Day of Smiles, Lampworking and Some of My Favorite Things

Grab a drink and join in on my Friday happenings:

Lampworking Area

I took a vacation day today to work on beads.  I wanted to make beads for a project mom and I are working on and beads for our giveaway this weekend.  I wanted to have beads to go with the other things we plan to have for the giveaway.


Lily

 As I am typing this post my mom's cat Lily is sitting on my lap wanting to be petted.  She was walking all over the keyboard so I am trying to keep her on my lap.  I think she has part Rag Doll in her because you pick her up she goes limp.

Her wanting attention does make it a little difficult to work on the computer - she is presistant in wanting to be petted. 


Glass Working With



Heaters Around Work Area





















Today the temperature wasn't too bad outside, it got warm enough to melt some of the snow.  I think I was able to get the garage up to 45-50 degrees.  I did have the space heaters situated around me, but because I have the ventilation fan going, that sucks out all the heat.  Be warm or kill myself on fumes...I think I will go with not killing myself for $1000 Alex.

While I was torching I was taking breaks to go inside and get warm, though it was mostly my feet needing to be warmed up.  I had on a long sleeve shirt, a sweat shirt and my winter coat; I acutally planned ahead and stayed pretty warm.  While on breaks I was reading blogs, Facebook and checking emails.  When I went to our yahoo account I had an email from Kristen, My Bead Journey, asking me to call her.  I was worried because my first thought was something we sent her was broken.

Kristen and I did a bead swap.  Mom and I sent her an enameled bird pendant and some of our beads, plus for a belated birthday gift, I sent her one of our ThumBOWLina bowls.  Like I said, I was worried something got broken in shipment.  It was so cool to call her because she is the first blogging buddy I have actually talked to on the phone.  Kristen is so AWESOME!!!  Kristen just wanted me to call so she could thank us for her goodies.  Kristen had me smiling all the rest of the day.  I cannot believe how awesomingly cool she is.  I hope we have another chance to talk on the phone.  You be the bomb girl.  If you haven't checked out her blog I seriously recommend it!  Seriously, go there now!  I am on pins and needles waiting for her goodies and once I get them I will be posting all about it!

Some of you may or may not know this, but I hate cold weather and snow.  The only time I like snow is when I am skiing on it and I haven't skiied since I came home from Germany in 1985.  I do have an appreciation for those people who take photographs of snow or create jewelry in the image of snowflakes.  I created a treasury called Winter Wonderland of Snow on Etsy, but I thought I would share some of those images with you today.  Seeing these items makes me, somewhat, appreciate snow.  Enjoy!

Hydrangea Snowneressness - Raceytay's Shop

Silver Cupped Snowflake Necklace - Lisa Hopkins Shop

The Glacial Ice Necklace - Jewels By LD Designs

Redpolls in Snow No. 2 - Nature Mandales

Somewhere Along The Way - IsPhotography



An Old Apple Tree - Judy Stalus Photography



Old Man Winter Was Here - Raceytay

Reversible Small Silver Blizzard Tree Earrings - Beth Millner

That is pretty much my day right there.  Mom just came home from work and I think I am going to go talk with her about her day and discuss whether or not to create another Etsy shop.  I am thinking of moving the finished jewelry and enameled bowls from our current shop to a new just for jewelry/bowls shop.  I was thinking of keeping the current shop for our components - individual enameled pendants and sets of lampworked beads.  Do you all have any opinions on this?  Any feedback would be appreciated.

I am not sure what we are doing tomorrow, but I know this weekend will be an enameling session and the announcement of the giveaway will be on Sunday.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and had a great Friday like I did.  Shout out to my girl Kristen - ENJOY!