Not only did I grow up watching The Carol Burnett show but i laughed my guts out every single episode.  My husband and I have jokes about it.  You could always count on Harvey to laugh when he was not supposed to.  Good ol’ Tim Conway brought him to tears every time!  That was the funny part because Tim knew that Harvey could not keep a straight face and he seemed to feed off of it.  There has never been another show like it and it is such a part of my past and also how television once was.  Thank you Harvey for all of the wonderful memories and big gut wrenching laughs, I hope you are laughing all the way to Heaven.  Take a peek at this famous skit!!!

I am both happy and sad!  Lost season premiere is on tonight and they are not coming back until mid season next year, boo hoo, i guess it takes that long to completely confuse us.  BUT, So you think you can dance is back, hopefully better than ever.  I loved last years group, go to the next page of my blog or page three to see hawk and jamie do there famous hummingbird/flower dance.  Alright, now i am excited about this guy, me thinks he is a character from Men In Black!!!!  Check him out, is he for real!  Still torching, I will have something colorful tomorrow!!!

I made these two beads last night because of my lavender getting ready to bloom.  I just love lavender on a backdrop of cut green grass so i thought i would enhance my neck for the day with this vision.  These beads are probably going to be in a necklace i am finishing right now.  I had to enhance with the swarovski crystals.  YUMMY!!  Well, you might not be hearing from me for the next few days because i have a lot of individual orders and also a big order from Yelton’s.  I am determined to get the custom necklace done first so i think i will be wilting in my studio for the next week or so, unlike my lavender!   However, Florida is fast approaching and I cannot wait to see what happens with my thoughts once i get down there.  I will be itching to get back to the torch.  Good thing because i am going to Jim Smircich’s class three days after my return.  I just can never find enough time to play and experiment.  I have so many thoughts, dot art beads, and all of the cool things i have mentioned before on my blog.  I will get there eventually I guess!!  lol!  Enjoy the weather and the smell of cut grass!!!

Peace!!

I have bought in the past Aboriginal art fabrics.  I also just love the aboriginal dot art that i have seen.  I am so drawn to it, it beckons me.  I want to be able to do these creations on a single bead.  something that speaks to me!  Here are examples below!  I am getting better at precise placement but not quite ready to work with tiny dots in precision placement all together.  I feel i will definately find my way with this type of art.  I will let you see once i attempt it, i am just so interested and cannot turn away when i see dot art that i should be doing this with my beads.  The people of australia that do this call this kind of art “dreaming”, they are telling a story with their picture, so you will see alot of the pictures with dreaming women, dreaming rain, dreaming this and that!  back to the torch tomorrow!!!  i have a necklace to finish this week!!!

This is so funny I had to write again!  I love animals and they are just soooo smart.  However, I think they have outsmarted us.  Maybe, just maybe they taught their humans to say these things and have disguised it to make us think that we taught them!  If I were a dog, i would whisper “Scooby-snack” in my humans ear every night while they slept!  Doh!!

Hey all, it is saturday and I am finally better and going to the torch first thing in the morning.  My mind is racing because I am so behind but my husband came home today and took me out for some fabulous salmon so I am happy as a minnow in a spring creek!  I am loving life, the weather (of course that matters) and my family is great!  Good thing I was basically by myself this week because i was not loving life or anything on television for that matter, well, except American Idol!!!  Those David’s are just soooo humble and sweet and I hope they stay that way.  I just hate to see Archaletta lose his innocense in the music industry,  he is just so darn cute.  This is a pic of some beads i made for Kim!!!  I do not have anything new, stay tuned this week!!! 

hey all, it is thursday and i am still not feeling well.  i have been in bed all week and still will not be sitting down to a torch until probably the weekend.  I sweat just going down the hall and back with a glass of water!  I hope the glass gods do something really quick, ha!  That would be cool if there were glass gods, although God above covers everything i guess!!  Ok, like i promised, here are the pictures of the class beads i made in Kristina Logan’s class.  They are horrible in my opinion but they always are.  I could sit here and give every excuse imaginable but instead i will just say that i will be practicing what i learned and i will get better!!!!  I will post later once i feel better!

This is a Dale Chihuly exhibit.  Oh, the wonders of glass!  Oh, the joy of Chihuly!!!!

Once upon a time, there was a woman with an addiction to glass that started out on a journey like no other!!!  She delivered the daughter to school, took the dogs to their Camp Bow Wow and let out a sigh that she was on her way to Chicago for a great time!  However, an hour into her trip her car suddenly did not want to drive anymore.  She pulled over to the side, called her Toyota dealer and arranged a tow all the while arranging another car from enterprise.  Nothing was going to stop her, she had to get to her class rain or shine………!  Anyhoo, she loved her class, loved the other glass people like herself, and of course she hated to leave!  

 PRESENT TENSE- Thank goodness I bought the extended warranty on my toyota because it was the transmission, and with no warning!!!  I learned so much in my class with Kristina Logan, she is an absolutely lovely person and her son was with her, he was so adorable!!!  Kristina is a master of glass and you can tell in her attention to detail, her love of her work, and just the complete care she feels about what she does and how she does it.  Of course, i love that she is a dot person because that is what drew me to her.  I could stare at her work for hours and still not find one dot out of place.  If i could learn only half of what she knows about glass in my life time I would be blessed.  She inspires me beyond belief and I cannot wait to take another class with her (I think we all designed another one while we were there, hee hee, oh the joy!!!).  If anyone ever wants to take up glass and they are a year or over in their endeavor, i would highly recommend taking her class.  It is a privilege to watch her at the torch and also to have her adjust your technique.  Ok, enough mushy stuff, she is great!!!!!  The picture below is Kristina and I on the last day!  I bought one of her rings and she had the same one (glass colors and technique) that i bought but hers was bigger and with a cool finial on top!!  That of course gets me thinking.  “Hmmmm, I must have another one and that size”!!!  The next picture is of Portia (she owns the Gathering Place Studio) and I, a truly remarkable woman who is so gracious and just FABULOSO in every which way!!!  The final picture is of Portia’s sister Linda and myself!  Her laugh can stop a bad day in its tracks!  She is making a peyote bracelet for me which is just beautiful and I am holding the glass button for the closure that i made.  It is a collaberation of friendship.  I will think of her every time i wear it!!!  I will post a picture of it when she sends me the finished piece.  Trust me, you will want one, and THAT can be arranged!  I love one of a kind things that cannot be reproduced.  She really just starts and does not know where she is going with it until it is finished.  It has dangles and all kinds of great surprises.  Ok, that is it for now, i have to climb down off the cloud i have been on and get back to work!!  Until next time…..

steph

Well, my next class is here and if you want to see a complete master at glass please check out kristinalogan.com and you can see for yourself.  She is greatest at dot placement and precision, oh my gosh!!!  She has her stuff in the Metropolitan Museum of Art!  Look at her teapots (completely made out of soft glass, wow), they are under the object section on her webpage.   Oh, by the way, I still have not forgotten that i need to put pics of my class beads on the How I learn page!  They are wonky and just horrible, but hey, that’s how you learn.  Ok, for your viewing pleasure, i thought this was too funny, this is how i feel about KRISTINA’s class! I think the parent is having more fun!! Kids, you gotta love them!   I will post pics when i get back on Tuesday!  Until then…….!

I went to the Pleasantree today and I was told a couple of stories that touched me.  One was a story of a mother who was sick and was trying to get well and her daughter bought her one of my beads that was very bright to signify that there is still fun and sunny times in the world.   I am so used to bugging my family about which beads look good and do they like this color or that color or the two colors together.  They are normally busy and very used to the ritual of yays and nays when i get my beads out of the kiln so they do not get very excited.  Soooo, to hear that one of my beads was the inspiration for a gift for a loved one needing a pick me up was just overwhelming to me.  The other story was of the very nice woman who works there and had all of my beads on that she owned.  She said “oh, i love having just this bead on my bracelet, it is so pretty by itself and I love having this one bead on my necklace for the same reason, and i also love the ones in my rings.”  It made my heart sing because there was someone who had so many types of jewelry to pick from in this store and she had my beads on!!  I am always appreciative of how i have been blessed this last year during the start of my glass journey, but to hear someone say nice things about something that you have created is just amazing!!  I know that they are just beads but sometimes I do not look at them like that because they are a piece of me and how i feel, and if they make people smile then i will continue to do this for as long as i can.  Let’s face it, life is hard and if a small bead that shines from within can make someone stop for a minute and appreciate what God gave us, COLOR and beauty, then one bead really can change the world! 

This is Mother’s Day 2007 and Amanda and I this winter!  Also, enjoy this video!  What would a mother do without the silly things that kids do.  They keep us young, laughing, passionate and ready for anything in life!!!  Enjoy your day!

moar funny pictures

I got this pic when it was dark in the room so i could not see what they were doing, even if they were looking at me and i could not believe my eyes when i went back to edit it!! How funny is this!!!!

These are not cleaned yet, but just a few beads i am making for yelton’s.  They wanted some pink and white and some blues with green!  the second picture is of the bling wheels with cz’s!  They are thin and look great between other beads or if you are like one of my customers that goes to Yelton’s, she is putting a whole bracelet together with just bling wheels.  Back to the torch!  Have a great day!!!

Not that kind of primary, I’m talking colors!!!!  This is a pic of my azalea bush!  It is so pretty right now in my front yard.  Toby (little guy smiling) and Max (getting his roll on) are loving the outside as well.  This red inspires me to want to make red beads but as you know I am still trying to make the beads for myself from previous posts.  I just have not had the time because all of my beads leave my house and go to new homes.  I still want to make my hollow necklace, my autumn necklace and my wool bead black and white bracelet.  I guess i will add red beads to the list.  I will eventually get them done and when i do i will post them.  Today i worked on breast cancer beads for Yelton’s and yesterday was all about lime green, cobalt blue and turquoise!!!  Pics tomorrow, stay tuned!!

Today is Saturday and everyone in my family is gone.  Mark is in Canada, Anna is in Florida and Amanda is off living her 20 year old life.  Soooooo, today was a lazy day for me (BIG smile)!  I completely took the day off from lampworking and just layed around and snacked for a change.  I have a big week ahead because i have many orders so starting tomorrow I will be at the torch for most of the week!  I will post pics if I get a chance!  This video is exactly what I was like today!  Oh, did I mention that I want to get a chapter of “Beads of Courage” started here in Cincinnati?  It is the coolest thing ever and i am waiting for them to get back to me to let me know what steps I would have to take.  Google Beads of Courage and read what it is all about!  i really hope I can be involved, it would just be wonderful!  Enjoy the video (except the part where he is stuck, poor guy)!!!  Comment me!