Getting Out There

Yesterday was a long day. I spent the morning preparing for the afternoon - which included an eye opening meeting with two lovely ladies at University of Alabama's Children's Hospital so that I could see the oncology and hematology clinics. I will be demoing at their Beads of Courage Hope and Cope event on April 25th. In case you're not familiar with Beads of Courage, you should check it out. Such a great cause. At the meeting and tour of the hospital, I learned just how important this program is to kids of all ages taking part in the program. The kids get a bead for various milestones in their treatment. Guess what? They need beads! Please check out the site to learn how to donate.

Then, later in the afternoon, I met with a gallery owner and her intake person. I was honored that they like my work and will be carrying it in their gallery. I have a few more of these somewhat nervewracking meetings this week as well. I need to get my work out there - well, for financial reasons, but also for the satisifaction and maybe a little validation that others like what I create when I'm in front of the torch. The gallery carrying my work is JenniferHarwellArt. You can click on the link to go to their page.

Here are a few items you can find in their gallery -

So many things to blog about - and so little time...

More than a month has passed and time just gets away. I've been at the torch, out there marketing my work, planning my schedule and of course, continuing on the eternal search for a full time job. I love my life, my schedule, etc. but there's something to be said for the security of working for someone else and the mental stimulation that working with actual PEOPLE provides.

At times, my main conversations are with this guy -

And he just doesn't talk much!

It's ok though. All this solitude is giving me a chance to think...design...enjoy, well, everything. I'm designing today as a matter of fact and will return with some photos of the results.

A New Year

Happy New Year!

Hard to believe it's 2010 - that sounded so futuristic a few short years ago. Since the last time I wrote, I slowly recovered from the pneumonia, only to be hit by a nasty cold. What doesn't kill ya (and I was never in any danger) makes you stonger...

I'm not normally one for new year's resolutions but I'll make some now. I resolve to be happy, creative, productive, thinner (couldn't leave that one out) and healthy!

I wanted to show you some things I've been making that I plan to market, and hopefully get accepted, into a few retail locations.
Tiger Cufflinks (for all those LSU and Auburn fans)

Beadable Tableware

A plethora of bead pens

I hope that 2010 is everything you want and need it to be and especially, I wish you love and happiness!

New Orleans - or How I Got Engaged to a Fantastic Guy

So, I just realized that I was so caught up in my pneumonia misery that I never actually blogged about my New Orleans trip - and what a trip it was!

We left Birmingham for New Orleans on Nov. 29th - which happens to be my birthday. Rich tried really, really hard to keep it a secret but at some point, he let it slip - poor guy! He really wanted to surprise me. The drive was about 5 hours - not bad and driving across Lake Ponchartrain at sunset was awesome!



We stayed at the Saint Louis hotel - right in the heart of the French Quarter. We had a wonderful balcony so we could sit out and listen to the music and wonderful food smells wafting up. That evening, Rich took me to Commander's Palace - another New Orleans staple and a fantastic restaurant. Rich made sure to tell the waiter to put us in a fairly private spot and while we were waiting for dessert, he produced a little black velvet box and asked me to marry him. Of course I said, "Yes!" The waiter brought balloons and wrote "Congratulations" in chocolate sauce on our bread pudding souffle plate. From Commander's, we went to Pat O'Brien's for a hurricane and to The Cat's Meow where Rich wowed 'em with some karaoke. What a night!

Isn't it beautiful? It's a champagne diamond in a gorgeous setting.

We spent the next couple of days enjoying New Orleans. It was a little cold and rainy but it was December, after all, and nothing could spoil this wonderful trip. I didn't get to see the French Quarter while I was in NOLA doing animal rescue several years ago so I was very happy to see the businesses open and that so much of the rich history was unharmed. We went on a culinary tour, to the aquarium and we even spent a little time (and even less money) at the casino.

Pralines - they were everywhere!

Beignet and coffee at Cafe du Monde - I loved these so much, we went back twice

So, after our three days were up, I was sad to leave but happy to return home to our critter crew and "real" life.

How'd I get so lucky?

Pneumonia Sucks Wind

Right about this time last week, I was sitting in a doctor's office, being diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Oh my! What an awful, awful illness. You see, I NEVER get sick. Ok, well not exactly never but the last cold I even had was three and a half years ago at Bead & Button. So, this came as quite a surprise and I found that I'm not all sunshine and light when I'm feeling under the weather! Of course, it's hard to be happy when you feel like someone is sitting on your chest and trying to fill your sinuses with something awful.

I'm on the mend though and I even felt well enough last night to finish a sock I started working on, oh, about two years ago. That's a good sign, right? Now that I'm back in the land of the living, expect a few more updates and maybe even a bit o'blogging about my upcoming birthday trip to New Orleans.

Pic of sock coming soon!

A Looonng Hiatus

How does this happen? Well, actually I know how it does. Life gets in the way and blogging suffers.

So, the move went off pretty much without a hitch. My wonderful friend, Lori, chauffeured us (my 6 pets and me) across country in a 26ft moving van. We made it from Spokane to Birmingham in about 4 days. Utter exhaustion followed for several weeks while we all adjusted to a new climate, culture and time zone.

Slowly but surely, it's all returned to some sort of normalcy. I've been swamped with web work, the job hunt (not easy in this economy) and lo and behold, I actually feel my creativity coming back (it was missing during the adjustment, I think).

Look for more frequent updates. I know, I know! I've said this before but I have so much FUN going on now that I'd like to maybe post about it. Today is a great show (attending not vending) at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Next weekend, I may be vending at the Down the Street Bead Show in Atlanta - I need to think about it today. At the end of the month, Rich is taking me to New Orleans for my birthday!

I'm such a lucky girl!

Changes A Comin'

I used to move every couple of years. That was exciting but kind of disruptive - all that packing, moving expenses, changing one's life... This time I'm sooo excited for it! I've lived in little 'ol snowy Deer Park for three years. I moved here under the pretense of making a better life for myself than I had in hectic Seattle. I can't say it completely turned out that way but I've made some wonderful friends along the way.

In about 5 weeks, I plan on packing up the house and moving to be with Rich in Birmingham. Oh my - it's a little overwhelming thinking about hauling myself and 6 animals across country. I'm not as young and adventurous as I used to be! It will work out though and It'll be interesting, if not down right fun. I'll update as the plans progress.

This week, I continued on with my little beadmaking streak and popped out these color tests of Momka's glass. The blue is Aurora Borealis and the red is a brand-new as of yet unnamed color. I'm so lucky to get to color test!

I have missed a month and a half of blogging. Oh how we make promises to ourselves and don't keep them! Terrible, terrible.

I have a few good excuses - I went to visit Rich in Birmingham and had a lovely time. In fact, while there, we went house hunting and found a beautiful one we both agreed on. He'll be buying it in a week! That left me scurrying to ready my house for sale so that I can join him as soon as I can. The house is "on the market" (here's a link to it) and I'm not-so-patiently waiting for buyers to call. In this economy, selling a house is a scary thing. I guess we'll see.

My crafty/artsy exploits have been sorta stifled but I did manage to get on the torch last night to try out some of Momka's new glass. One color, which she and I have named "Whisper Pink" is so very beautiful, I want to eat it up!



Since I have nuttin' else to show this time, enjoy a picture of Beanie - his face is art to me!

An Old Project Revisited

I don't know if you remember this post - Brother Francis Llama Rescue?

Basically, I was gifted bags of wonderful llama fiber from Brother Francis Llama Rescue and my intention was to process some of the fiber, spin it into yarn and knit and then felt a toy llama for the rescue to sell or keep or do with whatever they chose.

Finally, I've picked up the project again and this week, I finished spinning a second skein of this beautiful fawn-colored llama. Beanie helped while I was winding the yarn onto the niddy noddy (a device that helps you wind the yarn into a skein).



Here's the second skein.



Here's the llama in progress. I hope to finish him before I leave for Birmingham at the end of the week! More pix as he progresses.

Electroformed Inspiration

I dunno what happened, but my drive to electroform seems to have returned. It comes and it goes. I get on these streaks where my beaker must be full of some organic goodie or another and at other times, I can pour the solution back into its bottle and not think about it (or feel guilty about it) for a month or two. This week, a local flameworker called and wanted a kit. I went to the studio and gave an hour-long electroforming demo. Guess that got me thinking and I promptly had to get on the torch to make a couple of base beads. I'm still digging through my stash of dried leaves as spring has been so slow in coming to these parts.

These are the results.

I'm getting ready for my trip to Birmingham in less than a week and thinking about the millions of things I need to do to get my house ready to put on the market when I come back. I plan on moving down to Birmingham when it sells. Birmingham presents a new set of adventures and challenges but I'm very ready for a change. Bring it on!