARD to keep away from the new crayons. I want the 64 box... but only have the 48 and need to be content with it!

• I want to play with my new whimsicalities tools!!!! I haven't made beads since I got them.... the studio is just TOO cold this week!

• I miss going to Tucson (I know I keep saying that). Not for the show itself. I really wasn't big on that show... too much wholesale... too long... other reasons too. BUT I miss the comeraderie that show had (has). I am just connecting with a lot of my bead friends again and I know that of all the shows, Tucson is the one where you actually get to spend a little time with friends. I'm missing that opportunity.

• I need someone organized to come attack my studio. I need an intervention...but by a beady person who gets what's important and what's not AND gets how I think because if it's put together in a way that's perfect for someone organized... it's NOT going to stay that way... it needs to be Sylvie-friendly.... just in better structure. I have 2 zones that don't make any sense and could be much better used. One of them would be good for a permanent photo-setup, but has a lot of miscellaneous stuff there now. Miscellaneous is bad. (but fun) :)

• I'm going to a bead show on Saturday! That will be fun. I haven't been to one in Atlanta for a long time, so it will be a learning thing as well as a fun thing. I'm going w/ someone who has NEVER been to a bead show... so it will be fun to see her reaction to having so much beady stuff all in one place.
  

ok... that's it for today. I'm over the "list" thing.... it just shows there are too many things swirling in my head right now.

Oh look... another blog entry that didn't SAY anything!!!! oh well.... you're only here to find out what coffee I drank today anyways! ;)


tiny blah blah blah... (needing a sponsor for next week. Please apply!)

coffee - brought to me by me (and the nice guy in the drive-thru because I was too cold to go inside!) CDL with whipped cream!

music - Lifehouse and Crowded House (guess it's a "house" day???)

Happy Monday World
(and I do mean world!!!!! We're still at 15 countries, but we've got Iowa joining us now and that makes this blog one step closer to world domination!!!!)

I don't usually blog on Sundays, so any of you that were concerned (mother) about what I did or did not do... I'm about to tell you!!!

Saturday was SO exciting and really could have kept making beads for HOURS more because I wanted to start on my fun new ideas, but I had a puppy to take care of and a party to go to!! Of course, when I got home from the party I RAN to the kiln to pull out the beads I'd made that afternoon and think more about my new idea.

Sunday was church and it was a LONG day at church for me because I worked on the A/V team for 2 services. I love doing that job. Not sure why, but it's really fun. Now that we have 2 services it does make a LONG day when I'm "on duty."

After I left, I got a voicemail from my friend Maureen at Flametree glass (www.flametree.com) telling me to "get my butt up there" and see Patti Cahill who was teaching a workshop. I made a detour to their store. Can I say again how COOL it is to have a REAL GLASS DISTRIBUTOR 10 minutes from my front door??!!!

If you're not a glass person, you don't know how HUGE this is for me. I cannot believe how lucky I am on that one. I don't know that enough people in Atlanta who are beadmakers recognize how lucky we are. They have a top-notch studio (the nicest I've ever taught in I'm pretty sure) and I'm getting the same prices on glass that I would have if I ordered from one of the big suppliers on the West coast. BUT I don't pay shipping, I get to pick colors in person (which is HUGE) and I get to talk to fun people!

And the biggest news....... I get to TEACH at a place that's 10 minutes from my house!!!! Of course, I'm dying to get back out there and teach at other studios and I'll have to fly there when I do, BUT for at least these classes... I'll be able to sleep in my bed, play with my dog and cats, and just drive down the road to teach.

SO here is my upcoming teaching schedule...

October 11th - beginning jewelry 101. (make a bracelet & a pair of earrings) If you are reading this and want to try a new hobby... this would be the class for you!!! GREAT for making gifts for the holidays.

November 15th - Halo Bracelet (pictures will be posted on my website soon). This is one of my seed-bead projects and is a quickie that looks FABULOUS when it's completed. It's a great beginner project, but just as fun for advanced beaders because they can embellish to their heart's content on this one. It's a yummy project. (it's also a fun one for glass beadmakers because it allows them to show off their own lampwork in a new way!!)

and finally (and for me this is the big one) Glass Beadmaking!!!!!!!

January 24-25 (2009 - duh) Intermediate Glass Beadmaking - concentrating on sculpture and embellishment sylvie-style! Mermaids, Fairies, Flowers... TONS of embellishment ideas.

I'm very very excited to make those announcements. Hopefully there will be more to make in other places. (if you're in another place and want to take a class... GO to your local studio and ask for them to bring me. I would LOVE to come and teach!!!)

I'm back I'm back I'm back!!!!!!! (has anyone noticed how excited I am about all this???)

I'm running out of punctuation marks! THAT'S how excited I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and yes, I made beads yesterday. I have also "injured" myself twice now making me a REAL beadmaker again (burned my lips which is a major ouch still and yesterday cut my finger...but only a tiny bit... BUT it's pretty much something that goes with the territory, so I'm officially back! LOL) I do need to go and buy a new aloe plant and some bandaids!!

I worked on the new idea and did pretty good for a first-time. I have a lot of tweaking to do, but I'm on my way. I need to move quickly towards getting it together as there is sort of a time deadline.

AND my etsy.com shop is in progress. This is where my storefront will be now. It's a great site for handmade/art items. I should have clothesline and halo kits up by the end of the week. Hopefully by next week (??) I might have some lampwork beads AND really really HOPEFULLY this new thing will be in there! HOPEFULLY.


ok... time for the tiny blah blah blah-og...

coffee - nope. I'm enjoying an ice cold Dr. Pepper this morning. I passed the starbucks I don't like this morning because I took a different route to work and decided to skip it. It's not worth paying for a drink I don't LOVE.... and for some reason, they're just never as good at that location.

music - Sylvie's "new mellow mix" which really isn't "new" anymore. I made it last summer and haven't made another mellow playlist since. Need to. There are a lot of songs that I'd like to add to it. Right now it's playing John McLaughlin's Beautiful Disaster.

It's Wednesday and I'm OFFICIALLY a glass beadmaker again.

How do I know this? (besides the obvious fact that I've been making beads?)

I know this because I bought glass last night. Buying glass is what glass-beadmakers do. We make then SELL beads so that we can buy more glass. Hopefully we make some money too, but a LOT of beadmakers do this as a hobby and just want to support their glass-habit which is why they sell.

I'm hoping to get back to the "make money" stage again, but if that's not meant to happen, it won't. BUT I have the CREATIVE NEED to make beads again, so hopefully I can at least support my glass habit.

And there is all kinds of new stuff out there that I've not even tried! SO many cool things have been invented in the last 2 years for glass beadmakers, it's a little overwhelming. I think I'm going to post on Lampworketc.com a post asking "what should I buy" so that people can tell me all the new cool stuff that's out there without my having to do a ton of research myself. I'm lazy... well, I'd just rather spend my time making beads than researching! PLUS I'd end up buying stuff that wasn't as cool as it looked. This way I can get the "must have" list. Hopefully, anyways. (mom, if you're reading this... and I know you are... I'll post my "wish list" for you since it will be Christmas before you know it!!)

But I went to the glass store last night instead of making beads. It was necessary. I realized the other day that when I'd stopped making beads over 2 years ago (May 2006) I hadn't placed a glass order in at least a YEAR before that!!! I was trying to just use all my back-stock glass as much as possible to save money that year. WELL... now that I want to make beads again, I need some colors that I had pretty much run out of. You can't get too far without basics like black (duh!) and white (even bigger duh!) and how I'd almost run out, I have no clue. I hardly remember 2006, so I'm not even going to guess.

The other biggie that's happened since 2006 is that I have a major glass supplier 10 minutes from my house!!!!! That's HUGE!!!! When I first started making beads in 1996, I'd order my glass from one of the 2 or 3 suppliers on the West coast and wait for 8-10 days for UPS to deliver it!!! Since then more and more suppliers have popped up, but now one (a good one) is 10 minutes from my house!! What luck!!!

And it's owned by great people, so I'm happy to spend my money there. AND they want me to teach there!!! So watch for info on upcoming classes. I hope to be teaching at least one seed-bead class this fall and one glass-beadmaking one in winter 2009.

Know anyplace else I need to teach??? Tell me! I need to start building my classes again!!!

And I'm pretty sure I'm doing my online creativity class, so if you are interested in that... let me know SOON because there will only be about 8ish spots.

tiny blah blah blah...

Coffee - nope. It was a chick-fil-a morning because G(child 2) needed a reward for getting up in time to get his brother to school at 7 a.m. (YUCK) to work on a project. So G and I went to Chick-fil-a until it was time for him to go to school. Because of that, I'm drinking sweet tea (with 3 lemons)

Music - John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae. I didn't intentionally pair them, but that's who I saw together in concert last year! Funny! (I reversed the order though... John opened for Corinne this time...and we're missing the doofy back-up singer/dancers that John Legend had!)

I thought I posted the update to "bad bead day" yesterday, but it looks like I didn't.

Here are some pictures of what I made on my "days off". Definitely off kilter! :)

(I'm watching Dr. Phil. I love it when he says "and how's that workin' for you?")

BIG NEWS!!!!
Ikea is opening sooner than I thought!!!!

didn't make beads today...worked at my dad's office
didn't listen to music (did listen to a book on the ipod while I worked)
Starbucks - Venti 2 pump mocha. mmmmmmm!

ok...

I'm just about dying now.

I have auctions with NO bids. I have a bundle of beads closing in 4 hours with a high bid of $14. This is a $70 bundle of beads and I'm really really close to thinking twice about e-bay.

I know I know I know I need to sell beads to pay bills, but the idea of selling cheap just hurts my pride. :(

I did get a new bra this weekend though and it made me happy. silly thing, yet happy about it. Was terribly controlled on a shopping trip and limited myself to a very inexpensive PTA outfit (long story) and did not buy shoes (though I was quite tempted to go to the Nordstrom big sale).

Have my new photo setup and am working today to learn how to use it. Learning curves stink, but I'm needing a day to figure it all out.

ok...

off to work again. enough whining.

Ikea in Atlanta!!!

It's a short entry, I know, but it's an important life changing one. :)

Until summer 2005, I'll be loitering in the Atlantic Steel future Shopping area in midtown. I'll be the one in the soon-to-be parking lot with a big empty truck, ready to back up to the loading zone! :)

Hooray for the Braves who beat the Mets tonight. Go Braves!

Here we go....

Sort of lots to talk about, but nothing really important (like there is usually something important here?)

1st...I want a Mac Pro store in Atlanta. Why? I don't know, I just don't like NOT having something that other cities have! I want to play with the Mac pro pigments and they don't sell them here! Why do I care about these makeup items when I hardly EVER wear lots of makeup? Because like playing with glass colors, playing with makeup colors is really fun for me. These pigments can be mixed into lipgloss/lipstick/eyeshadow, moisturizer, NAIL polish....the list goes on. I'm just fascinated by the thought of mixing my own colors! Bring the Mac pro store to Atlanta...pleeeeeeeeeeease!

I priced last night the following options...

Paying for Rob's next semester of college
Buying 4 pairs of Stuart Weitzman boots (I don't really need 4, but it's a math comparison here)
Flying last minute to the Gathering in Portland
Flying to NY or LA to buy MAC
Buying an Oxygen Concentrator (or 2)

All of these options add up to pretty much the same figure. I see, looking at the list, that only ONE of these does not directly offer any benefit to me. Sure, I can hope that there would be future income based on the tuition, but no guarantees. I would not gain any real happiness by having Rob go to school. HOWEVER, buying shoes or makeup would be a happy thing. Buying an oxygen concentrator would directly benefit the income making ability...since right now I'm out of oxy and Rob is out of town, so I'm stuck w/out oxy until MONDAY! Finally, the Gathering would be a happy-ish thing. If not happy, at least educational.

I've pretty much narrowed my choices down to oxygen concentrator, boots and tuition...for various reasons....Hmmmmmm what to do?!

I'm going to spend my non-beadmaking weekend beading. I'm really wanting to play a bit with creating something new and I need to finish up a couple of samples, so that will be the real alone time accomplishment of the weekend.

I have ordered a new photo setup. It was expensive, but I spend SO much time trying to get photos to look good that I decided that the $ spent would be worth it. I hope so.

Ok...this whole entry has been about shopping. Hmmmmmmmm. With Nordstrom having a sale this weekend, that might be a BIG temptation.....I hear shoes calling. People go bid on my auctions I want some boots!!!!!

:)

did my workout today with the exerball...an evil piece of equipment which looks so UN-evil. Beware the exerball! Really a good core workout, but OUCH!

off to find food (funny that the food thing came after talking about exercise?!